Adobe's installation problems

Adobe Flash Player and Reader software installations have caused problems in the past, already. Often Flash Player installation had to be done couple of times. Reader installation with a download manager and Nosso is heavy.

Previously, the clearest way has been first download the installation program and then install it separately. For example, Firefox does not attempt to install on your own. As of Flash Player version 10.3.183.5 only a stub is for download on Adobe’s website directly, which stub then would apply for the actual installation, unless that stub wouldn’t fail with a proxy server.

Windows Live Messenger doesn't start

At Midsummer time, Windows Live Messenger conked out and no longer started up.  There was an error message in the application log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows Live Messenger
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 2010-06-24
Time: 23:17:49
User: N/A
Computer: AOPEN77
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( Windows Live Messenger ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: msnmsgr.exe; 14.0.8089.726; 4a6ce533; wldcore.dll; 14.0.8089.726; 4a6ce514; 0; 00002ee5.


I downloaded the latest version and installed it, but the result was the same:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows Live Messenger
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 2010-06-29
Time: 21:56:58
User: N/A
Computer: AOPEN77
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( Windows Live Messenger ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: msnmsgr.exe; 14.0.8117.416; 4bc935af; wldcore.dll; 14.0.8117.416; 4bc93503; 0; 00002ee5.


Google helped again.  A nickname bouke had found the solution.

I renamed the key UTL -> UTL_ in the registry path HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\PerPassportSettings\<number>\ and the problem was solved.  My avatar disappeared as a result of this, but it was a small problem.

Samba-update missed a step

Samba updated to version 3.2.11-0.30. After the updade the server will log error messages every time I browse the server (\\SERVER).
.. smbd[1154]: [2009/04/23 12:21:09, 0] rpc_server/srv_pipe.c:api_rpcTNP(2330)
.. smbd[1154]: api_rpcTNP: srvsvc: SRVSVC_NETSHAREENUMALL failed.

On a workstation I get a notification:
\\SERVER is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. ...
The procedure number is out range.

Instead, short cut and direct path (\\SERVER\PATH) work correctly.

On further review there were more new messages in log files:
[2009/04/23 12:21:09, 1] librpc/ndr/ndr.c:ndr_push_error(493)
ndr_push_error(5): Bad character conversion

This gave a hint. Something might have changed, while scandinavian characters on a 'comment ='-line in smb.conf caused the error.

Messenger forgets user and password

I installed Windows Live Messenger version 14.0.8050.1202. Thereafter, the user name and password were always missing at the start, even though the selections Remember me and Remember my password were checked.

The problem was resolved by fiddling with the registry. For some reason, within the subkey HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ User Shell Folders the registry entry AppData had a value %APPDATA%. The user details began to be preserved again, as soon as I returned the value %USERPROFILE%\Application Data.