Goodcoin

I don't mean how to remove language bar entirely -- I need it docked into my taskbar, so it's not an option. I just want to know if there is any way to remove the goddamn thing from secure desktop. Secure desktop is the mode Windows Vista switches to by default when UAC prompt appears. I know how to disable it (along with the abovementioned language bar), but again, it's not an option. Please concentrate on the given task, which is leaving secure desktop enabled while removing the language bar from it.

Another probably useful bit of info: I renamed some normal help files (blue icons with white question marks) to Russian and they open as they should. Only Compiled HTML help files (.CHM) stop opening after renaming them into Russian.

Can you test with Russian files? Or just copy any of them and rename to Russian or Japanese to see if they open?

I forgot to mention earlier: It cannot be a general problem with .CHM files, because when I rename them to something English they are opening with no problem.

What's the default app used to open the file? Anyway, have you tried switching default language for non-unicode apps to Russian under Regional Settings -> Advanced? Normally, whenever I have problems with Japanese apps changing this to Japanese fixes the problems Sure, it was the first thing that came to my mind. I switched the default language for non-Unicode programs to Russian, but it didn't help. The same error message, only this time with proper Russian letters instead of question marks. Weird thing is, now Total Commander also gives the same message. The default app associated with .CHM files is Microsoft HTML Help Executable.

Windows (namely, Windows XP Professional) cannot open .CHM files with Russian titles. It gives an error message like this: Cannot open the file: C:\New Folder\????????.chm. Although the Russian title is perfectly readable in Explorer. Interestingly, Total Commander opens the same file with no problem. Any idea what gives?

OK, I think it's better to change the language for non-Unicode programs to English and try to explore the other possibilities. To hell with the software UI -- I rarely use outdated Russian software, anyway, as well as the new one without Unicode support. The TXT files are the main problem which bothers me. So maybe it's better if I just install some sort of code page converter to convert the text dynamically. Any advice on that?

Unfortunately, that's not an option for me. Here in Georgia (ex-USSR) Russian software is still widely used. Problem is, that many Russian softmakers ignore Unicode support entirely, building even the new programs without Unicode support. Especially, there is a problem with simple TXT help files and readmes -- without CP866 most of them is an unreadable gibberish.

It's an old and well-known problem and I have little hope it will be ever resolved, but still... For those who are new in business: Code page 866 is a Cyrillic code page, used in Russian versions of MS-DOS. Nowadays it has very limited use, but it still has. Namely, it's used by Windows XP and Vista to address issues with legacy, non-Unicode software. When you choose Russian as the Language for non-Unicode programs in Regional and Language Options, the system defaults to code page 866, so that the programs with non-Unicode UI could be able to show the Cyrillic text properly. Now the problem is that many Unicode supporting programs also become affected by the code page 866. Namely, all the non-standard letters, like á, é, ü, ï, ò and so on, become replaced by Cyrillic ones. In the attached image you can see just one example, showing how Windows Media Player displays Russian ц instead of German ö in the word Mitternachtslöwe. Unfortunately, I have to use Russian as the language for non-Unicode programs and therefore I'm stuck with the CP866. I know it's a long shot but maybe there any way to deal with this mess? AFAIK, the code page cannot be changed dynamically, but maybe there's some trick to that? It would be nice, if I could just switch CP866 on only when I need it and keep the standard code page for general use. Shortly, any sparks of thoughts are welcome.

Rich293 Under SEH Team is a relatively new hacking group, which cracks software and releases it on P2P network. Maybe you have downloaded something not quite legal from torrents recently? :)

I could do that only for a limited amount of time, since my friend is taking away his PC soon. But I'm afraid it won't be enough to reproduce the issue, since it happens quite rarely. For instance, yesterday it happened only once, but this morning I had the "NTLDR is missing" right at the first startup and I had to remove/insert the chip again to start the machine. Besides, I was stupid enough to remove BOTH chips (to dust them off just in case) and place them back without marking them. So now I'm not sure which one of them is presumably faulty.

Yes, I forgot to switch off the power supply. So what should I do now? I was going to buy new DDR3 memory anyway, but what if this is motherboard? I guess there is no way to know for sure, until I replace the sticks and see if the problem persists. Thanks for your reply!

That's it, the mystery solved. Viruses. Lots of them. Avast did its job and I was able to finish the installation. Thanks. Case closed.

Well, I'm not entirely sure if this is a software or hardware issue, but since mingling with the hardware temporarily resolves the issue (see below how), it has to be connected with the hardware. Recently I removed a memory chip from my motherboard to test a friend's PC. When I placed it back, everything was normal at the beginning. But half an hour or so later my PC started to behave abnormally. From time to time, just out of the blue, Windows gives a Blue Screen of Death. Upon restart I see the following message: NTLDR is missing Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart Restarting doesn't help. But if I remove the memory stick and insert it back, the PC starts. Just removing doesn't help, the PC starts only after I place the chip back. Strange huh? Also, the BSoD mentioned above freezes when trying to dump the memory. I wanted to post its contents here, but for same reason the log is absent in the Event Viewer. I guess I'll have to take a pic with my phone next time it occurs and post it here just in case. Any ideas on what could be happening? I have 2x1GB Kingston DDR2-667 (333 MHz) and my motherboard is ASUS P5KC.

I don't have an Internet connection on that PC, but it reminds me that I DO have a fully working second OS installed there. Stupid me -- all I have to do is install a descent AV in Vista and scan it from there. I think I'm getting older. :lol:

8 hour long bad sector testing has been finished. The hard drive appears to be fully intact. Can it be a virus? Maybe I should check the drive with some kind of a bootable antivirus. The first thing that comes to my mind is Avast Bart CD. Does anyone knows a better bootable AV?

OK, disabling the network card from the BIOS allowed the setup to continue, but there's a strange thing going on. There is no progress indicator and it shows "Setup will complete in approximately 39 minutes" for almost 20 minutes now, with no change. And one more thing -- in the beginning I heard quiet clicks from the HDD, as if it was trying to write something. Now the clicks stopped and the drive shows no signs of activity (at least I cannot hear anything). I'm going to check it with HDD Regenerator to see if there are any bad sectors. The drive is only a month old, but it's Western Digital and I don't trust any HDD except Seagate.

Unfortunately, the Safe Mode is inaccessible, as I wrote in my first post. But I can change it WITHOUT accessing the Safe Mode, because there is an option to "Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure" (or something like that) directly on the "F8 menu". Which I completely forgot! Thanks Boris, your reply caused a memory flash. That's what I call the power of brainstorming. :D Well, here's what the BSoD says among other less important things: atl01_xp.sys Address BA9A96A2 base at BA9A8000, DateStamp 45f8e3b2 Google says, atl01_xp.sys belongs to Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter. I know that network card, since my own system has the same motherboard (ASUS P5KC) with this adapter onboard. I'll try to disable the device from the BIOS and see what happens.

Good for you, andsome. You're gonna save a lot of neurons by sticking to good ol' XP, trust me. :D Pity though. I was kinda hoping with this new OS Microsoft would make the snobby Mac users finally shut up, but now they are laughing at us, PC users, even louder. :lol:

Very useful suggestion, andsome, I might consider it as an option to avoid future troubles with at least this particular machine. Thanks! The thing is, I never really expected something like this. I mean, inability to reinstall the Windows. Problems not solved by the repair installs? Plenty. But never even getting that reinstall done? Never. At least on my system. Maybe I was just lucky.

I am quite an experienced computer user, so my friends and neighbors often bring me their "broken machines" to fix them. Usually I don't need extra help, as the problems are mostly simple. But sometimes I do and this appears to be the case. Normally I would just reformat the hard drive and make a clean install, to avoid any wild guesses and complications. But this time I'll have to reinstall too many programs and games from the scratch and it will take some 3-4 days due to my busy schedule. Shortly, let's not consider a clean install as an option and see what can be done without it. This is my very best friend's computer. The system has been installed by me, personally. It's been regularly checked and monitored by me through the remote maintenance with Anyplace Control. I'm telling this just to emphasize that it's not some unknown computer with tons of possible inexperienced-user-made-atrocities going on inside. Last time I checked (it was this Sunday) the machine worked perfectly. Forgive the long introduction. Now to the point. When they brought it to me and I switched it on, the Windows (WinXP Professional SP3) refused to start-up. After the logo there was a black screen with nothing going on. In a while the mouse pointer appeared (it was quite a while), then the hourglass (also after quite a while). That's it -- nothing beyond that. I left the machine in this state for more than an hour, but nothing showed it was going to boot in this century. First thing was to try the safe mode, naturally, but it froze on the list showing the loaded drivers. So I decided to reinstall the Windows (from the very same disk I used to install it). At first it went as normal, but then it got stuck before beginning the installation. I restarted the process. Now the machine stops at the setup recovery screen, thinks for a long while, then shows the same black screen. Only there is a bit of a behavior change here -- it all ends now with a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). Problem is, the BSoD reboots the PC and disappears so fast that I'm unable to even take a glance of what's written there. I launched recovery console and had the system to rewrite the boot record, using both FIXBOOT and FIXMBR commands. No go. Checked both logical partitions with CHKDSK /p. I removed the sound card, then replaced the RAM chips. Nada. Next, I decided to install another Windows in dual-boot, to make sure it's not a hardware issue. The new Windows (namely Vista Ultimate) installed properly on the second logical drive. I checked again the disk C: from within it, and it appears to be intact. Apparently, we can pretty much rule out any hardware issues. So, what can be done now? I'm pretty confident that reformatting the drive will allow the proper installation, but it will also leave me with no clues as to what happened in the first place. I would like to make another effort to reinstall XP, this time with some extra help, prior to taking the radical measures. I understand these kind of problems are extremely hard to troubleshoot due to the wide range of possible causes, but I'm not asking to detect or diagnose anything. I just need to force the reinstall, which refuses to proceed beyond a certain point. Any ideas, even vague, would be greatly appreciated. I especially want to know, if there is a way to stop that BSoD from disappearing, so that I could read it. I tried the pause key, but it didn't seem to work. I know there's a setting within the OS disabling the instant reboot after crash, but I cannot access it right now, can I?

I return with some bad news. Don't chop my head off, though. :D It seems that this particular task is impossible to accomplish with registry tweaks, no matter how advanced. It will require tampering with the code, reverse-engineering some of the system files, and so on. This is not only problematic, since it would require a help of a professional coder, but also illegal. The only more or less close result I was able to achieve is placing the link to My Videos folder below RUN, in a spot which appears to be reserved for custom OEM applications. It can be done with the help of the following registry addition (make sure to backup your registry first!): Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}] @="My Videos" "InfoTip"="Opens the My Videos folder, where you can store video files." [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon] @="%systemroot%\\system32\\shell32.dll,129" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag] "method"="ShellExecute" "Command"="My Videos" "Param1"="C:\\Documents and Settings\\USER\\My Documents\\My Videos" The path, the info tip and the folder name can be modified. Also, you can place the "My Videos" folder instead of "Set Program Access and Defaults". To do so, you need to replace the "{2559a1f6-" part with "{2559a1f7-" in the code above. You might have to log off and back on in order to see all the changes (like a new icon instead of the old one).

I generally like everything new. I was among the first users who switched to XP in 2001, even though it was horribly raw back then and had very serious hardware and software compatibility issues. It was really worth of the discomfort back then, for many different reasons I won't elaborate here. So, when Vista came around, I gladly and readily embraced it, having absolutely no prejudices. Alas, it turned out to be a big disappointment, which I frankly didn't expect. Main problem is in the games area. Being a dedicated gamer, I hoped Vista + DX10 would open a whole new era in gaming. I was wrong. Everything I tested, every single game, new or old, performs approximately 30% worse in Vista. I know there are some results on the Web claiming Vista is superior in particular games (World of Warcraft, for instance), but I wasn't able to confirm that. Everything I saw so far indicates the contrary. I have the latest version, with SP1, and my hardware meets all the requirements Vista needs, but still it's nowhere as fast as XP. I repeat: this is an opinion from a user with absolutely no prejudice to Vista or any other Microsoft products. On the contrary, I eagerly anticipated it and was even ready to close my eyes on every possible problem that any newly born OS might have. But the performance issue is something I cannot close my eyes on. So, if you are a gamer, my answer is big NO. Dual-boot? Sure, why not. Vista is a great thing to explore, while you have a safety haven nearby such as XP. Engaging with Vista on the full scale, burning all the bridges down? Noway man. Not yet.

I found a similar thread on another forum: http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44893 Apparently, the registry key suggested by me is the right place to start. Here's the partial solution posted in that thread: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyVideo] "Type"="group" "Text"="@shell32.dll,-21791" "Bitmap"="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\shell32.dll,238" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyVideo\Hide] "HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001 "Type"="radio" "Text"="@shell32.dll,-30492" "RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced" "ValueName"="Start_ShowMyVideo" "CheckedValue"=dword:00000000 "DefaultValue"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyVideo\Menu] "HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001 "Type"="radio" "Text"="@shell32.dll,-30491" "RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced" "ValueName"="Start_ShowMyVideo" "CheckedValue"=dword:00000002 "DefaultValue"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyVideo\Open] "HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001 "Type"="radio" "Text"="@shell32.dll,-30490" "RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced" "ValueName"="Start_ShowMyVideo" "CheckedValue"=dword:00000001 "DefaultValue"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyVideo\Policy] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyVideo\Policy\NoStartMenuMyMusic] This is what the author of that solution said: Shortly, that's the right path to the solution, but for some reason it does not work as it should. We need some professional help here.

The solution might be easier than I thought. Apparently, we don't need to create a system folder. Everything could be done by adding a custom key here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel For instance, we could copy "MyPics" and create "MyVids" based on that. Logically, it would create a reference for Start_ShowMyVids string. Sounds easy, but let's see if it actually works. I'll keep you posted.