Hackszine.com: Windows Archives

Archive: Windows

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January 23, 2008

Disable the speaker beeps on Windows

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Aaron Tiensivu has posted the commands you need to know to shut off the Windows speaker beep temporarily or for all time.

To temporarily disable the PC Speaker beep:
net stop beep

To disable the PC Speaker beep for good (until you undo this setting):
sc config beep start= disabled

Now you don't need to run out of the room screaming next time you make a mistake at the Command Prompt that would normally make the hills come alive with BEEP BEEP BEE BEEEP BEEEEP. One liners: Disable the PC Speaker beeps in 200x/XP/Vista - Link

January 15, 2008

Unlimited ripping of Netflix "Watch Now" movies

A while ago we wrote about removing the DRM from Netflix "Watch Now" movies. At the time, it involved wading through a bit of HTML source to find the target video URL. Since then, a couple of important things have happened: a Greasemonkey script was written that makes it a bit easier to download and process the DRMed WVM file, and more importantly, Netflix is now allowing unlimited downloads.

What can you do with this? Well, you can download a number of videos ahead of time and then watch them at your leisure, especially if you travel a lot and are offline for extended periods of time. It also means you can convert the files to mp4 format for playing on your mac, iPod or Apple TV device. Or maybe you were hoping to finish that documentary you were making about the strange facial expressions of Sylvester Stallone and needed a few more clips to splice into your film...

How To Rip Netflix "Watch Now" Movies - Link
Netflix Downloader Greasemonkey Script - Link

December 24, 2007

MediaPortal: open source media center software for PCs

Paul McGuinness wrote in about a home theater PC system he is building, and tipped us off to a GPLed software package called MediaPortal. It's a full-featured media center package for Windows users, featuring (HD)TV, DVD, photo, music and radio support. It also has a scheduled recording feature and a bunch of other niceties that basically beats the pants off of the media center software that comes with your PC.

MediaPortal: the open source media center - [via] Link

December 17, 2007

Read/write access to Linux partitions from Windows

I read today on Lifehacker about a freeware tool called Linux Reader. It provides you with read access to ext2/ext3 partitions within Windows and has an explorer-like interface that allows you to drag and drop files from a standard Linux partition.

What about full read/write access? With a little googling, I found another freeware utility called Ext2 IFS that provides full write access. It's is essentially a kernel ext2/ext3 filesystem driver for Windows, which allows the operating system to access your Linux partitions in a more native manner.

After installing, you can mount your Linux partition under a drive letter, just like you would an NTFS partition. The drive will be available in Explorer and within any file browser dialog in your favorite Windows applications.

As far as I can tell, both packages pretty much ignore the permission settings on files, so you'll have full access to files across the entire partition. One caveat is that LVM volumes are not supported by the Ext2 IFS driver (and I'm assuming the same is true for Linux Reader). ReiserFS, XFS and other filesystems are also not supported. For your plain Jane dual-boot system with an ext3 partition, however, you should have no problem accessing your Linux files from within Windows.

Ext2 Installable File System For Windows - Link
Linux Reader - [via] Link

December 13, 2007

Vista on the Eee PC

Looks like it's possible to install Vista on that tiny little Eee PC. Why? Because you can, of course.

Paul O'Brien figured out the trick to this hack. The key is to make the WinSXS directory a junction (Vista's name for a symbolic link) to an external SD card. This directory takes up about 1.5GB of space which you just don't have an excess of on the Eee PC.

You'll want to grab the largest SD card you can get your hands on. In addition to accommodating the WinSXS directory, it can be used for the program files directory of any additional applications you want to install. Oh, and remember not to remove the drive with the machine running.

Installing Vista on the Eee PC - Link

December 4, 2007

Lovely alpha-blended cursors for Windows

Aaron Tiensivu has created a nice installer for XsX's alpha-blended cursors. Not only do they look cool, but Aaron lists some very good reasons for using them:

#1 The cursors change color based on the action performed (Normal/Link Select/Etc)
#2 They are easy on the eyes, professional looking, and most importantly, easy to locate on a laptop LCD.
#3 They work well on Citrix and Terminal Server sessions with low color depth.

You'll have to pick your .inf file after you've installed these, so be sure to read Aaron's posting carefully to make sure you use the right one. Aaron's thoughtfully included a mouse scheme that uses these cursors, too. Custom alpha blended (semi-transparent) mouse cursors - Link

December 3, 2007

Big Book of Windows Hacks #16: a grab bag of Vista interface hacks

Here's another hack from Preston Gralla's Big Book of Windows Hacks that digs into some cool hacks for the Vista user interface. You'll learn how to hack ClearType, get rid of the text from desktop icons, mess around with selecting multiple files in Explorer, delete files without being interrogated each time, and more. Hack #16 - Link

Related:

Big Book of Windows Hacks @ the Maker Store - Link
Big Book of Windows Hacks--New from Make: Tips & Tricks for Unlocking the Power of Your Windows PC - Link
Hack #156 from Big Book of Windows Hacks: strip down your Windows installation - Link

November 28, 2007

Hack #156 from Big Book of Windows Hacks: strip down your Windows installation

Preston Gralla's Big Book of Windows Hacks has hit the streets, and we're really excited about it. It's truly big: 600 pages and 188 hacks. You'll learn how to bend Vista and XP to your will, get the most out of gadgets like the Zune, your networking hardware, and Windows Home Servers. Here's some of the stuff you'll find in there:

Expanded tutorials, new background material, a series of "quick hacks," and informative sidebars
Security hacks, including protection at wireless hotspots, hacking Vista file permissions and user account protection, and more
Efficiency hacks, such as tweaking your PC hardware, troubleshooting hardware problems, and speeding up system performance
Fun hacks, like building a custom Media Center PC or turning a PC into a digital video recorder
"Beyond Windows" hacks for running Linux inside Vista, dual-booting Linux/Windows or XP/Vista, or emulating classic video games on your PC

We'll be running a few sample hacks, starting with "Strip the Crud Out of Your Windows Install", which explains how to slim down your Windows installation before installing Windows. Hack #156 - Link

Related:

Big Book of Windows Hacks @ the Maker Store - Link
Big Book of Windows Hacks--New from Make: Tips & Tricks for Unlocking the Power of Your Windows PC - Link

October 19, 2007

UPnP: change a router's firewall rules from a client machine

Universal Plug and Play support is available on most modern wireless and DSL routers. Among other things, it allows client machines on the local network to remotely configure the router's port forwarding, typically without authenticated access.

Adrian Crenshaw has a nice screencast which shows how to detect UPnP capable devices on your network and how to use the PortForward utility in Windows to remotely configure port forwarding for routers on your LAN.

After looking at this, you'll probably come to the conclusion that, while convenient, unauthenticated UPnP is pretty dangerous. It allows someone who has momentary access to your network to easily reconfigure your router to punch holes through its NAT firewall. This could be somone on your wireless network, or it could be as simple as a malicious program that you accidentally execute on your own machine.

Fortunately, most routers allow you to disable UPnP, and you should probably take advantage of this and turn off UPnP on your devices now.

UPnP Port Forwarding and Security Screencast - Link
UPNPScan - Link
UPNP PortForward (exe, source and documentation) - Link

October 18, 2007

Remote snapshot backups with rsync and Samba

Thanassis Tsiodras writes:

What would you do if you had to automatically backup a remote Linux box (e.g. your web server), and all you had locally was Windows machines? How about this:
automatically expanding local storage space
transmissions of differences only
automatic scheduling
local storage of differences only
secure and compressed transfer of remote data and
instant filesystem navigation inside daily snapshot images

I covered all these requirements using open source tools, and I now locally backup our 3GB remote server in less than 2min!

We've all used Samba and rsync before, but Thanassis has really put all the pieces together into a complete backup system that's superior to a lot of commercial products I've seen.

The really impressive bit is how he's easily doing snapshot images using filesystem hardlinks. You can save several days worth of snapshots at very little cost because additional space is only taken up by files that have changed. Using hardlinks, identical files from different snapshots all point to the same inode.

root# mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/backup root# cd /mnt/backup root# rm -rf OneBeforeLast root# cp -al LastBackup OneBeforeLast root# cd LastBackup root# rsync -avz --delete root@hosting.machine.in.US:/ ./
The "cp -al" creates a zero-cost copy of the data (using hardlinks, the only price paid is the one of the directory entries, and ReiserFS is well known for its ability to store these extremely efficiently). Then, rsync is executed with the --delete option: meaning that it must remove from our local mirror all the files that were removed on the server - and thus creating an accurate image of the current state.

And here's the icing on the cake: The data inside these files are not lost! They are still accessible from the OneBeforeLast/ directory, since hard links (the old directory entries) are pointing to them!

In plain terms, simple navigation inside OneBeforeLast can be used to examine the exact contents of the server as they were BEFORE the last mirroring.

Just imagine the data recovery headaches you could solve by adapting that to a cron job that shuffles a months worth of nightly backups.

Optimal remote Linux backups with rsync over Samba - Link

October 16, 2007

HOWTO - browse the Zune in Windows Explorer

Here's a decent screencast that shows you step by step how to alter a few registry settings so that your Zune will show up in Windows just like a normal external USB drive.

Step 1. Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and your Zune software isn't running.
Step 2.
Open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting "run". Type regedit and hit "OK"

Step 3.
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\ Enum\USB\

Step 4.
Right Click on the USB folder and select Find
Search for "PortableDeviceNameSpace". This should be contained in the Vid_####&Pid_####\########_-_########_-_ ########_-_########\Device Parameters within the above ...\USB\ The ##'s listed here will be numbers and letters specific to your Zune

Step 5.

Change the following values:
• EnableLegacySupport to 1
• PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0
• ShowInShell to 1

It's explained in more detail at the end of the video, but for some people the user will get a device locked error when trying to drag files to or from the device. Starting up the Zune software and syncing a large file, then killing the process from the task manager mid-sync will trick the Zune into thinking it's unlocked and allow you to access it from explorer.

October 9, 2007

NES on the Pocket PC and Smartphone

Paul McGuinness sent us a few more Blackjack hacks today, some of which are particular to the device, and some that apply to Smartphones and Pocket PCs in general. My favorite, though, is getting an NES emulator running on the device.

I've played with the PocketNester NES emulator on my PPC quite a bit. You just download the PPC ARM installer from the SourceForge site, run the installer when you are connected to ActiveSync, and copy some ROMs over to play. It's painless on the PPC, but it won't install on the Smartphone.

I haven't been able to test them, but there are a number of alternative PocketNester ports floating around, including PocketNesterPlus which is said to run correctly on the landscape/widescreen Smartphones. I've linked to what I could find. Hopefully one of them will get you up and running on your particular device.

While you're checking this out, you're going to need to find some ROMs to play. Instead of just downloading a bunch of old Nintendo ROMs, I always get a kick out of trying homebrew NES apps. The game pictured above is called Grave Digger, and it's an addictive (maybe twisted) take on the old computer science "game of life" cellular automaton. The goal is to dig up all the zombies, but every time you dig, the adjacent graves will toggle between exhumed or filled.

The reason I mention Grave Digger is that it was written in 2004 as part of Bob Rost's game development class at Carnegie Mellon. If you start to get into playing retro Nintendo games, it might be worth taking the next step and taking a swing at writing one. The CMU lectures, tests, and a nice collection of NES homebrew resources are available on Bob Rost's site (as well as a few cool game ROMs). It's definately worth checking out.

References:

Original PocketNester (PPC portrait @ sourceforge - I've tested this one) - Link
PocketNester (for qvga SP @ surrealnetworks) - Link
PocketNesterPlus (for landscape SP @ surrealnetworks) - Link
PocketNesterPlus @ modaco forums (most recent? download appears to be corrupt right now) - Link
Samsung Blackjack Hacks Wiki - [via] Link
Game Development for the 8-bit NES - Link

October 3, 2007

HOWTO - read RSS with a POP email client using FreePOPs

FreePOPs is an open source, plugin-based POP proxy that you can run on your local machine. It was originally designed to allow you to use a normal POP email client to read your mail on a multitude of webmail systems. You point your mail client at the FreePOPs server, and it connects and screen-scrapes your webmail account so that you can read your email in the comfort of your favorite mail reader.

The great thing about FreePOPs is its filter plugin architecture. There are a number of different plugins to support the specific requirements of most of the popular web-based email systems. There's even an RSS plugin that will pull an RSS feed and make it look like a normal POP mailbox. Thankfully, you don't need to configure anything on the server. Instead, you connect to the FreePOPs server using a particular username and password format to activate the appropriate plugin.

Here's how to set up an RSS-to-POP mailbox using FreePOPs and the standard OS X Mail.app email client.

Read full story

October 1, 2007

HOWTO - use Gmail with your Windows Mobile Smartphone

An anonymous reader sent us a few hacks today for the Samsung SGH-i600 phone - Link. This is basically the US Blackjack, except that it's released in the UK with Orange's branding and a bit of crippleware. One of the hacks that's mentioned is using GMail with the device, and it's a cool hack that can be applied to any Windows Mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC with internet access.

Overview
One of the things I've liked about these devices, in addition to the free dev tools, is that the mail client supports IMAP and POP email servers, not just the corporate Exchange setup. If you use GMail, you can set up your phone to send and receive email via GMails POP and SMTP servers.

This howto will guide you through the necessary settings. The screens may look a little different depending on what device and OS version you have, but the basic settings information will be the same throughout.

Read full story

September 27, 2007

Packet Garden

Packet Garden is a network visualization tool that maps your network traffic into a 3D representation, sprouting little plants on a globe whenever a connection is made.

To do this, Packet Garden takes note of all the servers you visit, their geographical location and the kinds of data you access. Uploads make hills and downloads valleys, their location determined by numbers taken from internet address itself. The size of each hill or valley is based on how much data is sent or received. Plants are also grown for each protocol detected by the software; if you visit a website, an 'HTTP plant' is grown. If you share some files via eMule, a 'Peer to Peer plant' is grown, and so on.

Packet Garden is GNU licenced and written in Python, so you can give it a try on supported Linux, Windows, and Mac machines. It doesn't run on Intel macs, unfortunately. As far as I can tell, Soya3D (the 3D library it uses) is the culprit and has not been compiled under this architecture. Anyone want to take a stab at porting this? I'm not familiar with the package, but it might be as simple as installing all Soya's required libraries and running a python make script.

Packet Garden. Grow a world from network traffic - Link
Soya3D - Link