Turns out it is as easy as typing “shell:sendto” in the address bar of Windows Explorer. If I knew about it a decade ago, I would have used it more often.
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Category: Windows
Windows gadgets / tips / tricks
Simple dialog box built in windows
Back in the days, we use “net send” to display dialog boxes (I used it to chat with my friend after we dial up to the other’s computer).
Since Windows XP, there’s a more intuitive tool to do the same. It’s convenient if you want to add GUI interactions so that the user won’t ignore the text on the command prompt screen:
msg %SESSIONNAME% "your message goes here"
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Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable (VC_RED) unpacks temp files to root folder
Over the last decade I was wondering if I did something wrong or my computer was infected by some rootkit that some random installation files shows up in the root folder.
Turns out it’s a stupid bug (didn’t expect something this low from Microsoft) that it unpacks temporary files of Visual C++ 2008 redistributables to whatever’s that’s largest storage space’s ROOT folder!
It’s fixed in SP1, but some old programs distributing the first revision will crap all over the root folder of seemingly random drives (actually, it’s the one with the most free space). Nasty!
I made a batch file to clean it up. It’s not robust or up to any good programming standards (should have checked the hash signature before deleting if I was paid to write that, but I wasn’t). This batch file accepts an input like where the drive letter was littered (like E:\), or without input arguments, it will just pick the root folder of the current location.
@ECHO OFF echo.Clean up Visual C++ 2008 temporary files (due to a bug) set "old_dir=%cd%" if "%~1" == "" goto Main cd /d %1 :Main REM must be a root folder of some drive cd / REM Display current drive echo.%cd:~0,1% drive is going to be cleaned. Press Ctrl+C now to abort now or any other key to continue. pause del install.exe del install.res.1028.dll del install.res.1031.dll del install.res.1033.dll del install.res.1036.dll del install.res.1040.dll del install.res.1041.dll del install.res.1042.dll del install.res.2052.dll del install.res.3082.dll del vcredist.bmp del globdata.ini del install.ini del eula.1028.txt del eula.1031.txt del eula.1033.txt del eula.1036.txt del eula.1040.txt del eula.1041.txt del eula.1042.txt del eula.2052.txt del eula.3082.txt del VC_RED.MSI del VC_RED.cab echo.Done cd /d %old_dir%
No warranty or support of any sort if you use it. That’s why I wouldn’t even make it downloadable. Just copy and paste it to a batch file yourself, and keep in mind that you are on your own.
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Windows Gotcha: Cannot access other machine because time doesn’t sync
Newer Windows, starting with Windows 7 at least, requires the clocks to be in sync for the login/authentication to work. The confusing part is that if it fails, it doesn’t tell you why, leading you to think your password was wrong.
Turns out this time, I’m trying to inject files to a Windows 2000 machine (a logic analyzer). After some Googling, this website showed me it could be a time issue. The RTC on that motherboard was alright, and showing that it’s 2018, but after a close look, the timezone was EST (GMT-7) while I’m on PST (GMT-8), so the clock is off by one hour!
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MSI-based installer silent install summary
Recently I need to reorder the pre-req installation for a InstallShield installer package that has pre-reqs and MSI inside it. That means I’ll have to extract all the pre-req EXE and MSI files and write batch files to call them, then the installer again for the core software, all done silently.
I learned:
- Administrative install (/a switch) only extracts the core firmware, not the pre-req files
- /b”<target-folder>” extracts the pre-reqs as .prq files
- Need to steal the extracted .exe files by monitoring temporary folder as they go
- /s doesn’t always silent installs. Some with MSI packed inside the .exe files requires the ‘silent’ request passed to the MSI by adding /v/qn (/v passes the switch to the MSI, which is /qn, which means silent in this case)
- .NET before v2.0 requires different switches to install without prompting for license agreement, namely
/q:a /c:"install /q"
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Remove McAfee Enterprise Antivirus from Windows
I was asked to install McAfee Enterprise Antivirus v8.8 as a favor to somebody else’s client, turns out this piece of 5h1t is a nightmare.
After I installed the agent, the main software won’t proceed to install. I looked up error code 1603 in the MSI log and upgraded a fresh Windows XP to SP3 and updated Windows Installer to 4.5, set the time back (somebody suggested potential certificate problem) and it still fails.
Without being compensated for my time, I gave up and tried to uninstall it through Add/Remove programs. Now the uninstaller complained that the program cannot be uninstalled in managed mode. Normally, I’m quite understanding towards programmers since their job is wrestling complexities, but this time there is no excuse: if you add an item in Add/Remove programs, people are expected to be able to uninstall it directly from there by definition!
After some digging, being unable to uninstall McAfee is a known common problem. The IT-crowd at University of Oregon has written an article with the solution. It boils down to running:
C:\Program Files (x86)\McAfee\Common Framework\frminst.exe /remove=agent
I bet even stoners are more competent packaging the software for release! How much productivity across the world they have drained by shipping out an incompetent software bad as malware!
Stay away from McAfee. Won’t install it even if they pay me $8k. Refuse to service anything McAfee without charging an exorbitant sum, or you won’t make your lost time back.
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Symantec Ghost in Windows hangs for mSATA to SATA adapter board Solution: Start Ghost with -NOTRIM
I was trying to image a mSATA SSD with Ghost in Windows (I’m using version 12.0.0.8023 Corporate Edition as I bought the Altiris license) and I ran into internal consistency error 8027 right at the very beginning of the copying process.
For some reason, it doesn’t happen if I boot to the DOS version (provided by Agilent) to do the cloning.
Luckily the status bar tells me what’s going on during the process. I notice it always hangs when ghost tells me that it’s TRIMming the SSD. I looked up the help file (ghost32.exe -help) and noticed that there’s a “-NOTRIM” option. Tried it and the clone completed successfully.
Turns out Symantec is aware of it. The title of the support article is called “Cloning Solid State Disk (SSD) drives fails when using the UEFI 12.0.0.x Ghost executables“.
The summary says it since older versions (11.5.1.x) does not have TRIM, this isn’t a problem, and
“Build 12.0.0.8003 (from GSS 3.0 early build) resolved the issue with the partition restore”
I’m not sure what it means. But the solution is the same as what I did: disable TRIM when copying SSD in Windows (done by the -notrim switch).
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Create user account using email address (like your Microsoft account) in Windows 7/2008
If you live in a mixed environment of Windows 7 and 8/10 computers, you might want to set the usernames to be the same so you can share the files/printers without managing Homegroup.
Nonetheless, in Windows 7/2008, if you try to create a user account using the traditional tool (Local Users and Groups) in Computer Management, you are not allowed to use email address as user name because they banned the at-mark (@):
I searched the web for quite a while, came across stuff like UPN (User Principal Name) without luck (No active directory on Windows 7, nor I want to setup a domain controller in Windows 2008 for home network). Turns out the solution is dead simple: use the “User Account” from Control panel to create the user account. No questions asked!
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Auto Mouse Mover / Clicker
At work I came across a piece of fine software (fine as the ‘F’ in RTFM) to access the data from an open-source project that decided to throw a warning dialog box every time when it come across some minor data integrity issues while going through tens of thousands of entries.
Upon inspecting the C code, they failed to provide a mechanism to suppress the warning dialog box for Windows (it can be done a function that uses with signals in linux though). Since this is a one-shot gig anyway and I don’t have the time to figure out the dependencies and recompile their code chain, I came up with something ghetto: automated mouse clicker.
It’s the kind of solution that is not too natural to come by for people with finer control over computers (aka, software engineers), but immediately obvious to middle-school level script kiddies.
I have to admit I almost lost the ‘street’ knack as it took me an hour digging through the documentation and code base to find a ‘proper’ way to do it before I even gave the ghetto patch a thought. That’s how seasoned engineers can get pwned by noobs who ‘don’t know a damn thing’ but ‘gets the job done’. Luckily, I remembered to switch hats early enough this time.
A ghetto trick or two can be used ONLY when we are really sure that it’s a one-time gig that won’t be reused. Any attempts to extend the one-time-wonder can only attribute to pain and misery for everybody, as a recurring theme in software and product development projects.
Sounds like a familiar situation at work? It’s always that one small thing your client asked you for. If you hack something up quick-‘n’-dirty and it worked, they are going to say, ‘by the way, one more one small thing…’. Lather, rinse, and repeat and soon you’re buried in brown, sticky foam.
This can be explained by the life lesson I learned in my first summer internship during high school: people in general don’t know what they really wanted and they don’t communicate well. Me included. The soft-skills coaching received at Stanford helped quite a bit, but I still consider myself ‘not there yet’.
Typically, your client is going to ask you for something specific (which is not what they really wanted because they haven’t figured it out yet) and keep revising and making sharp turns at your expense to make up for the ‘errors’ as in ‘trial-and-error’.
This is not a win-win scenario. It’s a tug of war between you and your client: you want your client to do their homework to figure out what they wanted and your client want to crap-shoot at your expense. It creates tension between you and your client. A work contract (or a specification agreed upon) might protect you from blame, but a client that doesn’t get what he/she wanted (regardless of who is at fault) is not going to be happy about your work.
One way out of it is to ask your client to start with a vague, underlying theme of what they are trying to accomplish. This way they won’t be overwhelmed by the pressure to get all the detailed specs right. If you have a long term relationship with the client, it pays to learn what are their general ‘interests’ are so you can piece the fragments together quicker. Gradually, you can ease them into thinking through their underlying goals aloud and you can take the opportunity to explore how you can help them accomplish it.
Guide them through their thought process, and maybe show a little prototype or design to help them visualize how they can accomplish their goals (through you). With the big picture in mind, you can make educated judgement, fill in details, and decide what intermediate/iterative steps are needed instead of letting the client unwittingly micromanage you based off his/her solution approach by saying ‘I need one small thing quick…’ one at a time. You are now in control over the project and in a very good position to help your client meet his/her true agenda.
It seemed like more upfront work to meet your client halfway and do part (or half) of their homework, but for anything other than a short hit-and-run, it’s less total work for you and a happier outcome for both. Using this approach, I was able to deliver a last minute change in ‘1 minute’ because the software architecture I designed was tailored towards the client’s underlying goal, so the feature he forgot to ask for was naturally built in and only requires one line of code to turn it on despite I hadn’t explicitly planned for it.
The bottom line is that humans are clueless (at various levels) and they want to further their interests (by doing something). If we take both parties’ interest into account and spot inefficiencies that we can correct, there’s at least an approach where everybody wins. Game-theoretic approach and market equilibrium is ‘optimal’ only when ‘technology’ is held unimproved and there is no on-going relationship between parties. Life doesn’t always have to be a war or struggle 🙂
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“Copy as path” option in Microsoft Windows
Very often I want to copy the full path of a file to my MATLAB environment for quick testing. Before my coworker showed me the trick, I tried to staple the filename I copied from the Explorer window to the address bar then re-copy the whole. That was dumb.
For some reason, Windows stowed away a slick feature called ‘Copy as Path’. You have to hold “SHIFT” key while right-clicking to get the good stuff displayed (same as “Open Command Window Here”). What a crime!
This website shows you a way to have the menu option activated by default:
http://www.askvg.com/registry-tweak-to-add-copy-as-path-option-in-files-and-folders-context-menu-in-windows/
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