Replies

Guys,

Latest update … I came back to the computer tonight after a few days and when I booted up to my surprise, the pictures button was back in the Customize Start Menu dialog box so I turned display back on and it’s now back on the start menu, and it is working again (but going to the wrong place.) It is pointing again to  C:UsersRod CorkumSaved GamesPictures folder. See picture here.

peterq – My pictures are not lost. They’re exactly where I want them and have been all along, in the C:UsersRod CorkumPictures folder. It’s just that the Pictures button won’t go there. Now that it’s working again it wants to go to the pictures folder in the Saved Games folder. What’s more, other pictures programs (Microsoft Paint, PhotoDraw 2000, etc) when attempting to save a picture wants to put it in that Saved Games/Picture folder too by default.

Joe, after seeing the above, I tried your sfc /scannow and it appeared to flash a DOS type window too fast to see anything and that was it. Nothing looked different afterwards.

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I think maybe I should just move my pictures to that Saved Games/Pictures folder and leave well enough alone since the Pictures button is now working again and everything wants to go there (illogical as it seems), and other programs want to save there by default.

While I like Vista overall, it does act rather weird at times. For home I can live with it’s idiosyncrasies but I’d never recommend upgrading our XP’s at work to Vista!

Rod

Jeff

The path to the pictures folder on the right side of my screen shot is C:UsersRod CorkumPictures. I right clicked the folder and checked the properties and this is the path it shows there. Vista’s Windows Explorer appears to make it look like it’s C:DesktopRod Corkum but it’s really C:UsersRod Corkum (odd way they’ve designed the tree.)

Anyway I tried your suggestion to “Don’t display this item” for Pictures in the Customize Start Menu dialog box. I guess I don’t have the problem anymore but not the solution I was looking for. When I rebooted, the Pictures button was naturally no longer showing on the start menu. So I went back into the Customize to turn it back on again to “Show as a menu” but lo and behold, Pictures is no longer listed in the Customize Start Menu list so now I can’t turn it back on. Must have had something to do with the fact that the button wasn’t pointing anywhere that caused it to disappear from the Customize Start Menu list.

Oh well, I guess I’ll go back to the old standby – put a shortcut on the desktop!

Rod

peterq,

As far as I can tell, the reason it says 0 bytes is that it isn’t finding a folder at all. The properties is completely empty – it isn’t looking anywhere. The correct path to the folder that contains my pictures is C:UsersRod CorkumPictures and is 1.19 GB in size. I didn’t upgrade from XP, this was a new HP Compaq computer in February that came with Vista Home Premium. Interestingly enough, there is some other program that keeps adding a second folder called Pictures with the path C:UsersRod CorkumSaved GamesPictures and all that is there is a shortcut with the target “C:UsersPublicPicturesSample Pictures” pointing to the sample pictures file that came with Vista. I suspect this has something to do with ACDSee. I recently got a Pentax digital camera and this was the software that came with it. I don’t remember having any problems before that. I tried uninstalling the ACDSee, deleting that Saved Games folder, rebooting, etc. but the pictures button didn’t fix itself. With ACDSee installed, the Saved Games folder keeps coming back even after deleting it. I can ignore it since my pictures are not there. (Why anyone would want to put a pictures folder in a folder called Saved Games is beyond my understanding!)

My pictures were always in the C:UsersRod CorkumPictures location and I think (although not quite sure) that ACDSee may have hijacked the folder because shortly after it was installed I found my pictures in that Saved Games/Pictures folder (and the start menu button pointed there at that time) not in the original location. I moved the pictures back to where they were and deleted the Saved Games folder and I think after that the pictures button stopped working. If there was some way to edit the path on the button, this would be easy to fix.

I had an issue with my wireless network after swapping out my old Win98 PC for a new Compac Vista Home Premium too. (My post is “TrendNet &Vista” in the “Networking your Home” board.)
My computer came with a Norton trial version installed and I eventually found it was blocking access to the other computer on my network. After tweaking it the other cmputer became visible. I’ve since removed the Norton and don’t remember just how I “tweaked” it. If you’ve got Norton, you might want to see if it might be connected to the problem.

I’ve still got problems seeing printers and HP support advice is similarly of little use.

As for that Media Device, check your Vista Network and Sharing Center. If Media sharing is on, the network may be seeing only this part of your Vista computer. I had something similar to that and when I turned off the Media Sharing, it disappeared.

Rod Corkum

Not sure if this is relevant to your situation but is your VPN software Vista compatible? I have a similar situation – using same as you at work and just got a new Vista Home Premium computer at home. In my case the VPN software would not completely load on my computer so it looks like you’ve gotten further than I did. My office IT support tells me our VPN isn’t yet Vista compatible. We are using WatchGuard Firebox.

Rod Corkum
Halifax, Canada

Just to update on this issue, I did a bit more web surfing and eventually landed on a site that tipped me off to a possible conflict with the Norton that came preloaded with the Vista computer. While I had the Windows firewall turned off trying to solve this problem, there was a Norton firewall that was messing it up too. I managed to tweak the Norton and then both computers could see each other on the network. The Norton “trial” has expired and I’ve removed it and continue to see both computers now. I’ve replaced the antivirus with AVG Free which I’ve used with good results in the past.

However I still have the problem of not being able to see the printers on my new Vista from the older laptop. Presuming this was some Vista issue I went to Microsoft support site and since the Vista is an OEM version preinstalled in my new computer, it referred me back to the computer manufacturer for Windows support. The new Vista computer is a Compac, the older laptop is also an HP Pavilion, and the new printer is an HP PhotoSmart C3180 so it’s conveniently all in the same manufacturer so after a few emails back and forth to HP support, the end result I get from them is “I regret to note that HP C3180 is not a network compatible printer. However, to enable it in network you need to use Jetdirect server print sharing will be enabled.” I assumed that they misunderstood that the printer was directly connected to my Vista and not to a network hub so I went back and confirmed that fact but it didn’t seem to make any difference as the reply then was “the Photosmart C3180 cannot use print sharing without using HP Jetdirect Print Server.”

It’s nuts that a printer connected directly to one computer cannot be shared to be seen by another computer on the network. I know it’s not a network printer and I’m not in an office where one might want to connect direcly to a network hub or switch. The thing is that even if this may or may not explain why I cannot see the new HP printer, it doesn’t explain why I also cannot see the older Brother laser also connected to the new Vista. I’m still not convinced this isn’t a Vista issue somewhere! Fortunately I don’t need to print much from the laptop but it’s still inconvenient to have to email print jobs from one computer to the other (can’t even pop it on a floppy and “sneakernet” as no floppy drive in new computer!)

Rod

Peter,

Getting the “latest” Vista driver from HP is probably your best solution.

I had a different problem with an HP printer and downloading the “latest” Vista driver from HP’s web site fixed my issues. In my case I’d bought a new Vista Home Premium computer bundled with an HP PhotoSmart C3180 All-In-One printer. Of course the installation disk with the printer was not Vista compatible so I HAD to go to HP’s web site for a driver. But the initial driver downloaded must have had a few problems because every time I turned on the power switch to the printer, it would automatically reinstall the drivers again duplicating the printer in my printers list. I went back to HP’s web site and there was now a newer driver. I completely uninstalled all the original printer driver and associated programs and then installed the newest version and everything seems to be working fine now. I expect I’ll also have to do something similiar with my older Brother laser. It’s working fine except for a couple of features (manual duplex, etc.). I suspect that there are probably quite a few third party manufacturers out there who haven’t caught up with Vista compatibility yet. My favourite email program is one of those I can’t use yet because of Vista incompatibility.

Rod Corkum

Dave

I omitted to mention it in my post but the “Passwword protected sharing” was already off in the Network and Sharing Center so that didn’t cause my problem.

Rod

Yeah, this graphic shows it exactly. I had presumed that possibly the “plain text” was an Outlook default since I’ve never changed those but some other staff using same Outllook already had theirs set as “Let Outlook decide …” so now I’m guessing that it may have defaulted this way because I originally was using Outlook Express until the the executive decision came down that everyone on Win XP was to use Outlook, so I believe I imported my address book from Outlook Express. Maybe that caused the plain text setting … I don’t know … anyway it’s fixed and I’m satisfied.

Rod

Thanks very much – you solved my problem.

Apparently Outlook must use the “Send Plain Text only” as the default. Had to use the Help to figure out where to find this … it’s buried in the address book … but changed all my address book contacts (thankfully it’s not long) to “Let Outlook decide the best sending format” and it’s now working properly with the graphics intact.

Rod

No, that was one of the first things I looked at … you must have missed that in my first post. That would have been too obvious.

Rod

Recipients are all on the same server – we’re a small office. I’ve attached a PDF of how they get it. There wasn’t anything critical in the previous attachment but I’ve blacked out a bit anyway and reposted it.

As for changing message to PDF, that’s more trouble than it’s worth. This is just some stuff from a local store that if it looks interesting I just forward it. To do it as PDF I’d have to print to a PDF file and save it, then create a new email and attach it, then go back and delete the saved PDF file. A lot easier just to click the forward button and click the group name I’m sending it to. I could just print it and pass around but that’s a waste of paper.

Rod

Using Outlook 2003 SP2. I receive emails in HTML format with graphics included. I forward some to others in our company who are using the same version of Outlook. However the HTML message I send is received by at least some of them as ordinary text messages and all the graphics in the message are changed to attachments when they receive the message.

I checked my Tools | Options. The Mail Format tab indicates Message Format, Compose is HTML. The Preferences Tab, E-Mail Options button, under Message Handling is unchecked for Read all standard mail in plain text on my computer and theirs.

I forwarded a copy to myself just to check and it came in properly in HTML with all graphics intact. I don’t know why they are not getting it that way.

Any suggestions on where to look for the problem? I’ve attached a PDF copy of the email showing how I receive it.

Rod Corkum
Halifax, Canada

Not sure if this is relevant to your situation but it’s what I’ve generally done in my office. Had more experience with it under Win98 than XP which we’ve only had now just over a year.

This is assuming both computers A and B are on the same network. If the printer is a local printer attached to computer A it should be shared if not already and then will be visible to computer B on the network. If the printer is directly connected to the network … connected directly to a hub/switch, etc. … then it should also be visible to computer B on the network. In my situation when I want to be able to print to a new printer that is visible on the network, all I do is find the printer, double click the icon and it automatically installs (I don’t need to go through the Add Printers in Control Panel.) The only issues I’ve come up against is that depending on the version of Windows and the age of the printer, it might ask for the printer’s installation disk to locate a driver.

Rod Corkum
Halifax Canada

Problem solved. After trying a variety of stuff, she eventually found that her Norton Antivirus had some problems too, and she couldn’t get it to uninstall or reinstall properly. Don’t know for sure if that was connected, but she backed up her important stuff and then did a system restore from her computer’s restoration disk. Then reinstalled the antivirus. Now everything seems to be working properly and the web page problem disappeared.

Dave, regarding the http/https when I tried going to that page on my computer it didn’t matter whether I typed just uhauldealer.com, or the compete address using https:// or http:// … it always defaulted to the correct site. And I don’t know why IE asked you if you wanted to proceed. I never got that at all.

Thanks anyway.

Rod