How to fix Windows Explorer Crash :: Folder containing .avi files :: Runtime Error

At times when I open up "My Videos" or any folder containing video files (especially .avi files), I get the following error message:


Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

Runtime Error!

Program: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.


I looked at many different fixes posted on the internet, some said the issue was with the Divx Codec and stuff like that. But I finally got a solution to get rid of this error.

The actual error occurs due to the fact that Windows Explorer has a feature that generates on the fly thumbnails for movies (avi/mpeg/divx ,etc.). This often slows down your computer and in many cases causes Explorer to crash. The crash is largely attributed to corrupt video files that are huge.

Here we go about fixing the bug:
Download and run the All In One Fix which ships with several patches for known issues.
You will need to select the following option:
Explorer Crash When Open A Folder
When opening a folder containing DivX or XviD .Avi files under some specific configurations, the thumbnail generation crash Windows Explorer. This option Disable the Thumbnail generation.

Alternate Routes / Roads to drive faster to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport :: Complete List

Continuing from my earlier article on "List of Cab Services to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport" today I have penned down a rather exhaustive and complete list of Alternate Routes / Roads to drive faster to the all new Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport .

Currently most of us are bogged down with the general impression to reach the Bangalore International Airport(BIA) at Devanahalli - we will have to go to the Basaveswara Circle and move on to Windsor Manor underpass, then get onto Mekhri Circle and Hebbal flyover before hitting Bellary Road. But you could save a lot of time, with the alternate roads/routes which don’t enter the City at all. I guess you must try the most feasible one below to experience it:

Route for Driving from Hosur Road - Electronic City - Narayana Hrudalaya - Bommanahalli to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• Naganathpur junction (right turn)
• Parapanna Agrahara main road;
  
• Rayasandra junction (left turn)
• Rayasandra main road
• Kaikondanahalli junction (left turn)
• Kaikondanahalli main road
• Iblur junction (right turn)
• Sarjapur main road
• Bellandur junction
• ORR(Outer Ring Road)
• Kadabeesanahalli junction (ORR)
• Marathalli Flyover(Pass under)
• Mahadevapura junction (ORR)
• KR Puram Rly station junction
• KR Puram main rd
• HP petrol bunk
• KR Puram flyover (right turn and up the Flyover)
• ORR
• Ramamurthy Nagar underbridge (ORR)
• Horamavu junction (ORR)
• Hennur junction (right turn)
• Hennur Bande
• Hennur main road
• Railway bridge
• Geddalahalli village
• Kothanur village
• Byrarhi village
• Kannur junction
• Bagalur main road
• Hosur Bande
• Bagalur village
• Navodaya School
• Bandi Kodagehalli village
• Mylanahalli junction (left turn)
• Begur village
• Electric transformer (right turn)
• Yerathaganahalli village (right turn)
• Airport underbridge (left turn)
• Airport main road
• BIA

Route for Driving from Koramangala & nearby layouts to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• Koramangala Water tank
• Sarjapur road
• Koramangala 80 &100-ft junction
• Ejipura (Srinivagilu) junction (IRR - Intermediate Ring Road)
  
• Indiranagar 100-Ft Road flyover (Domlur Flyover - up and down - straight)
• Indiranagar 100-Ft Road
• Old Madras Road junction (right turn)
• NGEF
• Benniganahalli
• KR Puram(left turn)
• Ramamurthy Nagar
• Horamavu junction
• Hennur Road junction
• Bagalur village
• Mylanahalli junction
• Yarthaganahalli
• BIA.

Route for Driving from Koramangala & nearby layouts to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• BTM 100-Ft Road
• Central Silk Board Circle
• HSR Layout
• 100-Ft ORR
• Agara junction
• Iblur junction
• Bellandur junction
• Mahadevapura
• KR Puram
• Ramamurthy Nagar
• Horamavu junction
• Hennur Road junction
• Bagalur village
• Myllanahalli junction
• Yarthaganahalli junction
• BIA.

Route for Driving from KH Road, Lalbagh, Wilson Garden, Richmond Circle & adjacent layouts to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• KH Road flyover
• Cash Pharmacy Circle
• Residency Road
• Mayo Hall junction
• MG Road
• Trinity Circle
• Halasoor Tank Road
• Old Madras Road
• NGEF
• KR Puram
• Ramamurthy Nagar
• Horamavu junction
• Hennur Road junction
• Bagalur village
• Mylanahalli junction
• Yarthaganahalli
• BIA.

Route for Driving from Ashoknagar & adjacent layouts to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• India Garage
• ASC Centre (left turn)
• Trinity Circle
• Halasoor Tank Road
• Old Madras Road
• NGEF
• KR Puram
• Ramamurthy Nagar
• Horamavu junction
• Hennur Road junction
• Bagalur village
• Mylanahalli junction
• Yarthaganahalli
• BIA.

Route for Driving from Vathur, Whitefield & adjacent layouts to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• Varthur PS jurisdiction
• HD Halli Rd Whitefield
• Kadugodi
• Old Madras Road junction
• Kattam Nallur Cross (left turn)
• Boodigere Cross (right turn)
• Mandoor
• Boodigere
• Bagalur (right turn)
• Mylanahalli
• BIA.

Route for Driving from ORR, Hennur junction & adjacent layouts to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• Byrathi Cross
• Chikkagubbi
• Kadu Sonnappanahalli
• Bande Hosur
• Bagalur
• Sathanur
• BSF junction
• Chakkalate Bagalur Cross
• Bellary Road
• BIA.

Route for Driving from ORR, Nagavara junction & adjacent areas to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport(BIA):

• Thanisandra
• Hegde Nagar
• Kogilu
• Maruthi Nagar Cross
• Bellary Road
• BIA.

List of Cab Services to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport

Now that the new and spanking Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport is up and running. Most of you might be looking at different transport options to reach the new airport and Cab Services are one of the right option which is mostly hassle-free.

Here is the list of Cab Services along with their phone numbers and e-mail ID's :

1.> Hertz

Hertz - the world’s No.1 car rental company. Hertz Car Rental as well as Hertz Holiday Cars are available to you, at all the destinations we fly to. Enjoy the superior standards of quality and service Hertz is known for, across the globe - and more…

To book your Hertz car:
Toll free: 1800 11 1212 T: 011-41841212
E: reserve@carzonrent.com
Website : www.carzonrent.com

2.> Sixt

Sixt manages a fleet of over 160,000 cars across 4000 outlets in 80 countries. They offer a wide range of mobility solutions like renting and leasing of cars, and holiday cars.

To rent a Sixt car, contact:
T: 99100 66600
E: rentacar@sixt.co.in


Also, you have a range of other transport options to get to your final destination comfortably:

• AC Volvo Buses operated by BMTC to key destinations in the city (indicative price to MG Road: Rs. 120)
• Reliable, professional taxi services operated by MERU and Easycabs, with a metered fare (indicative rate to MG Road: Rs. 600)

Related Article : Alternate Routes / Roads to drive faster to Bengaluru/Bangalore International Airport :: Complete List

Comodo Firewall :: A really good one

As internet is becoming common in our house-holds so is the virus and trojan attacks. The best way to protect yourself from the Trojan warfare is to install a pretty secure Firewall - almost all office networks will have one, but we usually think that an Anti-Virus at our home is more than enough - but that's really wrong. A good Firewall is a must.

A firewall basically filters all incoming and out-going traffic from your network. Thereby even a Trojan or Virus can't really do anything much with the details or information it would have collected from your PC.

I have been using Comodo Firewall for sometime now (maybe a couple of years). Comodo FirewallPro will secure your system against internal attacks such as Trojan viruses, malicious software, and external attacks by hackers and the best of it all is that it is Free for all non-commercial purposes.

It comes with a very user-friendly single click interface you can allow or block access to the Internet offering complete immunity to attacks and total protection of your personal information. Real time traffic monitoring enables you to react instantly to threats and identify bandwidth bottlenecks. Silent Security Technology means no needless alerts with out-of-the-box protection against hackers, Trojans and other unknown threats.

You can download the free edition from here.

Finally MS Project and BaseCamp get some competition from a new web enterant projjex.com!

I just came across www.projjex.com, a new online project management application. Imagine a mashup between MS Project, BaseCamp, your favourite file sharing application and a time tracking tool thrown in for good measure. Now add Google (their business model is to provide free software) No catch - the free version has a single ad in the interface that rotates with tooltips every 30 seconds or so. It's more than enough to run projects on, share files with, collaborate with other team members and get real-time updates on progress. Projjex is a collaborative task management service. It offers a simplified approach to managing projects for small and medium sixed teams. Like Myspace, Facebook and YouTube, Projjex is a great place to work together, to share stuff, to get things done. Its like a great big to-do list in the sky that keeps you and your team organized, focused and productive. In short, Projjex is the intuitive, collaborative, inexpensive tool designed for small teams that youve been searching for. I love the fact that I don't have to trawl through endless reports and update my clunky old project management software to keep up to date with all the progress. You can even import projects from MS Project and Basecamp - so you don't need to recreate your work. Take a look - register your free Projjex.com account at: www.projjex.com

Indian Proxy Servers :: Complete list of Free Proxy Servers to access Blocked Sites easily

After my previous article "Complete list of Free Proxy Servers to access Blocked Sites easily" I received many mails asking if there are proxy servers in India too as it makes your access to blocked websites that much more faster. I did some research and with inputs from friends - Here is the list of Indian Proxy Web servers.

• 210.212.5.73:3128
• 59.92.89.183:6588
• 60.243.121.162:6588

So now you can access the blocked gmail / hotmail / orkut from within your school/office with ease.

Assembling My New Desktop - What I finally got - Part 3

This is the 3rd Part to the ongoing journey of me Assembling My New Desktop Rig at home.
The previous parts of this article are at:

• Assembling My New Desktop - Deciding on Configuration and Basic Stuff - Part 1
  
• Assembling My New Desktop - The Price War - Part 2

Well, I did get the PC assembled earlier this month. The entire rig costed me Rs. 42,000 (a little over USD 1000).

1	Processor	Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz E8200-(6MB L2 cache 2.66Ghz 1333MHz)	Link
2	MotherBoard	Intel DG35EC Intel® G35 Express Chip 1333 FSB	Link
3	RAM	Transcend DDR 2 2 GB 800 Mhz (X 2 = 4GB)	NA
4	Hard Disk	Seagate Sata 2 500 GB (32 MB Buffer) - Barracuda 7200.11	Link
5	DVD Writer	Samsung 20X Sata	Link
6	Monitor	ViewSonic 22" VA2226W TFT Monitor	Link
7	Cabinet	Zebronics Antibiotic 3 LED Fans(1Side,1Black,Hop) Transparent Side Panel, Temperature Display, USB & Audio Port (With 450W SATA SMPS)	Link
8	Speakers	Creative SBS A500 5.1 Spkrs	Link
9	Keyboard / Mouse	Logitech Wired Multimedia Keyboard-Black
10	TV Tuner Card	Pixel View Play TV Pro 3 with FM (Internal)

I got all the components from S.P. Road in Bangalore and incidentally after a lot of bargaining with the prices and the specs.

I will write more on each of the components and what made me decide on taking the particular component and the particular brand.

How to get an Apple iPhone in India?

The answer isn't very straight forward if you are considering to get a genuine Apple iPhone in India for now. If it's a smuggled one then the local phone/computer markets would be fine.

As for an official one we have mixed results now - It seems that both Airtel as well as Vodafone will bring the famed iPhone to India in the coming months. Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has recently announced in an official press release last week that it will bring Apple's iPhone to India, Singapore, Australia, and the Philippines this year. Sufficing that - Airtel India has also issued a separate press release stating it will bring the iPhone to India. We all know that SingTel has a stake in Bharti Airtel so the iPhone will be landing to Airtel via SingTel.

The week before last we saw Vodafone say it is bringing the iPhone to India later this year, along with nine other countries including the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey. We already have confirmed dates with Telecom Italia announcing its deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Italy in the second half of the year. Hence we can also expect the iPhone in India too to be available via Vodafone around that time.

Now lets hope that Vodafone and Airtel are both right- which clearly means that the Apple iPhone will hit the Indian shores from two carriers? Now that's really going to be very interesting. I personally feel that this will surely bring down prices of the iPhone considerably, with both the telco majors vying for a large pie of the Apple iPhone market in India. So lets watch out for more developments.

It's been long since I wrote

Sorry Folks, it's been quite some time since I wrote - a week to be precise. Well - here goes the lame excuse. I was busy with assembling my Home PC rig and lo it's been simply superb (more about it in the coming days - watch out).

Also, as most of you know - I have moved my work into Supply Chain Management(SCM) domain from my previous domain of Customer Relationship Management(CRM) , so that's a huge learning curve for me and I am trying to grasp on the new terminologies of Replenishment, Picking, Packing, Shipping, etc - a whole new world unfolds.

Thanks for all the mails and suggestions that most of you have sent me regarding my new desktop configuration. One constant reply that I got from most of the readers was - Why don't you get a laptop instead of a Desktop? I have replied to all the mails with my reasons for going in for a desktop than a laptop - I will post my thoughts on this issue in the coming days.

So, how's everyone doing? Do mail me back folks - jasonblr@gmail.com (just in case you forgot).

Wishing you a very cheerful and profitable days ahead in whatever you do and wherever you are.

Cheers!!
Jason

XBox 360 will NOT support Blu-ray : It's now official

Microsoft has today finally denied reports of a Blu-ray drive for its Xbox 360 gaming console. Microsoft has recently announced in an email response to a popular tech-website that, "We have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360. Games are what drive consumers to purchase gaming consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available."

Reports have been doing the rounds ever since Microsoft withdrew HD DVD support. It was widely speculated that the company would eventually go with Blu-ray for its Xbox 360 console. However, Microsoft has made it very clear (at least for now) that theirs is a no frills gaming console that wants to remain that way!

Let's watch this space for more updates!!