IT Support Blog » Vista

Repair Internet Explorer with Fix IE Utility

aionman — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:39:37 +0000

This freeware portable utility re-registers all the concerned dll & ocx files required for the smooth operation of Internet Explorer.

Simply extract the contents of the .zip file and run the utility.

If you face any problems while running IE, maybe after recovering from a malware attack, run this tool to re-register around 89 dll & ocx files, which are required for the smooth running of Internet Explorer.

Fix IE Utility has been tested on IE 7 and IE 8, on Windows Vista & Windows 7. Before running the utility, make sure that all your Internet Explorer windows are closed.

fix-ie

How to Turn Preview Thumbnails On or Off in Windows Explorer in Vista

aionman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:28:30 +0000

How to Turn Preview Thumbnails On or Off in Windows Explorer in Vista

Information

This will show you how to turn file and folder preview thumbnails on or off in all Windows Explorer windows. A thumbnail is a reduced image of a graphic, used to display multiple images at once.

NOTE

You will need to click on View or Views, on Windows Explorer window Menu bar, and have it set to either Medium Icons, Large Icons, or Extra Large Icons to see a thumbnail preview of the file image as the icon.

Tip

If thumbnails will still not show on the file icon even with thumbnails turned on from below, then check to make sure that Windows Photo Gallery is set as the default program with all of it’s associations set to it.

WARNING

Thumbnails can cause navigating through a Windows Explorer window to be to slow for you while your waiting for the thumbnails to load if there is a lot of image files. Turning the thumbnails off can speed up how fast a Windows Explorer window will open.

RELATED LINKS:

EXAMPLE: Thumbnails On

EXAMPLE: Thumbnails Off

METHOD ONE:
Through Folder Options

1. Open Folder Options.

2. Click on the View tab. (See screenshot below)

3. To Turn OFF Folder and File Preview Thumbnails -

A) Check Always show icons, never thumbnails. (See screenshot above)

B) Go to step 5.

4. To Turn ON Folder and File Preview Thumbnails -

A) Uncheck Always show icons, never thumbnails. (See screenshot below step 2)

5. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 2)

METHOD TWO:
Through Performance Options

1. Open Visual Effects Performance Options.

2. Click on the Visual Effects tab. (See screenshot below)

3. To Turn OFF Folder and File Preview Thumbnails -

A) Uncheck Show thumbnails instead of icons. (See screenshot above)

B) Go to step 5.

4. To Turn ON Folder and File Preview Thumbnails -

A) Check Show thumbnails instead of icons. (See screenshot below step 2)

5. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 2)

METHOD THREE:
Through the Local Group Policy Editor

NOTE

This method is only available for the Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. See Method Four below for the Vista Basic and Home Premium editions.

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. In the left pane, click on User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and Windows Explorer. (See screenshot below)

3. In the right pane, right click on Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icon and click onProperties. (See screenshot above)

4. To Enable Windows ExplorerThumbnails -

A) Select (dot) Disabled or Not Configured and click on OK. (See screenshot below step 5A)

B) Go to step 6.

5. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -

A) Select (dot) Enabled and click on OK.

6. Close the Local Group Policy Editor window. Your done.

METHOD FOUR:
Through the Registry

NOTE

This will work for all Vista versions.

Through a Download:

1. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -

A) Click on the download button below to download the
Disable_Explorer_Thumbnails.reg file.

B) Go to step 3.

2. To Enable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -

A) Click on the download button below to download the
Enable_Explorer_Thumbnails.reg file.

3. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.

4. Right click on the .reg file (on Desktop) and click on Merge.

5. Click on the Run button in the Security Warning pop-up.

6. Click on Continue (UAC), Yes, and then OK when prompted.

7. When done, you can delete the .reg file (on Desktop).

8. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply changes.

The Manual Way:

1. Open the Start Menu.

2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.

3. Click on the Continue button in the UAC prompt.

4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

5. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -

A) In the right pane of Explorer, right click on a empty area and click on New andDWORD (32-bit) Value and type DisableThumbnails and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

B) Right click on DisableThumbnails and click on Modify.

C) Type 1 and click on OK. (See screenshot below)

D) The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below)

E) Go to step 7.

6. To Enable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -

A) In the right pane of Explorer, right click on DisableThumbnails and click onDelete. (See screenshot above)

B) Click on Yes to confirm deletion.

7. Close regedit.

8. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply changes.

Microsoft Mail Vista Mail stuck

aionman — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:16:56 +0000

http://www.oehelp.com/WMUtil/

WMUtil

Version 1.51 Updated 05/04/07

DOWNLOAD HERE (175 Kbytes): WMUtil
Note: The zip file contains two files which must be saved to the same directory (one can use the Desktop). Then open WMUtil.exe to start the program.

NOTE: If you have stuck messages that will not delete, get this patch for Windows Mail or get Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Either will fix the stuck message problem.

PROGRAM FEATURES
WMUtil is a small utility to allow users to compact and repair the Windows Mail database in Windows Vista.

The Windows Mail database periodically needs compacting and defragmenting to function with maximal performance. Currently there is no manual method to compact the database in Windows Mail, unless one tinkers with the values set at Tools | Options | Advanced | Maintenance. WMUtil allows the user to manually compact the database to remove any wasted space from it.

Occasionally the database becomes corrupted as indicated for example by the inability of being able to delete messages from various folders. The Windows Mail database has a built-in repair feature that can sometimes fix such problems. Windows Mail provides no access to this feature, so clicking on the Repair button will manually run the repair feature on the database. Clicking on the Clear Outbox button will remove references in the database to phantom outbox messages.

In addition a number of .eml and .nws files of zero byte length tend to accumulate in the message store, which can lead to a reduction in performance. The two buttons under the File Utilities allow the user to assess the number of messages and to remove the zero byte / blank messages.
PROGRAM OPERATION

Running the program results in the display shown above. The default Windows Mail database file location is listed in the text box. The location can be changed using the Change button.
If Windows Mail is open, or if a current WinMail.exe process is running, the Database functions are disabled, and the WinMail.exe process must be terminated before these features can become available. (If WinMail is closed and these buttons still remain disabled, then perform a CTRL-SHIFT-ESC, and under Processes find WinMail.exe and click on it, and then click the End Process button.)

Clicking on the Compact Database button will result in a black command window and compaction and defragmentation of the database. Compaction is complete when this window closes. Should this action fail, then a backup of the database is generated with the same name followed by a date/time stamp on the filename. To restore the backup, one needs only to rename the file. If Windows Mail functions properly after the compaction, then the backup file can be deleted.

Clicking on the Repair Database button results in a black command window and a various prompts from the repair utility, which when accepted are followed by an attempt to repair the current database. The repair action terminates after the command window closes.

In some circumstances, messages will become stuck in the Outbox folder according to WinMail (even though no message may exist in the outbox directory of eml files). These stuck messages prevent WinMail from being able to send any messages. Clicking on the Clear Outbox button will remove all references in the database to Outbox messages. This should then enable the user to send messages again.

A bug in the released version of Windows Mail results in the population of the message store (particularly the outbox) with zero byte eml files. These files can accumulate and result in performance losses. So with the File utilities, clicking on the File Statistics will display the total number of .eml and .nws files in the message store directory, as well as the number of zero byte (blank) .eml and .nws files. Clicking on the remove blank files will improve performance if there are a lot of them. Note that after clicking both these buttons, it may take some time (a few minutes) to perform the analysis.

Vista Outlook 2007 slow

aionman — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:20:35 +0000

SOLUTION FOR HANGING SEND/RECEIVE

Go to programs, accessories then right click command line and select run as administrator.

At the prompt type

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable
__________

Vista: TCP window scaling not compatible with some network hardware.

There is an incompatibility between Microsoft Windows Vista and some network equipment. Equipment possibly affected includes: Routers, VPN Endpoints, and Firewalls that use Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI).

Among most commercial firewalls that utilize Stateful Packet Inspection, the OSU Fire Marshall is one that is affected by this issue.

The problem has to do with the TCP window resizing feature in Vista and Stateful Packet Inspection. Possible symptoms exhibited include:

Web traffic works OK
Email through client software sends but will not receive or times out when downloading messages (POP or IMAP)
Slow or no network file server access.
Other random network timeouts or connectivity problems.
Slowness or freezing in web browsing or other applications including VPN connections.

To disable TCP Windows Scaling In Vista:

Note: This command MUST be run as administrator
Locate the Command Prompt icon/executable file under Start->Accessories
Right-click on the icon and select “Run as administrator”
Type: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
Reboot the computer.

To verify the settings on the workstation, use the command:

netsh interface tcp show global

The results of this command should be:

TCP Global Parameters
_____________________

Receive-Side Scaling State                 : enabled
Chimney Offload State                      : enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level           : disabled
Add-On Congestion Control Provider         : ctcp
ECN Capability                             : disabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps                        : disabled