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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for July 1st, 2019

Windows: running a batch file during logon of a single or all users

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/01

You can automatically start processes during logon in a lot of ways (Trojans/Viruses find new ways all of the time).

The easiest way is to create a shortcut in one of the Startup folders. There are two of them: one for all the users, and one for the current user. Depending on your locale, Explorer can show a translated name, but the actual folder is named either of these:

  • "%AllUsersProfile%/Start Menu\Programs\Startup"
  • "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

The folders do not exist at first, but are created when software starts putting shortcuts in them.

For a manual process, I created the two batch files below that create, then go to them (in both the console and explorer).

From there you can add shortcuts to things you want to run during logon.

They are based on:

I have successfully tested them in various Windows versions up until 10.

–jeroen

Batch files:

 

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Introduction to Snapshots/Rollback with Snapper | ActiveDoc

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/01

The snapper documentation itself is big and hard to grasp at once, so start here for a few examples on how to get going, or how to assess your current configuration:

For a very good snapper introduction seems to be gone, but was present in the OpenSuSE documentation archive circa version 13.2 at [WayBack] Chapter 4. Snapshots/Rollback with Snapper | ActiveDoc which I’ve quoted below.

Between that version and LEAP, the retention got moved from “timeline” based to “number” based. More on that in these links:

Man pages:

Introduction

4.1.1 snapshots and Disk Space #

When a snapshot is created, both the snapshot and the original point to the same blocks in the file system. So, initially a snapshot does not occupy additional disk space. If data in the original file system is modified, changed data blocks are copied while the old data blocks are kept for the snapshot. Therefore, a snapshot occupies the same amount of space as the data modified. So, over time, the amount of space a snapshot allocates, constantly grows. As a consequence, deleting files from a Btrfs file system containing snapshots may not free disk space!

Note: Snapshot Location

Snapshots always reside on the same partition or subvolume that has been snapshotted. It is not possible to store snapshots on a different partition or subvolume.

As a result, partitions containing snapshots need to be larger than “normal” partitions. The exact amount strongly depends on the number of snapshots you keep and the amount of data modifications. As a rule of thumb you should consider using twice the size than you normally would.

Tip: Freeing space / Disk Usage

In order to free space on a Btrfs partition containing snapshots you need to delete unneeded snapshots rather than files. Older snapshots occupy more space than recent ones.

Since the df does not show the correct disk usage on Btrfs file systems, you need to use the command btrfs filesystem df MOUNT_POINT. Displaying the amount of disk space a snapshot allocates is currently not supported by the Btrfs tools.

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, Linux, openSuSE, Power User, SuSE Linux, Tumbleweed | Leave a Comment »

SequoiaView Homepage

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/01

I thought I had scheduled a blog post about the great tool on [WayBack] SequoiaView Homepage, but didn’t. In the mean time, Paolo Buffa posted an overview with a really nice historic perspective:

Is amazing from how many years I’m using this program, and how many operating systems it managed to go thru almost unscathed, without modification.

Paolo Buffa

Source: [Archive.is] SequoiaView: a piece of history. – Data Center IT – Spiceworks

I still use it, despite it being quite old: 2002 era, written in Delphi 5. It’s beautiful in part because of its anciency, but also because it is so simple and intuitive that I still use it regularly.

The age also shows in the web page (which when writing it was still on-line): The SequiaView home page link above is actually a classic frame inside [WayBack] The SequoiaView Homepage. Back then, it was already starting to be considered obsolete to write HTML using frameset [WayBack] Framing (World Wide Web) – Wikipedia.

The SequoiaView [WayBack] Download Page even points to non-existing ftp-download URLs via counter CGI scripts:

None of them have been archived by the WayBack machine: https://web.archive.org/web//ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/home/sequoia//

To verify alternative downloads, just check these hashes:

hash command filename hash output
$ md5 Sequoia1.3Install.zip MD5 (Sequoia1.3Install.zip) = 28d356f2bafe258805794257c284a075
$ md5 Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe MD5 (Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe) = 142586a5cc7a0139bde8c13e5cc4d301
$ shasum Sequoia1.3Install.zip 762ab30177a7f6a0d4f173fd2442ba7b61df4c2e Sequoia1.3Install.zip
$ shasum Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe c1db10a0f7d36adbc14b5a7a3f08fc35db1bee8b Sequoia1_3XPInstall.exe

I’ve a copy in my archive that I just use in a portable way: just copy over SequoiaView directory with these files in it:

  • Archives.col
  • DEFAULT.COL
  • Images.col
  • License.txt
  • Movies.col
  • ReleaseNotes.txt
  • Sequoia.cnt
  • Sequoia.exe
  • SEQUOIA.HLP
  • Sound.col

A few things that could be fixed (if ever hopefully MagnaView open sources it: [WayBack] @jpluimers More @magnaview did you ever consider to open source the Delphi code for http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ or give someone NDA access to fix some bugs?):

  • Access violation when re-scanning a drive
  • Option to show multiple links to the same physical file
  • Indication of more rights  needed to index a file or directory
  • Better explorer integration (via context menu)

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Delphi, Delphi 5, Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

 
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