I migrated this blog post to SuperUser.com, yay! :-)

I was attempting to repair the welcome screen on Windows XP for a client yesterday.
Here's a list of the repair steps I attempted:

• Toggled Welcome Screen / Fast User Switching
• Checked control userpasswords2
• Ran System File Checker: sfc /scannow
• Checked Fast User Switching Compatibility service (services.msc)
• Checked Terminal Services service
• Checked Event Viewer (Winlogon) for issues
• Verified no GinaDLL entry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
• Verified HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\LogonType was set to 1
• Verified HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\AllowMultipleTSSessions was set to 1
• Imported the Restore Fast User Switching registry file from kellys-korner-xp.com (includes AllowMultipleTSSessions)
• Checked HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system possibly overriding the above
• Ran XP_FixLogon.exe from dougknox.com to verify the default standard Gina was in use
• Getting desperate: double checked stats of gina files: dir *gina* /p/s/a (even after SFC verified them)
• Getting desperate: used NirSoft's RegScanner to search for strings containing gina in the registry looking for something suspicious

and finally

• Ran Logon Loader Recovery Tool, which finally repaired it!

Daniel Milner (Milner Solutions), you are my hero. I don't know what black magic your tool performs that SFC and registry tweaks couldn't compete with, but I'm deeply intrigued, and grateful.

If Twitter was indexed, then I could count on brief tweeted solutions reaching a public audience, but they're not. So here's a very brief post, with perhaps many more to come, giving a solution to a tricky problem. I hope that it's reliably indexed and found for those experiencing the same issue, even if that audience is very small, solutions deserve to be shared! ;)

There is an issue with the WUSB54G network adapter on Windows 7 (on Vista as well I think). It could only be present on a 64-bit OS, I don't know. The Wifi connection will repeatedly drop, and many times the adapter will completely disappear from device manager, as if it has been unplugged. The only thing to be done is to unplug and replug the adapter.

It seems like a power management issue, but the Power Management tab on the adapter properties in device manager doesn't help. Nor does adjusting USB Selective Suspend in Power Options.

The solution is to install the RT2500USB driver from Ralinktech.com Your device will now appear as an RT2500.

02-01-11 Update: I discovered the true problem was, as might be expected, insufficient power reaching the USB device. It didn't help that I was using a long, light-up, cable, plugged into the front panel of my computer. I moved the plug to a powered USB Hub, reverted the driver, and have had no problems since.

If still having difficulties, try running WLAN Optimizer, perhaps even in streaming mode. Vista was notorious for a terrible background scan lag spike every 60 seconds, which while drastically reduced in Windows 7 doesn't seem entirely gone.

I have 26 folders in my My Documents folder. Do you know how many of those I intentionally created myself? Nope, lower. Okay, I'll tell you: zero. Applications dump their garbage in there like crazy, and it's annoying as hell, I thought this was where I put my documents! Windows is designed for users to save here, they've made it quite convenient. If only it wasn't so damn polluted!

I'll be honest, when I first saw Libraries in Windows 7 I thought, "Uh oh." Then after hearing Joel Spolsky talk about it on this Stack Overflow podcast I thought, "Oh no."

Well guess what? Libraries in Windows 7 might actually be quite the clever and elegant solution to User Space Pollution, and that, my friend, is a very good thing.

It's simple really, the Common Dialogs of Windows 7 (open/save file...) are designed for conveniently saving to libraries in general now, and no longer My Documents.

So the solution is simple. Create a new folder in %UserProfile% (that's C:\Users\<Name>), and name it something like Own Documents. Now click on your Documents library, and then where it says Includes: x locations. Add your new folder, and right click it and set it as the default save location. I strongly recommend removing My Documents from the list entirely.

Applications don't use the library interface, they will pollute "My Documents" specifically, and you no longer have to see it! Furthermore, the Documents library will now point to and hold your actual own documents. ;) Eureka.

Mouse gestures are awesome. They're incredibly convenient, powerful, simple, and intuitive. I personally would be no where near as efficient without them. It's when you hold down the right mouse button, and drag the mouse in a particular direction or draw a particular shape to perform an action.

Of course it's apparent that mouse gestures must be too awesome, because you're not using them, are you? In fact, no one seems to be. Sure, the web browser Opera makes fair use of them. There's more than one Firefox extension which does the job too, with pitiful download numbers.

You'd even be hard pressed to find a gesture program for Windows. Though you would find StrokeIt, an entertainingly named little application so awesome I found it invaluable even when it wasn't updated for 4 years and had Vista bugs - but all of that has changed! A version .9.6 is here to release us of such troubles, it's time to rekindle the gesture revolution!

I'm not sure why mouse gestures have received such a poor welcoming, though I have a few ideas. It could be that you think they're slow, requiring convoluted ridiculous wrist gyrations. Is that it? Perhaps certain wonderful applications are even guilty of such default configurations. It sort of makes a difference, you know?

Here's your solution. Install StrokeIt, delete all the default configurations and add the following Global Actions:

• / Up, Max/Restore
• / Down, Minimize
• Right, Move to Next Monitor
• Left, Move to Previous Monitor
• MButton, Launch Explorer
• Up, Close Window

There you go, you just became incredibly more productive. Now enjoy the rest of your life. :)

Note: If you're worried about closing a window accidentally with the Up gesture, don't be. For at least a few years now I've used this gesture and triggered it on accident maybe once, and even then was able to cancel closing my program. Is accidentally triggering gestures one of your fears?