“Install update and shut down”

The choice of “Install update and shut down” come by itself when you click shut down. If you don’t take an attention, then the update would go on without your conciousness. And suddenly the unwanted update, such as WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) tool is already in your computer.

Or, you might find this one while doing shut down:

This is the way to avoid this annoying behaviour:

1. Start -> Run, then type : gpedit.msc
2. A window of “Group Policy” will come out.
3. Go to Administrative Settings -> Windows Component -> Windows Update
4. Select “Windows Update”, then you will find a component named : “Do not display “Install Updates and Shut Down” option in Shut Down Windows dialog box”; double click it, then check the button of “enabled”
5. That’s all.

WGA attempts to install every start up

Seems the update file had been downloaded (unitentionally), so that every time I start up the computer, it tried to install. It hadn’t been yet installed, so I couldn’t find any file of WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) in the folder of Program File.

The installer file is in C:\documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Windows Genuine Advantage\data

I delete the folder of “Windows Genuine Advantage” and all inside of it. Then the annoying stopped.

Note: The folder is hidden, so you have to make it visible. Go to Windows Explorer -> Tools ->Folder Option ->  Views -> uncheck the box like in the image below:

Update your video driver for Photoshop tumbnail problem

I have used Photoshop CS3 in my computer for long time enough and I never had problem.
I don’t know when and how it started, suddenly the tumbnail of style, gradients, even in the layer panel, are not correct.
If I work on a file, seems the view is not refreshed smoothly.
I put sample of how the tumbnail icons looks like.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled without luck.

I could not remember, what was just changed when it started happened. Until, I got the answer that it is a problem of Open GL and I solved the problem by updating my Video Card Driver. Yes, I newly changed the video card.

Manage the content of Control Panel

If we open the “Control Panel”, we would find icons present what are called “shell objects”. It is not a shortcut, but a shell object. If you put your mouse on it and right click, it will show only two option: Open and Create Shortcut.

Often we don’t need some of them, just because we don’t need it. Or, it is an unexpected one – for example we have deleted the program but the icon stays.

When you open Control Panel, it gathers :

1. namespace items : registered in HKLM (or HKCU)\ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ ControlPanel \ NameSpace
2. .CPL files present in Windows\System32 folder and
3. .CPL in other locations as registered in the Windows registry : HKLM(or HKCU) \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Control Panel \ Cpls

If you don’t need or don’t like an item in your Control Panel, you can hide it, or delete it.  For normal case, I suggest you for only hiding it – we call it “unload” it. For unexpected items, you’d have to delete it.

First of all, you have to know the .CPL file correlated with the item you want to manage, do it by this way:

• Right click the icon in Control Panel, click “Create Shortcut” – create it in the desktop.
• Find the shortcut in the desktop, right click it and click “Properties”
• In the properties dialog box, click “Change Icon”, find the .cpl file in the “Change Icon” dialog box.
• If the dialog box doesn’t show the .cpl file, then run “Note Pad’, then click open file : browse the shortcut in your desktop folder.
• Find the .cpl file in the NotePad text.

How to hide or unload an item in Control Panel :

• Start -> Run -> Regedit
• Go to HKCR\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Control Panel\don’t load. If none, create a new one.
• Create a new string under that subkey, named it with the .cpl file’s name and set its value to “NO”

How to delete an unexpected item in Control Panel :

• Look for the .cpl file, usually in C:\Windows\System32 folder, then delete it.

Background music in Power point presentation doesn’t sound.

It is an PPT 2003 file. The music is set as background, means not embeded. The audio system in the PC is okay, means the sound comes for windows start up etc. It has Windows 2000 with Windows Media Player (WMP) 6; When I open the PPT file, the sound doesn’t come out.

The solution is update to WMP 9, and everything will be okay.