Turn Windows features on or off is empty/blank in Windows 7/Vista

If you ever uninstalled a program in Windows Vista or 7 from the Control Panel, you probably noticed the option “Turn Windows features on or off” in the left pane of the window. This option allows you, just like for any programs you installed, to install/uninstall Windows features such as games, the indexing service, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Center and several other system components.

However you might have encountered a problem when you clicked the option and were faced with this window:

Usually you would see a "Please wait..." while Windows loads the features but here nothing happens, even after several minutes. This is a known bug that Microsoft acknowledges in their knowledge base article 931712 and although their proposed methods for fixing this bug might work for some people, it didn't for me.

What fixed it was actually enabling a service I had accidentally disabled in one of my sessions of fiddling with my system. The service in question was Windows Modules Installer, also known as Trusted Installer or TrustedInstaller.exe.

Here is how you activate it:

1. Go to Start > Run... or simply press Windows + R to open up the Run prompt window.

2. Type services.msc and press OK to open up the Services manager.

3. In the window that opens up, look for a service named Windows Modules Installer.

4. Double-click it, or right-click and select Properties.

5. In the window that opens up, in "Startup type:" set it to Automatic.

6. Press OK or Apply to validate.

Reboot your computer, everything should work as intended now.

How to install the USB drivers for your Samsung Galaxy 3 (Apollo, I5800, I5801)

If you too were having problems with your Samsung Galaxy 3/Apollo/I5800/I5801 phone not being recognized by Windows, look no further.

1. You will need to download the drivers for another phone called Samsung Galaxy S.

For Windows (XP/Vista/7) x86 (32 bits).
For Windows (XP/Vista/7) x64 (64 bits).

2. Locate the file you downloaded and unzip its contents. Plug in your Galaxy 3 using the USB cable and redirect the driver installer to the folder where you unzipped the contents. If the driver installer doesn't show up, you can go to Control Panel > System > Device Manager then look for the problematic device, right-click, select Update driver...

3. The USB drivers should install correctly and your phone will be recognized by Windows.

How to remove the "AMD VISION" entry from the right-click menu

When you right-click on your desktop or in a folder you will see an AMD VISION Engine Control Center (formerly know as ATI Catalyst) entry in your right-click menu which allows you to have a direct access to the AMD Vision Control Center and fiddle with your graphics card settings. If you find this annoying and don't use that function or you have other means to access it (like from the Start menu) you might want to wish to remove it.

Removing the AMD Vision entry context-menu entry:

1. Open regedit.exe. (Start > Run.. (alternatively Windows + R) > type regedit > press OK)

2. Navigate to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ACE

3. Double-click on the (Default) key and rename the value data to whatever you wish or put a few dashes in front of it to disable it, as shown in the picture:

4. Changes take effect immediately. You can close regedit.exe.

Note: these steps are valid for any version of Windows.