Another Nice Touch: Right-Click For Error Code
Here’s another nice touch in Windows Vista. I was trying to install some updates to Outlook through Windows Update, which I think failed because I was running two installers at once. I didn’t know that, and I wondered how I was going to copy the error code from the Windows Update software in Windows Vista to Google the solution. I knew there was a trick for copying the text in dialog boxes, but this wasn’t a dialog, so I didn’t know what to do.
While it wasn’t obvious, I loved it when it worked. I just right-clicked, and damn if someone didn’t program Vista to know exactly what I needed. That’s a wonderful little help right there.
On a side note, I found out what was causing the popups some of you guys have been seeing. A line including an external stats counter, one I didn’t use, was included in some code for the bstats plugin I use to show the incoming search terms (among other things). The code was occasionally forcing through popups, but I caught it and killed it.
If the maker of this plugin is monetizing it by selling code to spammers, then color me disgusted and incensed. If it was a security violation, then I’ve got a whole other problem to deal with.
Nathan:
You got my attention. Let me assure you that I’m not selling anything to anybody, and if there’s some code linking to external tracking it was entirely a mistake.
(I was working on an external tracking service connected to bsuite for a while, but have since put that aside, still I don’t think any of that code ever made it into a released version of bsuite/bstats.)
Please contact me with more details, as I’m as concerned about this issue as you are.
–Casey
Comment by Casey Bisson | August 16, 2007
Nice except they should have added the code to prevent the error from occuring. Like they is another installer running would you like to wait ?
Comment by lwk | August 16, 2007
Yay. You discovered the cause of the problem. I hope the fix worked well.
Comment by Michael | August 16, 2007