[Not A Fix] Allow Blank Network Passwords [Not A Fix]

Hate memorizing all of those network users and passwords?
Don't care about security?
Then this is the article for you...

Notice: In newer XP's you cannot connect to a network share or computer with a blank password.

--- To Allow Blank Network Passwords ---
1) Goto Start > Run > secpol.msc
2) Goto Local Policies > Security Options
3) Look For "Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only"
(3rd one from the top)
4) Right click and select Properties

5) Select the radio button next to Disabled then click Ok
6) Close the Local Security Settings window

Hope That Helps!
-James Hartig

[Not A Fix] Update Your DNS To A Faster/Better One [Not A Fix]

Note: This is classified as an enhancement and not a "fix".

DNS- {Domain Name System}, an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses.
For more information: http://www.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm

(Note: Pictures may look different on my pictures than what you are seeing because my internet is "bridged" between two connections, however I will provide the steps for a standard setup and try to provide relevant pictures)

--- Upgrading Your DNS Servers (Windows XP) ---
1) Open Control Panel > Network Connections or
Control Panel > Network and Internet Connections > Network Connection
2) Right click on the "active" Connection and choose Status
Should be like "Local Area Connection"

(Note: For some reason, on some systems, the status screen will not open? Try double-clicking on the connection or follow the instructions below...)

3) Goto the Support tab and click on Details...
(Picture Below)

-- Alternate Way To Status Screen --
1) Goto Start > Run > cmd
2) Run ipconfig /All
3) Look at the correct information under the device you tried to open the "status screen" for
(Picture Below)
-- End Alternate Way --

4) Whether you are looking at the cmd window, or the status window, write down the "DNS Servers"
(Note: The information in the following examples do not represent "your" data, they are plainly examples)

Status Window

CMD Window

5) Go back to the Network Connections screen
(Open Control Panel > Network Connections or
Control Panel > Network and Internet Connections > Network Connection)

6) Right-click on the network connection you just looked up and this time choose properties.

7) Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

8) Click Properties
9) Choose "Use The Following DNS server addresses"
10) Click Advanced in the bottom right corner of the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties" window
11) Goto the DNS tab,

12) In the Add window type in the following numbers... then click Add
a)208.67.222.222
b)208.67.220.220
c) (any "DNS Servers" you wrote down from step 4)
d) (any "DNS Servers" you wrote down from step 4)
e) etc.

13)After entering the DNS Servers, click Ok three times (until you get back to the Network Connections window)
14) Windows might run a reconfig, repair, etc.

---- Continue Below With Windows XP ----

--- Upgrading Your DNS Servers (Windows Vista) ---
1) Open Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center
2) Under the "Network" Section, across from "Connection", press "View Status"

3) Click on Details...
(Picture Below)

4) Whether you are looking at the cmd window (yes, you can use the cmd config from above), or the status window, write down the boxed data (IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DNS Server(s))
(Note: The information in the following examples do not represent "your" data, they are plainly examples)

Status Window

5) Go back to the Connection Status Window and click "Properties"

6) Press "Continue" on the "Windows needs your permission to continue." window

7) Select 'Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)'

8) Click Properties
9) Choose "Use The Following DNS server addresses"
10) Click Advanced in the bottom right corner of the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties" window

11) Goto the DNS tab,

12) In the Add window type in the following numbers... then click Add
a)208.67.222.222
b)208.67.220.220
c) (any "DNS Servers" you wrote down from step 4)
d) (any "DNS Servers" you wrote down from step 4)
e) etc.

13)After entering the DNS Servers, click Ok three times (until you get back to the Network Connections window)
14) Wait while Windows reconfigures your connection...

---- Continue Point For XP and Vista ----

15) Once Windows is done, open up your internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, AOL, Safari) and navigate to http://www.opendns.com/
a) If you see, under the top orange bar,

"You're using OpenDNS. Thanks! You are now navigating the Internet safer, faster, smarter and more reliably than ever before."

then you are all set!
b) if you do not (try a restart), then continue...

16) Make sure you entered your information correctly. If you think you have, then try right-clicking on your "connection" in the Network Connections window and choose repair.
17) Are all of the other websites working (google, yahoo, etc.)?
If so, then it might be because your router's DNS Servers are not set to OpenDNS, look at your router's instructions for help with that.
18) Make sure on the "Status" screen or the cmd window, that it shows
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
under your DNS Servers.

Hope That Helps!
-James Hartig

Cannot See Your USB Device?

Did you plug in a USB device (storage) such as a flash drive, memory card, mp3 player, phone, etc and you don't see its "drive" in My Computer?

This may be a problem with your drive mappings or a driver problem.

I will explain the drive mappings ( drive letter) and will explain how to see the driver error.

(Remember, clicking on an image, will open a new window/tab hopefully increasing the size and ability to understand it better!)
--- Assigning A Drive Letter ---
1) Plug In Your Device! and make sure, if its the first time, that you see something like

2) Check In My Computer for the device, if not found...
3) Goto Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc
4) Select a disk without a drive letter already assigned, and one that is "REMOVABLE"!



4) Choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths..."
5) Click Add
6) Choose a drive letter (not A: or B: (floppy drives) or C: through E: (cd/dvd drives & hard drives), the default drive should be sufficient.

7) Click Ok Twice
8) Your diskmgmt.msc window should now look like the following...

Note: If you received a type of error, please email me @

9) Now in My Computer there should be your drive

--- If Your Device Is Not Listed ---

1) Make sure it is plugged in...
2) Open Start > Run > devmgmt.msc
3) Check for any "errors" and attempt to fix them
4) If you are having trouble, feel free to once again, email me @

5) Try reinstalling the "drivers" supplied with your device (optional)


Thanks For Reading! Hope It Helps!
-James Hartig

Windows Driver Uninstall: "Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer."

Solution for receiving the following error message:

"Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer."
When trying to uninstall devices...

(Click on certain images, if they are hard to read.)
---- Solution 1 ----
(Will Remove Driver For Good!)
(More Advanced, if you are not sure, please comment!, screwing up the registry is sometimes irreversible)
Open device manager (either from control panel or type 'devmgmt.msc' in Run...)
Right click on the device that you are tying to uninstall
Choose 'Properties'
Goto 'Details' Tab

Make Note of the Boxed Region In the Following Image (the "code")
(Format, if no image, ???\??????????\?????????)
(Note: the whole phrase will need to be noted, you can just leave this window in the background)

Open Regedit (Start -> Run -> regedit)
Goto "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum"

Now the noted "Code" comes into use...
Within Enum, goto the "folder" that first appears in the "code"
For the above example I would expand/goto the folder HID
Then from within that folder expand/choose the next part (after first '\') of the "code"
Then, if applicable, choose the sub-folder (following the 2nd '\') of the "code"

For the example above (HID\VID_413C&PID_2003\6&348914A4&0&000), I would choose

Right click on the "folder" and choose delete.
(Note: If there is only one sub-folder, go one folder up! (VID_413C&PID_2003)
If you get a security access error, please continue, if not then congrats, your driver is successfully deleted.

-- Security Access Fix --

Right click on the "folder" that you tried to delete
Select "Permissions..."
Choose 'Everyone'
Check "Full Control" under "Allow"



Click "Apply"
Now try to delete the "folder" again and should successfully delete!

If you are having trouble with any of the above steps, please comment!
If this successfully fixed you problem, feel free to comment also!


---- Solution 2 ----
(Quick and Dirty, Not Recommended!)
Open device manager (either from control panel or type 'devmgmt.msc' in Run...)
Right click on the device that you are tying to uninstall
Choose 'Update Driver'

Then choose:
Install From Specific Location

Click Next
Choose "Don't Search, I will choose the driver to install."
Click Next
Choose a Random Driver from the category of your current device.
(NOT RECOMMENDED!!)


The second solution, was mainly for advanced users, with an alternate idea of how to do it, it was not intended to be a step-by-step instruction.

Thanks For Reading! Hope It Helps!
-James Hartig

Windows XP Problem: "Your current security settings do not allow this action"

Fix For "Your current security settings do not allow this action" when working with Networked Files.

When trying to Copy or Drag & Drop Or Transfer files from network share to Local computer.

Common on Windows XP SP3 with IE7 Updates

This problem has been fixed by Microsoft and only showed up if you were testing a pre-release version of SP3.

Get this error...
"Your current security settings do not allow this action"




or
"This page has an unspecified potential security risk. Would you like to continue?"



when trying to copy/open a network file/folder to your local computer.

Possible fix:

----Check to see if its a Windows Problem...----
(not required, unless the fix below doesn't work, then comment with the results from both)
1) Get the path to the Network Share File In Explorer
2) Start -> Run -> cmd
3) Type in...
XCOPY "" "C:\" /V
Note: After typing XCOPY " drag and drop the file into the cmd window and it will paste the path for you, then remember to close with " then type "C:\" [with quotes] and then /V

if you get a successful notice then continue to next section
if not then this may not be the right site for you and I would look into the permissions on C:\ and on the network share...
1) Open My Computer
2) Tools -> Folder Options -> View
3) Uncheck Last option, "Use Simple File Sharing"
4) Access your network share in Explorer by either \\ or \\
5) Open the correct share, Select all folders and right click, choose Properties
6) Goto the security setting...
7) Check all users, if any users have deny boxes checked (not allow, deny!) uncheck them and try again to copy the file
8) If still unsuccessful, it might be the shared folder computer or many other things, a google search should help more, sorry


----Actual Fix For This Problem!----
--Windows XP and Newer--
1) Open "Internet Explorer 7"
1a) if you have IE6 then this fix will not work/possible please try another site
(If you have Windows 2003/2000 or below, this issue should not be affecting you, however, if it is then please skip down to the next section)
2) Tools -> Internet Options
3) Goto the "Security" tab
4) Change Internet & Local Interact Zones To Default if the "Default Level" option is possible
5) Goto "Local Interact" section
6) Choose Sites
Box Should Look Like



Change to...


7) Click Ok
8) Click Ok Again
9) Close IE7
10) Try to transfer file again...

--Windows 2003/2000 And Below--
(Thanks to Raja)
This is for people that have IE7 on a Windows 2003/2000 or below version.
1) Open "Internet Explorer 7"
1a) if you have IE6 then this fix will not work/possible please try another site
2) Tools -> Internet Options
3) Goto the "Security" tab
4) Goto "Internet Zone" section
5) Then click on "Custom Level"
6) Scroll down to "Miscellaneous" and find the option, "Launching Applications and Unsafe Files"
7) Change that setting to 'Prompt'
8) Click Ok
9) Click Ok Again
10) Close IE7
11) Try to transfer file again...


If it works congrats, please post a comment
If it doesn't work, please post a comment with new or same error, Windows Version and IE7 version, etc.

Hope that helps!

-James Hartig