Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 June 16

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June 16

Webcrawler

How can I copy websites to my PC (for backup reasons and offline reading)? I find it to be annoying to take several hours for nice websites. I know, webcrawlers can do this fast (or at least automatically) so do you know of a good software? It should support graphic downloads (pictures and videos like: jpg, bmp, gif, avi, wmv) but not allow JavaScript (for security reasons). Also the original website structure should be retained. For example, it should not copy all sites with an own folder but rather maintain the original website folder names. Example: The website http://example.com/page.htm embeds the file http://example.com/images/image.gif so I'd like to download the files /page.htm and /images/image.gif (not /image.gif and not /page.htm files/image.gif). Hopefully you understand what I mean. --Con^structor 01:18, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

You may want to try wget, which is a command-line program with a Windows version available. A direct link to the Windows download is [1]It has an option specifically for mirroring a website to your local disk, which is intended for sharing web site load, but is also functional for getting pages for offline reading. You may also want to get a GUI for wget so you don't have to use the command line. I like the GUI available at [2] . Freedomlinux (talk) 04:27, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Many thanks! By the way, here's another necessary file. --Con^structor 04:49, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I use it and it works very fine. You really helped me a lot! --Con^structor 05:02, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I am glad you found this tip useful. I was unaware that the TABCTL32.OCX file was required. I tend to use wget on Linux, and every Microsoft Windows computer that I have used it on had it pre-installed. Freedomlinux (talk) 03:16, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Ok! Somehow it seems to lose data, though (maybe it's just 404 Errors which don't download separately). On a big website (9 GB, 155K files) it seems to have lost 600 files with 1 KB each. If you also want to try: http://terror.snm-hgkz.ch/mirrors/thegia/sites/www.thegia.com/ --Con^structor 20:42, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I have used HTTrack with good results. — QuantumEleven 10:17, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Reading the bugs section it's nothing for me, but it may be useful for other people who only want small websites. --Con^structor 04:18, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Windows index.dat file

Hiya, I'm on WinXP, and I'm clearly not the first person to have "issues" with Microsoft's index.dat file. Yes, there are several of them; I'm mostly fed up with the browser history one, down in <User>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\.

Usually after our monthly software upgrade, I take the opportunity to remove that file along with our regular cleanup/defrag. Killing explorer.exe, deleting index.dat, and restarting explorer has worked fine up to now. This month, though, apparently something is different -- something is still using the file, and it's not iexplore.

Anyone out there have any additional suggestions? I've read our article, and its talk page, and several of its outlinks, and the consensus seems to be "this can't happen." Who knows better?

Thanks! --Danh, 70.59.115.72 (talk) 03:44, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Try safe mode and see if that disables what is using it. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 04:06, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Would using ccleaner help? 80.2.196.19 (talk) 19:24, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Skype Question

I recently got stationed in Seoul, Korea. I want to cancel my U.S. cell phone with Sprint but keep the number in order to forward the number to a Korean cell phone number using Skype. That's pretty much it. From what I read on Skype's website, I can pay $10 for Unlimited World subscription and forward all calls to my Korean cell phone for free. Anyone dialing my old cell phone number in the US will cause my Korean cell phone to ring. Can I do this? Thanks --Antsoup (talk) 08:41, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

You're likely to get a more informed answer by asking on the skype forums. — Lee Carré (talk) 14:56, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

how to find a QTP software downlaod link?

hi any one kwow how to find a QTP trial version download link form a site —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beki182 (talk • contribs) 09:10, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

VB or Java in ASP?

Hi, could anyone please tell me which ASP Scripting Language should i go with? VB or JScript? i.e. which one is more Happening nowadays? Thank you 89.148.23.12 (talk) 09:44, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

VBScript is simplified VB, which is very easy to learn. But it gets very annoying to do complex tasks in when compared to JScript or PHP. JScript is a little but more complex and harder to learn, but can do more with less code. PHP is a hybrid of JScript and C++ in terms of syntax and structure. It can do far more than both JScript and VBScript, and is easily extendable with libraries, is free and open source, but has its peculiarities of its own. Spending many years playing with all three, I'd pick PHP. 64.91.153.136 (talk) 13:19, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

For the record, JScript (Microsoft's dialect of JavaScript) has little to nothing to do with Java, whose Microsoft "versions" are J# and C#. --Tardis (talk) 15:08, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

That is true. To expand, JavaScript has little to nothing to do with Java. It was originally named ECMAScript, but was renamed JavaScript to cash in on the "Java" phenomenon. Microsoft "embraced and extended" both languages individually, making JavaScript into JScript and Java into J#. Both of the JavaScript and Java languages have more to do with their respective Microsoft spin-off versions than with each other. JIP | Talk 18:35, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

D'oh. I meant to say that JavaScript wasn't any closer, and originally I did, but then I revised it out of my comment before really posting it. Thanks. --Tardis (talk) 21:16, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

JavaScript was originally called LiveScript when it was developed by Netscape (or "Mocha", apparently) - ECMAScript came later. To answer the original question: neither VB or JScript unser ASP is particularly "Happening" now - you need to look at ASP.NET, where you can use Visual Basic.NET and C#, among others. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 17:30, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Problems finding the right button on the keyboard !

Hey

I just don't find the ~ key on my keyboard. It's meant to open a so-called command/message-line in a program, but I have tried and tried to find it, but I just can't. I have even tried all the buttons on my keyboard, all of them just to try and find it.

Which one is this button? And what shall I do to find it? I only see one button with this ~ mark - The button that also have the ^ and ¨ marks on it. But it doesn't work...

And maybe it's important to say that I have a laptop. Before on my stationary computer I have not had this problem, and i have heard that the buttons can sometimes be slightly different on laptops, a bit confusing. Often I have to press the NUM-button to be able to use the buttons correctly. Not really a problem usually, but as you can see, it is now...

Hope someone knows how to figure this out. Probably quite simple I reckon. Would be grateful :)

Krikkert7 (talk) 14:37, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Not all keyboards have the tilde key as an obvious feature. On a standard PC or Macintosh keyboard wth the United States key arrangement, it's near the upper left and paired with accent grave. On a Sun Microsystems U.S. keyboard, it's at the upper right of the main keyboard array but still paired with accent grave. There's always some way to type it, though it may be cumbersome on your particular international keyboard layout. At the worst, for a PC, see Alt code; for a Mac, see Option key; for some other systems, see Compose key.

Atlant (talk) 16:16, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

On my keyboard I can write ~ by pressing alt-gr and that ^¨~ key, next to enter. But I have to tap ^¨~ twice if I want to have a lonely tilde, or otherways it goes on the top of the next character. --212.149.217.163 (talk) 16:32, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Your keyboard is implementing tilde as a dead key. This is presumably because you've selected to operate the keyboard in a language where tilde is an important accent mark for many vowels (rather than just a way to tell vi to flip the case of the character under the cursor). Our article about Internationalization and localization scratches the surface of this whole problem; Input method editor goes a bit farther about the specific problem at hand with Keyboard layout providing some great specifics.

Atlant (talk) 15:47, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I have managed to get the ~ (The tilde-key) by combining ALTgr and the ^¨~ key and then Space... but this is only in Microsoft WORD that it works, and here I actually write the tilde key... But In the actual game where i need it only to open the console, nothing happens tho, and I can't open the chat-line/command-line/console by pressing this combination... Krikkert7 (talk) 18:54, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

The game may be scanning the keypresses instead of looking at the keyboard buffer. So, the programmers may not be looking for that specific sequence of key presses. They hard-programmed the check if you are holding down shift and pressing the ` key. If you have a ` key, try holding down shift and pressing it. -- kainaw™ 19:24, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

For that matter, the software may not understand keyboard layouts -- in that case, hold down "shift" and press the key to the left of the "1" key. --Carnildo (talk) 21:57, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, what game is it? Leeboyge (talk) 07:16, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to the above replies (from Alt code I found 126 is the code for tilde) I managed to get tilde on this Italian keyboard working! I have a brand new Italian HP 8055 with 5189 keyboard and Vista pre-installed and there is no tilde key marked anywhere. The key to the left of the backspace key has "ì" and "^" and no combination of Alt, Alt Gr, with or without shift will make it enter anything other than those two characters.

What worked was:

• 1. Press the "Bloc Num" key on the numeric keypad so that the "1" LED lights.
• 2. Hold down the left Alt key, while pressing:
• 3. the keys 1, 2 and 6 on the numeric keypad, in that order
• 4. Release the Alt key

Anything else does not work: Bloc Num must be lit; the numeric keypad numbers must be used (not the other number keys); the lefthand Alt must be used. I have tested this works for these applications: Firefox, Windows Search dialog, Windows Start textbox, TaskManager dialogs, Opera, IrfanView, and NCSoft's DungeonRunners. Up until now I had always used copy and paste to use tilde! -84user (talk) 02:17, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

groups on my MYSPACE profile not listed

Okay, first off I did send a message to the CUSTOMER SERVICE over at myspace but I guess they dont reply ASAP. I was just asking the millions and millions of people here on WIKIPEDIA if they assist me on this issue here. Okay, on my myspace profile page I dont see all of my groups that I'm in is that a bug or something. And yes, I did check on the box "DISPLAY groups on profile". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rio de oro (talk • contribs) 16:46, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi Rio. What you are saying is: you are a member of groups on MySpace, which should appear on your profile - but don't. Would that be correct? How long has it been since you contacted MySpace? It might take them several days to respond to you.78.148.121.214 (talk) 18:56, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes that is correct. I sent Myspace a message on Sunday. I have not yet recieved a responce. Rio de oro (talk) 17:47, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

ZONE ALARM question

I installed Zone Alarm on 14 June 2008 to block out intrussions from hackers and all that bs. Is it normal for it to block OVER 461 intrusion attempts in less than 96 hours or what. --Rio de oro (talk) 16:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but I'm fairly sure those 461 intrusion attempts aren't serious. It's really just a block log, and doesn't take into account unique IPs, so it could be just 461 pings from one IP that it blocked for all you know. I wouldn't be alarmed unless it tells you it's a high risk one. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:36, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Hackers and infected PCs scan entire subnetworks for computers that are accepting connections. An example would be a PC trying to connect to the SMTP port of every computer on a network to send anonymous spam. Another problem is PCs trying to send Messenger spam. You can change your IP address if the popups are annoying. Let me know if you want instructions on how to do that. A better solution, though, would be just to disable the notifications and to check your log every once in a while. If you're running Zone Alarm, then I doubt anyone would be able to hack into your computer, unless a virus messes with your security settings. Most hackers go after servers, not home PCs.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 17:42, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it is "normal"... the internet is infested with malware, botnets, all that stuf... SF007 (talk) 21:49, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

BOOT problem on my pc

I got a question. On my pc the boot is screwd up or something since GEEK SQUAD did a number on trying to fix my pc last year. The only way my pc boots "correctly" is with the WINDOWS OS CD on my pc to "start it up". I got a message saying to PRESS F1 F2 bs. Anyone know a way to fix it or give me step by step stuff to fix it , I dont want to screw up my pc more or anything. Rio de oro (talk) 16:50, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

What's the exact error message you see? One solution might be to boot from the Windows CD and start the Recovery Console, then type fixboot and fixmbr. That's assuming you're running XP, though.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 17:44, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Resource usage in C/UNIX/Solaris

Is there a way to find the total memory and processor usage with C in a UNIX based system? All I know is by process or by user. I need something like the CPU usage percentage and memory usage like you see in the task manager tabs. Thanks. Searching for unix c top doesn't really give me the results I want, unfortunately =P Worst case, parse the output with Python or Perl, but that seems to me like a roundabout way. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:12, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

There really isn't any standard unix API for that sort of information. Parsing top output will probably be the most portable and easiest. You could also check out Libgtop, but I dunno if it runs on Solaris. --Sean 19:12, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Our article on the Unix tool is called top (Unix). EdJohnston (talk) 19:19, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll have a look at Libgtop, but I would probably go with your original suggestion for portability. Good thing I picked up Python recently. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 20:01, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure Python has a module to get that information, à la Perl's Sys::MemInfo and friends. --Sean 23:10, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Viewing Flash video in Linux

I have a Flash video file (.flv). How can I view it in Linux? I tried Xine, but while the audio is all OK, the video starts out jumping all the time, and then degenerates entirely. Is there a stand-alone player or do I have to use a Flash plugin for Firefox? JIP | Talk 18:32, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

FLV files contain video, and the Flash plugin isn't needed. (Or at least I think so.) If I remember correctly, mplayer supports FLV. Here's a list of players that support FLV. --grawity 18:42, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, MPlayer works fine. JIP | Talk 19:05, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Introduction to Computers

Any component, inside or external, that adds new hardware capabilities to the basic design of a computer. For example, what is a hard drives, printers, mouse? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.113.22.192 (talk) 18:38, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I did not understand your question. What are you actually asking? JIP | Talk 18:40, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

A Hard drive is a mass storage medium that holds your files, operating system and other vital information to the working of your PC. a Printer is a product that takes text/images and prints them onto paper/other specific media. A Computer Mouse is a device for controlling a cursor on screen and allowing you to navigate easily and quickly across the file/menu structure of your PC - often referred to as a GUI (Graphic User Interface). For an introduction into how computers work you'd do worse than looking on www.howstuffworks.com and specifically their section on computers. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ . They are generally easy to understand the basic operation, but nigh on impossible to appreciate the geniuses that it took for them to be able to exist in the first place. ny156uk (talk) 18:50, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Together, they are called peripherals if that's what the OP was asking. GDonato (talk) 21:10, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

What was the cause of the 3GHz CPU ceiling?

I remember the Pentium 4 reached 4GHz many years ago. And only now are the AMD/Intel multi core processors back up to 3GHz. Was specifically happened that caused the industry to plateau at around 3GHz? Why don't we have 4, 6, or 10 GHz processors today? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 19:40, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Each core runs at 3 GHz, despite only being a 1/4 the size. A 3 GHz quad core is about the same as a 12 GHz single core. Moore's Law is still going; it's just doesn't look like it. Paragon12321 (talk) 19:43, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I was under the impression that multiprocessing is not linearly additive. Two 3 GHz cores ≠ One 6GHz CPU. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 19:50, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

It depends on workload. But, yeah, 2 cores at 3 Ghz won't automatically solve a single problem as fast as a single one at 6 Ghz. Heat is one big factor here- more clock speed generally means more heat. Clock speed can be compared to displacement in a car engine. In the old days, a fast car meant a big engine. Now, they focus on efficiency and less on "brute force" methods of attaining better performance. Friday (talk) 19:54, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

(after 2 ec) The reason in the past is because of heat, mainly, and diminishing returns for cranking up the clock. We don't have 4, 6, or 10 GHz processors today because clock speed is not a good measurement of performance at all. In some sense, for some applications, a 3 GHz quad core can execute as fast as a 12 GHz single core in the old style "frequency is everything!!!1", but I don't know what they're planning on doing after 3 GHz quad cores, since it's prettttttty darn hard to utilize 4 cores as it is. The PS3 has 7 cores and it's already a pain in the butt to program for, from what I hear. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 19:54, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

[ec] Ok, let's try to put things in order.

1. In terms of performance, for a non-parallelizable (serial) computation, 2-core 3GHz = 1-core 3GHz. For a completely parallelizable computation, 2-core 3GHz ≈ 1-core 6GHz. Actual usage will be a mix of parallelizable and serial computations, thus a 2-core 3GHz will have an effectiveness somewhere between 3GHz and 6GHz - where exactly depends on the usage pattern.
2. CPU manufacturers are probably having a difficulty obtaining higher stable frequencies, and found it easier to increase performance by adding cores. Those who rely on serial computations suffer.
3. GHz is not in itself a good measure for the performance of a CPU. Different CPUs have different architectures which allow them to perform different instructions in each clock cycle. I can say from my own experience that my Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz significantly outperformed my Pentium D 2.8 GHz (both dual-core). Again it boils down to adding instructions and improving efficiency turning out to be a better route than simply increasing the frequency. I believe the main reason for this is the large amount of heat generated by a circuit running at a high frequency.

-- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 20:06, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

A few more words. To some extent, typical computations tend to fall into the two extremes I mentioned. We have a fair share of applications that can run roughly 100 times as fast if you have a 100-core system. Since parallelism seems to be the dominant trend in hardware, we will likely see more such applications in the future. Thus I see no problem in manufacturers coming up with CPUs having more and more cores. However, I do wish they never forget that some computations just can't be parallelized, and that some users rely mostly on those. To them, 3GHz doesn't quite cut it, and it doesn't matter if they have a gazillion cores. I hope the trend will be one of the following:

1. CPUs improving steadily in both serial performance (which again, cannot always be quantified in terms of mere frequency) and number of cores.
2. Multi-core CPUs having different frequency per core (or group of cores). This way we will have both a high-frequency core for the serial computations, and a multitude of little-demanding cores for parallel ones.
3. Separate offers of low-frequency, many-core CPUs for those who need parallelism, and high-frequency, dual-core (you can always find a use for that extra core) CPUs for those needing serialism.

-- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 20:25, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like you need a v. small proc to run an OS (ie schedule programs etc) and a massive one to the the computations - like a fiddler crab eg 87.102.86.73 (talk) 21:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and another personal note - I was wondering about the exact same question a few months ago. When I purchased the E4500 I had no intention for it to surpass the D820. Only after the fact have I realized that clock frequency can only be used to compare performance between processors of the same family. Other than that, it's better viewed as a technical specification of the operation of the processor. What you really should be interested in is benchmarks measuring the performance of CPUs under typical usage scenarios. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 20:35, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

There is a maximum switching speed for transistors of a given size running at a given voltage (ie the 95nm / 65nm see 65_nanometer figure you see quoted) - this relates mostly to the capacitance - which is related to the area of the junctions in the transistors.. The switching speed can be considered to be roughly proportional to voltage. So increasing the voltage increases the speed.. But the resistive load is V²/R ie the resistive heat loss is related to Voltage squared.. This means that as the voltage is 'cranked up' the heat produced just gets much worse and worse - so there is a design that finds a compromise between these two factors. Also try to make the thing go any faster than 'what you get' and it becomes increasingly difficult to remove the heat. ie as mentioned above heat produced is the primary limiting factor.

Also note that for energy efficiency it's better to operate at a lower voltage ie a processor operating at 1V runs half as fast as the same at 2V but uses 1/4 of the power - this is one possible reason why the clock frequency game has become less important. Nevertheless it is possible to go higher eg POWER 6 processors can run at 4-5GHz - but need extra cooling. There's no fundamental limit at 3GHz.

Other factors include increased induction at higher frequencies - which add to the heat losses.

It's also possible to go faster by building smaller but leaving more space between transistors eg take a chip made at 95nm and build it at 65nm - but keep the die size the same - the transistors can be more spread out (since they are smaller at 65nm) and so heat is more easily dissapated - so it's easier to 'overclock'.

Apologies to those who where annoyed by any simplicfications they saw abvoe. Don't give up hope for 100GHz single CPUS.. They may still happen.87.102.86.73 (talk) 21:37, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Choosing a language

Which (programming) language would be ideal for a first-time programmer, or is it just a matter of opinion? Xenon54 21:52, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

It's a matter of opinion, but there are certainly languages you shouldn't start with -- APL, COBOL, and Malbolge come to mind. Common suggestions for a good first programming language are Java and Python. --Carnildo (talk) 22:06, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Don't use Malbolge; it doesn't support spawn.

Atlant (talk) 15:39, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree with Carnildo that it's a matter of opinion, with the shallower opinions advocating a particular language, and the deeper opinions advocating whether you should start by gaining a deep understanding of nuts and bolts and moving up to trusses and spans and eventually bridges, or whether it's OK to start out with only an abstract ideas of how bridges work and letting the language handle the details below. Both approaches have merit. If you're unsure that you really want to be a career programmer, I'd start at the abstract bridge level with a language like Java or Perl so that you can have the instant gratification of writing useful programs almost right away. If you're dead sure you want to be a programmer -- a really good one -- I'd start with the nuts and bolts in assembler language or C (programming language) and then move up the abstraction hierarchy so that you know what the hell's going on under the covers when you do something very high-level like print a list of people's names sorted by age with:

print for sort { $students{$a} <=> $students{$b} } keys %students

, which is actually doing many thousands of computer operations. Good luck! --Sean 23:40, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

• Sean and Carnildo both have excellent ideas. :) If I can add a bit, though: when choosing a first language (and, oddly enough, this is an issue that comes up a lot for me) the debate tends to be between languages good for learning in and languages good for programming in. In the former category you have languages like Alice and scripting languages such as Game Maker Language, which may have limited practical application, but provide a comfortable "in" to programming. In the second category, it really depends on what you want to code. If your aim is to be a professional programmer, Sean makes an excellent point, but keep in mind that Assembly and C are inherently scary (although the fundamentals they teach are wonderful if you want to be a really good programmer) - so you might also want to give higher level languages, such as Java and C# a shot. I'd lean towards Java and C# over Perl, simply because it is easier for a new programmer to learn object-oriented programming and then pick up procedural/functional/whatever coding, than to learn procedural coding and then move to OO. (Noting that OO is harder than procedural, but many people find it even harder to unlearn the other paradigms while they work to pick up OO). For web development, Perl, Ruby and PHP are all great choices, and JavaScript certainly won't go amiss. All are relatively easy to get into, have good online sources, and have immediate practical application. Other than that, I'd stay a tad clear of Visual Basic at the moment- the move from VB6 to VB.NET is tricky, and I think it is probably better to pick up C# in .NET and then move to VB.NET if needed than to try and do things the other way around. - Bilby (talk) 01:15, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Windows Live Messenger: Error 2771

Hello. I recently installed Windows XP Service Pack 3. When I login to Messenger 8.5 using Windows Live Sign-In Assistant, I get error 2771. I unsuccessfully tried reinstalling Messenger. How can I fix this? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 22:27, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

http://www.vistax64.com/live-messenger/129663-installer-error-2771-a.html

Looks like a common problem. Most of these people say reinstalls have worked (and that 2771 means a component is missing). Maybe you need to do a clean wipe (uninstall then install)? 24.68.246.113 (talk) 23:22, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Clean wipe? You don't mean a hard disk format, do you? 67.173.249.88 (talk) 23:49, 16 June 2008 (UTC) PS: I am not the OP. and I now see that you meant uninstall and reinstall. 67.173.249.88 (talk) 23:54, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

LOL, yeah maybe a hard disk format would help... Nah, try uninstalling, then going into the registry editor and taking out any reference to it, then reinstalling. 24.68.246.113 (talk) 00:10, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

WARNING: Editing the Registry should be done with utmost care. Please be very careful! Kushal (talk) 02:45, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling without luck. I went to Add/Remove Programs to find that there was no uninstall button for Messenger. I tried simply to reinstall it but the error is still there. --Mayfare (talk) 14:54, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

You could try installing a third party app that emulates Messenger. Exxolon (talk) 19:44, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Firefox

In Windows XP, how do you make Firefox add-ons work on all user's accounts? Thanks, *Max* (talk) 22:45, 16 June 2008 (UTC).

Just a guess, but try installing Firefox and all the add-ons as Admin. 71.164.115.161 (talk) 01:50, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Using the same user profile for all the users should almost certainly do the job. However, you might not want to do it for privacy reasons. If you are willing to share your user profile with all users of the computer, please let us know so that we can walk you through the process. Kushal (talk) 02:39, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

No, I want to let other users use add-ons that I downloaded without having to re-download them. *Max* (talk) 22:29, 17 June 2008 (UTC).

Making a Sharepoint document repository

I'm setting up some sharepoint workspaces for a small company (only 4 employees). It's WSS v3.0 (the newest one).

We'd like to host our documents on sharepoint because of things like version control and check in/out etc.

I've heard that taking a straight backup of the sharepoint files doesn't allow you to actually restore the whole site (all of the functionality and embedded stuff) very easily, and that if you want to do a good backup, you've gotta grab a Norton backup suite (or similar) for business, in the $500 range. Too expensive for us guys.

Is there an easy way to set up sharepoint to either use a document library or a list that saves the documents in a specific folder that can be easily backed up, but maintains all of the sharepoint functionality around those documents? (run-on sentence...) 24.68.246.113 (talk) 23:19, 16 June 2008 (UTC)