Easily Open the Containing Folder of Any File in a New Window

Another SendTo enhancement. Download and extract the .exe file your SendTo folder. The source .ahk file and icon are included, in case you want to edit the script and recompile it.


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Create a Sendto Item to Securely Delete Files

This handy little application is a complied AutoHotkey script that uses SDelete from SysInternals. The cute icon is by RainDropMemory.

Select file(s) and/or folder(s), right-click, and select Send To → Secure Delete

To install: Simply decompress the zip archive's contents to any folder and drop a shortcut to Secure Delete.exe in your SendTo folder (go to Start Menu → Run... → shell:sendto). Right-click the shortcut, click Advanced, and check Run as Administrator. Source ahk file is included.

Download

Fix Wireless Network Reconnection

If you're having problems with reconnecting to your wireless network after wake/resume from sleep/standby, or if you are getting errors upon connecting due to cancellation or timeout, or if you are having other problems with your wireless in Windows XP SP2 or Vista, try these solutions:

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Services You Should Disable If You Aren't on a Microsoft Network

These being disabled won't affect Internet usage, but you won't be able to do Microsoft networking stuff. For me, those features are more of a liability than a help. Some are disabled by default, because even Microsoft has determined that they are risky.

• Alerter
• ClipBook
• Computer Browser
• Distributed File System
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• Messenger
• Net Logon
• Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
• Network DDE
• Network DDE DSDM
• Remote Registry
• Server (and uncheck Client for Microsoft Networks and File and Printer Sharing in your network connection properties)
  
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper (and disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP in your network connection TCP/IP properties)
  
• Telnet
• Terminal Services Session Directory

Others that you might want to disable but might not apply to you:

• Distributed Link Tracking Server
• Error Reporting Service
• IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service (unnecessary if you have burning software, I believe)
• Indexing Service
• Intersite Messaging
• Kerberos Key Distribution Center
• License Logging
• Network Provisioning Service
• Performance Logs and Alerts
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
• Routing and Remote Access
• Smart Card
• WebClient

Be smart and do research before you muck too much with this stuff. I recommend Turbo Services Manager so that you can see what depends on what. If you disable one service, you should disable all the services that depend on it, but if doing so would disable something you should keep, don't disable that first service in the first place!

Some Services Are Just Supposed to Run "Manual"

I tweak with Services settings for better security and performance, but it's a silly endeavor, because the services themselves are quirky: they might not start correctly if they are set to Manual when they should be Automatic (3rd party services especially, it seems) and vice versa!

Here are some services that should have their startup types be Manual even though they are running most of the time:

• COM+ Event System
• Network Connections
• Network Location Awareness (NLA)
• Remote Access Connection Manager
• Telephony
• Terminal Services

2 Nice & Free Security Utilities: Seconfig and SpywareBlaster

What's nice about these is that they help secure your machine without having anything run in the background to slow you down at all: Seconfig and SpywareBlaster

ToolTipFixer failing to launch in Windows 2003

I am a big fan of TooltipFixer which fixes a Windows shell bug where tooltips in the notification area would be eclipsed by the taskbar itself.

In Windows 2003, the service would have problems at startup and trigger the annoying and unhelpful: "At least one service or driver has failed to start" error dialog. This can be fixed by adjusting the properties of the NST ToolTipFixer service to log on as "Local Service" rather than "Local System".