On my list of things to look at via [Wayback/Archive] “AutoLogonSID” – Google Search:
Archive for the ‘Windows 8.1’ Category
Need to check out the Windows AutoLogonSID registry value and other autologon security features in Windows
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/10/16
Posted in Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Event, Power User, Security, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Development | Leave a Comment »
Downloading a file from the Windows console without first installing a command-line tool
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/10/09
Note that the below methods likely will cause security warnings if a Windows machine has been properly configured, but in most cases at least one of them works.
- using cURL (Widows 10 and up)
curl --url https://speed.hetzner.de/100MB.bin --output %TEMP%\100MB.bin - using [Wayback/Archive]
certutil| Microsoft Docs (at least Windows 7 and up; needs UAC elevation)
certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f https://speed.hetzner.de/100MB.bin %TEMP%\100MB.bin - using PowerShell (at least Windows Vista and up)
powershell.exe -Command (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('https://speed.hetzner.de/100MB.bin','%TEMP%\100MB.bin')
I think it works for all versions of curl, certutil, and PowerShell though I did not have anything older than up-to-date Windows 7 (having PowerShell version 3) and recent to test on.
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, .NET, Batch-Files, CommandLine, cURL, Development, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Development, Windows Vista | Leave a Comment »
Some links on LaunchTM.exe, as I had been unaware Windows can use it to launch TaskMgr.exe
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/10/04
A while ago I learned that since Windows 8, sometimes it uses LaunchTM.exe (which is not even on Wikipedia) to start TaskMgr.exe.
I could find little information about the why, so here are some links with information on when LaunchTM.exe is used (which is confusing) and what command-line parameters TaskMgr.exe can get (also confusing as the order of parameters matter):
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 | Leave a Comment »
Yes, Windows user names can contain spaces
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/10/02
I forgot what triggered me querying for [Wayback/Archive] can windows user names contain spaces – Google Search.
Boy I was surprised that the answer is yes.
Following that I was totally not surprised that:
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 | Leave a Comment »
Script alternatives to the Windows-L keyboard shortcut (SwitchUser / LockWorkstation)
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/05/23
More than a decade ago I wrote about Programmatic alternatives to Windows-L keyboard shortcut (SwitchUser / LockWorkstation).
Still, I see many scripts invoke rundll32.exe or to call the [Wayback/Archive] LockWorkStation function (winuser.h) inside user32.dll. Don’t!
The BOOL LockWorkStation()function has a calling convention that is incompatible with rundll32.exe () which will corrupt the call stack likely will lead to random problems as after two decades, this post from Raymond Chen still holds: [Wayback/Archive] What can go wrong when you mismatch the calling convention? – The Old New Thing
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Posted in .NET, Batch-Files, C#, CommandLine, Development, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Security, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2016 | Leave a Comment »
Windows: DoubleKiller – find and remove duplicate files (Big Bang enterprises)
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/05/03
The build is from 2007, but still works fine on Windows 10 and 11 and perfectly fitted my needs for finding some ~2500 duplicate files that Google Drive made with their “upgrade” from Google Backup and Sync to Google Drive File Sync (where syncing from shared content is sort of possible and impossible at the same time).
- [Wayback/Archive] DoubleKiller – find and remove duplicate files (Big Bang enterprises)
- [Wayback/Archive] DoubleKiller – Tour & Screenshots [english] (Big Bang enterprises)
- [Wayback/Archive] DoubleKiller – Download [english] (Big Bang enterprises) (actual download: [Wayback] doublekiller.zip or [Wayback] alternate).
Via [Wayback/Archive] Which duplicate files and folders finders exist for Windows? – Super User (thanks [Wayback/Archive] Chris Driver for answering and [Wayback/Archive] Andrija for asking) where I commented [Wayback/Archive]:
Thanks: still works fine in 2022. Download from … is a simple ZIP file which you can extract and just run the executable. No need for complicated installers or admin rights. Matches on (combinations of) name/size/date/CRC32, then intuitive GUI to select the files you don’t want any more, then either delete or move those selected files.
Via
- Blog post Research item: duplicate file finders
- Tweets
- [Wayback/Archive] Troy Hunt on Twitter: “What’s a good app for finding duplicate files on Windows? I want to point it at a drive and let it identify everything with the name name and file size, suggestions?”
- [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers on Twitter: “@troyhunt Bookmarked your Tweet just in case. Now needed it. Looked at a few then went for the portable app (no installer needed) DoubleKiller and commented a small review at …”
- [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers on Twitter: “@troyhunt These are the options you can set for duplicate checking: …”
–jeroen
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 | Leave a Comment »
PRANK: Windows XP Updates
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/25
This one is cool: [Wayback/Archive] PRANK: Windows XP Updates.
Note that unlike the screenshot below, the actual prank does count the percentage. The actual page does.
You can start this one and various other OSes plus Windows versions and other pranks via [Wayback/Archive] FakeUpdate.net – Windows Update Prank by fediaFedia (at the time of writing Windows 98 install, Windows Vista update, Windows 8 update, Windows 7 update, Mac OS boot, Windows 10 install, Windows 10 update, steam and “fake ransomware”).
It is a cool and relatively harmless way of teaching people to use their lock screen when away from their machine (Windows: Win+L, Mac OS: Ctrl+Shift+Power).
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Posted in Awareness, Fun, Power User, Security, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 9, 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 »
Different ways for installing Windows features on the command line – Peter Hahndorf
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/06/02
If course you can configure Windows Optional Features using the GUI as for instance explained at [Wayback/Archive] How to manage Windows 10’s many ‘optional features | Windows Central.
However, I prefer command-line management.
About the only post doing the comparison of command-line mangement options I could find about is [Wayback/Archive] Different ways for installing Windows features on the command line – Peter Hahndorf and hopefully will be further updated in the future. It is dated 2015, but has been updated until at least Windows Server Nano.
I added one, and then rewrote the tool-set availability table in the post into this:
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Posted in Communications Development, Development, Internet protocol suite, Microsoft Store, OpenSSH, Power User, SSH, TCP, 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 Vista | Leave a Comment »
Install apps with the WinAppDeployCmd.exe tool – UWP applications | Microsoft Docs
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/05/29
Since winget is only available as of Windows 10 version 2004, [Wayback/Archive] Install apps with the WinAppDeployCmd.exe tool – UWP applications | Microsoft Docs as an alternative.
Related:
- [Wayback/Archive] Install Windows Store apps from the command-line – Super User
- [Wayback/Archive] Microsoft Store – Generation Project (v1.2.3) [by @rgadguard & mkuba50]
- [Wayback/Archive] uwp – Can I Use WinAppDeployCmd install, update on pc itself – Stack Overflow
–jeroen
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Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 8.1, winget | Leave a Comment »
Restart Windows explorer with an UAC administrator token
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/05/10
Sometimes, you want to restart the Windows explorer. This is already an exception case which you want to do when explorer hangs (for instance when taskbar icons do not respond any more), or has files locked which need to be modified. I described the latter in Inno Setup: Program Folder not showing up In Start > All Programs , with this very simple restart script:
taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe start explorer
Even more exception is wanting to run explorer with a UAC elevated administrative token. I sometimes do this when moving around stuff from other users on the same computer without having them logged on (as that would lock the files or directories to be moved around).
The risk of running explorer under UAC elevation, is that any program you start will also start UAC elevated, so beware what you ask for…
This is how you start explorer under UAC elevation:
pwsh.exe -nol -noni -nop -w hidden -c "taskkill /f /im explorer.exe; start explorer -v runas -a /nouaccheck"
or if you run an older Windows version of PowerShell:
PowerShell.exe -nol -noni -nop -w hidden -c "taskkill /f /im explorer.exe; start explorer -v runas -a /nouaccheck"
These command-line options and verbs are used:
pwsh==PowerShell:-nol==-NoLogo-noni==-NonInteractive-nop==-NoProfile-w hidden==-WindowStyle Hidden*-c==-Command
See:
taskkill:/F== force close/IM== image name (name of .exe file)
start== [Wayback/Archive]Start-Process(Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) – PowerShell | Microsoft Docs-v==-Verb(in this caserunas*)-a==-ArgumentList(toexplorer)
See [Wayback/Archive]
Start-Process(Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) – PowerShell | Microsoft Docs.explorer/nouaccheck==/NoUACCheck**
Time to explain a few:
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Posted in Batch-Files, CommandLine, Development, Power User, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8.1 | 1 Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 