Usually I rush to write down any error message so I can track down a solution later. Today I decided to try a screen capture instead. I use a great screen capture program called TNT that loads on startup. I usually have it set to capture a free region at 75% of the displayed size so I can grab any part of the screen from my browser or other applications. If needed I can reduce the size later.

The above image was reduced to 400 x 100 for this blog article.

Microsoft doesn’t offer much help to anyone who gets error messages like this. The system doesn’t give any option to print or save the error message or search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for a solution. Users are pretty much on their own to find out what happened, why it happened, and how to stop it from happening again. In other words — good luck, you are on your own.

I usually search Google for the file names (without extensions) and get enough information to proceed. Today’s error was a tricky one. Way to much information from sources I was quite willing to trust.

I finally found out the error referred to the Realtek HD Audio Sound Effect Manager. So I searched Google for: Realtek HD Audio Sound Effect Manager Toshiba. The top search result was forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com — what I would consider a trusted source of information. Unfortunately, the information was not directly related, so I searched the forum for hhctrl. The first item was on target. Reading the message thread I found that cypriano,one of the forum users, had already tracked down a fix on the Microsoft support site.

In case you run into the same problem, the solution that cypriano found was http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448/en-us. The title of the page is: The Realtek HD Audio Control Panel may not start, and you receive an error message when you start the computer: “Illegal System DLL Relocation”.

I downloaded and ran the fix from Microsoft, rebooted, and the error message was gone.

I think that Microsoft should offer better help for this kind of situation. I tried searching for both rthdcpl and hhctrl on the support.microsoft.com site and didn’t find any helpful information.

Back to capturing error messages: I think it’s useful to keep copies of the error messages because you might see the same or similar errors later. Although almost any screen capture program will work, I’m a big fan of TNT Screen Capture which is very flexible and easy to use Windows program. An evaluation version can be downloaded from the same site.

What I like about Windows Live Writer:

• The Web Preview is outstanding.
• The software installs quickly and flawlessly.
• The interface is clean and uncluttered.
• The WYSIWYG editor and spell checker work – what more could you ask!
• The program works with LiveSpaces, Typepad, WordPress and Blogger.
• Adding images and maps is a snap and there are lots of ways to customize them.

Things I don’t like about Windows Live Writer:

• Uploading images failed but the program gave me the option to setup FTP.
• The program creates a Windows Live Writer sub-directory within my image directory.
• Each new post opens in a new window.
• Selecting Close from the File menu closes the application not the post.
• The Post Properties gizmo shows Link and Keywords, but I don’t know what these boxes actually do in WordPress.

I ran into a few glitches when I tried to post this draft to the Infomaven Notes blog. Uploading images wasn’t supported until I set-up image FTP. Even then the program still reported that it couldn’t upload the images, but it actually did upload them.

The post properties options aren’t real clear. I don’t really know what Link or Keywords refers to, so I’m hesitant to use them.

Windows Live Writer and Blogger

I’ve always liked Blogger. It’s free, easy to use, and has pretty nice templates. However, I’m not a fan of the built-in editor. Because of this I’ve tested various desktop programs like W.bloggar, but I’ve found that they are not a whole lot better.

I tested the Windows Live Writer with two different Blogger blogs and found one interesting difference. Windows Live Writer downloaded the template and previous posts for the blog that has its own hosting. It wasn’t able to do either with the blog that uses Blogspot hosting.

The bottom line: I’ll stick with Blogdesk for my WordPress blogs, but use Windows Live Writer for Blogger accounts.