Steven’s Notebook

del.icio.us and my blog were doing some wacky things this weekend (apparently I had different browsers posting to different del.icio.us accounts), but here are a few posts for you…

Admin Rights
As much as the common security advice is not to run as Admin, there are a number of tools that simply don’t work without the Admin […]

Trying to use Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect from a Windows Vista system to a non-Vista system can be challenging:
 
Remote Desktop cannot verify the identity of the computer you want to connect to.
 

My buddy Allen has a solution for that. Everybody say “thanks, dude!”

Mike McB’s Spyware Cleanup is a good series to read through, to learn just how messed up a Windows system can get and some of the tools to use when (not if) you’re in the same situation.
Mike, you’ve got more patience than I do. When I was shown the family PC in similar condition a […]

While you’re waiting for the shuttle launch, which apparently now won’t happen until at least Friday morning, take a few minutes to save yourself some time and frustration - go through Tweak3D’ Windows XP 15 Minute Tune-Up:
Don’t throw out that old PC yet!
A fine-tuned Windows XP PC can run quite fast even it’s […]

Vista, Vista, Vista. The folks at Microsoft are working hard and it’ll be delivered soon, so people are starting to wonder what they’ll need. Byte.com’s Peter Hagopian provides some answers.

OS X vs. Windows XP. Now there’s a debate that normally spirals quickly out of control.
“You get more viruses.”
“You don’t have any games.”
“You’re harder to use.”
“You cost more.”
“Your feet smell.”
“Your mother wears combat boots.”
Fortunately, this site doesn’t go that way, and is surprisingly fair and balanced. They did a good job of not going […]

From: Microsoft Public Support
Subject: Latest Microsoft Security Patch
Microsoft Customer,
this is the latest version of security update, the “August 2006, Cumulative Patch” update which fixes all known security vulnerabilities…

Please don’t fall for this. Microsoft DOES NOT send software updates out via email, certainly not a broadcast email. Synamtec’s anti-virus software found that this email […]

The guys over at LifeHacker.com have noticed that Windows Vista looks a lot like Mac OS X. That doesn’t really come as much of a surprise, the way that software (in the larger, general sense) evolves; vendors see what works for other companies, “borrow” or “steal” (depending on your point of view) from each other […]

January 12: “Will we be able to run Windows on an Intel Mac?”
Today’s news: Apple Senior Software Architect Cameron Esfahani when asked whether Intel Macs should easily run Vista, replied “I don’t think so.”
Windows is a legacy OS. We don’t have legacy support.
Note the use of the word “easily.”
[later] never underestimate the power of the […]

Ever since Steve Jobs announced that they’d be moving to Intel chips, one of the major questions on people’s minds (well, geeks’ minds) has been “Will we be able to run Windows on an Intel Mac?”
The Apple party line at MacWorld seems to be “we won’t support that” - which is completely fair and understandable, […]

Oh Crikey. In December ‘02 Scott Hanselman realized that MSN Messenger 5.0 wasn’t an upgrade to Windows Messenger 4.7. No, it was a different product that did mostly the same thing. Was Microsoft changing the name and bringing out a new, improved product? No, they now had two instant messaging clients.
Now he finds that there’s […]

Sept ‘03: “I’ve never seen Microsoft send patches out to everyone via e-mail… learn more about how you can help protect your computer.”
Mitch Tulloch: Is This Security Alert Really from Microsoft?
Of course, not every email that arrives in your inbox and purports to be from Microsoft is actually from Microsoft.
The bottom line is that owning […]

Jon Udell: “I suspect few outside the geek community read those postings or “got it” if they did.”
I agree that a single password used everywhere is A Bad Thing, and this is a reasonable solution to the problem. I’m not sure how many “outside the geek community” are going to get past the ‘bookmarklet’ example, […]

A few weeks back I was looking for a good comparison chart of “common” navigation keystrokes between the two operating systems. It turns out that David Pogue already had it online, I just didn’t think to look there or find the right words to toss Google’s way.
It’s a valuable resource for switchers, either direction: Missing […]

Ok, so I’ve got this nice big 190Gb external firewire drive. Both my Windows XP systems and my Macintosh have firewire, so I should be able to plug it into either system and use it, right? Well, kindof.
Formatted NTFS, the XP system could use it just fine. The Mac could read it, but not write. […]

I’ve got another self-induced problem with my PC, which I’m going to document here in case you have the same problem and don’t realize where it comes from.
Occasionally, Windows XP hangs while booting, at the [ Applying computer settings… ] messagebox.
Now, for me at least, the explanation has some background. This is my laptop, which […]

Wowzers, here’s something unusual! I’m at Starbucks this morning, which isn’t really all that strange. The bizarre part is that I’ve got wireless access and a live laptop.
This is a four year-old Compaq laptop; I’ve replaced the batteries more times than I can count (I think laptop vendors count on selling batteries, like Gillette selling […]

Ok, I’ve got some answers to some Mac questions that were bothering me. We can just make today Mac OS X Hints for Windows Users day, perhaps the first of several.

Is there a way to lock the desktop? When I leave my desk, I’m supposed to lock the system - Control-Alt-Delete, then Lock Computer (or […]

Scott’s using Windows XP Professional and wants to know if he can have an FTP service running. Sure he can, and so can you. Microsoft included an FTP service with Windows XP, it just doesn’t get installed and enabled by default. Adding it to your system will let others, using an FTP client, connect to […]

I do fairly regular backups from my server to tape, but I normally carry around most of my documents on my laptop as well. Copying them to the server is a pain, since many of them havn’t changed and the Windows GUI doesn’t have an easy way to copy just the updated ones (and please […]

Scott asked me the other day how to keep Windows XP from playing his CDs right away. CD AutoPlay, which tries to let you listen to or otherwise use your discs as soon as they’re mounted, is nice if you like it (like I do), but I guess it can be pretty annoying if you […]

Ok, I’m mostly back now. I got a new hard disk and have moved everything (I think) over successfully. Windows XP’s file and settings transfer wizard worked pretty well, there were just a few settings that it missed. Most notably the settings for Outlook 2003. I’d say it was 90% successful, which is a lot […]

Last summer, I wrote about keeping Windows XP’s clock in synch with other systems on your network and with the “real world.” Here’s a tidbit on a simliar topic.
Network administrators who have Unix, Linux or other systems on their networks are often asked about NTP - Network Time Protocol. If you’re using Windows Server 2000 […]

Would someone please help me find the setting to turn IE6’s View->Status Bar on by default? HKEY_Current_User\\Software\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\Main\Show_StatusBar is already set to yes but that doesn’t make a difference for new windows.
[later: a solution from stef in comments: “Open up My computer. View -> Status bar Tools -> Folder Options Under the View tab, choose […]

Jonny started searching and realized that he already has a backup program for Windows XP. Now, he asks, what are all these options and what should I do with them?

Backing up your data files is important, and for some people so is saving space. The backup program here is giving you the option to do […]

MSDN’s WMI Scripting Primer: “Microsoft® Windows® Management Instrumentation (WMI) is Microsoft’s best-kept secret, or so we’ve been told. Be that as it may, make no mistake; WMI is Microsoft’s primary management enabling technology for Windows.” Via WSH you can use VBScript or other scripting languages - including Perl - to get to many of the […]

PC clocks are notorious for being wrong; the hardware clocks drift, software clocks get interrupted when they shouldn’t, maybe the moon’s just in the wrong phase, who knows. A few seconds here or there shouldn’t hurt too badly, but they build up and get to bug people. There have long been time servers “out there” […]