This page can't be displayed

How I fixed "This page can't be displayed" error message/error page on Internet Explorer(v10), after being unable to browse secure internet web sites:

(I suspect a recent Windows 7 auto-update may have wiped out previous 'stable' settings, considering this problem surfaced suddenly out of the blue, sort of, after many months of relatively trouble-free SSL surfing.)

Make sure TLS and SSL protocols are enabled: Go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Settings > Security

May work for some...

٭ Click Tools menu and select Internet Options

٭ Select the Advanced tab

٭ Scroll down to Security section

٭ Make sure "Use SSL 2.0 / Use SSL 3.0" are selected. Particularly, as in my case, also be sure to select "Use TLS 1.2"

٭ If necessary, restart your browsing session

"MIDI device or the audio device to be used for VSC's audio output cannot be opened. Playback unavailable at this time"

Relates to VSC (Virtual Sound Canvas) and band-in-a-box by PG Music

When you try to open the VSC as a stand-alone application, (and you are trying to use the Roland VSC as your MIDI output driver), you may get the message "MIDI device or the audio device to be used for VSC's audio output cannot be opened. Playback unavailable at this time":

There are a few possible solutions. You should be able to resolve the problem by following one or more of the suggestions below. Alternatively, use the VSC-DXi instead of the VSC-3 stand-alone version.

Select something other than the VSC as your default MIDI driver in Windows

1. On Windows XP go to Start | Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices | Audio tab.
   or  Win2000 Start | Settings | Control Panel | Sounds and Multimedia | Audio.
   
2. Select something other than the Roland VSC for default audio and MIDI playback.
   
3. Restart your computer.
   

Make sure vscvol and vsc32cnf are enabled at startup.

1. Go to the Start menu | Run, type "msconfig" and press OK. This should open the System Configuration Utility. Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have the system configuration utility.
   
2. Click on the Startup tab and make sure there are checkmarks beside 'vscvol' and 'vsc32cnf'.
   
3. Press [Apply], then [OK], and restart your computer.
   
   
   

Reinstall the VSC

1. Uninstall the Roland VSC using the Add/Remove Programs utility.
   
2. Right-click on My Computer and select 'Properties'.
   
3. Click on the Hardware tab and press the [Device Manager] button.
   
4. Expand 'Sound, Video and Game Controllers' and look for 'Virtual Sound Canvas'. If you see it listed there, right-click on it and select 'uninstall'. Restart your computer.
   
5. Reinstall the Roland VSC. If you get a message saying that the VSC has not passed Windows Logo Testing, you can "Continue Anyways". You should be prompted to restart your computer again after the VSC has been installed.
   
6. Go back to 'Sound Video and Game Controllers' in the Device Manager.
   
7. Right-click on the Virtual Sound Canvas 3.2 and select 'Properties'. Make sure that Device Usage is set to "Use this device (enable)".
   

Using the VSC-DXi version, rather than the stand-alone VSC
If you are still having trouble with the stand-alone VSC, PG Music suggests that you use the VSC-DXi instead. Band-in-a-Box 2004 and higher support DXi plugins, and the VSC-DXi would have been included with your Band-in-a-Box purchase. The DXi version has the same set of sounds as the stand-alone version, but is used a little differently with Band-in-a-Box.

To use the VSC-DXi, you need to first install it on your computer. To choose the VSC-DXi as your MIDI output device in Band-in-a-Box, go to Opt. | MIDI Driver Setup and place a checkmark in the "Use DXi Synth" checkbox.

When the DirectX window opens up, choose the VSC-DXi as your plugin. Close the DirectX window, and you should be back in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog. By default, Band-in-a-Box will set the Driver Latency to around 2000 milliseconds. This is a high setting, but is safe even on older computers. With most computers, you should be able to choose a Driver Latency of around 200 ms or lower. You can experiment with the Driver Latency until you hear audio glitches. A lower latency will give you a quicker response time.

If you were used to using the "Direct Render to wave" feature of the VSC, you will find that the "DXi Direct Render" feature in Band-in-a-Box will give you the same results. It is also a quicker and easier method of rendering your songs to wave.

PGMusic Technical Support FAQ >>

User 'Domain-name\User-name' does not have required permissions. Verify that sufficient permissions have been granted and Windows User Account Control (UAC) restrictions have been addressed.

Error while trying to access Reporting Services Manager for a new installation of Reporting Services.

 As documented by TechNet, primary cause is that, on a new installation, only local administrators have access to a report server. To grant access to other users, a local administrator can use Report Manager to create new role assignments.

This fix worked for me:
Start IE browser by right-clicking and selecting Run as administrator. Then enter your Report Manager url, e.g. http://Server01/Reports_SQLEXPRESS2008. This should now get you to the Home folder in SQL Server Reporting Services. 

Once there, click on Folder Settings, to bring up the Security window, and then on the right hand side of the Security tab in the Group or User pane, there should already be a built-in user called BUILTIN\Administrators.

Click on New Role Assignment to add (in the format Domain\Username) any new user that needs access to Reporting Services Manager. Then select from one of the following predefined roles for the new user:

Browser:  May view folders, reports and subscribe to reports.
Content Manager: May manage content in the Report Server.  This includes folders, reports and resources.
My Reports: May publish reports and linked reports; manage folders, reports and resources in a users My Reports folder.
Publisher: May publish reports and linked reports to the Report Server.
Report Builder: May view report definitions.
 
In addition make sure intranet settings are enabled in IE. Even when typing your password in the authentication popup it may not work without intranet settings enabled.  See how to enable intranet settings here >>

Technet MS SQL Server Documentation >>

Very useful blog entry at The Code Attic >>

Cannot connect to [database name]. A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 53)

Server Name: Make sure you are typing server name (i.e. host name or computer name) correctly along with the proper instance name of an installed instance of SQL Server.

As, even using '(local)' or '(localhost)' can also cause this error:

Correct format is: Server-name\db-instance-name. e.g. Server01\SQLExpress2008

Also (if using Windows Authentication mode) make sure the format of the username is as follows: Server-name\User-name. e.g. Server01\Administrator

Your role instances have recycled a number of times during an update or upgrade operation. This indicates that the new version of your service or the configuration settings you provided when configuring the service prevent the role instances from running. Verify your code does not throw unhandled exceptions and that your configuration settings are correct and then start another update or upgrade operation

After many days and countless hours of bug-hunting, hair-pulling & nail-biting, it turns out the cause of this error was from the 'Create Storage Connection String' dialogue window on the 'Caching' tab of  the properties page of the WebRole for my WindowsAzure website project.
 
Under 'Specify the storage account credentials to use for maintaining the cache cluster's runtime state', and then under 'Connect using:'

even after I've selected the second option, 'Your subscription' (where I specify the correct AccountKey) - whenever I re-enter this dialogue I notice the selected option seems to keep reverting back to the last option 'Manually entered credentials', which is using an incorrect AccountKey value. In this window it's fairly easy to see, even just from the first few characters of the AccountKey (green circles), that they no longer match up!

Ultimately, the upshot of this is that the Webrole's Run() method will throw an unhandled exception while you're attempting to deploy the app to Azure, causing the Webrole to recycle indefinitely, and thereby causing all deploy attempts to fail.

 So I know now it's always worth checking each time before a deploy to make sure that the correct 'Connect using:' option for Caching Storage Connection String is selected on this dialogue window!



Microsoft's warning:

more info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee405486.aspx

How to disable Opera tooltips (or help popups)

In most any Opera browser, whenever you hover your mouse pointer over selected toolbar buttons or browser elements, a small piece of helpful information will show up. This is called a tooltip and is very handy for beginning Opera users. However, if you are an experienced computer user tooltips can be tiresome, and thankfully can be disabled:

1. Select "Tools" - "Preferences".

2. When the "Preferences" dialog box appears, click the "Advanced" tab.

3. In the left side of the window, click "Browsing".

4. Uncheck "Show tooltips".

5. Click "OK" to save your settings

Disable Tooltip Help >>

SQL SERVER – Error 7308: MS Jet OLEDB 4.0 cannot be used for distributed queries because the provider is configured to run in single-threaded apartment mode.

FIX suggestion (which works for me), by Mitch Stokely:

1. On 64-bit servers and boxes, you need to first UNINSTALL all 32-bit Microsoft Office applications and instances (Access 2007 install, Office 10 32-bit, etc.). If you dont, you cannot install the new 64-bit Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable components. Yes, its a headache but the only way I found to install the new replacements for the JET engine components that need to run on 64-bit machines.

2. Download and install the new component from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c06b8369-60dd-4b64-a44b-84b371ede16d&displaylang=en
* This will install the access and other engines you need to set up linked servers, OPENROWSET excel files, etc.

3. Open up SQL Server and run the following:

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_MSset_oledb_prop N'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0', N'AllowInProcess', 1
GO
EXEC master.dbo.sp_MSset_oledb_prop N'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0', N'DynamicParameters', 1
GO

* This sets the parameters needed to access and run queries related to the components. 

4. Now, if you are running OPENROWSET calls you need to abandon calls made using the old JET parameters and use the new calls as follows:

(*Example, importing an EXCEL file directly into SQL):

DONT DO THIS….

SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0′,’Excel 8.0;HDR=YES;Database=c:\PATH_TO_YOUR_EXEXCEL_FILE.xls’,'select * from [sheet1$]‘)

USE THIS INSTEAD…

SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET(‘Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0′, ‘Excel 12.0;Database=c:\PATH_TO_YOUR_EXEXCEL_FILE.xls’,'select * from [sheet1$]‘)

*At this point resolved two SQL issues and ran perfectly

5. Now for the fun part…..find all your Office Disks and reinstall Office and/or applications needed back onto the machine. You can install the 64- bit version of Office 10 by going onto the disk and going into the 64-bit folder and running it but beware as in some cases some third party apps dont interface yet with that version of Office.

Hope that helps!

Mitch Stokely – Texas
Chief Internet Architect

See original post on Pinal Dave's blog here >>