Change Permissions in Windows XP Home

I wrote earlier about my trials fixing my father’s hard drive. Sadly, it died again a day after I fixed it. We re-installed Windows on a new drive. I ran into all kinds of difficulties that I had never encountered before. Herewith, some advice and pointers for possible problems you may encounter:

  • Don’t EVER install Windows XP while connected directly to the internet. I’m behind a router at home, so I didn’t even think about it at my father’s house until it was too late. As Windows loaded for the first time, I noticed eight worms/spyware/viruses installed. The average lifetime of an Allied soldier invading Normandy on D-Day was seven seconds (I was told this, feel free to correct me if that’s incorrect); it appears an internet-connected Windows XP fairs no better.
  • To change folder permissions in Windows XP Home, run in safe mode. This is a neat little IT admin nugget — my fellow nerds at my employer were impressed with this new knowledge. The Security tab just magically appears in Folder Properties. Getting his old data was actually pretty easy once I had done this: everything he cared about was in My Documents – except his .pst file for Outlook and his bookmarks. I detest the shackles imposed on me by My Documents, but I’m glad he didn’t. Here’s a note for all you non-nerds: keep all your data in My Documents.
  • If your Outlook Address Book acts all weird, remove it and re-add it.

Norton Antivirus is a terrible application.

This weekend, my father had a computer problem. Since there’s a rule about computer nerds being help desk support for everyone they know, he asked me to help him. (To be fair, though, I did build the machine for him. Nor  did I complain: he makes me dinner just about every week, and he’s my dad.) Windows would stop loading after a little while, then the machine would reboot.

I’m not sure what happened, but running chkdsk a couple times fixed the disk errors. If there’s a problem with booting, that’s one of the first things I’ll do. I love chkdsk! It’s solved a number of problems for me in the past.

When was the last time you checked your disk for errors?

Disk problems are always traumatic: a cpu, a videocard, RAM are all replaceable if they break, but a disk isn’t; a disk has valuable data on it: pictures, video, documents, spreadsheets, music… I always get a little nervous dealing with disk issues. That and BIOS settings.

When was the last time you backed up your data?

Running chkdsk finally made it bootable, but it looked like some parts of the registry were reset, and some system libraries went missing. So then I did a System Restore. God bless System Restore! Just about everything went back to normal after System Restore. There were only a few things to fix after that: Outlook.pst was corrupt (no problem: there’s a tool to fix that, but let me know where the tool is in the damn dialog! I shouldn’t have to search my hard drive to find the tool. But it’s ok, Microsoft, you gave me chkdsk and System Restore, so you’re off the hook… this time.) and Norton Antivirus was going insane with stupid-ass dialogs every minute.

Only one app to reinstall: not bad. So I uninstall, I get an error. [Something I screwed up when I made the machine was keeping his old drive in the machine, so the new disk got assigned F:. I didn’t notice until Windows was totally installed, but by then it was too late. However, everything has worked just fine. Everything except for Norton Antivirus. I had to be called in to install the damn thing when he first bought it. I had to use subst.exe to do it.] I tell the uninstaller to ignore the error. I restart. I reinstall, using the hack discussed in the aside. I restart. Still gives me the stupid-ass dialogs. I give up trying to solve it myself and go to Symantec’s support page. The message was something to the effect of, “I can’t my Instant Messenger virus scanning service.” The first thing on their support page is to disable the service, so I open up “the Integrator“. Oh wait, something’s wrong: can’t even load the f’ing gui. (I’m guessing The Integrator is what the programmers call their main window, because that’s what shows up on the error dialog. And it’s an appropriate name: there’s like 50 executables to this piece of shit app.)

What’s their solution for that? You guessed it: uninstall. But I have to remove every Symantec product. So I start removing: 2 reboots to do that. Finally, we’re clean of Symantec products. I was tempted to leave it at that, but my father wants the peace of mind of an antivirus, so I carry on. I install Norton Antivirus…again. I reboot…again. I update it…again. I get the stupid-ass dialog…again. This time the Integrator loads, though, so I disable the shit-ass IM detection service and stop following the steps after that.

The really bad thing about this is Norton expects normal people to be capable of this. Granted: this is an extraordinary situation, but the uninstall should uninstall everything. And a reinstall should be able to fix the problem. Also, you should be able to install the damn thing on a non-standard drive letter. Bitches.

Raise your hand if you can’t wait for Microsoft to write an antivirus.

Norton Antivirus, if you were a person, I’d kick you in the nuts. Really hard. 

Movie meme

Hey, memes are fun. Some are invite only, but this one doesn’t seem to be. Take the top 100 grossing movies: italicize the ones you’ve seen, bold the ones you liked. Appears I liked the ones I did see. I was surprised to see that there are roughly a quarter of the films I haven’t seen. I’m sad to note that The Waterboy is anywhere near this list…and that I’ve seen it. Here’s my list:

  1. Titanic (1997) – $600,779,824
  2. Star Wars (1977) – $460,935,665
  3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – $434,949,459
  4. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) – $431,065,444
  5. Spider-Man (2002) – $403,706,375
  6. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) – $377,019,252
  7. Passion of the Christ, The (2004) – $370,025,697
  8. Jurassic Park (1993) – $356,784,000
  9. Shrek 2 (2004) – $356,211,000
  10. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) – $340,478,898
  11. Finding Nemo (2003) – $339,714,367
  12. Forrest Gump (1994) – $329,691,196
  13. Lion King, The (1994) – $328,423,001
  14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) – $317,557,891
  15. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) – $313,837,577
  16. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) – $310,675,583
  17. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) – $309,125,409
  18. Independence Day (1996) – $306,124,059
  19. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) – $305,411,224
  20. Sixth Sense, The (1999) – $293,501,675
  21. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – $290,158,751
  22. Home Alone (1990) – $285,761,243
  23. Matrix Reloaded, The (2003) – $281,492,479
  24. Shrek (2001) – $267,652,016
  25. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) – $261,970,615
  26. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) – $260,031,035
  27. Jaws (1975) – $260,000,000
  28. Monsters, Inc. (2001) – $255,870,172
  29. Batman (1989) – $251,188,924
  30. Men in Black (1997) – $250,147,615
  31. Toy Story 2 (1999) – $245,823,397
  32. Bruce Almighty (2003) – $242,589,580
  33. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – $242,374,454
  34. Twister (1996) – $241,700,000
  35. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) – $241,437,427
  36. Ghost Busters (1984) – $238,600,000
  37. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) – $234,760,500
  38. Cast Away (2000) – $233,630,478
  39. Lost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997) – $229,074,524
  40. Signs (2002) – $227,965,690
  41. Rush Hour 2 (2001) – $226,138,454
  42. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) – $219,200,000
  43. Ghost (1990) – $217,631,306
  44. Aladdin (1992) – $217,350,219
  45. Saving Private Ryan (1998) – $216,119,491
  46. Mission: Impossible II (2000) – $215,397,30
  47. X2 (2003) – $214,948,780
  48. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) – $213,079,163
  49. Back to the Future (1985) – $210,609,762
  50. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) – $205,399,422
  51. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – $204,843,350
  52. Exorcist, The (1973) – $204,565,000
  53. Mummy Returns, The (2001) – $202,007,640
  54. Armageddon (1998) – $201,573,391
  55. Gone with the Wind (1939) – $198,655,278
  56. Pearl Harbor (2001) – $198,539,855
  57. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – $197,171,806
  58. Toy Story (1995) – $191,800,000
  59. Men in Black II (2002) – $190,418,803
  60. Gladiator (2000) – $187,670,866
  61. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) – $184,925,485
  62. Dances with Wolves (1990) – $184,208,848
  63. Batman Forever (1995) – $184,031,112
  64. Fugitive, The (1993) – $183,875,760
  65. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – $183,405,771
  66. What Women Want (2000) – $182,805,123
  67. Perfect Storm, The (2000) – $182,618,434
  68. Liar Liar (1997) – $181,395,380
  69. Grease (1978) – $181,360,000
  70. Jurassic Park III (2001) – $181,166,115
  71. Mission: Impossible (1996) – $180,965,237
  72. Planet of the Apes (2001) – $180,011,740
  73. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – $179,870,271
  74. Pretty Woman (1990) – $178,406,268
  75. Tootsie (1982) – $177,200,000
  76. Top Gun (1986) – $176,781,728
  77. There’s Something About Mary (1998) – $176,483,808
  78. Ice Age (2002) – $176,387,405
  79. Crocodile Dundee (1986) – $174,635,000
  80. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) – $173,585,516
  81. Elf (2003) – $173,381,405
  82. Air Force One (1997) – $172,888,056
  83. Rain Man (1988) – $172,825,435
  84. Apollo 13 (1995) – $172,071,312
  85. Matrix, The (1999) – $171,383,253
  86. Beauty and the Beast (1991) – $171,301,428
  87. Tarzan (1999) – $171,085,177
  88. Beautiful Mind, A (2001) – $170,708,996
  89. Chicago (2002) – $170,684,505
  90. Three Men and a Baby (1987) – $167,780,960
  91. Meet the Parents (2000) – $166,225,040
  92. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) – $165,500,000
  93. Hannibal (2001) – $165,091,464
  94. Catch Me If You Can (2002) – $164,435,221
  95. Big Daddy (1999) – $163,479,795
  96. Sound of Music, The (1965) – $163,214,286
  97. Batman Returns (1992) – $162,831,698
  98. Bug’s Life, A (1998) – $162,792,677
  99. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) – $161,963,000
  100. Waterboy, The (1998) – $161,487,252

Hey, where’d Jason go?

I’m sure you’re wondering, dear reader, where I have been: it’s been a while between posts.

I’ve been busy writing Functional Specifications at work. I wasn’t so inclined to write more when I got home.

What? Why are you laughing?

Ok, Ok. I’ve been playing video games all this time. That’s why. But I’ve finished the game.

Satisfied?

Audio problems in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

I picked up GTA: San Andreas on the weekend: truly a work of art! Not for kids or the faint of heart (there’s enough swearing to make a sailor blush). It’s a great improvement on Vice City and Rockstar did it by noticing all the little things.

Microsoft needs to hire these guys: this thing loads faster than Outlook!

The greatest things in the GTA games are the story and characters. They have some Grade-A voice talent this time around: The Game, Ice-T, Samuel L Jackson, and, of course, everybody’s favourite: Chris Penn. To make it a really great experience, you probably want to hear these voices. I know I do.

I ran into a slight problem with audio when I started. It turns out, even though RockStar claims to support 5.1 sound, it cuts out and then you can’t hear shit. Switch to quadrophonic and you can get back to yo’ gang. Hopefully, RockStar will have a patch out quickly, fo’sho.

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