Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 03, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has obviously observed the request from users to bypass the User Account Control (UAC) prompts for specific applications. Just a few days ago they posted instructions on how to get around UAC prompts and a per application basis.

I decided to give this a whirl, and I can say first hand that it does work. There’s just one thing…it’s not quite as simple as a few clicks. The first time you go through the instructions it will probably take 3 or 4 minutes, but each program you setup after that will probably take just a minute since you’ll understand what needs to be done.

I’ve taken the liberty of modifying their directions ever so slightly to make them a bit easier, and I’ve also thrown in a few screenshots to guide you along the way:

1. Download (10.9MB) and install the Application Compatibility Toolkit.
2. In the Start menu find the shortcut Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0\Compatibility Administrator. Right click it and click Run as administrator.
3. In the left hand pane, right-click on the database under Custom Databases and select Create New, and select Application Fix.
   
4. Enter the name and other details of the application you want to alter behavior on and then browse to it to select it. Click Next.
5. Click Next until you are in the Compatibility Fixes screen. On the Compatibility Fixes screen, find the item RunAsInvoker, and check it. Click Next and then Finish.
6. Select File -> Save As. Save the file as a filename.SDB type file in a directory you will easily find it. Then copy the <filename>.sdb file to the Vista computer you want to alter the elevation prompt behavior on.
7. Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories. Right click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator.
8. Run the command below:
   sdbinst <path>\<filename>.sdb
   For example, if you saved the .SDB file as abc.sdb in the c:\Windows folder, the command should be like this:
   sdbinst  c:\windows\abc.sdb
   It should prompt: Installation of <name> complete.
    
   

I’m *guessing* that, before saving the file in Step 6, you can go back to Step 3 and add more “Application Fixes” to the database. That way you can execute just one database in the remaining steps.

Microsoft Knowledgebase [via x(perts)64]

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

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• Helpful Tip: Disable UAC for a Program in Vista
• Get Rid Of The Annoying Windows Update Restart Prompt
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• Vista UAC Secure Desktop Explained

This article was written on January 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

Special Vista Edition: Part 1

We’ve been talking about Vista for months now, and finally the day for consumers to get their hands on it has come! Newegg and other online retailers have already been selling OEM versions a little early, but now you can walk into nearly any electronics store and pick up a copy. Windows Aero, the redesigned user interface will be one thing Vista will always be known for.

Paul Thurrott has put together an extensive, very complete guide to nearly every aspect of Vista.  If you’re looking for a review in words, head on over to SuperSite. His eight- part review will give you plenty of information on each of the features.

Our goal was not to duplicate what he had done, rather we wanted a guide that you could quickly look through to determine if Vista is right for you and your PC.  We’re visual kind of people, so this review will include LOTS of screenshots. Below is a table of contents so that you can easily navigate to sections that interest you the most.

–Table of Contents–

• Vista Editions
• Installation
• Eye Candy
• What’s Keeping you Protected?
• Vista Works for You
• Applications that come with Vista
• What’s not to Like
• Final Thoughts

–Remember, you can click on screenshots to view a full-size image.

–Vista Editions–

As you probably know by now, there are four different versions of Windows Vista with each having different features.  They are: Windows Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate.  Windows Vista Ultimate is the most complete, feature intensive version of Vista available. One of the perks for the Ultimate version includes Windows Ultimate Extras. DreamScene is one of those unique Ultimate extras, and a unique experience (demo here). Each version of course, comes at a different price ranging from $199 for Home Basic to $399 for the Ultimate version. Previously, we posted a Windows Vista Feature Comparison chart that will give you a good visual as to the main differences between each of the versions. That will be the first place you’ll want to start when determining which version is right for you.

–Installation–

One of the best things about the installation for Vista is that it takes around 1/2 the time that it took to install XP.  In about 20 minutes, your installation process will be complete, and you’ll be ready to use your new operating system. Another thing that you’ll want to note is that it asks for all of your information upfront.  Enter in the serial number, walk away, and come back 20 minutes later with the installation process completed. There’s no stopping in between which is a huge improvement from Windows XP!

Another important thing to keep in mind is that all of the Vista versions are available for a 30-day trial.  When installing Vista, the entire process will be the same, except you leave out the serial number. This will start your 14 day trial.

We’ve talked about Windows Anytime Upgrade before, and we’ll mention it again.  This is the first time Microsoft has done something like this, and here’s how it will work. All of the versions of Vista will either be on a CD or embedded onto your computer when you make the purchase.  At any point you can upgrade to a better version.  All you’d have to do is contact Microsoft to pay and get the new serial number for the version you’re upgrading to. There are also separate upgrade prices which you can find here.

–Eye Candy–

Vista will be known for it’s fancy features and eye candy. Lots of it. Here’s a run-down on all of the ‘easy on the eyes’ features that you’ll find.

• Windows Vista Basic – Before you get excited about the eye candy, remember that you’re not going to find the eye candy with Windows Vista Basic.  It’s basic for a reason; no transparency, no flip 3D, and no Taskbar thumbnails.
  
• Windows Vista Aero (Glass) – You’ve probably seen the Aero in screenshots and other Vista demos floating around the Internet.  It includes a translucent start menu/Taskbar, Windows Flip 3D, and Live Taskbar Thumbnails. There’s a wide variety of colors to match your taste. It’s cleaner, and overall a more pleasing look.
       
• Windows Flip 3D and new Alt-Tab- Angles your open windows and lets you shuffle through them. The new Alt-Tab will show thumbnails of all of the windows that you have open, even if they’re minimized (Windows XP doesn’t have the capability of making thumbnails when windows are minimized).
       
• Live Taskbar Thumbnails – Whenever you hover over a thumbnail, you’ll get a live preview! If you have a movie playing in a window, you’ll still get the preview showing the movie playing.
  
• Instant Search – Searching is all over Vista.  That’s one of its’ best features. It indexes the names of files on your hard drive so that the results are instant. The screenshot demonstrates the search box outlined in red, and the instant search results in blue.
  
• Start Menu – Now all of the programs are contained within the start menu. There are no pop-out menus.  If you’re one of those people that have enormous lists of programs in your start menu in XP, it’s needless to say that you’ll be scrolling in your start menu.
       
• Windows Explorer – The big thing with Windows Explorer is the thumbnails that it generates for images.  These thumbnails are better and more abundant than the thumbnails you’d find in XP. Another feature is that you can add favorites so that the folders you frequently use are added to the side navigation bar. Our favorite feature however, is the handling of the navigation in the “address” bar. It allows you to navigate between folders very easily.
                    
• Windows Sidebar – You’ve probably heard about the gadgets that come with Vista.  They allow you to customize your Vista experience more with items such as Weather, Feed Headlines, a Calendar, Clock, and Contacts.  If you don’t like the items on your sidebar, you can always drag them onto your desktop.
  

–What’s Keeping you Protected?–

• User Account Control – This is when you try to do something such as deleting a system file, that Vista requires special permission for.  You will be prompted to confirm that you really want to continue with the action. If you’re not logged in as an administrator, it will have to be approved using the administrator’s password. This feature can always be disabled in the Control Panel by going to your user properties.
       
• Windows Security Center – This gives you a central point to monitor that your Firewall, Anti-Virus, and other security measure are working properly.
  
• Windows Defender – Anti-spyware protection that keeps you safe from harmful malware. Windows Defender analyzes files that are downloaded, and applications that are put on your PC so that you’re always protected against any threat.
  
• Windows Firewall – It’s a basic firewall that blocks unwanted traffic from getting into your PC, but also prevents important information from unknowingly leaving your computer.
  
• Windows Update – This is a huge step for Microsoft, because they pulled Windows Update out of Internet Explorer. Now you’ll find it in the Control Panel.  If you prefer not to use Internet Explorer, you almost have no reason to open it.
  

–Vista Works for You–

• Windows Ready Boost – If you have a high-speed memory card, or flash drive, you could have Vista use this as memory for your computer. It’s an easy way to add memory without physically adding it internally.
  
• Windows Experience Index – This is a rating for your computer that represents how well your hardware stacks up to benchmarks. Vista performs multiple checks on your computer to analyze graphics capability and processing power. From there it outputs a resulting number.  Anything over five tells you that your computer is optimized well for Vista.
  
• Automatic Disk Defragmentation – Now the disk defragmenter runs every week to ensure that users aren’t neglecting to do this important process. Most people don’t even think about defragmenting their hard drive. Vista is all setup to do it for you.
  
• Power management and performance – Vista allows you to control the power aspects of your computer, more so with Vista than any previous version of Windows.  If you’re running a desktop PC, this may not be an important feature to you.  However, anyone that has problems with battery life on a notebook computer will certainly appreciate the battery saving options that Vista has.
  
• Backup and Recovery – By using this, you can backup files or your entire computer to another hard drive, or multiple DVDs if necessary. In the event that you need to recover these files, the restore wizard will help you do so.
  
• Windows Shadow Copy – Vista will create system restore points for your computer.  When it does this, it also allows you to restore individual files from that restore point. To restore an individual file, simply right-click and select ’show previous version.’ Unfortunately, they still don’t allow you to browse the files contained within a system restore point, but this is one step closer.
  
• USB Drive Auto Start Applications – This is something that we stumbled upon when we plugged our USB Drive into the system.  Often times in XP, it was difficult or impossible to get a program to automatically start when the USB drive was inserted into the computer. We noticed in Vista that as soon as we inserted the drive, our designated program launched automatically in the system tray.
  
• Network and Sharing Center – Now it’s even easier to connect to other networks, and to visualize which networks you are connected to.
  
• Improved file and folder sharing – Microsoft has done a really amazing job of making file sharing effortless.  After installing Vista, it recognized all of our other computers on the network; a couple of which are running XP.
  
• Windows Mobility Center –  With Windows Mobility Center on your notebook computer, you’ll be able to manage a variety of aspects within one screen. This would be where you could enable a presentation mode which would prevent screensavers from running, and unwanted notifications.
  
• Control Panel – This actually makes finding options very easy. They still have a classic layout for those who don’t like change, but you’ll become buddy buddy with that search box pretty quickly. To find a setting that you’re looking for, just start typing it in the search box and it will instantly filter results as you type. You’ll be amazed at how many clicks this can save.
        

–Applications that come with Vista–

• Games – Vista includes a variety of games, both old and new.  Some of the favorites like Minesweeper have gotten a new look. We’ve taken screenshots of all the games that are included. If you’re using the Vista Business Version, the games are not installed by default. Instructions on how to install them can be found here.
                                                 
• Internet Explorer 7 – By this point, many of you are already familiar with IE7.  It has been released for XP for several months now and has additional security features that make browsing the web safer, such as phishing protection pictured below.
       
• Windows Calendar  – This is a very basic calendar management application that supports iCal calendar formats so that you can share calendars from other applications and web sites. It’s not as feature intensive as the Outlook Calendar, but it will serve the purpose for most users.
  
• Windows Contacts – A very basic feature, allows you to add contacts. Just like the calendar, it’s not very extravagant, but gets the job done.
  
• Windows Mail – This replaces Outlook Express and is the new email client. We haven’t used it much, but after playing around with it, it does seem to be “lighter” than Outlook Express was. It includes a phishing filter, and improved junk mail filtering.
  
• Windows Photo Gallery –  A nice photo gallery management system that will sort images by the date that they were taken so that it might be easier to browse through them. You can add tags to your photos, as well as rate them which brings a little bit of web 2.0 into the system.
  
• Windows Media Player 11 – This is another application that has a Windows XP counterpart. It is a huge improvement over the previous version of Media Player, with a completely redesigned interface which makes listening to online music easy, and easy on the eyes.
  
• Windows Media Center – If you’re able to hook your computer up to a TV, Windows Media Center is a great tool to have. You have easy access to photos and music without excess navigation. Another plus is if you have the Windows Media Center remote control so that you don’t have to be near your keyboard to control it. Best of all, if you have a TV tuner installed, you can set it up to record TV shows and make use of the free TV Guide provided by Microsoft (this is something that services like TiVo charge monthly fees for).
                                           
• Windows Movie Maker – Create and edit your home movies in a snap. It’s not professional editing software, but that’s not why it was created. It’s focused for home users and gets the job done. It’s very successful at being a simple to use program that you can use to create a good home movie to share with family and friends.
  
• Windows DVD Maker – Allows you to take a movie that you’ve already made, (from Windows Movie Maker) and burn it to DVD. Before burning it, you’ll be able to create menus that will be used on the DVD so that it’s easy to skip to certain parts within the movie.
             

–What’s not to like–

 At this point not everything runs as smooth as it may sound on Vista, depending on the hardware that you’re using, and the software that you’re wanting to use. We’re glad they finally got around to bundling some more app’s with the operating system, but there are plenty of third party programs that we have found to not work as they should. iTunes is a prime example of that: it seems to work initially, but as soon as it tries to download the podcasts it freezes up. Things like this is what makes switching to a new operating system frustrating. Updates and patches are sure to come for a majority of applications just like they have for previous versions of Windows, but it’s just a matter of waiting.

As of right now we have one PC that has Vista Ultimate Edition on it, and that will help us to write tips and features for people who might jump on the Vista bandwagon early. We also have a few licenses of Vista Business sitting here just screaming to be installed on our laptops, but the hardware is not Aero-capable so it doesn’t seem quite as thrilling. The pre-release versions of Vista had become quite cozy with those machines for several months, but application compatibility is what drew us back to XP. We’ll get around to upgrading in the next week or two because we seem to be going through withdraws after having used Vista’s integrated search for so long.

We’ve already written a post about some of the things that have kept us using XP for now, and you can find that here.

–Final Thoughts–

Despite some of the limitations you might come across in the next few months, particularly with 3rd party software, Vista really is a great operating system.  Once application compatibility gets better, it will fix a lot of the problems that you’ll encounter.  Almost all of the new machines available will support the new Aero interface, and this will be one of Vista’s key features that will get talked about the most. Aero is one of the key features that will sell Vista.  Let us know when or if you plan on upgrading by participating in our Poll titled “When will you Upgrade to Windows Vista” that’s located in the sidebar right now.

 Here are a few Vista related links that you might find helpful:

• T-Mobile HotSpot Access for Vista Users
• Family Pack Discount for Windows Vista
• Not wanting Vista? Make your XP look like Vista

There you have it… CyberNet’s Vista Review with screenshots.  Hopefully these screenshots will be useful and help you to determine if an upgrade to Vista will be worth your time and money. 

Full disclosure: We were able to provide this Windows Vista review using a Velocity Micro Media Center PC from Microsoft for review purposes.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Today Microsoft confirmed the six flavors of Windows 7—here’s the rundown of the packages, plus some insight as to why it’s better than the Vista jumble.

At first glance, the version breakdown does look a lot like Windows Vista. There are five six SKUs of Windows 7: Starter, Home Basic (developing markets only), Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. But there are a couple reasons it’s less horrendous than the Vista situation.

• Consumers are really only picking between Home Premium and Professional. There’s no more Home Basic in the civilized world, which was a gimped version of Vista that didn’t have Aero or Media Center that a lot of consumers unwittingly got stuck with. Ultimate, for the most part, won’t be very visible to the average guy says Microsoft. So you’ll only get Ultimate if you know that’s what you want from the start (meaning you’re likely tech savvy enough to wade through the SKU muck). Regular people won’t ever see Starter or Enterprise. Basically, you’ll walk into Best Buy and pick either Home Premium or Professional, whether you’re buying a new PC or a copy to install. It’s a lot more like the Windows XP Home and Professional dichotomy.

• Professional has all the same media and entertainment features as Home Premium. With Vista, if you wanted the pro-class OS and needed media features like Windows Media Center, you had to buy Ultimate. Now, it works more like a true hierarchy—Professional and Enterprise have every feature that’s in Home Premium, plus the business-y features. And then Ultimate is a step above them.

The Upgrade Question
Microsoft wouldn’t discuss pricing, but the general sense was that there will be full retail packages of Windows 7 alongside upgrade editions for Vista users. While they didn’t come out and say it directly that XP would require a full retail package, Microsoft said that, as in the Windows 7 beta, going to Windows 7 from XP will require a clean install and “that will be reflected with the packaging.” There will be migration tools and stuff, but it looks like they’ll be paying more to upgrade than Vista users. Update: Mary Jo Foley confirms XP users can buy an upgrade license, even though you’ll need a full install.

Now for a quick runthrough of every version.

Windows 7 Starter is for emerging markets mostly, but also for some netbooks as an option. It’s pretty gimpy, and only runs three apps at a time, though it’ll have the new taskbar, Device Stage and jump list. Since Home Premium (and even the Ultimate beta) runs pretty well on netbooks, most of them are probably going to stick with that, so don’t worry too much about it.

Windows 7 Home Basic is for developing markets only, and Microsoft didn’t even tell me anything about it, so forget about it. [This info was added in an update.]

Windows 7 Home Premium is the standard consumer offering of the OS with Aero Peek, Media Center and all the other cool features we’ve been talking about, and what most people will be running, whether they’re on a desktop or a netbook. It’s better at media than Vista Home Premium, since it ships with DVD playback and codecs like DivX out of the box. In case you’re wondering why Microsoft kept the “Premium” tack-on despite the extinction of Basic—it’s because in market testing, Vista users thought they were getting downgraded, going from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home.

Windows 7 Professional has everything that Home Premium does, but with business and “enthusiast” features like file encryption, location-aware printing and advanced backup.

Windows 7 Enterprise is for businesses buying OS licenses in bulk, so you probably won’t have to worry about it (unless you’re paid to). It’s got everything Professional does, but with a few additions like BitLocker full-disk encryption and direct access capability, so you don’t have go through a VPN for remote access.

Windows 7 Ultimate is, as you might have guessed, the ultimate version of Windows. Unlike Vista, where it was the combo of Home and Business with a couple added features, this time, it’s like the end user version of Enterprise—in other words, the Enterprise version that regular people can buy. It has BitLocker, notably, and a few other advanced features. It seems like visibility of this will be low, outside of a few “special promotions” from vendors occasionally, to minimize confusion.

Not quite as clean as we’d have liked it, but if Microsoft does a good job with education and people really only have to pick between Home and Professional, it’ll be a lot smoother ride this time around. Since they’re keeping the upgrade vs. full version setup intact, hopefully they’ll follow our advice and sell it to Vista users very cheaply. We’ll find out when they reveal pricing in the coming months.

Windows 7 is shaping up to be an awesome OS. It’s everything people wanted Vista to be and more. Which is exactly why Microsoft should give it away—or offer it dirt cheap—to Vista users.

Windows 7 is the solution to Microsoft’s Vista problem, which is really a nasty hydra of a problem. Let’s not pretend that this isn’t the case. There are three major heads to the beast: Consumer perception of Vista as an abysmal failure and a crappy OS (hence, Mojave); the use of XP instead of Vista in increasingly popular netbooks; and the critical lack of Vista interest from the business community.

Windows 7 neatly resolves them: Word-of-mouth sentiment for Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive, even from Mossberg, a dude who spent half of his Sprint Instinct review pre-reviewing the iPhone 3G. Windows 7 is slimmed down when it needs to be, running fantastically on netbooks. And the IT buyers and consumers who skipped Vista have been waiting, cash in hand, for whatever came after, so Windows 7 will have a much more enthusiastic customer base.

The stars are aligned for Windows 7. It could wash the bad aftertaste from Vista out of everybody’s mouth. But that’s only if Microsoft sells it right.

For starters, Microsoft needs to get rid of all the separate license types (OEM vs. upgrade vs. full) and trim the number of boxed configurations. Give buyers three versions, Home, Business and Ultimate, all at a reasonable price. $129 would be ideal for the first two, with $149 for Ultimate.

Second, every Vista user should get it for $49, or even less.

Apple gave away OS X 10.1 for free, and Microsoft should take a lesson there. It doesn’t matter that Vista isn’t really broken—like OS 10.0 really really was. Or that it was mostly the hardware guys’ fault for not delivering their drivers on time. Or that Mojave proves, at least to the nimwits who appear on camera, that Vista is a warm and fuzzy OS. Or that, conversely, most people who hate Vista have never really used it. All of that could be true, but regardless, people’s perception is that Vista was, is and always will be broken. And perception is reality.

Microsoft screwed up the Vista launch, and well, first impressions are the ones that matter the most. True, it’s already paying for that mistake. But taking that small hit per user wouldn’t just be the final cost of the Vista screwup, it would be “earnest money,” as they say in business. Microsoft would be buying something it hasn’t had the opportunity to get in the last few years: People’s faith.

You might’ve skipped the Vista train, thinking it was like Under Siege 2, minus Steve Seagal. Or not. Either way, you’re probably gonna jump onboard Windows 7. When you do, it’s time to go 64-bit.

Who Should Go 64-bit?

Basically, anyone geeky enough to read this. If you have an Intel Core 2 Duo or newer processor, you’ve got a 64-bit CPU, and you should install the 64-bit version of Windows 7 to play with. (Here’s how. You’ve got like 5 days left, BTW.) Microsoft itself is pimping 64-bit over 32-bit now and notebook makers have already started pushing 64-bit Windows Vista over 32-bit. Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard will be 64-bit down to its kernel, so you won’t be alone by any means. 64-bit is going mainstream.

Why Should I?
We explained what’s so awesome about 64-bit in detail a couple months ago, but to recap in a single word: Memory. With 32-bit Windows, you’re stuck at 4GB of RAM, and even then, you’re only using about 3.3GB of it, give or take. With 64-bit, 4GB of RAM is the new minimum standard, and with 4GB, you can run tons of applications with zero slowdown. Windows 7 (and Vista for that matter) runs so beautifully with 4GB of RAM you’ll wonder how you ever did with less. It makes your system more futureproof too, so you can take your system to 8GB, 32GB or even a terabyte, before too long.

Who Shouldn’t Go 64-Bit?
If you’re not planning on going to 4GB of RAM anytime soon, you might wanna hold back, since you need 4GB of RAM to take full advantage of 64-bit’s memory management. That said, RAM is so disgustingly cheap right now, and has such an intense bang-to-buck ratio, you should definitely upgrade to 4GB if you haven’t already. Anyone who runs specialized or older gear (see below) should probably not jump into 64-bit.

64-bit Sniggles
It’s true that 64-bit Windows used to be dicey on the driver and compatibility front, but from Vista onward, it’s typically nothing you have to worry about. Most new hardware has 64-bit drivers, and even though most applications aren’t 64-bit native yet, 32-bit ones usually run just fine.

Still, the biggest issue is hardware. If a gadget doesn’t have 64-bit drivers, it won’t work with your 64-bit OS, since 32-bit drivers aren’t supported. Most non-crusty gadgets should be okay. (Seriously, I’ve run 64-bit Vista for a year, and now Windows 7, and everything I’ve tested for Giz plugs in just fine.) But if you run legacy goods, it might be kinda sticky, and you should still double check your gear just to be safe.

There are a few software issues to look out for, too. Google’s Chrome, for instance, doesn’t play nice with Windows 7 64-bit for some people (like me). Adobe Flash doesn’t run in 64-bit browsers, but that’s not really a problem—you can just run the regular 32-bit browser instead. iTunes had problems with 64-bit versions of Windows in the past, too (granted, Apple’s not the most fastidious Windows app developer out there). Most of these issues have been or will be resolved, but if you use specialized mission-critical software, definitely read up on its 64-bit compatibility.

Really, Go 64-Bit
The caveat section looks longer than the “DO IT” section, but really, you’ll probably be just fine running 64-bit. A ton of other people will be 64-bit with this generation of OSes/hardware too, so you won’t be alone. The benefits of oodles of RAM, given all the crap you’re running simultaneously, are just too good to pass up, especially once more apps are 64-bit native. Besides, the more people that jump on the 64-bit Express, the faster developers will transition their apps to 64-bit, and any bumps in the road will be smoothed out. So don’t just do it for yourself, do it for everyone.