Development, Network, Security, Ideas & Opinions
To remove Microsoft’s new “Windows Genuine Advantage-Tool”, which in the current version will check the system’s license every day against a Microsoft database, simply remove the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\ CurrentVersion\WinLogon\Notify\WGALogon
One of the minor features I admire most in the common X11-Window-Manager implementations on Linux is the fact that you can move and resize Windows easily without first moving the mouse to a special location of the particular window: Dragging your mouse while holding Alt+(Left-Mouse-Button) will move the window, holding Alt+(Right-Mouse-Button) will resize the window on its nearest edge.
I always missed this little feature when working on Windows. Today I found a script for AutoHotkey, which is a free (GPL) scripting environment for hotkeys. After installing AutoHotkey, simply download and launch the script by double-clicking it and now you’ll have the same behaviour for window movement and resizing as under KDE. Really cool!
AutoHotkey can do a lot more, unfortunately I have not yet had time to try out more.
OpenVPN on Microsoft Windows has a problem with the TAP-Win32-Adapter driver used for the tunnel. The device needs to be deactivated/reactivated after a Windows restart before any connection can be established. In this article I present a very simple script and solution for automating this process.
According to this Microsoft page and this Golem-Article (German), Microsoft is going to make driver signatures from Microsoft mandatory for any driver running in kernel space in Windows Vista x64. They claim security reason for this.While (faulty) drivers definitely can lead to serious (security) problems under Windows, they sometimes fulfill cruitial parts, especially in windows file system monitoring, for which there are many legitimate reasons. Having to go through the WHQL for every driver (and every minor patch) seems a little costly and time consuming to me…
Well, after all, for me it seems to be three things:
Update 2007-01-23: I have to revise most points of this, as I now learned something new about it. Vista x64 will accept digitally signed drivers, but they do not necessarily be signed by Microsoft. Read more in my updated article.
Our Windows 2003 Server refused to sync the clock via NTP. Main reason for this behaviour is the fact that as PDC it wants to change the NTP server’s clock as well, which is normally not permitted by the NTP server and the packet is discarded.
To change the preferred server of the Windows Time service (w32time), follow these steps:
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:<server>,0x8 /syncfromflags:MANUALw32tm /config /update
net time /querysntp
w32tm /resync
(source: Meinberg Funkuhren – FAQ – Windows synchronisiert nicht mit NTP (German))