Adding Search Providers in IE7

Problem
When you attempt to add a search provider in IE7 you receive the following error:
Error: The search provider could not be installed. This might have happened
because:
- A required file could not be downloaded;
- The website is unavailable;
- You are not connected to the Internet;
You might want to try again later.

Solution
This seems to occur if UAC is enabled. To work around it, right click the IE7 Icon on the quick launch bar and choose Run as administrator, then re-attempt to add the search provider.

Hybrid Sleep Issues with Vista

Problem
When Vista resumes from Hybrid Sleep the USB Keyboard, Mouse and other USB devices no longer work. Sometimes you get an Unrecognized USB device or a USB hub failure system notification.

Solution
This seems to occur as a result of installing the KB930178 hotfix from Microsoft (comes down via Windows update). As of yet I have not found a way to fix the problem other than to uninstall the hotfix.

IE7 Searchbar YouTube Downloader

While there are several add-ins for Internet Explorer and Firefox as well as sites like KeepVid that offer better alternatives, I'm offering up yet another method of downloading YouTube videos I recently discovered: A YouTube Search Provider.

To install the search provider follow this link

Once installed, simply copy the video ID of a YouTube Video and paste it into the search bar.

As an example the video ID of this YouTube video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=t4bMM73-qHo) is t4bMM73-qHo. Pasting that into the IE Searchbar and then choosing YouTube Video Downloader (if its not already selected) will start the download.

The videos will need to have the .flv file extension added to their file names so they can be played (VLC or FLV player should play them fine).

What's so special about this?
Well, this particular method will work around a proxy that is blocking DNS entries (such as youtube.com).

Why's that?
This is because it uses the direct IP address of rd.cache.l.google.com (most proxies wont block Google.com)

But why not use YouTube's IP address?
Well that works, however it redirects you to another YouTube server that's hosting the specific video (http://lax-v172.lax.youtube.com/ for example). This is a problem, because youtube is in the DNS name (the site will therefore be blocked). Sure you could then go and nslookup the address of that server, then substitute in the relevant IP and the video would download but, that's rather time consuming.

How is this a Vista Problem or Resolution?
Ok, you've got me -- It isin't. I just didn't have any other place to publish this to :(

Vista and FlashGet

Problem
FlashGet causes instabilities in Windows Vista. This seem to be related to the jcatch.dll BHO loaded in Internet Explorer 7. Symptoms include:

• Inability to right click in IE- Inability to launch additional applications (QuickTime for example throws up a Buffer overflow error -- most other applications open then instantly quit)
• Error messages and dialog boxes (such as save picture only half open -- the window appears but no options appear in it)
• New tabs don't load sites- Folders don't completely open (the window comes up but the folder contents aren't loaded)

All these can be solved by closing several tabs in IE or closing IE altogether

Solution
If you want to continue using FlashGet then simply rename or delete jcatch.dll. (in the FlashGet program files folder -- this will disable the Right click download with FlashGet functionality however).

Additionally, you can try using the classic version of FlashGet which doesn't seem to cause the problem. At the time of writing the bug still persisted in the latest version of FlashGet (1.8.8.1010)

PowerDVD & Vista

Problem: Windows Media Center won't play certain types of videos (In my case XViD). It displays thumbnails of the videos but, when you attempt to play one it lags for a while then brings up a missing codec error.

Additionally every time you try and play one of these video files in Windows Media player, the program goes out to the net and tries and find a codec (usually this won’t be noticeable however if you are behind a web proxy with authentication then you will be prompted for your credentials) -- In my case its codec search fails -- but the video then plays fine (The latest version of XViD is already installed so it should)

Solution: The problem here seems to be PowerDVD - Un-installing it fixes both issues. Before uninstalling however you should try applying this patch from Cyberlink.

IE7 and IMDB's New Look

Problem: IE7 renders IMDB pages (particularly the movie ones) reeeeally bad. This problem also applies to users of Internet Explorer 7 on other version of windows.

Solution: This seems to be the result of Ad blocking software. I was the using the IE7Pro addon and upon disabling it the problem was instantly fixed. However, if you are using IE7Pro its probably a better idea to ad *imdb.com* to your whitelist instead.

Update: This bug has now been fixed in later versions of IE7pro

Adding G-Mail as the Default Mail Client

Problem:
G-Mail is not listed under the E-mail link: in the properties of the Start task bar.



Solution:
1.) Choose an Icon (*.ico file) to use for the E-Mail link in the Start Menu -- I downloaded one from here and rename it to Gmail-stamp.ico
2.) Place the Icon in your Windows Folder (usually C:\Windows\)
3.) Download and install Google Notifier from here (its up to you if you choose to run it at startup -- you dont have to)
4.) Download GmailVista.reg and import it into the registry
5.) Right click the clock in the system notification area and choose properties. Navigate to the Start Menu tab and click Customize under the Show on Start Menu section select G-Mail from the E-mail link: list.

To restore Windows Mail as the default Client you can use DeleteGmailVista.reg