GSD Linkfest - a little bit of everything today

Quick collection of links gathered in this week.

• Data recovery tutorial - As discovered and described by TinyApps.org. Very nice guide covering a number of Linux-based tools and techniques. DataRecovery - Community Ubuntu Documentation
• Copy files from failing devices - Another great tippage from TinyApps bloggist. Check out safecopy
• Create a system recovery partition - Great finds from TinyApps must come in “threes” as a link to Steve Si’s Create a system recovery partition post is found. It’s a detailed walkthough on setting up a Windows system-restore partition…just in case bad things ever strike.
• Add to the file carving kit - TinyApps bonus links to POC for “Smart Carving” methods. Drop into the project’s SourceForge Documentation page to get the details.
• FreeRecover - Free file recovery app for NTFS drives. It’s pretty fast. You can select options to get file paths as well as check “file integrity” to evaluate recovery value.  At this moment you cannot seem to sort results by column headings. It’s a good start.
• Redo Backup and Recovery - BootCD format ISO file to handle system backups, recovery, partition editing, file recovery, and may more additional tools.
• | Free Security & Utilities software downloads at SourceForge.net
• The Case of the Veeerrry Slow Logons - Mark's Blog - Great post by the Windows Master Mark Russinovich. Covers a number of angles as well as the Windows login process in detail (and how it can be hampered). Good reading.
• Google Chrome Bookmarks Menu Extension - CybernetNews found a really refined and polished  Google Chrome Bookmarks Menu Extension. I had been using Atomic Bookmarks but this one is much better IMHO.
• Ads Are Coming to Google Chrome Extensions - TheNextWeb blog. Choose your extensions wisely now, my friends…
• Release: NewsFox 1.0.8.4 - My favorite in-Firefox RSS feed add-on has a new release. newsfox: NEWEST
• Filelist Creator - Free mini-app to create great lists of files/directories for indexing documentation. I have a few of these and this one is very, very nicely done. It’s been added to my carry-list.  Spotted and reviewed over at this Create Detailed File Lists In Various Formats With Filelist Creator AddictiveTips post.  Check out the big collection of other great utilities over at Stefan Trost Media. I grabbed more than a few!
• TED V3.0 : The TEDinator - New update to the super-duper “TED Downloaded”.  I really appreciate the detail and help this tools brings in allowing me to download a local file of favorite “TED” talks. See also the new TED Radio Hour : NPR.
• HexDive 0.3 - Hexacorn has just released a new version of HexDive which helps look for key strings in possible malware and other executable files. It’s CLI so it is really fast.
• Forensic Artifacts blog has been releasing a large list of posts detailing forensic-worthy artifact bits left over from many applications. I found the PsTools Artifacts post extra interesting since it is used by a lot of us SysAdmins.
• NTFS Tools collection - reboot.pro. Joakim Schicht has just announced an updated collection of NTFS tools he has been grinding away on.  After you read the overview on the first link, hop over to his Google Project hosting page mft2csv to check out:
• NTFS File Extractor which extracts systemfiles (metafiles) off an NTFS volume.
• mft2csv which takes a $MFT file and rip info from all the records and dump to CSV file.
• MFTRCRD is a cli file dumper to pull all info mft2csv can decode. can also dump the $MFT record of a specific file to console and detailed run information.
• SetMACE which is a timestamp fiddling tool.
  
  Note, Joakim doesn’t have them all bundled up in a single archive package so look at the Downloads page carefully to pick out the most recent versions of each of them. It isn’t hard but does take a moment to make sure you are grabbing the right file. Also be aware that these are compiled in “AutoIt” script. It’s very flexible and powerful but some AV apps might complain…  Joakim has done a great job with his documentation on each tool. Check out the Wiki for more details on each one.

Have fun!

--Claus V.

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Freeware Smorgasbord

Here is a collection of new and/or updated freeware offerings that caught my eye over the last month.

Because they survived the winnowing process, there was something about them that was worth me keeping and may be worth you checking out…even briefly.

Advanced Visual BCD Editor for Windows 7 and Vista via The Windows Club  “Visual BCD Editor is an advanced GUI for the BCDEdit utility in the Windows operating system. In fact it looks to be the first GUI utility to implement full editing of the BCD store. The user can create and change the value of more than 120 properties of BCD objects by simple edits. Other similar utilities do not  give access to not more than 30 properties.”  Utility project page link: BCD Editor for Windows 7 / Vista

Looks be be a lower-level BCD editor than my favorite EasyBCD 2.1 - NeoSmart Technologies utility.

H2testw 1.4 (via Google Translate) - German c’t website utility that is useful to check and verify your bargain bin USB drive grab is really not a fake that has had the reported storage-size manipulated. Use with caution (remove key data from your drive and not for use on the system-boot disk).

MJ Registry Watcher (Version 1.2.7.3) - free registry change watcher/monitor application has been updated with some new features.

TEncoder: Open Source Multi-threaded Video Encoder [Windows] - via MakeUseOf blog review. Video format converters are now a dime-a-dozen. I probably have a collection of at least six portable ones that I keep handy (although-truth-be-told, I tend to use one or two exclusively.) However, this one caught my eye as it offers multi-thread processing.  Very handy if you have a multi-core system and a lot of video files to process. Utility project page link: TEncoder 

TeraCopy - my favorite alternative Windows copy handler from Code Sector has been updated again some time ago and I missed it. FileHippo has a well-summarized Change Log outlining the latest adds and fixes.

FreewareGenius reviewed ProEject recently. Eject USB devices quickly and safely with ProEject post via freewaregenius.com. Clever tool to help those who live off their USB sticks manage them a bit more friendly-like.  Not a critical tool but a useful one.

Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable 3.5 (screen magnifier) - PortableApps.com. No, the Valca eyes have not gone so bad that I need this tool (yet) but that said, there are a lot of commercial products around there that accomplish what this one does, and not quite as nicely. So if you need an on-screen magnifier utility…for your family/relations, keep this one in mind. Just saying friendly like.

CCleaner 3.09 and CCleaner for Mac Beta 3 - Piriform has been hard at work enhancing their premier system cleaning tool and it shows.  Amazing both in terms of features and performance, this and Nir Sofer’s CleanAfterMe are the only two Windows cleaning tools I go to when doing the kind of Windows housecleaning work that must be done from time to time. (related: CCleaner Enhancer Adds 270 New Rules to CCleaner - How-To Geek ETC)

Newsfox - My favorite RSS Feed Reader for Firefox got an update.

This TinyApps.Org Blog : Backup to drive label instead of drive letter led me to the wonderfully featured Create Synchronicity backup and sync tool. Sweet! Thanks TinyApps!

VIrualBox has been getting some updates of late. BetaNews introduces the biggies in their post Finally, VirtualBox 4.1 brings Aero support, VM cloning.

Having been spoiled with Widows Virtual PC and it’s bundled “PC Additions” pack, I guess I didn’t do due-diligence in my ongoing parallel use of VirtualBox. Embarrassingly, I appear to have overlooked the fact that while you can install a similar “additions” pack into guest systems in VIrtualBox, there is also a separate “extensions pack” to bring more enhanced features to the VirtualBox software.

Installing VirtualBox and extension packs - VirtualBox.org manual page.

Downloads - VirtualBox (and the Extension Pack)

• VirtualBox 4.1.2 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack All platforms
  Support for USB 2.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP and PXE boot for Intel cards. See this chapter from the User Manual for an introduction to this Extension Pack. The Extension Pack binaries are released under the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL).
  Please install the extension pack with the same version as your installed version of VirtualBox! If you are using VirtualBox 4.0.12, please download the extension pack here.

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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Finally! Time to Post! New material list

After a recent text from my bro reminding me it has been since March since I’ve done a blog post, I was finally able to clear the schedule and set aside some time for GSD posting.

Looking at the sidebar, my blog-posting production has really been on a downward trend over the past few years…much like the rainfall totals here in most of Texas.

I ascribe most of this to a lack of time; work and family commitments have really amped up and what precious little free time I do find seems to go to sleeping and recharging my drained energy cells. However, I assure all that I haven’t lost the passion for blogging or sharing my finds in life and across the webs as I continue to wrestle with IT-related monsters.

So let’s just call this post a warm-up exercise. I’ve still got new material on Xplico, for/sec, as well as at least one massive write-up with my own recent malware-cleaning battles on behalf of my Dad and a IBM-er whose own systems were each about ready to be bagged-n-tagged after a horrible drive-by infection. Good stuff.

Recovered Things

Enchanted Keyfinder - free utility built off the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder app but updated. One of a few helpful keyfinder tools I carry around when a family/friend presents me their system for service but doesn’t have any of their OS/product keys. Spotted on CyberNet News

Power Data Recovery - fairly new freeware tool to my toolbox. I use a number of file-recovery software utilities as each one seems to have their own flavor to bring to the rescue attempt.

TestDisk and PhotoRec - CGSecurity - New release version at 6.12 out a bit ago. (release notes) If you PhotoRec regularly, don’t forget about PhotoRec Sorter from builtBackwards.

JFileRecovery - A while back I had to try to recover a super-massive super-corrupted PST file. It kept failing under normal copy-to-my-usb-drive operations with CRC check errors. I eventually got it copied over and repaired. In the process of finding a tool that would copy it across (errors and all) I stumbled across the Java-based JFileRecovery program. It is no-longer free and the leading link is for the “JFileRecovery deluxe” version. That said, you can still find the older/free .94 version I was playing with over on Softpedia. Copy that jar-file locally along with jPortable Launcher and jPortable and you have one more neat tool to try. While the file-size of the PST file I was wrangling exceeded the limits of JFileRecovery to handle it, it has helped with smaller files since.

FREE: EASEUS Todo Backup Free Edition - 4Sysops has a quick review on EASEUS Todo Backup Free. I guess one trick for recovery is to have a backup in the first place….

Utility Updates

EMCO Software has all kinds of neat goodies for sysadmins. Besides their mainstream products, there is some cool Freeware pickings as well, including networking tools like Ping Monitor, MAC Address Scanner. However for here, I’m highlighting MoveOnBoot and UnLock IT for dealing with locked files and other malware-nuisances.

Unlocker by Cedrick 'Nitch' Collomb still remains my favorite “unlocker” tool for dealing with locked files and I install it on all my personal systems. Couple that with Malwarebytes : RegASSASSIN and most locked files/keys can be dealt a knockout punch.

I’ve blogged before about defragging, and I still do periodically, but not as OCD-like as some approach drive-defragging as as “cure-all” for poor system performance. Some nice/free defragging apps that have been updated lately are Auslogic’s Disk Defrag, IOBit’s Smart Defrag, and Piriform’s Defraggler. Each has it’s own special flavor on the party. Find the one that fits your needs.

Updates from Sysinternals have been flowing fast-n-rapid-fire lately. Something for everyone here.

Updates: Process Monitor v2.95, TCPView v3.04, Autoruns v10.07, and a new blog post and webcast from Mark. - Sysinternals Site

Updates: ZoomIt v4.2, Process Explorer v14.11, ProcDump v3.04, and Mark Live: Zero Day Malware Cleaning with the Sysinternals Tools - Sysinternals Site

Updates: VMMap v3.1, RAMMap v1.11, Handle v3.46, Process Explorer v14.12 and Mark’s Blog: Analyzing a Stuxnet Infection with the Sysinternals Tools, Part 3 - Sysinternals Site

WhatIsHang - new freeware tool from Nirsoft. “Get information about hang (stopped responding) Windows software.” See Nir’s blog post First version of WhatIsHang is here for more info.

Speaking of Sysinternals and NirSoft, don’t forget about KLS Soft’s WSCC - Windows System Control Center for one-stop downloading/updating of these fantastic tools.

Emiel Wieldraaijer also makes a software called SysInternalsUpdater. The website doesn’t do the tool justice so look at 4Sysops review of the tool: FREE: SysInternalsUpdater – Update Sysinternals Suite

Network Stuff

Sometimes pulling the right-tool out for the job isn’t just about the right-tool; it’s about the attitude. Although my personal Ethernet cable repair tool, the (Amazon.com page) TRENDnet RJ-11/RJ-45 Crimp/Cut/Strip Tool TC-CT68 seems to do an outstanding job at a sub $20 price, it only is yawn-worthy.

Instead I pine to deploy the $300 GerberGear Cable Dawg on a high-priority mission.

(To better understand my geek dilemma consult this xkcd: Worst-Case Shopping comic.)

This is one Samuel Jackson chest-thumping bad-ass tool! For consideration see these related posts/videos from Soldier Systems blog where I discovered the tool:

Cable Dawg - via Soldier Systems blog

Gerber Cable Dawg - (video demo) via Soldier Systems blog.

Need? Nope. Want. Heck-yeah!

Previously mentioned, check out the other Freeware made by Emiel Wieldraaijer. Some goodies in there….

Network Activity Indicator by ~laushung on deviantART. Love it but not to be confused with Igor Tolmachev’s IT Samples utility Network Activity Indicator for Windows 7 which is what I run on my own Windows 7 system.

TightVNC got an update to 2.0.3. Read the What's New page for all the fixes/improvements.

Wireshark has been through a pile of updates. Stable version is 1.6.0 now and comes in both x32 and x64 bit Windows flavors.

Here’s a handy tool for you Windows HOST file cowboys; Host Profiles on CodePlex. For a better rundown of the features and options with this tool, check out this post Hosts Profiles Management as spotted over at Windows7hacker.

Visual Delights

Greenshot - a free and open source screenshot tool for productivity.

Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE) updated to version 1.4.4 - Use this freeware digital image tool to stich together panoramic views from a series of overlapping digital image files. This newest update brings features such as video to panorama, lens vignette, improved blending and more. In both Windows x32 & x64 flavors. For more fun, check out their HD View blog.

Taking Proper Screenshots in Windows for Blogs or Tutorials - Scott Hanselman’s blog. I learned a few good lessons and hereby promise to prefer saving screenshots as PNG files rather than JPEG’s. See also these related tools: Ken Silverman's Utility Page and PNGGauntlet - PNG Compression Software from BenHollis.net

Simple Desktops & MinimalWall have some super-simple desktop designs. I’m personally using a ton of the high-quality wall images direct from the Microsoft Windows 7 themes site. Due to my stress levels, I find the Nature, Places and landscapes, and the Holidays and seasons ones particularly relaxing when I get home. I don’t run them as “themes” rather I follow the tips in this The Windows Club post How to extract wallpapers from Windows 7 theme pack and pull/dump them into a super-folder that I then set my Windows 7 background/changer to cycle through randomly. Not as pretty but classy, try these Luxury Windows Variations and Luxury Plain Variations by ~Stratification on deviantART out for size.

Alvis blew some baby-sitting cash on a Insignia NS-DV1080P high-def camera a while back. She did her homework on the web first, then went to a local GoodBox store and, on her own, spend considerable time with the service staff looking through the choices. Eventually they conceeded defeat at the hands of my geek-let and pulled out (from back-room stock) the camera after showing her many other models. For some info check out local geek John's Blog Space: Insignia NS-DV1080P Review. I’ve been toying with the idea of using it to do live-capture/save-to-HDD of our church service. We run a trio of perma-mount Sony remote-op cams to capture the service and edit the feeds live on a Panasonic video editing board and pipe the output live/direct to a DVD burner. It works but the image quality is not to be bragged on. It does the job but barely. Unfortunately, it seems that Windows 7 x64 does not have the drivers available to use it for live-capture purposes. In the meantime I still have been playing with Debut Video Capture 1.60 Beta - FileHippo.com, and Fx Video Capture Software in the hopes of eventually finding some reasonably cheap HD digital video camera to supplement our video recording work at the church house. Recommendations on a simple hardware/software combo compatible with a beefy Windows 7 x64 system host to plug it all into?

Finally, freewaregenius.com has a great round up of free virtual PDF printer apps: The best freeware virtual PDF printer: a comparison. I’ve been using PDFCreator or CutePDF when I set up a system for a home-user. That said, I think I’ll give their Editor’s Choice recommendation of PDF24 a try next time.

Sound Decisions

Steaming internet-radio at work is a mega “no-no” due to bandwidth utilization. And even though my own iPod is crammed full of tunes for the listening, there are just some times when “radio” style play is needed. I’m a big fan of SomaFM Free Internet Radio but unless I am at home, I just can’t consume it chill drone goodness. So lately I’ve been playing with Radio Sure to help me deep-freeze the tunes for some off-line playback goodness. I’ve also flirted with the similar app streamWriter but Radio Sure seems to fit my madness a bit closer. See both of these MakeUseOf blog posts for details on them: Connect To Radio Stations on The Internet From Any Computer with RadioSure and Record Songs From Internet Radio Stations with StreamWriter [Windows]

And if you aren’t getting your fill from the spy-centric Secret Agent: SomaFM portal, then check out this Shortwave Numbers Stations & The Conet Project: An Online Education In Espionage post from MakeUseOf blog for some deeply mesmerizing drone.

House-Cleaning Oft Overlooked

As noted in the intro, I’ve been doing some industrial-strength malware cleaning lately. One step in many self-cleaning process flows by do-it-yourselfers is to run something like CCleaner at the end to sweep up all the extra temp files and stuff. As a future GSD post will show, that can be a fatal error in some malware remediation work. That said, two places that sometimes get forgotten when doing manual temp-file cache cleaning are the Java cache files and the Flash (files and cookies) bits. It’s possible that malware files from a “drive-by” web-browsing infection could be lurking in these locations (or in the case of Flash…site preferences and settings).

How do I clear the Java cache? - Java.com

Adobe - Flash Player : Settings Manager - Website Storage Settings panel - Adobe

related: Deleting “Flash Cookies” Made Easier - IEBlog

NewsFox

My perennial RSS feed reader for Firefox continues get regular updates and improvements from the labor of love provided by R. Pruitt.

Newsfox Release 1.0.8.1

mozdev.org - newsfox: installation

AD Explained

Download details: Group Policy for Beginners - Microsoft Download Center

WinPE Stuff

One of the sucky things (read-that as “lessons learned”) about delayed postings are that respected fellow-bloggers get first dibs on posting cool software toys.

Case in point, the TinyApps blog Sensei recently dropped this micro-bomb post: TinyApps.Org Blog : Build a custom Windows 7 PE image without Windows AIK or a Windows 7 install DVD.

Oh so sweet! As linked in the post, check out Make-PE3 Program for more details.

Neither tiny nor as simple, you may also want to see A Win7PEx86 project with plenty of system tools also at this reboot.pro forum thread. It is jammed-packed with a bus-load of tools and utilities that makes a combo rivaling a mashup of Canunks and Mavericks fans in a love-fest.

Finally, Brett Shavers has been a prophet in the wilderness preaching the love of WinFE to the masses. (I’m not aware of any locus or honey being harmed in the process.)

Sharing the love with WinFE - WinFE Blog

How easy (or difficult) is it to build a WinFE with WinBuilder? - WinFE Blog

Chromium Updating

Firefox (public version 4.x) remains my daily/personal browser of choice. The whole multi-development channel drama at Mozilla has cooled my passion for chasing the “nightly” world of late. So for now I have returned to the Clark Kent world of the public (x32 bit) version for my daily web-surfing and wrangling needs. The rich and granular world of the Add-on extensions still cannot be rivaled in Chrome/IE.

That said, for my more pleasure-filed world of pure and mindless web-surfing enjoyment I turn to Chromium. I enjoy the performance, the interface, and can use a few specific plug-ins like flash-blocking and ad-blocking to help with the joy. My prime source for Chromium is Caschy’s portable build over at the German site stadt-bremerhaven: Now it beats 13: Google Chrome and Chromium Release 13. (Note, privacy geeks might prefer the SRWare Iron build of Chromium instead.)

One of the real treats of Caschy’s build is the inclusion of an AutoIT exe file that when run launches an auto-updater to keep your Chromium package fresh-as-fresh-can-be.

I’ve previously used Chromium Nightly Updater for that purpose but it hasn’t been updated since 11/2010. There is also chromium-portable-and-updater (not updated since Feb.), and Chromium Updater (not updated since Dec 2010).

Why is that all important?

Well a few weeks ago, all us Portable Chromium fans of Cachy’s suddenly found the Updater.exe wasn’t working any longer.

So we had to manually trudge (almost daily) over to Index of /f/chromium/snapshots/Win, find the LATEST folder, and then download/unzip/copy-to-update the chrome-win32.zip file to update our app files.

Wondering what happened, I fired up Wireshark and ran a packet-capture during the Update.exe process as it failed. Stepping through the packet trace, I found that it was looking to the repository but the file it was looking for couldn’t be found. The info in the packets let me to realize the repository location had changed, hence the update process failed. It was a very fun exercise and fascinating to see the manner the app works to locate and get the updated zip file. Network traffic geeks might enjoy running this exercise.

Yep. The old repository location was now 404.

I left what I hoped was a kind comment on the developer’s post page explaining my findings and wished out loud for an update to the AutoIt package to point to the revised repository.

Fortunately, Caschy and gang are a stand-up crew and indeed quickly updated their AutoIt Updater.exe file to point to the new repository location. New Portable Google Chrome Updater

So if you are living the Chromium life and want what appears to me to be the only current Chromium auto-updater tool out there that works at the moment for the new repository location, hop over to that page and grab it. Also they have released a command-line supported version as well for the curious.

Hardware List

Like most normal peons, our budget is stretched super-tight these days. If something breaks we try to fix it. If it breaks and can’t be fixed, we try to re-purpose it. It’s a good lesson to learn and I wish I had covered this ground as a younger man about twenty years ago.

So tech and hardware purchases are fewer and far between and I really have to weigh the cost/benefit ratio before plunking down what little disposable income we find now-a-days.

That said, I picked up over on Amazon.com several sets of specialty bits. I didn’t have these in the past for removing hard-drive covers and things when a failed drive couldn’t be zero-ed out via software and I had to pull the drive to yank/manually destroy the platters. (you can only remove so many drive covers via vice-grip pliers before it gets really tired…; Maxtech 16521MX 32-Piece Precision Bit Set (note good bits…sucky cheap plastic driver but then I didn’t plan on using it) and the 33 pc. Security Bit Set (great variety of specialty bits…though the plastic case’s off-gassing smell was very strong and funky),

However it was this third set, SMALL TORX SCREWDRIVER SECURITY TAMPER PROOF HOLE T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 T15 that fixed a favorite “every day carry” tool of mine this week. A vendor was doing cabling work and a ceiling tile just wouldn’t fit as-cut around some descending cable bundles in the network room. I offered him my super-fave pocket tool Gerber 45898 Ridge Knife and with a flick and deft cuts, the tile was cut and slipped into place. However, somehow between re-maneuvering the ladder he was on, unbeknownst to me, the knife fell (safely) to the floor and became a unwilling ladder leg shim. When I realized what had happed some time later and removed it from under the (still-in-use) ladder leg, the weight had popped the blade-lock arm to the outside of the blade somehow and it couldn’t be closed.

I tried all the specialty bits I had to get the blade off. It was only when I tried one of the TORX bits that I found the one that matched it perfectly. I disassembled the knife, cleaned all the joints and reassembled back to full working order again. Who knew you had to be prepared to field-service your pocket knife?

Also purchased (via newegg.com) was this Kanguru Flashblu II 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model ALK-16G. The super-selling point was that it is one of the very last flash-drives that comes with a true write-block switch to prevent device writing. This is critical when your dealing with a malware infected system and using your response-flash-stick to clean house. My beloved iodd USB HDD drive also has a physical write-block switch. But while that device is carried in my tech-pack for planned responses, my new Kanguru stick is on my keys so when I get a “by-the-way my system right here is infected…can you take a quick look at it” at a friend or relative’s house, I can take a triage and first-response swing at their system without fear of cross-contamination.

Yep…still feels good to hit the keys….

And this was just a warm-up post.

Oh my…!

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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New and Improved Material

Just a pause to empty out the handy-dandy “to-be-blogged” folder.

Windows Tips and Tricks

• How To Block A Computer From Accessing To A Specific Wireless Network - Windows7hacker
• Speed Up Windows 7 Boot Time By Eliminating GUI During Start Up - Windows7hacker
• FREE: AD Info – User friendly Active Directory reporting tool - 4sysops
• Portable PowerShell - Live PowerShell with Karl Prosser
• Highlighter v1.1.2 Released - Mandiant
• Memory forensics on Windows 7 (x86 and x64) and Windows 2008 x64 - Mandiant Blog

Firefox Bits

I’ve been running the Nightly x64 builds of Firefox 4.0b13pre for some time now and it has been very stable.  The fact that there is a developer release version of FlashPlayer for x64 bits helps a lot in the usability factor.  Right now I am still split between using Chromium nightlies for “fun” surfing and Firefox 4.x for my daily web-work commuting.

One of the major challenges with both platforms is finding compatible extensions/add-ons for the new versions.  I’ve had to walk away from some old favorites as they just don’t work at all in the new Firefox 4 world.

That said, I’ve been successful enough to keep productivity and security intact and will post updated extension/add-on lists for both browsers in the near future.

• Firefox 4: recent changes in Firefox - Mozilla Hacks
• ProfileManager - Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog. Hot tip on an alternative tool now that built-in profile manager tool is disappearing in future Firefox builds.  From that post: ProfileManager 1.0_beta1
• mozdev.org - newsfox: installation - new release of NewsFox RSS reader Add-on.
• Firefox 4 Ditches the RSS Button, Here’s how to get it Back - Webmonkey  I can’t begin to share how frustrating it was in FF4 trying to figure out how to get that RSS feed button in FF3 back.  This brought peace to the Valca home and Firefox 4 browsing/feeding.

New Utilities

• CubicExplorer - version 0.90 release- You may recall back from this GSD post why CubicExplorer is still on my watch list.  New version is a bit more refined.  Related build CubicExplorer Portable.
• Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 Released - Michael Niehaus’s Windows and Office deployment ramblings blog has a roundup of new inclusions. Download details: The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7 SP1 - Microsoft source link.
• Updates: ProcDump v3.02, Contig v1.6, TCPView v3.03 and a New Mark’s Blog Post - Sysinternals Site Discussion.
• OutlookAttachView now allows you to search Outlook attachments only in the selected folders - Nir’s Blog.
• New console versions for WirelessKeyView and AlternateStreamView utilities  - Nir’s Blog.  Get the new bits: AltStreamDump and WirelessKeyDump at NirSoft.
• New utility to view/change/delete drive letter assignments - Nir’s Blog. DriveLetterView
• New utility that shows the details of Firefox downloads - Nir’s Blog. FirefoxDownloadsView
• Also updated at NirSoft: ChromeCookiesView and WebBrowserPassView
• CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software.  Really easy to use and worked great on my Win7 build.  Previously I have fiddled with Jing and also found it clever.
• tintii photo filter - It’s been a long time since I last went looking at this graphic image editing tool.  I was pleasantly surprised to see it updated. If you want to use it with Photoshop, it will cost a bit. However the “standalone” trial version requires no Photoshop installation and is free.  It works great and I find the new interface a great improvement.  Use to fiddle with color tinting of image files.

Piriform is one of a handful of software providers who I want “one-of-everything” when I visit.  Counted up there with Sysinternals and NirSoft as my go-to source for awesome software.  They haven’t been resting and have been hard at work on updates to what should be Windows-required utilities for all sysadmins.

• Piriform Blog - Defraggler v2.02
• Piriform Blog - CCleaner v3.04
• Piriform Blog - Recuva v1.39
• Piriform Blog - Speccy v1.09

Tip: In case you haven’t figured it out yet, once you go to the product download page, just scroll to the very bottom of the page at the Builds header and find the tiny “builds page” link to find the jump to the portable (zip) versions.

Cheers!

Claus V.

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Windows Utility Toy-Chest Roundup

Way back when I was a little tot, we got hauled every six months to the family dentist.

After a cleaning/filing as needed, we got the joy of picking something out of cardboard “toy-chest”.  It had the usual toothbrushes and dye pills to see what a sorry brushing job you did (great for Halloween and vampire play) along with some cheesy plastic toys, pencils, and if you were really lucky, you might be able to find a tiny (but functional) sytro-plane to punch-out and play with.

So this will be a real grab-bag of sorts, but I’m sure there is something here for everyone!

Video (mostly Flash)

I continue in my search to find a good/quality way to convert the standard-capture direct-to-DVD video output we are collecting at the sound/video desk at church into a more web/user friendly format.

For each service we capture video/audio feed and pipe it through a mid-level video mixing board into a DVD recorder which writes it to the disk; finalizing after the service.  I suppose we will eventually pipe the output instead into our PC system digitally and then edit/press it to DVD for church members when requested…but for now, I’m working with reprocessing already pressed DVD disks.

So what I have to do is to rip the DVD back into a digital video format, edit it in some cases, then resave in a more web/PC friendly file format.  I had been trying to convert into Windows Movie Maker friendly format but the quality is still not yet what I want.

So I decided to see if converting to a Flash format would work better, and in many ways I am much more pleased with the results, though it does bring new ones.

(Tips and suggestions welcome here from the GSD fans in the know of such things….)

Generally what I do currently is to import/convert the DVD Video_TS file into a FLV file.  Then I use an FLV editing app to trim it up a bit (or extract the message section if just that needed). Then I re-save and share the resulting FLV file.

While it is a bit different from my Windows Movie Maker work, I have found at least two decent freeware tools that allow simple editing of Flash video files:

• RichFLV – Apollo FLV Editing Tool and RichFLV – Apollo app updated - This is cool in that it is an Adobe Air based solution.  The results are quite good and it is fairly intuitive to work with.
• Moyea FLV Editor Lite - Also free and has quite a lot of features to do basic/medium-level FLV file editing.  The interface is easy to work with.
• Adobe - Flash Quick Starts: Using Adobe Media Encoder CS4 - NOT free and not really a FLV file editor, however leave it to Adobe to deliver a pretty powerful solution to import and encode video media into FLV format.
• Format Factory - I have traditionally used this program for my DVD to video file format converting. It is updated regularly but I am still trying to dial in the best conversion settings for best quality.
• Koyote Soft - Offering both a free FLV converter as well as a more robust Video converter application, I’m trying to see if these provide any better quality.
• Freemake Video Converter - Another free DVD ripper/file-converter I’m fiddling with.  Review here from Freewaregenius.
• Pazera Video Converters Suite 1.2 - This is amazing.  I have used other Pazera video converting software before (MP4-AVI) but this suite gives you everything for free.  They don’t use a lot of eye-candy but the no-nonsense approach gets the job done in a well organized manner..  Definitely worth keeping in your kit.
• Hamster - Another oft-mentioned freeware video format converter. Added to my download pile to review and testdrive soon.
• XMedia Recode (Google Page Translate) - Freeware German (English language support included) that is recently updated.  Features include auto-cropping, color correcting, drag-n-drop encoding, zooming (none, letterbox, media, pan/scan, fit-to-screen), volume correction/normalization, and many more). In both an installable and “portable” edition. Cool.
• WinFF - Free Video Converter - The real plus on this one is that it supports both Windows and various *Nix versions. It’s actually a GUI wrapper for the CLI video converter FFMPEG
• HandBrake - One of the major players in video conversion. New builds include x64 support. Drawback is that newer version also outputs to MP4 format so other desired video file outputs are not available, or have to be re-converted.  Earlier versions can still be found with wider output support, but without the enhancements from the newest versions.  But hey, it seems to be primarily geared to the Apple playback device support.
• Free FLV Player for Mac and PC - I love keeping this gem on my USB stick for fast FLV file playbacks.

For the Sysadmins

• Bossie Awards 2010: The best open source software of the year -- Open Source - InfoWorld.  Yep the 2010 BOSSIE’s are out.  I wasn’t as impressed with the offerings this year. Not to disparage any of the winners…they are great…but there weren’t that many smaller apps/utilities this year. Most are much larger platforms.
• FOG Project (screen shots page) - This was the only 2010 BOSSIE winner that caught my attention.  It offers a neat way to PXE push/pull images to systems.  I’m going to see if this has any possible applications in a mass-deployment scenario in our environment…say for getting a special post-disaster custom image onto a lot of boxes fast.
• DOWNLOAD: Windows Server Architecture Posters - Windows Live - Kurt Shintaku has a lot of links to cool MS reference posters (PDF) including one for Remote Desktop Services Component Architecture.
• More partner momentum around Microsoft RemoteFX in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta -- via Network Steve blog - More news and linkage on Microsoft’s RemoteFX technology.
• Improving Your Image: Sector-Based, File-Based, and Sysprep - What Makes the Most Sense? Part 3: Deploy-time Build Automation and Recommendations - Windows SpringBoard Series Blog - Part 3 in discussion on imaging issues.
• The Compound Case of the Outlook Hangs - Mark’s Blog - Always awesome.  New post on how multiple techniques used to diagnose Outlook Server issues.  I learned lots of new things!
• Fix Windows 7 MBR « the back room tech - Julie has a series of great tips for getting a Win7 system back up and running.
• Windows XP or Windows 7 Won’t Boot into Safe Mode « the back room tech - Even more great tips to bookmark for future system recovery work!
• August 2010 | TechNet Magazine - Now out.
• Customising the MDT Task Sequence Editor - The Deployment Guys - MDT tips and suggestions.
• Remote Control From Anywhere – Beta 1 Release - IntelliAdmin has a beta trial now available to do internal remote control management.  Requires setup of an reflection server along with clients. If you like it get the pre-order license (unlimited systems) only $599.  Final version pricing will be a $59/per PC seat license.  Worth considering…and it looks like a neat product.
• Windows Logon Notifier (WLN) v1.0 Updated - I am JustNC - Good start at a customized Windows Logon notice builder.  I could do without a bit of the graphics but it’s a start.
• Create a logon message for users in Windows 7 - The Windows Club - Of course, if you run AD, you can make some edits to do so on Vista/Win7 via policy.  I think that XP also has a similar feature.
• Beta testing Microsoft RemoteFX in Service Pack 1 - Network Steve blog - Coming soon to a Windows 7 SP1 release…
• Windows 7 DX11 Receives a Boost in Performance - Network Steve blog - Win7 now can download a DX111 update to enhance performance.  Should be rolled into the SP1 update as I understand it.

Laptop Lust

I’ve been on the prowl for a new higher-end laptop for home to replace my bedraggled Gateway MT6451 Notebook.

I’ve actually bit the bullet and after much work, saving, and research picked out what I hope to be a portable-powerhouse.  I’m saving the big announcement for when it has arrived but until then, here are some systems I considered along with laptop review sources I found beneficial.

…and I’m finding it really hard to wait on FedEx!  Delivery may be mid-week.

• The MSI GX640 & the beauty of Device Stage -- Windows Experience Blog - This MSi systems laptop is quite sporty from both design and delivery.
• The ASUS U Bamboo: Naturally Beautiful -- Windows Experience Blog - Downright gorgeous from a design perspective. And Amazon has what appears to be a deal on them at $999.  I also checked out the other ASUS offerings as well since many are now including the newest USB 3.0 spec on ports.
• The Origin EON 18: Crush your enemies and see them driven before you -- Windows Experience Blog - Again, another example where design form seems to meet power-function. ORIGIN EON Custom Gaming Laptops 15 and 18.
• Toshiba Satellite® Laptop Computers - The local BestBuy had a few very nicely rolled up Toshiba Satellite systems. The design was good and the hardware included was pretty nice.  The discount price at the time was sub $1000 including an i7 core.
• The Dell Studio XPS 16 is music to my ears -- Windows Experience Blog - I really liked both the design as well as the performance for this system.  Though I ultimately didn’t spring for a SSD drive, I can see where if the capacity goes up (say 320-500 GB) but price drops to consumer-level purchasing, that I will want to put one in my soon-to-be-here system.
• Dell Studio 17 (Core i7) Review - A Review of the Dell Studio 17 (Core i7) -  Laptop Mag -- seriously.  An i7 Core in a $1000 range 17” laptop? That seems ridiculous!
• Notebookcheck: Review Dell Studio 1557 Notebook - Hold on.  Scratch that previous comment.  An i7 Intel core processor in a 15” laptop?  OK.  That doesn’t sound like a laptop. That’s a highly modded Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 stock light freighter! (see also this link)

In my research and work I was particularly impressed by the following laptop review sites.  They were exceedingly thorough and helped me to make my final decision.

• Notebookcheck: Notebook & Laptop Reviews and News
• LAPTOP Magazine - Product reviews, tech news, buying guides, and more

Misc Utilities of Note this week

• AeroTweak is an option-filled tweaking app for Windows 7 - DownloadSquad offering for a Win7 tweaking tool.
• Create Synchronicity: “tiny” file backup and sync program.  See reviews at CyberNet News and Lifehacker for more details. Available in install and “portable” versions.
• ImageGrab - screenshotter for avi,mpeg, wmv, live video streams + others.  Pretty cool.  Spotted via Lifehacker post.
• 45 Free Applications For Designers And Developers - Noupe Design Blog. What a round-up for graphics and media folks.

Sound(s) Great!

Nature Sounds - Fun and clever (and easy to use) nature-sound generator.  Build your mix then export to file.  My favorite mix was “Creek” + “Darth Vader” + “Children Giggles” + “Cat Purr”. I could just imagine Vader sitting in a public park alongside a creek, chillin out watching kids play on the playground, chatting up with the moms, and petting his cat fluffy.  Spotted via Download Squad.

That post then introduced me to SimplyNoise - “The Best Free White Noise Generator on the Internet”.  Besides the quick white, pink, and brown noise generations, they also have some free “advanced” download file Soundscape - Thunderstorm (60m) for relaxation as well as others for a donate+download availability.

Browser News

• Firefox 4 Beta 4 Released - Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog.
• Firefox’s Awesome Tab Candy Renamed Panorama, to Be Included with Sync in Firefox 4 - Lifehacker.  Yep. I found it once manually enabling in my x64 Nightly release version of Firefox 4.  Remember, magic words for now? Ctrl + Alt + Space.
• Newsfox and mozdev.org - newsfox NEWEST: installation. Version 1.0.6.2 now out.  I download the .xpi file then drag/drop on my Add-ons window to install. Release notes
• Did Microsoft Russia leak the new Internet Explorer 9 user interface? (Download Squad) and Did Microsoft Russia leak the new Internet Explorer 9 user interface? (ars technica).  Truth or Fiction?
• Chromium Adds Web Store Placeholder, Labs, And An Awesome Expose-Like Feature - Network Steve blog - I’m using Chromium nightly builds so I decided to enable this “Apps” area feature just to play.  Took a bit of work:
• Install Google Web Apps in Google Chrome (Google System blog) - Had to do these steps to get it armed and loaded with the Chromium-included Google Mail, Calendar, and Docs apps.
• See also Weekend Project: Install Web Apps in Chrome or Chromium - ReadWriteWeb - More info.
• Developer’s Guide - Installable Web Apps - Google Code - Then did this to add in Google Maps app.
• You can also type “about:labs” to see some new stuff you could enable if desired. See this Google Chrome to get Gmail Labs-like experimental features post at Download Squad.
• Weekend Project: Install the New "Google Chrome Labs" - ReadWriteWeb - More info.
• Google adds more official themes for Chrome -- to the Extensions Gallery? -- Download Squad.  I know, right?
• Hardware Acceleration is Coming to Chrome - Try it Now - ReadWriteWeb - Read the post, then get a Chromium build and launch the application with the --enable-accelerated-compositing flag.  Performance results may vary.

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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This Week in Linkfest history…

Somehow I’m going to do it.  Even after spending precious energy and brain cells seriously updating the GSD blog.

…and it being my turn for the weekend “on call” duty worker coverage.

I’m going to drop a ton of linkage for you peeps.

More Network News

Fresh from the overwhelming Network Monitoring Madness: Poor Man’s Resources post come a few remaining items (there shall be stragglers in the ranks).

• Capsa Free - Network Analyzer -- (freeware) -- Just this weekend, Colasoft released a free-edition of their Network Analyzer tool.  It does have a few limitation but is yet another GUI-rich tool that can do packet capture and analysis, similar to Network Monitor, Wireshark, OmniPeek Personal, or even my new best friend, the fabulous free PRTG Traffic Grapher.
• Using High Performance Filtering -- Network Monitor Blogs -- even more tippage on how to get maximum capture performance under high-volume packet capture deployments.

More Remote Connection Management News

As we expand our ever-growing number of network analysis systems, the need for a unified way to access/manage them remotely is paramount.

To that end I’ve been personally favoring Microsoft’s RDCMan (Remote Desktop Connection Manager).  I’ve got (and continue to add) each of the remote systems to the side bar and can launch connections to them at will.

However a recent comment brought my attention to another recommended tool that is really featured so I’m relisting them all again here for reference.

• Microsoft’s RDCMan -- (freeware) -- My #1 pick for Windows RDP sessions.
• Avian Waves RD Tabs -- (freeware) -- A tabbed RD management tool that adds features such as (quoting) “…favorites with advanced editing, command line scripting, connection thumbnails, encrypted passwords, detached connection windows, remote desktop screen capture, remote terminal server information/management, RDP 6.0 support, and much more!”
• mRemote -- (freeware) -- Another muti-tab remote connection manager.
• Terminals -- (freeware) -- “Terminals is a secure, multi tab terminal services/remote desktop client. It uses Terminal Services ActiveX Client (mstscax.dll)”
• Royal TS -- (free/$) -- Recently updated. Free version limits number of remote connections “per file”.
• 2X Client Portable -- (freeware).
• chriscontrol -- (freeware) -- not really a multiple-connection manager but does provide a way to flexibly connect to remote systems in some cases.
• Remotely Enable Remote Desktop :: IntelliAdmin - (free tool) – Get the micro-file from this link: Enable Remote Desktop – Remotely (exe download-link from IntelliAdmin).  I tend to avoid direct links but the download link from their blog-post page actually points to their full-featured application, and not the standalone tool.

More Web Browser News | Mostly Firefox

Exciting news (to me at least) in the Firefox fronts:

• Newsfox NEWEST - version 1.0.6.1.2 is out.  Tip: download the .xpi to your local system then from Firefox, use the File menu to open/install it.  This version prepares the way for compatibility with the current 3.6.x builds as well as the 4.x builds.  Up to now, despite really enjoying the Firefox 4.0b2 – “Official” x64 Bit Editions I’ve really stayed away from regular usage as NewsFox, my RSS reader, wasn’t compatible.  So finding this new build this weekend was joyous.  Also, I’ve found that many of the NewsFox Tweaks and Tips still work so keep tweaking!
• The only thing holding me back from seriously “full-timing” use of Firefox 4.x x64 is the ongoing lack of Flash support in x64 browsers.
• I’m going to eventually get around loading up the TabCandy Dashboard in one of these Firefox packages I use: Tab Candy, tabbed browsing evolved (Mozilla Links), Tab Candy – A Firefox Tabs Addon You HAVE TO Get (makeuseof) both go over the highlights.
• I’ve had two weirdnesses happen this past week in web-browsing.  Yesterday it seemed like the majority of Google “extras” didn’t work in any of our browsers…drop down menus, finding more pages in the updated Google Images format.  That eventually sorted itself out so I guess it was an issue at Google’s end.  Also we are required to calculate mileage claims only based on “shortest distance” as calculated by Rand McNally.  Only it just so happened that the day our claim forms were due, the site was acting all zonky by only loading properly for IE6.  Not for Firefox, not for IE8, not for Opera, not for Chrome. Weird. So I ended up opening a Virtual PC tester that had IE6 to get the job done.
• In the process of working out that item I found the Utilu IE Collection - Utilu.com which is an installation package set that will load all versions of IE from 1.0 to 8.0 on your system.  Now, that said, I really don’t recommend doing so on any “production” system.  I’ve tried it out using a Virtual PC VHD I have for such things.  I’ve read around on this and some folks report uninstallation issues as well as freaky things happening with their (primary) IE browser when/after it is installed/uninstalled.  However it was so cool I couldn’t help but mention it here.  For another source of IE builds check out evolt.org’s - Browser Archive for IE platforms.
• 10 Browser Testing Tools: Roundup for Web Designers -- Bryan Connor has a list of additional tools that can be used to compare browser engine rendering.
• Microsoft releases final IE9 preview, beta due in September - ZDnet. also Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive.
• If You’re on a Firefox Beta, Get a NoScript Beta - hackademix - While you can always get stable versions of NoScript to use with your stable version releases of Firefox, if you are running beta/nightly builds of Firefox, bizarre things can happen.  So it is great to see hackademix pointing the way for us to his NoScript development build instead.

More Web Browser News | Strictly Chrome

I’m still nowhere near ready to jump ship from Firefox to Chrome full time, but I do find myself using the Chromium nightly versions in a portable version much more now.  It is a delightful browser to use

Here is the latest list of “add-ons” that I have found useful to load on it.

• Google Chrome Themes Gallery - gotta get a theme.  I prefer the more toned down Google Themes rather than the “Artist” line.
• AdBlock - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• Atomic Bookmarks - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• Browser Button for AdBlock - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• ChromeAccess - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• FlashBlock - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• Create Link- Google Chrome extension gallery. Tip: I add an extra %text% line for plain-text only copy formatting.
• Print - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• Trash Can - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• youtube-html5-chrome - Project Hosting on Google Code.

I’m running a portable version of Chrome built by Carsten “caschy” Knobloch that includes an multi-build supported updater in his Portable Chrome package: Portable Google Chrome 4.1.249.1059 (German site).  This has the latest full portable packages for download or you can simply unpack it and copy the single exe updater file to your existing portable Chrome package and use it from there.  It automates the process to check, download, unpack, and install the latest Chrome release versions into you portable Chrome folders.  Way too cool!  See this post Neue Version des Portable Chrome Updaters (German) for additional info on the updater proper.

Finally there is a new project that can update Chromium builds -- when installed on your system (not portable) -- Chromium Updater (via Google Operating System blog) project link: Chromium Updater.  For some other options see this Chromium Updater from mulder or my previous favorite tool Dirhael’s (portable) Chromium Nightly Updater.

System Building

It’s gonna be a while before I am able to upgrade my personal PC system.  I’m almost certain to go with some kind of a desktop-replacement class notebook.

However, it is still so much fun to read the exploits of high-end “home-brew” system builds.

Scott Hanselman (Computer Zen guru) has been on a tear on his on monster system.

• Ultimate Developer PC 2.0 - Part 3 - UPDATE on Building a WEI 7.9 and RFC for building a GOM (God's Own Machine)
• Ultimate Developer PC 2.0 - Part 2 - UPDATE and PODCAST on Building a WEI 7.9 and RFC for building a GOM (God's Own Machine)
• Ultimate Developer PC 2.0 - Part 1 - Building a WEI 7.9 and RFC for building a GOM (God's Own Machine)

Then Pete Brown also got working on his own Ultimate-PC build.

And even our local Dwight Silverman kicked things off in his Operation Switchback.

Tools, Utilities, and Tips

Like shells (or tar-balls) washed up on the coast, these keep rolling in with the breakers!

• Shotty -- (freeware) -- another simple screen shot tool. Spotted via Lifehacker.
• RBTray -- (freeware) -- Tired of some applications minimizing to the Task Bar? Put them into the system tray instead.  Spotted via CybernetNews.
• Gridy -- (freeware) -- tool to snap open windows to an invisible grid (also in portable version).  Like AeroSnap on steroids.  Spotted via Windows7hacker.
• Updates: TCPView v3.01, Disk2vhd v1.62, AdExplorer v1.42 - Sysinternals Site Blog.
• Bend - A modern text editor -- (freeware) -- a positively beautiful GUI with an almost zen-like quality.  Spotted via Tenniswood Blog.  Windows 7 only.  Stunning.
• FREE: TeraCopy – Increase copy speed - 4sysops (tip) -- I’ve use TeraCopy along with a few other speedy file-copy tools, but it never seemed as intuitive to me to use as I would like.  4sysop’s post helps get past that and get it quickly up and running.
• Regedit as offline Registry editor - 4sysops (tip) -- I’ve been mounting REG hives “offline” for a while now.  It was a bit awkward at first getting the hang of the process.  Michael’s walkthrough is direct.  See also: Edit the registry on a mounted WIM (Off Campus blog), and this SkullSecurity post as well if you need a few goes at it.
• lessmsi -- (freeware) -- seems to have found a new home over at Project Hosting on Google Code.  It is a great tool to unpack/examine MSI files.
• Dependency Walker (depends) -- (freeware) -- No not that Depends! -- Neat tool to scan any x32 or x64 Windows module and build a tree diagram of all dependent modules.  Really cool.  Related: How to debug application crash/hang in production environment? - MSDN Managed Newsgroup Support Team Blog

Finally, while I was off this past Wednesday as well, I spend a good part of the day remotely cleaning Dad’s PC from a rather painful Rouge Antivirus infection.  All was well and clean when I got done.  One of the tools I used, post-cleaning, to sweep things up a bit was CCleaner.

However I saw this week that a new “add-on” super-charges this already beefy tool:

• CCleaner Enhancer -- (site down currently).
• CCleanerEnhancer -- mirrored by ghacks. “Update: Website seems to be temporarily down, you can download the portable program from our servers instead. CCleanerEnhancer, and the current definitions file. Simply unzip that file into the CCleaner directory winapp2. The program cannot connect to the host right now, it seems to be using the website of the developer for downloading the signature file.”
• CCleaner Enhancer -- mirrored by How-To Geek News. “Update 2: The mirror copy won’t work either, since the site is down. What you’ll need to do is download this INI file from my test machine and put it into your CCleaner installation folder. Once you’ve restarted CCleaner, you’ll see the new items in the Applications tab.”

It seems to be simply an supercharged .ini file that the CCleaner tool supports.

• Add programs to winapp2.ini - Piriform Community Forums
• Winapp2.ini for CCleaner - Pastebin.com

Still cool.

Windows UAC Revisited

It’s funny, with Vista I had to do a number of things to tame UAC.  Under Windows 7, I don’t even notice it and haven’t made any adjustments to the default settings.  Looks like the work reported in TechBlog: Microsoft reworking the UAC for Windows 7 by MS paid off.

I last really commented on UAC back in fall 2008 in this Speak of the devil: Norton’s UAC Tool GSD post.

The only thing I’ve noticed with UAC in Windows 7 is that some shortcuts will launch with a UAC prompt and others will not.

There’s now a tool to tweak those shortcuts:

• UAC Trust Shortcut 1.0 -- (freeware) -- via IT Knowledge 24.  for x86 and x64 versions of Windows 7 and Vista.

Spotted via stadt-bremerhaven blog (German) as well as Technospot blog.

That reminded me of the TweakUAC utility I used to use on Vista (and you can for Win7 as well but why?).

Which reminded me then of Norton Labs and their Project "UAC Tool" which provided “whitelisting” for UAC control in Vista.

Which I also then spotted in the Labs this Project "Security Inspector" which audits your system for recommended security settings.  However the drawback is that it requires a copy of Norton Internet Security 2009 be installed locally.  Sorry.  And it does not support NIS 2010 yet either.  So now I’m wondering why I bothered noting this at all.  Oh well.

Maybe tomorrow I can post on some for/sec items that came up this week (with some super-cool finds btw) as well as a list of freeware tools I’ve been using to do DVD conversions (for our church-house produced DVD service recordings) and specifically Flash-format focused.

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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Focusing in on Firefox: Cleaning Edition

cc photo-credit “robomaid 02” by si_si_ay on flickr

It’s been quite a while since I’ve focused on Firefox…or even browsers in general.

There has been quite a lot of movement with Apple Safari 4 getting released, the steady march of Opera 10 Alpha/Beta releases, Chrome/Chromium making a Roman legion steady-march into the browser landscape.  Then there has been that whole Firefox 3.5 thing.

First a Side-Rail visit

Before I hone-in on Firefox, I want to toss these two interesting browser-related links out for feeding to the lions.

• Downloading a browser in E, without a browser, in 3 steps - Within Windows

Rafael Rivera provides a method to “work-around” the EU Windows 7 “E” version that ships without a browser…answering the question of how a techie/clever user can indeed still browse the web and download a browser of choice to Windows 7 to get the ball rolling.

He actually had a 2nd post that had an even “easier” 2-step method, but quite curiously, he pulled it as it didn’t seem very elegant.  Having tried it I still believe it has some benefit for system administrators troubleshooting a system :

1. Open the "Run” command.
2. Type mshta.exe “whatever web-address you need”   see example below:
• mshta.exe http://www.bing.com

Now, the reason Rafael stated that he removed this is that navigation using mshta is very problematic.  I’ve tested this under XP/Vista/Win7 and it seems to work ok.

Just tossing it out there.

The other browser-related post that caught my interest was this one:

• Firefox 3.5 vs. Chrome 3 Showdown, Round 1: How private is private browsing? – Betanews

This is a very important question!

Many of the recent web-browsers are now releasing versions that have some form of a “Privacy” mode.  This mode (in theory) allows a web-surfer to browse the web without fear that the cookies, history, or cached bits will be preserved when the surfing activity is completed.

Good for some folks but probably a headache/bane for concerned parents/employers/forensics folks.

I’ve yet to find any good and thorough examinations of before/after testing of a Windows system in which Privacy mode was used.  I would suspect that some bits still could be recovered by a skilled forensic expert.  And as this post shows, depending on the browser and usage circumstances, some browsing activity does indeed remain in play…at least for a time.  This alone shows the benefit or forensics responders who are able to obtain an image of the memory while the system is running, and not just the drive itself.

From page 2 of the Betanews post linked above:

When you exit Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.5, you cannot pick up the trail again from where you left off -- anything your browser remembered up to that point, has vanished.

Does the Incognito Window in Chrome work the same way? Surprisingly, no -- and this is where one starts evaluating the browser makers' design decisions. If you exit the Incognito Window ("Nothing, honey, wasn't doing anything…just checking statistics")re-enter it again, and then re-enter the page you were on, you'll find your shopping cart is intact, right where you left it. So exiting that window did not erase your trail.

But suppose that's what you want -- suppose you want to be able to hide the Incognito window on demand without destroying your shopping, should prying eyes happen to walk by. That actually makes this feature somewhat handy -- for the time being, Chrome is remembering something you want it to forget later.

At least, isn't that what you expect…for Chrome to forget it later? What happens when you exit Chrome altogether…does it forget your shopping cart then? No. Start up Chrome again, and your shopping cart is alive and well. And that could be a problem. This suggests that for any one Windows user account, there is a general track and an incognito track. When you exit Windows altogether, and restart Windows and Chrome, that's when you find out your shopping cart and history have been wiped clean. So the session key Chrome generates for Incognito is apparently only good for the current Windows session, and that's fine. But it still suggests that some session data is being maintained somehow while you're in Incognito mode, and that may not be what you expect.

The point of all this is to know—really know—how your browser choice’s Privacy mode works.

Extension Extravaganza

I can’t believe it but it seems like it has been just over a year since I posted by last Firefox Extension List collection.  The dependable ones have stayed and the weak have been culled.

I have only just recently added a handful of new ones.

Firefox does have a pretty-good “off-line” mode to allow basic reading of cached pages when no internet connection is available.  However sometimes it just isn’t robust enough.

Enter the Read It Later extension for Firefox.  This little guy makes it easy to power-bookmark pages for reading in their original format.  It has quite a lot of options and looks to be very useful, particularly as I am finding myself working on posts “off-line” in unusual locations of late between projects and duties.

Also check out the Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar.  As if cramming a ton of book-marked links on my Firefox toolbar isn’t enough, now I can expand that toolbar into additional rows if needed!  While I don’t use or recommend this much as an organization method, at work I have quite a few web-sites I frequently access for production work.  Having the ability to place them on the toolbar means faster access and less digging through my bookmarks structure to get to their original location.

El Guru shares a great (to us) extension to Disable Tab Tearing.  This has been a long-time frustration leading up to the final Firefox 3.5 release.  Fortunately the Firefox Extension Guru now has easily led us to the power to nip this one in the bud.  Thank you!

I’ve known about the ability to delete a website folder in the “history” view for some time to remove all linked references to visiting that particular website.  However, was was news to me was that Firefox 3.5 now has enhanced this power with a “Forget about this Site” option.  Make Firefox forget about a site, 3.5 style - Mozilla Links.  However, Mozilla Links then passes on a tip to the Close’n forget add-on.  Not only does this one dump the target website from your history, but also can be set to nuke the related cookies as well.

I suppose one could also just pop into the Firefox Privacy mode, but sometimes when you are browsing, you don’t realize you need to drop these things until you have actually landed and are browsing about the website…and by then it’s too late to shift into Privacy mode.

My fave Firefox RSS reader Newsfox got an update.  Minor release: NewsFox 1.0.5.1.  Nothing spectacular, just a series of micro-refinements.  It isn’t planned to be released to Add-ons proper so hop over to this link, mozdev.org - newsfox: installation and get the NEXT version.

Finally, I bit the bullet and installed the Add-on Collector from Mozilla and uploaded my “home” collection of Firefox extensions to the community.

• Claus Valca’s Extension List (Home) :: Add-ons for Firefox

I’ll do one for my work-system profile as well later.

Optimizing Firefox

For the first time in quite a while, there has been a minor Firefox meme making the rounds that is wonderfully beneficial when it comes to speeding up the launch-time performance of Firefox.

• Workaround for Firefox 3.5 slow startups on Windows - Mozilla Links

• Speed Up Firefox By Limiting The History – ghacks.net

Both of these post point out that one of the “features” of Firefox 3.5 that it generates a “randomness” factor at launch by probing various directories on Windows.  Depending on the volume of contents in these locations, the scanning process can take a while to complete, thereby delaying the “start-up” time of Firefox.  Both posts point out where to go to clean house of these files, thereby reducing the lag-time in launching Firefox.  Indications are that this is to be improved in upcoming release versions of Firefox so it behaves better.

El Guru opened his post Speed Up Firefox 3.5 Startup « The Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog with this tip as well then proceeded to expand it with another Firefox performance tip; vacuuming the SQL databases that Firefox now uses.

For more details of this check out these posts:

• Optimize SQLite Databases In Firefox – ghacks.net

• Vacuum your Firefox databases for better performance - Mozilla Links

Basically, Firefox places items saved or accessed by the user in SQL database stores.  Not a problem, but when these items are deleted, the spaces left behind aren’t reclaimed and all these spaces add up considerably after a while.  Vacuuming is a legitimate SQL maintenance command that strips out those spaces and compacts everything together; thereby improving launch-time performance.

So how do you apply this fix?

Well, for the hands-on method, check out this post. Increase Firefox 3.* Performance by Optimizing the SQLite Databases [Windows, Linux and Mac OSX] ~ Web Upd8

Even if you go with one of the “automated” methods below, this should give you a basic understand of what the automated-routines are doing.  But that’s just me.

If you want to skip all that and just click something and let it work to speed up your Firefox launch times then check out either of these two freeware utilities:

• BleachBit - file and privacy cleaner for Linux and Windows – Freeware.

BleachBit is still “developmental” but after checking it out, I ran it against my work Firefox system and it operated without any issues or detriment.

It does a whole-lot of other “cleaning” operations as well, but I’m just interested in the Firefox vacuuming.

1. Download – BleachBit and run the installer. Note: I’ve not yet tested if it can be made “portable”.
2. Ensure Firefox is not running.
3. Run the BleachBit application.
4. Select the Firefox –> Vacuum tic-box
5. Hit the “Delete” button.

The operation will run and then you will be quickly cleaned and in business!

The other application noted is from the InfoSpyware site (in Spanish) created by Marcelo Rivero a Uruguaian who is living in Miami, Florida.

• Acelera el inicio de Firefox con IniFox – InfoSpyware Blog

• Accelerate launching of Firefox with IniFox - Google Translate

Download and unzip from the following main-utility page location:

• IniFox - InfoSpyware

• IniFox - Infospyware - Google Translate

The tool hasn’t been translated with an English version yet but it is pretty easy to use:

1. Close out Firefox.
2. Launch IniFox.exe
3. Select “Aceptar” to accept the “EULA”
4. Select the “Examinar..” to browser to the location of your Firefox user profile folder location.
5. Select the “Instalar” button
6. It will install the squlite3.exe file needed to do the vacuuming work.  If it already exists, you can reinstall it (Si), not reinstall it (No) or do so always/never, or rename.  I like that Marcelo provides all these options.  Select the one you wish.
7. Same thing for the file “iniFox_by_infospyware.exe”.
8. Then a “DOS” box will open (red with yellow lettering on my systems).
9. At “Presione cualquier tecla para ejecutar IniFox y espere……” just “Press any key to launch IniFox and wait….”
10. Depending on how much “vacuuming” work is required, this can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.  Just be patient.
11. When done you will be presented with “IniFox a terminado con exito. Pulse cualquier tecla para salir."  so “IniFox completed successfully. Press any key to exit.”  Do so.
12. Relaunch Firefox and hopefully you will see an improvement in the launching speed.

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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