I thought I had long gone blogged about the .URL file extension as it has been in Windows for some 25 years now to point to URLs, but I didn’t.
So here are two links on them:
Archive for the ‘Windows 11’ Category
URL File Extension – What is a .url file and how do I open it?
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/06/20
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
zxcvbn: Low-Budget Password Strength Estimation | USENIX
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/06/19
Many web-sites and password managers have a strength indicator built-in.
This is a really good example (with open source JavaScript code!) of one: [Wayback/Archive] zxcvbn: Low-Budget Password Strength Estimation | USENIX
Be aware though that it stores a plain text file named passwords.txt on your system (this seems to confuse some users, especially when their password is in it).
Homans password behaviour does not change much over time, so this half hour 2016 presentation on it is still current: [Wayback/Archive] USENIX Security ’16 – zxcvbn: Low-Budget Password Strength Estimation – YouTube for which you can download:
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Posted in Chrome, Development, Edge, Firefox, JavaScript/ECMAScript, Power User, Safari, Scripting, Software Development, Web Browsers, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | 2 Comments »
Exporting Chrome History (with the “new” configuration and state file structure), and Epoch dates on various systems
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/05/02
Quite a while ago, Chrome moved from a structure based on “Current Session“, “Current Tabs“, “Last Session” and “Last Tabs” into “Session_#################” and “Tabs_#################” stored in a “Sessions” folder (and similar migrations for other state and configuration files).
The numbers in the “Session_*” and “Tabs_*” files are time stamps of those sessions, for instance one needs to figure out what the “13310808970819630” in “Session_13310808970819630” and “Session_13310808970819630” means.
Lot’s of web-pages with tips and tricks around the old structures are still around, often surfacing high in Google Search results.
I was interested in a particular trick to export Google Chrome browsing history and had a hard time figuring out the easiest solution.
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Posted in Apple, Batch-Files, Chrome, Chrome, Database Development, Development, Google, JavaScript/ECMAScript, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, NirSoft, Polyglot, Power User, Scripting, SQLite, Web Browsers, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11 | Tagged: define | Leave a Comment »
Installing Chocolatey on Windows 10 and up
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/04/02
Steps for installing Chocolatey on Windows 11 and up or 10 version 1803 and up.
Since I often install Windows on machines where it is not easy to copy/paste longer install commands my steps are slightly different than the ones on [Wayback/Archive] Chocolatey Software | Installing Chocolatey:
- Start a regular command prompt
- Either these two (the options are equivalent, see [Wayback/Archive] curl: transfer a URL | curl Commands | Man Pages | ManKier for
--remote-nameand-O):curl --remote-name https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1curl -O https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1
Note the cURL pre-installed on Windows 10 since at least 6 years*: release 1803 or insider build 17063 is good enough to download the Chocolatey install script
- Inspect the downloaded
install.ps1to check if you spot anything you dislike - Start an elevated (administrator) command prompt
- Start PowerShell
- Execute this command
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
- Execute this command in the folder where you downloaded
install.ps1.\install.ps1
- Yup, a custom build of cURL has been pre-installed on Windows 10 and up since more than 6 years:
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Chocolatey, cURL, Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Development | Leave a Comment »
git on Windows: figuring out SID mismatch
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/03/31
A few years back I had an error happen a while on one of my Windows machines after a git pull: fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at 'C:/versioned/repository' followed by a few lines with Windows SIDs (Security Identifiers) that I had to map to actual users.
I thought I had it scheduled, but my notes were in a draft post, so when I bumped into it again when upgrading an old virtual machine with new versions I finished it and scheduled it for now.
The first time I got the error was after git for Windows fixed security vulnerability [Wayback/Archive] CVE-2022-24765 and included the quote from [Wayback/Archive] Uncontrolled search for the Git directory in Git for Windows · Advisory · git-for-windows/git:
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Posted in CommandLine, Development, DVCS - Distributed Version Control, git, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Source Code Management, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7 | Tagged: 11 | Leave a Comment »
oobe\bypassnro removed from Windows 11 24H2 dead/hidden ? – YouTube – or is it? Two alternatives
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/03/07
I needed this for some Windows ARM VMs on VMware Fusion for running on my M1 MacBook Pro: [Wayback/Archive] oobe\bypassnro removed from Windows 11 24H2 dead/hidden ? – YouTube
In the end this combination works:
- before booting, remove the network adapter (physically, or virtually from VMware Fusion or from Parallels)
- after boot, as soon as the Shift-F10 combination works, run
oobe\bypassnro(or add the registry entry, see below)
After this, Windows detected no network, and offered an install with a local username/password indicating the choice “I don’t have internet”.
If that ever fails in the future, I can use this trick from the comments:
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Posted in Apple, Apple Silicon, ARM Mac, M1 Mac, Mac, MacBook, Power User, Windows, Windows 11 | Tagged: 2502 | Leave a Comment »
GitHub – Sanakan8472/copy-dialog-lunar-lander: Play lunar lander in you windows file copy dialog
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/02/25
[Wayback/Archive] Sanakan8472/copy-dialog-lunar-lander: Play lunar lander in you windows file copy dialog
Via:
- [Wayback/Archive] Richard Kogelnig on Twitter: Have some amusement on a Monday morning: A friend made a lunar lander game which hooks into the Windows copy dialog “While running, the app will detect all windows copy dialogs and paint a game overlay on top of them while they are focused.”
- [Wayback/A] Kris on Twitter: “GitHub – Sanakan8472/copy-dialog-lunar-lander: Play lunar lander in you windows file copy dialog Via @JollyOrc”
--jeroen
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Posted in .NET, C#, Development, Power User, Software Development, Uncategorized, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Development | Leave a Comment »
Mimikatz and password dumps | Ivan’s IT learning blog
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/17
Having had to use Mimikatz a few times in the past, I was not aware of the history.
So I was glad to find this elaborate article [Wayback/Archive] Mimikatz and password dumps | Ivan’s IT learning blog and the video (embedded after the signature). [Wayback/Archive] How to fix mimikatz null password in Windows 10 | WORKING 2019!!! – YouTube
Besides the history, it also explains why sometimes you only get hashes and other times you do get plain text passwords.
Recommended reading.
--jeroen
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Posted in Power User, Red team, Security, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 | Leave a Comment »
Thread by @0gtweet on Thread Reader App – retrieve your BitLocker password, store the password in your password manager and make a backup of it!
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/13
[Wayback/Archive] Thread by @0gtweet on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App
A very friendly reminder, especially for non-corporate PCs protected with BitLocker: if you are not sure if you have your Recovery Password handy, you can display it any moment with “manage-bde -protectors -get c:”
Store the password in your password manager and make its backup!
Note: manage-bde.exe -protectors -get c: needs admin rights!
--jeroen
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Posted in Microsoft Surface on Windows 7, Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 | Leave a Comment »
On Windows, `arp -d` sometimes fails but `netsh` comes to the rescue
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/08
(All below statements were run elevated as Administrator)
I had arp -d fail with any parameter combination on one of my systems always throwing the error The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect..
Luckily I found out that this did clear the ARP cache correctly:
netsh interface ip delete arpcache
I found that via [Wayback/Archive] “The ARP entry deletion failed: The parameter is incorrect.” – Recherche Google:
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Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows Development | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 