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.

Read More

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.

Read More

Bending “Bend” and Related Miscellanea

A few posts back I made note of a sexy new notepad application for Windows 7 systems

Bend - A modern text editor -- (freeware) -- a positively beautiful GUI with an almost zen-like quality.  Spotted via Tenniswood Blog.  Windows 7 only.  Stunning.

The ever practical How-To Geek has a detailed walkthrough as well with lots of images : Edit Your Text in Style With Bend.

Granted, it was a bit slow on launch (at least on my Win7 system), coders reported some of the supported syntax highlighting was off, and internal search didn’t quite deliver all the goods.

Overlooking those minor quibbles, it is a great first-delivery in a new application GUI design paradigm for most users.  It simply looks stunning in simplicity and breaks decidedly with the typical Windows application form, including the Ribbon style.

Only one thing.  You can’t officially have it any more.

In echoes of Right Said Fred, “Bend’s too sexy for my Window, too sexy for my Windows, too sexy it hurts….”

Seriously, not too later following Bend’s public splash and meteoric rise on it's home on CodePlex, this mysterious notice appeared on the How-To Geek’s post.

*Update* – It looks like the developer has removed Bend from the CodePlex page. We are trying to find out what happened and will keep you updated!

Hmm…Indeed, for days the Bend link would only return directly to CodePlex home page.

Now, it at least falls on a Unpublished Project Page for Bend.

The mystery swirls!  Was it powered with escaped alien technology? The MiB? Did the Men from Redmond find it was too sexy and violated Windows development EULAS?  Did Apple perform a buyout to prevent Windows from moving in the All Things Beautiful™ land that they own for computing resources?  Where is the Mystery, Inc! gang when we really need them!

The Windows world needs more application design like Bend!

Lacking any news on what happened with the developer and the project pull, I set about working on an alternate mystery…where was the application stored on my system…and could I possibly port this Windows 7 goodness over to my XP system?

The Bend download actually appears to consist of a web-based “seed” installer that is reminiscent of the Windows Live mechanisms.  Once executed it retrieve the main file set from the Net.

Unfortunately for me, I had done a CCleaner and CleanAfterMe pass on my system shortly after installing and scrubbed all these juicy bits away.  I suppose I could have dived into my Shadow Volume stores but this is more fun.

I figured, maybe I can just copy the program’s folder to a USB stick and fire her up on my XP system.

The quickest way I know how to find the executable on a installed program is simply look at the target properties for the shortcut icon placed in the start menu list.

However this doesn’t help with Bend as it is really a “break-the-mold” app.

Turns out this icon is a “ClickOnce Application Reference (.appref-ms)” link.  Goodness.  That means if you follow the target path you will end up at somewhere like

C:\Users\profilename\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Bend\Bend\Bend.appref-ms

Decidedly not helpful and a portent of new kinds of shortcut links to come (and more headaches for examiners and sysadmins no doubt.)

Aside #1 - ClickOnce Application Reference (.appref-ms)

Nir (not That one) describes it thusly:

If you open the appref-ms file in a text editor you'll see it contains the Url for the application, culture, processor architecture and key used to sign the application, so yes, it's just a link.

The difference between those "Application Reference" files and shortcuts (.lnk) is that the application reference points to the original application Url and not the location of the exe on disk, when you run the appref-ms file the system knows how to find the copy of the program on the local disk and run it from there without accessing the Url (this is not accurate and depends on settings in the ClickOnce manifest, but its a close approximation).

DotWhat.Net has more:

The APPREF-MS file is an application reference file that is used by the Microsoft ClickOnce deployment system in order to install, update, and run remote or local applications.

The APPREF-MS file and the correspoding APPLICATION file is part of the .NET framework and give the remote or local link to the application that is to be run; this link also contains information relating to the updates for the application.

These files are created by the Microsoft Visual Studio software for application development.

Johnny Coder has great info on how this interfaces with AutoStart: ClickOnce Run at Startup

Finally, CODE Magazine - Article: Welcome to the Future of Deployment has on page #3 a more detailed presentation by Craig S. Boyd.

In the case of an installed, offline-available, ClickOnce application, the ClickOnce installs the application in the user’s profile directory. Every user that installs the application on a given computer will end up with their own profile’s isolated installation. The directory into which an offline-available ClickOnce application is installed looks very similar to the following:

C:\Documents and Settings\Profile Name\Local Settings\Apps\2.0

ClickOnce’s installation routine does not simply creating an application directory based on the Product Name and install all of the application bits into it. That would have been too easy. The scheme that Microsoft has devised is much more complex and it involves having the components that make up the application installed in a lot of different directories and subdirectories beneath the 2.0 folder shown above. ClickOnce installs the application in one location, the data in another, and the manifests in yet another. The install is essentially compartmentalized.

Back to White Rabbits and Alien Ninjas

Opening up the Bend.appref-ms reference found on my system, in Bend, resulted in this:

http://bend.codeplex.com/releases/clickonce/Bend.application#Bend.application, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0000000000000000, processorArchitecture=x86

Yes Sally, that was a non-local hyperlink reference.  Clearly this is subversive alien technology (or for you few Last Exile fans, maybe Guild managed) released from 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California Area 51 designed to phone home at launch.

I suppose I could have done the easy thing and just launched Bend and peeked at it’s image path in Process Explorer.

Nay. I launched Process Monitor and launched Bend to arrive at the location on my own system:

C:\Users\ClausV\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\3KOVR9H8.BMY\YOJLRJZC.G26

That’s exactly where any user would have expected it to be!

Underneath there are four more alien technology based directories containing various files:

bend..tion_0000000000000000_0000.0008_bb2abada039deb14
bend.exe_0000000000000000_0000.0008_none_fc971fb0826fb84c
icsh..edit_9cc39be672370310_0004.0000_none_bf8d008a5b793b82
manifests

And of course, logically we will find the application executable under the clearly named bend.exe_0000000000000000_0000.0008_none_fc971fb0826fb84c (nope) bend..tion_0000000000000000_0000.0008_bb2abada039deb14 folder!

Having read all the above side-bits on this appref-ms file stuff, I clearly realized just how important all those other folders really were.  So I copied the main 3KOVR9H8.BMY folder and subs to my USB flash drive.

Then making sure that my XP Pro system was able to receive the alien technology (it was, having the required .NET 4.0 installed), plugged it up and drilled down and launched the Bend.exe file.

It worked, and did launch much faster than on the Win7 system.

So yes, if you have these files, and .NET 4.0 you can take Bend with you to Vista/XP just fine.

Unfortunately, if you just have the Bend installer, you don’t have Jack as the Bend source server isn’t available to pass you the files once run.

I suppose I could package up these files from my system and give them too you, but I’m worried for my safety now that I’ve shared all this fascinating goodness.

So I’m going to let them chase “Juan” from the How-To Geek post’s comments who said this:

http://cid-38dd082d08a09987.ph.....s/Bend.zip

@bob

Hey, I got it when it was still from Codeplex, though this is not the installation, it is the actual contents from the app. Enjoy!

I checked Juan’s file/contents, and at the time of my access, it did match the contents of my own bend.exe_0000000000000000_0000.0008_none_fc971fb0826fb84c directly perfectly, though Juan did not bother kindly to include all the other alien technology folders as well.  Seemed to work OK though without them.

At the same time I have been writing this post, I have also been concurrently performing the Gutmann method, burning, shredding, and letting a 2-year old borrowed neighborhood child with loosely attached sippy-cup lid to render my blogging system laptop non-functional at the time of writing this post.  Oh, I’m also right now tossing it into my father-in-law’s fish-pond with the old DISH Network disk to swim with the catfish.  This should sufficiently ensure that alien ninjas nor MiB nor Apple execs will not be concerned and disappear me like they did Bend’s developer.  Like I said, go find Juan.

Don’t feel bad for the loss of my laptop.  I’m waiting on a humble little new Dell i7 core laptop so I can putter around safely…free of this heady ClickOnce Application Reference stuff.

Then again, maybe the developer got CodePlex servers hammered with the downloads and distribution/ ClickOnce Application Reference design model and had to yank everything and regroup.

Nahh..that would be crazy talk.  I like Apple alien ninjas better.

More Notepad / Notetaking Software

Seriously.

Bend really is spectacularly sexy in design and getting there in function.

That said, I can’t see any way I currently could leave my trusted and highly-recommended high-production text editors for it anytime soon.

• NOTEPAD++ - THE notepad of our age. Something for everyone and nothing left out.
• Notepad++ Portable - PortableApps.com Edition
• flo’s Notepad2 - both in x32 and x64 flavors. Yummer.
• EditPad Lite - Free Text Editor for Windows for non-commercial use
• editor PSPad  - freeware developer’s text editor

None of these are particularly sexy though they are all very robust.

If you do want a deliverable Notepad alternative that is more “girl-next-door sexy (SFW)” than the sophisticated “Euro/Metro sexiness (SFW)” of Bend, consider bringing FluentNotepad home to meet the folks at Sunday brunch.

• FluentNotepad Beta 3 Release - ~SalvoG92 on deviantART
• FluentNotepad Adds the Office Ribbon UI to Notepad - How-To Geek

It does have that pleasant and predictable Windows Ribbon working for it grandma likes.

See also:

• Battle of the Notepad Alternatives - Lifehacker Roundup.  Others suggested in the comments were TextPad, ConTEXT, EditPad Lite, Crimson editor, metapad, LopeEdit, and EmEditor.
• Notepad Replacements - Grand Stream Dreams blog post

Then there are these spinoffs that aren’t notepad apps, but do have the minimalist form for text composition:

• Q10
• Jarte
• Dark Room
• And related to actual note-taking:
• PNotes Portable - virtual sticky notes for your desktop
• The Guide - Outliner tool
• SEO Note - Note and Outlining tool
• CaseNotes - for free for forensicators (awesome introduction here)
• MANDIANT Highlighter - Powertool for large-size log-file loading, editing, and analysis.

Cheers!

--Claus V.

Read More

Daughters….

The other night I heard something come matter-of-factly out of my dear teen daughter’s mouth I never thought I would hear.

”Dad, I’ll need some help getting the meat off the door hinge.”

<Context>

I had been working later than normal that night and Alvis was hungry.  So she decided to cook a full spaghetti dinner (it was ymmers btw) instead of waiting for me to get home and cook as I typically do. 

So she did. 

The post culinary creation in the kitchen was quite high with pots, pans, etc.  So as I looked at it upon coming home, she assured me that she would be cleaning it up shortly (I later helped), but wanted to know she did experience some meat-loss during the meatball production process. 

Apparently one escaped in the forming process and fell down the cabinet front clipping a cabinet door hinge in the process.

By the time we got to cleaning the meaty bit had dried enough to be popped off the hinge with no fuss. A spray down with some bleach countertop disinfectant spray sealed the deal.

</Context>

That’s my Alvis…

--Claus V.

Read More

Browser Quick List: [Ref Only]

It’s been a while since I posted a single-source reference for web-browsers I use and deploy.

Dumping these links here for reference only.

Use them as you will.

• Firefox Browser - Firefox stable (public) version
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - Portable version of above.
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition Test Versions - Portable versions of beta versions.
• Add-ons for Firefox - what it says
• Claus Valca’s Extension List (Home) :: Add-ons for Firefox - Outdated list of what I run on Firefox
• FireCAT v1.6.2 updated with Framework Detector - Pen/Sec/For Extensions for Firefox
• Firefox 4.0b2 – “Official” x64 Bit Edition Available - GSD post with link to x64 nightly builds
• Resolving a “Nightly” Firefox Issue… - more links to Firefox alternative builds
• "Private Label" Firefox Builds - same but different as above
• Opera Desktop Team - Desktop Team - Source for Opera alpha/beta snapshot blog. Download testing MSI files from here.
• Internet Explorer 8 - That fat old cat has been kept outside in the wild a bit now and is getting leaner.
• Internet Explorer 9: Platform Demos - Not yet ready for public consumption.  Don’t let it back into the house right now.  It’ll bring dead mice to your doorstep.
• Apple - Safari 5 - Main Page
• Google Chrome - Main Page public release version
• Chromium - The Chromium Projects - Nightly like project builds
• SRWare Iron - The Browser of the Future - “Privatized/Optimized” Chrome build
• Google Chrome Portable - Portable version of the public release version
• Portable Google Chrome 4.1.249.1059 - Stadt-bremerhaven’s foundational portable Chrome package (with nifty updater) that I use.
• Google Chrome Themes Gallery - Prettys
• Google Chrome Extensions - Helpfuls
• 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.
• Sexy Undo Close Tab - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• Trash Can - Google Chrome extension gallery.
• youtube-html5-chrome - Project Hosting on Google Code.

That should do it for now.  May be updated later.

Since you scrolled down this far:

• Mozilla bolting Tab Candy on to Firefox 4 today - The magic words for now? Ctrl + Alt + Space - Downloadsquad
• Firefox Friday - 4.0 free-for-all edition! - download squad
• Google Chrome to get advanced plug-in blocking (think FlashBlock)  -Downloadsquad
• Create Smarter Google Translate Keyword Bookmarks - Lifehacker tip to make bookmarklet to translate page at once via GoogleTranslate
• Sexy Undo Close Tab Brings Back Your Closed Chrome Content - Lifehacker - Recall those TPS reports you clicked away from.
• Google Chrome’s Remoting feature shows up in Chromium with enterprise implications - Curious - But why still no basic sidebar? - Downloadsquad.

Claus V.

Read More

Security and Forensic Link Roundup: Floating Lantern Style

cc attribution: “Hiroshima Day at Töölönlahti, Helsinki” by /kallu on flickr

Well dear friends, I find that another weekend has slipped through my tippity-tappity fingers.  What with being on call-duty, the usual round of household chores, and a good two-hours of application crash-dump generating under various circumstances, where does the time go?

Here’s a last round of posting of a more security/forensics bent, offered like one of those little lantern boats released on the water at night.

Forensic Thoughts

Seems like newer blog template updates have been popping up in more than a few places.  Eric Huber at A Fistful of Dongles also updated the look of his blog…in no small part spurring me on to even greater tweakage this weekend here on GSD.

Eric didn’t let that stop him from making some great posts…such as Stop, Children, What’s That Sound? touching on Super Timeline perspectives.

Hard-drive gurus may want to take notes in this SANS Computer Forensics Investigations and Incident Response blog (can we find an acronym; SANS-CFIIR blog ?) Windows MBR and Advanced Format Drives (e512).  Great additional documentation links at the bottom.  While the Trusting Your Tools article by Joe Garcia reminds us all that you really need to know, understand, and be intimately familiar with the tools that you apply to your work.  I really like how Joe points out that it is good practice to test output by comparing the results from several similar tools.  If you are expecting the same thing but getting different results either the tools are actually operating differently or something else may be afoot!

Harlan Carvey is back fresh from a mission of mercy and his Updates post over at the Windows Incident Response blog is great.  Chock full of examples, analysis and encouragement for responders to keep their best sword sharp by taking advantage of “practicals”.  As I’m getting my feet a bit wet in the network area, I’m finding tons of challenges and puzzles offered by the best teachers there are.  These are great ways to learn and stay sharp.  And Harlan ties up the recent Stuxnet/LNK mess with some artifacts to dial in on.  While you may not run into this, the lesson and principles are great to keep in mind for future encounters of all kinds.

CaseWork

CSI:Internet – PDF timebomb - The H Security -- Great multi-page case illustration of a PDF based malware “attack”.

Hidden past Twitter-talk post Tweeting Forensicators, Eric Huber slips in another sad lesson to be learned in his “Reason #217 Why You Shouldn’t Hire A “Computer Guy” To Do A Forensic Examination”.  Linking to Lee Whitfield’s How to do the Worst Job Possible post, we see in all the sad glory yet another mixed up “incident analysis” by an IT professional who knows too much of nothing for our own good.  This is a topic that Harlan has mentioned as well.  It is a drum I beat on over and over in our own IT shop.  The IT guys and gals who are the foot-soldiers run across more than their share of incidents almost daily.  In most cases because there is sadly no real “incident response plan” or framework in the organization, it usually boils down to them pulling the network cable, maybe collecting a system log file, wiping the system and putting a fresh image on. The the system (and user) is put back into service. Production is king.  There needs to be a plan in all IT shops, everyone needs to know what it is and how to execute it--autonomously if need be--and where their skill set begins and where it ends in application.

I’ve been begging for a while for a chance to take some SANS incident responder courses.  As we don’t have a training budget, I remain waiting for one to roll though Metropolis here again and hope the budget gods will bless me.

Eric’s link jarringly reminded me fresh of the “expert” testimony given in the infamous Julie Amero case. Fortunately, Alex Eckelberry and team were able to provide a good example of what true incident responders are capable of: Sunbelt Blog: The Julie Amero forensic analysis.  A review of their top-shelf work here (pdf) still is worth reading almost two years later. I think that was a watermark event and it now is featured in more than one forensic book: Sunbelt Blog: Julie Amero case featured in new forensic book (…the section on Julie’s case is available as a free download here (pdf) starting around page 34.)

And “sausage maker” DC1743 shares great detail in his real-world work place blog pieces:

• Gatherer Transaction Log Files - a Windows Search artefact - Forensics from the sausage factory
• Python - Forensics from the sausage factory

Digital Resources

Staying current with forensics news and information is both easy and challenging.  Easy in that the Web (and those kind folks/companies who toil at their keyboards uploading their field notes and practical information) creates an open classroom for learning and information exchange, challenging in both finding new and fresh material, but even more so in the growing mass of flotsam and jetsam the rising Web tide brings in.

Here are a few digital resources (most all free) that I look forward to regularly to help me stay current with security and forensic trends and news.

1. Into The Boxes - “…an e-magazine covering issues concerning Digital Forensics and Incident Response.  <snip> Into the Boxes will provide technical and managerial articles and information relating to as many challenges facing the security community as possible.”  Check out Issue 0×1 (pdf) and Issue 0×0 (pdf).
2. Hakin9 :: Magazine - great incident and security perspectives and material.
3. (IN)SECURE Magazine - covers a wide range of inward and outward facing security news and information.
4. TechNet Magazine Home Page - I’m including Microsoft’s Windows-centric technical journal here because as a sysadmin, I believe that it isn’t just enough to know how to respond when an incident arises, you really need to understand the larger environment that Windows system exists in…and truth be told they always have lots of cool tools and Windows system tips as well.
5. Digital Forensics Magazine - OK, this one isn’t free (except for their DFM-Issue1 (flash viewer driven)).  However they clearly are locked in on the forensics arena.  I’ve not got a subscription yet, but I’m thinking that this is one periodical that will be will worth the price of admission to access.

If you are aware of any other regularly published (and current) digital forensics/security sources, please drop a tip in the comments!

New Tools of the Week (and one red-herring shark-style!)

SANS Computer Forensics Investigations and Incident Response blog (can we find an acronym; SANS-CFIIR blog ?) Digital Forensics Case Leads: SQLite changes may impact your processes post points us to some great tools including the free Paraben’s P2 Explorer to do drive-image mounting.

Not content to hide his plans for world-domination in the forensic blog arena, our faithful Fistful of Dongles bloggist Eric Huber now is clearly ready to Go After The Flank with two (new to me) tools I got excited to find:

• HSTEX - Digital Detective’s tool by Craig Wilson to be used to extract web browser history. Not free but you get a 30-day unlimited feature trial period to decide if it can do magic for you.
• PALADIN - This is a new (free) forensic LiveCD project based on Ubuntu I hadn’t heard of before (and I know more than a few!)  Check out some of the advertised features:
• PALADIN will work on any computer or hardware that is supported by Ubuntu Linux.
• PALADIN allows a user to safely image and preview internal hard drives without having to disassemble the computer or laptop.
• PALADIN has been modified to write-protect all attached media upon boot thereby preventing accidental writes or having to use expensive physical write-blockers.
• Boot standard PCs and Intel Macs in a forensically sound manner (including the MacBook Air)
• Image to several formats including Expert Witness (.E01), Apple Disk Image (.dmg) and Raw (.dd)
• Clone devices
• Create two forensic images or clones at the same time
• Image across a network
• Format any drive as NTFS, HFS+, FAT32 or EXT3
• Create a forensic image of only the Unallocated Space, Free Space and File Slack
• Quickly wipe (sterilize), verify and hash media
• Automatically update via Internet
• Search and preview media by file name, keywords or MIME types

And they have a cool logo as well!  I’ve downloaded the ISO file and packed it onto my iodd device for testing if this week’s schedule is kind to me.

I’ll share my thoughts on it in the near future.  The forensic LiveCD bar is pretty high already with hot projects such as CAINE, DEFT, WinFE, and Raptor to name my fav’s.

Speaking of DEFT, the crew recently posted their DEFT Linux 6, roadmap and features plans.  I’m not sure I can wait till December!  Christmas was hard enough to handle the excitement of.  The integration of WINE in the distro to support native Windows apps is super-cool. “Here are the main features of Linux DEFT 6 and the road map.”

Features

- Based on Lubuntu 10.10 and DEFT Extra 2.1 (Windows side)
- Linux Kernel 2.6.35
- Dhash 2.1
- Xplico DEFT edition
- TSK 3.1.3 (or the latest stable version at the date of release)
- Autopsy 2.24 (or the latest stable version at the date of release)
- Log2timeline 0.50
- Afflib 3.5.12 (or the latest stable version at the date of release)
- Foremost 1.5.7 with a new extended list of header and footer
- Wine 1.2 for the implementation of tools for Windows-based Computer Forensic
- ClamAV Anti Virus / Malware 0.9.6
- Mount Manager 0.2.6
- TrID 2.0

Roadmap

- Feature freeze – September 2010
- CF tools test – September 2010
- Software developed by the DEFT team test and beta releases – October 2010
- Kernel freeze – October 2010
- Extra DEFT test – October 2010
- Wine tools testing – October 2010
- Documentation (beta) – November 2010
- Beta release – November 2010
- Documentation DEFT stable – December 2, 2010
- DEFT Linux 6 stable – December 2, 2010

PrefetchForensics v1.0.2 -- woanware - Mark Woan has updated his free Windows prefetch analysis tool with some really handy features including time management, exporting corrections and enhancements, and pre-population of the “import” location window to a default.  If you haven’t added Mark’s spectacular woanware forensic/network/utility tool site to your regular watch-list, then you are definitely missing out of some of the best tools there are for incident response and forensics!

Fresh from the wild savanna of Las Vegas and the BlackHat / Defcon / BSides events this year, at least two cool new species of tools have been spotted that may be of interest to forensic/sysadmin folks.

• BinPack: Preview and BinPack: Las Vegas Edition Release -- West Coast Hackers -- is a super-sauced package of security, network, and forensic tools, all wrapped up and categorized for your downloading pleasure.    Use the second link there to grab it via a torrent download.  There are also two release versions in zip packs for additional GUI handling (one stable one not-so-much).  To preview the toys tools check out the BinPack package inventory xls file they put together.
• BackTrack 4 r1 BlackHat Edition - It’s BlackHat. It’s BackTrack. It’s the BlackHat Edition of BackTrack.  What’s else to say? 
• BackTrack 4 R1 - Public Release and download -- BackTrack Linux. Check out some of the wicked screenshots then download it! 

Never one to stay still, Didier Stevens offers us two special-niche tools in his Quickpost: 2 .LNK Tools post. First one is a 010 Editor template file for the .LNK binary file format the other is a ClamAV signature file to find all .LNK shortcuts (good or bad). Read the post for usage details on both.

Now for the stinky fish courtesy of the white sands of Florida and Tom Kelchner (via Francis Montesino desk work) :

Oh yea, right! A rogue named “Wireshark” -- Sunbelt Blog   (not to be confused at all with the legit Wire Shark network analyzer)

I want to say “who gets fooled by these stupid clearly fake/rouge malware scams” and infects their PC?

Then I had to say to myself, “Self!  Wait…didn’t you just spend all day this past Wednesday on your rare ‘odd-day-off” remotely scouring your dad’s PC from a very similar thing and repairing all the bad things it did to make their life in Vista miserable?”  (I did do a cursory mini-incident response analysis but promised to wipe the results to qualify for free pizza from an un-named parental family member this week!)

Hello minions:

• Encyclopedia entry: Trojan:Win32/FakeSpypro - Microsoft Malware Protection Center
• Encyclopedia entry: TrojanDownloader:JS/Renos - Microsoft Malware Protection Center

Yep.  Pretty much a whole day, though all is well and back to normal again now.

Enough said.

--Claus V.

Read More

PC Troubleshooting and Hack-ups.

Sometimes you can’t trust or rely on the data at hand.  Sometimes you have to dig deeper.

Sometimes you can be diverted from purpose by focusing incorrectly.

Case in point:

Yesterday I was having bad-awful issues with Firefox.

My blogging/browsing method involves dragging/dropping tabs for subjects/posts of interest as I surf and research over to my Bookmark Sidebar.  I have various folders set up for posts-to-be.

Only the drag-n-drop action was all over the place.  Sometimes I could place them where I wanted. Other times they would end up nowhere, or in a way-incorrect location.

It got so bad I started troubleshooting the issue.  I disabled add-on extensions one by one, changed themes.  Nothing helped.

I’d had something like that happen before with a bug in Firefox so since I was recently bumped to version 3.6.8 I figured that must be the issue.

So I built a whole new, ground-up, portable package of Firefox with a earlier version.

Strangely, the problem persisted.

By now at least an hour had passed.  I was getting no-where.

So I stepped back and let my brain relax…ding…could the problem be, literally, at hand?

I disassembled my optical mouse Logitech - LX7 Cordless Optical Mouse and examined it closely.  Sure enough.  When I turned the top lid over I could see wear had occurred on both of the piano-key like “hammers” that press down on the contact switches attached to the circuit board.

I thought for a moment how I could add some fresh bulk to them…but in a way that was “slick” and thin.  Digging through the tech-closet for inspiration I saw a bulk AAA battery pack.  It was made of clear thin plastic and had several flat sections.  I carefully snipped two tiny “shims” of material and then super-glued them carefully to the worn surface of the mouse-click “hammers”.  I then cleaned all the gunk from the innards of the mouse while they dried.

Reassembly was fast and testing found my “click/drag/drop” issue had vanished.

Inspired by that success and laden with leftover plastic I then removed the bulky shell of an old USB 2GB stick I’m using for Ready Boost but that blocks the other free USB port on the laptop.  I then made a clear micro-shell with remaining AAA battery cover plastic, barely taller and wider than the USB connecter itself. More super-glue and I now had a sweet, sealed, transparent USB stick cover on to protect the circuit board.  And my other USB port is fully accessible again.

Not a bad day….

By the way, since we are talking about data analysis of sorts did you see these?

• CIA Software Developer Goes Open Source, Instead -- Danger Room | Wired.com
• Collaborative Analysis of Competing Hypotheses -- available soon under GPL

I’m wondering how something like this might be able to be leveraged for forensics/incident response/IT Help Desk purposes.

Can’t wait to see the public release.

--Claus V.

Read More