Windows 7 – Busy Saving The World

Additional block list for IE 8 InPrivate filtering

Before I blogged about getting rid of unwanted ads using IE 8 InPrivate filtering way back last year (https://johndelizo.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/getting-rid-of-unwanted-ads-using-ie-8-inprivate-filtering/) and it seems working up till I am browsing today I noticed that a huge number of ads that I am seeing – it seems that there are new URLs or links that ads nowadays use.

What you can do is import additional block list for the InPrivate filtering. You can search for some lists in the internet, like this one and for convenience I have uploaded to my skydrive: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=5686721b6e7ba618&id=5686721B6E7BA618%213547#cid=5686721B6E7BA618&id=5686721B6E7BA618%21487

Download the file and save to your desktop.

Now to import this, just go to the status bar of IE, find the InPrivate icon, click and choose settings.

on the InPrivate window, click advanced settings.

On the manage Add-ons window, while displaying inPrivate Filtering, click the import button.

Choose the file that you downloaded earlier

A prompt will tell you that this is already imported.

After clicking OK, InPrivate data would refresh and load

So there you have it, more ads and sites blocked 🙂

There you have it, more filters for IE. Happy browsing!

Autodate your notes with Notepad (even without scripting)

First and foremost, NOTEPAD has been my dependable friend or companion so to speak even from the start of my IT career. Waaaaay back in my high-school days when I was taking notes and doing some HTML, on my college days when I was learning JavaScript I have used notepad.exe for editing HTML and viewing it on IE on Windows 98. I learned DHTML and even editing perl and bash scripts using notepad, still it has filled its purpose. This is not to mention doing some batch files (.bat) and other cmd prompt scripting, and creating some registry settings (.reg). Enuf of our history, my age is showing 🙂

Today when teaching and coaching junior programmers and developers what does it mean to create a good software, I always give NOTEPAD as an example. Well for one, I never crashed a notepad nor had a notepad crashed the entire operating system. It is stable, intuitive to use, had a wide range of use and highly dependable.

Okay, another thought would be, it has been with Windows 98 as far as I can remember (sorry guys, never had the chance to use 95 so go figure out the history for your selves). If you have a software that has been included in almost all of the Windows operating system, it must be a good software. So love your notepad.

With this example, you may be surprised that Notepad has another use, creating notes that has autodates – even without scripting!

All you have to do is put a “.LOG” (All CAPS, without quotes) on the topmost of your notepad file, like the one on the sample below.

Close and save your file.

for this example I will use this as my notes so I will name this file as “myNotes.txt”

So after saving, just open the txt file that we created.

You will see that there is now a time stamp right after the .LOG. This is automatically generated everytime you close your txt file.

Try it your self, a notepad (txt) file with a auto time stamp, cheers!

Getting rid of unwanted ads using IE 8 InPrivate filtering

Hello, I have been busy and tonight I just wanted to read some development in the news but I got really annoyed of the ads loading in my browser. This always happens to me when I browse a site and an ad will pop or will clutter my screen! If you are like me that does want to filter your browsing experience to some parts of the web page, you can use the IE8 InPrivate filtering. Sorry, not really a fan nor ever used online ads. This is just me tho.

This is a snip of my browser me just goin thru our local tv news channel site: Look, I have this ad.

I will try to block this google ad by goin to the lower right corner of the browser window and clicking the history icon with a lock in it besides the zoom. I click it and choose settings like so:

Then this window will appear:

I choose the content to block or allow and chosed some googleadservices.com and blocked them by clicking them on the list then while highlighted, I clicked the [block] button.

So I blocked them all

Then I clicked the [OK] Button. Tried to refresh the page just to see if there are anymore ads there. NONE! So everytime I visit this site, no more ads!

There, back to my evening browsing 😛 Cheers!

Remote Assistance in Windows 7 and XP with a dear friend :)

Last night, a very dear friend of mine needed help in her PC. I can’t just run off in the middle of the night to go there and fix a simple thingy so we decided to have a REMOTE ASSISTANCE session.

First what is Remote assistance, copy-pasting this line from this Microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/remoteassist/intro.mspx : Remote Assistance provides a way for you to get the help you need when you run into problems with your computer. If you’re an experienced user, you can even be the one to use Remote Assistance to directly help your friends and family members.

This was available waaaay back XP days! I was just kinda surprised that some has not heard of this yet. Plus this is really simple with a few steps and youre on your way. In remote assistance there are two actors, one is the helper (the expert.. TADAHHHH) and the one that you are helping. You may also send an invitation to help or invite a person to help.

For this scenario I will just do a screenshot cast of where to find Remote Assistance and some basics, I will request someone to help me. Just press the start button then type remote assistance.

Opening remote assistance, you will see this: For now I will invite a person to help me.

In order to initiate the connection, an invitation file will be sent to your expert, you can either save the invitation and send it as an attachment or just send it outright thru outlook or any mail client that you may have.

Saving the file as…

This is the remote assistance window, don’t close it. Wait for the expert to respond to your request.

The following took place last night, I received the invitation from the dear friend in need

Opened my mail and there it is.

I opened the attachment and allowed it to be open outright.

The net is acting up again last night so I had to wait a couple of seconds for this to connect:

Connected! there now I can see her desktop like in remote desktop. I’m just viewing right now. If I wanted to control her desktop, I just simply click the Request control icon on the top right corner of the Remote assistance Window. (BTW she is using a really old windows XP machine, if I mean old I really mean old, XP Still is a good downloader don’t you think?)

So there you have it, Windows Remote Assistance from Windows 7 and XP.

Checking connectivity using PortQueryUI

Have you tried PortQuery? A command line tool for checking if a given port of a computer / server is open or shall we say “Listening”. Some of PortQuery links are found over here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b310099 and also on TechNet and if you look closely there are some samples also here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776894(WS.10).aspx

But that’s not entirely what this blog post is all about 😀 I was using PortQuery in a number of instance now and to my amazement, there is this little tool called PortQueryUI, Yes folks PortQuery with UI and not run from the CMD!. (And it runs without problems with my Windows7 workstation).

Just download and Unzip.

In this instance I need to use PortQueryUI to check if there is an existing SQL Instance in a remote server and Yes, the remote server indeed has an instance of SQL. It was indicated at the bottom TCP port 1433 (ms-sql-s service): LISTENING.

I tried this is on my localmachine (127.0.0.1). I did not installed any SQL Instance on my machine and upon checking, PortQuery reported NOT LISTENING. There is one more response that PortQuery is throwing, Filtered. For clarity I’ve copy pasted these from the KB article:

Listening
A process is listening on the port on the computer that you selected. Portqry.exe received a response from the port.

Not Listening
No process is listening on the target port on the target system. Portqry.exe received an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) "Destination Unreachable – Port Unreachable" message back from the target UDP port. Or if the target port is a TCP port, Portqry received a TCP acknowledgement packet with the Reset flag set.

Filtered
The port on the computer that you selected is being filtered. Portqry.exe did not receive a response from the port. A process may or may not be listening on the port. By default, TCP ports are queried three times, and UDP ports are queried one time before a report indicates that the port is filtered.

I’m really glad that old tools still run without problems with Windows7 🙂 So do check this out and to get the PortQryUI – User Interface for the PortQry Command Line Port Scanner from Microsoft Downloads: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8355e537-1ea6-4569-aabb-f248f4bd91d0&displaylang=en

Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial extended up till December 31, 2010!

Good news for those who are still on Windows 7 Enterprise Evaluation Trials (Like some of my VM labs that I constantly rebuild :P) and special mention to a friend of mine that I have been speaking to (even last night) regarding trying out Windows 7 clients and Windows Server 2008 R2 for his business. So copy pasting from TechNet Evaluation Center: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx

“The 90-day Trial is offered for a limited time and in limited quantity. The download will be available through December 31, 2010, while supplies last”

Well where did i found out about this? From the TechNet Flash newsletter of course! (Already subscribed? if not visit here TechNet Flash Sign Up) Copy pasting again from them TechNet Flash:

“The availability of Windows 7 Enterprise (Eval) 90-day Trial is being extended to Dec 31, 2010. Intended primarily for IT pros, the 90-day trial is the full-featured Enterprise SKU that will enable any organization to explore, test hardware and applications, perform pilot activities, and develop deployment scenarios.”

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7

Back with Windows Vista I have been a really big fan of this free tool – RSAT or the Remote Server Administration Tool, now that everyone has migrated to Windows 7 (finally!) its time to get some tools back to a newly installed machine. One of the tools i need is the RSAT and fortunately enough there is an update / installer for Windows 7 machines. You can download the update directly from the download center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en

Just scroll down to the bottom and download if you have a 64 bit or 32 bit operating system.

After saving to the hard disk, I just had to run the downloaded file and everything is a wizard.

You may have to wait a lil longer for this installation to complete, I may not give you the exact length of time it took me to install this, did it over coffee break 😛

After installing the update, you now have to activate RSAT thru Windows Features.

To do that go to your control panel then click Programs and features:

On programs and features click the Turn Windows Features on or Off at the left hand corner of the window.

Then on Windows Features Window, check the Remote Server Administration Tools, if you expand it you can check or uncheck which ever you need or do not need. You can go back here again if you want to remove or add features in the future.

As you can see, as for me, I’m checking everything, you may never know when you would need one 😀

Clicking Ok will prompt you with this installing dialog, this is now the process that activates the feature. You may want to have your second coffee break now.

After installing, the Administration Tools appeared on my start menu. (Sorry I had to blank out some details) .

So that’s it! The RSAT or Remote Server Administration Tool for Windows 7 and for my final screenshot of my desktop (a Windows 7 Enterprise) have you seen the Active Directory Administrative Center? But that’s in another story, till then CHEERS!

Windows 7 Beta and Windows 7 RC Expiration Dates

To some of my colleagues, workmates and to some community people that for some reason are still on RC and Beta. Basically they have demo’s already there, some over dued POC and just no time to re-install. Guys these will expire soon so mark your dates, its going to be soon!

Copy Pasting from the support site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971767

Windows 7 RC expiration

Effective February 15, 2010, the expiration notification process begins:

Windows 7 RC users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
Windows 7 RC users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.

Effective March 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC enters the next phase of expiration:

Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.
Important When the computer restarts, your work will not be saved.

Effective June 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC expires:

Windows starts to a black desktop.
Windows 7 RC users are presented with a Windows Activation screen. The screen states that the Windows that you are running is not genuine.
Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

Windows 7 Beta expiration

Effective June 17, 2009, the expiration notification process begins:

Windows 7 Beta users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
Windows 7 Beta users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.

Effective July 1, 2009, Windows 7 Beta enters the next phase of expiration:

Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
Computers that are running Windows 7 Beta restart every two hours.

Effective August 1, 2009, Windows 7 Beta expires:

Windows starts to a black desktop
Windows 7 Beta users are presented with a Windows Activation Expired dialog box during logon and then again every hour.
Computers that are running Windows 7 Beta restart every two hours

Windows 7: Run as a different user

Today I had to use different accounts to do sorts of things (on my visual studio 😛 – and for some reasons, I don’t want to switch user) and I did remember that since XP, there is this cool cmd tool called runas : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490994.aspx. I tried it and it still works over Windows7, but to my amazement, this has been extended into a hidden context menu! Just shift + Right Click a new set of context menu will be added to the usual ones.

My particular interest is the Run as different user, which enables me to do what runas cmd tool do. Upon invoking the menu, this will open a login dialog box like this where you an enter the user that you want to use and as well as the password.

This run as in the context menu is very convenient, but if you need more control and more switches, i would still recommend the runas cmd tool which as a number of very useful switches.

Ok john, back to work now.

Running Windows7? Get the latest updates for Application Compatibility!

If you are already running Windows7 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 as a workstation) like me? Do get the latest updates for your PC’s for your Applications to run without any hassles. From a KB article : “The Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Application Compatibility Update is a software update that improves the compatibility experience in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft regularly releases Windows 7 and of Windows Server 2008 R2 application compatibility updates.”

I always use Alcohol 52%, its a virtual drive emulator where I can mount my ISO’s and CUE image disks so that I do not have to burn them again on a physical disk. I had problems installing Alcohol after rebuilding my demo laptop and apparently I did not did my best practice of installation – after manufacturers drivers, get and install the latest updates! I found my update here: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Application Compatibility Update

Downloaded the installer from here:

Download the x86-based versions of Windows 7 update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=87bc03c6-4e24-4706-ae99-5c57ce50a970)

Download the x64-based versions of Windows 7 update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0f9e69a3-c29d-4538-af0e-c081635c65c5)

Download the x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=29de679b-3aa5-41ae-a425-35579fffbe20)

Download the Itanium-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 update package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=cf65da8d-04cb-41e0-80e5-a7f24cf4548a)

After downloading your updates manually, just run it and wait for it to finish