my Computer Quest: Windows Vista

Showing posts with label Windows Vista. Show all posts

23 November, 2014

Printing problem in Crystal Reports for VS2005 - SOLVED!

Crystal Reports (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

23-Nov-2014

A week or so ago, I had my old work desktop PC formatted and installed with Windows 7. I opted for that because I don't want any leftovers from previous users cluttering up my work. Say I'm fussy, but that is me. At least I can safely say, if ever the time comes that I leave the company, that they can format the hard disk drive, without ever worrying about 'others' having leftover files in the HDD of the PC that I used for X number of years.

Now, that new Windows 7 OS is sure better than XP Professional SP3, and while I am able to make use of the better hardware and better OS, in that the very reason why I had the Windows 7 installed after a format is that the hardware is better, even when it was running Windows XP. Yap, there was another desktop PC involved. I had a swap. I had the faster PC for a swap, and requested for a total clean sweep of the hard disk, which mandated the installation of Windows 7. I didn't know that, but it was a pleasant surprise - when I was told that due to the formatting of the hard disk, I will now be getting Windows 7 instead of Windows XP. I said, "Err... okay!"

When all applications have been reinstalled back, I discovered that the main software I use in my daily work is getting a problem: it wasn't able to run Crystal Reports, or to be precise, all sections work, except the Crystal Reports form.

When that problem was fixed, a new one came about: printing function. All else, like exporting, viewing pages, etc., work. I was stuck, as again, printing the generated report was a mandatory part of the process flow that I call work.

I asked for help, which didn't easily come. I figure, I had to do it on my own. And that was even harder because I don't have internet access at work. I should say it is hard, but I feel safer and more comfortable, with much ado about wasting time browsing while working, etc., etc. So I do my web seraching at home, then attempt all solutions and resolutions when I come back to the office.

To cut to the chase, here's what I did, and unfortunately, I am not quite sure on the exact item that fixed the problem. And yes, I am using Windows 7 64-bit OS. Sadly, some of the articles that I checked insisted that it has nothing to do with the bit-ness of the OS of the client, or the local PC, but the bit-ness of the server. That is contrary to my experience.

I turned on .NET Framework 3.5 through the Control Panel, Turning Windows features on or off.
I installed ReportViewer.exe
I installed cr_net_2005_x86.msi
I installed CRRedist2005_x86.msi
I installed CRRedist2005_X64.msi

Five items, and I didn't know which one did the fix. So I suggest that if you are following my method, help me out by doing one-by-one, and noting which one does the fix, so I can update my post.

Hope this helps somebody, as it did me.

Till then!

06 August, 2014

Readyboost: sysmain.com

English: Screenshot of Microsoft's chkdsk.exe (NT version) in action. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

06-August-2014

I had to upgrade my old laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 7, as I find that Vista doesn't cut it. It was nice, if you are coming from Windows XP, but after a couple of Vista years, and having experienced Windows 7 at work, I decided to do an upgrade.

So I did.

It was a move I wouldn't regret, as Windows 7 is definitely better. And even more so, that it has Readyboost feature. I know, it is not a replacement for RAM, but as I understand, it is additional cache memory, one that prevents frequent reading from solid-state disc drives, so it helps!

Then came the problem.

As I have bought a new laptop, and one that is running Windows 8.1 OS, I have almost forgotten to do the occasional check and clean-up routines. And my girls aren't saying anything about the old laptop. They just turn it on, use it, and shut down. No word.

When I remembered to do the usual check, I found that Readyboost isn't working. I saw that the thumb drive size of 4.GB is free. I thought maybe Readyboost was just turned off. When I tried to activate it back, I got the error, saying something about 'sysmain.com' problem.

I searched for this on the web, and I found some that suggested running Super Prefetch, or something like that, and when I tried to follow on the instruction, I got lost. And there really was no clear direction, because it tells of doing some other things -- maybe that is how it got fixed -- for them.

A few days of searching and trying, and finally, I gave up on it. I just did the usual chkdsk /f /r thing on all the drives, and yes, I remember running sfc /scannow, which, unfortunately, found some problems, but also reported that it cannot fix the problem. It was supposed to, but the fixer itself ran into some problem that it failed to fix the problems it found. Wow! The doctor is sick...

And as I said, the last thing I did was run chkdsk /f /r on all the disks, which required the checking for some drives to be on restart.

The laptop was restarted, and chkdsk did its thing, and guess what happened? It fixed the Readyboost problem! I just went back to right-clicking the thumb drive and turning on Readyboost, and it did turn back on! How's that? I still don't understand how or why, but one thing I am sure of, Readyboost in my old laptop is back, so it got some speed gain.

If all else fails, why not try chkdsk /f /r? It might just work for you... also.

Till then!

03 November, 2011

File Manager other than Windows 7's Windows Explorer

Image representing Windows as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase I thought I have posted an article about file manager in Windows 7, but as I checked today, there is none!

Well, what prompted this search for an alternative file manager is the poor performance of the same application that is provided by Windows 7. I mean, the Windows Explorer is working fine in Windows XP, but when it comes to Windows 7 (I can’t remember how this fared in Windows Vista), the thing just sucks!

When does it not perform well? The performance is already bad even with a single-instance copy session. The worst comes when while that single-instance copy session is still ongoing, and you initiate another copy (or delete) session, then the duration or countdown to file transfer/delete completion skyrockets from minutes to hours! If you really want to ‘play with it’, add more file copy/move/delete session, and the numbers don’t move anymore.

I wanted to stop this there and then, because I cannot stop thinking why it behaves this way, the Windows 7 file manager. I searched the web, and I found several solutions, and of course, not all are acceptable, and while many work, not many are quite promising.

FastCopy – I couldn’t say anything about this application, because I can’t figure out much of its menu or instructions. I’m not being racist or whatever, but it is like flying a jet plane with all the button and switches written in another language. One wrong button and your plane will just crash!

NiceCopier – This I am using at home. I find that it is most advantageous when used for localized file activities. That means from locally-linked external drives, HDD, USB drives, SD cards, etc., it is most efficient, not to mention that the interface is nice and quite easy to understand. It is useable right out of the box.

SuperCopier – For wireless connections, NiceCopier seems to slow down, or its performance degrades. Without any change at all of the infrastructure, using SuperCopier does a better job. I used NiceCopier at first, and I find that the countdown goes up and down, and while the file transfer is progressing, there is just no telling when the activity will finish. Thus I used SuperCopier instead, and I am satisfied with the better performance. This is an A-okay application.

Today, I went to search for other applications that may come in handy, or may have other functionalities not present in NiceCopier or SuperCopier, and I found one that I immediately downloaded and installed. When I have used it for some time, I will write a review of it. It is UltraCopier. Hope that it is as good as NiceCopier or SuperCopier, at the very least.

Till then!

24 October, 2011

Readyboost more than 4GB?

The 536,870,912 byte (512×2 20 ) capacity of t...

Image via Wikipedia
24-Oct-2011, 8.30am:

Today I discovered that Readyboost size can be extended to more than 4GB!

I was actually not expecting this, as much of the articles found on the web sets the limit of Readyboost cache memory size to 4GB, no more than that. But as I have tried today on my laptop (Probook 4430s) and 2 others desktop PCs (GX280 and GX520 models), the size is no longer limited to 4GB.

I plugged in one 8GB thumb drive on the GX280 machine, and dedicated the whole drive to Readyboost, and it was accepted. The amount recognized is about 7584MB (7.47GB).

On the GX520 machine, I put in two: a 4GB drive, and one that is 8GB. The 4GB drive came up with about 3804GB (3.76GB), while the 8GB drive reserved about 7562MB (7.45GB) space.

On my laptop, I employed an 8GB thumb drive, and a 16GB Sd card. Both being dedicated to Readyboost, the 8GB drive gave a 7562MB (7.45GB) available size, while the 16GB SD card came up with about 15196MB (14.9GB) available space.

If what I'm thinking is correct, this is indicating that we no longer need a very huge RAM size. Just the baseline 4GB fitting will do. And if you need to jack that up, then buy one 16GB SD card, plug it in, set it to dedicated Readyboost usage, and you have a very huge cache memory to play with!

Of course, this is all that I am seeing right now, but before 64-bit, or even Windows 7 or Vista, RAM size was limited to 2/3GB, and the 'extra' that you may have physically isn't used! That is no longer the case these days. And while 32-bit memory addressing is causing the limitation of using up to 4GB RAM only, with 64-bit, that is not the case.

And we are no longer talking about RAM being expensive, but between adding RAM and using SD card or thumb drive, I would be avoiding RAM-adding when I already have 4GB, which could mean dismantling the laptop casing or opening the desktop chassis, when I could just simply plug in an alternative thumb drive or SD card. We actually should be talking about which is cheaper and faster to employ, with less hassle and less opportunity for error and mishandling, etc., etc., etc.

So how's that? Where will this Readyboost technology lead us?

21 October, 2011

Employing Windows XP Logon Screen in Windows 7

The welcome screen in Windows 7 beta, which is...

Image via Wikipedia
21-October-2011

Yesterday, I spent some 2 hours at our End User Support area, and one of the things that our main guy, the one doing all the OS installation and setup of individual and production PCs and laptops, was the user acceptability of Windows 7 for the general user group.

Mainly, the big difference between Windows 7 and Windows XP is right from the start: the Logon screen.

In Windows XP, users are so used to seeing 3 boxes:

username
password
domain

In Windows 7, you don't see the boxes, but you either see the name of the last logged user, and a box for the password, or you get 2 choices: the last logged user, and 'switch user'. Now, laying aside all questions of intelligence and common sense, an average user (and sometimes even a geek) would never try to guess and attempt clicking on the 'switch user' icon. Especially if that is their orientation, don't play-play.

So now you get the picture - will Windows 7 be accepted easily? It is like saying, go into that new house, there are better things there - and the average tenant can't even figure out how to open the gate...

Keystroke Logger and Computer Monitoring Software

Is there a workaround?

I told him I didn't knew about this problem, since in out team, we are on 99.9% single-user PC/laptop usage ratio. But things are different in the production line. And I said I would look it up in the web.
I did find some very simple solutions, applicable to both Windows Vista and Windows 7, and while the approach may be different between the flavors of Windows 7, the effect is the same.

Here goes:

Click on Windows 7 pearl (hey, it isn't a button anymore).
Type secpol.msc and hit [Enter] (that's for Security Policy).
At the left side, click on Local Policies, then on Security Options.
Then at the right side, click any item, then press "i". That brings you to the list of items beginning with "I".
The main item to Enable is: "Interactive logon: Do not display last user name".
Enabling this is optional: "Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL + ALT + DEL". Enabling this means users will immediately see 2 boxes at the logon screen: username and password.
Close window, and we are done.

Applicability:

I managed to apply these to 2 desktop PCs, and my laptop. I'm just happy that with this simple solution, the objective can be met.

As for the laptop, it isn't exactly the same screen, because there is an additional option for logging in: biometrics sensor.

Hopefully, we are helping to get Windows 7 less resisted but more accepted in the line.

Till then!

07 April, 2010

Getting the Most Out of Windows 7

Windows 7 is the latest stable Windows operati...

Image via Wikipedia

If you are already running Windows 7, or are planning to upgrade to Windows 7, this is one good article to help you decide on what to expect from Microsoft's latest release on their OS lines.
For the record, I am already running Windows 7, and an official one at that. I'm saying that I'm running a licensed version of Windows 7 Ultimate. I did got the cheaper version, though, since my laptop was running Windows Vista Home Premium, and that is good enough for me.

This article could be a primer for Windows 7. Read on...

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Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7, is an excellent release. Microsoft listened to consumers and
technicians this time around to create a great operating system that has a lot of user-friendly features. This
article will cover several of those features to help you get the most out of your Windows 7 system.

First, your Start Menu remains the improved version seen in the last Windows release. You access your Start Menu by clicking on the Windows button at the bottom left of your screen. Once you click, your most frequently used programs are displayed right in front of you. You can "pin" programs to this menu by right-clicking them and choosing "Pin to Start Menu."

Access all your programs by clicking "All Programs" on the bottom of the menu, or simply type the program name into the search box. You'll see buttons linking to all your folders to the right of your menus. Your user folder will be there, as well as a link to documents, downloads, and pictures. You can customize what shows up by right-clicking next to your user picture and choosing "Properties," then click the "Start Menu" tab, then click the "Customize" button.

Next, take a look at your Taskbar - that's be bar that runs along the bottom of your computer screen. Any programs you have open will have an icon displayed on the Taskbar. The Taskbar is greatly improved in Windows 7. First, you can rearrange the icons in any order you like. Simply click on them, hold your mouse button down, and drag the icon where you want it.

If you have multiple windows open in a program they will "stack" on top of each other, looking a bit like a deck of
cards. When you click the stack of icons, a little window will pop up and show you a preview of each of your program windows so you can pick the one you want. There will also be an "X" button so you can quickly close those you don't need open anymore. If you have music or a video play, the preview window will have controls for you!

Next up is the windows themselves. If you have a window in a small size and you want it maximized, simply click on the top border of the window with your mouse. Hold down your mouse button and drag the window to the top of the screen. It automatically maximizes! Drag it down again and it will return to the size you had it.

Windows 7 makes comparing two documents or screens easy, too. Click on the top bar of the first window and drag it until your mouse point hits the left side of your screen. It will pop to fill half of your screen. Use the same technique to drag the second window to the right - it will fill the other half of the screen for side-by-side viewing.

A final useful feature in Windows 7 is a small button in the very bottom, right-hand corner of your screen. It looks like a tiny button on top of the Taskbar. Click that, and all windows on your screen minimize so you can see the desktop. Click again, and your windows pop back to where they were.

Windows 7 truly has a user-friendly interface that you'll find quick to learn and easy to work with. Explore these
features and others to get the most out of your copy of Windows 7.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3-User)

Kristen enjoys writing and sharing good ideas. Come visit her new website about the pet play pen and a really great
idea - the puppy play pen.

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Windows 7
Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7, is an excellent release. Microsoft listened to consumers and
technicians this time around to create a great operating system that has a lot of user-friendly features.

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my Computer Quest

23 November, 2014

Printing problem in Crystal Reports for VS2005 - SOLVED!