Monthly Archives: November 2014

How do I start Internet Explorer in safe mode (both 32-bit and 64-bit)

internet explorer, software, windows, ,

Scenario:

You want to start Internet Explorer in safe mode with no-addons. You may want to do this in order to see if an add-on or extension is causing issues with your browser.

Solution:

Depending on your version of Windows you could be running either 32-bit or 64-bit Internet Explorer (or you may want to run 32-bit IE on 64-bit Windows). Below I will include both all paths.

32-bit IE on 64-bit Windows

  1. Press Windows Key+R to bring up the run dialog
  2. Enter this (with quotes as listed) “C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” -extoff

64-bit IE on 64-bit Windows

  1. Press Windows Key+R to bring up the run dialog
  2. Enter this (with quotes as listed) “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” -extoff

32-bit IE on 32-bit Windows

  1. Press Windows Key+R to bring up the run dialog
  2. Enter this (with quotes as listed) “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” -extoff

How do I stop Windows 8 and/or Windows 10 from restarting to install updates?

software, windows, , , , ,

Scenario:

Windows 8/10 has initiated the process to install patches and updates but needs to restart. You will receive a banner message box with text such as this:

Restart in 14 minutes, 59 seconds

Your PC needs to restart to finish installing important updates.  If you've already saved everything, you can restart now.  Otherwise, you should take a moment to save your work.

A restart is needed

To finish installing important updates, you need to restart your PC.  If you've already saved everything, you can restart now.  Otherwise, you should take a moment to save your work.  Your PC will automatically restart the next time you sign in.

Solution:

You can use the group policy editor to disable this behavior (you will still have to restart at some point to finish installing patches but it won’t happen automatically). Steps for professional and higher versions of Windows that have the group policy editor included:

  1. Open epedit.msc
  2. Navigate to “Local Computer Policy”->”Computer Configuration”->”Administrative Templates”->”Windows Components”->”Windows Update”
  3. Click on the “No auto-restart with logged on users” policy and change it to “enabled“

Steps for home versions of Windows that don’t have the group policy editor.

  1. Open the registry editor, e.g. start “regedit”.
  2. Navigate to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
  3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value and name it NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers. Set the value to “1” (with no quotes).
  4. Reboot the computer after you have entered this.

How can I clear the cache in Google Chrome?

Uncategorized

Scenario:

You want to clear the cache in Google Chrome.

Solution:

There are multiple ways to clear the cache in Chrome. These include:

  1. Click the Tools Menu (the wrench in the upper right corner), select “options”, select the “under the hood” tab, click “clear browsing data” and check all the boxes for the items you want to clear, then click “Clear Browsing Data”.
  2. Push F12, then click on refresh and select “Empty Cache and Hard Reload”
  3. Pressing Control+F5 or Shift+F5 (Google’s site says both of these should work)
  4. Open a new incognito or private window with Control+Shift+N. This window won’t use the cache, stored cookies or stored DNS resolutions (it will fetch them all fresh).

Google update installation failed with error 0x80070057

google, software, , ,

Scenario:

You’re trying to install Google Chrome onto a Windows machine and you receive the following error message:

Google update installation failed with error 0x80070057

Solution:

Chrome users a ClickOnce technology to deploy Chrome in most instances. Sometimes this can cause issues. Google also offers a direct MSI (Microsoft Software Installer) installation that is geared towards businesses and may help alleviate this error (the MSI allows business to deploy to all their workstations over a Windows network, it can also be installed standalone which is what we will do). The MSI installer can be found on Google’s site at this location:

  • https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/browser/

How to Activate a Chrome Extension that is not from the Chrome Web Store

google, software, , , ,

Scenario:

You want to active a “crx” extension that is not from the Chrome Web Store and Chrome tells you that “Extensions, apps, and user scripts can only be added from the Chrome Web Store”.

Solution:

The first thing to note is that CRX file is a ZIP file with a different extension. You can either open it with a zip program (like 7-zip) or rename it and change the CRX extension to ZIP and then use your operating system to get the files. Here are some basic steps:

  1. Unzip the contents of the CRX file to a directory anywhere (change the CRX extension to ZIP to make this easier if you like).
  2. Inside Chrome, go to settings then to extensions, then click “Load unpacked extension” and choose the directory you placed the unzipped files in.

How to I turn off invert colors on my iOS device?

apple, hardware, ,

Scenario:

I accidently inverted my colors on my iOS device, how do I reset them to normal?

Solution:

This can sometimes happen, especially on slow devices when you triple click the home button (on a device that’s running slow or is unresponsive iOS may see multiple presses of the home button as a triple click). By default, the triple click is setup to toggle the inverting of colors (You can change this behavior also and disable that default). To quickly un-invert the colors you can use one of these two methods:

  1. Triple click the home button again. Sometimes on devices that are running slow this option is inconsistent.
  2. Go into Settings->Accessibility and toggle the “Invert Colors” slider to off.

How do I clear my Chromecast of identifiying information?

hardware

Scenario:

You want to sell your Chromecast but you want to remove any data that may be yours (this may include things such as your Google account credentials). This is sometimes referred as an FDR or Factory Data Reset.

Solution:

There are two ways as of the time of this post to reset it:

  1. Hold the button down located next to the micro usb port for 25 seconds until the light starts flashing, then unplug the device.
  2. In the menu of the Chromecast app there should be a “factory reset Chromecast” option. Choose this and follow any instructions.

More info on Chromecast issues like this can be found at the Chromecast FAQ hosted by Google at: Chromecast FAQ.

I’ve added too much milk to my macaroni and cheese, help!

food,

Scenario:

You’ve added too much milk to your macaroni and cheese and now it’s liquidy.

Solution:

You can turn the burner on the stove back on and bring the macaroni and cheese to a boil. Boil the milk down to the desired level. You will want to be sure to constantly stir the contents to make sure that non of the milk (or cheese sauce if you’ve added it in) burns on the bottom of your pot.

Amazon Instant Video network issues on Vizio Smart TV’s

hardware, , , ,

Scenario:

Your Amazon Instant Video app does not find an internet connection and sometimes shuts down all together (and never recovers).  Once the app shuts down it stays shut down for the duration of the time you have the television on.

Workaround:

The Amazon apps seems to never recover once it fails to retrieve a network connection.  Sometimes after turning the TV on it takes a moment for the TV to access the local WIFI network.  The workaround is to give the TV time to access the network before accessing the Amazon app.  You can monitor whether a connection has been made by hitting the Vizio button on your remote and watching for the network connected/signal strength icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  Once you have a WIFI signal you will be able to open the Amazon app and connect.

Windows–The source file name(s) are larger than is supported by the file system.

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Scenario:

You are trying to delete a file, possibly maliciously created and you run into this error:

The source file name(s) are larger than is supported by the file system.  Try moving to a location which has a shorter path name, or try renaming to shorter name(s) before attempting this operation.

Solution 1:

Use an auto-generated 8.3 name to access the file and delete it from the command prompt.  This means, every long file in windows still can be referenced by it’s 8 character name with a 3 dot extension.  E.g. this file “mm_backup.cfg” could be referenced by using “mm_bac~1.cfg”.  Take the first 6 characters, then put a tilde and a 1 (if it’s the first in order) then the dot extension.  A command might look like “del mm_bac~1.cfg”.

Solution 2:

Create a new user account, try to move the file into that account and then delete the account (this hinges on whether the operating system will let you move the file).  Alternatively, you can create a new user account, migrate all of your files and settings there and then delete your account (taking that file with it).  You want to be certain to backup all of your files before you do this.

Solution 3:

Map a drive to a folder inside the structure of the path of the target file or folder. This method shortens the virtual path.

For example, suppose you have a path that is structured as follows: 

\\ServerName\SubfolderName1\SubfolderName2\SubfolderName3\SubfolderName4\...

In this path, the total character count is over 255 characters. To shorten the length of this path, to 73 characters, map a drive to SubfolderName4.

Microsoft also recommends other alternatives that may or may not work for your scenario.  Reference this support article: