acatalept/blog

I was having trouble getting Chrome to play nicely with Sandboxie - it loads and runs, but it was slow to show the "New Tab" page (with thumbnails of your most visited sites), the History page, and, well, most websites in general - so it appeared as though Chrome was trying to copy some needed files into the sandbox every time it loaded a page... Note that I have my sandbox set to automatically delete when the last sandboxed program ends to ensure I'm cleaning up after myself.

I couldn't find any specifics elsewhere, but after a little tweaking I solved the problem:
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I've had one particular network printer (installed on a local TCP/IP port) that has been incredibly slow since we've had it installed: it seems to be some bottleneck with the process of communicating with the printer in general, since even opening the printer properties window (or switching tabs within that window) can take 5-10 seconds, and sending over a print job generally hangs the sending application for a similar amount of time. However, pings are fine (<1ms), and two other network printers configured similarly work just fine, and I've exhausted most other possibilities (cabling, network hardware, port settings) for solving the issue.

However, it appears to be an odd bug in Windows, the workaround for which may not work in all cases, but seems to fix this issue. I had the printer installed on a local TCP/IP port (it has a built-in print server with a static IP), but by following this advice, I assigned the NetBIOS name for the printer to an unused LPT port at a command prompt:

net use LPT2 \\printserver\printername

And then, in the printer's Properties window, under the Ports tab, I changed the port from the TCP/IP port I had originally used to LPT2.

Voila - instant fix.

Run the following from a command prompt or batch file:

@echo|find /I /V "echo" > file.txt

Most other, more straightforward techniques will result in a file size greater than zero bytes (usually containing spaces, linefeeds, or other less-than-obvious text).

(Lifted from http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/70819-windows-explorer-folder-view-settings.html)

Vista Explorer, by default, tries to determine what type of folder you're viewing based on its contents, and may dramatically (and seemingly unpredictably) change the folder's view settings: Details view, or List view, or Thumbnails view, etc., as well as applying Grouping, adding or removing visible columns, and so on. To disable this behavior, and have all folders work more like XP Explorer, do the following:

1. Delete existing folder type customizations in the registry: Open regedit.exe, and navigate to:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

   Delete the keys Bags and BagsMRU.

2. Add new registry setting to enable common behavior: Still in Registry Editor, under the same Shell key (above), create a series of new keys: Bags, then within that AllFolders, then within that another Shell, to end up with this:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell

   Inside the last Shell key, create a new string value named FolderType, with a value of NotSpecified.

   Reboot or logoff and back on again to make these changes take effect.

3. Make changes to Vista Explorer's view settings: In Explorer, open the Tools menu (if you don't see the menus, hit the Alt key to temporarily display them, or click Organize->Layout and put a check next to Menu Bar), and click Folder options. Set these as you like them, paying special attention to the option Remember each folder's view settings - if this is unchecked, and you click the Apply to Folders button at the top of the window, all folders will behave exactly the same.

When you need to update Internet Explorer on a computer without internet access (yes, it can happen):

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257249

You have to jump through hoops, but it works. Just be careful with the syntax (there really are 3 quotes at the end of the command - good ol' MS engineering ;).

NOTE: You will be asked a few times throughout this initial download process, "Are you sure you want to install/run this software?" Don't be alarmed, the installer won't actually run at this point, it will simply continue downloading more components. When it completes, it will explicitly tell you that the components have completed downloading, and to run ie6setup.exe in the download folder you specified to begin installation.

(Win2k, XP, Vista) Using NET USE in a batch file at login to force-connect mapped drives... useful for situations where mapped drives mysteriously disappear (this script can safely be re-run repeatedly) or to prevent conflicts between network shares requiring conflicting credentials.
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(Requires Win2k, XP, or Vista) Using FOR at the command line to step through every subfolder in a given folder, and create new folders with those names in a different parent folder.

Suppose you have a group of folders under C:\test1, like this:

C:\
|
+-test1
  |
  +-folder1
  |
  +-folder2
  |
  +-folder3

And you want to create a new test2 folder under C:\, which will contain emtpy folders with the same names as those in test1, like this:
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Windows tries very hard to prevent you from replacing or deleting critical system files, even something as mundane as notepad.exe.

Note that this behavior is designed to keep your system functional whenever a critical file is accidentally (or maliciously) deleted or modified, and any actions you take to modify your system at this level, even with the best of intentions and what may seem like reliable information, may very well cause unexpected results to occur, such as an unstable or unbootable computer, or even lost data. BACK UP YOUR DATA REGULARLY, especially before attempting modifications to your operating system files, and make sure you have a backup of your operating system to fall back on in case something goes wrong.

Suffice to say, there is a relatively simple way to bypass Windows file protection. In fact, there are two very different methods for XP and Vista due to the way they protect operating system files:

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You can start Windows normally, but your computer can't / won't / doesn't boot into safe mode - either the computer reboots itself after listing the drivers, or you get a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) with a STOP 0x0000007B error - generally after a virus or trojan infection. To confirm this solution might work, in Registry Editor go to HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/SafeBoot. If it's not there, or there are only a few empty keys, then something has wiped/corrupted your safe mode configuration to prevent you from entering safe mode where you can run a more thorough malware disinfection.

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