David Mellors » vista

Windows Server 2008 Activation Error 0x8007232B

Dave Mellors — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:39:31 +0000

When I went to activate a new install of Windows Server 2008 R2 I received an error 0x8007232B. I install Win2k8 on a fairly regular basis and knew I had come across this error before but some of the Google results started talking about Vista and MAK keys and volume license agreements and I was sure that these weren’t the answer I was looking for.

In the end I just happened to enter the product key again and try activating and it worked!

Thinking about it I hadn’t used my usual ISO image so I guess that might explain why I don’t usually get the error. Apparently you might also see errors relating to DNS name does not Exist and although I experience it on Windows Server 2008 you can also get it on Vista. Of course this might not resolve your issue but it’s great to hear if it did.

VPN Error: This connection requires an active Internet Connection – Windows Vista

Dave Mellors — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:24:38 +0000

: Windows Vista VPN Error

When I try to connect to VPN on my Vista PC I click on “Connect To” and the VPN connection has a cross next to it and an error that reads “This connection requires an active Internet Connection”. For ages I have just been using a workaround that involves going into “Manage Network Connections” and connecting from there instead but it was getting on my nerves and after about 15 minutes of trying I managed to resolve the problem for myself and I have to be honest involved some luck in finding a hidden menu bar.

Instructions:

Open the control panel

Hidden network menu bar and advanced settings dalog
Click Network and Internet, click Network and Sharing Center, and then click Manage network connections.
OR if you are using Classic View
Click Network and Sharing Center, and then click Manage network connections.
Open the Organize menu option and select Layout and then menu bar (This was the hidden bit. Did you know there was a menu bar?).
You should now see a menu bar with an Advanced menu item. Click on the Advanced Settings item from the Advanced menu.
In the Adapters and Bindings tab make sure that Local Area Connection is at the top. The chances are if you have installed the Loopback Adapter or virtual machine software (Sun xVM Virtualbox in my case) then that adapter is the top one.
Reboot PC and try again.

This post is on my blog to remind myself how I got around the problem but I would be really interested to hear if this worked for you or even if it didn’t as your experience might help others.

Light or faint color text on black and white HP LaserJet

Dave Mellors — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:10:36 +0000

The nearest printer to my desk is a HP LaserJet 4050 and whenever I print coloured text I find that the printer prints the colored text too light. At first I thought the problem might be because I am using Vista x64 (I still accuse x64 first but it’s rarely the problem!) and anyway my manager has the same issue and he isn’t using Vista.

It appears that the reason I experience the problem now and not before is because I am using Microsoft Office Word 2007 which uses color in it’s templates. I tried telling the printer driver to print color text as black but it still didn’t make any difference.

In the end I reverted to the HP Universal PCL5/e driver and now everything prints as I had expected. So if you have the same problem try downloading and using the PCL 5 driver from the HP website.

If like me you weren’t sure if you would miss anything by going back to PCL5 you can read more at Wikipedia PCL entry and also PCL 3 and PCL 5/6 Features and Differences from HP.