Microsoft Word Crash on Startup

A relative of mine had this problem a couple of times, so I thought I’d better document it.

When he’s starting MS Word, he gets this message:

"Buffer overrun detected! 
A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state."

Word crashes afterwards.

The solution is simple. It appears the custom dictionary is corrupted. Renaming it solves the problem.

The file is located here:

C:\Document and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\proof\

Rename custom.dic to custom.old, and the problem will be solved (hopefully).

You can also try to recover your custom dictionary by opening it in Notepad, and removing whatever garbage you find at the end of the file.

Windows 7 – No Rear Microphone Input Detected

Still trying to figure out the last issues I have with Windows 7. The most urgent issue is that the audio driver doesn’t recognize the rear microphone input, where my microphone is plugged. Obviously, this is a driver issue. I have an Intel board with IDT audio, so I tried checking Intel’s website. There is no audio driver for Windows 7, so I tried the one for Vista. The installation hanged for 10 minutes, and then I got a message that the installation failed. However, I could finally see the rear microphone input in the Recording Devices tab! Hurray! But wait a minute… No sound is coming out… No sound is coming in. Had to roll back to undo the IDT driver installation. Good thing there was a System Restore point close enough.

So now I’ve subscribed to my board’s RSS feed on the Intel website, waiting for an updated audio driver. For now I’ll have to plug the microphone in the front.

Update: The solution is here.

No Images in Gmail in IE8

I’ve been facing an annoying situation for quite some time. When checking Gmail on Internet Explorer 8 and clicking an email with images, I get this warning message:

As a positive person I automatically click on Yes, and when I try to display the images, they are not shown. So finally I’ve had some time to check this out, and it appears that it may be worth the while to actually read the message rather than automatically click on Yes.

I’m using an HTTPS connection to Gmail. This message actually says that the webpage has content that isn’t available via HTTPS (the linked images), and if you click Yes, that content won’t be delivered.

So if you want to see these images, better click on No.

Thanks for HTTPWatch.

Google Street View zoom feature

Just found out a real cool new zoom feature in Google Street View. One in Street View, you get a kind of “zoom box” which enables you to zoom to specific spots, and there are multiple zoom levels, unlike the usual two levels. It also enables you to jump quickly to areas which are more far than the current location. If I recall correctly, previously you were able only to jump to the next picture, using the arrows on the road.

Update: just found out it’s called “Pancake”.