Steven Smith

Move Files in Vista without Prompting

2007-01-03T16:37:00Z

Is there a way to move files in Vista without prompting for system-only or read-only or whatever? If so, I'd love to know the key combination to achieve it. I'm moving some files from another PC's hard drive to my Vista machine using a USB connector, and the process is basically open up two copies of windows explorer, find the files I want in the USB drive in one, find the location I want on my local drive in the other, and right click, drag, drop, select Move. This process has worked fine for years, and in XP it would prompt me for various things but I could always say "Yes, I really did want it to move the stuff I just said I wanted to move." and it would work.

In Vista, the prompts come, but even after saying "Yes, really, I know, I want to move them." it will move the files, but the folders are left behind. So the process ends up being select the stuff to move, right-click-drag it, select Move, say OK to the stupid prompt, wait for the move to finish, oops, there are still folders left behind -- grab them again, right-click-drag them again, select Move again, select "Yes I want to copy them even though they exist". At which point, usually, the folders are moved properly.

How can I reduce this process (without dropping down to use Robocopy in the shell) to make it so when I say Move Files what I really mean is "Really F***ING MOVE The Files, I Mean It" so I don't have to go through this dance every time?

Automise on Bits du Jour Today Only 90% Off

2006-11-29T11:56:00Z

From Tate Needham of Automise:

Yes, that's right, Automise is on Bits du Jour *today* (Wednesday 29th November 2006). If you didn't already know, Automise is very similar to FinalBuilder but aimed at Sys Admin, Network Admins and other IT professionals. It's got the power and ease of use of FinalBuilder, but is cheaper and lacks the developer specific stuff (like compilers, version control systems, etc).

http://www.bitsdujour.com

Bits du Jour is a "One deal a day" website (like Woot!) that features software products.

No obligation, but we'd appreciate it if you could spread the good news via your blog, forum, del.icio.us, etc. that Automise is currently being featured at BDJ.

In fact, the discount is pretty amazing - Automise normally sells for $195.00 US, but today it's only $19.50 ! How's that for a good deal? :)

Microsoft Buys Winternals

2006-07-18T19:08:00Z

Today it was announced that Microsoft has acquired Winternals. You can read more about the acquisition here.

Interesting USB Drive Security Exploit

2006-06-08T18:36:00Z

Some white hat security professionals used USB drives to circumvent security at a credit union they were assessing. Basically, they install trojans on the drives and left them where the employees would find them (parking lot, smoking areas, etc.). Then they sat back and waited for the employees to find them, take them into work, plug them in, and run the trojan files while they explored their newfound toys' contents. Brilliant.

Excerpt:

After about three days, we figured we had collected enough data. When I started to review our findings, I was amazed at the results. Of the 20 USB drives we planted, 15 were found by employees, and all had been plugged into company computers. The data we obtained helped us to compromise additional systems, and the best part of the whole scheme was its convenience. We never broke a sweat. Everything that needed to happen did, and in a way it was completely transparent to the users, the network, and credit union management.

Of all the social engineering efforts we have performed over the years, I always had to worry about being caught, getting detained by the police, or not getting anything of value. The USB route is really the way to go. With the exception of possibly getting caught when seeding the facility, my chances of having a problem are reduced significantly.

Read the full article.

Vista, Longhorn Server, Office 12 Beta 2 Released Today

2006-05-23T19:41:00Z

For MSDN Subscribers, you should be able to download the beta 2 bits for these products now. They're also available on the Connect site for Microsoft Beta participants.

Tech Ed Boston

2006-05-19T18:23:00Z

I will be attending Tech Ed this year in Boston in a few weeks. You can find the conference agenda and list of sessions online. There are two Windows-specific tracks, a Windows Client track that includes 32 sessions and a Windows Server Infrastructure track with 55 sessions, including one by Mark Russinovich on the black art of Windows Hang and Crash Dump Analysis that I think I'll attend.

Personally, I'm more into the developer side of things, and there are 83 sessions in the Developer Tools track. I'm hoping to make the time to make it to several of these sessions, including some of the WinFX, WPF, WWF, and Atlas sessions. I'm also hosting a Birds-of-a-Feather session on Thursday on Caching in .NET Applications, where I hope there will be some good discussion about when, how, and why to use caching.

Wireless Node Type Causes LAN Errors

2005-09-19T21:14:00Z

I went to PDC in LA last week and now when I get back home I find that I can no longer access some of my network file shares or ping certain computers on the LAN. A few other people on some lists I'm on were having the same issues. Apparently being at the convention and using its wireless had set our wireless cards to use Peer-To-Peer mode, and as such they were locked down. One of these folks found the cure which is detailed in this blog entry. I made the switch in my registry and it worked like a charm. Try it at your own risk, of course.

In case that link dies, here's the important part:

You need to edit this key in your registry. Normal disclaimers apply if you don't know what you're doing.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters

DhcpNodeType should be 8, not 2, to enable broadcast lookups. You can release and then renew ipconfig to pick up the change.

Hidden Network Cards

2005-08-20T22:05:00Z

I just moved a server and switched it from using a wireless card to a 10/100 Ethernet port and I kept getting this kind of message when I set it back up with its IP addresses:

The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?

Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out a way to remove the IPs from the wireless card since it was (a) hidden and (b) not around to plug in. I found this KB article which quickly showed me the light:

Error Message When You Try to Set an IP Address on a Network Adapter

In case Microsoft decides to break that link (it's been known to happen), here's the resolution:

To resolve this problem, uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry:

1.	Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2.	Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3.	Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4.	Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5.	Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6.	Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

ACS 495 Speaker Tips

2005-08-19T19:38:00Z

I pulled out my old Altec Lansing ACS495 speakers and have been trying to use them with my Alienware running Windows XP. Unfortunately the software to manage the speakers via USB only works with Windows 98 (kinda tells you how old these are). However, in my latest Google attempt I found this thread, which reminded me that I can at least get the speakers into surround sound mode by pressing the center button and holding it for about 2 seconds. They do in fact sound *much* better that way...

Bye Bye Longhorn, Welcome Windows Vista

2005-07-22T15:00:00Z

Today Microsoft announced Windows Vista, formerly codename "Longhorn". Julie has a screenshot on her blog. Beta 1 for WindowsVista will be available very soon, on August 3rd.

New Builds of Indigo and Avalon Released

2005-05-23T18:39:00Z

Download them now!

From the site:

Indigo and Avalon are the codenames for two strategic developer technologies that Microsoft plans to ship in 2006 as part of the Windows "Longhorn" operating system. In addition, Microsoft is making these technologies available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The Indigo and Avalon Beta1 "RC" enables developers to continue experimenting with early builds of these technologies, get acquainted with the development experience, and provide Microsoft with feedback.

Right Click to Open a Command Prompt

2005-05-06T02:41:00Z

I always need this whenever I rebuild my system. Here's where I found it this time via Google:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips232.html

Steps:

Manual Method:
(This requires editing your registry. If you are not familiar with registry editing, this isn't for you... so skip to the easy method below)
1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/Shell
3. Create a new key called Command Prompt
4. Your default value should be Command Prompt Here
5. Create a new key called Command under the Command Prompt key
6. Your default value should be cmd.exe /k pushd %L

Also, the Windows XP Power Toy that does it.

ADSI Design Rules

2005-04-26T18:56:00Z

I'm not the original author of these and I don't know who is, but I've had this list on paper for a long time and it's time to put it online so I can pitch the paper copy. ADSI Design Rules ...(read more)

Windows Batch File Commands

2005-03-30T15:08:00Z

Some MS-DOS Batch File Command info....(read more)

Editing the Hosts File

2005-03-21T12:06:00Z

If you've ever wanted to work on a production site while in development and verify that all of the links work properly (even the ones that include absolute URLs), an easy way to do it is to alter the HOSTS file on your development computer. Your HOSTS file lets you map domain names to IP addresses, just like a tiny DNS (Domain Name Service), but only for your computer....(read more)