VMware View – Windows Pool ‘Stuck’ on Customizing
KB ID 0000646 Problem While trying to deploy a Windows XP Pool yesterday, I hit upon this problem. Windows 7 works fine, but as soon as I tried to roll out a Windows XP pool, they stopped like this; After a couple of hours, the whole operation timed out, and each machine shows as; Status {Date}{Time} o’clock {Time-Zone}: Customization operation timed out I tried to deploy the pool with both ‘quick prep’ and...
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Hangs on “Performing cleanup”
KB ID 0000364 Problem Saw this a while ago, and just thought it was a “One Off”. Then on a visit to a client yesterday I saw it on both machines I was working on. Solution This might scare you, but you need to kill the update, don’t panic at this stage SP3 is already on. Update 05/04/11: Before continuing please read the feedback below. Ive never personally seen any adverse effects from doing this and I’ve...
Windows XP (Safe Mode) Cannot access USB Drive(Access Denied)
KB ID 0000368 Dtd 31/12/10 Problem A few weeks back I was working on a Windows XP machine that had been infected with some rogue AV spyware, I was having no luck installing my usual cleaning tools so I booted to safe mode, I have a USB thumb drive that I keep a set of up to date AV/Spyware tools on for this very purpose, but the machine did not want to let me open it. Solution 1. OK, I admit this is not really a...
Windows – Black Screen Of Death
KB ID 0000152 Problem Post Microsoft KB 915597 and KB 976098 updates. You PC will boot, and you will see a totally black screen with (but not always) a Windows explorer window. Solution Credit to the guys at Prevx who have a fix online already. 1) Restart your PC. 2) Logon and wait for the black screen to appear. 3) Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black screen does not appear to affect this). 4) Press the...
Windows – Explorer Has Stopped Working – Crashes Windows
KB ID 0000388 Problem Spend any time working in windows and sooner or later something will upset Windows Explorer, and when it crashes it has a habit of taking something with it (usually your desktop experience – or something you’ve been working on and have not saved!). The underlying problem can be anything from some poorly coded software, a dodgy device driver, or a wayward Windows update. But you can offset the problem...