Tag Archives: Windows 7

Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel

Posted by on April 25, 2013 No comments

Finally Microsoft has released a utility for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 that will mount ISO disk image files as virtual CD drives. What does this mean for most. No more third-party ware riddled with instability problems. Did I say it was ‘free‘. So systems admins such as myself can get one more install off of production systems.

This utility is what you need when you need it to get the job done and at 60KB in size, a total win.

Search: Vitual CD-ROM Control Panel in the Download CenterOr Click this Link while it still works.

Link Address above:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38780

Cannot allocate memory Issue

Posted by on July 26, 2012 No comments

There has been a few times I have seen this message. Each time it had to do with my moving files in and out of a mounted network share from my Linux box. Tonight while moving files around and doing some scanning. I found myself with the error above.

After rebooting my Windows 7 host I am able to once again access files, only to have the issue all over again after moving a large number of files. I guess someone doesn’t want a Windows 7 desktop acting as a server. Well I have a quick fix that has worked for that.

On the Windows 7 host open the registry editor and set the following: 

Locate the following registry key: 
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache and set its value to 1

Then locate the following registry key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size and set the value of 3

Then *reboot*

Windows 7 Power Report

Posted by on April 28, 2012 No comments

Do you have a laptop, are you running Windows 7, and most of all, does your battery seem like its running low faster than it should be?  If so perhaps running the following command from the command prompt will give you more information about what’s going on:

powercfg -energy

This will run for about 1 minute, more on a slower system. The report will be placed in the following location: C:Windowssystem32energy-report.html

- jermal

Windows 7 ‘GodMode’

Posted by on April 20, 2012 No comments

I remember this little trick from back in my Windows Vista days, it seems that this also exists in the Windows 7 world. The trick is simple to execute, just enter the following commands::

up up down down left right left right b a select start

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string:  GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} you are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partitions.  This is more like a control panel #2 for Windows 7, and I suggest you give it a try and see how you like it.

Windows 7: Auto Login to Domain Account and lock the desktop

Posted by on March 28, 2012 No comments

For some of you that like to play with automation tools, or just want to auto login and have your programs start up, and well don’t necessarily want your desktop open to the world.

Tech Warning!  You need to play in the registry, so know what your doing or don’t do.

 

  1. Open Registry Editor (Start Orb –> type Regedit.exe)
  2. Browse to this location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon
  3. Edit DefaultUserName key and type your domain user name (domainuserid)
  4. If doesn’t exist, Create DefaultDomainName (string or REG_SZ) key and edit it with your domain name
  5. If doesn’t exist, create DefaultPassword (string or REG_SZ) key and edit it with your password
  6. If doesn’t exist, create AutoAdminLogon (string or REG_SZ) key and edit with “1”.
  7. Close Registry Editor
  8. Open Notepad
  9. Type this:
    On Error Resume Next
    DIM objShell ‘sleep(“1″) Set objShell = CreateObject(“Wscript.Shell”)
    objShell.Run “%windir%System32rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation”

    Sub Sleep(strTime)
    strTime2 = (strTime * 60) * 1000
    wscript.sleep strTime2
    End Sub

  10. Save it as “LockDesktop.vbs”
  11. Click Start –> All Programs. Right click on Startup and select Open.
  12. On Startup Folder, right click on empty space and select New –> Shortcut.
  13. Select your script (LockDesktop.vbs) on your saved location and create a shortcut.
  14. That’s it. Reboot your computer and watch your computer auto login with your account and locks the desktop right away.

If you change your password, remember to edit the registry (DefaultPassword)

Configure applications as “Run as an Administrator”

Posted by on March 28, 2012 No comments

User Account Control kicks in when you try to run some applications (Administrative tools for example), you have to click UAC window. Or some times you simple want to run an application with high privileges and your lazy you don’t want to right click and select “Run as an Administrator” option. Here is the easy way.

1. On the Start menu, locate the program that you want to always run as an administrator.
2. Right-click the application’s shortcut, and then click Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Compatibility tab.
4. Do one of the following:

  • To apply the setting to the currently logged-on user, select the Run This Program As An Administrator check box, and then click OK.
  • To apply the setting to all users on the computer and regardless of which shortcut is used to start the application, click Change Setting For All Users to display the Properties dialog box for the application’s .exe file, select the Run This Program As An Administrator check box, and then click OK twice.

Location of all user’s desktop and start menu in Windows 7

Posted by on December 26, 2011 No comments

All user’s desktop: C:UsersPublicDesktop
All user’s start menu: C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart Menu

SSH Server and Windows 7 w/ Cygwin

Posted by on December 24, 2011 No comments

In order to install openssh server correctly for Windows 7, you will need to do the following:

  1. Install Cygwin in the normal way. Make sure you’ve got openssh and cygrunsrv as selected packages to install.
  2. Right-click the Cygwin shell icon, and Run as administrator.
  3. Run ssh-host-config. Follow the prompts carefully: if needed, it will tell you which permissions you need to set and where. Remember to say yes to privilege separation: it will create a user for you called cyg_runsrv which all cygwin services will run under in Windows 7.
  4. You should be able to start the service using cygrunsrv –-start sshd, or by starting it as a normal service under Administrative Tools > Services.
  5. This does not automatically create and open firewall rules, so you will have to do this manually.

Problem Steps Recorder

Posted by on December 9, 2011 No comments

A quick pffffft:

The Problem Step Recorder (PSR) is a little known feature of Windows 7 which allows you to record your desktop along with applications and activities so you can later show someone such as a tech support person or even give a demo on how to use something in Windows.  This is very handy if you are remote from the user or supporting them during hours where neither of you are able to work together in real time.

Thumbs up to Microsoft for adding this feature!

How-to use:

Click Start and type PSR and press Enter.  A window will open with some basic control features such as ‘record’. Now setup your environment so that you are ready to reproduce your steps and click Start Record.  When completed you stop the recording.  Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and key press, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file.

As you can see, no need for third party apps, because you have what you need.

I hope this helps you one day or helps you help someone else.

 

VHD! Booting Windows 8

Posted by on September 16, 2011 No comments

Why wipe your system clean to preview Windows 8 developer preview when you can simply use the good old VHD to boot it up on your system.

Here is the quickest method to do this.  <Warning — This is GEEK / not GREEK >

  • Boot from the Win8dev DVD or USB
  • When in setup the disk selection appears where to install to you press SHIFT-F10
  • A cmd window appears.
  • Now your drive letters may have shifted so do some DIR commands where you want the put the VHD file also choose a volume that has enough free space.
  • Then run diskpart:
    • create vdisk file=d:win8dev.vhd type=expandable maximum=50000 (for better performance do not use expandable, but creating the VHD may take some time.
      I choose about 50 GB in size
    • select vdisk file=d:win8dev.vhd
    • attach vdisk
  • Now alt-tab back to the disk selection window and click refresh, the VHD volume should appear, select it to install Windows in it.
  • Click next, Windows will install and reboot into next phase of Windows 8 setup
  • After another reboot the new Metro style boot menu appears where you can choose to boot from Windows 8 or Windows 7. Advanced options lets you set the default and change timeout. Also troubleshooting options are here.
  • The default is Windows 8 and it will run direct on your hardware