Give Microsoft Your Input and Get Free Software

Below is a cool offer from the Microsoft Usability team...

Do you wish software was easier to use? Microsoft Business Solutions products are being designed and created for people like you. By participating in Microsoft User Research you can directly impact the design of our software, thereby making it better and easier for you to use. You’ll receive complimentary software for participating in our usability research studies. Sign up here!

Get involved in the product development process at Microsoft. Help us understand your needs by signing up to participate in Microsoft Usability studies!

Some activities you would be able to participate in include:

· Lab Studies & Focus Groups: These studies will give you hands-on and detailed experience with Microsoft products that are currently under development. Your input goes directly into product development.
· Site Visits: We’ll come to you! A Usability Engineer will visit you at your workplace to gain a better understanding of your work environment in order to help build products and/or solutions that meet your business needs.
· Online Surveys & Online Focus Groups: Participate in our studies from the convenience of your home or workplace.

To register for future usability studies, simply fill out a brief questionnaire. You will be contacted for opportunities that match your background and/or interests. All scheduled participants will receive a software gratuity after participating in a study! Contact uccoord@microsoft.com for more information.

Add/Remove Programs Window Will Not Open

Edit : August 2011 - This post is nearly 6 years old and it's probably the most popular post I've ever made. It's the number one Google result for this error.  Still getting dozens of hits per day. Over 100 comments! I'm glad I could give something back to my fellow IT pros.  (PS - why not throw me a bone and click an ad on my site, like one of the big banners up top? I might earn a penny or two. hehe  Thanks!)
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Just ran into this crazy issue. One of my clients has a server running Windows 2000 Server. I needed to remove a program so of course I go to Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs. Nothing. It doesn't open. Try again. it still won't open. I then start noticing that each time I do this, it's spawning another instance of mshta.exe in my task manager. Strange. I've been troubleshooting for a few hours, trying various suggestions from around the net - reboot the server, register some files, apply some updates, put on my rally cap, etc.

But I've finally found the article that worked like a charm. It's a Microsoft KB article. Isn't it odd than you can search the KB and never find a helpful article but you'll find a website that links to the exact article that you WISH your KB search would have found???

Anyway, here is the link to the article.

What you need to do is just go to the command line and run these 3 commands to repair some registry entries.

regsvr32 mshtml.dll

regsvr32 shdocvw.dll -I

regsvr32 shell32.dll -I

This worked like a charm. My Add/Remove Program window opened right up.

Great Plains consulting services available

Just wanted to let everyone know that my consulting services are available for anyone in need of Great Plains help. As a Microsoft Great Plains MVP with 8 years in the business, I have a great deal of experience with the product as well as all the connections I need to locate additional resources with expertise in other areas of the product that I personally may not be too familiar with.

We can cover all aspects of a Great Plains project - Analysis, Design, Installation, Upgrades, Database Migrations, Customization, Integration, Implementation, Training, Support, etc. As well as implementations of MBS Business Portal and Microsoft CRM along with general IT consulting - Windows Server, Exchange, Small Business Server, SQL, Sharepoint, etc.

I'm located near Baltimore, MD - servicing the Mid-Atlantic / east coast region. And I'm certainly willing to travel outside of the Maryland, Virgina, Pennsylvania area for good projects.

Please visit Tech Roundup, my Microsoft Great Plains blog at www.JasonHartman.net and if you are interested in my services, you can email me at TechRoundup@JasonHartman.net.

Installing Vista (Longhorn) Beta 1 on Virtual PC

I was just trying to fire up my Windows Vista (Longhorn) Beta 1 into a copy of Microsoft Virtual PC and ran into a similar problem that I had with some of the previous Alpha builds. The built in formatting/partitioning tools couldn't create a proper partition for Virtual PC. In the past this required me to start with a Virtual PC image from an XP system that already had a partition on it. Then reformat this existing partition and continue with the Longhorn install.

But luckily this time around, i found a handy blog entry with some steps on how to get this partition created from scratch on a blank VPC image using DISKPART from the command prompt during the install. Check it out.

It seems to have worked for me. Looks like Beta 1 is installing as I type.

Next OS from Microsoft will be called Vista

Just announced today, the previously code-named "Longhorn" operating system, will be called "Microsoft Vista". The Microsoft Vista webpage is already up.

I'm already enrolled to receive the first beta release and i'm very much looking forward to it. Hopefully its a few steps beyond some of the alpha builds that i've had. Sounds like Beta 1 will be out in a few weeks. I'll post my thoughts once i've had a chance to play with it.

Release dates set for SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005

At Microsoft's Tech Ed conference this week, they have finally announced the release date for Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006. They will be launched the week of November 7, 2005. You can click here to visit the official launch site on MSDN for future news and updates.

Great Plains now supports SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4

Recently Microsoft released Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2000. Now Microsoft Business Solutions has announced that Great Plains 7.5 and 8.0 will support SQL 2000 SP4.

Customers and Partners can hit this link to view the latest list of requirements for Great Plains 8.0.