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

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Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

Making Fujitsu ix500 scanner’s CardMinder Viewer not globally steal the Alt-F3 shortcut

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/30

I hate applications that globally install Windows shortcut keys without the setup/install either warn about it or make it configurable.

In this case it is about CardMinder Viewer that ships with the Fujitsu ix500 scanner and installs a global shortcut, by default Alt-F3.

CardMinder Viewer is especially bad because the “settings” are not in the application: the settings are part of the Windows notification area (usually on the lower left of your screen; many people call it “the tray” as it was called tray in the Cairo research that led to Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5).

So here is how to get rid of the AltF3 shortcut to be stolen:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Fujitsu ScanSnap, Hardware, ix500, Power User, Scanners, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Installing Windows software with Chocolatey: a few notes

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/28

I will limit myself to software that needs Administrative elevation in order to be installed. This is the default use-case for Chocolatey. It is way way easier than installing software all by hand, but there are a few things you need to know, hence these notes.

Administrative elevation

Since the default use case is installing software that requires Administrative elevation during install, Chocolatey needs to run with Administrative privileges in order to perform these installs.

If you were hoping for a way around this (for instance by having a client/service architecture), then just stop here.

Even though such a structure could technically be created, getting it stable and working it correctly with a truckload of software to be installed (much of which not available as packages during Chocolatey development in the first place) is a task too big.

Think of the size of the Windows Installer team at Microsoft to get installers working in the first place, the extra effort needed by Chocolatey volunteers to get the installers working from the console, then another much more complex layer of getting them running from inside a service and communicating everything back and forth to a non-elevated command prompt would be a nightmare.

I won’t even mention the security steps involved to ensure the non-elevated command prompt has enough rights to send installation instructions to the elevated service.

So the first step is to have an elevated command prompt for Chocolatey.

Being elevated, and Chocolatey needing to download installers requires a local temporary place for them.

By default, that place is %Temp%\chocolatey of the administrative user that elevated the Chocolatey command prompt.

This directory can grow quite big, so dir, so – since there is no choco cleanup yet [WayBack] you need to either:

Install Chocolatey itself

Either the direct one below, or the more secure one (so you can inspect the intermediate [WayBackinstall.ps1) at [WayBack] Installation using PowerShell from cmd.exe:

@echo off
SET DIR=%~dp0%
::download install.ps1
%systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "((new-object net.webclient).DownloadFile('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1','%DIR%install.ps1'))"
::run installer
%systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& '%DIR%install.ps1' %*"

If you want to get rid of it, use [WayBack] Uninstallation.

Besides the one above and below, there are many more [WayBack] Installation: more install options

Output of direct install as Administrator (disclaimers apply):

C:\WINDOWS\system32>powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "[System.Net.WebRequest]::DefaultWebProxy.Credentials = [System.Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultCredentials; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH="%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"
Getting latest version of the Chocolatey package for download.
Getting Chocolatey from https://chocolatey.org/api/v2/package/chocolatey/0.10.11.
Downloading 7-Zip commandline tool prior to extraction.
Extracting C:\Users\JEROEN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\chocolatey\chocInstall\chocolatey.zip to C:\Users\JEROEN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\chocolatey\chocInstall...
Installing chocolatey on this machine
Creating ChocolateyInstall as an environment variable (targeting 'Machine')
  Setting ChocolateyInstall to 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey'
WARNING: It's very likely you will need to close and reopen your shell
  before you can use choco.
Restricting write permissions to Administrators
We are setting up the Chocolatey package repository.
The packages themselves go to 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib'
  (i.e. C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\yourPackageName).
A shim file for the command line goes to 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin'
  and points to an executable in 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\yourPackageName'.

Creating Chocolatey folders if they do not already exist.

WARNING: You can safely ignore errors related to missing log files when
  upgrading from a version of Chocolatey less than 0.9.9.
  'Batch file could not be found' is also safe to ignore.
  'The system cannot find the file specified' - also safe.
chocolatey.nupkg file not installed in lib.
 Attempting to locate it from bootstrapper.
PATH environment variable does not have C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin in it. Adding...
WARNING: Not setting tab completion: Profile file does not exist at 'C:\Users\jeroenAdministrator\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1'.
Chocolatey (choco.exe) is now ready.
You can call choco from anywhere, command line or powershell by typing choco.
Run choco /? for a list of functions.
You may need to shut down and restart powershell and/or consoles
 first prior to using choco.
Ensuring chocolatey commands are on the path
Ensuring chocolatey.nupkg is in the lib folder

Installing packages

Compressing

If you run out of SSD or VM disk space, you can try compress using compact /c /s *.* in these directories:

  • C:\ProgramData\Package Cache
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Packages
  • C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ClickToRun\ProductReleases

Further reading

–jeroen

PS: always watch the output and logs!

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Chocolatey, CommandLine, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Event, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

[Random] How to quickly view a binary’s embedded manifest? – MITHUN SHANBHAG’s blog

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/26

[WayBack] [Random] How to quickly view a binary’s embedded manifest? – MITHUN SHANBHAG’s blog

Cool! sigcheck -m dumps a manifest if there is one:

C:\>\\live.sysinternals.com\tools\sigcheck.exe -m C:\Windows\notepad.exe

Background information: [WayBack] Sigcheck – Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs: Dump file version information and verify that images on your system are digitally signed.

[WayBack] License to Kill: Malware Hunting with the Sysinternals Tools | TechEd North America 2013 | Channel 9 This session provides an overview of several Sysinternals tools, including Process Monitor, Process Explorer, and Autoruns, focusing on the features useful for malware analysis and removal. These util

–jeroen

Posted in LifeHacker, Power User, Windows, Windows 10 | Leave a Comment »

RDP logon while other user is logged on: no way to automate automatic disconnect/logoff

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/21

One of the dreaded things when logging on using RDP is that if another user is logged on, you have to first indicate you want to indeed logon (if you don’t, the RDP connection will close after some 15-30 seconds), then wait for their approval time-out before you can logon.

As of writing there is no way around this.

Some links that helped me conclude this:

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Development | Leave a Comment »

Facebook ist in Bezug auf Kundenzufriedenheit und Vertrauen in Umfragen zieml…

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/16

Nice thread as it talks a bit about how keep your own stuff secure with companies doing MitM, or have VPN infrastrcuture.

[WayBack] Facebook ist in Bezug auf Kundenzufriedenheit und Vertrauen in Umfragen zieml…

Most larger TLS based web-sites now have HSTS so detect MitM.

Having a proxy locally helps checking the certificates.

Corporate laptops usually has device management. If they use MitM, their root certificates are usually put back automatically. But not all software uses the same root certificate store (:

In the past, I have used [WayBack] cntlm, or VPN (routing only corporate traffic over VPN).

There are corporate VPN variants, which take over the complete routing table or even run arbitrary scripts as root on your box on connect in order to do “endpoint validation”. And then there is OpenVPN, which routes the traffic that the company shall see to the company and lets you use normal connectivity for the rest.

You want openvpn, in all cases.

Another trick I have used is to VPN/SSH out of a corporate box and route some of the traffic over it.

Finally, for some larger corporate VPN software, there is an open source replacement that has better configuration options: OpenConnect supports AnyConnect, Juniper and GlobalProtect.

Related: picture on the right via [WayBack] Torsten Kleinz – Google+

–jeroen

Posted in Cntlm, Encryption, HTTPS/TLS security, Power User, Security, Windows, Windows-Http-Proxy | Leave a Comment »

Non-rectangle select in Windows command line – Super User

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/16

Just discovered this has been possible since Windows 10 by holding the shift key while dragging with the mouse. After like 20 years of waiting, why did nobody warn me (:

Is there any way I can disable the stupid rectangle selection mode thing in the Windows command line? I want to select line by line like normal. Currently it’s a giant pain when I need to copy things

So this is a thing from the past: [WayBack] Non-rectangle select in Windows command line – Super User

And this was already possible (but then you had to drag the full width): [WayBack] windows – Select text across lines in cmd.exe? – Super User

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Power User, Windows, Windows 10 | Leave a Comment »

7 Free Windows Password Recovery Tools

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/09

So when another friend for the umpteeth time asks me to find their Windows password: [WayBack7 Free Windows Password Recovery Tools (June 2018)

Windows password recovery tools are used to recover Windows log on passwords. Here are the 7 best free Windows password recovery and cracking tools.

–jeroen

Posted in Power User, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Keeping a local copy of sysinternals current

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/05

From my install script:

mkdir C:\bin
robocopy /mir \\live.sysinternals.com@SSL\DavWWWRoot c:\bin\sysinternals

The \\live.sysinternals.com@SSL\DavWWWRoot comes from following the https://live.sysinternals.com URL in the Windows Explorer: the Windows Explorer automatically translates that to a back-slash based share syntax.

I got at that trick via these links:

–jeroen

Posted in Power User, SysInternals, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Viewing a USB WebCam on Windows 10 without any fuzz

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/09/28

Windows 10 comes with a broken Camera viewer and before that, Windows 7 killed the one in Windows XP.

On a Mac you have the open source Quick Camera (which named QCamera before, seeViewing an USB camera on Mac OS X without mirroring and Capturing from a Magewell XI100USB on a Mac using OS X) at [WayBack] GitHub – simonguest/quick-camera.

For Windows 7, a long search initially revealed a lot of bloat-ware, but finally ended to these two both from the same author:

It is not open source (yet?), but since it is .NET, it is reasonable easy to see the innards.

Like QCamera, it does not require installation: just unzip and run. Enjoy!

Yes, I know there are Windows 10 workaround steps via Microsoft.CameraApp.App.ctor, but if you look at [WayBack] Win10 Home N – Camera App fails: System.IO.FileNotFoundException – Microsoft Community you will understand I did not apply them.

Similarly, when you install Skype from the app store, then sign-in, it will tell you that Skype is out of date.

–jeroen

via:

Posted in .NET, Apple, Development, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Windows 7 Blue Screen Of Death with error 0x7B – twm’s blog

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/09/28

[WayBack] Windows 7 Blue Screen Of Death with error 0x7B – twm’s blog:

To allow Windows 7 to boot in IDE as well as AHCI mode, I had to enable the following drivers (by setting “Start” to “0” in the registry, there might be other options to do this):

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\intelide
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\pciide
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\iastorV

The first two allow Windows 7 to boot from SATA in IDE mode. The second two allow Windows 7 to boot from SATA in AHCI mode.

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 9 | Leave a Comment »