Rick Strahl's Web Log

WebLog Posts in Category Vista

Application that won’t Pin to Taskbar in Windows 7
October 08, 2009 @ 2:02 am

I've run into a dead end with an application of mine that won't pin to the Windows 7 taskbar. I've tried a number of different settings but I just cannot get the app to show the Pin to taskbar (or any othe of the taskbar context options) to work.

56 comments

Vista SP1: Terminal Services /console switch no longer working
February 14, 2008 @ 1:29 pm

Here's one idiotic change in Vista SP1: Looks like Microsoft decided to change the switch to launch the Terminal Services client so it can log on to the console of the machine/server to /admin from /console. The new switch to connect to the console is: %systemroot%\system32\mstsc.exe /admin I suppose I can understand changing the switch to /admin since it's more descriptive, but why the heck...

28 comments

nVidia Drivers hose me again
October 31, 2007 @ 1:48 am

Earlier today I downloaded updated nVidia drivers for my GeForce 8600M GT on my laptop with Windows Update and promptly dual monitor support started failing again. Single monitor works fine but the second monitor will simply not kick in with the new driver. I ended up having to roll back to the...

19 comments

Vista Explorer Shell Context Menu Default Actions
October 02, 2007 @ 12:52 am

Somehow I managed to hose my Explorer's default context menu actions for folders when browsing in Explorer. The default action when clicking on a folder now is Search... instead of Explore which brings up the Search dialog when clicking on a folder Ugh. A quick check in the registry comparing the...

9 comments

Opening Word Docs inside Internet Explorer in Vista?
September 04, 2007 @ 3:04 am

Ah progress - you gotta love it. Fewer choices, less control the dumbing down of the masses. I'm checking out some old code that I've used to load Word documents for editing into a Web Browser control. It appears that under Vista this doesn't work any longer as a Word document now refuses to load...

5 comments

Registration Ids: The simpler the better?
August 27, 2007 @ 1:02 am

Having gone through easily 50 registration screens in the last few days, reinstalling applications on my new box got me to once again thinking about registration codes in applications. Somebody last week asked me as I provided them with a software key with Help Builder - what's this - this isn't a...

File Locations on Windows Machines = Absolute Madness
August 25, 2007 @ 6:58 pm

I configured and updated a brand new machine last week and overall the process has been pretty smooth and painless. But once again I'm reminded how silly Windows' scattering of files all over the place really is. I installed the new box on Monday. It's now Saturday night and I'm still picking up a...

9 comments

Video Drivers and Vista Updates - Some Improvements!
August 09, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

If you've followed this blog for a while you know that I've been having major, major video driver problem under Vista with my Laptop and the nVidia GO 7800 card. All sorts of problems with very frequent driver crashes and worst of all dual monitors not working at all (well, not working in native...

19 comments

Vista's Explorer - Love Hate
July 29, 2007 @ 1:07 am

I have a serious love hate relationship with Windows Explorer in Vista. On the one hand there are lots of cool little improvements that make life much easier starting with the breadcrumb address bar that lets me easily jump anywhere in the current hierarchy, to the way file copies rename files, the...

29 comments

nVidia vs. WPF
July 23, 2007 @ 11:13 am

As I've mentioned here in the past I still have major issues with my video drivers for my laptops nVidia GO 7800 GTX card. The biggest issue is that multi-monitor doesn't work at all, and well that the video driver crashes occasionally (better with more recent drivers). However, as I've started to...

8 comments

Lost Ability to run Click Once
June 20, 2007 @ 2:14 am

So all of a sudden my machine refuses to run any thing related to ClickOnce in the browser. This has been working in the past but a few weeks back when I tried to check out Markus' Xiine reader I noticed that I haven't been able to install it. When I click the link on the Xiine page for...

10 comments

nVidia - WTF are they doing?
June 01, 2007 @ 5:47 pm

Ok, I'm pretty much at the end of my rope here. I've been dealing with nVidia's lousy Vista drivers now for nearly a year and officially Vista will now have been released for 4 months with RTM for over a half a year. What are those bozos doing at nVidia that they can't create drivers in over a half...

16 comments

Cleaning up a Win32 Application to work under Vista
April 11, 2007 @ 7:13 pm

So for the last few days I've been going through the final steps of updating Help Builder to properly run under Windows Vista without any file permissions, registry or other sort of elevation requirements. In theory the application should run fine after installation without any sort of crutch like...

8 comments

nVidia Vista Drivers and Dual Monitor Support
March 08, 2007 @ 5:34 pm

Since I've had my replcaed nVidia video card in my Dell Laptop I haven't been able to get dual monitor support to work on Vista, even with drivers that previously worked.

87 comments

New Mouse (HID) Drivers on Windows Update fix VS2005 Intellisense Issues
February 09, 2007 @ 2:11 pm

Microsoft released a patch yesterday for the buggy HID driver that caused system idle state issues, which resulted in problems with Sleep mode in Vista as well as various Intellisense issues in Visual Studio 2005.

18 comments

Am I an Administrator on Vista? No really am I?
January 15, 2007 @ 4:51 pm

Who can you trust when it comes to your status as an Administrator. Checking admin priviliges under Vista is no fun at all and I can't tell whether I am in fact an admin or not. Some things seem to indicate I am, while others

25 comments

Explorer Folder View Customization - what were they thinking?
January 12, 2007 @ 9:13 pm

Folder views in Windows Vista's Explorer got even more confusing by yet another layer of 'views' that can be applied by yet another dialog separate from the already buggy View selection dropped down on folders. Getting folders to display in a consistent view is getting harder and harder to do in Windows which is ridiculous.

11 comments

Microsoft Wireless Mouse Issues under Vista
January 02, 2007 @ 11:59 pm

Looks like the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse Receivers are causing some timing problems in Windows Vista. These are a subtle problems that show up in applications that apparently look for idle state to do work or figure out how to put themselves into a low activity mode. The Wireless Mouse receivers don't let that idle state happen apparently.

37 comments

IIS 7 Integrated Pipeline Debugging on Vista, again
December 29, 2006 @ 12:17 am

Mike Volodarsky posts more information how to get F5 debugging working properly in Visual Studio. Due to the way Authentication works in ASP.NET 2.0 some debugging scenarios with F5 fail and a workaround is required.

4 comments

Windows Mobile Device Center not available
November 30, 2006 @ 2:20 am

I'm still stuck without Mobile Device Center under Vista. My SmartPhone is connected to Vista and it's recognized and wants to sync pictures and music, but I still don't see any connectivity to Office and Outlook synching.

12 comments

Visual Studio 2005 and Intellisense issues revisited on Vista RTM
November 18, 2006 @ 1:57 pm

So now that I have Vista RTM installed I took another look at my Intellisense issues in Visual Studio Web Projects and I’m sad to say that this problem is still with me. At this point I’m running: Windows Vista RTMVisual Studio 2005Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (Beta) I continue to see the...

12 comments

IE 7 Protected Mode Oddities
November 18, 2006 @ 2:42 am

Running into some odd IE 7 behavior where my Internet Options are set to run IE in protected mode, while my toolbar displays that protected mode is off

16 comments

Vista RTM installed
November 17, 2006 @ 2:43 am

I just installed Vista RTM on my laptop and I'm happy to say that this was a very smooth installation. Install took about 20 minutes to startup screen and the machine managed to come up with all devices configured! Impressive especially since that never worked on XP...Couple of cool things that...

12 comments

Vista, Visual Studio, new Page and least Privilige - NOT!
October 10, 2006 @ 11:42 pm

Aaarrgh… So I’m really trying this time to give least privilege development in Vista a try, but it’s just like hitting walls everywhere. So here’s a real simple thing: Trying to add a new file to a project and as soon as I do I get a file access issue.

13 comments

Problem with Permission Elevation in Windows Vista
October 10, 2006 @ 11:13 pm

Windows Vista allows you to raise permissions of an application automatically if the application 'looks' like a Setup or configuration application. Or you can run 'As Administrator' which gives you Admin permissions. There's a problem with this though - when this elevation occurs it's essentially switching users, so your local user store - the Documents directory - is no longer pointing at your user store but at the elevated user store which can be problematic.

10 comments

Folder Virtualization in Windows Vista
October 08, 2006 @ 4:58 am

Folder Virtualization is a feature of Vista that allows virtualizing installation folders into a virtual store so that users who normally wouldn't be able to modify data in the Program Files folder get a private 'shadow' store so they can write to data. Interesting feature and certainly not very obvious...

29 comments

Windows Vista and custom Windows Application Installations - can you feel the Pain?
October 07, 2006 @ 11:05 pm

Oh man, I’m going to REALLY hate Vista from an application installation and configuration perspective for custom applications. To make a long story short, pretty much none of my Windows applications run under the default Vista security configuration.

11 comments

Windows Vista and Installing Custom Applications - can you feel the pain?
July 10, 2006 @ 10:40 pm

Oh man, I’m going to REALLY hate Vista from an application installation and configuration perspective for custom applications. To make a long story short, pretty much none of my Windows applications run or in some cases don't install under the default Vista security configuration.

1 comment