Logitech C920 - Not Recognized by Windows 11

For me, the issue was caused by the USB ports. The webcam would not work on the USB hub that I was using with my laptop, a ThinkPad, and it would only work on certain ports on the ThinkPad USB-C Dock Gen 2.

Windows 10 Polish Key Combinations

Install the Polish language pack. Then use the following key combinations for the Polish characters:

Right-Alt + Z = ż
Right-Alt + X = ź
Right-Alt + S = ś
Right-Alt + C = ć
Right-Alt + L = ł
Right-Alt + O = ó
Right-Alt + E = ę
Right-Alt + A = ą
Right-Alt + N = ń

Windows - Microsoft Edge browser pops up after logging in

I've been dealing with this issue on a new laptop and had an aha moment this morning. The lock screen settings in MS Windows might cause the browser to open after you log in when the lock screen preview background is set to Windows spotlight. This behavior seems to be inconsistant.

Tomcat - CertificateFile must be defined when using SSL with APR error

Setting Tomcat to use SSL and I was getting the "Connector attribute SSLCertificateFile must be defined when using SSL with APR" error. Had to disable APR in server.xml as follows:

  <!--
  <Listener className="org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener" SSLEngine="on" />
  -->

Running vprtmupd.exe To Update Vertex

It took me a while to figure it out. I couldn't find any information on how to run this in the supplied documents. The image below shows how I ran this from the command prompt:

When I tried running this by just executing the exe, the command promt would open and after I entered the path for the data I would get an error saying "Unable to establish a connection with the Payroll Tax Database."

Fixed Dell Latitude Display Flickering

I was having problems with the external displays that I use with my Dell Latitude E7440. At work they would flicker, and at home one would flicker and the other would stop working after about two hours. I updated the video drivers and BIOS and the problem gone.

Dell makes it easy to update your drivers. Just go to the Dell support web site and you will find all of the latest drivers for your laptop.

Windows 8, 32 bit Install

Installed Windows 8 32 bit on a solid state drive in my Pentium 4 desktop. There were a few issues I ran into with the install, mainly because the system doesn't have a DVD player. What I had to do is put the drive in my laptop and install it there, and then put the drive back in the desktop. It worked but wouldn't recognize my desktop's USB network adapter, an old Linksys WUSB54G! So I put the drive back in my laptop where the internal network adapter worked just fine and I connected to my home network. Then I plugged in the Linksysadapter and Windows detected it and downloaded and installed the driver. I put the drive back in my desktop and I'm up and running and connected to the Internet! Once the Linksys was working I was also able to get an Alfa AWUS036H and a Netgear WNDA3100 running! When I connected each adapter, Windows 8 detected and installed the new device!

Windows 7 - Would Not Start

Restarted my laptop yesterday morning and it could not start Windows. Here's how I fixed it.

I tried booting into safe mode but it got stuck at loading "Classpnp.sys".

I put my Windows 7 DVD in the drive and booted from the DVD. After it installed it's files and I got to the install screen I selected repair in the lower left corner. It ran saying it was searching for installs even though it listed my install. I finally had to power it off after two hours because it wasn't getting anywhere.

It was clear I wasn't going to get anywhere on my laptop so I took the hard drive out and attached it externally to another computer. The drive showed up OK so I ran "CHKDSK" on it. When "CHKDSK" finished I put the drive back into my laptop.

Back on my laptop I booted from the DVD and ran repair. This time it was able to find my install! It took about a half hour to run but eventually the repair finished.

I booted into Windows and I was able to log in. The start-up was really slow and not getting anywhere fast so I powered off the laptop and started Windows in safe mode.

The laptop booted into safe mode just fine. I opened a command prompt as administrator and ran "sfc /scannow". It finished and the message said that there were some files it was not able to repair.

I restarted the laptop and booted into Windows. This time it started up just fine! I checked the hard drive and noticed I had almost double the free space that I had when I last looked at it a couple of days ago. Obviously there are some files were corrupted. So far everything is working OK but I do realize that this hard drive cannot be trusted and I need to get a new hard drive.

Microsoft Silverlight Video Will Not Play

I was attempting to watch a video on SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services and couldn't get the video to play on any browsers, IE, Firefox, Chrome, or Opera. In my case the problem was caused by the sound settings on my laptop, which I discovered by trying to play a Flash video on YouTube. The Flash videos played but there was no sound. Changing my sound settings in the Control Panel fixed the problem and the Silverlight videos played. It's odd that a bad sound setting causes the Silverlight videos to not play at all.

Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector

Just discovered this connector for Outlook. If you use Outlook and have a Hotmail account this is a nice add-on to have.
Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector overview - Outlook - Office.com

Windows Live Writer

This is a test post to my Blog using Windows Live Writer. You can get it at Windows Live Essentials.

Windows - Making A Slideshow

I made this slideshow using Photo Story 3 and this Prism. Photo Story 3 isn't overloaded with features, making it very easy to use.