Oct 28

CyberNotes: Removing Some of Vista’s UAC Headaches

Posted in: CyberNotes, Software, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on May 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

There was a topic in our forum started a few months back regarding the User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista. The question asked whether there was a way to prevent the UAC prompt on applications you know are safe, and at the time the question was specifically directed towards Joost.

Unfortunately there is no way to tell the UAC to “remember my decision,” but there really should be. The UAC should be smart enough to watch for changes in the file, and if something does get modified it should notify the user.

One of my own peeves is in regards to modifying items in the Start Menu. The Start Menu Programs folder is where a lot of applications install their shortcuts. After I install something I like to cleanup the Start Menu so that there aren’t a ton of folders, and also delete shortcuts that I’ll never need. Vista already lets me modify my own Start Menu items, but modifying items that were installed for all users forces a UAC prompt each time.

The method that I’m about to demonstrate is a workaround I found, and works great for disabling the UAC on specific files or folders. It is important to know that the UAC will be completely disabled for the files or folders you choose to apply this to, so be careful how you use it. 

  1. Open Windows Explorer and find the file/folder that you would like to remove the UAC prompt from. In this example I am going to do it for the Programs folder for All Users so that it is easier to manage my items in the Start Menu. This folder is found at:
    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
    Windows Vista UAC Prompt

  2. Right click on the file/folder and select the Properties option.
    Windows Vista UAC Prompt
  3. Go the the Security tab and and click the Edit button. You’ll receive a UAC prompt that you need to confirm before being able to continue.
    Windows Vista UAC Prompt
  4. Click the Add button, and then in the Enter the object names to select field, type your Vista username that is used when you login. My username is Ryan J. Wagner so that is what I entered in.
    Windows Vista UAC Prompt
  5. Press OK on the Select Users or Groups window, and then check the Full Control box on the Permissions for Programs window before pressing OK.
    Windows Vista UAC Prompt

That’s all there is to it! Now in that example I won’t receive a UAC prompt every time I move or delete an item in my Start Menu, which I do quite often. Being able to do this has saved me a lot of headaches, but I just wish I thought to try it sooner.

This can also be done for applications that you’re having problems with running in Vista. You can just go into the corresponding folder for your program (which is normally located in the Program Files) and add your username to the permissions. That way you’ll never need to run an application as an administrator because it already has full access to its own folder.

You do want to be careful for with what you choose to do this with, because it is essentially disabling the UAC for that specific file or directory. That means a virus or spyware would be able to access those files as easy as if you disabled UAC system-wide, so think twice about what you apply this technique to.

This solution isn’t the type of fix that I would have liked to do, and as stated earlier I would like to see Microsoft address an easier way to prevent files, folders, and applications from constantly displaying a UAC prompt. I’ll cross my fingers and hope that Vista Service Pack 1 brings some welcomed updates to the User Account Control!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: ,
Oct 28

How to do Incremental Gmail Backups

Posted in: Email, Freeware, Gmail, Software, storage, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on March 03, 2011 by CyberNet.

Gmail backup

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
I rely on my Gmail account for just about all of my email communication, and I’d be pretty sad if I lost some of my emails. After all I have emails dating back to the middle of 2004 in my Gmail account, and so it has almost 7-years worth of my email history. Over the years I’ve put a lot of trust into Gmail, but so much of the service is out of my control that I still feel like I need to make backups just in case my Gmail account mysteriously disappears one day.

A free program called IMAPSize is nice because it lets you view a breakdown of all your labels and the space used by each one, but it is also capable of doing incremental backups for specific labels or the entire account. By doing incremental backups only new emails that haven’t already been backed up will be retrieved, and so it should only be the initial run that takes awhile. Each email is downloaded as an individual EML file, which is a standard format used by many email clients. The EML files will keep all the header information intact so that you can still see the original dates and whatnot.

IMAPSize will work with any email service that provides an IMAP interface, but I’m going to focus on Gmail here. After you download IMAPSize you’ll be prompted to add an account, and these are the things you’ll need to enter in the fields:

  • Account: A descriptive name that only IMAPSize will use.
  • Username: <your_email>@gmail.com
  • Password: <your_password>
  • Server: imap.gmail.com
  • Port: 993
  • Use Secure Connection (SSL): Yes (checked)

After that’s done you can proceed with the various configuration options. You’ll find most of the options you’ll need in the Account menu, which includes calculating sizes and performing backups.

Curious what all IMAPSize is capable of? Here’s a rundown of features provided by the developer:

  • Display of all mailboxes in an account with visual alerts for the most space consuming mailboxes
  • Convenient storage quota display
  • Powerful search capabilities on single or multiple mailboxes
  • Delete attachments (all or individual) without downloading them
  • Save attachments locally from multiple messages (BETA)
  • Mailbox management (expunge, create, delete, rename)
  • Message management (change flags, copy, move, delete, etc)
  • Manage folder subscriptions
  • Modify message headers
  • Copy messages from one IMAP account to another
  • Perform incremental backups of multiple folders in your IMAP account
  • Perform incremental backups of the whole account
  • Replicate IMAP folder hierarchy to your local drive
  • Download/upload messages to/from mbox and eml files
  • eml2mbox conversion
  • mbox2eml conversion. This can be extremely useful in the process of moving messages from Thunderbird to Outlook.
  • Spam handles which provide a basis for visual alerts on spam messages
  • SSL connections
  • Minimizes bandwidth consumption wherever possible
  • Keyboard friendly – you can perform almost all operations without using the mouse

IMAPSize Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags:
Oct 28

ITG xpPhone 2 to get some Windows 8 love, starts living large in January

Posted in: cellphone, mobile phone, MobilePhone, mobilepostcross, phone, qwerty, smartphone, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, windows 8, Windows7, Windows8

Let’s be honest: with the size of a brick and a relatively short battery life, it’s no surprise that ITG’s xpPhone hasn’t quite dominated the smartphone market since its launch back in November. In fact, we haven’t even seen one in the wild, and we certainly wouldn’t have missed it if there ever was one on the street. That said, ITG hasn’t given up, as the company’s just announced its second-generation Windows-powered smartphone. The reason? Well, interestingly enough, ITG prefers Windows’ greater range of compatible software compared to those of mobile OSes, namely Android and iOS. Let’s just leave it at that for now.

Simply dubbed the xpPhone 2, this beast of a QWERTY slider packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 chip, along with 2GB RAM, up to 112GB of SSD storage, 4.3-inch display and compatibility with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 — obviously the latter OS will depend on its final release date. Not only has battery life been bumped up to around 18 hours of call time or 46 days on standby, but the phone’s also been slimmed down to 140mm x 73mm x 17.5mm, which is a huge improvement compared to its bulky predecessor. With the touch-friendly Windows 8 on board along with a non-underclocked CPU, we have a feeling that the xpPhone 2 will at least fare much better than Fujitsu’s F-07C; as for the rest, we shall see when it comes out in January next year. And no, it probably won’t run Crysis.

Update: Looks like we were misled by the company’s other promotional photos and thus mistakenly thought the xpPhone 2 will have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This would explain the slimmer body then.

Gallery: ITG xpPhone 2

ITG xpPhone 2 to get some Windows 8 love, starts living large in January originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: ,
Oct 28

CyberNotes: Performance-Friendly Desktop Search Applications

Posted in: CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on August 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
Searching for files on your computer was something that was once a tedious process, but in the last few years it has been one of the most talked about features in new operating systems. Sure you could always search for files on your computer, but do you remember when you’d have to sit there for several minutes while the computer scavenged everything on the hard drive looking for files and folders matching your search.

The benefit that search applications have these days is that they can index files on your computer so that search results are retrieved nearly instantaneously. Mac OS X 10.4 started doing this back in 2005 when Tiger it was released, and Vista followed it up with its own indexed search capabilities. Making search a strong focus of the operating system is a smart thing to do as it becomes harder and harder for users to find the files they are looking for. Without being able to search it can almost be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

What about the other operating systems like XP? Many of you have probably turned to Google Desktop or Copernic to do your searching, but I believe both of those programs use more resources than they need to. They’re constantly monitoring and indexing results on your computer, and Google Desktop even comes bundled with their own gadget/widget system.

Today we’re going to take a look at two excellent applications that focus on quickly searching for files on your computer without the unnecessary bloat. Both of them are free, use very little memory, and aren’t constantly indexing files on your computer… although they do use an index/database for retrieving results. Sound nice?

–Locate32 (Homepage)–

This is one of my favorite search applications for Windows XP, and it is always getting better. Locate32 is capable of indexing all of the files on your computer in no time at all, and after it’s done you can use the intuitive interface for searching and viewing results. It’s not the most snazzy-looking application, but functionality is more important than appearance when it comes to searching.

What does Locate32 have to offer? Take a look at some of my favorite features:

  • Search the contents of files (takes longer since the content is not indexed)
  • Save frequent searches as presets
  • Long list of customizable keyboard shortcuts
  • Pressing the Windows Key + F while in Windows Explorer brings up the search dialog, and sets it to search the current directory you were viewing
  • Huge list of options
  • and more…

The developers of Locate32 are currently on the homestretch to releasing version 3.1, and with it comes a lot of bug fixes and features. Things like find-as-you-type are automatically enabled making searches even faster and more natural.

Interface (Click to Enlarge):

locate32 interface 1.jpg locate32 interface 2.jpg locate32 interface 3.jpg

Options (Click to Enlarge):

locate32 options 1-1.jpg locate32 options 2.jpg locate32 options 3.jpg locate32 options 4.jpg locate32 options 5.jpg locate32 options 6.jpg

–Finder (Homepage)–

Finder, not to be confused with Mac OS X’s Finder, is a program that accomplishes the same goal as Locate32, but with a different interface. It will index your files and put search results on your screen in the blink of an eye.

There are some things that I like better about Finder, such as the wider interface, but generally speaking it’s not as powerful as Locate32. The more unique aspect of the program would be the things you can do with the search results:

  • Perform operations on files and folders (copy, move, etc…)
  • Designate default applications for specific extensions. You can customize what program is used to execute, view, and edit a particular type of file.
  • Copy path(s) or name(s) to the clipboard
  • and more…

A new version of Finder is in the works, but the developer is shooting for a November 2008 release. I can’t wait to see what good stuff is in store for Finder 3.

Interface:

finder-2.png

Options (Click to Enlarge):

finder options 1.png finder options 2-1.png finder options 3.png finder options 4.png finder options 5.png

–Overview–

There’s one thing that I didn’t cover yet, and that is the performance of the two applications. Both of them are nearly identical coming in under 6MB of memory usage when they are active. That is significantly lower than most desktop search applications, and a large part of that is thanks to the on-demand indexing rather than trying to monitor your computer for new files. Both offer an option to only index the files that have changed since the last time the database was updated, which means the first indexing operation will be significantly longer than the others.

Let us know in the comments how you go about searching for files and folders on your computer. We are always interested in trying out new software!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: , ,
Oct 27

Microsoft Pushes Out a Silent Windows Update

Posted in: Microsoft, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on September 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft apparently pushed out a Windows Update a few weeks ago of which no one had been notified. There were 9 files, on both XP and Vista, pertaining to the Windows Update process which were modified. The files are listed below, and all of them reside in the Windows\System32 folder on your machine.

So why is this such a big deal? As it turns out this update was sent to all Windows computers, even those that have the automatic installation of Windows Updates disabled. There isn’t supposed to be anything harmful with the files, and it is expected that the update is needed if you want to receive further Windows Updates. But what about those people who didn’t want to receive any updates in the first place?

The reason why this concerns me is that Microsoft was able to get onto my computer and modify my system files without me even knowing. How is that supposed to make me feel safe knowing that some hacker could probably do the same thing?

Here was Microsoft’s response on the matter:

Any user who chooses to use Windows Update either expected updates to be installed or to at least be notified that updates were available.  Had we failed to update the service automatically, users would not have been able to successfully check for updates and, in turn, users would not have had updates installed automatically or received expected notifications.
…
Before closing, I would like to address another misconception that I have seen publicly reported. WU does not automatically update itself when Automatic Updates is turned off, this only happens when the customer is using WU to automatically install upgrades or to be notified of updates.

To see if your computer has received the updates just head on over to the Windows\System32 folder and look for one of the affected files listed below. You should see the date that the file was modified (probably around August 24th), and the version number should be 7.0.6000.381:

Silent Windows Update

In Vista, the following files are updated to version 7.0.6000.381:

  1. wuapi.dll
  2. wuapp.exe
  3. wuauclt.exe
  4. wuaueng.dll
  5. wucltux.dll
  6. wudriver.dll
  7. wups.dll
  8. wups2.dll
  9. wuwebv.dll

In XP, the following files are updated to version 7.0.6000.381:

  1. cdm.dll
  2. wuapi.dll
  3. wuauclt.exe
  4. wuaucpl.cpl
  5. wuaueng.dll
  6. wucltui.dll
  7. wups.dll
  8. wups2.dll
  9. wuweb.dll

Source: Windows Secrets [via Slashdot]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments
Oct 27

Nokia Lumia 800 unboxed: we shed some light on what’s inside

Posted in: hands-on, Microsoft, mobilepostcross, nokia, retail, Today's Chili, unboxing, Windows, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7, Wp7

We managed to grab enough time with the Lumia 800‘s retail innards here at Nokia World, revealing some welcome extras including a flexible rubberized case for that affectionate lump of polycarbonate. The requisite data cable, power adapter and headset are all accounted for inside the packaging, which is covered in shots of this dark, not-so-mysterious phone. It’s all a bit more vibrant than the packaging of its other 2011 phone, but is still coated in that unmistakable Nokia blue. We expect to get our excitable digits on a review model very — very — soon, but until then check out more shots of what we can expect to get alongside Nokia’s premier Windows Phone handset.

Gallery: Nokia Lumia 800 unboxing

Nokia Lumia 800 unboxed: we shed some light on what’s inside originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

No Comments
Oct 27

Sports Tracker racing toward Windows Phone for November release

Posted in: mango, mobilepostmini, nokia, Sports, Today's Chili, Windows, windows phone, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone, WindowsPhone7

Love Windows Phone, sweating and tracking personal statistics? Good news! Sports Tracker is celebrating Nokia week by announcing the upcoming availability of its exercise-logging app for Microsoft’s mobile OS. The app, which spent its early days on Symbian, is now available on iOS and Android, and will be hitting Windows Phone next month. It lets sporty smartphone owners track their distance, speed, calories and more, and upload that information to Sports Tracker’s site and the requisite social networks to generally irritate out of shape followers.

Sports Tracker racing toward Windows Phone for November release originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

No Comments
Oct 27

IE8 Beta 2 Download – Colored Tabs, an “Awesome Bar”, and More

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Internet Explorer, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on August 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

ie8 awesome bar.png

When Mozilla launched Firefox 3 there were some people who weren’t fond of the changes they made to the address bar. With it they decided to intermingle results from the user’s history, bookmarks, and typed addresses to provide a long list of sites they might be trying to find. While not everyone liked the feature there were quite a few who did, and among those people the name “Awesome Bar” caught on.

Well, the download for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 was just posted, and it is sporting an “Awesome Bar” that is even more powerful than Firefox’s. The screenshot above shows how it grabs results from your history, favorites, and also from any feeds you’ve subscribed to within IE. All of the different types of results are divided up so that the user can quickly determine what’s what, which was often a complaint with how Mozilla decided to implement their solution. If you see a result that you want to delete just hover over it, and a red “X” should appear at the end.

One of my new favorite things would also have to be the colorized tabs. When you Control+Click on a link from a site the new tab will not only open next to the current one, but it will also inherit the same color. That way you can visually associate tabs with each other.

ie8 tabs.png

And lastly when you open a new tab Internet Explorer 8 will ask whether you want to do things like open a tab you accidentally closed, use an accelerator, or start browsing privately:

ie8 new tab.png

I have to give Microsoft a lot of credit for what they’ve done here. I was thinking that the only new feature we were going to see in IE8 Beta 2 was the InPrivate Browsing that we previously covered. They definitely shocked me with the other features they added, and they did a really great job with them. I can’t wait to see what the final release is like.

Get Internet Explorer 8 for Windows
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: , ,
Oct 26

Manage Multiple Connections: Remote Desktop, VNC, Citrix, and More

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP

This article was written on October 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

terminals.jpg
(Click to Enlarge)

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
Everyday when I’m at work I’m dealing with dozens of different servers that I have to connect to using the Windows Remote Desktop. If you have just one computer that you need to manage the standard Remote Desktop Connection application serves the purpose, but it can become tedious when dealing with numerous machines.

To solve this problem I began looking around for a app that has a nice tabbed interface for handling multiple connections. What I wasn’t expecting was to find something as good as the free Terminals program. This can not only manage Remote Desktop Connections, but also VNC, VMRC, RAS, Telnet, SSH, ICA Citrix, HTTP, and Amazon S3. Plus you can accomplish basic tasks like pinging, trace routes, whois lookups, and more all from within this single program.

I’ve quickly become impressed with everything Terminals can do. Anytime you make a connection to a machine it will be added to the Favorites menu for easy access in the future. You can then go through and rename the entries for easier recognition (especially handy if you’re connecting via IP addresses), or even apply tags.

And we can’t forget about security. Naturally you won’t want a program like this to save all of your passwords because a lot could be lost should it ever fall into the wrong hands. At the same time it can be tough to remember all of those different passwords for the various machines. Terminals, much like any browser, will let you establish a master password that is used to protect all of your saved passwords. That means you’ll have just one password to remember from now on!

This probably isn’t a program that will be handy for everyone, but it can definitely save some time and frustration for those of you who work with dozens of different connections day in and day out. It’s completely free, and doesn’t require any installation for you to start using it. Just download the ZIP file, extract the contents, and run the executable.

Get Terminals for Windows

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: ,
Oct 26

Comcast to Enforce Bandwidth Cap – How to Monitor Your Bandwidth

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on August 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

netstat live.pngYesterday word started getting around that come October 1st Comcast would be enforcing a 250GB bandwidth cap for all their users. This is obviously their way to get back at the whole BitTorrent rigmarole that started last year, and this way people are more apt to know what they consider to be “acceptable use.”

The new policy won’t go into affect until October 1st, and if you’re a heavy user you’ll likely be contacted by Comcast:

If a customer uses more than 250 GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use. At that time, we’ll tell them exactly how much data per month they had used. We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily.

Hitting the 250GB limit would take a lot of Internet usage, but it’s definitely possible if you’re streaming videos all day long or are active on the BitTorrent network. They’ve also not said what will happen once you hit that limit (pay extra, get cutoff, etc…)

Scott, the individual who sent us the tip on the Comcast news, was wondering if there was a good free program to use for monitoring your bandwidth usage. After looking around a little bit I found that the AnalogX NetStat Live (for Windows) was a highly recommended program. With it you can track both the current month and last month’s bandwidth usage, set it to start with Windows, and it can be minimized to the System Tray.

If you’ve got a tool you use to monitor bandwidth usage let us know in the comments. We’re particularly looking for apps that keep track of monthly usage, and not just real-time data.

Get NetStat Live for Windows
Thanks Scott!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: ,