Some spyware may create a desktop background to replace your own.  After doing this, I’ve seen the display properties tabs for modifying the screensaver and wallpaper disappear to prevent the user from getting rid of the malicious wallpaper.  To bring these tabs back, navigate to the following Registry string:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Here, you will find the keys responsible.  They are:

NoDispBackgroundPage
NoDispAppearancePage

These will likely be set to 1.  Set them to 0 or delete them to get your tabs back. 

When troubleshooting a computer that beeps when trying to start the computer, usually referring to the motherboard manual or OEM User manual is the quickest way to find out what is causing the computer from not booting. Here is a couple of links to motherboard and OEM beep codes.

Tech Republic - Beep codes for desktops

http://www.bill-cash.com/bios_beep_codes.htm

This link provides helpful registry scripts to repair windows file associations:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

A client of mine recently had 2 CDRom drives that weren’t showing in My Computer. In the device manager, they showed up with exclamation points. Double-clicking them told me that the driver was installed properly but:

“Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)”

After some research, the solution I found was to remove the LowFilter and UpperFilter entries from this registry area:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Note that you may have several identical keys like this (4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318). The one you are looking for will list DVD/CD Rom Drives as the very first entry.

Reboot after making changes.

I recently came across an issue on a client PC where i could not set a printer to be the default.  When I right-clicked the printer and chose the “Set as Default Printer” option, absolutely nothing happened.  After researching the issue, I was able to manually make the printer the default by adding the following registry key:

Name: Device
Type: Reg_SZ (String Value)
Value: “printername, winspool, portname”
Location: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\

 In my case, the Windows key didnt exist under CurrentVersion and had to be created.

In Vista, I have seen my network and sound icons disappear from the notification area quite often.  Microsoft KB article 945011 explains why and how to workaround the issue.  Unfortunately, this isnt a permanent fix and they still seem to disappear occasionally.  I have created a batch file to do the work for you so that you can run it often if need be.  Take the following text, paste it into a text file and then save it as restore_icons.bat or something similar (must end in .bat).  Run it to restore your icons.

 NOTE! This blog breaks up the first two lines at the first space.  Make sure you piece the code back together as it should be.

reg delete “HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify” /v IconStreams /f

The Microsoft Performance Team posted a great article on how to troubleshoot svchost.exe, here is the link

 http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/01/11/getting-started-with-svchost-exe-troubleshooting.aspx

The part of the registry where the services load into the generic process is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost

With Windows XP there isn’t a native way to manage power settings via a group policy setting. With Vista and Longhorn server this is now managable. Here is a link to the Energy Star website for a downloadable tool with an .adm file and a client application.

 http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_pm_ez_gpo

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/041105-windows-crash.html?page=1

This primer will show you how to solve problems quickly. Using a tool that costs nothing, you can solve approximately 50% of Windows server and workstation crashes in a few minutes. The tool is WinDbg , the free Windows debugger.

When you attempt to install updates using the Windows Update Web site, you receive an error similar to:

Error number:0×80245003. Windows Update has encountered an error and cannot display the requested page.

This behavior occurs because the redirector identification number of the downloaded Wuredir.cab file is lower than the redirector identification number of the %SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution\Wuredir.cab file.

To workaround this issue:

1. Open a CMD.EXE window.

2. Type net stop wuauserv and press Enter.

3. Type rmdir /s /q %windir%\softwaredistribution\wuredir and press Enter.

4. Type net start wuauserv and press Enter.

Try using the Windows Update Web site to install updates.