BiggAndyy

C:\IPCONFIG

WHOA!!!!!!!

That’s a LOT of devices… not just the 5 or 6 usually listed… I had HUNDREDS.  What’s going on?  I don’t want them there, even if they are important!

Turns out they aren’t really that important, especially if you are one of the millions of users still using IPv4 (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) IP address configuration.  Windows 7 ships with both IPv4 and IPv6 already enabled.  All those tunneling adapters are translators from IPv6 to IPv4.  But since we aren’t using IPv6, let’s get rid of them.  They slow down the machine when there are hundreds, and if you want any USEFUL information from IPCONFIG the getting rid of is easy.

First, uncheck the IPv6 option in your Adapter Settings dialog box and click OK.

If it were THAT easy this post would not be necessary.  It isn’t that easy.  When you retype IPCONFIG at a CMD window the tunnel adapters are still listed.  Don’t bother disabling and re-enabling the network cards or starting and stopping the wireless service or even rebooting.  They won’t work.

Second, you probably (99% sure) will need a program from MS called DEVCON.EXE.  This is the key to the rest of the process.  If you are running Windows 7 64 bit (and many of us are) you can get it at this >>link<<.

Put the program somewhere you can access it easily from a CMD window (such as %HOMEPATH%).
Open a CMD window to that directory and type this:

DEVCON REMOVE *6TO4MP

After you hit ENTER, depending on how many of those things have built up over the months, it can take a minute or two.  Eventually the program will give you the all clear and when you type IPCONFIG again, *POOF* they are all gone.

So, no more swirling down the digital doo-doo drain!  You’ve just fixed it on your own.  Good luck.

Windows 7 (and Vista and even Xbox) will encounter this error, and there are numerous fixes in the cloud to remedy this problem.  I’ll quickly list my attempts failures, and then describe what I did that finally did succeed.

I tried editing the Firewall to allow all the Microsoft sites access.  No help.

Updating the Network Card device driver.  Nothing.

Reinstalling several .dll files mentioned at some sites.  Did not work.

Edited the registry to change the MTU (maximum transmission unit).  Zilch.

Swearing loudly.  I felt better but the machine ignored me.  Zip.

Re-performed all those things logged in as the local administrator.  Up until now I did it as the local user and just upped the privileges when asked by 7.  Lots of time but no effect.

Finally I started to think outside the box/cubicle.  I remembered one of the .dll files was java-something-something.dll.  I began to wonder… did this machine have updated Java?  No, it did not.

I updated Java (to 6r30) over the web, rebooted, and heeeeeeey!!!!  That worked!

Once again, the simplest solution was the correct one, and once again, it was one of the Big 3 Things (Windows Updates, Java, and Antivirus).  So, long story short, if the propeller heads start directing you to edit this registry entry and modify that policy object STOP.  Try the simple things first!  It will only take a small amount of time and many times WILL solve the problem.

Move over VNC.  RDP?  Thing of the past.  Go to my PC?  Not anymore.  Join Me is a great web application for sharing or controlling a user computer, displaying a powerpoint presentation, even from Android or iPhone!

No subscriptions unless you want all the bells and whistles, but the free version is enough for most small to mid-range tech shops to support users across the hall or across the ocean.

Don’t take my word for it, visit http://join.me and have a friend or customer go there as well.  No logins, no passwords, no foolin’!  The customer only needs to click on the “share” button and the website will ask permission to run a small program, tell your user it’s ok and have them read you the number that appears.

You type in that number and click join and you are connected to their desktop.  You can see it, watch it, even take control of it (with the user’s permission).  The EASIEST way to remote to a customer’s machine, period.

A quick tip for those remaining workstations still on Windows XP.  Need to have administrator access but you are still logged in as the normal user?  Simple.

Create a desktop shortcut to CMD.EXE

Right click and select RUN AS… and select Adminsitrator

At the Command Prompt type EXPLORER and hit enter.

Presto!  You have an explorer windows with admin level rights.

The KSOD has now morphed into the HSOD (Hang Screen of Death).  Similar symptoms except the hang comes while the desktop is still visible on the screen.  The mouse moves but the buttons don’t work, nor does the keyboard.

To get the machine past the KSOD (see previous post) I allowed Vista to restore from a restore point.  Now this is different.  The machine works for a few minutes then just hangs.  Repeatedly and reliably.  I am all for computers (especially Windows) being reliable, but not this type of reliable.

Spinrite 6.0 found a few unrecoverable sections of the hard drive but nowhere near the boot sector or MBR.  But since it is good to have as clean a drivespace as possible, I ran the fix and locked those sectors out.  Still hangs.

Asked Mr. Google for some advice and found *gasp* MICROSOFT social technet had some good suggestions!  Seems to be two big culprits in this mystery, the WLAN service and NVidia drivers.  Well, since the WLAN NEEDS to be on (this is a notebook), I tried disabling the service.  Still hangs.

Seems our winner of the Vista Fail Award today is NVidia!  Downloaded new drivers, installed them, and so far no more hangs.

However (and this may be a preview of an upcoming Vista Fail) I just ran the Updates and Vista seems to be KSODding again… I think I’ll start selling little clay figurines on eBay to make a living.

The blacK Screen Of Death.  Well, the black screen of waiting to see if it eventually boots.

It won’t.

And I tried ALL the poindexter solutions on the web.  Hitting the left shift key about a bazillion times.  Using BART-PE and renaming the event log folder.  Spinrite’d the entire hard drive.  Let Vista try to autofix the problem.

None of them worked.  Except one.

Let Vista go back and restore from a backup that at one time worked (assuming you are allowing Vista to do that).

That is the only reliable fix I have found for Vista’s KSOD.  YMMV.