My keyboard has a Web button on it, which as you’d expect opens up my web browser.
Like all right-minded people, I have this set up in Windows’ “Set program access and defaults” screen to go to Firefox.
But if I press the button when a Windows Explorer window is open (eg browsing a directory) it goes to IE in that window, instead. Hmmm.
I love Windows Desktop Search. (The others from Google et al are probably just as good). It makes it so much easier to find files. My colleagues are amazed that I can find old emails so quickly.
But why is it that on both the machines I’ve installed it on, the indexing process hangs about like a bad smell, interrupting what used to be a smooth shutdown? Not every time mind you, but consistently enough to be very irritating. Surely it’s not that hard to gracefully have your process detect that the operating system is shutting down, and quietly go with the flow?
Maybe I should switch to that Google one. I wonder if it talks to Exchange?
Oh joy! Reports of a really bad exploit in WMF, which will affect fully patched Windows XP systems. Ed Bott sums it up nicely:
This is a zero-day exploit, the kind that give security researchers cold chills. It works by exploiting a weakness in the Windows engine that views graphics in the Windows Metafile (WMF) format. You can get infected by simply viewing an infected WMF image.
Fun stuff. Until there’s a patch, beware the metafile, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Update Saturday: Some computers are already protected from this, via Data Execution Prevention. Read about it (including how to check) here.
A new trailer for Doctor Who, so time to switch my screensaver to playing videos again.
The old Windows XP Video Screensaver (once a semi-official MS Powertoy), in my humble opinion was always a bit dodgy (some of the options never worked, for instance, and it would stop working if you upgraded Windows Media Player 9 to version 10).
Happily it’s been superseded by a newer seemingly fully official Microsoft video screensaver (requires Windows genuine validation).
A catch though: the video I wanted to play was MPEG2, and both the old and new screensavers choked on it on one machine, even though MediaPlayer would happily play it. The whole machine would turn to mush.
Plan B was to try and convert the MPEG2 to WMV, by simply loading it into Windows Movie Maker. Oddly, WMM wouldn’t read it.
I noticed a process called igfxext.exe ended up grabbing way too much CPU than is sensible. The errant EXE is associated with Intel graphics adapters, and evidently under some circumstances decides to go ape when MPEG2s come along.
Through this page I found that PowerDVD (which evidently does some of the work playing MPEG2s) needed patching.
This done, and things started to behave. Almost. It wouldn’t crash, but performance was crap. Probably the onboard video not cutting it.
I tried Windows Movie Maker again. This time it worked. Converted it to WMV, plays okay now, and while the quality isn’t as good (what is the deal with Movie Maker and its restrictive output options, anyway?!), it hardly matters that much for a screensaver.
(The other machine has a decent video card, and plays the MPEG2 okay.)
Microsoft has issued that Daylight savings patch for Australia for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Also see the support (KB) article (which contains links to related articles concerning Windows CE, and applications using CDO).
I’ve finally got rid of the Insert key once and for all (and not just in MS-Word). Here’s how:
1. Download the Windows Resource kit. It’s the Windows Server 2003 edition, but will also work on XP. (Not supported on others, but hopefully Win2K and maybe some earlier versions?).
2. Run C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\remapkey.exe
3. On the top keyboard image, drag another key onto Insert. I made it another Shift key.
4. Save, reboot. Voila!
The catch? There had to be one, right? Shift-Insert no longer works for pasting things. You’ll have to Ctrl-V instead.
(Thanks to, of all things, The Washington Monthly).
Pet hate about Windows: when you open an application, or click around to get an application processing something, then flick to another task to get something else done while it happens, and it keeps grabbing focus even though it hasn’t finished.
Example culprits: Outlook 2003; Internet Explorer 6.
Now hear this, app writers: Maybe you can’t speed up your app so it does its thing faster. That’s okay, I can live with that. I can get on with something else while it thinks about things. What I don’t want to see is that something else interrupted by your splash screen. I don’t want to read your splash screen. I don’t care how nice your logo is or how authoritative your copyright message is. I don’t want my something else interrupted by your half-drawn application window randomly seeking attention while it’s thinking about things. And I don’t want it flashing in the taskbar unless it’s ready for my input.
And for heaven’s sake, if the app is busy, change the goddamn pointer to an hourglass, so I know it’s busy.
Remote Desktop Connection (aka Terminal Services) is a marvellous way of connecting to remote Windows computers. Okay, it isn’t completely cross-platform (server and client) and open source like VNC. It won’t get you onto the console like PCAnywhere (unless you’re already logged on at the box). But it’s free (for Windows users) and very fast (a major downfall of vanilla VNC over slower connections… say, anything less than oooh, about a T3).
It used to be that Microsoft guarded its Terminal Services technology like it was golddust. (Maybe they had paid Citrix a lot of dosh for the technology?) Even the TS client could only be obtained by running a special program on the server, which produced installation floppy images. When you installed, it saved your registration name/company back to the floppies, and chastised you if you tried to install again (“I’m gonna let you do it, but I’m very suspicious”), refusing thereafter to let you enter a different name. For a while, as far as my work installation of TS client was concerned, my name was Stanley.
Thankfully that’s all different now. Microsoft have realised it’s a way of selling more Windows licences. It’s been renamed to Remote Desktop Connection and comes built into Windows, though it may not get installed at setup time by default.
What’s super-dooper handy is XP Pro (and higher — but not XP Home) can be setup so you can connect into them from afar using Remote Desktop (Control Panel -> System -> Remote -> Allow users to connect remotely to this computer). Unfortunately it kicks off any user who is physically using the box when you do this on XP SP2, which allows a single user only. There is a hack for this to allow multiple users, though strictly speaking it’s a bit naughty, breaking the conditions of the EULA.
If Remote Desktop client is not already on your machine, here’s how to install it off the Windows CD. Or you can download it — this is intended for earlier versions of Windows, but should work in XP. It has the added bonus of being a better featured TS client than the old version of the TS Client, with mucho options, and a neato fullscreen mode.
(When I installed it the other day onto Win2K, I couldn’t find the icon afterwards and it doesn’t have its own directory. The icon is squirreled away in Accessories / Communications, or otherwise if you can’t find it, the EXE to run is %SystemRoot%\System32\mstsc.exe).
There’s an official Mac client too. And for Linux users wanting to connect to Windows, there’s a Linux client.
This page has general help in using it. It’s also possible to set up your server to connect via the web — useful if you’re battling with firewalls that preclude using a conventional client.
My 7-year-old son Jeremy shows a fascination for computers. He’s a pretty skilled Windows user (it’s what we run at home), and loves using my sister’s Mac laptop when we visit her. So I thought I’d show him Linux, in the easiest way possible: a bootable version.
Knoppix was tried first. The BitTorrent download (yes, there is a legitimate use for BitTorrent) came down the line at a blistering 150kbps. Simplicity itself to burn the ISO to a CD using Nero, and chuck it into the older of my two PCs.
Alas, ’twas not to be. After doing the auto-configuration thing, it stopped dead. This turned out to be my video card, an aging Diamond Viper V-550. Theoretically a good card (well, for five years ago), it’s hampered by a lack of support, not only from Microsoft via DirectX, but also apparently from Linux distributions. (I know they can’t support everything, but it’s particularly galling with DirectX, because earlier versions worked okay with it, and once you’ve got an incompatible later version, it’s impossible to downgrade, unless you’re feeling very brave or feel like re-installing the entire OS.)
It’s a cinch to change the BIOS settings to disable the Viper, and go for the on-board video, of course. Plus plug the monitor into the other socket. Just not quite the seamless experience I was looking for though.
It did boot up then, though the other thing Knoppix didn’t like was my USB mouse, so it was keyboard-only. Somewhere I have a USB to PS2 mouse adapter, which I can use for this.
By contrast, Knoppix booted up flawlessly on my newer PC, which evidently doesn’t have an orphaned graphics card and a weirdo mouse.
(Though when I rebooted into Windows XP, oddly it thought initially it had two monitors. Coincidence? Maybe.)
I could fiddle with Knoppix to get it working on the older PC, but time constraints and laziness may mean I try other bootable distros first. Other contenders include Ubuntu and Damn Small Linux.
Though now I come to think of it, if I want to do a bit more LAMP dabbling, I should look for something more permanent.
Microsoft has available the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP. Mostly designed to protect computers that are used by the public, it provides a higher level of security, such as restricting some users further from fiddling with system settings.
I wonder if it gets around some of the issues of most users not running as Administrator. I still haven’t found a satisfactory way of running MS Train Simulator except as Admin.
It also has something called Windows Disk Protection, which means any changes to the disk are lost on the next reboot. Could be handy. Of course, a less-than-scrupulous person might use it for wiping out expiring Shareware needed only sporadically. But a more legitimate use would be for trying beta software, to ensure your machine was in a pristine state afterwards.
Sony has said they will stop using the XCP copy protection software so derided for its sneaky (but clumsy) cloaking mechanism. But they haven’t said they’ll offer replacement CDs to those who’ve got lumbered with it. Apparently it was only ever applied to CDs sold in the USA, though some of these may have gone to other parts of the world courtesy of Amazon and the like.
As for Sony’s uninstaller… Ed Felten is about to reveal why that too is flawed.
Meanwhile Microsoft has set XCP in its sights, and (quite rightly) said their Anti-Spyware package will remove it.
As if the rootkit sneakery wasn’t bad enough, the EFF has studied the EULA and notes the protected CDs have a licence precluding copying the music onto business computers (eg computers not owned by you). It also requires you to delete the copied music if your CD is stolen, or if you file for bankcruptcy!
And the chorus of people calling for an all-out Sony boycott continues to grow.
I stand by what I said. Pack of evil bastards.
PS. The flaw in the uninstaller is revealed: Sony uses an ActiveX control (known as “CodeSupport”) as part of the process, which is marked “Safe for scripting” and left on your computer, leaving it wide open to attack from dodgy web sites. What a pack of idiots.
They are, however, recalling the affected CDs.
Microsoft is official technology partner for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but they don’t appear to have got around to issuing a Windows patch to accomodate the summer time extension for the Games.
Soon, apparently.