Tag Archives: microsoft

Vista and stupid notification bar not showing common items!

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I have recently been having a problem in Vista, where the three common notification items (battery, network, and volume) don’t show on the notification bar. It’s a pain, and if you try and fix it by right-clicking on the Start bar and clicking Properties, and then clicking the Notification Area tab you just get all of the items greyed out. It’s ridiculous and it never used to happen – it just started happening a couple of weeks ago.

So, when it frustrated me enough to persuade me to Google the issue, I found I’m not the only one with a problem. Apparenly, it’s an issue with the Local Group Policy Editor, and can be fixed either with the Local Group Policy Editor (if you have it enabled) or via the Registry Editor.

If you go to this site, you’ll find some guides that can fix the problem via the Local Group Policy Editor or via the Registry Editor.

However, I still can’t seem to get it working properly. Some of the icons show but I’m usually missing one or two.

Update 24.9.09: I thought rather than linking to another site, I could write a guide on how to fix it myself :P. So, if you’re having the problem, follow these steps to solve it:

1. First, click Start and type in the search box regedit, then press enter.

2. The Registry Editor will open. You now need to use the plus signs next to each category to reach the key below.

Navigate through the following threads:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Classes, Local Settings, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, TrayNotify

3. Delete the following keys by highlighting them and pressing the delete key, confirming by clicking Yes:

IconsStream

PastIconsStream

Now simply log off and log back on and your problem should be solved, or restart the explorer.exe process if you don’t want to log off.

Hopefully, if all that goes smoothly, you should have the icons back (thank god!)

What’s the point in Microsoft Silverlight?

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Every time I get told that there are new updates to be installed, I open it up and somewhere in the list there is Microsoft Silverlight.

I’ve installed it before on my laptop but I uninstalled it because I couldn’t see what the point in it was.

Microsoft claims it enhances the browsing experience, but could someone tell me, how? It’s not like it makes my browsing experience any faster (in fact it probably makes my browsing experience slower!), and I don’t even use IE7 or IE8 so will it benefit me at all?

Microsoft’s web site is full of nagging ads that say Install Microsoft Silverlight, and it kind of bugs me. 

I can try hiding the update in Windows Update but it just comes back every time a new version is released.

Could someone who actually uses it (and finds it useful) tell me what it’s for? I’m just wondering why Microsoft makes such a big deal about it. 

Is it just me missing something that makes it amazing?

What program do you use for email?

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When it comes to email clients, theres a huge amount of choices. Heres the ones I know:

  • Microsft Outlook
  • Outlook Express (or Windows Mail for Vista)
  • Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Windows Live Mail (Beta)
And there are hundreds more. If you’re really interested take a look at this from Wikipedia, there’s loads there – most of them I have never even heard of.
I use a combination of Microsoft Outlook for my main email and Windows Live Mail for my other emails.
I’ve always liked them because they are both simple and easy to use, and just do the job. 
What do you use for your email?

OpenOffice or Microsoft Office?

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For me, it’s always been Microsoft Office. Only because I’ve had it ever since I started with computers and I’m too used to having all the features.

However, for some people it might be a great alternative to spending hard earned cash on Microsoft.

OpenOffice is basically just an opensource free version of Microsoft’s Office. It does most of the things that Microsoft’s does, but its totally free. Admittedly it doesn’t look as nice as Office 2007, but for people who are reluctant to spend money and need a decent office suite, this is perfect!

It’s available for Windows, Linux, Mac and many other distrobutions too. And with OpenOffice 3.0 coming around the corner, it may well become even better. OpenOffice 3.0 Release Candidate 2 is available for download now here – so if you like trying software, do so. You might well find it’s better for you altogether.