Quickbooks PDF converter not working

After upgrading a clients operating system recently we found that quickbooks could not create PDFs either through the "email accounts" function, or the file > save as > pdf option.

Having run through all the the troubleshooting steps, manually we were no closer to resolving the problem.  As a workaround, we had installed PDF Creator allowing the user to print to pdf and then email the file out manually, but this significantly increased the number of steps involved.

Solution
On this occasion the solution was simpler than imagined, Intuit's own PDF diagnosis tool resolved the problem.
http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Articles/SLN40733 (Solution 1)
Perhaps a misnomer on their part as it is more a repair tool than a diagnosis tool.

If you require assistance with this or any other problems then please call The PC Support Group on +44 (0)845 2233116

Deciphering Blue Screens

One of our customers called today with the infamous blue screen, actually she wasn't getting the blue screen, she was getting the "Windows just recovered from a serious error" screen which happens after Windows automatically reboots itself.

What you can do to troubleshoot this is check the event viewer (eventvwr) for system errors with ID 1001.  This will reveal something about the cause and regularity of the errors.  It is also worth seeing if any other errors occur just momentarily before the 1001 event.

Should you require more information then there is a great program called BlueScreenView, it is included with Windows 7 Professional, but you may be able to download it for other versions of Windows.  Using the Kaseya console I transferred the C:\Windows\Minidump folder to a temporary folder on my local machine and running this was immediately able to see the main suspects

Although the Stop Code was 0x10000008e, and searching Google suggested it was a graphics driver problem.  Using BlueScreenView seemed to suggest is was caused by some security software Trusteer Rapport.  Adding further weight to this theory, the Trusteer website even lists "blue screens" in their FAQ.

For further information check out the detailed response in the Microsoft Forums
Please contact The PC Support Group on +44 (0)845 2233116 if you would like us to resolve these blue screen problems for you.

How to manually extract self-extracting archives

This applies to certain .exe .msu .msp and .msi files and is taken from the following website (http://www.windowswiki.info/2009/02/19/how-to-extract-msumspmsiexe-files-on-the-command-line/)

How to extract msu/msp/msi/exe files on the command line

I find these commands quite helpful — maybe you know them already — if not, here you go:

Microsoft Hotfix Installer (.exe)

setup.exe /t:C:\extracted_files\ /c

Microsoft Update Standalone Package (.msu)

expand -F:* update.msu C:\extracted_files
cd extracted_files
expand -F:* update.cab C:\extracted_files

Microsoft Patch File (.msp)

msix patch.msp /out C:\extracted_files
msix.zip

Windows Installer Package (.msi)

msiexec /a setup.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\extracted_files