Little red x

[Ed Ahern]

I've been running Vista for about a year. At various times I will open
something and it seems that there are "boxes" with red x's and a
description. I imagine it is a security thing. Is there someway to shut it
off or am I better off leaving it alone. As an example, if I hit the start
button and then "help and support" I will get these x's.



Ed

 

[Guest]

What do you mean by "boxes with red x"? What does it say in the description?

 

[Ed Ahern]

windows basics, windows online help, etc. It's like the graphics are being
blocked (?)

 

[Peter Foldes]

First go to IE\Properties\Advanced and scroll down to Multimedia and make sure you
have a checkmark to show pictures and placeholders. Post back if already checked

 

[Ed Ahern]

Everything under multimedia is checked, nothing is cleared

Es

 

[Phil Rhodes]

1. Likely you are using 'Internet Explorer' as your browser. Let's say it
has a problem. Try downloading another browser such as 'Firefox' by
'Mozilla'. You can Google these names to find out more about them before
deciding to download the browser. After you get it running, go to the
toolbar, and click on 'Tools' then 'Options' then set Firefox up to delete
everything (temp files, cookies, etc) after you close the browser (shut it
off). Do you see 'little red boxes' when you use it? Of course, deleting the
cookies will mean all of your passwords, etc will be deleted after each use,
and if you find this inconvient, you can change it so that the cookies are
saved (which is why IE doesn't offer this option).
2. Do you scan you system with a spyware scanner? There are several free
spyware scanners out there and if you Google 'spyware scanner' you will get
a list but I can reccomend AdAware by Lavasoft and SuperAntiSpyware
(although it can be anoying) and Spybot. Pick one and try it.
3. Please find the answer to this question - why doesn't Microsoft build a
spyware scanner into IE (or Mozilla into Firefox) so that it can tell the
difference between cookies that you want to save, and cookies that interfere
with your system (ie, spyware)? In the Windows 95 operating system, you had
a seperate folder for cookies that you wanted to keep and you could easily
clean the other one (in fact I bought a "Cleaner" my MS to do just that, if
memory serves).

 

[John Galt]

3. Please find the answer to this question - why doesn't Microsoft build a
spyware scanner into IE (or Mozilla into Firefox) so that it can tell the
difference between cookies that you want to save, and cookies that interfere
with your system (ie, spyware)? In the Windows 95 operating system, you had
a seperate folder for cookies that you wanted to keep and you could easily
clean the other one (in fact I bought a "Cleaner" my MS to do just that, if
memory serves).

1) Cookies as "spyware"... way over emphasized IMO.

2) Get CCleaner. You can do everything you want with cookies using
that program.

 

[Ed Ahern]

Phil, I get the red x's even without IE. All I have to do is hit my start
button and then "Help and support" Try it yourself on your machine (assuming
you run Vista). After hitting "help and Support" you should get a drop down
on the right. In the drop down is where the x's show up, like a placesetter

Ed

 

[John Galt]

Phil, I get the red x's even without IE. All I have to do is hit my start
button and then "Help and support" Try it yourself on your machine (assuming
you run Vista). After hitting "help and Support" you should get a drop down
on the right. In the drop down is where the x's show up, like a placesetter

1. Close the Help and Support window.

2. Start the Registry Editor by clicking Start, typing "regedit" (no
quotation marks), and pressing ENTER. (You need administrator
privileges to do this.)

3. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.png.

4. Right-click the .png folder, point to New, and then click String
value.

5. Add a new string named "Content Type" (without quotation marks).

6. Double-click the new Content Type string and set the Value data to
"image/png" (without quotation marks).

7. Close the Registry Editor, and then open Help and Support.

 

[Phil Rhodes]

Yes, Ed, I clicked on "Start" then "help and support" and that is why I
mention IE, because the "help and support" in not on your computer, it is on
the internet (my laptop is made by HP, so that is where my "help and
support" comes from) and likely, your default browser is IE, correct me if
I'm wrong so your help and support comes from HP or Dell, etc.

 

[Ed Ahern]

John Galt's solution worked. I followed the directions and the problem went
away.

Now can someone tell me what I did? I know I added a string.

Ed

 

[Ed Ahern]

Worked like a charm.
Thank you
Ed

1. Close the Help and Support window.

2. Start the Registry Editor by clicking Start, typing "regedit" (no
quotation marks), and pressing ENTER. (You need administrator
privileges to do this.)

3. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.png.

4. Right-click the .png folder, point to New, and then click String
value.

5. Add a new string named "Content Type" (without quotation marks).

6. Double-click the new Content Type string and set the Value data to
"image/png" (without quotation marks).

7. Close the Registry Editor, and then open Help and Support.

 

[FromTheRafters]

Hopefully John can explain. It looks like you corrected a registry
error. Why the error occurred is anybody's guess.

 

[John Galt]

Hopefully John can explain. It looks like you corrected a registry
error. Why the error occurred is anybody's guess.

Don't know why it works... just that it does. I found that a long time
ago when I had a similar problem, and I saved the solution.

 

[Peter Foldes]

This was a fix found and posted by Frank Saunders MS MVP R.I.P. This was the next
step after the checkmarks were in place in the IE\Security check
The reason for this change in the Registry is because of the use of a Registry
Cleaning tool which removed that entry as usual for a snake oil product

 

[FromTheRafters]

Thank you Peter, my curiosity is satisfied now.

This was a fix found and posted by Frank Saunders MS MVP R.I.P. This
was the next step after the checkmarks were in place in the
IE\Security check
The reason for this change in the Registry is because of the use of a
Registry Cleaning tool which removed that entry as usual for a snake
oil product

--
Peter

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