MYOB & Vista & Forms …

Today’s MYOB/Vista trick – logged onto my lapatop with a new user account that is NOT a domain administrator (trying to be all security conscious and the like).  Then MYOB v17 refused to see my custom forms (incidentally, the business fie is on a shared drive).

Log on as the old, domain admin user – no problem.

Turned out to be file security (surprise).  By default, the local Users group (which contains the Domain Users group) does not give full control or modify access to the Forms directory and files.  Change this to allow full control to the forms, and hey presto, my non-domain admin user is now accessing branded invoices in MYOB once again!

-SCuff 

Windows Live Messenger & AVG 8

Another tale from the trenches .. that being my own personal experience on my PC!  Windows Live Messenger refusing to sign in, giving an 8100030d error.  Most suggestions include regsrv32 commands to reregister dll files, resetting modems etc, nothing which worked on Vista for me.  Until I remembered that Tony had recently upgraded my software to AVG Anti-Malware SBS Edition version 8.0.87.  So, diabled the Resident Shield – no go.  Went into the Web Shield and unticked the Instant Messaging, MSN Protection – still no go.  Disabled the Web Shield entirely and what do you know …. hello, messenger, you have returned!  Yuck – I’m now off to report this to AVG.

-SCuffy

Disappearing sound devices

Today’s lesson is a short one, about the magic of disappearing sound devices.

In Vista, under Control Panel, then Sounds, the first tab is Playback.  Mine shows two devices: Speakers and Realtek Digital Output.  Whilst playing around with some settings the other day, I right-clicked on Speakers and selected Disable … and disable they did!  Having been used to network icons that remain with a red X on them when disable, I was most surprised to see my Speakers device completely gone.  A-hunting I went, not able to find the darn things anywhere for me to re-enable them

.. until some more playing in the same tab noticed another little line on the right-click menu .. “Show disbaled devices”.

OK, feeling rather sheepish now (no Kiwi jokes).  My Speakers returned and could now be set to enable.

See, technology gets the better of us seasoned IT pros too!!

-SCuff  

Loose your Groove

Did I mention how well my laptop has been running since the Vista reinstallation?  Oh yeah, except I still haven’t tackled iTunes again

Here’s one that’s caught me out before .. and, as I didn’t reinstall the applications (hubby did) .. it snuck back in again.  Small business owners in Australia & New Zealand may be familiar with the MYOB suite of accounting/bookkeeping software.  It literally stands for Mind Your Own Business.  Well, Accounting Plus v17.0.0 (and some earlier versions) don’t play well with Microsoft Office 2007.  In particular, when you try to display a payroll advice, MYOB crashes with a “stopped working” error.  Very frustrating when you are trying to process the salary payments.  Even more frustrating when it’s your own salary you are trying to pay. 

The solution? Uninstall the Microsoft Office Groove component (Control Panel > Programs and Features > highlight Office and click Change > add/remove features > click Microsoft Office Groove and select Not Available > click Continue and follow your nose).  This will require a reboot.

Problem experienced with Office Enterprise 2007 on Vista, but may not be isolated to this particular configuration.

So, just when I thought I’d got my Groove back, I had to uninstall it

A rebuild is a beautiful thing

How long do you put up with a problem before you fix it? Especially if it’s one of those ‘slightly annoying but I can work around it’ type computer problems?  Do you wait for a quiet moment at work (yeah, right), or for a time when you are feeling particularly unproductive or are avoiding another task that would be more unpleasant?  Or do you wait until another one .. or two .. or many other little problems join in the party and gang up on you?

The famed Christmas/New Year break is a great time to tackle problems such as these (and major website revamps) whilst the answer phone is on and the office is officially closed.  Yes, all of you small business owners out there are nodding in sympathy – what else do you do when it’s too wet to actually enjoy warm Queensland weather and no committments?  You work on your business.  On, not in.  There’s a big distinction.

So, with my list of Vista problems mounting … sorry ‘applications related to Vista’ problems, except for a weird ‘double paste’ thing in file explorer … out came the trusty Acronis True Image for a full pre-format snapshot.  Even though the current installation was riddled with errors like swiss cheese, a full image is a must for preventing that ’bugger I forgot that file hides in C:\somwherecompletelyobscure and I only backed up My Documents’.

Trick for young players that use the online service from the Australian Taxation Office for submitting your BAS – your digital certificate file (something.p12) does hide in a very obscure place on your C:, so make sure you have a recent backup of it.  It’s a pain to go through the revokation/new issue process when you find your only backup certificate was the originally issued file that has now expired.

Next step, make a nice little list from your ‘Add/Remove Programs’ or ‘Programs and Features’ in Control Panel, to figure out what you will need to reinstall - making sure you have the relevant installation files/CDs/license or serial numbers.

Then, take a deep breath, and start a new Vista installation, choosing to delete the existing partition and create a new one from scratch.  I must admit it was very weird to find that it took me longer to install all of my applications than it did to install Vista itself.  Gotta love Microsoft for getting with the imaging program for their software installs.

So far so good.  All of my little annoying problems have gone, my Samsung laser printer now wants to print in colour AND double-sided again.  Also, no more annoying ‘double paste’ thing (where file explorer refused to believe I’d chosen the paste command until I did it a second time).   

However, I have yet to reinstall iTunes and my iPod shuffle (sigh).  Fingers crossed it will be OK this time!

And I work in I.T.!!!

I’m afraid I’m starting this blog with a technology drama, involving my shiny new iPod Shuffle (2nd generation) and Windows Vista.  “Ah yes, Vista” you say knowingly.  But at Microsoft’s defence leaps the voice of my dear friend who pointed out that the vendors had the Vista code for 2 years prior to the release, so surely they could have sorted out their device drivers by now and what more does Microsoft have to do?

Anyway, following the somewhat limited instructions that came with my birthday present, I downloaded and installed iTunes 7.5.something (the latest and greatest).  Only problem was, after running the installation I was presented with a “Please wait while Windows configures iTunes” message .. and finally an error stating it couldn’t stop the iPod Services service.  Yuck.  No help from the Apple support site either.

OK, I’m in I.T., I can figure this out.  Everyday, millions of people buy these things and get them working. OK, maybe not millions. 

Google at the ready, it’s becoming more apparent that what seems like a problem with iTunes may in fact be a problem with Quicktime.  Enter Gerger’s suggestion re a handy dandy tool for fixing associated registry entries (http://research.gerger.com/?view=lab&aID=1006#h2:4) – didn’t work for me but I sensed it was on the right path.  Delved into regedit myself, reset the permissions under HKEY Local Machine / Software / Classes and added my user name with full control (even though it was already a member of the listed Administrators group). Tried the reset.cmd tool again and this got Quicktime working!  Victory 1!

Now, back to iTunes 7.5, which will now start but is displaying rather weirdly and gives up (freezes) whenever it feels like it.  Trying to sync one song, I get a lock up when I try and eject the iPod (after a sync completed message), and no songs on the iPod to play

At this point in the story I must confess to my husbands helpfulness when installing Vista.  I inherited his laptop, which had a dual-boot XP and Vista partition (of which the XP partition was subsequently removed).  This has left Vista as V:, which causes a lovely driver installation issue with anything you install (as it’s not finding the operating system on the C:).  It’s been one of those things which is annoying but not annoying enough to completely wipe the thing and start with a fresh install.  Only, my new iPod has come along and grabbed the first available drive letter .. so it wants to be C:.  Thinking this is not such a good idea, I change it to Y (as in Y am I having so many problems with this damn thing).  And hey presto, all is well in the world!  iTunes is playing happily, syncing etc, no problems.  Also, the high disk and CPU usage I was seeing since the start of this epic journey have miraculously settled down.

Case closed.  What a mission.  It’s midnight and I have one song on my Shuffle.