Microsoft Remote Desktop for iOS

At work we cannot (yet) use Microsoft Remote Desktop for iOS to connect to end-user systems for troubleshooting support.

At home, the Windows versions we have for daily use are “Home” editions and really don’t support Microsoft Remote Desktop sessions…at least not without some clever hacks that I don’t really need or care to implement.

So for now, at work remote control of end user systems from iOS devices remains a dream.

And at home, I find that running TightVNC works super-spiffy and that the Mocha VNC iOS app works just fine to allow me to remote-control our home Windows systems at will from my iPhone 5.

So for now, I really don’t have an environment where I can give the newly acquired/released Microsoft Remote Desktop client for iOS devices a shake. Maybe I’ll see if it can get it going with one of the Win7/8 Enterprise IETester virtual machines I have and use for testing at home.

So, if you are curious, here are some links regarding the subject.

• Microsoft Launches Remote Desktop App for Android and iOS - The Next Web
• Microsoft Remote Desktop App For Android & iOS Available For Download - AddictiveTips
• Microsoft quietly announces new Remote Desktop apps for Android and iOS - BetaNews
• Microsoft to launch new remote desktop apps for iOS, Android - ZDNet

And if you want some interesting background, according to Kurt Shintaku, the app came from iTap via HLW Software Development which had been kicking around for a while, and was bought  by Microsoft.

INFO: Yeah, the Remote Desktop apps for Mac OS X, iOS & Android came from iTap technology acquired from HLW - Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Very interesting…

Claus Valca

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Network News & Goodies - Labor Day Edition

Linkfest post on Labor Day. Lots of network goodies here for the GSD fans!

Presented in no particular order…just how they came of the bench tonight.

Viewpoints: OSI Model and APSTNDP - Microsoft’s MessageAnalyzer blog

Wireshark Tutorial Series #2. Tips and tricks used by insiders and veterans - Sniff free or die Wireshark blog

Tools - The Wireshark Wiki - great Super-List of tools and supporting material for Wireshark.

I’ve posted recently quite a gushing rant on TraceWrangler. It is a free (still-Alpha release) no-install tool to help with sanitizing and anonymizing packet trace files. Pretty wicked cool. Jasper Bongertz posted an intro here and touched on some of the issues current tools of this kind have.

I mention it because the Wireshark Wiki Tools page does contain a list of capture file anonymization tools and (sadly) TraceWrangler isn’t on it yet. Somebody with a connection needs to send the Wiki editors some memos…just saying.

TraceWrangler (change log) - now at version Alpha 0.1.3 build 308.

Microsoft Security Advisory (2861855): Updates to Improve Remote Desktop Protocol Network-level Authentication - Microsoft Security TechCenter

Sequence Match View: Identifying Interesting Network Patterns - Microsoft’s MessageAnalyzer blog

How Secure Is Your Smartphone - Check the Packets (by Tony Fortunato) - LoveMyTool blog

The Do's and Do NOT's of using SPAN Ports (by Darragh Delaney) - LoveMyTool blog

NetFort SPAN Port Configurator - freeware - GUI Utility to set Span Ports on Cisco switches…because as you know, using the free Cisco Network Assistant to do so is such a pain.

ZMAP 1.02 released - SANS ISC Diary

ZMap · The Internet Scanner. From the home page:

“ZMap is an open-source network scanner that enables researchers to easily perform Internet-wide network studies. With a single machine and a well provisioned network uplink, ZMap is capable of performing a complete scan of the IPv4 address space in under 45 minutes, approaching the theoretical limit of gigabit Ethernet.

“While ZMap is a powerful tool for researchers, please keep in mind that by running ZMap, you are potentially scanning the ENTIRE IPv4 address space and some users may not appreciate your scanning. We encourage ZMap users to respect requests to stop scanning and to exclude these networks from ongoing scanning.”

“We suggest that users coordinate with local network administrators before performing any scans and we have developed a set of scanning best practices, which we encourage researchers to consider. It should go without saying that researchers should refrain from exploiting vulnerabilities or accessing protected resources, and should comply with any special legal requirements in their jurisdictions.”

While you may not break the Internet as handily as Jen does, you might do bad things to your own. Be sure you are well familiar with the tool before experimenting!

INMAP 6.40 Released - SANS ISC Diary

Nmap Change Log - nmap.org

Download the Free Nmap Security Scanner for Linux/MAC/UNIX or Windows - nmap.org

SoftPerfect WiFi Guard - version release to 1.0.3 (Change log)

NetworkTrafficView - NirSoft - version release to 1.76:

• Added 'Maximum Packet Size' column. For TCP connections that transfers significant amount of data, the value under this column represents the actual MTU.

Wireless Network Watcher - NirSoft - version release to 1.67

• Updated the internal MAC addresses database.

KiTTY - update to current version release of 0.63.0.2

60 Seconds on the Wire: A Look at Malicious Traffic (direct PDF Link) - SANS Reading Room whitepaper by Kiel Wadner - August 22, 2013.

Custom Full Packet Capture System - (direct PDF Link) - SANS Reading Room whitepaper by Derek Banks - April 16, 2013.

Updated from another recent GSD post because they seemed apropos here in this as well:

Psst. Your Browser Knows All Your Secrets. - SANS ISC Diary guest post by Sally Vandeven on pulling the crypto keys in a browser.

Cookie Cadger to Identify Cookie Leakage from Applications over An Insecure HTTP Request - Next of Windows

Cookie Cadger - project homepage. From the link:

“Cookie Cadger helps identify information leakage from applications that utilize insecure HTTP GET requests.

“Web providers have started stepping up to the plate since Firesheep was released in 2010. Today, most major websites can provide SSL/TLS during all transactions, preventing cookie data from leaking over wired Ethernet or insecure Wi-Fi. But the fact remains that Firesheep was more of a toy than a tool. Cookie Cadger is the first open-source pen-testing tool ever made for intercepting and replaying specific insecure HTTP GET requests into a browser.

“Cookie Cadger is a graphical utility which harnesses the power of the Wireshark suite and Java to provide a fully cross-platform, entirely open-source utility which can monitor wired Ethernet, insecure Wi-Fi, or load a packet capture file for offline analysis.”

Cheers.

--Claus Valca

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Some Notes for a Certain Project

Just some scratch notes for a special project I am working on.

Nothing of interest for most other folks.

Remote Desktop and Automatic Login - Microsoft Visual Studio Forum

try using this
   mstsc /admin /v:ComputerName

or these
   mstsc /console /v:ComputerName

Be sure to “Log Off” rather than click the “X” to leave the session running if you aren’t coming back. Kinda like your mom telling you to shut the door behind you on the way out of the house when you were a kid. Heard it all the time…

Generally it seems you cannot use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection service to establish an interactive remote control session with the logged in/active user’s desktop (session 0 ?)  unless you do it with the appropriate above arguments. However doing so may make a mess of things depending on how you exit…at least this appears to be my current understanding.

• Use command line parameters with Remote Desktop Connection - Microsoft Windows.
• Access Remote Desktop Via Commandline - TechNet Articles - TechNet Wiki
• Mstsc - Microsoft TechNet - Windows Server
• MSTSC - RDP / Terminal Server Connection - SS64.com

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, and if you don’t log off properly…like I said you can make a mess for others coming behind you. If you find just such a mess, these tips might help clean things up.

• How to Remotely Terminate and Disconnect Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) Connections or Sessions -My Digital Life
• How to logoff remote desktop sessions via command line tools? - ..:::: Anand ::::..
• Kill a remote user session remotely - Kode’s thoughts

In the end, RDC/RDP might be great or it might be messy.

If you are fortunate to be able to run UltraVNC services on some of your systems, you have some more options…especially if you are making a “headless” server box on a desktop OS platform. I’m personally more of a TightVNC guy myself but hey, close enough.

One of the problems might be that you want it to be a secure (AD/Domain) authenticated connection, but you don’t want someone to have to click “Allow/Disallow” on the headless system to approve that connection.

Fortunately there are options!

• Can you disable the "Accept - Reject" window? - UltraVNC Forum - Yes, yes you can..
• Install - UltraVNC
• UltraVnc Configuration - UltraVNC
• First Server Run - UltraVNC
• Rolling out UltraVNC - pre configure VNC Password - UltraVNC Forum
• ultravnc.ini - UltraVNC

And then…

• Deploying UltraVNC within an Active Directory environment using Group Policy - Virtually Impossible
• How do I setup MS Logon I or II? - UltraVNC Forum

User Redge wrote:

configure and set MS Logon I or II required only at VNC server.
a) following the doc...
http://www.uvnc.com/features/authentication.html
b) no if the UltraVNC setup was followed and exactly.
http://www.uvnc.com/install/installation.html
c) MS Logon I = Require MS Logon
http://www.uvnc.com/features/authentica ... l#mslogon1
d) MS Logon II = New MS Logon
http://www.uvnc.com/features/authentica ... l#mslogon2
Should set and required only at vnc server.
Important:
do not set vnc server as New MS Logon II on XP Home, won't work at all.

MSLogon can work, require turn OFF simple file sharing
windows XP

Open an Explorer window>Tools>Folder Options>View>The bottom check box

Headless systems are a pain…even if a modern BIOS can support booting without keyboard/mouse attached, and even if you can admin-pw lock the BIOS settings to prevent the USB ports from being active and used. Your system still may not boot if the NTLDR doesn’t see a proper video driver.

Headless System (Windows Embedded Standard 2009)  - Microsoft Developer Network post

• Creating headless systems - Windows Embedded Blog

In Windows Embedded Standard 2009 the support for headless devices starts with the availability of null-drivers for the standard MMI devices. Of course, the BIOS needs to support this kind of configuration, as well, but this should not be a problem on recent systems. The generic keyboard and mouse drivers in Standard are still present as well, when no hardware is connected, but the null driver for the VGA adapter needs to be added to the configuration. This requires the following components:

VGA Save could be left out, if there really is no VGA compatible chip on the board. This will create a dependency error, which in this case can be disregarded. Nevertheless, the benefit of having VGA Save in the image is that any time a graphics adapter card is plugged into the system VGA Save gets loaded instead of the Headless VGA driver. This enables screen output e.g. for field personnel troubleshooting the device. The VGA Boot Driver is required by NTLDR at boot time.

• Making the Server Appliance Headless - Microsoft Developer Network post
• Headless VGA Driver - Microsoft Developer Network post
• Headless Device Video Driver Processing - Microsoft Developer Network post
• Adding Support for a Headless System to your Configuration ... - Microsoft Developer Network post
• Headless VGA driver - Setting display resolution - Windows XP ... - RealGeek

One last element,

The BIOS should be configured to “re-spawn” like a good digital soldier in the event that the power is lost (even a UPS dies if power is off too long) or if someone hits the Power-off button perchance.

Likewise, if the Windows system is NOT on an AD Domain, and logging into a local workstation/workgroup account profile, then you lock it down pretty well (to the bare minimums to function, and enable the auto-login to the set profile: Tip: Auto-Login Your Windows 7 User Account | Cool Stuff | Channel 9. Pretty easy stuff for the auto-login.

The challenge comes up if you want to add it to the AD Domain and use a domain-based account for security/auditing purposes.

There are a number of ways to do this, each with their nuances. Some work better than others. Some are more secure than others. Consider the risk carefully before choosing grasshopper!

[SOLVED] Windows 7 - Auto Logon With Domain Computer - Mockbox.net post.  Easy enough with this registry-based solution BUT the user account and password are stored in the registry in clear-text.  You can roll your own .REG files for deployment with this method. However this could be a big security risk!

WindowsAutoLogin - freeware - IntelliAdmin. One nice feature of this application is that you can also control the number of times it allows an auto-login to occur and then after that “X” number of logins specified, it becomes disabled. That could be handy for some unattended (but brief) service events that require multiple reboots.

Autologon - Microsoft Sysinternals - Much better and easy enough to use. Per this post Safely setting autologon for Windows from the “Confessions of a Microsoft Consultant” TechNet Blog, we learn that AutoLogin saves the account/password string in the registry as a LSA secret.  That’s better than storing it in the Registry in plain-text, but it still is “easy enough” to penetrate and capture:

• LSASecretsDump - Dump LSA secrets from the Registry - NirSoft utility
• Use PowerShell to Decrypt LSA Secrets from the Registry - Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog - Why not since we are trying to learn PowerShell here too!
• Dump Windows password hashes efficiently - Part 1 - Bernardo Damele A.G. weblog
• Dump Windows password hashes efficiently - Part 2 - Bernardo Damele A.G. weblog
• Dump Windows password hashes efficiently - Part 3 - Bernardo Damele A.G. weblog - LSA Secrets info is here.
• Dump Windows password hashes efficiently - Part 4 - Bernardo Damele A.G. weblog
• Dump Windows password hashes efficiently - Part 5 - Bernardo Damele A.G. weblog
• Late night thoughts on security: LSA Secrets - ins3cure blog “Late night thoughts on security”
• LSA Secrets - WindowsNetworking.com
• Microsoft Windows Security Fundamentals: For Windows 2003 SP1 and R2 - Page 41 - Google Books Result

Autologon - commercial product from LogonExpert . I haven’t tried this product but it says it stores the logon information encrypted in AES 256, interacting directly with the WinLogon service to ensure nothing can grab the data. It has some really, really neat features.  The author has an overview of Free Solutions like what I have outlined above, as well as a Learn More about the product. There is an active download link from the page but I’m not sure if it is a limited-trial version or what. This may be a product that can provide both the “setup” features to enable AD-based auto-login and the security-needed for implementation. I’m really intrigued by this particular product.

Use this information wisely!

--Claus Valca

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Bits and Pieces for the Admins - Quick Post #2

OK. This next collection is a mashup of various items. Mostly new utility finds as well as few tips/tricks.

Probably something in here to play with for a while.

Microsoft Security Essentials 4.0 Released - Quietly…and related curiosities

I noticed last week that I had some out-of-cycle updates waiting. Curious, I checked on them and found that one was a new version of MSE. Most all of the changes are “under-the-hood” items, although there are a few GUI tweaks you might catch if you look close enough.  If you use MSE and haven’t gotten an update for it yet, I recommend you manually apply it.

• Microsoft released Security Essentials 4.0: Free protection from malware and viruses - Caschys Blog (G-Translated page)
• Microsoft released Security Essential 4.0 - Born and Windows IT Blog (G-Translated page)
• Microsoft releases Security Essentials 4 - BetaNews blog
• Version 4.0 of Microsoft Security Essentials released - The H Security blog - Most all of the info about what “changed” in this new version I learned from this post.
• Extending Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper - TinyApps blog. Original post showing how one could extend some functionality to the base MS Standalone Sweeper tool to off-line boot and clean a system of virus/malware. As TinyApps bloggist updated the post, it is now Windows Defender Offline and is more restricted so those tips don’t work in WDO. however…I then found this post,
• How the Windows Defender Offline Beta Tool works - Anything about IT - In which Alex Verboon goes in detail about how one downloads and builds a WDO tool for USB/CD usage. It’s an in-depth post and very good for some under-the-hood understanding of the creation process.  That was followed by..
• How to add drivers to the Windows Defender Offline Tool - Anything about IT - Alex Verboon’s follow-up post details how you can add custom drivers or other bits to it.
• What is Windows Defender Offline? - Download link at Microsoft for the Windows Defender Offline tool. I like how it allows you options to create a USB-booting version, a CD-booting version, or a ISO file (for you IODD/Zalman drive users!).
• Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta - Microsoft Connect site for the retired product.

Utilities

Image Writer in Launchpad - Neat tool to write images to USB or memory sticks - Cool project by Michael Casadevall. Read this important announcement as well: Version 0.6 release is back - with a warning.

Image Resizer for Windows - CodePlex project. I’ve posted this utility before but for some reason never got around to installing on my own Windows system at home. Egads! Realized it when I had to resize some pics to send to my brother and wanted to tell him about it for quick-resizing work.

Known Folders Browser 1.0 (for Vista and Beyond) - Kenny Kerr - Super neat tool to show virtualized folders and linking to the actual paths going on behind the scenes. A must-have tool under Vista/Win7. Spotted at ToolTip: Known Folders Browser - Anything about IT blog.

The above tool reminded me of the similar tool (and beloved) SpecialFoldersView over at NirSoft. Take your pick. Both it and Known Folders Browser come in x32/x64 flavors.

Portable WinCDEmu - Not really “portable” but once you run it and do your business, you can then uninstall the driver from within the application. I prefer ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver and Pismo File Mount Audit Package supplemented with SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive on my system. You may also want to check out OSFMount (based on ImDisk), Gizmo Drive, or MagicISO for some more full-featured ISO mounting apps. Spotted over at ToolTip: Portable WinCDEmu - Anything about IT blog.

Fixing Remote Desktop Annoyances - What the.....? blog - a collection of clever tweaks for you power Remote Desktop junkies.

JunctionMaster (or MoveAndLink) - Clever and powerful tool to create NFTS Junctions on your system. Really neat and handy tool as long as you manage to keep your real and virtual link relations straight! Spotted via this JunctionMaster: Move A Folder Without Changing Its Path (Hard Link) post at Addictive Tips blog. Similar (though it doesn’t let you create them) NTFSLinksView utility over at NirSoft. Sysinternals’ Junction tool is a CLI tool to let you view existing ones and create them.  Junction Link Magic is another freeware GUI tool. Check out Link Shell Extension as well. Finally there is ntfs link over at elsdoerfer.name for one more tool.

Tips of Note

Windows and boot disks larger than 2TB - Awesome roundup of tips and tricks at TinyApps blog. With large-storage (1TB+) getting more and more common at the consumer level, dealing with prepping these drives for maximum compatibility and usage can be challenging. Thanks TinyApps bloggist! Your awesomeness remains supreme!

Disconnect USB Devices Without Using Safely Remove Hardware Option - AddictiveTIps blog. For those of you who prefer the “snatch-n-go” technique this may be beneficial.  See also USB Safely Remove v5.1 (not free), EjectUSB (via freewaregenius/Softpedia), or USB Disk Ejector Free (via Softpedia). For more feature-rich USB removal support there is my new favorite, Dev Eject (beta version 1.0.23 released 4/25/12).

Windows Prefers Wired Connections - Clint Huffman's Windows Performance Blog - I really-did already know this but it was a nicely composed reminder.

Cheers.

--Claus V.

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Mostly for Sysadmins and Windows Tweakers

One last linkfest dump before I turn my attention back to a freshly arrived hardback copy of George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones to close out this dark, drizzly and fast-chilling night here on the Gulf Coast. My brother is deep into the book/HBO series and I think he runs an underground distributed book club network of sorts on it. Hence his gifting me this newfound wonder.

This linkfest is a collection of stuff mostly of interest to system administrators and Windows tweakers…your interest level may vary.

Looking at page hits (which I rarely do) it seems that the following posts remain all-time GSD favorites for some reason.

Blocking IE 8 "InPrivate" Mode

Blocking IE 8 "InPrivate" Mode – Updated

Some folks had issues following the steps to make their own REG files to enable/disable “InPrivate” mode on their own system, so I did some and posted the download linkage in the comments section.

I've created the registry keys myself and uploaded them to a shared folder on box.net. http://www.box.net/shared/b0fr5x0qg2

Click that link (or copy/paste it into your browser address bar) then download the "IE8InPrivateMode-Disabled.reg" file directly to your PC.

Depending on your anti-virus application it may complain as .reg files could be malicious. If you want to check, simply open it in Notepad to see that it matches what I have listed on my blog post.

Once you have it download it, right-click on the file and select the "Merge" option.
Depending on your version of Windows and the user-rights of your profile, you may have to confirm some warnings. If all goes well it should be added to the registry and when you re-launch IE8, you should see the option grayed out.

The other registry key in that folder re-enables the option. Follow the same steps and it will allow InPrivate Mode option to work again, unless blocked differently by one of Microsoft's Family Safety programs...

They work on both IE 8 and IE 9 by the way despite the posts being IE 8 centric at the time.

Anyway, the other day I noted this post Internet Explorer InPrivate Browsing Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Forums.  In it, “Brink” also offered some download REG files for merging into the registry.  Out of curiosity I compared them and they were pretty much the same except where my REG files just cover the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key location, Brinks keys have that as well as one for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key location as well. So basically with Brink’s you get a two-fer deal.

Mine or Brinks…take your pick.

How to REALLY hurt yourself with PSEXEC - Deleting the Undeletable Registry Key and More - Scott Hanselman Computer Zen- Scott’s battle with a “undeletable” registry key makes for a fun read. That said, while his PsExec method worked, I’ve had fantastic success when I’ve run into similar keys on malware-infected systems by using Malwarebytes : RegASSASSIN. I don’t know for sure if it would have helped in Scott’s issue, but I would try that first via the GUI it offers before dropping to the PsExec CLI work (though it is really cool). Related for difficult to delete files: Malwarebytes : FileASSASSIN.

It has been over 4 years now since I set Dad up on his Vista system at his house. In that process I ran into a challenge; how to get his and his wife’s profiles to display at different screen resolutions? She liked a relatively low resolution to see things larger, while dad liked the highest resolution to get the best screen display quality.  In my post of my fix Vista/XP Quick Screen Resolution Toggle Tip I used ResSwitch & ResCopy to create custom desktop icons that lets them just click-to-set the display level at their preference rather than digging into the properties each time.  So when I read this post at Windowshacker How To Set Different Screen Resolution for Individual User in Windows 7, I was curious.  Turns out there is a neat freeware product called Carroll that almost automagically can set individual screen resolution for every user when they log in.  No more clicking desktop icons. And it only took 4 years to get here!

Just in case it keeps you up at night fretting about the text for your Windows desktop icons being underneath them, the Windows Club offers a tip on D-Color which can Display Desktop icons text on the side in Windows 7. Now you can sleep easier.

Decoding Intel’s Laptop Processor List [Technology Explained] - MakeUseOf blog.  Nice explanation.

Dynamic Computer Naming in ZTI Deployments - The Deployment Guys - For you Zero Touch Installation (ZZTI) fans with that issue and need.

Any tech mystery that can combine low-level Windows troubleshooting and analysis with Hello Kitty makes it a Must Read in my book!  Submitted for your education--seriously.

• The case of the broken Hello Kitty IZMO toy (Part 1 of 2) - Within Windows blog
• The case of the broken Hello Kitty IZMO toy (Part 2 of 2)- Within Windows blog

Need more standard low-level troubleshooting tips? How about this exercise.

• The case of the vanishing print jobs - Ask the Performance Team

I’m not yet a Hyper-V guy, but I think it is really cool stuff and read up when I can.  I found this Series: Hyper-V upgrade posts at 4sysops to be helpful stuff.

Tenniswood Blog serves up some awesome remote access card P0rn with a nice Review: HP Microserver Remote Access Card.

Create internet bookmarks as browser-independent files on your desktop with HTMtied - Freewaregenius.  I’ve always found it frustrating that I can’t do this as easily as it seems it should be. Turns out the free tool HTMtied can assist with that process and make it a bit more bearable to do.

How to fix incorrect logon information for Windows XP mode - Virtual PC Guy's Blog - Ben’s solution is pretty easy to follow and will get you running again in no time.

Windows 7 Background Customization - The Deployment Guys blog. There are a number of ways to change the background image in Windows 7, doing so is a “signature tweak” I like to perform on all the systems I am asked to help set up for friends and family members; leaving them with an image that reflects their home/personality is a nice touch.  This post is a bit more technical and geared for pushing such changes for enterprise branding and such. Still good stuff.  I personally prefer to use Julien Manici’s free Windows 7 Logon Background Changer but there is also the Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Microsoft Windows 7 and the Windows 7 Logon Screen Tweaker 1.5. Many Windows7 tweaking suites also include this feature in them.

FREE Download Preassembled Windows 7, Vista, and XP VPC Images From Microsoft - Windows7hacker. I try to always keep the latest versions of these handy for ad-hoc testing in Virtual PC. Although at home we now exclusively run WIndows 7, there may be times when I want to trial something in XP or Vista. Rather than dual-booting or keeping another physical test-bed around, I just fire up one of these in a virtual session and away we go! They do have some operational limits baked in, but nothing that should be too much of a headache if you use em regularly.

FREE: Delprof2 – Reliably delete a user profile - As reviewed by 4sysops.  Seriously, if you ever deal with Windows user profiles and occasionally deleting them, you really need to refresh yourself on this post as well as the great freeware tool Delprof2.  While you are there, check out some of the other cool Free Tools from Helge Klein such as DiskLED and ListRegistryLinks which could be handy when doing some incident response work.

MoonPoint Support Weblog - List Installed Programs - This post tips us to a Bill James VBScript script, InstalledPrograms.vbs which when run from the command line prompts for a IP or PC name to remotely check for installed software (or leave blank to check your own). Save the resulting text file for review.  There are a number of “system audit” programs that can do something similar for local systems, but this is the first I’ve seen quite like this.  For generating a list of installed Windows programs on a local machine for reporting purposes and review, I prefer Nir Sofer’s MyUninstaller which seems to be significantly faster than Add/Remove Programs (XP) or Programs and Features (Win7) anyway for adding and removing programs. With MyUninstaller, after running I just select all and save the file in whatever supported format I prefer (usually tab-delimited).

Cheers,

--Claus V.

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Worn Down and Rusted Out Linkfest Edition

cc attribution: 14. An Antique Truck by Jinx! on flickr

Thanks for the messages of kindness checking on me that a few GSD faithful have sent in over the past few weeks.

I’m pleased to say that Claus V. is still alive and kicking…just worn down and rusted out a bit.  As many of you have correctly surmised, work assignments have pretty much overwhelmed me and left me with little energy left except for watching Phineas and Ferb, iCarly, and Bones with the ladies off the DVR on the few free hours when I drag home at night as well as wearily wake up on the weekends.  Everyone has had to really crank up the productivity (already red-lined) due to economy pressures with more special-projects in the pipes.

I even got some time off today to catch the Disney movie “Tangled” with Alvis this afternoon.  I’m a sucker for princess movies!  I can’t wait to put the Blu-ray version of this one next to my “Enchanted” disk set.  Good family movie for all ages!

Anyway, the positive news from this unplanned blogging hiatus is that I have really been able to focus on applying many of the security/forensics tools and techniques in a myriad of very unusual incidents so while I am still exhausted to the frame-rails, it’s been a fun trip along the way.   Look for some neat stuff soon from that camp.

Nor have I been taking a “Net-free” sabbatical.  The RSS-feed collector has been diligently at work as well and I’ve been distilling the results to some of the most interesting and helpful links of all that survived the winnowing process.

So, without more ado, sit down, strap in, and hang on tight.  The Linkfest begins!

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 ?

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 looks like it may have been released.

Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Download Center. Publish date 12/16/2010  (Note: as of this post, that link still shows a version number of “1”.)

I've been running the Beta MSE 2.0 versions on our Windows 7 x64 & x32 systems for some time and have been pleased. Love the inclusion of a right-click context menu "scan with MSE" menu item now.

This morning my Beta MSE version was 2.0.522.0

After downloading and over-installing the new setup file version downloaded from that page, it now checks in at 2.0.657.0

Some more info on what the new edition offers over at this Security Essentials 2.0 releasing tomorrow mynetx post.

I assume patient users of MSE already will eventually get a push/Windows Update to bump it.

Meta data in the setup file (x64 version) I downloaded and used did report it was a 2.0 version as well…so maybe MS hasn’t updated the version number on the page until an official release announcement…or it could be one last final beta bump before the final release?  I’m not certain.

Spotted over at the (German) Caschys Blog post:  Microsoft veröffentlicht kostenlose Sicherheitslösung Security Essentials 2.0

i-odd Firmware updates and other multi-boot/formatting toys 

I-Odd has released some firmware updates.  If you don’t recall the iodd : Multi-boot madness! post, the i-odd is an external USB2.0/eSATA drive enclosure that allows you to store boot-disks in ISO format and then boot a system with any of them via the selector toggle.  It is wicked cool.

The US i-odd site is offering Firmware Version 1.42.48 (ISO) that supports either FAT32, EXFAT or NTFS partition handling for loading disk images.  Until recently only FAT was supported.

The Korean manufacture's i-odd site actually is serving an even newer firmware version at 1.42.53.

Take your pick.

FAT/FAT32 formatting limitations typically have restricted partition sizes so you have had to use alternative formatting tools to get around those limits if you wanted a really big FAT32 partition to store your ISO’s on.

TinyApps.Org Blog recommended the FAT 32 Formatter from Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd.  If that CLI version isn’t to your speed, they also offer a Windows GUI version of fat32format.  Miles’ recommendations are always golden so that’s the tool I still use.

I recently found mention Fat32Formatter which has a slightly different GUI.

That was picked out from RMPrepUSB HomePage which has an interesting tool to partition/format USB drives and make them bootable for SysLinux or grub4dos bootloaders. 

That was found via this XBOOT vs 1.0.0 beta4 - reboot project that is working to aid in the creation of a multi-boot USB builder.

All this is still very interesting, but TinyApps’s find of the i-odd device makes all these exercises almost academic.  Get the enclosure, buy a 2.5” drive to stick in it, update the firmware, and copy your boot ISO images over to your heart’s content.  Then just toggle to the ISO you want to boot with, select it, and boot away.

One last TinyApps mention: check out his amazing documentation work TinyApps.Org : Mounting disk image partitions.  He sent the link to me some time ago but I’ve been swamped and only had time to do very limited Linux-based work at work so I haven’t been able to give it its true due.

Secunia PSI 2.0 Beta Available 

Security company Secunia announced in September the release of the PSI 2.0 Beta.

Auto Update your Programs - Secunia PSI 2.0 Public Beta - Secunia Blog

From the blog post, the engine remains the same but the user interfaces, the auto-updates, and reporting have all been revamped. Secunia PSI changelog

While I and everyone else can continue to benefit from the cloud-based Online Software Inspector (OSI) version, having a localized Personal Software Inspector (PSI) on your Windows system can go a very long way to ensuring your applications are able to be kept current without much mess or fuss.

Adobe Advances

The Adobe folks have been hard at work revamping and prepping a number of products that are often found on many enterprise and consumer Windows systems.

Adobe Labs - Adobe Flash Player 10.2 beta - This is the latest “mainstream” Flash beta version.  It includes enhanced support for IE 9.0 releases and full screen mode support for users with multiple monitors.  However it only comes in a x32 bit release version.

Adobe Labs Download: Flash Player 10.2 Beta Release

Adobe Labs - Adobe Flash Player "Square" is also available and does include x64 bit support for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.  I’ve been running this one on my x64 Windows 7 system with no issues at all.

Adobe Labs Download: Adobe Flash Player "Square" Preview Release

Related: How-to: Disable Chrome’s built-in Flash to use a Flash beta release. DownloadSquad

You may also have heard Adobe released version 10 (a.k.a “X”) of the Adobe Reader.

Adobe Reader X is Here! « Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET) Blog

Adobe - Adobe Reader download

PDF security guru Didier Stevens has some initial thoughts: Quickpost: Adobe Reader X and provided a wicked-helpful link to Adobe’s FTP server. The en_US FTP folder contains both msi and exe based installer versions!

To add to the helpfulness, Aaron Parker at StealthPuppy has a number of great Adobe Reader deployment tips and tricks postings.

Deploying Adobe Reader X | Aaron Parker

Uninstalling Adobe Reader | Aaron Parker

…including a tip-out to the Customization wizard for pre-deployment installer tweaking; note you can get the 10.x version from the FTP site.

Network Nuggets!

One of the duties that has required a lot of my time has been network monitoring and traffic analysis.  I continue to make good progress with Microsoft’s Network Monitor 3.4; specifically the nmcap.exe CLI tool.  I’ve not had a dropped packet yet during a capture session.

Marking Frames with Network Monitor 3.4 - Network Monitor Blog

Network Monitor Freezes While Loading Capture - Network Monitor Blog

CodePlex Parser Site - Check for the latest Network Monitor parser sets here.

In case I haven’t mentioned it recently (it’s been a while) inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner over at MetaGeek is now out at version 2.0.  It was a great help tracking down a network tap some time ago.

And despite my comfort and pleasure with Network Monitor 3.4, I am now trying to transition back to Wireshark.  NM3.4 only seems to output in “cap” format, not pcap.  That’s no big issue but I then have to do an extra step of “editcap -F libpcap infile.cap outfile.pcap” to convert things.  This has been quite fast, but it is a step I shouldn’t have to be taking. 

My biggest complaint to date with Wireshark (and it’s a noobie one) is that I kept getting occasional crashes during capture in the Wireshark GUI mode.

However since I’ve gotten comfortable working in the NMcap CLI tool mode, I’ve started flirting around the the TShark CLI utility for captures as well.  It seems to be more stable for longer-run capture sessions.

Along those lines I’ve been collecting resource links on TShark:

Tshark examples: howto capture and dissect network traffic - CodeAlias

tshark filters - PacketLevel

tshark examples - random notes

TShark Packet Filtering - TheSprawl

Wireshark/TShark Utilities - TheSprawl

Pcap format is essential as I continue to use the NetworkMiner Network Forensic Analysis Tool (NFAT) and Packet Sniffer for much of my post-capture analysis work.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t handle NM “cap” format files, thus the conversion to pcap first in editcap.  So capturing in pcap native files is a time-saver.

You may also recall that I’ve been restricted to using an older .88 version of NetworkMiner as some packet captures end up forcing a premature shutdown in versions up to the current .92.  I actually was able to engage developer Erik Hjelmvik in this Topic: Versions past .88 prematurely exit discussion.  He was awesomely kind and patient.  We eventually took the discussion off-line and with his gentle guidance I was eventually able to provide him some helpful data that explained the issue.  He thinks that the issue “…could occur when there are partially overlapping TCP segments at the same time as the TCP packets arrive out-of-order.”

A future version of Network Miner should address this issue, and bring many more enhancements.  Hopefully Erik will release an updated version soon!

It was really challenging but really rewarding having the opportunity to work with Erik on this issue.  He is a really great guy for kindly providing that level of support to me on a free-to-the-community project.

Microsoft Tips, Tricks, and Treats

Download details: The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7 - Released in mid-November under version 2.0.

The Case of the Slow Project File Opens - Mark’s Blog; troubleshooting awesomeness!

The Windows 7 Guide: From Newbies To Pros [FREE EBOOK] - MakeUseOf - Nice resource for you all who are planning on handing out Windows 7 systems as gift to current XP users.

Enhanced Event Viewer for Windows 7 released - The Windows Club is a fancier version to view and search event logs.  Pick it up over at the sateesh-arveti - Site Home  on TechNet Blogs

Tenniswood Blog has an update tip on How to enable Remote Desktop in Windows 7 Home Premium.  Follow his links to grab the new and improved bits.  Me?  I’ve still got this around on our home systems as a “just in case” but am really loving the TightVNC 2.0 application even more.

While we are still on the subject, MakeUseOf blog has a really interesting Control Your Computer Remotely Using HTML5 With ThinVNC post worth checking out.

The Best Ways To Customize The Welcome Screen In Windows 7 by Simon Slagen on MakeUseOf has a trio of ways to modify your Windows 7 login screen ranging from the very simple to the very complex. Of them, I agree with the post and found that for most users the Logon Screen For Windows 7 tool by DanielNET software was the easiest to use.  That said I’m surprised my first utility to encounter in this class, Windows 7 Logon Background Changer didn’t get included.  It hasn’t let me down yet.

Image is Everything

TOOL: Image Resizer 2.11 for Windows 7/Vista  - Kurt Shintaku’s Blog is a dead-simple, integrated way to let anyone quickly and easily resize their images fast.  It’s a must add.

Freemake Video Converter updated with cool new features - freewaregenius.com is yet another great and very full featured video converter.

Lightworks - Open Source highly complex but wonderfully approachable video editor is out in a public beta.  I’ve been waiting for this one for some time and am amazed it is sitting on my desktop.  The GUI is very well designed but start digging under the hood and I think this tool has the stuff to leave the other freeware/open-source video editors in the dust.  For a Windows platform, this must be seen.  I’m itching to get a new video-production project to toss at it.  This is not for casual users who might find Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 or another similar non-MS product easier to get started with.  Registration (easy and free) with Lightworks required to get the download bits.  Lots of documentation in PDF form is a happy bonus.  Requires download of third-party “Matrox VFW” codecs.

For other options and software tools in video editing see this GSD Blog Video-Editing Resource Roundup.

Finance Planning Tools 

Things have been very tight around the Valca home.  For almost the past two years we have had to painfully downsize to a single-income family lifestyle.  It has been almost that long since Lavie was able to work.  However thanks to discipline and the kindness of family and friends, we have weathered the belt-tightening fairly well.  Hopefully the new year will bring new riches both in terms of our family employment outlook as well as the bank account.

We continue to benefit from the use of Microsoft’s free “Sunset” edition of Microsoft Money Plus.  I’m using the Money Plus Sunset Deluxe version but there is also the Money Plus Sunset Home and Business. 

However, if you trust and and are looking for a cloud-based financial planning tool, check out the following finds:

Sprouty - Simple and easy budgeting

Mint.com

Either of these along with some healthy Finance & Family encouragements from zenhabits, those (by choice or circumstance) living in the “simple life” may find some great tools and resources to help them breath.

More Utilities

These didn’t seem to fit in other categories, so here they reside:

CSV file editor, for Windows - CSVed is now updated to version 2.1.3.  This freeware tool has saved my rear lots of times for complex pre-editing of tricky CSV files before dumping into Access or Excel.

BulletsPassView - NirSoft’s new build to view the passwords stored behind the bullets in Windows / IE.  Doesn’t work for everything but is super-useful in a pinch. May set off AV as “hackware” or PUP.  That’s a AV thing nothing wrong with the tool in the right hands.

6 Must-Have Apps For Computer Repair Technicians - MakeUseOf blog.  Interesting roundup. Not what I would pick for my “must have 6” list, but they are worthy to add to your toolbox.

FOG-ing the Future?

With only a literary nod to JKR, the FOG project is one really neat looking project.

fogproject.org

FOG allows for Windows system imaging capture/deployments from a Linux OS.  It is very cool looking and very neat, particularly with an almost turn-key PXE-based capture/deployment solution.

Windows Image Deployment with FOG - Petri.co

Lifting the Fog - Compendium IT

Cloning Windows 7 VMs Using FOG - The Horrendous World of IT

FOG - Computer Cloning/Imaging solution Server (0.27) - VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace

See also these FOG Project Video Tutorials

There is a lot of documentation and YouTube video resources and it looks to be a very mature (and still developing) project.

If you haven’t heard of FOG yet, it’s worth checking out, particularly if you are an imaging guy.

That said, I still like working with Microsoft ImageX WIM file images and deploying them in PE-based methods in our environment.  Being able to off-line mount and service image files has helped me lots of times.

Virtualizations

In the “Lifting the Fog” link above, the author incorrectly states that the virtual version of FOG uses Oracle’s VM VirtualBox.    That isn’t correct.  It is a VMware appliance version, not VirtualBox.  I guess it is easy to get them mixed up by name alone.  I currently have Windows VirtualPC, Oracle’s VirtualBox, and VMware’s VMware Player all installed on my system!

VMware Player still is getting updated (and remains free).  If you don’t want to register to get the bits from VMware, try this Download VMware Player 3.1.3 link via FileHippo.com.

Think the VMware Player will trap you into using only pre-configured VMware appliances?  Check out the free VMware resources by developer DEVFarm Software such as the really cool VMX Builder. One of may cool tools at VMXBuilder.com

VirtualBox fans may be surprised (or not) to learn that while the public build of VirtualBox is at 3.2.12, if you dig around you can find and use VirtualBox 4.0 beta builds.  I’ve been using these for a while and they are really nice!  I really find the GUI interface improvements particularly enjoyable…not to mention all the under-the-hood updates!

Download VirtualBox 4.0.0 Beta 3 - Change Log - FileHippo.com

Index of /virtualbox/ - Oracle’s FTP site for direct VirtualBox bits including the [DIR] 4.0.0_BETA3/

Whew!

Hope you found something here enjoyable and I appreciate the GSD fans who have been waiting for a new post.

Check back again soon for the forensics and security linkfest followup.

Even more goodies await!

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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Making Material and a PSA video

This past week (as well as the prior one) have been fairly slow on the “new app” front.

I’ve been collecting these links for a bit so here you go. Pick ‘em over, yard-sale style.  No rush.

• Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta refresh - My WLWriter just got updated. I was running the earlier beta and it worked great but was like a old sedan with the wax left on…functional but off. This new one has had the wax buffed off and polish added. GET : Windows Live Essentials beta
• Reboot computers on your network -- (IntelliAdmin) - Handy micro utility.
• Remotely Enable Remote Desktop -- (IntelliAdmin) - It does work as delivered.
• Open command prompt in any folder -- (IntelliAdmin) - see above comment.
• Enterprise Remote Control – Beta -- (IntelliAdmin) -- clever new beta tool that could be used with an internal “reflection server” to help manage remote-connection negotiations with minimal bandwidth hit.
• Cleanup Outlook Attachments -- (IntelliAdmin) -- new GUI tool to help manage those blasted Outlook Secure Temporary files.  I personally like my own OSTff batch file clearing solution.
• DriverBackup! -- SourceForge.net project.  Previously mentioned here on GSD recently but this Free tool to backup drivers post by IntelliAdmin blog has more details on it.  I personally like Double Driver myself though DriverMax is popular and Nir Sofer’s DriverView is a must-have as well for cataloging/auditing.
• Mouse Jiggler got updated with a new “Zen jiggle” feature which “virtually” jiggles the cursor for the system but visibly no movement occurs so it isn’t annoying while using the system.
• WhoCrashed -- automatic crash dump analyzer from Resplendence software. Couple that with BlueScreenView and AppCrashView and you have some great sytem-troubleshooting tools.  Related:How to read the small memory dump files that Windows creates for debugging - MS KB Article 315263 and Download details: Microsoft Exchange Server Error Code Look-up Tool. with Looking up error codes with Err.exe - Alex D’Angelo’s Blog
• Google makes a smart move; makes Chrome MSI available to Enterprises -- The Windows Club. Direct link: Google Chrome Standalone Enterprise MSI package
• girl quits job on dry erase board exposes farmville boss called her hopa -- theCHIVE  Absoulutely not related remotely to anything here but even though this is now revealed as a spoof/hoax, the real “actress” Elyse Porterfield is cute as a button and has that sultry Angelina Jolie look that GSD finds sooo irresistible.

GSD PSA

For social American cultural redemption from the above Elyse Porterfield and Angelina Jolie yumminess link and comments, I offer you this video.

Soldiers returning from war surprise kids, loved ones. NSFW b/c you will bawl your eyes out (video) - TheChive

FYI, the song synced in the video is "Praan," by Garry Schyman.  Interesting but wonderful choice.

Saw this one at my bro’s last week with my mom and had to fight back the man-eye-sweating.  Damn, hate it when that happens.

Back to normal Linkfest programming…

• Introduction to the new Sysinternals tool: RAMMap - Ask the Performance Team -Granted RAMMap isn’t really that new anymore but this is indeed a great introductory post on the utility.
• The Mystery of the Missing Memory -or- It Pays to Know Your Hardware  - Ask the Performance Team - Awesome troubleshooting post that introduced me to the Redundant Memory, or RAS Memory Mirroring feature supported in some server hardware BIOS systems. Cool!
• OutlookStatView -- NirSoft utility updates.  “Added 'Add Header Line To CSV/Tab-Delimited File' option. When this option is turned on, the column names are added as the first line when you export to csv or tab-delimited file.” and “Added 2 new columns: 'Average Incoming Messages Size' and 'Average Outgoing Messages Size'.”
• OutlookAttachView -- NirSoft utility update.  “Added support for embedded message attachments (attachments of another message). These attachments are saved as .msg files that can be opened by Outlook.”
• NK2Edit -- NirSoft utility update.  “Added 'NK2 Control Center' which allows companies to watch the status and the location of Outlook AutoComplete files (NK2) in all computers.”
• Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier -- Recently bumped up to v5.0 “· Now supports unicode, automatical system shutdown and basic context menu integration.”
• FileZilla - The free FTP solution and FileZilla Portable. I’m having to play with this tool now a bit at work and also found this recent post Top 3 FTP Applications for your Windows PC | The Windows Club offered some alternatives as well.
• SunlitGreen -- is a new source that has some light-weight freeware photo image management tools well worth checking out. Lifehacker featured SunlitGreen Photo Editor in a recent article.
• WirelessNetView -- Nir Sofer tool update.
• altdrag - was a tiny tool highlighted by CyberNet News to help manage “lost” windows that open on a phantom position when you have removed a dual monitor output.  Sure if you are in Windows 7 you can do that natively.  My favorite freeware power-tool to do this is Window Seizer. Works on all my systems from XP to Win 7 x64 just fine. It has lots of other features as well for Windowed management.  See also: WinSize2 and the WindowPad projects.

Windows Program Launch tools

Note: I know there are LOTS of other great app-launchers, not just these.  I’m only focusing on “dock” style launchers in this conversation.

Nexus -- I’m going to follow up to this blip in a later detailed post but for now, know that I have upgraded my Windows dock utility from the GSD-beloved free RocketDock application to the spanking hot Nexus dock system on my Windows 7 x64 platform which I had to destroy as noted in my last post.  RocketDock is not specifically offered as Windows 7 compatible, though it generally plays well on my system, it is prone to issues with startup and shutdown of the system.

So I did some research and came up with Nexus.  It is very mature and come is both a free (full featured!) version and a “Ultimate” for $ version.

It supports Windows 7, has all the eye-candy and high-res icon support you can want. Nice defaut skins and icon-action management options.

For a tiny version on Windows 7 systems, check out Ali’s Dünnpfiff’s free Jumplist-Launcher.  It took me a while to get familiar with it (not because it is technically hard, just a different way of interacting with an power-icon).  It is now my preferred quick-pick launching solution on business systems I use as it is more sedate but just as useful as the eye-candy of Nexus.

Of course you can still go “old-school” even in Windows 7 and use a Win2k/XP style “quick-launch” toolbar on your taskbar/superbar. Quick Launch - Enable or Disable - Windows 7 Forums

Want more options?

• 5 Amazing Dock application for Windows 7 ultimate tweak ALL FREE! -- Windows7hacker
• Replacing Start Run - The Quest Continues -- Scott Hanselman’s blog

Finally, not related, but I found this tool as well supporting customization of Win 7 logon screens.

• Logon Editor - Freeware - via a Windows7hacker post.

It has a lot more options and logon screen control setting tuning options than my oft-usedWindows 7 Logon Background Changer tool.  I still also deploy the FxVisor Shortcut Arrow (method two) tool to minimize but retain the Windows Shortcut symbol applied to shortcut icons.  Frameworxx looks to have disappeared but the VistaForums hosted downloads are still kickin.

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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