Can't Type in I.E.

On Wed, 4 Dec 2013 19:07:56 -0000, "Dave-UK" wrote in article
om...

"Shoe" wrote in message news
On Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:34:36 -0500, Wolf Kirchmeir
wrote:

On 2013-12-03 1:08 PM, Shoe wrote:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?


http://www.tech-faq.com/how-to-unins...-explorer.html
The link shows an article that says you can remove IE using Control
Panel's Remove programs option. Internet Explorer is not listed as
something that can be removed. This article appears to not be current
with Windows 7.

IE11 is listed as a feature that you can remove:
Control Panel Programs and Features Turn windows features on or off.

Turn on off remove. In addition, that will not help with the OP's
desire to uninstall and reinstall to attempt to fix IE. Not that I have
any better suggestions, mind you...

--
Zaphod

Adventurer, ex-hippie, good-timer (crook? quite possibly),
manic self-publicist, terrible bad at personal relationships,
often thought to be completely out to lunch.

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:46:04 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).
The Add-On causing the problem turned out to be Kaspersky virtual
keyboard. Interesting that FF automatically disables all the Kaspersky
Add-Ons and won't allow users to enable them. Anyway, thanks to
everyone for their suggestions.

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:39:57 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:46:04 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).
The Add-On causing the problem turned out to be Kaspersky virtual
keyboard. Interesting that FF automatically disables all the Kaspersky
Add-Ons and won't allow users to enable them. Anyway, thanks to
everyone for their suggestions.

Now that's interesting. I've noticed a problem common to IE10 & 11:
iexplore processes not shutting down when you click the red "X" to close
a page. When you get several of these iexplore processes, IE stops
responding and you have to stop each one with the Task Manager. I
suspect an add-on, but I rely on Kaspersky's Password Manager and can't
therefore turn it off.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England

Jolly polly wrote:

"Shoe" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).

Have you tried resetting IE?
open IE, tools Internet Options, Advanced Tab,
click on 'Restore advanced setting' then
click on 'reset' follow prompts, close and reopen IE
choose preferences, then try typing

Resetting IE will disable all add-ons. It does not remove add-ons.
That means the one causing the problem is still there. If it ever gets
reenabled, the problem will reappear. Best is to uninstall the add-on
so there is no trap waiting to get triggered.

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:39:57 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:46:04 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).
The Add-On causing the problem turned out to be Kaspersky virtual
keyboard. Interesting that FF automatically disables all the Kaspersky
Add-Ons and won't allow users to enable them. Anyway, thanks to
everyone for their suggestions.

Now that's interesting. I've noticed a problem common to IE10 & 11:
iexplore processes not shutting down when you click the red "X" to close
a page. When you get several of these iexplore processes, IE stops
responding and you have to stop each one with the Task Manager. I
suspect an add-on, but I rely on Kaspersky's Password Manager and can't
therefore turn it off.

Nope, not an add-on problem. The dispatcher is requesting the app to
close but the app isn't complying. Even with all add-ons disabled in
IE, you'll still notice remnant iexplore.exe processes floating around
in Task Manager's Processes tab long after you have exiting IE.

I first thought Microsoft was leaving iexplore.exe loaded figuring, gee,
everyone is online nowadays so they'll soon be back to using the web
browser. Let's just leave it loaded so it is immediately available on
next use. However, I could wait for days and the numerous iexplore.exe
processes were still there with no windows showing for IE and with IE
exited many days ago. Not unloading its process when exiting the app
(the window disappearing is only one step in the exit process) is not
unique to IE. Microsoft's Outlook has long suffered the same problem.

Because iexplore.exe processes linger around after you thought you
exited IE, and because these interfere with the next load of IE, you
have to kill the remnant iexplore.exe processes. Doing them one at a
time in Task Manager can be a real chore if there are many of these
orphaned processes. Instead I define a shortcut showing as an icon in a
toolbar in Windows' taskbar (you can use Quicklaunch but I prefer my own
"Internter Explorer" toolbar for various shortcuts). That shortcut runs
the following command:

taskkill.exe /f /im iexplore.exe

That forces a kill of any process (image) whose parent filename is
iexplore.exe. One click and every instance of iexplore.exe disappears.

I actually started using that trick back when I found malicious sites
could load instances of IE but have it use a hidden (invisible) window.
The script would load a new iexplore.exe but with visible attribute set
to hidden. So you got another instance of IE but you couldn't see it.
This, for example, is how some sites would start bothering you with
prompts long after you left their site or long after you figured you had
exited. This ghost instance of IE could run a scripted timer that could
continue its execution minutes, hours, or days later. Trying to close
that window of IE resulted in an onexit event in the script loading
another instance of IE. In fact, one malicious scheme is to keep
loading more and more instances of IE so fast that you'll never be able
to click on the "X" close button fast enough and eventually all your
memory gets consumed and Windows hangs. The single button for the
taskkill shortcut would kill all those dozens if not hundreds of
maliciously opened instances of IE.

On 05/12/2013 9:51 PM, Robin Bignall wrote:
On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:39:57 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:46:04 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).
The Add-On causing the problem turned out to be Kaspersky virtual
keyboard. Interesting that FF automatically disables all the Kaspersky
Add-Ons and won't allow users to enable them. Anyway, thanks to
everyone for their suggestions.

Now that's interesting. I've noticed a problem common to IE10 & 11:
iexplore processes not shutting down when you click the red "X" to close
a page. When you get several of these iexplore processes, IE stops
responding and you have to stop each one with the Task Manager. I
suspect an add-on, but I rely on Kaspersky's Password Manager and can't
therefore turn it off.


I thought Firefox was the only program that did that. Does it, also like
Firefox, close down fully if you use File Exit or Alt-F4 - rather than
just closing the window with the cross?


--
Bob - Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK

Atheist - a person with no invisible means of support.

On Thu, 5 Dec 2013 18:43:10 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:39:57 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:46:04 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).
The Add-On causing the problem turned out to be Kaspersky virtual
keyboard. Interesting that FF automatically disables all the Kaspersky
Add-Ons and won't allow users to enable them. Anyway, thanks to
everyone for their suggestions.

Now that's interesting. I've noticed a problem common to IE10 & 11:
iexplore processes not shutting down when you click the red "X" to close
a page. When you get several of these iexplore processes, IE stops
responding and you have to stop each one with the Task Manager. I
suspect an add-on, but I rely on Kaspersky's Password Manager and can't
therefore turn it off.

Nope, not an add-on problem. The dispatcher is requesting the app to
close but the app isn't complying. Even with all add-ons disabled in
IE, you'll still notice remnant iexplore.exe processes floating around
in Task Manager's Processes tab long after you have exiting IE.

I first thought Microsoft was leaving iexplore.exe loaded figuring, gee,
everyone is online nowadays so they'll soon be back to using the web
browser. Let's just leave it loaded so it is immediately available on
next use. However, I could wait for days and the numerous iexplore.exe
processes were still there with no windows showing for IE and with IE
exited many days ago. Not unloading its process when exiting the app
(the window disappearing is only one step in the exit process) is not
unique to IE. Microsoft's Outlook has long suffered the same problem.

Because iexplore.exe processes linger around after you thought you
exited IE, and because these interfere with the next load of IE, you
have to kill the remnant iexplore.exe processes. Doing them one at a
time in Task Manager can be a real chore if there are many of these
orphaned processes. Instead I define a shortcut showing as an icon in a
toolbar in Windows' taskbar (you can use Quicklaunch but I prefer my own
"Internter Explorer" toolbar for various shortcuts). That shortcut runs
the following command:

taskkill.exe /f /im iexplore.exe

That forces a kill of any process (image) whose parent filename is
iexplore.exe. One click and every instance of iexplore.exe disappears.

I actually started using that trick back when I found malicious sites
could load instances of IE but have it use a hidden (invisible) window.
The script would load a new iexplore.exe but with visible attribute set
to hidden. So you got another instance of IE but you couldn't see it.
This, for example, is how some sites would start bothering you with
prompts long after you left their site or long after you figured you had
exited. This ghost instance of IE could run a scripted timer that could
continue its execution minutes, hours, or days later. Trying to close
that window of IE resulted in an onexit event in the script loading
another instance of IE. In fact, one malicious scheme is to keep
loading more and more instances of IE so fast that you'll never be able
to click on the "X" close button fast enough and eventually all your
memory gets consumed and Windows hangs. The single button for the
taskkill shortcut would kill all those dozens if not hundreds of
maliciously opened instances of IE.

Thanks for this. You are the first person to recognise the problem (and
its solution) that I've seen here. Great post.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Thu, 5 Dec 2013 18:43:10 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:39:57 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 07:46:04 -0500, Shoe wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2013 22:08:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Shoe wrote:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Internet Explorer 11

The past few days, I cannot enter any typing in IE. I have checked to
be sure everything in Windows is updated and everything has been.
Firefox works normally, no problem typing passwords, etc. I tried to
do a system restore for a point from two weeks ago and system restore
showed an error message that it had failed to complete. A lot of
things were messed up then and I tried to run system restore again. It
then gave me an option to undo the previous failed effort. I ran that
and got back to where I started, still unable to enter any typing in
IE.

It is my understanding that IE is a part of Windows and cannot be
removed and re-installed. Short of starting over with a fresh install
of Windows, does anyone have any suggestions?

Have you tried loading Internet Explorer in its safe mode (by adding the
-extoff command-line parameter)?

Did you enable "Carat Browsing" in Internet Explorer? With that one,
you might not be currently positioned within a text field when you start
typing.

To "type in IE" means you have to select an input object that permits
input. You can just go writing into the web page unless there are
fields to accept that input. Are you selecting a field in which to
type? When you click on the input field (e.g., text box), does it show
as selected? That is, do you see a blinking insert cursor show up
inside that field to tell you the current position for the next
character of text input?

Have you tried resetting Internet Explorer?
Internet Options - Advanced, look at the bottom of the window.
Thanks for the suggestion - I started IE in safe mode as you suggest
and that eliminated the problem. I have not yet sorted out which
Add-On is causing the problem but plan to spend some time on that this
afternoon. Interesting that IE does not have an option to start in
safe mode - FF has that option in the start menu ( my wife uses IE on
her computer, I use FF or Chrome).
The Add-On causing the problem turned out to be Kaspersky virtual
keyboard. Interesting that FF automatically disables all the Kaspersky
Add-Ons and won't allow users to enable them. Anyway, thanks to
everyone for their suggestions.

Now that's interesting. I've noticed a problem common to IE10 & 11:
iexplore processes not shutting down when you click the red "X" to close
a page. When you get several of these iexplore processes, IE stops
responding and you have to stop each one with the Task Manager. I
suspect an add-on, but I rely on Kaspersky's Password Manager and can't
therefore turn it off.

Nope, not an add-on problem. The dispatcher is requesting the app to
close but the app isn't complying. Even with all add-ons disabled in
IE, you'll still notice remnant iexplore.exe processes floating around
in Task Manager's Processes tab long after you have exiting IE.

I first thought Microsoft was leaving iexplore.exe loaded figuring, gee,
everyone is online nowadays so they'll soon be back to using the web
browser. Let's just leave it loaded so it is immediately available on
next use. However, I could wait for days and the numerous iexplore.exe
processes were still there with no windows showing for IE and with IE
exited many days ago. Not unloading its process when exiting the app
(the window disappearing is only one step in the exit process) is not
unique to IE. Microsoft's Outlook has long suffered the same problem.

Because iexplore.exe processes linger around after you thought you
exited IE, and because these interfere with the next load of IE, you
have to kill the remnant iexplore.exe processes. Doing them one at a
time in Task Manager can be a real chore if there are many of these
orphaned processes. Instead I define a shortcut showing as an icon in a
toolbar in Windows' taskbar (you can use Quicklaunch but I prefer my own
"Internter Explorer" toolbar for various shortcuts). That shortcut runs
the following command:

taskkill.exe /f /im iexplore.exe

That forces a kill of any process (image) whose parent filename is
iexplore.exe. One click and every instance of iexplore.exe disappears.

I actually started using that trick back when I found malicious sites
could load instances of IE but have it use a hidden (invisible) window.
The script would load a new iexplore.exe but with visible attribute set
to hidden. So you got another instance of IE but you couldn't see it.
This, for example, is how some sites would start bothering you with
prompts long after you left their site or long after you figured you had
exited. This ghost instance of IE could run a scripted timer that could
continue its execution minutes, hours, or days later. Trying to close
that window of IE resulted in an onexit event in the script loading
another instance of IE. In fact, one malicious scheme is to keep
loading more and more instances of IE so fast that you'll never be able
to click on the "X" close button fast enough and eventually all your
memory gets consumed and Windows hangs. The single button for the
taskkill shortcut would kill all those dozens if not hundreds of
maliciously opened instances of IE.

Thanks for this. You are the first person to recognise the problem (and
its solution) that I've seen here. Great post.

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:46:17 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

A shortcut on the desktop to a .bat file is working fine, but I can't
seem to pin it to the taskbar.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:46:17 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

A shortcut on the desktop to a .bat file is working fine, but I can't
seem to pin it to the taskbar.

I got rid of pinned programs almost immediately after installing Windows
7. Instead, and just like back in Vista and XP, I use my own toolbars
to put shortcuts in them. I have the Quicklaunch but defined my own for
IE shortcuts, security shortcuts, communications, etc. I can squash a
toolbar to any size right down to just showing 1 icon (3 was the minimum
back in XP). Pinning just seems to waste too much space.

Oh, and I have 2 rows in my Windows taskbar: bottom is for toolbars and
address bar, top is for buttons for loaded apps. I get a whole row in
the taskbar for app buttons. Don't have to share with pinned apps that
aren't even running. With shortcuts in toolbars, I can have them run
commands. I don't need to encapsulate the command inside a .bat file
(because you cannot include command-line switches in a pinned app).

Pinning may work only with recognizable executable filetypes. Batch
files are text files that something ELSE has to interpret. Read this:
http://llbest.com/?P=6a. What that guy is doing is specifying an
executable program (cmd.exe, the command shell program) to have it load
and interpret the text inside the .bat file. Well, I suppose that works
but using shortcuts in toolbars in the taskbar is so much easier to use
and maintain.

On Sun, 8 Dec 2013 20:39:39 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:


I got rid of pinned programs almost immediately after installing Windows
7. Instead, and just like back in Vista and XP, I use my own toolbars
to put shortcuts in them. I have the Quicklaunch but defined my own for
IE shortcuts, security shortcuts, communications, etc. I can squash a
toolbar to any size right down to just showing 1 icon (3 was the minimum
back in XP). Pinning just seems to waste too much space.

We all have different tastes, but I like pinning very much. What I
like about it is that if I want a particular program, I simply click
on it on the task bar. That works exactly the same way whether the
program is opened and minimized or not running. To me, not having to
remember whether I had already opened it is a big advantage.

And since I keep my task bar on the left side of my main screen,
rather than at the bottom, each item on it takes a minimum of space.

On Sun, 8 Dec 2013 20:39:39 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:46:17 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

A shortcut on the desktop to a .bat file is working fine, but I can't
seem to pin it to the taskbar.

I got rid of pinned programs almost immediately after installing Windows
7. Instead, and just like back in Vista and XP, I use my own toolbars
to put shortcuts in them. I have the Quicklaunch but defined my own for
IE shortcuts, security shortcuts, communications, etc. I can squash a
toolbar to any size right down to just showing 1 icon (3 was the minimum
back in XP). Pinning just seems to waste too much space.

Oh, and I have 2 rows in my Windows taskbar: bottom is for toolbars and
address bar, top is for buttons for loaded apps. I get a whole row in
the taskbar for app buttons. Don't have to share with pinned apps that
aren't even running. With shortcuts in toolbars, I can have them run
commands. I don't need to encapsulate the command inside a .bat file
(because you cannot include command-line switches in a pinned app).

Pinning may work only with recognizable executable filetypes. Batch
files are text files that something ELSE has to interpret. Read this:
http://llbest.com/?P=6a. What that guy is doing is specifying an
executable program (cmd.exe, the command shell program) to have it load
and interpret the text inside the .bat file. Well, I suppose that works
but using shortcuts in toolbars in the taskbar is so much easier to use
and maintain.

Thanks for this. The method outlined in that URL works for me. I have
no idea how to create a toolbar.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England

On Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:14:29 +0000, Robin Bignall
wrote:

On Sun, 8 Dec 2013 20:39:39 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:46:17 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

A shortcut on the desktop to a .bat file is working fine, but I can't
seem to pin it to the taskbar.

I got rid of pinned programs almost immediately after installing Windows
7. Instead, and just like back in Vista and XP, I use my own toolbars
to put shortcuts in them. I have the Quicklaunch but defined my own for
IE shortcuts, security shortcuts, communications, etc. I can squash a
toolbar to any size right down to just showing 1 icon (3 was the minimum
back in XP). Pinning just seems to waste too much space.

Oh, and I have 2 rows in my Windows taskbar: bottom is for toolbars and
address bar, top is for buttons for loaded apps. I get a whole row in
the taskbar for app buttons. Don't have to share with pinned apps that
aren't even running. With shortcuts in toolbars, I can have them run
commands. I don't need to encapsulate the command inside a .bat file
(because you cannot include command-line switches in a pinned app).

Pinning may work only with recognizable executable filetypes. Batch
files are text files that something ELSE has to interpret. Read this:
http://llbest.com/?P=6a. What that guy is doing is specifying an
executable program (cmd.exe, the command shell program) to have it load
and interpret the text inside the .bat file. Well, I suppose that works
but using shortcuts in toolbars in the taskbar is so much easier to use
and maintain.

Thanks for this. The method outlined in that URL works for me. I have
no idea how to create a toolbar.

Incidentally, in installing the taskbar icon I found that I could not
see c:\windows\system32\imageres.dll even though Folder Options is set
to display everything. I know it's there because attempts to replace it
with a new copy produce the "Do you want to replace... by ..." message
set. Regsvr32 runs, but there's some problem with the entry point of
the file.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:14:29 +0000, Robin Bignall
wrote:

On Sun, 8 Dec 2013 20:39:39 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:46:17 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

A shortcut on the desktop to a .bat file is working fine, but I can't
seem to pin it to the taskbar.

I got rid of pinned programs almost immediately after installing Windows
7. Instead, and just like back in Vista and XP, I use my own toolbars
to put shortcuts in them. I have the Quicklaunch but defined my own for
IE shortcuts, security shortcuts, communications, etc. I can squash a
toolbar to any size right down to just showing 1 icon (3 was the minimum
back in XP). Pinning just seems to waste too much space.

Oh, and I have 2 rows in my Windows taskbar: bottom is for toolbars and
address bar, top is for buttons for loaded apps. I get a whole row in
the taskbar for app buttons. Don't have to share with pinned apps that
aren't even running. With shortcuts in toolbars, I can have them run
commands. I don't need to encapsulate the command inside a .bat file
(because you cannot include command-line switches in a pinned app).

Pinning may work only with recognizable executable filetypes. Batch
files are text files that something ELSE has to interpret. Read this:
http://llbest.com/?P=6a. What that guy is doing is specifying an
executable program (cmd.exe, the command shell program) to have it load
and interpret the text inside the .bat file. Well, I suppose that works
but using shortcuts in toolbars in the taskbar is so much easier to use
and maintain.

Thanks for this. The method outlined in that URL works for me. I have
no idea how to create a toolbar.

Incidentally, in installing the taskbar icon I found that I could not
see c:\windows\system32\imageres.dll even though Folder Options is set
to display everything. I know it's there because attempts to replace it
with a new copy produce the "Do you want to replace... by ..." message
set. Regsvr32 runs, but there's some problem with the entry point of
the file.

That part of the article is fluff. It is how to change the icon for the
shortcut which has nothing to do with the command the shortcut executes.
I can see that file. My Windows Explorer is configured to show hidden
and system files (and also show the filetypes since icons mean nothing
to me).

Just where in the article did the author mention regsvr32.exe? You
aren't trying to register the DLL by adding entries in the registry. I
have no problem seeing that file and selecting it in the browse dialog
for Change Icon. If you run in a command shell:

dir c:\windows\system32\imageres.dll

does the file show up?

There is no registering of the file. No file from which you want to
select any icons stored within must be registered. Icons are a resource
defined in a file, not entry points (methods aka functions). You follow
his instructions on how to select an *icon* for the shortcut by pointing
at a file and then seeing which, if any, icons defined within it that
you want to use. In the shortcut's definition, clicking on Change Icon,
and selecting the imageres.dll file, there are 115 icons defined within
that DLL file from which you can select. Other files also have icons
within them. You could pick icons out of shell32.dll, or moricons.dll,
or even progman.exe. You might download files that are a library of
icons to choose one from there.

On Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:35:20 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:14:29 +0000, Robin Bignall
wrote:

On Sun, 8 Dec 2013 20:39:39 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Robin Bignall wrote:

On Sat, 7 Dec 2013 18:46:17 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

I've seen this happen with several programs. It's bad enough that
Microsoft should have 2 "X" buttons in the titlebar of the app's window:
one regular "X" meaning to normally exit the program (the program
initiates its own exit routines) and another fatter "X" or maybe a
hazard symbol meaning Windows will kill the program (instead of making
you use a separate program, like taskkill). Alas, I just realized that
won't work. The app will close its window but has not yet finalized its
exit routines. So the fatter "X" to kill the program won't be
available. Oh well, back to taskkill.

A shortcut on the desktop to a .bat file is working fine, but I can't
seem to pin it to the taskbar.

I got rid of pinned programs almost immediately after installing Windows
7. Instead, and just like back in Vista and XP, I use my own toolbars
to put shortcuts in them. I have the Quicklaunch but defined my own for
IE shortcuts, security shortcuts, communications, etc. I can squash a
toolbar to any size right down to just showing 1 icon (3 was the minimum
back in XP). Pinning just seems to waste too much space.

Oh, and I have 2 rows in my Windows taskbar: bottom is for toolbars and
address bar, top is for buttons for loaded apps. I get a whole row in
the taskbar for app buttons. Don't have to share with pinned apps that
aren't even running. With shortcuts in toolbars, I can have them run
commands. I don't need to encapsulate the command inside a .bat file
(because you cannot include command-line switches in a pinned app).

Pinning may work only with recognizable executable filetypes. Batch
files are text files that something ELSE has to interpret. Read this:
http://llbest.com/?P=6a. What that guy is doing is specifying an
executable program (cmd.exe, the command shell program) to have it load
and interpret the text inside the .bat file. Well, I suppose that works
but using shortcuts in toolbars in the taskbar is so much easier to use
and maintain.

Thanks for this. The method outlined in that URL works for me. I have
no idea how to create a toolbar.

Incidentally, in installing the taskbar icon I found that I could not
see c:\windows\system32\imageres.dll even though Folder Options is set
to display everything. I know it's there because attempts to replace it
with a new copy produce the "Do you want to replace... by ..." message
set. Regsvr32 runs, but there's some problem with the entry point of
the file.

That part of the article is fluff. It is how to change the icon for the
shortcut which has nothing to do with the command the shortcut executes.

Did I imply it was? I was trying to change the icon to something
meaningful and could not see imageres.dll.

I can see that file. My Windows Explorer is configured to show hidden
and system files (and also show the filetypes since icons mean nothing
to me).

So is mine, but that file does not show.

Just where in the article did the author mention regsvr32.exe?

He didn't. That was from another site about replacing missing / corrupt
imageres.dll.

You
aren't trying to register the DLL by adding entries in the registry. I
have no problem seeing that file and selecting it in the browse dialog
for Change Icon. If you run in a command shell:

dir c:\windows\system32\imageres.dll

does the file show up?

Yes it does, but dir is not windows explorer, and it's the latter that
is used in the shortcut/properties/change icon dialog.

There is no registering of the file. No file from which you want to
select any icons stored within must be registered. Icons are a resource
defined in a file, not entry points (methods aka functions). You follow
his instructions on how to select an *icon* for the shortcut by pointing
at a file and then seeing which, if any, icons defined within it that
you want to use. In the shortcut's definition, clicking on Change Icon,
and selecting the imageres.dll file, there are 115 icons defined within
that DLL file from which you can select.

As I have said, ad nauseam, windows explorer WILL NOT show that file,
and therefore it cannot be pointed at. I don't know why: the file is
present and I managed to select it and get an icon by typing its name
in. But Windows Explorer, set to display every type of file, will not
show it. Neither, incidentally, will the program "Everything.exe".

Other files also have icons
within them. You could pick icons out of shell32.dll, or moricons.dll,
or even progman.exe. You might download files that are a library of
icons to choose one from there.

Yes, I know all of this. It's just that I can't point to imageres.dll
on my Win7 ult system.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England