Tips and Tricks-February 2005

Ever have a problem with Internet Explorer that you just can’t resolve. For the longest time, I couldn’t view the source code of pages that I wanted to see. I would click on View Source on the top menu and nothing at all would happen. I tried to reinstall Internet Explorer, but every time I tried, it would not update because I had the latest version. The problem was finally resolved when I got a new computer. Not exactly a practical solution to every problem. While reading a magazine called PC Utilities, I ran across a tip that will allow the installation to take place.

This one requires a registry edit. Go to Start, Run and type “regedit” in the dialog box. You may want to back up the registry before you make any changes. After RegEdit opens, find the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}.

Double-click on the “Isinstalled” value on the right side. When the window opens, change the value from 1 to 0. Go to Microsoft.com and find the latest version of Internet Explorer, probably the service pack. Follow the instructions to install it. You may encounter what appear to be errors as you go. Be sure to read the instructions carefully as you may have to restart your computer and run the setup program from a different location than the version you saved after the download. Two restarts later and you will have reinstalled Internet Explorer.

Do you remember printing directories from DOS? You got a nice listing of all the files that you could use to help with organizing and archiving files on floppy disks. You can probably still do it, but here’s a free utility that does a great job; it organizes files, allows you to sort by different criteria, and lets you search, as well as print a directory listing.

Go to http://www.karenware.com/powertools and downloard Directory Printer. Once the program is installed, you will see the following screen with many options for the directory.

Notice that you can sort by any number of choices and you can select what information you want to display. You can rearrange the order of the file information. You can filter the files and it works with network drives and folders. You can print the listing or you can save it to disk. A handy thing to include with your CD’s for posterity.

How about having an HTML file listing of your directory. Use dirhtml from http://home.pacbell.net/nitzsche/dirhtml/dirhtml.html to download this free utility. It creates a nicely formatted HTML page that includes links to the files in the folder you select. It’s simple and easy to use.

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Copyright 2005

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