I’ve had this problem once before, but had to research the specific steps in fixing it because I could not remember each and every file involved. This problem cropped up again after I reloaded my son’s PC with Windows XP after moving his hard drive to a different computer. The situation was that you could download updates but they would fail to install.

The solution involves reregistering several Windows Update DLL files. I found the specific steps at wugnet.com, but I will list them again here:

Try re-registering the windows update components. This may help fix a corrupt installer

1. Click on Start and Run,
2. Type “REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Should get the message “DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded” Click OK.
4. Repeat above for each of the following:

REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL

5. Reboot

Now try to install your updates.

I followed the steps but did not reboot and was still able to install the updates after reregistering the DLL files. Your mileage may vary.

I recently went on a trip and wanted to take some TiVo shows with me for the plane ride. I hadn’t used TiVo Transfer on my Mac in a while, so I started Roxio Toast to find it so I could download some shows. After starting Toast, I was prompted that an update was available so I downloaded version 8.0.4 and installed it. I then reopened Toast, found TiVo Transfer under the Extras menu, clicked on it, but received the message “TiVo Transfer could not be found.”

I don’t know if I lost TiVo Transfer after my recent update or before, but I first reverted to Toast 8.0.3, then reinstalled Toast from the original CD, but I still did not have TiVo Transfer working. After scouring Google for a while trying to download TiVo Transfer by itself (it only comes with Toast), I finally just searched for a way to reinstall TiVo Transfer. A poster named Greg on Aldoblog provided an answer: “You have to right click on Tosat 8 Titanium and chose Show Package Contents. Then go to Contents, Resources, and copy the TiVoTransfer.tar.gz file to the dekstop or the Toast 8 Folder. Double click on the file and it should expand to the TiVo Transfer application. Make sure that is in the Toast folder and you are all set.” I actually followed his suggestion by opening my 8.0.3 update which has the latest version of TiVo Transfer (1.1.1). So thankfully I was able to enjoy a couple of episodes of Battlestar Galactica on the plane to Washington DC. Thanks Greg.

Let me start this off by saying I have used Office 2007 for Windows very little since it came out. The little I have used it has been a complete turn off. Leave it to Microsoft again to ruin what works. Office’s look and file formats have changed very little in the past 10 years, but it’s that time again, time to force everyone to upgrade. I don’t want this to turn into an Office 2007 hate rant, but the new interface stinks and forcing people to upgrade by changing the file format is wrong (yes, I know the new XML based format is supposed to add features, but seems like the old stuff worked well enough).

Anyway, I had the fun experience of troubleshooting a problem with a customer’s Outlook Express recently. For some reason, his spell check either did French or quit working altogether. After spending some time Googling the problem and trying different solutions which didn’t fix the problem, I came across a little gem about how Office 2007 breaks Outlook Express’ spell check, since OE relies on another application to provide its spell check capabilities. The solution was to reinstall the old spell check tool from a previous version of Office (Office 2003 in this case). That did the trick.

I asked my customer why he upgraded to begin with, and it was because a client was using Office 2007 and he could not read files that his client was sending him (you can, of course save files in Office 2007 in the previous formats, but of course this is not the default). Not long after, I came across the subject of this little blurb: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. According to the download page, by “installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.” My take is enough people complained about this that Microsoft had to let people read and write the new format using older versions of Office. Therefore, unless you like the new look and feel of Office 2007, check out the Compatibility Pack instead.

I recently had a nasty encounter with this feature which is designed to prevent viruses or malware from damaging your computer by preventing them from executing. In order for this to work you need a CPU and an OS that supports DEP.

My particular issue occurred while setting up a new PC. I found a good deal on an E-Machine at Wal-Mart ($300 for PC with 512 RAM and XP) which I thought would make a nice workstation at one of my wife’s offices where I just had a computer go down. Everything went great until I got to the printer setup. The setup actually went fine, but I could not print anything, DEP kept shutting down explorer. The printer was a 4 year old Canon printer / copier which had its own software along with the driver. No amount of adding program exceptions to DEP would make it work…this became very frustrating. After a little Googling, I found some info on how to disable this feature if you happen to have trouble like I did:

In Windows XP, check the boot.ini file. You will see a parameter on the OS line “/noexecute=” with a value following it, typically “OptIn” (the default setting). Change “OptIn” to “AlwaysOff” (no quotes) and restart. For a detailed description of DEP and Windows XP, see Microsoft KB article 875352.

In Windows Vista (which I am adding for the sake of completeness), things are a little different since there is no boot.ini file (like everything else in Vista, I don’t know why Microsoft couldn’t just leave well-enough alone). Here’s the basics:

• Go to the command prompt.
• Type bcdedit.exe/set {current} nx AlwaysOff and press Enter.
• You should see a message saying that ‘The operation completed successfully.’
• Restart the computer.

For more detailed instructions on this, see John Barnett’s Windows Vista Support DEP page.

In summary, DEP, like everything trying to protect you and your PC, is not perfect. Try your best to work with it, but don’t be afraid to shut it down if there are no alternatives to getting a program to function.