Krypted » Windows XP

Gmail + IE6

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:51:08 +0000

Got an email today informing me that Gmail will be dropping support for Internet Explorer 6. Nice of them to let us know rather than randomly killing support for it ’cause it’s old as crap like most vendors do. A win for Google there I’d say. Point of this article being, if you use IE 6 just stop. And if you’re an enterprise admin who doesn’t think you can pull off a massive IE 6 upgrade, this is Google’s way of having an intervention for ya’… MSI installer + a GPO = happier users anyway (be that MSI a newer IE 6, Chrome, Firefox or Safari).

PS – Over 5% of visitors to this site come here on IE 6 on weekdays, a number cut in half on weekends.Similar Articles:

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Windows 7: Disable USB Storage

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:00:53 +0000

In a number of environments, especially MPAA or DoD environments (in the US we rank nuclear bombs right up there with pilfered copies of unreleased movies, especially ones that cost a lot of $ to make), users should not be able to mount any local removable storage. While Group Policy is typically the best way to keep users from mounting said storage, you can also do so without assigning GPOs. Simply make the permissions on the following files set to Deny (assuming your c:\Windows directory = %SystemRoot%):

C:\Windows\Inf\Usbstor.pnf
C:\Windows\Inf\Usbstor.inf

You may also need to add the System account to the Deny list for those files, but in my experience you don’t always need to do so.Similar Articles:

Making Windows 7 Icons Transparent

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:22:15 +0000

I have to take a lot of screen shots. Therefore, most of my computers tend to have a white background (they used to be the xman the machine was named after but alas, I’m older and now they computers are all named after Backyardigans;). Sometimes it’s hard to see your icons in Windows 7 on a white background though. If you grapple with this too then consider doing what I did and making the icons transparent. To do so, locate the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced registry key and make a dword key called ListviewShadow with a value of 00000001. Or:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] “ListviewShadow”=dword:00000001

To set it back, make that 1 into a 0. As always, don’t forget to backup the registry before you do anything at all to it. Enjoy!Similar Articles:

Show Desktop Icon for Windows & Windows 7

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:00:33 +0000

Ever delete the Show Desktop icon from Quick Launch? One of my favorite features of Windows, it is a big part of my everyday use of the OS. So when I accidentally deleted it I had to figure out how to get it back. And it wasn’t nearly as easy as I would have thought (in my case) as I had deleted the actual scf file. To recreate that file was a bit complicated. So I wanted to document my steps. First, create a new file called Show Desktop.scf. Then open the file in your favorite text editor and paste in these contents:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the Show Desktop.scf and then drag it to the Quick Launch bar. You are now off to the races. You can also use this script to create an icon and pin it somewhere in Windows 7; pretty useful if you miss Show Desktop… Now that I’ve gotten to this point, why stop?How might we do the same thing in Mac OS X? Stay tuned…Similar Articles:

Programatically Clipboarding in Windows

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:00:26 +0000

My last article showed how to interface with the clipboard in Mac OS X. Windows 7 comes with the same feature, but instead of pbcopy it’s simply clip. Since you don’t ls, we’ll pipe the output of dir into the clipboard:
dir | clip

Enjoy & no more complaining that I like one platform more than the other – you know who you are!Similar Articles:

Get A Dock in Windows

admin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:00:04 +0000

In addition to getting a theme for Windows that makes it look more like a Mac you can also now install a Dock in Windows!
rocketdock.comSimilar Articles:

Click-Matrix Leads to Death of a Trackpad

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:00:39 +0000

While preparing an image for the latest MacBook Pro we were going through a click-matrix and I noticed a funny usability issue. Basically, when you fire up VMware and log into the virtual machine, the trackpad keeps getting hit by little hands, which doesn’t work very well in typing class. I don’t ask why a piece of software is used in a VM vs. Boot Camp, etc. I just see a design consideration and look for a way to make it better. And in this case, the way to make it better was to disable that trackpad while someone was typing. And to assist, we found this handy-dandy little tool called touchfreeze, which does just that.
http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/Similar Articles:

Lots of new stuff: Command Line Wiki Integration

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:00:20 +0000

The Mac Commands page and the PowerShell Commands page are both now wikis and users with accounts on this site can edit them.

Additionally I added a number of new pages worth of commands, FTP Commands, Windows Commands, Final Cut Server Commands, Amazon S3 Commands, Podcast Producer Commands and Xsan Commands; both of which are wikis as well.Similar Articles:

Vista & Windows 7 Optimizer

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:00:42 +0000

There are a variety of simplistic tasks that can be performed to optimize a Windowz box. Disabling unneeded services and protocols is a great start, but there are tons of other little things here and there. Vista Services Optimizer (works on Windows 7 & Vista) is a nice little tool for those who don’t have the time nor inclination to mess around with it too much. Nice tool at a great (free) price #thingsthatsounddirtybutaren’tSimilar Articles:

Windows 7 HomeGroup

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:07:04 +0000

HomeGroup is a new home security feature of WIndows 7. HomeGroup resemble how you protect your home (an analogy I use in the Mac OS X Security book as well): Keep the outside doors locked and keep the interior doors unlocked (unless you’re on the crapper). HomeGroup can be initiated by any Windows 7 version other than Home Basic and Starter editions. Any Windows 7 machine can join a HomeGroup though and it is not a backwards compatible feature, meaning that if you’re still running Windows 95, 98 or Millineum don’t bother to upgrade (you probably can’t read this site anyway). But 2K to Vista, you gots’ta upgrade to play (not that this one feature is worth the upgrade).

Provided all the computers that will be in your inner ring are running Windows 7, the new HomeGroup feature of Windows 7 allows you to share specified resources with others who join the HomeGroup by having each join using a password – a password that is different from the one to join the wireless network. Guests can access the network for Internet, or other untrusted access, without being given the password to join the HomeGroup. I’m not sold that anyone will allow guests to access the Internet in this fashion but I can see scenarios where it could happen (do people still have LAN Party’s).

To setup a HomeGroup, click on the HomeGroup link at the bottom of the Network and Sharing Center. Then, click on the Create a HomeGroup button, selecting which Libraries to share to the inner circle (HomeGroup) by checking or unchecking the boxes. Click on Next to create the HomeGroup and distribute the provided password, or reset it in the Network and Sharing Center. Next, from each client, join the HomeGroup and then click on HomeGroup and then sharing options to control which resources to share from your computer.

Now about the crapper comment from earlier, you can specifically exclude files in the inner ring as well. So if you’ve shared out a resource you do have the ability to get a little more granular with your controls. It’s not 802.1x, but for a little home tinkering security whatnot, it’s not half bad… File sharing still works pretty much the same, which means you can do almost all of this without using the “HomeGroup” feature, but it does make it a little easier for those new to sharing resources!Similar Articles: