I keep running into this issue and found this on this forum

1. End Task on EXPLORER.EXE from Task Manager.

2. Start the Registry Editor

3. Look for the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{EF87B4CB-F2CE-4785-8658-4CA6C63E38C6}\TopViews\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

4. Rename the key so it looks like the following:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{EF87B4CB-F2CE-4785-8658-4CA6C63E38C6}\TopViews\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}.BACKUP

5. From Task Manager click on File | New Task (Run) and type EXPLORER.EXE and hit return.

6. Now try your search from the Start Menu again.

If the above process doesn’t work for you, you can always put it back the way it was by reversing the process above.

I don’t understand exactly what this key is controlling, but hopefully someone else can shed some light on why this works.

I have run into this at least 4 times so far and have no idea why it keeps happening.

I also have no idea why the word wrap on the above works on Firefox but not on IE8.

This should work on Windows 7 and Vista

Right Click the desktop and select New Create Shortcut

Enter the following in the location of the item

mstsc /v:remote

Where “remote” is the computer you want to connect to

Click Next

Name the shortcut something memorable

Click Finish

You should now have an icon on the desktop.

Other parameters:
[for experienced users only]

mstsc.exe {ConnectionFile|/v:server} [/console] [/f] [/w:width /h:height]
mstsc.exe /edit”ConnectionFile”
mstsc.exe /migrate

Parameters:

ConnectionFile : Specifies the name of an .rdp file for the connection.
/v:server : Specifies the remote computer to which you want to connect.
/console : Connects to the console session of the specified Windows 2000 Server.
/admin : Connects to the console session of Windows 2003/2008 servers – note admin replaced console
/f : Starts Remote Desktop connection in full-screen mode.
/w:width /h:height : Specifies the dimensions of the Remote Desktop screen.
/edit : Opens the specified .rdp file for editing.
/migrate : Migrates legacy connection files that were created with Client Connection Manager to new .rdp connection files.

The above information came from the Microsoft TechNet site

Recently I lost the ability to expand zip files as compressed folders in Vista. a quick search of the web and I found this:

1. At the start prompt enter “cmd /c assoc .zip=CompressedFolder”
2. If necessary, Open regedit, navigate to the above path and delete the UserChoice node
   [-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.zip\UserChoice]
3. Restart Windows

remember editing the registry can be dangerous, so always backup first or create a restore point.

Source

One of my clients has just been hit by this phishing virus, purporting to be a UPS Message – beware

Trojan disguised as UPS delivery note
Joy Persaud July 16, 2008
Panda Security is warning email recipients that a series of messages purporting to come from package delivery company UPS may in fact harbour the Agent.JEN trojan.

One option I find quite useful is to use the right click SendTo option to edit a file in Notepad, to do this you add a shortcut to notepad.exe in the SendTo folder in explorer.

To find your SendTo folder tyoe the following in the address bar of Windows Explorer

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

then right click and add a shortcut to c:\windows\notepad.exe