WillShattuck.com

Today I needed to delete some temp files that I had made some changes to for a user.  I received the error "Some files are in use.  Cannot delete folder".  This has plagued Windows users for as long as I can remember.

A while ago I came across this utility called Unlocker by Cedrick Nitch Collomb.  I didn’t have any use for it at the time so I just added it to my Del.icio.us account.  Well it found use today, and worked as advertised.  It gives the option to actually kill the process, but I just wanted to unlock the file so I clicked "Unlock All" and I was then able to delete the folder. 

TIP:  After installing, right click the System Tray Icon and uncheck "Autostart".  Since the installer adds a right-click context selection you don’t really need the program to autostart.

LINK: Unlocker by Cedrick Nitch Collomb

Hi all,

I’m a little slow on the uptake with Lockergnome.com.  Life became busy and I wasn’t able to keep up-to-date with Chris and Lockergnome in its transition from newsletter/rss to a multiblog/multiuser system.  Once I figured out what happened, I signed up for my own blog on Lockergnome.com.

The Tech Support Corner - Providing Support for the Every Day User

I’ll be providing tips, support ideas, and answers to questions that come up in the Every Day Computer User’s life.  I’ll do my best to answer in regular ol’ plain English and not a whole lot of techno-geek speak.

I’ll be doing my first post later today on "To Vista or Not To Vista"; should you purchase Vista if you have XP or just wait for a new computer, and other insights.

Take care. –Wil

In researching an issue at work i came across a Microsoft article that lists all the Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows XP.  There are times when it is just quicker to use the keyboard than the mouse.  Also note, that there are shortcuts for situations when you are connected via Terminal Services and Remote Desktop.

Today I was working on a friend’s computer as it had stopped working about a week before.  It turns out they had installed an update from AOL. It was their "updated connectivity" software.  During the install it apparently corrupted the TCP/IP (Internet Protocol) stack.  I knew I would need to use Google in the end, but wanted to give AOL the benefit of the doubt.

So I called AOL Tech Support.  Explained the situation (after being used as a ping pong ball between AOL and SBC DSL) to the technician.  After a while of discussion with the tech and the supervisor it turns out that AOL won’t help me fix the problem that the AOL software created.  Apparently it puts AOL into a position of liablity to fix the TCP/IP stack that was corrupted due to the "updated" connectivity software.  AOL’s solution was to have me call the manufacturer of the computer.  The issue here was the computer was out of warranty. 

So to make a longer story a bit shorter, I said "Thank you," to AOL for a lack of help, took the computer home, googled how to fix the issue.  Twenty minutes after I got home the issue was resolved, the most recent version of AOL was being downloaded, installed, tested and the system rebooted with Windows Updates.  It took me all of ten minutes to fix the TCP/IP issue.

Oh, you want to know the link?  Sure. Here is the Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

KB 817571: You receive an "An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket" error message when you try to connect to a network