Sidebars and Gadgets Explained

Understanding the Windows Vista Sidebar

A little while ago, Rick Robinette posted a great article on his site, What's On My PC..., that I think some of my readers will appreciate. It is sort of an 'ABC's In A Nutshell' about Vista's (and Windows 7) sidebar and desktop gadgets. Here's an excerpt--

"If you are a Vista user and you do not know what the sidebar is, it is an area, usually inhabiting the right edge of your desktop that contains gadgets (such as a clock, picture viewer, calendar, etc…).  What most people do not know is that you can install, add and remove gadgets from the sidebar and you can also drag gadgets from the sidebar and place them anywhere on your desktop; thus, making the sidebar an useful feature.

To assist you with Understanding the Sidebar
I have compiled the following, easy-to-follow tutorial.."

To visit his site and read the article, please click here. These gadgets are fun and informative, and I think you'll be glad you did. (I was going to discuss this in my next A Tech's First Impression of Windows 7 article, but he's done a much better job than I would have.)

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Stop Error Solution #8 - SigVerif

Vista Stop Error: "A recent hardware changes, or unsigned driver, has prevented Windows from loading.."

The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is an error screen displayed by  Microsoft Windows after encountering a critical system error which can cause the system to shut down to prevent damage. (They are not always blue anymore - sometimes you see a black screen, saying only "Stop: 0x000000F1", or some other similar, 'helpful' hexadecimal string - but they are still called "bluescreens".)

Bluescreen (Stop errors) on NT-based Windows systems are usually caused by poorly-written device drivers or malfunctioning hardware. Way back when dinosaurs roamed, in the Win9x era, incompatible DLLs or bugs in the kernel of the operating system could also cause BSOD's. (There are different types and causes of stop errors, a good summary can be seen here.)
With Vista, it can happen when an unsigned device driver is found.

Microsoft got a a little tired, I guess, of taking the rap for the poorly written, and often amateur, device driver-caused BSOD's. (People tend to blame Windows for the crash..) And so they, over the years, have tried various ways to get the hardware vendors to write and release good driver software, and rewarding those that did with the coveted Microsoft Compatible seal of approval (usually a logo on the box), and placement on the WHQL (Windows Hardware Compatibility List). But.. hardware vendors build, box, and ship, devices, not program code, or study all the minutia of the OS kernel.

Digital "signatures" (in this instance) are one way to determine if the driver was written by the kid down the street. When a driver has been tested and approved in Microsoft's own labs, it gets a super-special digital certificate. And with Vista, you pretty much gotta have that driver, or expect stop errors. These Microsoft-signed drivers are available through Windows Update, and the "Update driver" feature (a subset of "Add new hardware").

(For more on troubleshooting and/or installing device drivers, see my Plug and Play series.)

Tip of the day: In Windows XP and Vista there is a utility that you can use to scan your all your installed drivers. It will report any it finds that don't have a "signature". This is a great way to 'zero in' on the (possible) cause of the Stop error.

Use the Sigverif.exe tool to identify unsigned device drivers installed on your Windows XP/Vista computer. To use the tool, perform the following steps:

1) Open Start menu, select Run, type Sigverif and then click OK.

The File Signature Verification tool will open. Click "Start".

The scan will run, and hopefully produce the following result...

But if it finds anything, it will produce a list of funny-named files... like "msndis5.sys" which are your unsigned drivers (or, they're signed.. but not Microsoft super-specially signed). Hopefully it will be a list of one.

2) Use your favorite search engine to find out what the funny-looking driver belongs to. (In my example, it turns out that msndis5.sys is a part of NetStumbler - a very popular wireless "hotspot" locator.) Now you will know which device, or program, needs your attention to cure the BSOD.

3) Remove the offensive device driver.
There's options to how you go about this. In the case of my example, it is a program. So, I can uninstall the program, or look for a newer version (update) of the program.
If it were a device, I would go into Device Manager (see, If It Ain't Broke - Don't Fix It), select the device in question and try:
* "Update driver. If that says 'no dice' ("The best software is already.."),
* "Rollback driver". If that is not available, or fails to stop the Stop errors,
* "Uninstall", then reboot. Windows will reinstall the device, and it will grab the driver from the WHQL.

Hopefully, this will resolve your issues. If not, you should start looking at your hardware itself. I've run long, so..

Today's free download: Google Calendar Sync.
For anyone who relies on a digital calendar to keep them on track, Google Calendar Sync is a must-have application. The free download isn't fancy or even pretty--a simple log-in and options list comprises the system tray icon. However, the meat of the application is what it can do, which is flawlessly add details of Outlook calendar items to Google's Calendar, and vice versa.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Vista's Photo Gallery Feature

Quick & Easy Photo Editing Tool Also A Free Download

Do you like one-click simple? Do you like free? Are you tired of Mac fanatics smugly telling you how great iLife is? Do you ever e-mail photos, and need to do a little touching-up (cropping, maybe) first?

If you answered "yes" to one of these questions, you might find the "Media Center" program Photo Gallery to be just the ticket, and if you have a Vista machine or XP Media Center Edition, you already have this neat little app at the click of your Start button -- it's built-in.
(I use the crop, and 1-click red-eye removal the most..)

• Enhance your photos

  Enhance your photos by adjusting things like color and exposure. Improve your photos with simple crop and red-eye fixes. Create a panoramic view by combining multiple photos. Capture the moment by adding captions.

• Easily share your photos

  The "Publish" button makes it simple to share your photos and videos online. Or you can easily e-mail as many photos as you’d like to friends and family. You can also display your photos with cool screensavers and slideshows.

• Quickly find and organize your photos and videos

  Import your photos from your digital camera; the Windows Live Photo Gallery will automatically organize them based on date and time. Keep your images organized by name, date, rating, and type. Locate similar photos with tags you add.

• Download photo albums

  Photo Gallery allows you to download entire albums from Windows Live Spaces at high resolution.

If you aren't using one of those two OS's, you can download the program. It is one part of Microsoft's line of "Live" services. I wrote about Microsoft "Live" previously, to read that article click here. Also, if you're curious about what else is offered (free) as part of "Live", please read fellow Tech blogger Rick Robinette's vignette, Windows Live…

This screenshot shows the photo editing mode. You can see that there's a 1-click "auto-adjust", and a 1-click red-eye removal, as well as a 1-click Undo. There are more 'advanced' color and contrast adjustments as well.
The bottom controls are for the built-in slideshow feature.

This program is one of the 'enhancements' in Vista that most everyone can appreciate and make use of. And, I think that it's fairly decent of Microsoft to make it freely available for download.

Today's free download: Windows Photo Gallery. Simplify the way you work with photos.  Windows Live Photo Gallery makes it easy to import, organize, edit, and share your digital memories.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Enable Shadow Copy On Home Editions / XP

From time to time Vista creates ’snapshot’ copies of your files with a service called “Shadow Copy”.  This allows you to retrieve older versions of files you accidentally delete or alter.

To go back to a prior version of your file/document, you simply right-click on the file and select “Restore previous versions”, which can get you out of some nasty jams. (For more on recovering deleted files, click here.)

Shadow Copy is enabled on all versions  of Vista, but Microsoft grants user access to these copies only in the Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise editions. (Clearly as a method to try to sell more copies of the pricier Ultimate Edition.)

Tip of the day: Users of the “Home” editions of Vista can use Shadow Copy too.
The odds are pretty good that if you bought a new computer, and it came with Vista, it came with Vista Home Premium. I say that because if you walk into a store selling computers, I dare you to find the one that has Ultimate Edition on it. It seems to me that they all come with Home Premium!

Remember how I said Shadow Copy was “enabled” on all versions? Yes? Well, for owners of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic, the service is running, but you need a way to “interface” with it (sometimes called a “front end”). To do that, download and install ShadowExplorer, and gain some of Ultimate Edition’s functionality. This cool piece of software is free, but donations are accepted.

Today’s free link: People who are using Windows 2000 or XP can get an almost identical file functionality with FileHamster from Mogware. This program is designed for people whose talents lie in the Creative Arts, so you don’t ave to be a geek to use it. There’s helpful user forums, too.

Please note: This ability is by no means a substitute for regular system backups. This is for small “oopsies”, not recovery/restoration.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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