SOLVED! Cannot Remove "Song of Innocence" (U2) from My iPad!!

Suddenly, an unknown music album has shown on my iPad, as well as my friend's. Named, "Song of Innocence", a name not quite fitting...After frustratingly trying to remove it for a while, here's the fix (actually provided by Apple Support):


To remove this album:

1. Go to https://itunes.com/soi-remove.
2. Click Remove Album to confirm you'd like to remove the album from your account.
3. Sign in with the Apple ID and password you use to buy from the iTunes Store.
4. You'll see a confirmation message that the album has been removed from your account.

If you downloaded the songs to iTunes on your Mac or PC or to the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you'll need to delete them manually.

Reference: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201396


Apple is really wasting much of our time!!

SOLVED! My Viber Runs, But the Window Cannot Shows

At times, Windows applications such as your Viber messaging, or Adobe Reader starts, but the window started in a position which is out of range of the visible screen. To move the app window back to the visible screen range, do this:

1. Start the application, you should see the app on the task bar. It runs, but the Window is not visible
2. Hold SHIFT key, right click on the task bar icon of the app
3. Select Move, now press the arrow keys of your keyboard. Depending on to which side the Window has gone beyond screen range. For example, if the application window goes to the left side, press RIGHT ARROW key, until the window frame of the app reappears again

Now you should be able to use your mouse to control your application window again.

SOLVED! PayPal Asking for "Full Account Number"

When changing important information in PayPal, at times,it asks you for the "Full Account Number". This is a security measure, but really to the extreme that it's actually misleading you. After entering what you think the "Full" Account Number, it reported an error saying like "...information incomplete or something is missing..."

In fact, when entering the "Full Account Number", just skip the bank code and the branch code, simply enter the rest of the digits will do. It will be like a 9-digit number.

Give it a try... PayPal ... what's happening to you...

SOLVED! IE, "Page Cannot be Displayed"

Just upgraded my laptop to Windows 8.1, with built-in IE 11. Weird, my Chrome browsing web pages working fine, but Internet Explorer can't browse to any pages, with the error message "Page Cannot be Displayed".

Ping test, working fine. On IE, even using IP address, will return the same error message "Page Cannot be Displayed". Reviewed IE settings, reset to default settings. Same.

This reminds me of the "WinSock" problems... with some research, different individuals offer their "Winsock Fix" apps... well, be honest, I'm not comfortable with those "tools"...

Then, come across two simple commands, which actually fixed my problem!

SOLUTION: 

netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset reset.log hit
These two commands reset winsock entries, and the TCP/IP stack. You need to REBOOT your computer. After reboot, IE works fine as before.

No need to re-install IE or downgrade / re-install your Windows. Just two commands!!

SOLVED! Windows 7 Not Install, "Starting Windows..."

Many new models of laptops are with BIOS settings default to Windows 8. Some of the drivers for come with your Windows 7 disc may not work properly with these settings.

SOLUTION: Restart your computer, go to BIOS setup. Different brands use different keys, e.g. Lenovo, press ENTER key, while for HP, press F10. Check for the option, like "CSM", "Legacy" mode for booting. Enable these options and try installation again.

Example:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/Unable-to-Install-Windows-7-without-CSM-support-enabled-in-BIOS/ta-p/1038089

SOLVED! Microsoft System Center End Point Protection Failed to Remove Infected Mail in Thunderbird

Normally, Microsoft's SCEP is able to remove infected mails in Thunderbird without any difficulties. However, in rare situations it could repeatedly reported infections but failed to remove infected emails.

Added to the difficulty, the reported infected CANNOT be found anywhere in Thunderbird mailbox folder!!?

After some tests, studies and investigation, the cause is found! The infected mail is actually HIDDEN in Thunderbird, marked as available space, waiting for a "COMPACT" to release the space.

SOLUTION: Start your Thunderbird, right click on the infected mail folder, select "Compact". Once the mail folder is being compacted, the infected mail is removed and SCEP reported no more infection!!

I suspect similar problems also happens to users of Microsoft Security Essential and the built-in Windows Defender in Windows 8. It really sounds ridiculous that Microsoft antivirus will treat a deleted, hidden mail as a "production" mail.

TOOLS: You may want to verify if the "COMPACT" of the mail folder is effective. I found grepWin a good tool to use (http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/grepWin.html). Another helpful tool is Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/), which actually can open, read and search Thunderbird mailbox files.

SOLVED! Internet Explorer - This page is accessing information that is not under its control. This poses a security risk. Do you want to continue?

For many days, this error message annoys me and a number of others. Once the page goes for a HTTPS access, this happens:

• "Internet Explorer - This page is accessing information that is not under its control. This poses a security risk. Do you want to continue?"

In my case, this helps: Disabling the “Compatibility View” of the IE browser. Please follow these steps:

1. In Internet Explorer, press Alt key
2. Choose “Tools”, “Compatibility View Settings”
3. Uncheck the two boxes “Display intranet sites in Compatibility View” and “Display all websites in Compatibility View”
4. Press “Close” button, F5 to refresh your page or restart IE.

Hope this helps in your case.

SOLVED! SkyDrive - This item might not exist or is no longer available

My friend wants to share some Excel files to me, through Microsoft SkyDrive. The files are on list, but when click on them, this is the message shown:

This item might not exist or is no longer available

This item might have been deleted, expired, or you might not have permission to view it. Contact the owner of this item for more information.

SOLUTION: Save your Excel files to XLSX format and upload them again.


Similar problem likely happens to other older versions of Word files as well. In this case, my friend has saved the file in the old Excel format (XLS), which causes problems.

SOLVED! My Android Too Many Pattern Attempts, Locked!

Just got a call from a friend, his Android tablet is locked because of too many failed pattern attempts. I don't have his Google account information and he's forgotten his Google account information! Even his Google account name has been forgotten!

Last resort, wipe data and return to factory default. Follow these steps*:

*it works on his Vido Tablet, same set of buttons may work for you; principle the same.

1)      Turn OFF the tablet.

2)      Hold <Power><Vol+> until the tablet is ON.

3)      You will see a screen different. Now, press <Vol+> to see a menu

4)      Press <Vol-> to change to option “wipe data/factory reset”

5)      Press <Power> button to select

Now, your Android is wiped clean and returns to the factory default settings. All your personal data gone, ... well, it won't take you too long to re-setup everything...


For Alcatel Phones/Tablets
Long press “# key” and “power on key” at the same time in power off mode, then you will be asked “All data will be lost, continue?” After you select “Yes,” the sequence will be entered with reminder “Formatting flash, please wait.” The phone will auto switch on when reset finishes. Please do not manipulate the phone or remove the battery during this process.

NOTES: For OT-Mini (OT-708) specifically, due to the touch panel design, reset can be performed only by long pressing “upper side key” and “power on key” at the same time.

Reference: http://www.alcatelonetouch.com/global-en/support/faq/phone_reset.html

SOLVED! Windows Live Mail or Outlook Cannot Connect to Hotmail Account, Keep Asking for a Password

If you're using HOTMAIL or OUTLOOK.COM, and recently you have started the 2-STEP Verification (i.e., you've asked Microsoft to send you a verification code to verify your mobile device or computer), the chance is that YOU NEED TO ENTER THE App Password generated by Microsoft instead of the password you set for yourself.

SOLUTION:

1. From your web browser, logon HOTMAIL / OUTLOOK.COM mail. You can successfully logon, because your password is correct.
2. Go to your Account, Overview, then Security Settings
3. Scroll down the page to find the section "App Passwords"
4. Click on the click "Create a new App Password"
5. Copy the App Password and paste it on your Email Client (like Windows Live Mail or Outlook) when it prompts for a password. IT SHOULD BE THE APPS PASSWORD, NOT THE PASSWORD YOU YOURSELF MADE.

Sorry, life is getting complicated!!

SOLVED! Thunderbird Portable Takes Extremely Long to Load or Cannot Load

A friend has a copy of Thunderbird Portable installed on his computer for checking emails. After a month's using, it's getting unstable and suddenly one day it stops loading. He called me for help and here're some findings, then a possible FIX for you..., besides an overview of my troubleshooting steps.

The first thing I check, Task Manager, I see one instance of "thunderbirdportable.exe", but two instances of "thunderbird.exe". Obviously, these are from previous freeze, and he double clicked on the Thunderbird icon again. Stopping all these tasks won't help.

Then, I used PROCMON.exe (from Microsoft) to monitor what the thunderbird.exe is actually doing, and it seems that it's doing nothing...or maybe waiting, or even it's hanged...

I copied the whole Thunderbird folder (because it's a portable version) to my PC and started it. It started perfectly fine! Well, this is something related to the "SYSTEM" of his computer, not just with the Thunderbird...

I started to suspect the way Thunderbird is working, TEMP FILES!!! I checked and found out that there're 4,000+ temporary files in the temporary folder "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp", which is also the folder that Thunderbird is storing some temporary files*. Most of the temporary files in this folder reported 0KB in file size.

SOLUTION: Delete temporary files from the folder "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp". Then, restart Thunderbird again. Or, reboot and start Thunderbird. (if you do not know how to End Task of all Thunderbird processes)

*Notes: When Thunderbird starts, a temporary folder is being created in the user's TEMP folder, you may identify this folder by looking for a file with name "splash.jpg" inside the folder.

SOLVED! - Cannot Connect to Local Drive on Terminal Server Session

Copying a remote desktop profile file (.RDP) from one PC to another, may not have the local drives available. The reason is strange enough - Microsoft's .RDP file will even recognize your drive "label". By default, if you haven't set a drive label for your local drive, the display name is "Local Disk". However, problem arises if for example you've set your D: labeled as "Data".

Now, you create a .RDP file and copy this file to another PC, with its local D: having no drive label. A user using your given .RDF to connect terminal will lost his local D:, even though both are connecting to the same terminal server using the same .RDP file with the local resource D: checked.

Solution? Standardize your local drive labels, either leave it blank, or set to the same name. Then, when you want to deploy your .RDP file to all your users, the drive label will always match.

For your interest, a .RDP file is JUST A TEXT FILE!! Open it with your notepad and have a look what's actually happening when you save your remote desktop settings to a .RDP file.

Your start to understand what I want to say... Microsoft...

SOVLED! - Missing "Search Programs and Files" in Windows 7

A very convenient way to start a program and search for files in Windows 7 is by using the "Search programs and files", by clicking on the Windows button (bottom left corner).

In some installations, this valuable feature is gone. To bring it back, do this:

1. Go to Control Panel, Programs and Features
2. Left hand side, click on Turn Windows features on or off
3. From the Windows Feature list, check "Windows Search", press OK.
4. Reboot your computer and the feature is back.

Notes & Tips - Search programs and files
By typing the program or key word, you can quickly access to many important programs, features and tools of Windows. Common programs key word like "command", "management", "manager", "information", "log", etc. are command keywords that many network administrators will use.

Another great use is that when the program is shown on list, you can HOLD Shift + right click on the item to run the program as a different user.

Some programs are not so easy to access without the help of the "Search programs and files", such as the Snipping Tool and Credential Manager. If you type "environment" as the search word, Windows will give you choice of accessing two sets of environment variables.

SOLVED! Outlook Sent Emails Go To Wrong Sent Items Tray

It's very common that an Outlook user will have several email accounts, some of these accounts are shared with work colleagues. When the user sending an email in behalf of a group, team, or department, he will want to have the Sent copy falls into the Sent Items tray under the related account, but not his personal Sent Items tray.

However, for some "unknown" reasons, sometimes users find mails like these will drop into their own Sent Items. That means, your work colleagues sharing the email account will not be able to keep track of these "Sent Out" emails.

To resolve the problem, try this:

• Set the DWORD value of the following registry key to 1:

Outlook 2007   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Preferences\DelegateSentItemsStyle

Outlook 2010   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Preferences\DelegateSentItemsStyle

Close your Outlook and start again. It suppose to be a known issue of Outlook 2007, but sadly carries on unresolved to Outlook 2010.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972148/en-us

SOLVED! HOW TO - Silent Install and Uninstall Google Pinyin

If you know how to type Chinese characters, Google Pinyin Chinese Input Method shouldn't be something new to you.

For network administrator though, a headache is how to deploy such a good Chinese input method to users. Here're the steps & tips on how to silent install and silent uninstall Google Pinyin.

To silent install:

• Download the install executable file from there: http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/pinyin/
• Save the file to a network share. 
• Create a batch file to silent install. It could be a very simple command like

          \\server\share\GooglePinyinInstaller.exe /s

• Include this in the login script for your network users, or simply send a shortcut of that batch to your users by email

To silent uninstall:

• Look for the uninstaller file at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Pinyin 2\GooglePinyinUninstaller.exe" for 64-bit Windows or just "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Pinyin 2\GooglePinyinUninstaller.exe" for 32-bit Windows
• Just copy this file to your network share
• Similar to silent install, make a batch statement, which looks like this

          \\server\share\GooglePinyinUnInstaller.exe /s

• Include this in the login script for your network users, or simply send a shortcut of that batch to your users by email

SOLVED! - System Error 2221 has occurred

For some reason, a user suddenly cannot use the "NET USE" command to map network drives. Windows logon is working, but accessing network shares become very strange, with "System Error 2221 has occurred" message. This probably is a stored credential problem.

SOLUTION: Press your Windows' Start / Launch, in "Search programs and files" field type "Credential Manager" and you should see it shows up on the list. Run it.

Check the stored credentials and remove related credentials, by click on the "Remove from vault". Now, try your NET USE command to map drives again.

HOW TO - Install Logitech Mouse Driver

First, you need to know the Logitech mouse driver is actually called SetPoint. At the time of writing, SetPoint has its latest version 6.32, both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are available:

For 32 bit system:

• http://www.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/mouse/setpoint632.exe

For 64 bit system:

• http://www.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/mouse/setpoint632_x64.exe

Other versions of SetPoint can also be found from Logitech's FTP site:

• ftp://ftp.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/mouse/

The default download from Logitech's support is their SetPoint Smart version, which will connect to their website for online updates. SetPoint Smart is not a full install package, but depends on additional components downloading from the Internet. For network administrator, this could cause problems because very likely your intranet is somehow connect to the Internet through a proxy. So, likely you will use the above shortcuts to download the full version and disable the online update during installation setup wizard.

SOLVED! - High CPU Usage of Microsoft Security Essentials

I've at least two laptops, after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, the CPU usage jumps up. Stopping or uninstalling it resolved the problem, which isolated the source to be Microsoft Security Essentials itself. After some research, this works for me as a workaround this problem.

1. Run Task Manager, find the process with high CPU usage. (Sorting by CPU may help you find it)
2. Likely you will find "MsMpEng.exe" has taken much of your CPU time
3. Now go to  your Microsoft Security Essentials, click on the "Settings" tab. Select "Excluded files and locations"
4. Browse to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\MsMpEng.exe", Ok and press Add button to add the file to your list of excluded files and locations. Press Save changes button.

Same method applies to other trusted files. You should see the CPU usage drops down dramatically.

SOLVED - Cannot Browse or Ping to Microsoft.com

A friend's XP laptop has this very strange behavior:

• all other websites work properly, EXCEPT Microsoft.com and other antivirus vendor sites such as Trend Micro, Symantec, etc. Other websites like yahoo.com works perfectly fine
• PING Microsoft.com cannot resolve, saying "Ping request could not find host microsoft.com..."; but, NSLOOK Microsoft.com resolves IP address
• using virus removal tools, virus scan FOUND NOTHING
• HOSTS file checked ok
• TCP/IP settings good
• tried repaired WINSOCK, no help

Of course, just the point #1 above already made me feel for sure this is VIRUS INFECTION. But, it didn't leave any trace of malicious codes or signature. So, an important setting has been modified.

After hours of work, this is what I found, which solved my problem: DNS Client service. Stop it.

1. Right click on My Computer, select Manage
2. Under Services and Applications, click on Services
3. On the list, look for the service DNS Client; right click on it and choose Stop

*You may also find the Automatic Updates service not working properly. Try Restart this service.

Now, you should have your Microsoft.com back, as well as other security websites. Time to do your Windows Update, download an antivirus software, get it updates, etc.

Notes: For security-serious users, there's only one thing they will do for a compromised computer, FORMAT AND REINSTALL.

What is DNS Client - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc735833(v=ws.10).aspx
The DNS Client service is the client component that resolves and caches Domain Name System (DNS) domain names. When the DNS Client service receives a request to resolve a DNS name that it does not contain in its cache, it queries an assigned DNS server for an IP address for the name. If the DNS Client service receives the requested address, it stores the name and address in its cache to resolve future requests without having to query the DNS server. All computers that use DNS to resolve domain names (including DNS servers and domain controllers) use the DNS Client service for this purpose.

TIPS - IRQ not less or equal blue screen

This Windows blue screen message sometimes appears after plug in new hardware to a PC system. To troubleshoot this problem, you may follow these steps:

• Unplug the new piece of hardware, is the message no more?
• Do not assume your new hardware is bad. It may be your power supply unit (PSU) is not stable, or not giving enough power to the added hardware power consumption. Get another better PSU and try
• Sometimes, bad memory (RAM) could be a problem, especially when you didn't add any new hardware recently. And, your system suddenly start to show such a blue screen. Do a memory test. Many will recommend you to use http://www.memtest.org/. Another simple way is, if your BIOS setup has memory test function, it could save you some time.

For a laptop, it may not be so easy to change the power supply unit. Then, try to disable some built-in functions like fingerprint, light sensor, 1394 port, modem, etc. of your laptop through the BIOS setup.