Windows

How Windows knows if your network requires you to visit a web page

Dave Farquhar Windows , ,

This is a nice writeup on how Windows Vista and Windows 7 know whether you have an active Internet connection and whether you need to visit a page in your web browser to activate it. It also talks about the privacy implications, and how to set up the service to use your server, rather than Microsoft’s.

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How to use Sticky Keys to change/unlock a forgotten password

Dave Farquhar Windows , , , ,

This isn’t a particularly new trick, nor did I invent it. But it’s a good trick for breaking into a Windows system when you don’t have a lot of tools at your disposal, and have legitimate reason to do so–like a lost or forgotten local administrator password. I’ve talked about some of those reasons before. I’d also add someone locking themselves out of their own computer to the list. It happens, just like people locking themselves out of their cars, or their houses.

Not every writeup I’ve seen of this trick goes into what I would call sufficient detail. So I’ll take a shot at it.

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When Windows gets a file association with .exe files, get a hammer. This one.

Dave Farquhar Windows ,

I spent a maddening couple of days with a Windows computer that somehow had gotten a bogus file association with .exe files, which roughly translates to, “Windows quit running any programs.” Microsoft has a fix for that. Except neither solution worked. Nor did connecting via remote registry, or even renaming their automated fixer-upper to have a .com extension (presumably because it turned around and tried to download and run a .exe). It’s too bad that didn’t work, as I was pretty proud of myself for remembering that little trick.

So where’s my hammer?

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My proposal to improve Windows 8

Dave Farquhar Windows , , , ,

I propose a new user interface for Calculator, because the one we’ve been using since 1990 is too confusing, and the one that came with Windows 7 didn’t help. It’s just different, not better.

The only thing that can save Calculator is the ribbon interface.
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How to open multiple Explorer windows from a batch file

Dave Farquhar Windows

Sometimes you need to open multiple Explorer windows from a batch file. Perhaps because two directories need to be compared by a human, rather than by a computer.

I’ve had to do it multiple times for projects in the past, and so does a longtime reader, who wasn’t able to find how in a Google search.

You might kick yourself after you see how.

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Why you don’t want to be the first to install a Microsoft service pack

Dave Farquhar Windows , ,

And, like most Service Pack 1 releases, it seems Windows 7 SP1 isn’t flawless. Under some circumstances, SP1 machines hang during the boot process with a C00000034 fatal error. Or sometimes it goes into a reboot loop with Error C000009A applying update operation 120782 of 367890.

Microsoft doesn’t yet know what’s causing the problems.
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How to check your downloaded files’ integrity

Dave Farquhar security, Windows
How to check your downloaded files’ integrity

On some web pages offering programs to download, you may have seen something called an MD5 near the program link, consisting of a long, weird code like 6cbfd919baa7c9e03c8471ae4d8f8bb.

You can use that code to make sure the file you downloaded is what the author intended you to get and wasn’t corrupted during the download process or, worse yet, booby-trapped by someone else. Here’s how.

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The IE6 mess is Microsoft’s own doing

Dave Farquhar Windows

Microsoft is begging people to get rid of IE6. I saw this week that they’ve managed to get its market share down to 12 percent, but that’s still a long way from their goal of 1 percent.

I’m surprised they’ve managed to get it that low. And I don’t feel sorry for them. Not in the least.
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Scripting Windows sysadmin tasks

Dave Farquhar Windows , , , ,

I mentioned a couple of days ago a coworker’s philosophy about sysadmins and scripts that automate most tasks.

Here’s a site that has a lot of useful one-liners. http://www.robvanderwoude.com/ntadmincommands.php
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Windows 7 SP1 is out

Dave Farquhar Windows , , , , , ,

Windows 7 SP1 is out, and showing up in Windows Update now. I won’t be installing it right away, as my system has actually worked for the last couple of weeks or so. If you’re not having problems, waiting a month or so isn’t a bad idea.

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