Windows login dialog boxes are Black and can't see to log in.

I thought it was some freaky video card glitch and tried several things before I decided to look up my issues and low and behold, I wasn't the only one....Go Figure.

Anyway, I have posted the info that helped me below. Thank you Todd J Heron!

Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.general

From: "Todd J Heron" ...@hotmail.com>

Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 13:03:38 -0500

Local: Tues, Mar 1 2005 1:03 pm

Subject: Re: Windows 2k3 Server shows black login screen

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The color schemes in the computer's default profile may have been set to
black for every scheme element. Please review the below steps for this may
resolve your issue:
On the Windows 2003 Server this can be verified by navigating to the
following registry key:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors
If this is the issue all colors scheme element registry values will be set
to 0. Compare this with a known good copy below:

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"ActiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"ActiveTitle"="0 84 227"
"AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128"
"Background"="0 78 152"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181"
"ButtonDkShadow"="113 111 100"
"ButtonFace"="236 233 216"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"ButtonLight"="241 239 226"
"ButtonShadow"="172 168 153"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GradientActiveTitle"="61 149 255"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="157 185 235"
"GrayText"="172 168 153"
"Hilight"="49 106 197"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128"
"InactiveBorder"="212 208 200"
"InactiveTitle"="122 150 223"
"InactiveTitleText"="216 228 248"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"InfoWindow"="255 255 225"
"Menu"="255 255 255"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"Scrollbar"="212 208 200"
"TitleText"="255 255 255"
"Window"="255 255 255"
"WindowFrame"="0 0 0"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"
"MenuHilight"="49 106 197"
"MenuBar"="236 233 216"

There is two ways to fix this problem:

1. Export the registry key from a known good machine into a .REG file.
Import the .REG file into the new machine.

2. You can also construct/copy-paste the following information into a text
file and give it a file name with a .REG extension.


DON'T FORGET TO BACKUP THE REG BEFORE YOU START.
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

Contact a professional to help you:
www.MyComputerGirl.com

How to PROPERLY forward e-mails

I know I have written an article on this before,
but here is one that is better.
Author unknown:

HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY

A friend who is a computer expert received the following message directly from a system administrator for a large corporation. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures.. Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 10% of us do; 90% DO NOT. Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?

Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!

How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:

(1) When you forward an e-mail DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top ). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first , you won't be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses.Always use the BCC : (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your Bcc: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose Bcc: and that's it, it's that easy! When you send to Bcc: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients' in the 'To:' field of the people who receive it.

(3) Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish, or even fix spelling.

(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent. I know if I discover I must open umpteen paper clips or emails, I get frustrated and just delete before I ever get to the one I'm supposed to read!

(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more might as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition.(Actually, if you think about it, who's actually supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don 't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just isn't so!)

(6) One of the main ones I hate is the one that says that like, 'Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven won the lottery??)
Something really cute: http://tubevube.com/user.php

(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them outbefore you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just bout everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes.com/

It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on. So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first, please). This information is something that SHOULD be forwarded.

www.mycomputergirl.com

res://C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHDOCLC.DLL/dnserror.htm#

If you get this error it could be possible that you have gotten into something that has corrupted your. You can either run a tool, which is much easier or go through the command prompt and do it manually. If you can't get access to the tool then you will have no other choice than to manually recover from winsock corruption.

Download winsock fix utility




If you can't get the utility try these instructions or visit microsoft for more instructions and info.
*This fix is for XP with SPK2 installed. See Microsoft for other instructions.

1.	Log on to the Microsoft Windows XP workstation as an administrator.
2.	Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
3.	At the command prompt, type the following, and then press ENTER: netsh Winsock reset When the program is finished, you will receive the following message: Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the machine in order to complete the reset. If you receive this message, go to step 4. If you are not logged in as an administrator, you will receive the following error message: Unable to reset the Winsock Catalog. Access is denied. If you receive this message, log off the computer, and then log back on by using an account with Administrator access. Typically, the first user account that was created has Administrator access. Then, repeat steps 2 and 3.
4. 5.	Restart your computer. Test your browser. Easiest web page to display is www.google.com www.MyComputerGirl.com

Windows Installer Cleanup Utility

Download the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility package now.

***Read all the details and directions on Microsofts support page here.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Having issues with a program not installing properly and won't un-install? Give this a whirl. Read the details and warnings that Microsoft give you on this support page.

*Microsoft Warning
Warning The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility is provided "as is" to help resolve installation problems for programs that use Microsoft Windows Installer. If you use this utility, you may have to reinstall other programs. Caution is advised. We recommend that you do not use this utility with 2007 Office system products.

*Warning, we are not responsible for your actions, so seek professional help when attempting computer repair.

www.MyComputerGirl.com

Ports you need to open for Exchange, Email & RDP

• 80 HTTP
• 25 SMTP
• 21 FTP
• 53 DNS
• 153 DNS-RCP
• 443 SSL
• 3389 RDP

www.MyComputerGirl.com

Removing Saved Passwords & Network Credentials

Need to remove cached credentials or saved passwords? Easy enough, just go to start/run/rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr and hit the enter key, the stored user names and passwords box will appear.

Windows can store your logon information for network locations and web sites. To add an entry. click add. to edit an existing entry, select it and then click properties. To removed select all items that you wish to remove and click remove.

www.MyComputerGirl.com