Turning off Autorun feature in Windows 7

According to Wikipedia, Autoplay is a feature introduced in Windows XP which automatically checks and examines removable media and devices based on content such as pictures, music or video files once inserted.

The main purpose  of autorun is to have a software response to hardware actions that you start or plug on a computer. These features are typically called from removable media or from network shares. During Autoplay, the autorun.inf file from the media that is usual hidden is parsed.

Side effect

In versions of Windows that are earlier than Windows Vista and 7, when the media contains an Autorun command is inserted, the system automatically executes the program without requiring user consent.

For security reasons,  you can disable the feature using your windows registry.

Open your windows registry (win + r and type “regedit”)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

If the Explorer folder doesn’t exists, you can create by using the Right-Click on Policies folder then New option and Key, then type the name “explorer”

Next create a value named “NoDriveTypeAutoRun”

Double-Click to set the value according to the data below

NoDriveTypeAutorun

The registry value selectively disables specific Autorun features.

Value	Meaning
0xFF hex or 255 decimal	Disable Autorun on all kinds of drives
0x20 hex or 32 decimal	Disable Autorun on CD-ROM drives
0x10 hex or 16 decimal	Disable Autorun on network drives
0x8 hex or 8 decimal	Disable Autorun on fixed drives
0x4 hex or 4 decimal	Disable Autorun on removable drives
0x40 hex or 64 decimal	Disable Autorun on RAM disks
0x1 / 0x80 hex (128 decimal)	Disable Autorun on drives of unknown type

Useful tip from Microsoft: If you want to turn off Autorun for both removable drives (flash drives) and for network drives, you must add 0x4 and 0x10 (0x4 + 0x10) equals 0x14 (20 decimal).

NoDriveAutoRun registry value

You can set the values on specific drive connected to the system.

e.g. decimal 13 data value corresponds to 1101 in binary.

Reading from right to left, Drive letter A, C and D are the one to be affected.

Same bits configuration procedure for RegdevelopTM! what a small world…

Using Regdevelop to create your own AutoPlayOff software

If you already familiar with windows registry, using regdevelop to create application is very easy.

Drag the CheckBox control to the form and use the configurations below

Caption

Turn Off Autorun in all kinds of drives

RegKeyPath1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

ValueName1

NoDriveTypeAutoRun

ValueData1

255

ValueType1

DWORD

DeleteWhenUnchecked

True

You’ll noticed that it is similar or the same as creating your own registry entries as shown above.

Click the Start icon to test the application and afterwards, press the Build Now option to start using the application.

That’s it!

Read more...

How to Find Bing Background Location using Google

Ever wonder where in the world the background wallpaper for bing located?

This is really cool for those people travelling and seen the wallpaper interesting..

Using your Internet Explorer, Right-click any portion of bing wallpaper and click Save Background As…

Usually, the filename is the name or location of the place.

Just copy and try searching the location using bing first.

If no results found, use Google..

Cool right?!!!

Read more...

Using BCDEDIT to change and modify Windows Boot Entries

Booting is the so called “bootstrapping” that processes and starts the OS (operating system) when the user turns on the computer. A boot sequence is the initial group of operations that the computer operates.

In Windows Server, 7 and Vista the bootloader file contains the necessary information is located in [root directory]\bootmgr. For Windows XP, the file is \ntldr.

Bcdedit is a powerful tool that Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008 uses to manage the boot entry option value in the Windows boot configuration data store (BCD).

Easiest way to edit the boot loader entry names

Open your Command Interpreter > Win + R > and type “cmd.exe” > and use the following command

bcdedit /set {current} description "any name"

Restart your computer to see the results…

For Windows XP users, you can read this old blog article that I wrote.

Note: It is important to backup the bcd entries first:

bcdedit /export c:\savebcdentry

To undo the changes:

bcdedit /import c:\savebcdentry

How to delete entry from the list

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001] Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved. C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier              {bootmgr} device                  partition=C: description             Windows Boot Manager locale                  en-US inherit                 {globalsettings} default                 {current} resumeobject            {e6317784-92a2-11df-a5ba-ab1b23d1ff42} displayorder            {current} toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag} timeout                 30 Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier              {current} device                  partition=C: path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe description             Microsoft Windows Vista locale                  en-US inherit                 {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence        {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d} recoveryenabled         Yes osdevice                partition=C: systemroot              \Windows resumeobject            {e6317784-92a2-11df-a5ba-ab1b23d1ff42} nx                      OptIn Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier              {a1d5593a-5b7-11e0-9e3c-d0a2d26a53be} device                  partition=E: path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe description             dummy OS locale                  en-US inherit                 {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence        {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d} recoveryenabled         Yes osdevice                partition=C: systemroot              \Windows resumeobject            {e6317784-92a2-11df-a5ba-ab1b23d1ff42} nx                      OptIn C:\Windows\system32>

First, you need to know the identifier value by launching “bcdedit” as shown above and after that, you can now delete the entry “dummy OS” by using the command:

bcdedit /delete {a1d3593a-5b7-11e0-9e3c-d0a2d26a53be}

For more detailed information from Microsoft, read here..

http://WindowsForUs.com?bcdeditms3

Thanks for reading the guide!

Read more...

How to Install IIS (Internet Information Services) in Windows Server

Windows Server is the leader in terms of operating system unit and revenues. According to Wikipedia, Internet Information Server is a Web Server application on the Internet created by Microsoft for use with Windows. It is the most used Web server after Apache HTTP Server.

It provides a reliable, manageable, and scalable Web application application infrastructure.

IIS is not turned on by default when Windows is installed.

How to activate the Internet Information Services

Once the Initial configuration Task Window is ready, go to the Add roles option.

 

If not loaded, you can access this using the Server Manager window

Select to check the “Web Server (IIS)” option and follow the Wizard instruction.

It’s really fast and easy!

Once the Web Server Installation is finished and you want to add more features, go to the “Add Role Services”

and Select the Role Services that you want to add e.g. CGI

Click the Install option.

That’s it!

Read more...

Network Folder Not Available in Browse for Folder Window

 

Alright, I encountered this problem when installing SQL using Web Developer Express edition and I’m going to have some quick solution to the problem using the command interpreter.

There has been some problem in your user-rights, probably not yet configured in the computer you are connecting to, your Windows 7 network automatically use the IP version 6 configuration and IPv4 has wrong 32-bit integer value.

 

Go to your run Window (Win+R) and launch the command interpreter (cmd.exe)

Once the tool is open (cmd.exe), use the command

net use {drive} \\{computer name or IP address}\{shared folder}

Here’s an example below where the driver letter is y:, the computer name is vistauser-pc and the shared folder is Q.

Now, you can browse the network folder.

If you can’t still see the folder, you can type the path manually as shown above.

Thanks for reading this article!

Read more...

Have Fun Learning CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language designed for the look and formatting of web pages written in HTML.

Sample design

Cool right?

I’ve been busy learning several introductory topics and technologies from Asp.net, CSS, Ajax, Microsoft AJAX and Javascript for three weeks now. I already had some background for the languages designed for engineering purposes but for website design – none.

I’m going to share some of my experiences along the way.

Open your Notepad or you can use the free Visual Web Developer Express Edition and try learning CSS…

Default HTML Code

<html> <head> </head> <body> </body> </html>

You can insert the CSS code between the <head> … </head> and <body> … </body> section

<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> div.im { margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #000fff; float: left; } div.im a:hover im {border: 3px solid #96cf23;} </style> </head> <body> </body> </html>

The CSS code for adding border, margin and floating the images left

div.im { margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #000fff; float: left; }

Adding a hover effect once the mouse is located on top of the image

div.im a:hover im {border: 3px solid #96cf23;}

In the <body> … </body> section, lets try using the CSS code using an image.

Default syntax for Image with specified ID, Height and Width

<img src="star.jpg" id="1" height = "90" width = "100"/>

Finalized code

<html> <head> <style type="text/css"> div.im { margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #000fff; float: left; } div.im a:hover img {border: 3px solid #96cf23;} </style> </head> <body> <div class="im"><a href="#"><img id="1" src="http://windowsforus.com/y3/star.jpg" width="110" height="90" /></a> </div> <div class="im"><a href="#"><img id="2" src="http://windowsforus.com/y3/star.jpg" width="110" height="90" /></a> </div> <div class="im"><a href="#"><img id="3" src="http://windowsforus.com/y3/star.jpg" width="110" height="90" /></a> </div> <br clear="all" /> </body> </html>

Thanks for reading the article!

Read more...

Quickly Get PC Information using WinGuggle 2.3

Making sure that you have a list of serial keys of your computers at home or office is one of the things that you must do to prevent problems in the future. For example, If you've lost your product key or the sticker is already erased, your computer is full of viruses and you need to backup the basic information for your device drivers and others - this is very difficult to recover if you will just look for it at your registry.

The program provides quick way to get your Windows and Office Product key, and PC System Information.

You just need few minutes to properly save and backup. Just copy and paste the information that you need.

Sample backup using Excel

System Summary Tab

Alpha Version Screenshot

Program Screenshots

Basic Theme

Using Standard Theme

Windows 7 Aero Theme

Windows XP Version (White Color Scheme)

WinGuggle 2.3  (Final version)

• Refresh option was added
• System Summary - Combination of dxdiag and msinfo32 
  functionality
• Office Works 9 Product Key Recovery
• Office 2010 (Home, Student, Business and Professional) Serial Key Recovery
• Windows Registry Redirection code is now fully functional
• Bug fixes for Windows 7 - 32 and 64 bit version, Vista and XP

Download Here 

Other
Tab appearance flattens if Color Scheme changed
Different appearance for Windows XP version

For Windows XP Users

If error occurs, you need to download or add any of the version of .Net Framework

.Net Framework 3.0
http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/F/0/3F0A922C-F239-4B9B-9CB0-DF53621C57D9/dotnetfx3.exe

.Net Framework 2.0
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/6/7/567758a3-759e-473e-bf8f-52154438565a/dotnetfx.exe

Transparency for the Updates

Quality Assurance (QA) as of February 9, 2011

Problem and Solutions	Initial	Actions
logical disk for 64-bit version	feature remove by Microsoft	detection added
compile separate version for 64-bit version	test several times	compiled new and tested
Registry redirection	write and update	code updated and tested
Office Works Product Key Recovery	new feature	code added
User rights while launching the program	code update	done
Cannot find Video Codec option - XP	code update	code updated and tested
Revision of Icons for Windows XP System Summary	find new icons and update the code	skipped for version 3
Hardware and Video Codec Icon for Windows 7 32bit	fix
recompile and test the updated 64-bit code		done
office 2003 in 64 bit version for checking registry redirection code		checked

Target Release Date: Feb 13, 2011

Thank you and Stay tuned for more softwares!

Read more...