Tag Archive: Microsoft

Security Centre Could Not Change Automatic Update Settings – Windows XP

Author: 12 July 2012 0 Comments

Had a very annoying problem with Automatic Update & Security Centre on Windows XP earlier today.

Had the red icon warning that automatic updates were turned off. Clicked the icon which opens Windows Security Centre tried to enable Automatic Updates but wouldn’t work instead it gave me a lovely message stating

“Security Centre Could Not Change Automatic Update Settings”

… very helpful!

I found out that somehow Windows XP had gone a little screwy on the Windows Update side of things and more importantly i found out how to get Windows Update & Security Centre talking nicely to each other.

Here’s how I fixed this problem:

Click Start, select Run  (or hold WinKey + R) and type:

regsvr32 wuapi.dll

Press enter after this and wait for the success message

“DllRegisterServer in filename.dll succeeded”

Then do the same for all the files below:

regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll

Hope this helps you. If it does give me a tweet and let me know :)
If not, i guess it’s back to Google for you!

 

Note: There may be another reason for this…

If, when visiting the Windows Update website and searching for available updates, you see the 0x8007043B error

This error may occur if WUAUSERV and BITS services are not configured correctly in the windows registry.
See Microsoft article here: http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/v5consumer/showarticle.aspx?articleid=19&ln=en

General, Tech, Windows

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Sync USB Hard Drive on Vista – Sync Center Sucks

Author: 9 April 2009

So i got myself a nice big 1.5TB USB External Hard Drive and wanted to sync folders in my Documents folder to that drive for safekeeping.

Easy right? Just use Vista’s SyncCenter? Well you can’t. Sync Center is only for network folder synchronisation and other “compatible” devices not most USB hard drives and memory sticks.

Luckily i discovered Microsoft’s SyncToy, an incredibly easy to use and uncomplicated folder sync application.

Just download SyncToy from the link below and install.

Download SyncToy 2.0 from Microsoft

Once installed, go to “Start” > “Programs” and click the  “SyncToy 2.0” Icon.

It’s pretty self explanatory to setup folder synchronisation, click “create a new folder pair” and choose the two folders you want to syncronise to each other.

Easy!

General

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Microsoft Banning XBox Live “Gay” Gamertags

Author: 22 May 2008

Ok so i read this article about the Xbox Live user whose gamertag was barred because it violated XBL policies (you can’t have a sexual term in your name, regardless of sexual orientation). The incriminating gamertag was “RichardGaywood”. I can’t help but think that Microsoft’s policy is a little flawed. I know they have to appease everyone who uses their service and I know that there are some incredibly sensitive people on this planet

Microsoft’s Stephen Toulouse referred to the XBL Terms of Use in explaining why the user “TheGAYERGamer” received a ban, stating:

“Gamertags are visible to everyone and it would be hard for me to defend to a parent of a young child who saw it that the name did not contain content of a sexual nature.”

Surely it’s only offensive to someone who knows what this word means, a young child surely wouldn’t find this offensive even if he/she knew what it meant they’d probably find it funny and have a giggle about it. I believe it’s the parents who are over sensitive about things like this. I am also aware that there are a number of homophobes who may find anything to do with the word “gay” offensive but try and remember that the word gay actually means happy among other non-sexual things

By all means report anything you believe to violate the policy to XBL but if, as in the Richard Gaywood example, the person in question can actually prove that this is his/her real and legal name, it should be allowed to remain as their Gamertag and the person who complained should be notified that this is the case.

What other names/words could Microsoft ban gamertags for containing?

General

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