Offline files are still sensitive to long path names. I had a Word document open (deep in a folder tree and a long file name) and tried to create a PDF for uploading to a customer. I kept getting errors - sometimes it indicated the file was read-only (which didn't make sense) and sometimes it said I didn't have access. Ends up if I shortened the file name a little, it would work.
This seems to be something that my Windows Vista book did not mention about disk management in comparison with the past versions. Windows Vista/7/2008 Server have an improved Disk Management feature in that it allows you to shrink basic partitions. Whereas in the past we have had to use 3rd party utilities (such as gparted or partition magic) to resize drives, Windows has the option to shrink the partition size. Simply open up disk management and right click on the partition you wish to shrink and select “Shrink”.
Windows will calculate exactly how much it can shrink so that you can use the new unallocated space to make additional partitions. Limitations to this of course depend on where the data is currently stored on the disk. If it is scattered, you may be able to claim more by defragmenting and moving your data towards the first sectors of the disk.
Using Explorer from my laptop has been frustratingly slow any time network drives were visible in the left-hand pane. Any time I'd switch to a different program and switch back, it was a slow process (15-30 seconds) of Explorer enumerating each network drive, with a visible delay in the seconds range for each network drive. While researching network performance for another customer, I came across a way to dramatically reduce the amount of time Explorer takes to enumerate these drive letters. Apparently, when Explorer connects to a network resource, it searches the networked computer for scheduled tasks. You can turn this off by deleting the following registry key and rebooting: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
After making that change Explorer now enumerates the drives in five seconds or so.
Processes can be remotely viewed and terminated by built in Windows commands: tasklist.exe and taskkill.exe.
Examples of terminating a process:
Find the process id using the command “tasklist /s <computer> /u <domain>\<user> /p <password>”
Terminate the corresponding process “taskkill /s <computer> /u <domain>\<user> /p <password> /pid <process ID>”
If you attempt to run Bit Locker Drive Preparation Tool on Windows Vista with SP2 installed it will produce an error. The problem is with the installer package. You can uninstall SP2 or perform these steps to bypass the error by extracting the install files:[more]
One of the issues in Vista is the is no direct way to get to Network Connections by default. You can create a shortcut with a target that points to “C:\Windows\System32\ncpa.cpl” and it will take you straight to the Network Connections. You can also run “ncpa.cpl” to get there as well.
About a year ago Microsoft released the BitLocker Drive Preparation tool to help with the disk partition changes to support BitLocker. Information on using this tools is located at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933246. However it hasn’t been updated to work with Vista SP2. If you try to install it on SP2 you get an error indicating it doesn’t apply to the installed OS. Until Microsoft updates the tool, you’ll need to install it before installing Vista SP2.
Connecting via VPN to a customer site has always caused problems with me trying to access the local network. My computer would try and use my VPN credentials to access the network, and naturally fail. A co-worker showed me the “cmdkey /delete /ras” command that would clear out those credentials so browsing the local network would work. [more]
So I, running Vista, fired up a command prompt with administrator privileges because I figured the cmdkey command required them. After running the command, I tried browsing the network and failed. Running cmdkey /list showed no credentials but my exchange credentials. I started a command prompt with regular privileges and ran the cmdkey /list. Sure enough, there were my dial-up credentials. Running the cmdkey /delete /ras cleared them out and everything worked.
Just a friendly reminder at how easy it is to gain access to your files if your machine is running. I locked myself out of a Windows Vista virtual machine I was playing with (It wouldn't allow me to log onto the domain and I didn't have the local admin password). After some quick Google searching, I ran across the free Offline NT Password and Registry Editor. You boot to a light distro of linux, it copies the SAM database, asks what you want to do with the password (in this case, clear it), saves the SAM database back, and presto! You're in. This also illustrates the importance of implementing full disk encryption.
Many years ago, PC makers came out with the “enhanced keyboard” and the control key got moved. It used to be located to the left of the caps lock key, but for some reason that is still unknown, it got moved to way down below the left shift key, where you really have to cramp up your hand to reach it. The most popular solution to this is to switch the caps lock and the control keys. I use a nice GUI program, KeyTweak http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick. Since NT, Microsoft Windows has had a registry key that lets you remap your keyboard. This lets you remap just about every key by setting this registry key. It is the most complete utility I could find. It works with Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7. Since this is a feature built into Windows, no kernel mode driver, service, or anything else needs to be running. You can edit the registry yourself, but this tool makes it really easy. It has an option to show the registry entry and what all the bytes mean.