Archive for October, 2008
Quick XP Tip: Restoring The Show Desktop Icon (One year ago today!)
Oct 12th
If you ever find yourself in a situation where you accidentally deleted the Show Desktop icon from your quick launch bar, or you had an end loser…errr…user do this, then this quick tip is for you.
If said event happened, first look in:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.
If you have checked in there, and do not see the Show desktop icon, then you need to make one from scratch. Here is how you do it:
1) Open Notepad (Or your favorite text editor)
2) Enter the following code:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
3) Save the file as “Show Desktop.scf” minus the quotes to a safe place like your My Documents folder.
4) Drag that file to your Quick Launch bar and presto! You now have the show desktop icon back!
Joe’s suggestions for achieving Computer Zen
Oct 10th
Recently Alex Payne wrote an article titled al3x’s Rules for Computing Happiness, and while we agree on a few things, there are several points that I most certainly do not agree with. As I was reading this article it got me to thinking about a page I had typed up at a previous job with some guidelines about how to not be frustrated with your computer at home. So in a slightly modified form I present to you Joe’s suggestions for achieving Computer Zen:
On choosing the correct OS for your needs:
- If you are only going to use your computer for email, web surfing, working with digital pictures, and to fill your iPod; buy a Mac. Just be prepared to spend more for less than you will get with the other options.
- If you rail against the man, refuse to pay for software, and want to be able to do anything that is possible with a computer; buy a computer without an OS and load the Linux distribution of your choice on it. Just be prepared to invest an amount of time reading man pages that could be considered the equivalent of earning a Doctorate in Computer Science to get your ultra-cool-high-tech-laser mouse working.
- If you want to be able to do most everything that you would need to (special circumstances aside), and do not want to have to learn how to program your computer to use it; buy a Windows computer. Just be prepared to buy some (optional) expensive software, and invest some time cleaning off malware from that late night “accidental” pr0n excursion.
On choosing software:
- Carefully evaluate software before you decide to use it. Take the time to set up a VM (that’s virtual machine) and install it there first. If you don’t want to go to the trouble, be prepared to suffer through some odd issues.
- Never install cracked software unless you are willing to reinstall your computer (sometimes “free” is not worth the price).
- Open source software has come a long way. Investigate your options before choosing to buy software.
- Never install iTunes on a Windows machine. There are other options for managing your iPod, and iTunes is a resource hog.
On general computer skills:
- Invest some time and really learn how to use and maintain your chosen OS and software. In the grand scheme of things you will save far more time doing it this way, than just going until something breaks and then having to try to figure it out (or having to pay someone to do it for you).
- Always back up your data (pictures, important documents, etc.) to something not on your computer. External hard drives are cheap now, as are web based backup solutions. Investigate your options, and choose a solution that is right for you. A good backup will save you hours of headache, and tons of heartache in the event of a data loss.
- Rip the Caps Lock key off of your keyboard. In all likelihood the only use you find for it will be to annoy others.
On using the internet:
- DO NOT CLICK EVERYTHING YOU SEE! No matter how many times I say this, I guess it takes personal experience to really drive it home. Assume that every popup you see is a trap, and investigate it fully before clicking on it at all. Common traps to avoid: “click here to install missing codec”, “your computer is infected with a virus click here to remove it”, “click here to enter”, (clicking on) “I agree…”.
- Do not use Internet Explorer unless the website does not work in anything else. FireFox is cross platform (will work on Windows, Linux, Mac), far safer, and in my opinion a better all around experience.
- Google is your friend. need to know how to start Outlook in Safe mode? Search “Start Outlook in Safe Mode” on Google.com, and you will find the answer very quickly.
- Do not forward rumor email or chain email! If someone sends you an email about business cards being laced with a potent tranquilizer, head over to snopes.com and check it out for yourself before you decide to tell anyone about it or send it to anyone. Some people just have too much time on their hands, and will mass email anything.
- Do not buy perscription meds online unless it is from a pharmacy your doctor recommends. Ask them about it FIRST. Anything that is advertised as “Buy \/i@gr4 herre cheap!!!” is a trap!
As with any Zen dicipline, Computer Zen is a long journey, and you will only get out of it that which you invest into it.
Simple turn off UAC instructions.
Oct 9th
Now I have been getting even more UAC questions after the New York Times article today. Registration needed or use this bugmenot link. So here are instructions on turning off UAC on a Vista SP1 machine. Check out the next post for some more helpful tips as well! But, Dont go shooting yourself in the foot young admins!
It is possible to switch UAC off. I really don’t recommend it (YES I DO!) – if you like full control over your machine, surely you want to know when something is attempting to perform an administrative-level action?
There are two ways to disable UAC. The easy solution is through Control Panel. Type “UAC” into the search bar at the top of the screen and you’ll see this task presented:
This approach is pretty brute-force, though. It just switches the whole thing off. There’s a more subtle configuration choice that gives you some of the benefits of UAC without any of the prompting. You’ll need to edit the local security policy to control this, as follows:
- From the Start search bar, type “Local Security Policy”
- Accept the elevation prompt
- From the snap-in, select Security Settings -> Local Policy -> Security Options
- Scroll down to the bottom, where you’ll find nine different group policy settings for granular configuration of UAC.
Perhaps the best choice to select is to change the setting:
User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode
from Prompt for consent to Elevate without prompting.
Can you make Vistas UAC a little easier for me without disabling it?
Oct 9th
Your friendly neighborhood Admin gets piles of messages about Vista’s UAC and how much users despise Microsoft for doing this to them hate it. We showed you how to disable it here, how to use a super Administrator account here and The HowToGeek’s method for disabling UAC for Administrator accounts here.
But people want the best of both worlds. They want to have their security and eat it too… Wait that’s cake.
Did you say something about cake? Sorry I am easily distracted this early in the morning…
Ah UAC Prompts getting you down? I have one word for you HotKeys (I put them together and that makes them one word! Like RTFM!) When your UAC pops up just hit
Alt-C this will activate the C in the Continue Button via its hidden Hot Key. Simple eh? Well not really if you think about it logically (Unlike Microsoft) C could mean Cancel or Continue… But whatever it works!
Does this make your life easier? Let us know in the comments. I have this strange craving for cake.
[Alt image used from Wallout.com]
How can I monitor my employees desktops? Is it legal? Where is the line…? Video monitoring or a key logger?
Oct 8th
As for legal advice – lawyers we isn’t. So this is just speculation and our experiences. You know how we get down and obviously if you are worried consult a qualified attorney. Happy uncle Saul???
We FEEL that as the company (the man) who owns the PC and the bandwidth (resources) you SHOULD be able to monitor your employees (the slaves) to protect the integrity of your network. How else could you tell the difference between someone downloading kiddie porn and power point documents?
Different states and countries have different laws and statutes for this. Now if you send out an official memo and required your employees to sign it stating that they are aware and agree to the company’s monitoring policy or not use it at all (get fired or quit), you SHOULD be covered.
Alright now we got the legal crap out of the way lets get down to monitoring (spying) the slaves.
You need a service or an app on every machine you want to spy on and a console to access it from. We have tried big brother, dame ware, and vnc among others (Timbuktu on the Mac). It depends on how stealth you want to be, the size of the footprint, and what you want to do once you are connected.
Do you want to use their web cam to see them? Or how about just see their screen or IM windows?
Sparked your interest yet young Admin?
Remember you can use your knowledge for good or for the dark side…
Running AD? Are you a domain Admin or have the local machines root password (Admin access)?
If not chances are you are just looking to stalk you ex-girlfriend. While we have no qualms about that…Maybe another time :)
Are you monitoring your employees? Are you using a free application? Put us on and stay tuned for the follow up post!
What to Do With an Older System? Here’s an Idea! (Flashback 1 year ago today!)
Oct 6th
I recently inherited an older computer that really isn’t much good for anything. It is a Toshiba Tecra 8200 with a Pentium III processor and 256MB of RAM. Since it is a little older, and slower than the modern day stuff, I decided I wouldn’t put Windows on it because lets face it, that would just be painful. I decided to put Linux on it because as one of my old bosses once told me,
“You can run Linux on an empty soda can and an o
ld 9 volt battery if you wanted to!”
Since this laptop isn’t much better than an empty soda can, I decided I would give it a shot. I put Xubuntu 7.04 on it because of the lower overhead than regular Ubuntu with Gnome. I couldn’t use the regular Live CD installer though, so I had to use the alternate install cd that uses a text based installer instead. Now everything is working fine.
What I am going to use this for though is something my wife can use when she goes to the coffee shop. She keeps asking if she can borrow my laptop, but I am always using it. Besides, my laptop is running Linux also, which she doesn’t care for so much.
How am I going to make her use this one, when she doesn’t like Linux in the first place? Easy, I am not asking her to completely make the switch (That would be suicide). No, I am only asking her to use this as something to play with when in the coffee shops, or wherever she needs to take a laptop. She still has her desktop PC at home with Windows on it for anything important to her. I also changed the GDM login screen to make it look like a Windows XP welcome screen, and the desktop wallpaper to the grassy fields to make her feel a little more at home! If only I can find a Windows XP USPLASH theme also then this laptop will be complete!
Originally Posted on Bauer-Power By El Di Pablo
