Friedbeef’s Tech

Computer errors are an unfortunate and inescapable part of life.  While this article won’t get rid of those errors for you, it will help you get through, and deal with them more efficiently.

1. How to copy your Windows error message to your clipboard

Program errors on Windows are usually very cryptic - as you’ll usually end up with a weird error number like 0×00002e0A, and you need to look it up to make sense of it. 

Some people make a dash for the pen and paper (that used to be me), some take screenshots, but the fact of the matter is that - while not very obvious - the universal copy shortcut, Ctrl-C will actually copy the entire contents of a message box to the clipboard, so you can just paste it across.  (Thanks for the tip ChuckOps).

2. How to quickly lookup Windows Errors

Error Messages for Windows is a small utility that will allow you to look up MS Windows error code numbers and display a descriptive message explaining what the numeric code actually means. If you have software programs that produce numeric error codes now you can find out what they really mean.

Yes, you could look up the same thing in Google, but this just cuts right to the heart of the matter and saves time.

3. How to get around error pages on the Internet

Want to visit a popular webpage, but the server is down?  Hoped to find an old page, which now no longer exists?

Error-Zilla is a Firefox extension that changes the default error page to one which has links to the page’s Google cache, Coralize, and snapshots from the Wayback Machine. 

Now you can tap into these resources to find mirrors, and old snapshots of those pages you want but cannot get to - and you won’t miss a beat.  Sorry Internet Explorer users - Firefox only :)

Bonus Tip #1: Tips on how to implement a more useful 404 page for your website

Bonus Tip #2: Collection of creative 404 pages to inspire you

[tags] windows, firefox [/tags]