Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: windows

How to turn off message Your current security settings put your computer at risk Click here to change setting? | SpinSafe

http://spinsafe.com/2011/09/30/how-to-turn-off-message-your-current-security-settings-put-your-computer-at-risk-click-here-to-change-setting/

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If you have the Home Premium edition and you turn off the downloaded file prompting before running in Windows, IE keeps telling you how your settings are unsafe.  In business editions you can use gpedit to turn that off, but not in Home.  Here's the registry setting to turn it off in Home.

Twig's Tech Tips: Windows 7: Disable the "Open File Security Warning" message

http://twigstechtips.blogspot.com/2009/08/windows-7-disable-file-security-warning.html

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Since I use SuRun, I get an administrative prompt whenever a program needs to run with elevated privileges.  In addition to that, when I run something that I downloaded from the Internet, I always get the "Are you sure you want to run this downloaded file?" prompt as well, making two prompts I have to navigate.  Since the elevation one is the important one, I used this article to turn off the download prompt.

How to determine what services are running under a SVCHOST.EXE process

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/list-services-running-under-svchost.exe-process/

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Here's a good article on how to examine what services are running under a particular svchost.exe.  You can inspect svchost.exe with the excellent Process Explorer from Sysinternals.

Of particular interest is the section on setting the grouping of services via the registry.

Installing Google Chrome on Windows 2003 Terminal Server for use by ALL users

If you're like me, you think about these things constantly. "Why is it that Google Chrome installs in the user's app settings directly so that other users on that machine can't use it? Why can't they go in Program Files like *every other Windows application on the face of the planet*?

Well, fret no more. Here's a link to download an Enterprise-oriented standalone Chrome installer MSI. And there was much rejoicing.

Just add ?msi=true to the eula.html page at google: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?msi=true

Logging onto one box with multiple remote desktop sessions

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Sometimes you just need to be able to remote desktop to a machine, but you find out that you can only log on once, if your edition of Windows supports remote desktop at all (Home editions don't, for example). Even if you have a Windows Server, they have that pesky two-remote-and-a-console limit.

Well, no matter what edition of Windows you're running you can get rid of that pesky limitation. While I'm not sure what it does on editions that don't support remote desktop, there's a good chance this enables it. For those that do, you can log on to different accounts at the same time, the same account with multiple desktops, or whatever you want.

Before you start making your Windows 7 Home available as a terminal server on the Internet though, realize that not all applications are meant to be run in multiple sessions on your computer. But most are perfectly happy.

Font Loader and Register Server Shell Extensions

Ran across this useful utility since I’m loading a ton of fonts on my XP laptop (Windows 7 already has this kind of thing built-in).  It adds a context menu entry to load/unload or install/uninstall fonts when you right-click font filetypes.  Nifty.

Warning, though.  It installs the fonts in-place, rather than moving them to the Windows fonts directory.  This means two things: put them in their own folder, like My Documents\Fonts, and don’t delete them.

I only realized that after I installed them, so I moved the files then edited the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts to repoint the file locations.

It also supports adding a register/unregister dll context menu entry, something I’ve done with manual registry hacks before.  That’s cool.

MMoon Software Shell Tools

Double Driver backs up and restores vendor-specific drivers

Whether you are reinstalling Windows on your machine or just have a bad driver update, Double Driver can save your bacon.
I recently applied an ATI driver update through FileHippo, which is usually a no-brainer.  In this case, however, either ATI or FileHippo messed up and my machine booted to a black screen.  While I had to reinstall the old drivers through Windows Safe Mode, I was wishing I had used Double Driver.
I also plan to use it to back up the old drivers from an install before reinstalling Windows.  You can use Double Driver to both back up as well as restore the drivers for your particular system.  For example, even if I’ve been good about keeping all of my laptop’s original driver zip files from the manufacturer’s downloads, there’s a lot to keep track of.  Do I remember which of the arcanely named files contains which driver?  Which ones did I really need versus which were optional?  Which ones installed annoying applications that take over during startup?  Where are the CDs for the extra peripherals I’ve added?
While you still may want to remember which of those annoying applets you want to install (DD won’t do that for you), you can be sure you have the right drivers and just the drivers within a few moments of running it.
The way it works is to, like the device manager, list all the devices on your system.  It automatically knows which ones are Microsoft-supplied.  The default backup behavior is to extract all of the non-Microsoft (so presumably, the ones you had to supply) drivers to the directory of your choosing.  One button (and a directory selection) backs them up, and one button restores them.  Simple.
I don’t plan on formatting home without it.

Windows Explorer replacement replacement

I’m not a big fan of the default Windows Explorer file manager.  I always want to see the tree view, but you always have to open it manually.  I like being able to see my source and destination folders in one window (dual-pane), but Explorer makes you use the tree view or open two windows.  There are a number of other little features it could use (tabs, favorites/bookmarks, etc).  Things are better if you move up to Vista or Windows 7, but that’s not an option for me.
Thankfully, there is no shortage of Explorer replacements, including:
  • Xplorer2 Lite
  • Nomad.NET
  • FreeCommander
  • TotalCommander
  • FARCommander
etc, etc, the list goes on.  Most of these are free although some are lite versions of commercial products.
I haven’t been completely happy with any of the replacements I tried.  Most were overly complicated.  Whatever a replacement did, for me it had to resemble the original explorer enough that I might recommend it to less technical friends.  Many of them changed the way things worked enough that they no longer worked the same way as exploreer for, say, file selection.  That’s a no-go.
I had finally settled on Xplorer2 Lite but I wasn’t completely happy.  It had a good tree view, panes, tabs, file preview and a reasonable interface.  However, there were always a number of nag screens and teasers about the commercial version.  It worked for me for a long time, but the kicker was finally the fact that switching between the panes and tree view was just annoying.  The implementation only required a couple extra clicks, but it’s something you do so frequently that it gets on your nerves.
I finally gave UltraExplorer a good once-over.  I believe I had tossed it before because of a cluttered interface.  While it is still cluttered, it’s the last kid on the block, so I’m willing to deal with that if it works more smoothly.  Fortunately it does.  After rooting through the options, I have a good dual-pane manager set up the way I like it.  The tree view tracks that panes, the back button works when I’m in the tree view, and it has a good command line window and drop stack integrated in.  Although the UI is slow sometimes on my machine, and the preview mode is fairly worthless, it’s replaced Xplorer2 as my preferred explorer replacement.