"Windows can't stop your Generic volume device because it is in use..."

You've closed everything that could have it open, and you still get this message when trying to remove it.

Easiest solution:

From task manager (or process explorer), kill explorer.exe.

Your systray and start menu will go away..

From task manager (or process explorer), run explorer.exe.

It should come back, plus all the little widgets in the systray.

Or most of them.. most of the important ones.

Now selecting the 'safely remove device' should work.

If it doesn't... more solutions after I encounter this next.

update September 2010:
This is one of my most popular posts. Since I am now using a Mac, I haven't had this problem. (Sure, a Mac costs more, but consider how much time you spend annoyed, or dealing with windows popups, virus, malware, and trojan removal... windows really costs more of your time and is less productive.)

Did the above 'kill explorer' trick work for you?
Is Windows 7 better about this?
If so (or not), leave a comment... thx.

Synaptics touchpad suddenly stopped working (Vista laptop)

I thought it was after I had unplugged an external USB mouse from it, after hitting the power key to suspend it. A couple days ago the synt_whatever.dll had crashed, so I lost the scroll features on the touchpad, but regular mouse movement and clicking were fine. I expected they would resume after a reboot. Also this day I had plugged into a projector (external video: Fn-F5), and at one point also hit mute (Fn-F8).

I tried rebooting a couple times--it's the Windows way--but that didn't make a difference.

Looked in the synaptics utility that shows in the systray--thought I saw something there about enabling touchpad/usb mouse simultaneously, and maybe a toggle would fix that. Nothing.

The device manager said everything was running fine. I figured I would probably have to uninstall and re-install drivers, because Windows just breaks, and this is something you have to accept.

Well, after a little search, seeing people had problems installing the driver, or the ALPS driver worked for them, I saw one that said 'try Fn-F7.'

Fn-F7 toggles the touchpad. Problem solved.

JAX-WS classes not generating in Eclipse

I have a project that uses annotation processing + jaxws to generate WS interfaces,

but Eclipse (Flexbuilder) will forget about them.

I have to go in, toggle the 'use annotation processing' flag,

restart IDE,

toggle and hopefully it builds them this time so I can export a war file.

Server-side symptom:

Jul 22, 2009 3:45:24 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart

SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.servlet.WSServletContextListener

com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.servlet.WSServletException: WSSERVLET11: failed to parse runtime descriptor: runtime modeler error: Wrapper class com.blah.blah.jaxws.MyClass is not found. Have you run APT to generate them?

at com.sun.xml.ws.transport.http.servlet.WSServletContextListener.contextInitialized(WSServletContextListener.java:118)

at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3764)

...

It seemed like I tried both combinations...

I check in windows explorer just to make sure the .apt_generated isn't there and not showing up.

I check the properties -- the folder is read-only (probably due to the VSS checkout); I turn this off.

Excellent... I don't see the .apt_generated folder there; perhaps its existence is fleeting.

But I do see generated classes in the build directory.

Oh, now I see .apt_generated at the project toplevel (not in src)...

so, it works.. probably was the folder permissions, there's definitely some bugginess here.

Capslock to control

Back before IBM had a PC, most computer keyboards had the CTRL key to the left of the 'A', in the home row.

ADM3a keyboard, Hazeltine.. my TRS-80 didn't have it (I modded the keyboard, and wrote my own keyboard driver in assembly)

the way a keyboard was meant to be:

See wikipedia: Control key for more info and some history.. anyway, one of the first things I do on a computer to make it usable is fix it so the key to the left of 'A' functions as control.

For windows xp and since (maybe going back to win95 ?), a registry entry can fix this.

The following in a .reg is sufficient:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]

"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,1d,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

A collection of .reg files for quick setting and resetting is here: howto geek windows key mappings.

And after you set it, you have to reboot for it to take effect, because this is windows. (I discovered going to the 'switch user' screen and coming back works.)

For X11, a small file for input to xmodmap(1) can do this; specific settings are included in the man page.

Flex Builder cannot locate the required debugger version of Flash Player

It used to work, honest..

then after a couple weeks I try debugging my app from Flex Builder, and this dialog pops up:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\Flash10b.ocx

Flex Builder cannot locate the required debugger version of Flash Player. You might need to install the debugger version of Flash Player 9 or reinstall Flex Builder.

Do you want to try to debug with the current version?

Uninstall and re-install? Maybe I just need a good reboot?

...

Well, the dialog box had a URL to adobe site. I think.

Anyway, go to Adobe Flash Player Support Center and look for

Adobe Flash Player 10 — Debugger Versions (aka debug players or content debuggers)

you may need to restart your browser, but it works right after that.

Did this help you?