Posts

Best Replacement for Missing Start Menu in Windows 8 & 8.1

Windows 8 took away something useful we've been using since the mid 1990's (in Windows 95 & NT 4).  In unrelated news , Steve Ballmer has been fired .  But still--we have to live with the abomination which is Windows 8.  If you have a touch screen, it's somewhat usable.  But if you just have a pointing device, i.e. mouse, touchpad, pointing stick, etc.; tough. This is crap. The Windows 8.1 upgrade/update/patch/lipstick-on-a-pig gives us back a start button without the start menu (more crap), and the option to boot to the desktop, rather than the Metro interface or whatever they're calling it this week.  Crap-crap-crap. Yours truly has been using and customizing the Start Menu for years.  The classic Start Menu (an option in XP & Vista, but taken away in Windows 7) allowed quick access to additional icons, e.g. a new shortcut on the classic start menu in XP named "Word" meant two keystrokes opened Word--tapping the Windows key (on a 'Win...

Windows Update 0x8024D001 fixed

Unbelievable . A Google search for this returns lots of hits, however the variety of solutions seem to have mixed results. This happened to me most recently in a shiny new Windows XP SP3 Pro virtual machine in VMware Workstation 9.x.  The only item installed was, as many might expect, VMware tools. I am a fan of stopping the windows update service, deleting the c:\windows\softwareupdates folder, and then starting the windows update service.  Does that fix this?  Of course not.  (Actually, my usual screw-up is the clock being horribly off....) I installed Chrome and MBSA 2.2.  MBSA threw an error.  Chrome worked like a charm. Ultimately this forum , this KB article , and THIS DOWNLOAD FIXED IT .  Many reboots. Yes, XP is going EOL very soon. You know what, that Mac Airbook with the ridiculously short screen (both models) is starting to look pretty good.  (I really miss those 4:3 monitors.  Stinking display manufacturers...). T...

Endless Loop: whoa google chrome has crashed relaunch now?

This reminds me why I switched to Firefox in the first place years ago.  Oi. Isn't it lame when a Google search for what appears to be a commonly-experienced problem does not have a solution which readily presents itself? A search for "whoa google chrome has crashed loop" (or etc.) brings up a variety of results in the Google Product Forums--and kudos to all the good people that took the time to post, and repost, and follow-up, and try to help & collaborate.  Regrettably, I couldn't find something that worked for me. This page says to visit this page , and if that doesn't work... create a new user profile .  Wait, what?  Create a new Windows user profile?  Madness!  Mercifully no, the page is titled "Create a new browser user profile".  Sheesh. While searching to see if Chrome writes a log someplace, one nice person's article ultimately led me to stumble across the solution. Here's what I found that works.  Obvious disclaimer: us...

The .GDOC extension is little more than a URL

For anyone backing up their Google Drive files, there's good news and bad news.  Legitimate file types such as .doc or .docx (Microsoft Word) files should be fine.  However, if you're backing up those .gdoc filetypes, don't hold your breath.  If you have deleted a .gdoc file within Google Drive and emptied the Google Drive Trash, that's it .  Nothing but a warrantless wiretap from the FBI will get it back, and even then, notsomuch for you and I. More from Google Drive 'help,' such as it is.  One more shortcoming of Google Drive: the file extensions are misleading.  This is crap ! " Anything that has been permanently deleted from Google Drive by the owner, or if the owner's account was deleted, can't be recovered . " If anyone has any suggestions for backing up the .GDOC files, the actual files,  such that they can be restored later, please post in the comments.

BSOD results in SQLite, Google Drive failure

I am losing count, having just recovered from the third or fourth Google Drive failure in a month across two PC's.  This latest followed an unexpected shutdown, (a BSOD of an as yet unknown nature), which left a SQLite database in an unusable state: Google Drive needs to be closed. ...unknown error occurred and Google Drive needs to be closed. Error: database disk image is malformed If you continue to see this error, try to disassociate your account [*sigh*] One Google (overlord) Groups thread from 2012 suggests using other services. e.g. EverNote, DropBox, and even (gasp!) Microsoft SkyDrive-- Really ? (Lord) Google searches revealed that virtually anyone with some SQL skills might be able to recover from this.  I am not a DBA.  Having some very skilled DBA's at work has resulted in my leaving that skillset wanting.... Folks working in I.T. and/or with related skills can generally deal with and recover from interruptions/failures like these one way or anothe...

Fix Google Drive Primary Key Must Be Unique Error

Huge, huge props to the person that posted this information .  What a lifesaver, since our Google Overlords have been merciful and gracious absolutely useless in responding to this problem.  What a bunch of drones!  Anyhow, here's the fix that worked for me (thanks to Guru ). Start Google Drive Hold the SHIFT key down and click the Google Drive systray icon, which will show the 'Enable diagnostic mode' special menu. Click ' Enable diagnostic mode' menu. Wait until Google Drive crashes and shows the "primary key must be unique" error message. Let the application shutdown. Go to "c:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Drive" folder and open " sync_log.log ".  (If it opens slowly with Windows Notepad, I recommend using Notepad++ instead) Search /find (CTRL + F) for this text: " Detected conflict while trying to download file to". After 'to' is the file name associated with the conflict. Rename it. Do this for...

Farewell Google Reader, You'll be Missed

No!   Not Google Reader!  Have Mercy! So apparently our Google Overlords, in near-violation of their "Do No Evil " policy, er guideline rubbish mantra have decided to dump a truly useful tool , not far on the heels of dumping Google Labs, which was (from my limited perspective) a mistake. Google News (this is a bad   trend , [my/our over-reliance on Google services]) is reporting that people are flocking in droves of cliche's :) to Feedly --and the good people at Feedly are increasing their infrastructure and welcoming us with open arms.  ( Widely   reported in   the news ). If Feedly offered a premium service that costed a couple of bucks, it would be worth every cent, much like EverNote and Pandora. Would you pay a small fee for a service like Feedly, e.g. advertisement-free, etc.? Google, you guys & gals are seriously screwing up.  (...As I type this on their free blog service).