24bit wav audio player

Only WMP12 delivered with Win7 is capable of playing 24 bit audio files.
A good alternative is xmplay which you can download from http://www.un4seen.com/

Epson V33 scanner change language

Even after choosing the English language during installation of the Epson software
(See: C:\Program Files\epson\escndv\setup\setup.ini file:  DefaultLocale=0809)
it came back with Dutch.
It turned out it was the twain software playing up so I checked the folder:
C:\Windows\twain_32\escndv\es00ad\local

from there I removed  the following folders containing the languages I would never use:
0C0A, 040C, 0401, 0410, 0413 (=dutch), 0419, 0422, 0816
(Checking which folder is which language was easy: just open the .chm file belonging to the above mentioned folders)

Now if I start "Epson Scan" it is in English!

see what causes ASIO spikes

Found 2 articles on how to check which is causing these ASIO spikes within your DAW:
Xperf:
1. http://www.windowsitpro.com/print/performance/examining-xperf.aspx
2. http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/06/27/an-intro-to-xperf.aspx

LatencyMon:
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Firefox Remove plug-in manually

If you can't use an uninstaller program to remove a plugin, you can remove it manually:

   1. In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter.
   2. Search for the preference: plugin.expose_full_path.
   3. Double-click on the plugin.expose_full_path preference in the list to change the value to true.
   4. Enter about:plugins into the Location bar to display the About Plugins page.
   5. Each entry in this page will have "File name:" followed by a path.
Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder shown for the plug-in you want to remove.
   6. Rename file to something other than its normal name - e.g. npswf32 becomes Xnpswf32

The plug-in will be removed.

Install flash player without DLM

(source: http://texhex.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-or-install-flash-player-without.html)

As Adobe has released a new version of Flash Player today, I thought I should share how you can update or install Flash Player without using Adobe Download Manager (DLM).

Simply use the link for the browser you want to update below. You can also bookmark them as they will always return the current version.

For Internet Explorer
http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe

For any other browser (Firefox etc.)
http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe

To test if the installation was successful and if you have the updated version, go to this page:
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

Total Commander does not sort directories

Solution:
Goto Configuration/Options/Display Sorting directories 
Choose Like files 

Vista printer spooler service stopped

Vista nagged me with print spooler service is no longer working. Restarting stopped it after a few minutes again. MS Fix-it didn't help but I found this and it worked.

Solution:
Go to  %SystemRoot%\Windows\System32\Spool. In this folder I renamed the 'PRINTERS' folder to PRINTERSold

Printer appears offline in Vista

Even though the printer is up and running the status shown in Vista is Offline and printing is not possible.
Remedy: change WSD port to a standard tcp/ip port and disable snmp

WinToFlash

Source: http://wintoflash.com/download/en/
WinToFlash is a software for transfer your Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7 setup from CD or DVD to USB in some mouse clicks. This is about you can install your Windows from flash drive, USB pen, HDD, etc to your computer or netbook.

And this is not all it can do. WinToFlash can transfer your live CD or DVD to USB card, for example, BartPE. After all you can erase your USB media and format it with Windows for every day use.

disable McAfee splashscreen at windows startup

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\DesktopProtection
Select "bSkipSplash" (in the Data value you should see 0x00000000).

Change the Value data to 1 and click ok

telnet client not installed on Vista and WIN7

To install Microsoft telnet client:
1. Click Start then select Control Panel.
2. Select Programs and Features.
3. Select Turn Windows features on or off.
4. Select the Telnet Client option.
5. Click OK.

change desktop font color in WIN7

Sometimes your icon text is not visible, for example on a white background wallpaper. The trick to get your Icon text readable again is to change the background color: 

Go to Control Panel -> Personalization -> Window Color, select Desktop, change color 1 to white". 

(select white if you want black text and black for white text)

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

source: http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool
Tool for making a bootable USB-stick with just an ISO

Installation

To install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool:

1. Click to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool installation file.
2. When you are prompted to either save the file to disk or run it, choose Run.
3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You'll have the option to specify where to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Note: You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool on. The tool requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher.

System Requirements 

• 
  
  Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• 
  
  Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• 
  
  50MB of free space on your hard drive
• 
  
  DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive

Mount VHD without VHDmount, using diskpart

(Source:http://blogs.technet.com/daven/archive/2009/01/16/vhdmount-without-vhdmount.aspx)

To mount a VHD file onto your file system, you either ran some very complicated VB (or PowerShell) Script or you usedVHDMount.exe that came with Virtual Server.  If you’re running Windows 7 (or Windows Server 2008 R2), you can now use Diskpart.

From an elevated command prompt, run Diskpart.

Select the VHD in question: sel vdisk file="c:\users\daven\desktop\xp professional.vhd"

Then attach it to your system: attach vdisk

Chrome: edit Google search engine

1) Open "Edit search engines"
2) Select "Google" and hit "edit"
3) Now select the 3rd row ("URL") and copy it and close the window
4) Hit "Add". Type whatever you like in "Name" and "keyword".
5) In "URL" paste the copied text and replace "{google:baseURL}" with "http://www.google.com/" the click OK
6) Select your new google engine and make it default
7) Remove old google entry
7) Done!>>

windows explorer stopped working

Source: http://www.computertooslow.com/windows-explorer-has-stopped-working.asp

My Computer > click on "Organize" tab (top left) > folder and search options > view tab. Check "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option and uncheck "Display file icon on thumbnails". 
This stops windows from generating the images and solved the problem

Windows 7 Open All Users

Open All Users
In Vista you can Open All Users by Right clicking the Start Orb but in WIN7 it's a little different: Open the start menu and Right click on All Programs and you have the option from there.