Recently in XPSP2 Category

vsp1cln is a useful utility that removes files no longer needed after Vista sp1 has been installed and you are sure that you will not need to remove sp1.  A useful utility but I’m surprised it is needed – after all you just needed to delete the $ntuninstall*$ files in XP

I have spent all day patching servers, workstations and trying to find a direct download for the 958644 patch that got released last night. I was amazed when Microsoft even called us to join in a webconference for Microsoft partners about this patch - that is something new.
I was not so pleased when I called PSS to ask for a direct download to the patch as kb958644 does not have direct links, windows update services was timing out and the catalog website is badly broken. PSS informed me that as it was not a hotfix they could not provide me with the file and there was an 8-12 hour delay on callback from the server team. So instead I've been configuring wsus for servers (that were not already configured), approving patches and downloading by visiting windows updates - a VERY time consuming.
Anyway, without wasting more time - here are the download locations - I'd grab them before the server falls over too.

• xp


• w2k3


• xp/w2k3 64 bit


• Windows 2000

I upgraded my wrt54g to the latest dd-wrt firmware over the weekend from v23 to v24sp1. The annoying thing is that they highly recommend the unit is set to factory defaults which means re-entering the config in by hand after the upgrade. This is not a quick and easy task, especially whn you have to get the config off the there doesn’t seem to be a “print config” page. However, by using the screengrab firefox extension it didn’t take long to open up each dialog page, right click and choose screengrab, save, complete page.  Saving all the screenshots into a unique folder means I have a nice copy of the config that I was then able to refer to when rebuilding the unit.

The new firmware also supports wpa2 so I enabled that on the router and then found that my xpsp2 box couldn’t see the router. I was pretty sure I had all the updates for xp on the laptop but I guess not.  A quick download of the hotfix 893357, one reboot later and I was connected with wpa2.  I’m sure we’re going to see more of this sort of thing on client laptops so this will also be a good placeholder for work.

I haven’t got the openvpn configuration sorted out, I think I have to set this up from scratch as I forgot to save one of the keys – but openvpn seems to be more integrated in this version – at least there are dialog boxes for openvpn – there didn’t use to be.

I'm having a problem where ctrl-p doesn't work in a kiosk mode machine with group policy restrictions and wonder if anyone has a clue? I've posted this to google groups.

I have a group policy enabled for a particular user for a locked down, kiosk user interface in a public area. Currently in *some* web pages the ctrl-P shortcut key will work, but on other web pages nothing happens when ctrl-p is pressed. Other shortcut keys such as ctrl-h, ctrl-r, ctrl-w activate properly (in the case of ctrl-w this option complains that the user does not have access to close the window).
We are running internet explorer as the shell in kiosk mode, but removing the kiosk mode doesn't make any difference. Likewise, we have disabled the toolbar, but adding the toolbar back and enabling the print button also does not make any difference - the print dialog box never appears on certain web sites.

www.msn.com, http://travel.msn.com/default.aspx both work but http://travel.msn.com/New_York_City_New_York_State_list_entitylist_attractions_23164_2.aspx or http://www.helsby.net or http://absoblogginlutely.net doesn't. There are a lot more sites that do/don't work but these are just a couple of examples.

Anyone come across this problem before?
I've uploaded the resultant set of policies wizard output to http://absoblogginlutely.net/test/lock.htm - the only thing I've done is change the domain name for security reasons.

kb article 909444 has how to fix the issues that may arise when you install Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-051: Vulnerabilities in MSDTC and COM+ Could Allow Remote Code Execution (902400). Although I've not had any of these issues - yet - this will be good reference for me.

I'm getting the message "library not registered" when attempting to open a navigator in quickbooks with errors on the various qpg files that it tries to open. On speaking to their tech support who had me remove the software, install it, install in safe mode, remove, reinstall in normal mode, then download the updates again (thankfully I had saved the 80mb patch file to disk so I didn't have to download it again) he then recommended that I repair Internet Explorer as this was the problem. Unfortunately you can't repair IE in xpsp2 (see KB318378 so I reinstalled xpsp2 again.
At this point, he admitted, several times, that NOONE in support can tell me what ocx's or dll's are required by the various pages used in the Navigator pages. I asked who could tell me which files are needed, but he kept telling me to repair internet explorer instead.
I've heard Intuit's support is notoriously bad and I now believe it. I would have expected him to check my internet explorer security settings, popupblocker settings and it was only after about 40 minutes on the phone that he checked what version of quickbooks I was using (pressing F2 gives that information)
He was not interested in the fact that there was an incompatibility issue with Quickbooks Premier 2002 and Windows NT and that I am getting the same type of message. Unfortunately in this case, the pc that has a working copy of quickbooks and the faulty pc have the same version of comcat.dll
From the sounds of it, there is a permission problem in the registry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\ but whereabouts I am not sure. It's time to use regmon from sysinternals again to monitor for access denied messages when launching quickbook navigators.
Solution in the extended entry

On some new machines that I've been building I've had major issues with SYSTEM dsn's not working properly and getting the "DSNNAMEis not an existing data source name" when trying to configure a dsn.... Eventually I found an answer.....

It turns out that if Windows XPSP2 is not compatible with cstext32.ocx and cscmd32.ocx (bundled with Great Plains software and others) and that you will often get a message saying that cstext32.ocx and cscmd32.ocx could not be registered quoting an error number 0x80040200. The official solution is to obtain a patch from the vendor and some vendors, such as hy-tek are more forthcoming than others.
I doubt it will be long before I start to get hits from Google on this as there are not a lot of solution pages out ther but a lot of problem pages!

I'm not sure why, but a couple of times this week I've been unable to ftp files to any of my remote hosts from a command prompt (or within leechftp - my client of choice). When it failed, I would just get a connection refused error message before the username/password handshake takes place. As I'm running service pack2 and have the windows firewall enabled, I looked in the c:\windows\pfirewall.log file (something that I learnt about whilst doing the MCSDT exam - I didn't know it did a log or that is where it put it!) and I was getting some dropped packets but no reason why. After a bit of digging on google I came across the How Windows Firewall Works document and it mentions that the Application Layer Gateway Service is required if you enable Windows Firewall on a computer that is an FTP client that does not use PASV ftp. The ALG service was running on the computer but a quick restart of the service and I could start ftp'ing again. I don't see any obvious errors in the event logs as to why this service was not working properly but restarting the service is a lot more convenient than having to reboot the entire machine.

Alex has posted the new (beta) build of ISO recorder, the utility that allows you to burn iso images onto a cd. This version works on servicepack2 (and w2k3)- his older one didn't. Thanks to Thomas Lee for pointing this out.

The new batch of critical updates came out overnight and there is one for Windows XP that enables you to install ServicePack2 if you also have the adware TV Media (TvMedia.tvmbho) software on your machine (otherwise it can repeatedly bluescreen). I think its interesting that Microsoft have labelled some software as adware and have taken the unusual step of providing a removal tool for it. It will be interesting to see whether they get into the spyware removal business and whether there are going to be more spyware programs that actually break the os (as opposed to just run hidden within it)

Well after the kerfuffle (sp?) with the kernel, something I'd not seen posted anywhere else, the machine is back and running with sp2 on it. Seems ok - nothing seems so far (after 20 mins of quick testing) to be broken. The security center complains that NAV2002 can't be detected. Symantec's site claims that liveupdate has a patch to fix it, but I guess this is only for newer versions of NAV as it doesn't seem to be fixed in 2002. However I just ticked the box to say I'm running other AV software and don't bother me about it again. There were several programs asking if I wanted to block or unblock, Conquercam, Popfile and Activesync that I can remember. Oh and the good thing is that there are no more updates to download (or is that good if there are already documented flaws?)

If you do, then you won't be able to install xpsp2. I've got LOGONUI running which provides a custom ntkernel file on startup to get a pretty picture as xp loads. However I've found that servicepack2 doesn't like it but helpfully refers you to a KB article but which talks about sp1 (but the same problem/work around applies I guess).

As the title says, ISO Recorder Power Toy doesn't work on XPSp2. I tried to use it, but the software doesn't detect a cd recorder. On checking with the home page the author notes that it isn't working, but that he might have a version working in a couple of weeks. Now I have to transfer the iso to my other pc to burn :-(

I've just uninstalled sp2 on the laptop and my vpn connection to the office now works again....Now to reinstall it and log a call with symantec (what fun!)

Looks like SP2 breaks the enterprise vpn client although I'm not quite sure how just yet. The client will connect through the internet to our firewall and make the connection ok. However any traffic through to the lan does seem to not get through the firewall. Nothing appears in the firewall log (at either end). A bit of a pain really as this is crucial for our remote workers. The weird thing is that having the vpn software (which includes a firewall) somehow disables the XP built in firewall - as the service is disabled on the laptop (and fails to start if I try to do it manuallly). I'll need to do some more investigation and post to the mailing list. Symantec said that "erm, err, it should work if you open up the ports in xp's firewall" in a very "i'm really not sure what i'm talking about and crumbs - someone should have told me that the service pack2 has been released and can I go home now as I have a customer asking a difficult question" kind of voice.

There's a patch available to allow the antivirus software to work properly with the new security console in xpsp2. I thought it was meant to be available via liveupdate, but it wasn't being picked up in the liveupdate on my laptop (pre sp2 install).
Note the "weird" install instructions as it uses an msp file install of the usual .exe's

Apparently in XPSP2 there is functionality for program developers to hide the programs that they install. The specified reason for doing this is to hide all the updates etc that MS bring out - Most of the time a user does not need to see that these updates are there. The option to hide these means less clutter for the user.....However surely this is the first thing that spyware installs are going to do - turn on the hidden bit to make it even harder to detect and remove?

Windows XP ServicePack2 is available for download but this should only be used on a network as you are downloading the entire service pack whereas a "download what you need" version will be available on windows update soon. I figured that we need to start testing the final version now before our customers start to install it. The only problem is working out how to backup the laptop's hard disk just in case....