Create windows process to delete any unwanted icons from the desktop? - windows

IT has a process hidden somewhere deep on my system which automatically creates certain icons and shortcuts on my desktop if they do not exist. (It may even exist solely on their systems, connecting to mine periodically to do this.) This means when I try to delete them, they are back within a couple of hours. This drives me nuts. I have all of the shortcuts and icons on my taskbar, and do not like having random crap on my desktop.
I would like to write something to run as a service which monitors the desktop every second or so, and deletes anything that shows up.
How would I go about doing this? In a relatively easy and straightforward manner? Would I use a bat file, or vbs script? How do I create a bat file to run as a service?


If you have the "Hide protected operating system files" setting on (it is by default) you could try to just hide the icons with ATTRIB +R +S +H "annoyingapp.lnk".
You can't just run anything as a service. You could perhaps use the Srvany tool to execute your script but I would imagine a task that runs every now and then is a better fit for this issue.

Related

C: drive access permission in windows 7

In matlab, I used a windows standalone application. There is a line in this application that writes a file in C:\...\...\. When I run the output exe file produced from this windows standalone application, the exe doesn't write in C:\...\...\ neither tells me that there is a security issues in that partition. All the execution does is nothing. But, when I right-click and run the exe as administrator, it runs correctly.
I want to do it without right-click and run as administrator. Are there is a command in matlab that can do that?

If you create a shortcut to your application, you can go to the Properties of the shortcut, click on Advanced in the Shortcut tab, and select "Run as administrator". That way, whenever you start the application from the shortcut it will be run as an administrator.
(Disclaimer: applications really shouldn't "foul their own nest" by writing into Program Files. This is bad design.)

Starting from Vista, unprivileged processes are not allowed to write to protected folders such as Program Files, because Program Files is designed to store code and not data. However, since this limitation has not been enforced in XP, MS has provided a backward-compatibility hack in the form of Virtual Store. Now, when a program tries to write to protected folder, its output is being redirected into a dedicated folder. This way, the program still "thinks" it writes to its usual location, while in fact it writes to an unprotected location. However, when you later check the Program Files location, you might not see the file - because it's not really there.
You can find more details here: User Account Control Data Redirection.

If you are administrator, add full control permission for your username to the destination folder. You do that by right clicking on the folder, going to properties and then security tab. Then edit and add you username with Full Control rights. Then you don;t have to run the the program as an administrator.

There is no way you can elevate a process once it is started, so Matlab cannot possibly have a command for that. Just running Matlab elevated.

open console (terminal) window and execute command (rsync) on os x

I am from a windows background and trying to help a mac user friend to backup her pictures, docs, etc. onto an external drive. In windows, I would accomplish this by creating a simple batch file with an xcopy command and have a shortcut on the desktop that pointed to that .bat file when double clicked. However, in the mac world I am having significant trouble finding how to do this. I have searched repeatedly to find the mac equivalent, but all I find are sites saying things like "there are so many options on a mac - use one of them." However, none have ever given a specific solution nor pointed to a specific solution. Anyone here know of a specific step by step process to accomplish this? I simply want to be able to have her double click an icon on the desktop and have it copy her personal documents (not application settings or other overhead) to her external hard drive. Any help would be appreciated.

Create the batch file, which is usually called a shell script.
Enter all the commands that you want to run.
Set the executable bit, this is done with chmod +x path-to-the-file in Terminal.
Show info for the script and set Terminal to the application which should open it.
However, what I've done in similar situations and that I would recommend that you do is that I've created a shell script and instead of using Terminal I've initiated it from an AppleScript application. You can of course embed the entire shell script in the AppleScript as well. Basically it will look something like the following:
on run
do shell script "rsync -av ~/Pictures /Volume/Backup"
end run
Repeat the do shell ... line for each folder that you want to copy, or call the shell script itself. Then use AppleScript Editor which is included with Mac OS X and save it as an actual application.

Is there any way to run a VBScript file as a screen saver?

Can you execute a VBS file as a screen saver? I have managed to rename cmd.exe to *.scr and this works, but I need to be able to run a VBS file as the screen saver if this is possible.

No, this is not possible.
In Windows, screen savers (*.scr files) are a special type of executable (.exe) file. That is why renaming a program like cmd.exe to cmd.scr causes it to sort of "work" as a screen saver. In particular, screen savers respond to certain command line switches (or parameters), which is how the OS gets them to do things like show the configuration dialog or display a preview.
But you can't compile VBScript files into executables, so there's no way to make this trick work for them.
You might be able to migrate the VBScript code to a VB 6 application, which you could then compile into an executable and run as a screen saver, but I can't imagine that this would be worth the development time. If you're interested in such a thing (and can get your hands on an old copy of VB 6!), you can probably find several how-to guides online, like this one.
But I'm honestly having a hard time imagining why one would ever want to run a VBScript script as a screen saver, or what it would display on the screen. You don't have very much control over what gets displayed on the screen, and you can't call down to native Windows API functions from VBScript. You'd end up relying upon some external library, so you might as well just use that library in the first place.

You can simply write a batch file that starts your vb script:
CD "%SystemRoot%\System32"
Start /Wait Wscript.exe "c:\program files\myscript.vbs"
Exit
Then compile the batch to exe, rename the exe to scr.

How does folder hiding software work?

Last few days i have been working on building an application to hide folders(thanks to the paid versions of such softwares). After a heavy googling I zeroed into some shell script that would first create a folder and then rename the folder to "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}". It would then hide this folder by using the command attrib -s -h Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}. The funda behind this is to make it a system folder and hide it. But if you would uncheck the Hide sytem folders in Folder option the control panel becomes visible. I would like to make this folder completely invisible as how the other folder protecting softwares do.
Can somebody throw some more light on this?
Thanks a ton...

Most folder hiding software works by implementing either an extension for Windows Explorer or a file system filter driver.
The first method means that certain items will not be visible when browsing folders in Windows via the UI, but will still be visible to other software and via the command prompt. For example, the Recycle Bin and Temporary Internet Files folders work this way.
The file system filter driver method proxies calls between Windows and the underlying file system and only allows certain requests through. This is similar to how virus scanners prevent access to infected files.

The general idea is that you hook the file system API's and filter out the file system entries you want to hide.
But JelloMonkey is right - this is rootkit behavior and you will get flagged as malicious by rootkit detectors for this kind of behavior. That's likely to get your entire directory quarantined or deleted.

As a developer, what changes do you make to a vanilla Windows install?

When I get a vanilla Windows system, there's a bunch of stuff I change to make it more developer-friendly.
Some of it I remember every time, other stuff I only do as and when.
Examples:
Show extensions of all file types
Make hidden and system file visible
Turn off Windows Defender
I seem to remember a blog post from Jeff on this topic, but can't locate it!
What else do you do, and do you have any tools that automate this process?

Indeed I do the above, plus deactivating Zip support (regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll), activating the underscore on Alt shortcuts (Advanced Appearance), replacing Courier New by Andale Mono (replace with your favorite font) in all program settings (after installing it, of course), installing my favorite utilities (UnxUtils, Sysinternals', SciTE, FileMenu Tools which has Command line here and lot of other goodies, etc.) and so on.
Oh, and indeed also deactivate dual keyboard support (French/English), deactivate task grouping, install VirtuaWin (4 desktops), CLCL (clipboard manager), AutoHotkey and my favorite macros, and lot of other freewares, more or less must have.
No automation, alas.

I install Cygwin to have *nix command line tools and Xemacs to have a useful editor.

I install:
The usual suspects: Visual Studio, Sql Management Studio, Firefox, Chrome, etc...
Paint.Net
Notepad++
Launchy

The first thing I do is open a command prompt and then open the properties for it:
Switch on Quick Edit. Why is this off by default?
Increase the window size. Why limit it to the size of a postage stamp?
Increase the vertical buffer to the maximum possible. Why limit it to a few hundred lines?
Change the foreground colour to white instead of grey. Why make it less readable than it could be?
In summary: WHY?

Using the Add\Remove Windows Components in Control Panel, I always remove...
Games
Document Templates
MSN Explorer
Outlook Express
For the look and feel I...
Revert to the classic start menu; however, if it's Vista, I leave it as is because I like the indexed search feature.
Revert to a classic desktop with large icons and make sure that My Computer is the first icon (versus My Documents)
I also perform the things you mentioned above
Before installing any software I...
Install any outstanding Windows updates
Run a Disk Clean Up
Run Disk Defrag
Setup scheduled tasks for Clean Up, Defrag, and other personal tools
For tools (outside of my IDEs and other necessary development tools), I install..
TweakUI
IE6, IE7, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox
Install the set of Firefox plug-ins I always use for development
'Open Command Prompt Here' shell extension
Install Consolas and set it as the default font for my editors (IDEs, Notepad++, etc)

I wipe it and install Linux. Everyone is always amazed by how productive I can be. It's because I don't spend half my time fighting with the machine.

Install Consolas font and turn on (and tune) ClearType.
Install ZoomIt to magnify display during presentations.
Install FireFox/Firebug
Install XYplorer Win Explorer alternative (can't live without it!)
Install DeskPins to be able to make any Window temporarily topmost.
Make sure OneNote got installed with Office.
Install Visio.
Install favorite editor (whatever it is at the time, currently SCiTE).
Install 7Zip.
Fix Windows colors to suit me and put picture of RatPack (Dean's my hero) as wallpaper.

Disable shortcuts to FilterKeys, StickyKeys, and ToggleKeys - nothing frustrates me more than having to deal with that cruddy feature because I push the shift key down several times while I'm thinking or hold it down for eight seconds (again, while thinking) before I start typing!
Change the default action for Folder to explore instead of open.

over the years i have arrived to the decision that i do as little customization as possible since workplaces change and computers change (both at home and at work).
i used to do all kinds of crazy tweaks with litestep, setting up partitions, etc. these days i pare it down to the basics, and it does not take me long to setup a machine and have a familiar environment.
in addition to the usual "win32dev" setup (classic scheme, optimized for performance, no special effects, show all files, details in explorer views, blue background, etc) i have the following stack:
cygwin (gcc, vim, curl, wget, perl/ruby/python, svn, git, ssh, netcat, etc; rxvt for terminal)
ffox + adblock + dev plugins
clipx for simple stack-like clipboard with previews
textpad + a few basics syntax highlighters
virtuawin - the only minimal window manager that does all i need and nothing more
autoHotKey for basic app shortcuts
procexp to replace task manager
all other sysinternals tools
tortoise svn
putty + agent + keys
7zip
keepass
wireshark
everything i install by hand goes into c:\programs (for easy no-space, lowercase paths).

Regarding:
Show extensions of all file types
Make hidden and system file visible
I don't like making hidden files visible all the time (it makes two desktop.ini visible on my windows Vista desktop for starters) so I use an explorer extension to make it easy to toggle this on and off. There's also a corresponding one for file extensions:
HiddenFilesToggle Context-Menu Shell Extension
FileExtensionToggle Context-Menu Shell Extension

Command line scripts
For storing scripts that I use from the command line I create a Command Line Scripts directory under Program Files and add it to the PATH environment variable. I use the following batch file for listing and editing those scripts:
#echo off
setlocal
set UTILPATH=C:\Program Files\System Tools\Command Line Utilities
if not "x%1"=="x" (
start "" "notepad" "%UTILPATH%\%1.bat"
) else (
dir /b "%UTILPATH%" | grep -v com.bat | grep -P "(exe|bat|cmd)" | sed "s/\.\(exe\|bat\|cmd\)//"
echo.
)
(note that the filtering of the directory listing depends on some unix commands I have installed via Cygwin)
I give it the name com.bat, (short for command) then I can:
list the scripts in that directory by typing com at the command prompt
edit any script in the list by typing com script-name at the command prompt*, similarly:
create new scripts in that directory by typeing com new-script-name at the command prompt*
and if I ever need to edit com.bat I just type com com
* As I'm running Vista I have to use an elevated command prompt as directories under Program Files are protected.
For a quick way to launch an elevated command prompt, simply press the Win key; type cmd; press Ctrl+Shift+Enter; and then hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt. Six keystrokes to an elevated command prompt! ([via][4])
Startup Script
One of the scripts I store in my Command Line Scripts directory is a script that is run when I log in to windows (via the Task Scheduler, type Task in the Vista start menu). I use that script to set up several virtual drives using the subst command to directories I access frequently or want a quick way to access on the command prompt or for shortening path names in compiler warnings, logs or debug output.
My Startup script looks something like this:
#setlocal
#set _MYDOCS_=%USERPROFILE%\Documents
#REM Note: first delete the drives so I can run script again
#REM to fix drives that failed to get mapped
subst /d W:
subst /d T:
subst /d S:
subst /d R:
subst /d N:
subst /d L:
subst /d H:
subst W: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\Website\trunk\www"
subst T: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\project 1\trunk"
subst S: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy"
subst R: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\project 2\branches\12.50"
subst N: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\SVN Working Copy\project 2\trunk"
subst L: "%_MYDOCS_%\Work\"
subst H: "%_MYDOCS_%\My Projects\Haslers.info\Working Copy"
Note that subst can be a little temperamental and occasionally the drives don't get created and I have to run the startup script again manually.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ClipX. I find that I can't develop without this clipboard history tool.

Step 1: Fix windows
Turn off System Restore
Turn off Windows Defender
Uninstall any OEM-supplied antivirus or other crapware if it's an OEM box
Get SysInternals AutoRuns and lay the smackdown to all the 8000 useless startup items and services vista inflicts upon you, including the slow and useless vista search indexing service.
Step 2: Install stuff.
Now that my shiny new Core 2 Duo PC isn't bogged down with useless crap running like a 386, I can build it up again
Install Firefox
Install FlashPlayer firefox plugin (why oh why isn't this bundled with FF?)
Run windows update and let it do it's download/reboot cycle 50 times until it's happy
While this is happening I can use firefox to browse stackoverflow and read reddit :-)
Get UnixUtils and either unzip them to system32, or otherwise make sure they are in the path.
This is neccessary because I can't stand cygwin, yet my muscle memory keeps typing ls when I try to type dir, and windows still hasn't heard of grep yet
Install Droid Sans Mono and Monaco fonts for programming
Install E-TextEditor
If I'm installing visual studio, do that. If not install the .NET framework runtime instead
Install Firefox addons (firebug, fission, web developer, adblock)

I add Wordpad to the Send To context menu. Instructions for XP here. Works in Vista, as well.

Someone gave me a 'Delete all SVN folders' registry script - that is a must have for me, now (it's somewhere on this thread).
I leave UAC on - last thing I want is to write code that works with UAC off, but fails miserably with it on. Before I started to use Virtual PC to set up test environments for my code, I tried to leave my desktop as 'vanilla' as possible - I wanted to test under conditions reasonably similar to an everyday non-developer user.
All of the above is for my home development system. I try to do the same at work, within reason. Except for the SVN stuff, because we use TFS at my office.

I always install the following to make it easier to manage and interact with windows
Taskix - Reorder buttons in your Windows taskbar
KatMouse - scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor
WinSplit Revolution - organize your windows by tiling, resizing and positioning them
allSnap - windows automatically snap to window edges and (optionally) the edges of other windows

I like to:
Make the taskbar larger so that it can hold two rows of applications
Disable personalized menus in the start menu
Disable grouping of similar taskbar items
I also randomly open a lot of PuTTY sessions to various machines, so I like to create a "bin" directory in my home folder, add it to the PATH, and then create a shortcut to PuTTY in it named "p" (among other shortcuts). I can then easily Windows-R (run) and type p [putty-session-name] to open the session. This has saved me tons of time / mouse clicks.

I follow the extensive recipe for making a Windows system useful built and maintained by Simon Peyton Jones.

Turn off Autorun so that I'm not accidentally installing malware or crapware.
Here's a couple of links, out of many:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/autorun.htm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9894970-33.html?tag=mncol;txt

Couple of things no-one else mentioned
Install Console2 for tabbed cmd windows
Install Powershell
Completely replace Notepad with Notepad2

Install the full IIS.
Set the resolution high enough.
Set the background to Grey.
Show hidden and system files.
Toolbar 2 or 3 high (I run one monitor sideways).
Always show file extentions.

I install some set of *nix command utilities and process explorer at a bare minimum.
Also, on XP systems I disable any theming and use the windows classic coloration. Vista just doesn't look or work right without the Aero theme so I can't do that on Vista without going almost completely nuts.
Also forgot, I install Chrome. (Used to be Firefox but Chrome is nicer out of the box)

I use nLite to prepare the windows installation disk in order to have some typical settings already set right after the installation.
For example:
Explorer-Associate additional file types with Notepad
Explorer-Classic Control Panel
Explorer-Disable Beep on errors
Explorer-Disable Prefix: Shortcut to
Explorer-Show extensions of known file-types
Explorer-Show hidden files and folders
Explorer-Show the full path in the Title Bar
Performance-Disable Info Tips on Files and Folders
Performance-Disable Last accessed Timestamp on files
Taskbar-Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons
Taskbar-Disable Language-Bar
Taskbar-Lock the Taskbar-Yes
You can also remove useless parts of the system:
Accessibility Options
Briefcase
ClipBook Viewer

I install all of the shell extensions I normally use (TortoiseSVN and CommandHere for example).
Also, one of the first things I do after I reimage a machine is make sure it's hooked to all of my network shares properly. Few things derail my work as quickly as having to fight with the network to get a file at an inopportune time.

Install emacs + a selection of gnuwin32 packages.
Also proexp to replace task manager.

Edi Weitz has a nice writeup of his customizations: Making Windows usable for old Linux farts

Switch to classic menu
Increase the taskbar hight to have more shortcuts & lock the taskbar
Performance options -> Adjust for best performance
Copy all the backed up shortcuts files to Favorites folder
Install necessary software (JDK, DBMS stuff, Editplus, MS Office etc.)
Driver for soundcard
New network connection for Broadband ...

I generally leave Windows Defender online but I don't use an antivirus so....
I set my start menu to display small icons and to have no "most recently used programs" active. Instead I pin everything to my start menu:
My start menu http://www.robpaveza.net/pub/startmenu.png
I also make sure that all the extension menus are actual menus, not just links, and that my computer and user files icons are shown on the desktop.

I download and install Cygwin and Xming.

Wow, this is a really good thread... I'm going to have to go through all the suggestions and see what I'm mission out on :)
Off the bat, I install:
Google Chrome
Visual Studio 2008
aShampoo CD Burning suite (or whatever my current favorite burning suite is)
IZArc (or whatever my current favorite is)
RocketDock - I use it to replace Quick Launch.
Songbird
When I used XP (I'm on Vista now) I'd always install Tweak UI and tweak everything to my liking. Like listing My Computer before My Documents.
I remove the Help icon from the start menu.
I make it so Network Neighborhood was displayed in the start menu.
I have it show file extensions and show hidden files/folders.

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