- FIX: Remove and stop respawning of My Sharing Folders
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Posted by oVan on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | PermaLink | 3 comments
In my previous post I quickly explained how to remove the "My Sharing Folders" shell extension via the command-line. All things work fine, until you restart your computer (or WLM) and notice that it has reinstalled itself.
In this post I will go a bit further, and explain how to stop automatic reinstallation of "My Sharing Folders", as apparently Microsoft has changed the latest Windows Live Messenger.
I assume you're familiar with Regedit and you have sufficient knowledge of Windows to play around with administrative rights. Obviously, I'm not responsible for any damage you might do to your machine - you're on your own there.
Let's get started:
- Exit Windows Live Messenger (not just sign out)
- In a command prompt, type: regsvr32 -u -s "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\fsshext.8.5.1302.1018.dll"
Note: you might need to change the numbers in the filename to match your version. - With Explorer, go to "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\" and rename the fsshext.x.x.xxxx.xxxx.dll file to .old (replace X with the file version from your directory).
- Next, open the registry editor (regedit), go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\(your userid)\Products\577EC8054AB4847428FDEF82ADF9300B\Features and rename the "MsgrFeat" string to "MsgrFeat-old". Don't change the contents of this string as you might need it someday to uninstall/change Windows Live Messenger.
Start WLM, all should be ok now. Let me know if it worked out ok for you... and Digg me!
Labels: fix, hack, Live, Messenger, Microsoft, registry, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista, WLM
- Looking for a Notepad replacement?
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Posted by oVan on Friday, June 08, 2007 | PermaLink | 3 commentsIn the dark ages (before Vista) I used Metapad because it was extremely quick and offered a lot of functionality in a very small package, and it is free. With a few tricks, you could even circumvent the Windows XP Protected File feature and really replace the default Notepad application. With Vista however, you can't just do those tricks anymore. So I was looking for a Notepad replacement, at the very least to improve the View Source feature in Internet Explorer.
At first I had set UltraEdit as default editor for IE's View Source feature, since it offers syntax highlighting, a gazillion editing features and even makes your coffee. Hmm, perhaps not that last feature, but it's a mighty application I've been using for years (I even have a shortcut in Visual Studio to jump to UltraEdit just for column editing). But although UE is not slow in performance, the few seconds load time accumulate for every View Source I perform throughout the day, and thus the hunt continued.
And thus I found Notepad2, another leightweight Notepad replacement like Metapad, but it has a few tricks in its hat that I like. Similar to Metapad, it offers instant launch and doesn't need fancy installation programs. Additionally, here are some things I really like about it:- Syntax highlighting
- A gazillion keyboard shortcuts
- Minimize to tray
- Tab settings (tabs/spaces)
- Auto-indent
- Escape key minimizes or quits Notepad2
- Highlight current line (like UltraEdit)
- View whitespace, line endings, etc.
- And so much more...
So instead of a Notepad replacement, I found a Metapad replacement with UltraEdit allures!
To make Notepad2 the default View Source application, you need to change the following registry key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ViewSourceEditor\Editor Name\
and set the (Default) entry to "C:\Program Files\Notepad2\Notepad2.exe".
So far, I'm a happy camper. If you know the trick to totally replace Notepad in Vista, let me know!Labels: metapad, notepad, notepad2, registry, replacement, ultraedit, Windows, Windows Vista
- How-to enable adminstrative shares on Vista
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Posted by oVan on Thursday, April 19, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 commentsWhen accessing Vista from a computer on the network, you'll soon discover that it's impossible to use the administrative shares we've known and loved for years (C$, D$, ...)
You might get this error message:Logon unsuccessful:
Windows is unable to log you on.
Be sure that your user name and
password are correct.
The solution is to add the following key to the registry. Use regedit and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and add a new DWORD labeled LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and set it's value to 1.
Although some sources state that you need to reboot the machine, I find it enough to logoff/logon your admin account. If you don't logoff or reboot, you'll get this error:\\COMPUTER\c$ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again.
Labels: administrative, Administrator, Microsoft, registry, remote, share, Vista
- Office 2007 Product Key Fun
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Posted by oVan on Monday, November 13, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 commentsDid anyone notice that the developers at Microsoft have chosen special product keys for the Office System 2007?
When traversing the registry for remains of the beta versions that were blocking the install of the RTM version (see previous post), I noticed that the product keys all end in "0000000FF1CE" (e.g. 30120000-006E-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE).
At first sight, nothing special to see... however, if you read it in the language many hackers use for their patches, warez and keygenerators, it reads "OFFICE" with the O replaced by zero and the I replaced by a 1.
Just thought it was fun...
Btw: If you still can't install Office 2007 after removing all the products mentioned in my last post, you should scan the registry for "-0000-0000000FF1CE". By manually removing those entries, setup should start without any problems. No warranties of course, you're on your own there...Labels: 2007, B2TR, beta, install, key, keygen, Microsoft, Office, patch, product, Professional, registry, RTM, System, warez