Software Workarounds

Microsoft Windows Vista RTM Annoyances

Flaw	Workaround	Fixed
Multi selection of files not working in Explorer	Technet Forum	No
Windows Vista Activation: "An error has occurred"	Microsoft	?
Can't delete XP System Restore Points	TechRepublic	No

Vista Slow at Copying Files

This bug is really annoying and after SP1 there is still no solution on the horizon. On some systems Vista is terribly slow at copying files. Chipset/Driver/USB issues? For some people things are getting faster as soon as the Remote Differential Compression Service is turned off - but not for me, only slightly. Unplugging all USB devices speed up file transfers - but still, very slow. Hotfixes and turning off OneCare or the Windows Search Service didn't help either. Various software applications seem to have file access/throughput issues as well. Sony Vegas Pro f.i. can't produce any full resolution live preview, loading videos into WMP takes a while, ...

Read: Microsoft TechNetNeowin Forum, Australian Forum, Johnnypez Blog, Engadget

Vista's Print Jobs Stuck in the Queue

It happens regularly that print jobs stuck in Vista's print queue. In order to avoid a system reboot, I came up with a solution original posted by the ultimate geek girl.

I've written a batch file for an easy one click solution. Just download this batch file and launch it every time you have to force delete print jobs (you have to run it as administrator, UAC turned off).

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Annoyances

Flaw	Workaround	Fixed
Grant or deny this application permission to use this key	Lockergnome	No

The good news: IMAP support is improved, the bad news: not enough. New: RFC 3501 compatible, background synchronizing, purge on switch, sent items IMAP folders support, unicode PST (>2 GB accounts), search folders, security improvements.

IMAP Purge on Switch Feature in Outlook 2007 Comes with a Bug

When the 'purge on switch' feature is set, only tray alerts are working correctly. With multiple accounts, you can't tell which inbox have received new items (no bold inboxes and counters anymore). You have to switch to the different inboxes manually, to see if new mail was received. Back to normal mode (without the purge on switch) everything is working fine again.

IMAP Feature Restrictions

The only way to "convert" your current IMAP ANSI PST from a previous Outlook installation to Unicode is to delete all IMAP accounts and let Outlook recreate them as Unicode PST. You need this step for a complete advanced sort and search functionality as well as for larger accounts. In Outlook 2003, IMAP items could be assigned multiple different flags similar to any other email item in Outlook. This has been changed in 2007 to only allow IMAP items to have a flag or no flag (flag can only be on or off). The new to-do assignment flags are only available for Exchange and POP3 accounts. In addition, officially, IMAP items in Outlook 2007 cannot be assigned the new color categories.

The trick here: to assign color categories for IMAP items anyway, you can use Shortcut Keys.

Microsoft Office 2007 Annoyances

Crossgrade from Office 2007 Standard Trial to f.i. Office 2007 Professional Plus without Uninstall HowTo

If you've installed a Trial Version of Office 2007 and a Product License Key is purchased afterwards, which doesn't match with the Edition already installed (f.i. the Standard Trial is installed, and you purchased a Professional License or vice versa), you normally have to uninstall the trial version before installing the new genuine.

I found a solution: follow this guide to reset your current Microsoft Office 2007 Product License Key. When prompted, type in your new purchased genuine product key. Now install/add additional features through the setup process of your purchased DVD. Finally, you can open the Registry Editor again and delete the tree with the old trial "ProductName" entries. Note: These steps involve modification of registry key values, which may corrupt your Windows if done incorrectly. Backup registry and your system first before performing the workaround.

Apple iTunes for Windows Annoyances

"Please wait while Windows configures iTunes" on every startup

You can fix this and also the necessary Quicktime components with my new patch (Sep 2008). Just proceed with the following steps for Quicktime. The download of reset.cmd was updated and now fixes iTunes as well. Quicktime and iTunes have both to be installed before starting with this procedure.

Apple Quicktime 7.x Annoyances

"Error 46: Could not find or load activex control"

Quicktime 7.x installed under Windows XP (admin account). It worked, installing updates, too. After upgrading the system (no clean install) to Windows Vista Business (same admin account/UAC off) Quicktime still worked. Hoped to fix some smaller issues with the newest Quicktime 7.1.5 Update.

BOOM!The Application didn't start any longer. Giving an error message saying "Error 46: Could not find or load activex control" (only the browser plugin worked fine). Uninstalling/Reinstalling didn't help. Apple's installation package installs Quicktime in such a way that it only functions at all under the actual account you were logged into when you installed it. The Upgrade from XP to Vista with the new User Account Control (even when turned off) messed up things here, the problem: you can't even correctly uninstall Quicktime in this state. (Update Jul 2008: Since the first Vista-capable release 7.2 of Quicktime, a fresh install on Vista should work smoothly. But once you've 'infected' your registry with an older version of QT that's not Vista compatible, then all subsequent installs will give you the Error 46.) A similar problem is described here. But the fixes didn't work for Vista. But based on Bazm's post there, I came up with the following solution for Vista to reset necessary registry key permissions:

The solution: There is an old NT utility called SubInAcl.exe that can be used to reset permissions in Windows XP and also in Vista.

Step 1:	Vista's User Account Control (UAC) must be disabled for these steps to work (Control Panel -> Turn User Account Control Off). You may enable UAC back on after these steps. And you should run this as admin.
Step 2:	Download subinacl.msi from Microsoft and install it.
Step 3:	Download my modified version of reset.cmd from here and save the file in 'C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools'. for Vista 64-bit: to 'C:\Program Files (X86)\Windows Resource Kits\Tools'
Step 4:	Open Command Prompt (press the Windows Start button and type CMD) and type the following without quotes (hit Enter): 'cd c:\program files\windows resource kits\tools' for Vista 64-bit: 'cd c:\program files (X86)\windows resource kits\tools'
Step 5:	Now type 'reset.cmd' and hit Enter (without quotes) You will see the Command Line Tool running for some seconds. The issue should have been fixed and Quicktime should run again.

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