I wanted to share a strange problem I ran into the other day. This problem has to do with viewing "TIFF" files, the format most fax machines and software use to transfer and send faxes, similar to say a pdf or adobe file.
The problem that was occurring was that this customer is using Microsoft’s Office Document Imaging (or MODI for short) program to view these faxes, which is a part of the Office suite. The problem was that after opening the document, trying to click on the "File" or print option, would cause an error and crash or close down the software.
After some research, it was determined that the cause of the problem had to do with the number of characters the file name had in the MRU or Most Recently Used list. In this case, if the file name had more that 55 characters, it would crash the program. I found that there was a "work-around" and a fix for this problem.
The work around fix involved using the registry editor to remove the offending file names from the MRU list. Although this did "fix" the problem, it will come back. The actual fix was to download and install a "hotfix" from Microsoft. A hotfix is a "special" patch that fixes just the problem it describes. To get the hotfix, you have to enter a valid email address and Microsoft will send you an email with a link and a password to be able to download and install the fix.
It is considered a "hotfix" because not everybody will run into this problem. There is a certain combination of software versions, OS, and updates that may cause this problem. No matter what you do, the only way to truly fix this issue is with this hotfix. Like most computer programs, sometimes the right combination of versions, updates and OS’s can create a frustrating day, even for us techs, but that’s why we do it.
If you have system questions or concerns, please call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800-672-4806 or email us.
-Bryan 