Omnipass + Windows Vista + Windows Update = Problems?

I recently came into contact with a brand new Lenovo laptop (3000 N100 model) loaded with Windows Vista Business on it. The laptop came preloaded with the Omnipass Fingerprint Security application. This application is written by Softex Incorporated.

I ran into an issue with the application after I performed a normal Windows Update. After the installation of a number of updates, the machine restarted as per normal after applying the updates.

Unfortunately, the user is now presented with duplicated user listings at the Welcome screen. This means that, for example, if you have three users, each user will be displayed twice on the welcome screen. This does not affect usability. On entering Windows Vista, it is confirmed that there are NOT any duplicate accounts within account management.

After performing an uninstall of Omnipass, the problem is resolved. A re-installation of Omnipass should allow the application to function normally.

However, Ronnie Vernon (Microsoft MVP) (link) advises that downloading and running the following application from Softex will resolve the fault without requiring a re-installation:

http://www.softexinc.com/download/UninstMSPwdProv.exe

I have mirrored the download at the following locations:

[Mirror 1] - Hosted on NZTechie.Com
[Mirror 2] - Hosted on Windows SkyDrive
[Mirror 3] - Hosted on MediaFire

If you decide to create a system restore point, then un-install the application, be aware that fingerprints stored and associated with accounts will not be restored when you roll back. You need to use the inbuilt capability of Omnipass to back up the profiles, or re-enroll all your users after a rollback.


In the comments section I have listed all of the Windows Updates that were installed prior to the problem occurring.

I have also located a Discussion Thread regarding the same fault at:

Duplicate icons on Welcome Screen
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=813976

The main Softex Incorporated website is available at:

Softex Incorporated
http://www.softexinc.com

I have also located the following post which is written by a Microsoft MVP which carries a significant weight with me:

User account appears twice. cannot delete it
http://groups......osoft.public.windows.vista.ad....

How to make it easier for your blog readers to submit posts to Social Bookmarking sites

After some intensive testing on this Blog today, I have now added a Bookmark option at the bottom of all posts on each of my three blogs.

The button is provided by addthis.com and allows people who use social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, and Reddit to easily submit a post to the respective services.

I have never been a user of Social Bookmarking services, however I can definitely see a value in making use of them. The ability to share bookmarks with others, and vote on the quality of articles is great. According to some reading I did earlier today, search engines such as Google and Live! Search will give these sites a lot of weighting when delivering search results.

Time will tell whether of not this facility will boost any traffic to my blogs. I have submitted about a dozen blog posts which I consider some people may be interested in. I also submitted a couple of my YouTube videos as well for experimentation.

When you submit a video to Digg, it appears to take a snapshot from the video for inclusion in the Digg. However, it does not correctly pick thumbnails when I use the nz.youtube.com/blahblah prefix. It works when I use www.youtube.com/blahblah. An oversight on Digg's part.

Link to Addthis: http://www.addthis.com

Two Mistakes for TubeMogul

I received 60 copies of my weekly TubeMogul report today, followed closely by the following apology email:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Tubemogul email bug
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:14:37 -0800
From: John Hughes
To: 'John Hughes'
CC: REMOVED

You probably noticed that we filled your email box this morning with copies of your weekly report. Please accept our most humble apologies for that. Rest assured that the issue as been corrected and you can continue your weekly subscription with no danger of us hitting you with more than one copy at a time. One of our engineers is getting coal in their stocking this year!

Warmest wishes,

John Hughes
Co-Founder, TubeMogul.com
---------------------------------------------

John did not hide the recipients list (I have removed it here), so a large number of email addresses were publically displayed to the masses.

My Photo Gallery is Reborn!

After the recent problems with my photo gallery due to Startlogic disabling allow_url_fopen functionality, I decided to bite the bullet and have installed Gallery version 2.2. This version does not suffer the same limitations as version 1.5 which I had installed.

Installation was a breeze, with some fantastic instructions provided for full installation. After installation, I successfully imported all of my version 1.5 photo albums into 2.2. This worked well, however it did fail at one stage, which I resolved by individually uploading each album separately.

The main interface looks a lot cleaner. The only initial thing that bothered me was not being able to work out how to upload pictures in bulk! By default, the installation only provided uploading via web browser. This was quickly remedied after I located the plugins facility. A few moments of one-click installation, and the Java Applet I was so fond of in the past was back. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that there are now more options for uploading, ranging from WebDAV, Windows XP Publishing etc available.

One good new option was the fact if there are no publicly available albums, a user is prompted to log in with credentials. Previous versions of Gallery presented users with a page with no albums on it, confusing many of them.

I also like the fact that albums now display the total number of photos within them, even when they are within a nested sub-album! Everything is looking good so far!

RSS Feed on my Homepage

Yesterday, I installed a script on my main at Nztechie.com to automatically display the last 14 posts from my Blog on my homepage.

This complements the Google Video Bar which is currently showing my last four video posts to YouTube. What would be really good would be if I could generate thumbnails for recent additions to my photo gallery as well.

You may also find that I have embedded the Google Video Bar on this Blog as well.

Google Analytics Statistics

On a regular basis, I will Google myself to determine my own site rankings when my name is searched for. I believe that Google Analytics over-calculates the number of visitors to my site in Google search. I believe that a pre-fetching feature within Firefox in conjunction with Google is causing this.

Firefox and Google have a feature whereby it will actively pre-fetch and cache your first few search results into your browser. What this means is that your browser will actually load up the page before you even click the link. This results in a faster connection but can also put statistics out.

Internet Explorer does not have this facility. The pre-fetching capability in Firefox can also be switched off as required.