OzCableguy

Another fun XP issue that came up for me recently is the error message in the subject whenever I attempted to delete anything from C:\. Interestingly, deleting anything from D:\ worked fine. Apparently this problem can come up from time to time with partitioned hard drives.

There’s a few possible solutions:

1. The Microsoft Knowledge Base article. This one basically tells you it’s a known bug in the original XP release and was fixed in the latest service pack. There is a hotfix available if you’re unable to install the service pack for whatever reason but the hotfix won’t install if you do have the service packs already installed. No solution is mentioned if you do have Windows XP patched and up to date and still get this error (which is what happened to me) but one thing you can try is to download the full SP3 installation package and re-install SP3.

2. If the Microsoft suggestions above fail, try the patch from Kelly’s Korner. (Go to line 64 and across in the right-hand column download “Replace/Repair the Recycle Bin in Windows XP”. It’s a registry patch that will basically delete and re-create the Recycle Bin. Run it and reboot and you should be laughing.
Sadly I wasn’t quite laughing at this point. I was no longer getting the Recycle Bin corrupted message but instead files were now deleting in full without going to the Recycle Bin so something still wasn’t right.

3. What worked eventually for me was this solution from rossfingal at experts-exchange.com.

Open a command prompt (Start > Run > type cmd >OK)At the prompt type and enter:rd /s c:\recycled
(This is if your file system is FAT32)Or:rd /s c:\

recycler
(This is if your file system is NTFS)Then reboot.I believe this may possibly do the same thing as the Kellys Korner reg patch but I’ll mention it because it’s something I did just prior to it coming back to life again for me. (Bear in mind this command deletes the Recycle Bin so that Windows is forced to create a new one automagically).

The other thing I did after this was to right click on Recycle Bin, select Properties and go to the Global tab. Un-tick “Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted.”
Reboot.
Re-tick “Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted.”

4. There’s also several viruses and spyware/adwares out there that can cause this problem as well so run your favourite adware &/or virus remover and try the suggestions above again if you still have no success.

One thing that always bugs me with a clean install of Excel is that it doesn’t seem to want to save any custom buttons I create. Also, the stupid auto-hyperlinking feature (turned off in Tools > AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat as you Type tab) won’t stay turned off. The next time I start Excel, the damn hyperlinking thing is back on and my custom buttons have vanished.

A technique to make this problem go away (found in the officeformac.com forums) is once you’ve changed the settings and re-created any custom buttons etc, open a new sheet and save it as a template in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP. (This folder may be in a slightly different location depending on your version of Office).

Also, if you use the MROUND function you’ll first need to go to Tools > Add-Ins and make sure Analysis ToolPak is selected.

When reinstalling iTunes on a formatted or new PC you naturally want to bring across all of the old library data as well as playlists and so on. If you’re like me and don’t allow iTunes to keep your music folder organised then there’s an easy way to do this.

First, on the old PC open iTunes and go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab and find the iTunes Music folder location. The default location is Drive:\My Documents\My Music
Go to that folder and find the folder called iTunes and save it.

Now on the new PC after installing iTunes, go to that location and copy your old iTunes folder into that location.

A possible trap: If you’re also like me and don’t keep your My Music folder in My Documents, you’ll soon discover that Windows XP installs a folder with that name into My Documents by default so when you install iTunes it will create a new iTunes folder in that default location.
To move it to your preferred location, first copy all of your My Music folder into the My Documents\My Music folder (over-write anything already in there). Then move the My Music folder from My Documents to where ever you want it. This will automatically sort out all of the file paths and iTunes will remember where the proper iTunes folder actually is from then on.

Whenever I format or switch to a new PC there’s always a few things I’ve forgotten. One is the asp error “Operation must use an updateable query” on one of our internal data base queries.

To fix it, go to the folder where the Access data base is stored.
At the top of the folder, select Tools > Folder Options > View tab. Right down the bottom make sure “Use Simple File Sharing” is unticked.
Now right click on the .mdb file and select properties.
Select the Security tab and set appropriate read & write privileges for the Users group. (If you can’t see the security tab make sure “Use Simple File Sharing” is unticked as above)
Now go back to Folder Options and re-tick “Use Simple File Sharing” (if that’s what you’re using).

More info in Microsoft KB # 175168