Office 2003 SP2 removes TIF and TIFF association

In Microsoft's infinite wisdom, they have removed program association to .TIF and .TIFF files as well as .MDI.

So now hundreds of people are calling me asking why they can't view imaging. Thanks, Bill, for making my life easier.

Anyway, this is documented in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938813 and the fix is these registry changes;

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.tif]
"Progid"="MSPaper.Document"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.tif\OpenWithProgids]
"MSPaper.Document"=hex(0):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.tiff]
"Progid"="MSPaper.Document"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.tiff\OpenWithProgids]
"MSPaper.Document"=hex(0):



So it's per user, meaning you have to run this in Zen per user, or login script over and over.

Surround sound enabled in Media Player DVD playback

So I have nVidia dolby surround sound, 8 channels. Got speakers. When I tell media player to switch to surround sound mode (other than the old 2.1 version) It automatically switches back to Stereo mode.

Go into nVidia mixer and setup your sound to the appropriate surround sound mode. (5.1, 7.1, etc)

Download media player classic.

Play a DVD with surround sound but one that isn't copy protected.

Right click on the video and select FILTERS/AC3 audio decoder. Switch the Decode to speakers from STERO to the appropriate Dobly settings. In my case, AC3 is set to 2 front, 2 rear and DTS is set to 2 front + 2 rear. I have PCM set to 32bit, default was 16. I have AAC set to downmix to stereo turned off, SPDIF off -- leave on if that's what you use. LFE off. Dynamic Range Control OFF.

Now I'm getting Dolby 5.1. Woo hoo.

Acronis True Image home 10

I have had nothing but problems with Ghost here lately. I've been using it for years, but suddenly the images we create either can not span to a 2TB drive because it's out of space for some odd reason. We have plenty of room. Or if I go to an older Ghost, it creates the image but then says it is corrupt when I try to restore it.

We have many licenses of Ghost, but this is wasting too much time for my personal PC. So I install it.

Issue#1) It creates a shell add on called "Backup" which allows me to backup a file or folder by right clicking on it. Well, this is fine for a home PC but when trying to right click across the WAN, it is a killer. Just like Winzip, one must remove the shell entry. Unlike Winzip, there is not a menu option to do this.

So locate {C539A15A-3AF9-4c92-B771-50CB78F5C751} under hklm/software/classes/clsid and go into InProcServer32. Modify the string "(Default)" and make it an empty string, deleting the Acronis DLL. No more Backup shortcut, and no more slow downs.

Issue #2) This software installs upper filters on the DVD/CDROM drive. These conflict with existing filters. So locate the upperfilter in registry and remove the new entry for Acronis. I didn't write it down, but it is rather apparent. If it's not apparent to you, then you should not be making these changes as they can cause a system to not boot if done wrong.

This is pretty good software. I'd like to have a stripped down version that doesn't have all the integration though. This software installs services, schedulers, many new tasks, and modifies a huge chunk of the registry/system. It also installs device drivers.

I have successfully moved two computers with this software. XP with 1 CPU to XP with 2 CPU's and more memory worked well. XP autodetected the additional CPU, PnPed, and rebooted. The machine that went from a P733 Dell to a P1.8 SuperMicro didn't fare as well. System just keep rebooting. But, as usually, you just do an in place re-install of XP and we're back in business. Of couse, the Dell had an OEM license of XP so this causes me to have to purchase & install a new license of XP and toss the old one. It's always something, eh?