So I had a machine suffer from hardware failure during the MS XP SP3 installation process.

So I had a machine suffer from hardware failure during the MS XP SP3 installation process. So the machine basically did a hard shutdown while installing. This happened twice and surprisingly the system still restarted into SP2. Now I'm not a complete idiot and just kept restarting the machine, I was actually using the same drive in different hardware. But apparently both boxes had similar hardware issues. Is was not until one reboot that was actually trying to back out of the SP3 install and in the process, suffered another hardware failure and shutdown. Upon reboot, I got the message:

"\System32\Hal.dll missing or corrupt:
Please re-install a copy of the above file."

I used the fix below to remedy the issue and it worked like a charm!

Use the Bootcfg utility in the Recovery Console to correct the Boot.ini file:

1.	Use the Windows XP CD-ROM to start your computer.
2.	When you receive the message to press R to repair Windows by using the Recovery Console, press the R key.
3.	Select the Windows installation that you want, and then type the administrator password when prompted.
4.	Type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER.
5.	When the Windows installation is located, the following instructions are displayed: Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All) [Type Y in response to this message.] Enter Load Identifier: [This is the name of the operating system. Type Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition.] Enter OS Load options: [Leave this field blank, and then press ENTER]. After you perform the preceding steps, restart the computer, and then select the first item on the boot menu. This should allow Windows XP to start normally. After Windows XP has successfully loaded, the Boot.ini can be modified to remove the incorrect entry.

For more information about how to edit the Boot.ini file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

This fix was one of 4 possible methods to repair the issue, the others are described at the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

How to change Outlook to be able to select multiple signatures from within a composed message

To change Outlook to be able to handle multiple signatures, you need to do the following.

Go to Tools-->Options and go to the Mail Format tab and UNCHECK the "Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages"


To have the option to switch between email formats in Outlook, you will NOT be able to use MS Word as the email editor anymore.


After you change the default email editor, your email messages will have the option to select signatures within the message by going to Insert-->Signature-->Your desired Signature. From here you can select the signatures you've already setup.

Video: Disable USB storage under OS X or Windows

Video: Disable USB storage under OS X or Windows

Great how to video on how to secure Windows XP and Mac OSX hardware to remove USB access. Disable USB device just like how the NSA does it.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=112&tag=nl.e138

Another PDF document that provides similar how to instructions http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/downloads/home/dl_disable_usb.pdf

Word 2003 prompts File Conversion when trying to open a document sent from a Mac.

I received a document sent from a Mac that prompted a XP's Word 2003 SP3 install to prompt the for File Conversion, to select the encoding that makes your document readable. The document isn't damaged, but removing the Outlook Security update below, appears to correct the issue. The update itself isn't the cause entirely, as I have another XP machine with the same update installed and it opens the document fine, but I'm using Outlook 2007 on that machine.

It is only an issue with so far with PC's receiving Word docs from Mac users. The issue occurs after the Outlook update KB945432. Hopefully MS is address it soon.

Here's are the steps if anyone should need them

Apply the following HotFix Description of the Outlook 2003 hotfix package: April 15, 2008, which is referenced in the following links as well: In Office Outlook 2003, you cannot open Macintosh binary attachments after you install security update MS08-15 and MS08-015: Description of the security update for Outlook 2003: March 11, 2008

The hotfix above resolved the issue for me on a fully update WinXP box running a fully update install of Office 2003 Pro. The below solution of removing the initial security fix also fixed the problem, I suppose you can still take this route if the hotfix doesn't work. I would try the hotfix first.

1. Go into add/remove program in the control panel.
2. Make sure the 'show updates' is selected on the top of the window.
3. Scroll down to the Microsoft office installation area.
4. Remove the entry listed as 'Outlook 2003 Security update KB945432'

Change the product key on Windows XP

Change the product key on Windows XP

Read a pretty useful article from TechRepublic on changing the license key on XP installs. Hopefully I won't need to do this, but its a nice write to have handy if ever needed.