This registry edit will cause your system to reboot itself automatically upon crashing. This can be useful if you have a reason for keeping your system on 24 /7:
Open REGEDIT
Navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet\Control\C rashControl'
Edit the 'AutoReboot' value to '1'
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Showing posts with label windows xp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label windows xp. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
How to Write a Windows XP Driver
Summary: This document describes the steps you should take to create a Microsoft® Windows® XP driver for your device.
To create a Windows XP device driver:
1. Install the current Windows DDK. Read the system requirements and installation instructions in the stand-alone Getting Started HTML file supplied with the DDK.
2. Read Getting Started with Windows Drivers. This document guides you through the planning and decision-making process involved in making a Windows device driver from design through distribution. You should also look through the DDK documentation for device-type- specific information.
The DDK documentation set has the following device-type- specific nodes:
· Battery Devices
· Display and Print Devices
· IEEE 1284.4 Devices
· Interactive Input Devices
· Modem Devices
· Multifunction Devices
· Network Devices and Protocols
· Parallel Ports and Devices
· Serial Ports and Devices
· Smart Card Devices
· Still Image Devices
· Storage Devices
· Streaming Devices (Video and Audio)
· Devices Requiring VDDs
3. IDE bus are described in System Support for Buses. Driver development for most device types also requires a strong understanding of Windows operating system fundamentals, which are described in Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture.
4. Look through the driver source code provided with the DDK for a sample that represents your device type. Use the sample code where possible, modifying it for your device's specifics.
5. The sample code can enhance your understanding of Windows XP driver implementation requirements and speed your development time.
6. Compile and build your driver. This should be done using the Build utility and not some other compiler, because the Build utility has certain features that are necessary for driver development.
7. Obtain a checked build of Windows XP, so that you can test and debug your driver using free and checked system builds.
8. The checked build of Windows XP provides extensive kernel- mode debugging capabilities not available in the free build.
9. Create an INF file so that you can install and test your driver.
10. Test and debug your driver. You should use Driver Verifier, a program that puts your driver through a variety of tests, stresses, and deliberate failures in order to test its response and reliability in many extreme situations. You should also use a debugger. Microsoft provides several powerful debuggers that can monitor and debug kernel-mode and user-mode drivers. Using Driver Verifier in conjunction with these debuggers, on both the checked and free versions of the operating system, can be a powerful way to test your driver.
11. Provide an installation package so that customers can install devices that use your driver.
12. Submit your driver and installation package to Microsoft so that it can be digitally signed.
There are many resources available to you while developing your driver. The following sites describe some of the support available to you:
a. http://www.microsoft.com/ddk describes how to obtain the current DDK and provides other information, such as a driver development reading list.
b. http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev provides information, such as device-type-specific white papers and late-breaking news, and a list of resources available to driver developers.
c. http://support.microsoft.com/ support/ddk contains DDK product support information.
To create a Windows XP device driver:
1. Install the current Windows DDK. Read the system requirements and installation instructions in the stand-alone Getting Started HTML file supplied with the DDK.
2. Read Getting Started with Windows Drivers. This document guides you through the planning and decision-making process involved in making a Windows device driver from design through distribution. You should also look through the DDK documentation for device-type- specific information.
The DDK documentation set has the following device-type- specific nodes:
· Battery Devices
· Display and Print Devices
· IEEE 1284.4 Devices
· Interactive Input Devices
· Modem Devices
· Multifunction Devices
· Network Devices and Protocols
· Parallel Ports and Devices
· Serial Ports and Devices
· Smart Card Devices
· Still Image Devices
· Storage Devices
· Streaming Devices (Video and Audio)
· Devices Requiring VDDs
3. IDE bus are described in System Support for Buses. Driver development for most device types also requires a strong understanding of Windows operating system fundamentals, which are described in Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture.
4. Look through the driver source code provided with the DDK for a sample that represents your device type. Use the sample code where possible, modifying it for your device's specifics.
5. The sample code can enhance your understanding of Windows XP driver implementation requirements and speed your development time.
6. Compile and build your driver. This should be done using the Build utility and not some other compiler, because the Build utility has certain features that are necessary for driver development.
7. Obtain a checked build of Windows XP, so that you can test and debug your driver using free and checked system builds.
8. The checked build of Windows XP provides extensive kernel- mode debugging capabilities not available in the free build.
9. Create an INF file so that you can install and test your driver.
10. Test and debug your driver. You should use Driver Verifier, a program that puts your driver through a variety of tests, stresses, and deliberate failures in order to test its response and reliability in many extreme situations. You should also use a debugger. Microsoft provides several powerful debuggers that can monitor and debug kernel-mode and user-mode drivers. Using Driver Verifier in conjunction with these debuggers, on both the checked and free versions of the operating system, can be a powerful way to test your driver.
11. Provide an installation package so that customers can install devices that use your driver.
12. Submit your driver and installation package to Microsoft so that it can be digitally signed.
There are many resources available to you while developing your driver. The following sites describe some of the support available to you:
a. http://www.microsoft.com/ddk describes how to obtain the current DDK and provides other information, such as a driver development reading list.
b. http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev provides information, such as device-type-specific white papers and late-breaking news, and a list of resources available to driver developers.
c. http://support.microsoft.com/ support/ddk contains DDK product support information.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Undo an Accidental Move or Delete With a Keyboard Shortcut
Have you ever accidentally deleted the wrong file, or duplicated files while trying to select them with the mouse? Those types of mistakes can be extremely frustrating, but there's a really, really simple way to reverse them. All you have to do is use the Ctrl+Z keyboard shortcut, or use Edit \ Undo on the menu.
This is especially handy when you are trying to select a bunch of files, and accidentally move the mouse and copy them into the same folder instead:
Once you do that, just immediately use the Ctrl+Z shortcut and the files will be removed, although you will get the regular delete confirmation dialog:
This can be confusing, but since the accidentally copied file is now going to be removed permanently, it makes sense that you'll have to accept the deletion. Also note that this works in any version of Windows.
This is especially handy when you are trying to select a bunch of files, and accidentally move the mouse and copy them into the same folder instead:
Once you do that, just immediately use the Ctrl+Z shortcut and the files will be removed, although you will get the regular delete confirmation dialog:
This can be confusing, but since the accidentally copied file is now going to be removed permanently, it makes sense that you'll have to accept the deletion. Also note that this works in any version of Windows.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Show your name on SYSTEM CLOCK
This tip is absolutely and completely useless, and will even make applications that depend on timestamps have issues. It's mostly just to be used as a cool trick you can show off to your friends, so we're going to show you how it works. The way this trick works is by modifying the regional settings for the time format. Instead of using just AM or PM, you can put up to 12 characters of text in that field.
Start by opening Regional and Language Options from the start menu search box or the control panel.
On the Formats tab you'll see the "Customize this format" button, which you'll need to choose.
Select the Time tab, and then here's where we can make whatever settings we want.
I chose to set mine to "AM - Geek" so I could still see AM or PM, but you can choose any 12 characters for either field. Keep in mind that the PM symbol is only going to display during the "PM" hours. This does change more than just the displayed clock, so I'd advise not using this on a computer you do actual work on. Using the F5 key in notepad shows the "Geek" text as well:
It's one of those things that's interesting to know... just not very useful. It does work in XP as well.
Start by opening Regional and Language Options from the start menu search box or the control panel.
On the Formats tab you'll see the "Customize this format" button, which you'll need to choose.
Select the Time tab, and then here's where we can make whatever settings we want.
I chose to set mine to "AM - Geek" so I could still see AM or PM, but you can choose any 12 characters for either field. Keep in mind that the PM symbol is only going to display during the "PM" hours. This does change more than just the displayed clock, so I'd advise not using this on a computer you do actual work on. Using the F5 key in notepad shows the "Geek" text as well:
It's one of those things that's interesting to know... just not very useful. It does work in XP as well.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software
Computer Monitoring
So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here's what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP3 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you're logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you're reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected. So why is that useful? It's useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it's a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows. So now we're looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won't know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service. That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.
Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you've not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It's usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there. However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you're not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right? So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start , Control Panel , and Windows Firewall .
Click on the Exceptions tab and you'll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are "open" and the unchecked or unlisted ones are "closed". Go through the list and see if there is a program you're not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!
The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to the Processes tab, you'll see a column titled User Name .
Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!
Email & Web Site Monitoring
To check whether your email is being monitored is quite simple. Always, when you send an email from Outlook or some email client on your computer, it has to connect to the email server. Now it can either connect directly or it can connect through what is called a proxy server, which takes a request, alters or checks it, and forwards it on to another server. If you're going through a proxy server for email or web browsing, than the web sites you access or the emails you write can be saved and viewed later on. You can check for both and here's how. For IE, go to Tools , then Internet Options . Click on the Connections tab and choose LAN Settings .
If the Proxy Server box is checked and it has a local IP address with a port number, then that means you're going through a local server first before it reaches the web server. This means that any web site you visit first goes through another server running some kind of software that either blocks the address or simply logs it. For your email, you're checking for the same thing, a local IP address for the POP and SMTP mail servers. To check in Outlook, go to Tools , Email Accounts , and click Change or Properties, and find the values for POP and SMTP server.
If you're working in a big corporate environment, it's more than likely that the Internet and email are being monitored. You should always be careful in writing emails or browsing web sites while at the office. Trying to break through the security also might get you in trouble if they find out you bypassed their systems!
So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here's what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP3 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you're logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you're reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected. So why is that useful? It's useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it's a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows. So now we're looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won't know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service. That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.
Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you've not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It's usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there. However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you're not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right? So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start , Control Panel , and Windows Firewall .
Click on the Exceptions tab and you'll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are "open" and the unchecked or unlisted ones are "closed". Go through the list and see if there is a program you're not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!
The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to the Processes tab, you'll see a column titled User Name .
Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!
Email & Web Site Monitoring
To check whether your email is being monitored is quite simple. Always, when you send an email from Outlook or some email client on your computer, it has to connect to the email server. Now it can either connect directly or it can connect through what is called a proxy server, which takes a request, alters or checks it, and forwards it on to another server. If you're going through a proxy server for email or web browsing, than the web sites you access or the emails you write can be saved and viewed later on. You can check for both and here's how. For IE, go to Tools , then Internet Options . Click on the Connections tab and choose LAN Settings .
If the Proxy Server box is checked and it has a local IP address with a port number, then that means you're going through a local server first before it reaches the web server. This means that any web site you visit first goes through another server running some kind of software that either blocks the address or simply logs it. For your email, you're checking for the same thing, a local IP address for the POP and SMTP mail servers. To check in Outlook, go to Tools , Email Accounts , and click Change or Properties, and find the values for POP and SMTP server.
If you're working in a big corporate environment, it's more than likely that the Internet and email are being monitored. You should always be careful in writing emails or browsing web sites while at the office. Trying to break through the security also might get you in trouble if they find out you bypassed their systems!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Protech OS Installation
How to Install Protech OS ? [For Absolute Beginners]
I am writing this tutorial for people who are new to Linux Distro's and Installation. Considered you have Windows XP Installed already in your computer. And this Installation method best suitable for Dual Booting option(Both Windows & Linux). Also including Screenshots for better clarity in understanding. Partitioning It would be great if you have Hiren Boot Disk for partitioning and formatting a part of the disk (may be complete) to allot it for Protech Installation. Boot the Hiren Disk and Resize or Create the partition in which you like to perform the installation. The format must be EXT2 or EXT3. I normally prefer Norton Partion Magic which is available as the first option in that Hiren Boot Menu -> Partition Tools . Hiren actually consist of many useful disk, recovery and security related tools. Take a look at the sample screenshot below.
Once done with this step, you will see a GUI Partition window where you can simply complete the Partition Job with the help of mouse if the driver available by default in the Hiren CD. * Remember you must have define the partition space for protech as atleast 5GB. Load the Protech CD
Reboot the computer after partitioning and formatting done. Now place the Protech OS CD into the CD Drive and Boot the computer using Protech. Follow the below steps to begin the Installation Process. 1 . Select Install or Upgrade option available as first in the Boot Menu Screen. 2. If you like to do any Memory or CD/DVD Error check you may do so by selecting the 3 rd and 4 th options. 3. Wait till it loads into desktop. As by default it boots as Live OS we must wait till the Desktop Loads Successfully. Also remember Protech is based on Ubuntu. Hence it is possible to use the Software Repository of Ubuntu as well as Debian by default. 4. Once loaded into the Desktop you can navigate the controls and options by simply doing Right Click in the Mouse.
5 . Application TAB Consist of Editors, Multimedia, Net, Programming and System Utilties. 6 . Next comes the Security Tools option, the one differentiate Protech OS from other Security Distributions. It actually contains a good recognized Security Software that one should play with. 7. You may change the default them to your wish in the Fluxbox Menu. 8 . Let's move on to "HOME" to begin the Installation Process. In the New Window you will see the only icon named as Install when you are in Live CD. 9. In the Pop up window you can select the default setups need to be configured. This is similar to Windows or Ubuntu Installation Steps. 10 . It is very important that you must select the Partition Space alloted previously using Hiren Boot Disk. 11 . Alright ! Configure your Root login and password, then partition selection and finally begin the installation process. 12. Once its started you may need to wait for 20 mins to 30 mins ( Depending on the Processor Speed ) to transfer the Compressed files from CD to the Hard Drive. 13 . Yummy ! Installation completed and it will prompt you for Rebooting ( Remove the CD from the CD / DVD Drive ). 14. It's all done now. You are ready to use the Protech OS with various security Tools. It also works as a Best Desktop OS for me.
I am writing this tutorial for people who are new to Linux Distro's and Installation. Considered you have Windows XP Installed already in your computer. And this Installation method best suitable for Dual Booting option(Both Windows & Linux). Also including Screenshots for better clarity in understanding. Partitioning It would be great if you have Hiren Boot Disk for partitioning and formatting a part of the disk (may be complete) to allot it for Protech Installation. Boot the Hiren Disk and Resize or Create the partition in which you like to perform the installation. The format must be EXT2 or EXT3. I normally prefer Norton Partion Magic which is available as the first option in that Hiren Boot Menu -> Partition Tools . Hiren actually consist of many useful disk, recovery and security related tools. Take a look at the sample screenshot below.
Once done with this step, you will see a GUI Partition window where you can simply complete the Partition Job with the help of mouse if the driver available by default in the Hiren CD. * Remember you must have define the partition space for protech as atleast 5GB. Load the Protech CD
Reboot the computer after partitioning and formatting done. Now place the Protech OS CD into the CD Drive and Boot the computer using Protech. Follow the below steps to begin the Installation Process. 1 . Select Install or Upgrade option available as first in the Boot Menu Screen. 2. If you like to do any Memory or CD/DVD Error check you may do so by selecting the 3 rd and 4 th options. 3. Wait till it loads into desktop. As by default it boots as Live OS we must wait till the Desktop Loads Successfully. Also remember Protech is based on Ubuntu. Hence it is possible to use the Software Repository of Ubuntu as well as Debian by default. 4. Once loaded into the Desktop you can navigate the controls and options by simply doing Right Click in the Mouse.
5 . Application TAB Consist of Editors, Multimedia, Net, Programming and System Utilties. 6 . Next comes the Security Tools option, the one differentiate Protech OS from other Security Distributions. It actually contains a good recognized Security Software that one should play with. 7. You may change the default them to your wish in the Fluxbox Menu. 8 . Let's move on to "HOME" to begin the Installation Process. In the New Window you will see the only icon named as Install when you are in Live CD. 9. In the Pop up window you can select the default setups need to be configured. This is similar to Windows or Ubuntu Installation Steps. 10 . It is very important that you must select the Partition Space alloted previously using Hiren Boot Disk. 11 . Alright ! Configure your Root login and password, then partition selection and finally begin the installation process. 12. Once its started you may need to wait for 20 mins to 30 mins ( Depending on the Processor Speed ) to transfer the Compressed files from CD to the Hard Drive. 13 . Yummy ! Installation completed and it will prompt you for Rebooting ( Remove the CD from the CD / DVD Drive ). 14. It's all done now. You are ready to use the Protech OS with various security Tools. It also works as a Best Desktop OS for me.
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