Windows and Cisco ASA5505 Problems…

When trying to download a file that is auto-generated on the fly by a PHP script I wrote that sends excel headers, Internet Explorer users were getting the error:

Windows Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer cannot download [filename] from [website].
Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.

This is caused by doing a session_start(). If you don’t actually need a the session in your php file you can remove it, and IE users will be able to download whatever your PHP script is making. The problem is session_start() by default sends a cache control header including “no-store”. Internet Explorer has a bug with sending a cache header.

If you need the session, then before session_start(), add “session_cache_limiter(‘none’);”

Problem solved!

I had a Windows XP computer with an HP 1020 printer that would suddenly not print. The Printers and Faxes window was empty. If you go into the Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services and right-click Print Spooler, you’ll see the option to start is available, because the service is stopped. When I started the service, the printers appeared again but the service would stop again before I could do anything else.

In the event viewer, you’ll see the following error message:

Event ID 7031 or 7034
The Print Spooler service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 60000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

OR

Event ID 1004
Faulting application spoolsv.exe, version 5.1.2600.5512, faulting module ZSR.DLL, version 6.20.1625.0, fault address 0x0001f979.

First, I installed the hotfix here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953546. This didn’t seem to work, but I can’t believe that what I did next was all that was required to solve the problem.

1. Unplug the USB connection to the local printer, in this case an HP Deskjet 1020.
2. Restart the computer
3. The printers now show up, because the Print Spooler has stopped terminating unexpectedly!
4. Two printers had jobs in the queue, the unplugged local printer and a network printer. Clear all the print queues.
5. Reconnect the USB connection.
6. Restart, print stuff, everything should be working normally!

Let me know via comment or the contact tab at the top if this doesn’t solve your problem.

Update: Problem did return. I did the unplug the HP 1020′s usb connection trick to make the printers show up, deleted the old driver, and installed a new driver from HP. Seems to be working now.

UPDATE 2: Problem did return, again! I have applied two changes, and now the printer has been working for some time. Probably you only need to do one of these two things, but I haven’t taken the time to test which is the actual fix. If you figure it out, please post a comment!

First thing to try: (the likely fix) Bypass the Print Spooler.

The crappy HP printer driver is causing the print spooler to crash, so don’t have that printer use the printer spooler. You will notice that the application that is printing will “hang” or display a print dialog longer than normal with this change. Not ideal, but better to have a working printer, right?

1. Click Start, Printers and Faxes.
2. Right-click the HP 1020 printer, click “Properties.”
3. Click the “Advanced” tab.
4. Click the “Print Processor” button.
5. Make sure “ZimfPrint” is highlighted on the left, and “RAW” is highlighted on the right.
6. Click OK.
7. Click the Radio button for “Print directly to the printer.”
8. Click OK.

You have completed the first thing to try. I did both of these things, though as I’ve said that may not be necessary…

Thing Two: Disable DEP (Data Execution Prevention)

1. Right-click “My Computer,” click “Properties.”
2. Click the “Advanced” tab.
3. Click the “Settings” button under Performance.
4. Click the “Data Execution Prevention” tab.
5. Click the radio button for: “Turn on DEP for all Programs Execept those I select:”
6. Select the HP Laserjet 1020 Series Status Application by clicking “Add…” and browsing for: “c:\windows\system32\ZSHP1020.exe.”
7. Also select the “Spooler SubSystem App.” If it is not already listed, click “Add…” and browse to “C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe”
8. Also select the “Windows Explorer.” If it is not already listed, click “Add…” and browse to “C:\Windows\explorer.exe”
9. Click “OK” twice.

Done! Reboot the computer, make sure your printer is plugged in, and send things to print to the printer. Now, you should be print-problem free!

So a user was complaining that her Microsoft Word 2007 install wasn’t error checking. Of course it worked into 2003, but after the upgrade Word’s spell checker would not highlight misspelled words. It does underline repeated words, which I found strange. Also strange was that when I was logged in as another user (in this case, the administrator), Spell Check worked fine.

Outlook 2007 no longer uses Word 2007 directly for edits, but they do share the same proofing tools. Which for some reason this system didn’t update a registry key properly. Here’s the steps to fix!

1. Close Word and Outlook
2. Click Start, then run, then type in ‘regedit’
3. Browse to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0
4. Delete the 1.0 key and sub keys!
5. Start Word. Spell check should now be highlighting misspelled words.

When installing some software, I got the error:

This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator.

Make sure that windows installer service is running. Also, there are local security policy settings and registry keys that can prevent you from running MSI files. This was not problem here. All I had to do was copy the cd to a directory on my hard drive and run the installer from there. Violla! Installation is no longer forbidden! I believe that instead of the system policy being the problem, this program needed write access to the installation directory.

Wow, so this one stumped me. If you have two Word 2007 Windows open at the same time, when you switch from one to the other, either by alt+tab or by viewing them side by side and clicking one then the other and you get the hourglass, then this might solve your problem.

My clients were having the slowdown after upgrading to Word 2007. But we have Adobe CS2, and some clients that just have Adobe Acrobat 7 installed. The problem is that there is an Adobe Pluggin in Word causing the slowdown, and not that Virusscan is scanning files for viruses on file opens or some other nonsense.

To disable The Acrobat PDFMaker addin, follow these steps:

1. Log in as Administrator.
2. Open Microsoft Office 2007.
3. Click the Office Button in the upper left.
4. Click Word Options in the lower right.
5. Click Add-Ins on the left.
6. At the bottom, make sure ‘Com Add-ins’ is selected in the Manage: drop down and click Go…
7. Un-check ‘Acrobat PDFMaker Office COM Addin’ (Or whatever you think might be making Word 2007 slow).
8. Click Ok.
9. Close Word.
10. Open Two Word Windows. Now you can switch back and forth instantly!

This will work for all users on the system!