CDaze Notes

Foxit Reader is a small free alternative program to open PDF files. It is much faster in starting and opening the PDF compared to the primary PDF reader from Adobe, Adobe Reader. One problem that I noticed with Foxit reader, it does not auto update the add-ons nor is there an update check for them. Recently while scrolling through a PDF, Foxit would crash repeatedly at the same page number. Adobe Reader would open the same page with no crash. First I just ignored the issue thinking it was a incompatible problem from not using Adobe reader or a corrupt PDF. It started becoming more frequent with other PDF files but still worked with most PDFs. I noticed the next readable page used a screen shot image embedded in the page before the crash. Way back when I first started using Foxit, certain PDF pages with images would not show up and required the free JPEG add-on. You must visit the Foxit web page and download it from their list of add-ons. The add-ons are updated from time to time to support the latest version of the Foxit Reader but they are not automatically updated after installing the latest version. To update the add-on, you must do this manually. So if you find your version of Foxit Reader crashing repeatedly check to see if any of their add-ons have been updated. In my case, the problem was the the JPEG2000/JBIG Decoder fxdecod1.dll. The crash occurred every time the PDF used embedded images but did not occur until one of those pages was reached.

The error was reported as:

FOXITR~1 caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module ntdll.dll at 001b:7c9109f9.

Solution: Close Foxit reader and update the add-on.

Get Foxit Reader

When a php page is working on the root of the domain but not in any sub directories, the permissions are wrong. Any directories that need to run php need to be set to 755.

While trying to install Mambo CMS the installation page would never come up errors with 404. The CPanel Apache Error log shows - SoftException in Application.cpp:238 “..file.php” is writeable by group. The log file points to a problem with the file but it is actually the directory. The php file should be 644. Installing Mambo from the tar/zip file the default folder permissions needs to be set. This is similar to an inherit permissions. In Linux this is set with the cmd ‘umask’. To have all new directories created with the 755 permission set as default, ‘umask 0022′. Now when a new directory is created from mkdir or new extracting an archive, all directories will have 755 permissions.

If you have Outlook Express (OE) running and find you can not delete your emails anymore chances are your mail box dbx file is corrupt or just too big.   Outlook does not by default enable empty deleted email or sent email folders.  These files can become huge over time and tend to become corrupt.  A temp work around is to try the Shift and DEL at the same time while the message is selected (not open).   This bypasses the use of the deleted mail folder.   These folders that everyone refers to are actualy hidden files on your hard drive.  Rather than doing all the steps to make explorer see where the files are here is an alternate method.
1st  Make a backup of the email you wish to keep.   Create a new folder in the root folder of OE,  just above the Inbox.  Move or Copy (prefer copy) all the email to your new folder.
2nd  Open up Explorer and make a new folder in your choice of location.  IE C:\mymailbox
3rd  From the Options menu in OE, locate the Maintenance Tab.  Select change mail folder, browse to where you created the folder and click OK.  You will get a prompt saying to need restart OE.  Restart OE.
4th  After the files move over, close OE.  Now go to the new folder you created in Explorer and look for the files with the same name as your folders from OE.  Inbox.dbx  Send.dbx etc.  Make sure the new folder name you created has a file with that name.  Remove all the other files except the one you created.  There should be nothing there you need and the files will be recreated on the start up of OE.  If you are nervous about it, move the files to a different folder instead of deleting them.
5th  Start OE.  OE should be running normal now and all the emails you could not delete should be gone.   Move your emails back to the Inbox folder if you like. 
Just to note when I had this problem the mail files were huge, 2GB and 800MB.  Remember to empty out the old mail once in a while.

As much as I like some programs to be integrated, some items just don’t seem so helpful.   What there should be is a more simple way to disable these helpful items from the program that put them there.  Such a program is the Adobe Professional ver 7 and 8.   Here are the settings to stop the PDF Maker Office Addin.   The plugin or addin is stored in the registry.  It is just a simple change of a key value “LoadBehavior” from a 3 to a 0.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\PDFMOutlook.PDFMOutlook]
“LoadBehavior”=dword:00000003 to ”LoadBehavior”=dword:00000000
You will need to change the value on all the Office programs individually.  MS Word will be here and so on.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Access\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\MS Project\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\PowerPoint\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Publisher\Addins\PDFMaker.OfficeAddin
Now if you have installed one of the Adobe suites that include Contribute, you will see the entry for this plugin also.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\Adobe.Contribute.OfficePlugin
Follow the same steps in all the office keys to prevent it from loading in office also. 

With the introduction of Internet Explorer 7, MicroSoft included a search bar.  It was nice of MS to offer a search bar that even allows more options than MSN for searching but they didn’t include a simple option of enable or disable it.   You would think there would be a simple right click to enable and disable just like all the other toolbar entries.  There is a simple entry to add to the registry remove it from the toolbar.   The entry below will remove the search bar for the current user, not forcing anyone else who logs on your PC with the same setting.   If you wanted it set across all the users then change the root path to HKLM instead of HKCU.  Changing the 1 to a 0 will reverse the setting.  Restart IE7 for the changes to take effect. 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Infodelivery\Restrictions]
“NoSearchBox”=dword:00000001

For this particular situation you must have SpyBot installed with immunize protection for IExplorer or some other anti-spyware program that blocks website URLs.  This shows up after MicroSoft windows update does a critical security update for IExplorer 7.  KB933566  Searching the support groups the problem is widely known but MS has yet to publish a fix.   If you have Outlook 2007 installed this is not a problem.  Guess MS wants you to upgrade to Outlook 2007 instead…
The problem starts when Outlook tries to open or create a new email message in HTML format.  If you create a new message, soon as you type a letter nothing happens for several seconds after you stop typing.  A few seconds later your letters appear.  Your CPU will be at max usage while this happens.  If you have Word installed, you can change Word to be the editor for HTML emails.  This will stop the hanging when you create a new message from Outlook but opening a new email in HTML will still hang.  Using shortcuts to send attachments will still use the Outlook for creating the new email even with Word is set for default.   Converting all your emails to text or set Outlook to read them as text will stop the hanging.
The cause is from a new security feature ‘bug’ to make Outlook check the restricted zones list for IExplorer looking for blocked URLs in the email.   SpyBot dumps a huge list of websites in the restricted zone, for some reason every letter you type Outlook is checking this list again and again.  If you have an AV program like NOD32, the IMON module is looking for these sites.  You could disable the immunize option in SpyBot.  If you are a FireFox or Opera user, they do not use that list anyway.  Make sure Outlook is not running if you make changes to remove that restricted zone list.  Oddly, it was posted you can add the list back to the zone after Outlook is running without the hangup.  Also found posts saying changing the default group to anything other than Mail or Inbox when Outlook opens can fix this, like Calendar.  Outlook 2007  does not have this problem because it does not use IExplorer’s rendering engine for HTML emails.  Setting the security zone for Outlook to use Internet zone instead of Restricted zone the problem goes away but then you are not blocking much of anything. 
I grabbed the full installer for IE7 which wipes out all the updates and patches before it re-installs IE7.  This clears out all the problems also but then you are running vulnerable to critical IE7 bugs.  I am sure there are other ways to get around the issue till/if MicroSoft fixes the problem. 

 *update*
It seems with SpyBot 1.5 this problem is no longer affecting my machines.  One noted difference, SpyBot is using hosts file for ‘bad’ website domain names.

This post is assuming you have been trying to get your MPX220 to connect via bluetooth for ActiveSync.
Undo any config you have tried on the phone and pc having to do with bluetooth.  If you had USB hooked up with the phone, delete the previous partnership from ActiveSync.  This is probably the whole problem.  Setup your bluetooth software on the pc for an incoming com port.  Now enable the same com port in activesync.  Then turn on the bluetooth on the phone and enable it to be discoverable.  Now have your pc bluetooth search for the new device.  It should find it this time.  Setup the same passcode on both devices. Once the phone has been connected and you see it in the bluetooth manager, find the activesync program on the phone.  Select it to connect via bluetooth.  If everything has gone correct, you should hear the connect sound and green image is spinning.  This probably works with several other windows base smartphones.

Check Environmental Variables…  This is most likely from a security program that cleans your tracks.  Something like CCleaner or Ultra Sentry just for example.   Most of the time your user “TEMP” folder is located in your home folder of document and settings, cmd line prompt and enter ”CD %TEMP%”.   Also you can do a cmd line and enter “SET”.  This will display the TEMP path along with other information.  This is not the only TMP folder that is used.   The tmp folder that is probably causing the problem is the System TEMP, “C:\Windows\Temp”.  Check to see if the folder exists, if not create the folder.  
Other things could be the enviroment path setting, these can be checked or added from the System properties.   Open the System icon in the Control Panel, click Advanced tab and then Enviroment Variables.  Make sure there is an entry for TEMP and TMP for both the user and system.  

When XP boots and a blue screen pops up with can not find AutoCheck or Ssiefr.e skipping autocheck then something has changed your BootExecute entry in the registry.  This is most likely from a Defrag program or Mal-ware scanner that does boot time checks.  It seems many un-installers leave this entry left for us to remove or has removed the whole entry period. 
This key here is the culprit.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
“BootExecute”=”"

Now the normal entry should be this. 
“BootExecute”=”autocheck autochk *”   This is a multi-string value entry.
If the entry is missing, manually add it back.  This presents the missing AutoChk message.  When you add the line back, upon the next boot you get a prompt to run check disk… Then no more prompts afterwards.  Some of the others I have run across.
“Ssiefr.e” is from SpySweeper. 
“OODBS” is from O&O Defrag.
“UDBDef” is from UltimateDefrag
“pdboot.exe” is from PerfectDisk
If you still have them installed leave em alone, if not delete it.

Nero 7 installs some crap called Nero Scout.  If you installed Nero, upon reboot you will find a search bar within your TaskBar.   Nero does not include an option to disable this or not to install this pest.  So here is the quick way to disable this once installed.
Click Start Run and paste this whole entry and Enter.  Optional you can open a cmd line and run each regsvr32 entry.  The /u is uninstal and the /s is silent (no confirm or fail notice).

Cmd.exe /c regsvr32 /u /s "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Ahead\Lib\NeroSearch.dll" && regsvr32 /u /s "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Ahead\Lib\NeroSearchBar.dll" && regsvr32 /u /s "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Ahead\Lib\NeroSearchTray.dll"

Once completed you will see the search bar disappear…  Done.
NMIndexingService service can be stopped but will continue to start when needed, set at Manual.   Kill the startup entries for Nero and it will stop loading at boot.  NeroCheck is ok, this only checks to see if the aspi entries has been altered, then ends.