Torpify

I have a habit of making a post if I find a solution to a computer problem I am having, and this is no exception.

Recently I’ve found uTorrent downloads to stop downloading with the following error message: “Error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process”.

The problem apparently occurs when uTorrent flushes its file handles. This causes uTorrent to release the files, and other processes can access them, and in some cases for so long that uTorrent is not able to further edit them. This causes uTorrent to stop downloading and display an error as mentioned above.

This problem could be caused by one or more of the following (as stated in the official uTorrent FAQ):

• File indexing software, or software that includes such feature.
• Anti-virus software doing real-time scans on the files you are downloading.
• You are viewing the files and Explorer (explorer.exe) is creating thumbnails for certain media files (pictures, movies etc).
• The file(s) you are downloading to are somehow set to Read-only.

Software that includes file indexing features are many. Some of the most popular ones are Google Desktop, MSN Desktop. Also mentioned in the FAQ are WinZip Quickfind, Nero Scout and Roxio Media Manager.

File indexing software also was the problem on my account, however, I have not installed any of the above mentioned programs. So I downloaded SysInternals Process Monitor and did an event search for the filename I was downloading to. I found that the process wmpnetwk.exe is the sinner. This process updates your Media Sharing library in Windows Media Player. In my case it is enabled to share media with Xbox 360. If you have the same problem as me, check out if this process is running, and try and disable it.

For more information, visit the official uTorrent FAQ.

I had this little problem when running uTorrent. When I was download or uploading at pretty much any speed, I could not browse the internet, whether I was using Opera, Firefox or IE. My friend Noel over at NoelsReality had the same problem, and we found a solution.

It’s Nod32 that apparently can’t scan the http traffic quick enough, and then chokes http traffic because bittorrent traffic takes all the resources. We tried the solution posted by the user zaid786 on Wilders Security Forums, and it worked. I quick walkthrough follows:

1. Open Nod32 interface and click F5 for advanced setup
2. On the left hand menu find Web access protection and expand
3. Expand HTTP and click on Web browsers
4. In the right hand list locate uTorrent and make sure it is marked with a cross (x). Not empty or ticked (v). Just click the box untill it’s crossed
5. Chose ok, and you’re done

Hope this helps

After a few lazy days at work (Disclaimer: mind you, I’m not lazy, there have just been a few days with excessive waiting) I have become somewhat of a solitaire and minesweeper addict. And despite me not wanting to bring work home, I leaped up from the coach earlier today screaming MINESWEEPER, just as if I waked from a nightmare. Ok, I’m exaggerating a wee bit, but you get my drift

I pressed the windows button and wrote “winmine” just to see “No items match your search.”. WHAT!? What about “minesweeper”? Nope! My SherlockInside(TM) tingled. The quest for windows minigames had begun …

So here’s how you do it:

1. Click the Windows button (formerly known as Start)
2. Open Control Panel
3. Click Programs
4. Click Turn Windows features on or off and wait a minute while the windows loads
5. Find Games in the list (assuming you have an english version).
6. Either check the Games category to select all games, or expand it to chose only the games you want.
7. With the proper games checked, click OK and “Please wait while the features are configured“.
8. Click the Windows button
9. Click All programs
10. Click Games
11. Enjoy

I recently experienced a problem with Windows Photo Gallery, using Windows Vista. It somehow added some yellow tinge/overlay to all my pictures. That is, it didn’t add it to the pictures physically but displayed them that way, as can be seen in the screenshot under. I did some good old digging on the Internet and found a solution on the MSDN board. If you have the same problem shown in the picture below, check out the third post in this thread (Update 17.4.08: I now noticed this thread is either moved or deleted) for info on how to fix it. The problem is a result of Windows Photo Gallery having problems with certain colour profiles (ICC profiles). Installing new profiles from, in this example, Adobe should solve the problem. Thanks goes out to the user “Dan” for this!

The process is recreated here for easy reading:

1. Download newest ICC profiles from Adobe here. (If you feel like it, you can also download Adobe Color Management Module)
2. Copy all profiles to C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color
3. Enter Color Management settings in Windows (Display settings > Advanced settings > Color management > Color management button)
4. Check “Use my settings for this device” after selecting your display (if you have more than one, that is)
5. Click “Add…” and select profile “sRGB IEC61966-2.1″ (I guess, eventually, Adobe will update it, probably changing the two latter numbers, for instance -3.0 etc). Click OK
6. With the new profile selected click “Set as Default Profile”
7. Dan suggests to delete your old monitor profile, but I am unsure whether this is necessary
8. Reboot, and that should do the trick

Hope this is helpful!

Update: I came across a Microsoft official support article about this. It can be found here.

Johnny Dread, an EVE Online player, created a program called Eve Skill Pocket for use with Windows Mobile devices. As I recently acquired myself one I wanted to have a go at ESP. In the original thread over on eve-online.com some people asked for easier ways to create and add their xml file. Instead of adding my vote for that I decided to have a go at developing such program myself. Visit the software page for more info (or click here if you’re lazy).

And as allways, any feedback is very much appreciated!

In short I have a problem with a specific application. Suggestions have it that the problem is a result of my user account name. It contains an é as in André (my name). Thus I want to change my account name to something else, for instance Torpify. I know I can change the user name through user account management and through the control userpasswords2 dialog. However, neither of these settings really change my profile name, other than the actual displayed name. Sort of like an alias.

I have considered the following options:

• Create a new account and transfer my Appdata there.
• Move my Appdata folder and edit the registry to reflect this change.

To be honest I don’t find any of those solutions to be satisfactory. First option would surely not include all my settings etc. giving me lots of hassle setting my Vista installation up to how it was. The second option is a bit risky in my opinion, and out of experience, few things works well after doing too much editing in the registry.

So, does anyone know another solution? Unfortunately I can not edit the program causing this to be an issue, since that would obviously be the best solution.

These types of 2d barcodes have become increasingly popular on webpages having mobile content. With a mobile phone you can then “scan” this barcode and it will provide some information to your mobile phone, for instance <send message containing “Torpify rules” to “1234”>. Pretty sweet. The barcode below only contain the url to this site, so if you scan it with your phone it will tell your phone to open “http://www.torpify.net” in its browser :-). It could potentially save you loads of time typing on your mobile phone, which we all know can be quite tedious sometimes. Try it out!

I downloaded a pretty good S60 (Symbian OS) barcode scanner from http://reader.kaywa.com, but I believe Nokia have made one for their phones.