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.


Download

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

Display Brightness Level in Taskbar

I wanted a little notification for the current display brightness level. I couldn't find one, but the creator of the Display Brightness Vista Gadget made a console version of his app. I'm not much of a programmer, but I was able to use AutoHotkey to make the current display brightness level appear in the notification area of the taskbar. I'm providing it for download here free. You can't change the brightness level with this utility as you can the gadget... maybe that will be in a revision someday; it only displays the current level in the icon and as a tooltip. Just unzip to any location and run Brightness.exe. The icon in the notification area will change with the current display brightness. It should work on Windows Vista or Windows 7, 32/64-bit. If you have any issue, let me know in the comments. Thanks.

Download

Missing Thumbnails for Microsoft Office Files?

Missing thumbnails for certain files in Windows Explorer (Vista, Win7) can be puzzling. If you have this difficulty with some Microsoft Office files, it just may be that the thumbnail was not saved with the file. In Microsoft Word 2007, this should be easy: the Save Thumbnail option should appear in the Save As dialog. In Microsoft Powerpoint 2007, things are more cumbersome: go to the Office Orb - Prepare - Properties, and then click on Document Properties in the main window to select Advanced Properties from the drop-down menu. In the Summary tab of Advanced Properties, check the box for Save Preview Picture. Not exactly straightforward, is it? To make it easier the next time, you can add Advanced Document Properties to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Internet Time Sync - Reset to Fix Error on Vista

Internet Time sync using NTP servers causes frustration for a lot of Windows users. The following instructions will reset the NTP run-time and adjust the NTP server setting. Make sure you haven't set conflicting settings in Group Policy.

1. The default server, time.windows.com, is just not as reliable as some other NTP servers publicly available. However, the best practice now is to sync to a NTP pool and/or your local university's or ISP's NTP servers. Get the list of servers for your location at the NTP Pool Directory. Example: 0.us.pool.ntp.org 1.us.pool.ntp.org 2.us.pool.ntp.org 3.us.pool.ntp.org


2. Run the following commands from an Administrator command prompt:

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UPnP Wireless Routers + Vista + IGDDC (???)

To get the most out of your wireless router, get one that is certified for Windows Vista. Officially, there aren't many. You can test your router for Vista-friendly features with Microsoft's online check (IE6+ only). Luckily, my new Netgear router had updated firmware to take advantage of UPnP etc., but my old LevelOne router did not have proper UPnP functionality even though it was in the release notes for the latest firmware. UPnP is handy for opening ports when necessary for multimedia streaming. There have been security concerns about UPnP in the past, but Vista does well to separate Public vs Private networks.

Following the results of the above-linked Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool can be tricky. You can find online documentation for disabling RWIN auto-scaling if necessary or enabling Compound TCP if your router can accept it (either using Netsh), if those defaults should be changed. However, it can be a real mystery to make your UPnP router work. It could be the Microsoft has another confusing and hard to-remember name for the technology: Internet Gateway Device Discovery and Control (IGDDC). To take advantage of IGDDC, you must have:

1. A UPnP-compatible router with UPnP enabled
2. Network Discovery turned On (be on a "Private" network)
3. Internet Connection Sharing turned On for the Wireless Network Connection
4. UPnP Device Host service set to Automatic (Delayed) (this is the default)

You might need to restart your PC or disconnect/reconnect for the changes to be active.

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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Improving Wireless Networking on Vista (and XP?)

Some commands for the Command Prompt:

• netsh int ipv4 reset
  
• netsh winsock reset
• netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled chimney=disabled autotuninglevel=normal congestionprovider=ctcp ecncapability=enabled timestamps=disabled
• ipconfig /release
• ipconfig /renew

Registry change from Microsoft KB928233:

• DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag 0
  

Parallel Port Driver Service Failed to Start

If you don't have a parallel port on your computer, this is easily fixed from the command line:

sc config parport start= disabled

Error 1310 Can't Write to Config.msi Directory During Repair or Uninstall

Error 1310. Error writing to file: C:\Config.Msi\59cb9b6.rbf. System error 5. Verify that you have access to that directory.

This problem seems to especially crop up under Windows Vista with UAC turned off. There is a lot of advice online about adjusting the permissions of the Config.msi folder, but I don't think they work.

The following workaround seems to do the trick, however:

1. First, try resetting Windows Installer by running the following (this might be all you need to do):
msiexec /unreg
msiexec /regserver

2. When installing a program, like from Adobe or Microsoft Office 2007, that demonstrates this problem, run the installer EXE in XP Compatibility mode.

3. Make sure the setup programs that are copied to your Program Files directory are set to run in XP Compatibility mode. Here are a couple examples:
Adobe Acrobat Pro 9: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Setup Files\{AC76BA86-1033-0000-7760-000000000004}\Setup.exe"

Microsoft Office 2007: "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\SETUP.EXE"

4. Make sure that no files are in use when doing a change/repair operation. For example, Copernic Desktop Search keeps Outlook files in use unless it is shut down, and changing the Office installation will fail. Other search programs or backup software might make for the same problem.

Command Line: Enable/Disable Require Password on Wake from Sleep or Hibernate

I couldn't find this anywhere online:

powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 1
powercfg -setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 1

The last digit enables or disables the setting: 0 = password not required; 1= password required

[SOLVED] Unwanted Wake from Sleep on Vista

By Fungi008:

Vista's dumb multimedia sharing option: More complex (and I don't think anyone else has posted it). Do this:
Control Panel -> Power Options -> If "High Performance" is selected, choose something else, like "Balanced" (I don't know why this works) -> Change plan settings (for the chosen power plan) -> Change advanced power settings -> Scroll down to Multimedia settings -> Choose "Allow the computer to sleep"

Thanks, Fungi008!

Possible Fix for DWM.EXE error?

During shutdown on Vista, I would occasionally get the following error:

GDI+ Window: dwm.exe - Application Error : The instruction at 0x748573f6 referenced memory at 0x748573f6. The memory could not be written.

I was also having problems with a blank taskbar and notification area upon resume from sleep mode.

I believe that this could be related to changing the driver for nVidia graphics or changing disk access to AHCI causing the Desktop Window Manager to no longer be seen as genuine.

Here are the commands that (I hope) has fixed the issue:

cd %windir%\system32
wscript slmgr.vbs -rearm

Then, reboot when prompted.

UPDATE (29 July 2008): That wasn't enough. Try the following if you're still having trouble:

1. Reinstall the license files with wscript slmgr.vbs -rilc (wait for confirmation)
   
2. Reboot
3. Go to Genuine Microsoft Software and click Validate Windows
   

New Software Picks

Since moving to Vista, I have switched around my favorite programs. More are forthcoming, but I'm no longer featuring the following since they're better for XP:

1. FolderICO
2. FastStone Image Viewer
3. ToolTipFixer
4. Tweak UI
   

Beware If Taking the AHCI Plunge

With a recent BIOS update, I noticed a new option for AHCI vs. IDE mode. Even though Vista has support for this new supposedly feature-rich disk technology, those drivers are disabled after installation. Vista won't even boot after making the change in BIOS to AHCI unless you first do the following:

To resolve this issue, enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Exit all Windows-based programs.
2.	Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3.	If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4.	Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
5.	In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6.	In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7.	On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

From KB 922976

Restore Default NTFS, Etc. Permissions for Vista (and XP)

This was difficult to find online, so I thought I'd write a post about it. Here's the bottom line:

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose


More info and instructions for XP: KB 313222

[SOLVED] Adobe Reader 8.1.2 Freezes Entire Computer

Under Vista, opening some PDF's can crash Adobe Reader 8.1 so badly that the entire computer can freeze up and only a hard reboot is possible. The conflict is threefold: Reader's GPU acceleration, Vista's UAC, and temp folder security.

I fixed it by adjusting the following in Reader's preferences (not all steps may be necessary):

• Automatic Default Page Layout
• Automatic Default Zoom
• Hardware rendering for legacy video cards
• PDF browser plugin, fast web view (irrelevant to this, though)
• Acrobat JavaScript
• Preferred Media Player (.i.e., set to Windows Media Player)
• Multimedia operations
• Verify signatures when opened
• Check spelling when typing
• External content (off by default, I think)

Most importantly, adjust the properties for AcroRd32.exe to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2.

Cross-posted from http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3302386#post3302386

Extending the Usefulness of TrueCrypt on Vista with Folder2Junction

As you may know, TrueCrypt is a great, free utility for encryption. It's especially welcome to me, because on Windows Vista Home Premium, there is no EFS. TrueCrypt mounts a virtual disk that is encrypted for the storage of sensitive files and folders, and the encryption/decryption happens on-the-fly (like EFS). Unlike EFS, however, the files have to be in the encrypted area to be encrypted. You can't have, for example, the Mozilla folder in AppData encrypted and keep it in its default location on C:\. Unless, that is...

NTFS offers a neat but difficult-to-utilize feature known as directory junction points. These are like wormholes in the file system that look like folders but point to other directories, even on other disks/volumes. Junctions are a way to store sensitive data on an encrypted disk while maintaining application compatibility and ease-of-access.

To make that easier, I developed a utility (I'm really proud; my first programming triumph!) called Folder2Junction. Folder2Junction adds a command to the contextual menu of folders: Move Folder Then Create Junction Here. Selecting it will prompt you to select where you want the folder and its contents to be stored. It will then move the folder to that location (say, the encrypted disk) and then make a NTFS junction point in the original location pointing to its new location. To the OS and apps, the folder will appear to be in the same place, but it is really a wormhole to the real folder now somewhere else.

Luckily, Windows Vista has some built-in support for junctions, and they will appear in Explorer in Vista with an arrow icon overlay. Also, deleting junctions in Vista's Explorer will delete just the junction and not the original (unlike Explorer in XP). Partially for this reason (but more for the mklink command Folder2Junction uses that is new to Vista), Folder2Junction is compatible with Windows Vista or higher only and is totally freeware. Please see this thread for the download link and more information.