How do I enable ctfmon.exe under Windows 7 Professional - windows

Not sure if this is the right forum, but here it goes....
Problem Description in Brief:
I am not able to enable ctfmon.exe to execute (and to remain running) on Startup under Windows 7 Professional (SP1). I need this for the language bar on the taskbar, and the ability to switch between Chinese and English.
Problem Description in Detail:
When I installed Windows 7 Professional on my ASUS laptop, I enabled the language bar so that I can switch between Chinese and English, with the default language being Chinese (for my wife). Everything worked fine, even after installing Microsoft Office 2010, which apparently relies on ctfmon.exe for the language bar services. When I uninstalled Microsoft Office, not only did I lose the language bar, but the ability to switch between Chinese and English. The only language supported now on Startup is Chinese.
Needless to say that the option to enable ctfmon is not available under the Starup tab of msconfig. In order to enable the language bar, again, I have to manually change it via the Control Panel, only to lose it, again, every second time I shutdown and/or restart the laptop!!! It is ##$%ing annoying to say the least!!!
Note that, the language bar driver (ctfmon.exe) still resides in the C:\Windows\System32\ directory according to many of the forums I have read. I have even added a Windows registry entry to execute it at Startup according to one of the posts in the Microsoft TechNet site, titled Language Bar Disappeared, and another UK site titled Startup Details - ctfmon.exe, which believes the entry should exist under HKCU as opposed to HKLM. Specifically, I added the following entries to the Windows Registry File without any effect.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"ctfmon"="C:\Windows\System32\ctfmon.exe"
and,
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"ctfmon"="C:\Windows\System32\ctfmon.exe"
Since msimtf.dll and msctf.dll are related to the language bar service, I tried enabling those using regsvr32. Although they were successfully loaded, it did not have any effect on the language bar. I even tried to execute ctfmon.exe at the command prompt! It still did not activate the language bar like it is supposed to according to many of the forums I visited relating to this problem.
Short of reinstalling Microsoft Office and/or reinstalling Windows 7 Professional, any advise/suggestions on how to resolve this problem would be appreciated.

Follow the instructions below to run ctfmon automatically on Windows startup process.
Click Windows 7 start button.
Type: regedit
Open it with administrative rights.
Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Create a new string value
Name it as you wish
Open it for edit
Type “ctfmon”=”CTFMON.EXE” in Value data field
Press OK
Restart your computer
Now you can see the language bar :)

Do not worry. You may try this step.
Press Windows along with R ( Windows + R ) and then run box will appear then type the path on the run box..
C:\Windows\System32\ctfmon.exe
Then press enter.

Related

How to control what is shown in Windows 10 "recently added" programs list?

The Windows 10 start menu will show recently added programs after you run an installer.
In my case, the installer installs more than one program to Start Menu. For some reason it is picking one of them and showing it as "recently added", but I'd like to specify that a different one shows up there.
How can this been set / controlled?
I have tried to change the order which the installer adds entries to the start menu, but that didn't appear to have any effect.
I'm not sure how Windows internally tracks this, but at least if you are using Inno Setup it is possible to disable tracking the installed program as recently added by using a flag:
excludefromshowinnewinstall
Prevents the Start menu entry for the new shortcut from receiving a
highlight on Windows 7 and additionally prevents the new shortcut from
being automatically pinned the Start screen on Windows 8 (or later).
Ignored on earlier Windows versions.
Ref.: https://jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?topic=iconssection
So it should be possible to apply this exclusionary flag to all but the program which is intended to be shown in the list.

IIS Manager in Windows 10

How do you open IIS (Internet Information Services) Manager using Windows 10?
I have installed the developer preview of Windows 10 and can't seem to find IIS Manager? It is not in Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
When I browse to the
folder C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv
it is empty.
I did a full search of my hard drive to find inetmgr.exe and found three copies and none of them would open, when I tried to open them it says "This App cannot Run on your PC" To find a version of the App that works contact the publisher.
I know IIS works because I have ran local ASP.net apps through VisualStudio, but I can't seem to find any way to launch IIS Manager to do some configurations for a site.
Anyone know anything about this?
Thanks to #SLaks comment above I was able to turn on IIS and bring the manager back.
Press the Windows Key and type Windows Features, select the first entry Turn Windows Features On or Off.
Make sure the box next to IIS is checked.
If it is not checked, check it. This might take a few minutes, but this will install everything you need to use IIS.
When it is done, IIS should have returned to Control Panel > Administrative Tools
Under the windows feature list, make sure to check the IIS Management Console
You also need to check additional check boxes as shown below:
Actually you must make sure that the IIS Management Console feature is explicitly checked. On my win 10 pro I had to do it manually, checking the root only was not enough!
#user1664035 & #Attila Mika's suggestion worked. You have to navigate to Control Panel -> Programs And Features -> Turn Windows Features On or Off. And refer to the screenshot. You should check IIS Management console.
Run appwiz.cpl - brings up Programs and Features
Choose "Turn Windows Features On/Off"
Select the IIS Services you need
after turning IIS on (by going to Windows Features On/Off) type inetmgr in search bar or run
To install the IIS Management Console under Windows 10 using Powershell with RSAT installed:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName IIS-ManagementConsole -All
Credit and thanks to Mikhail's comment above.
It most likely means that IIS Management Console was not installed, and modern Windows administrator/IT pro should be able to quickly check this by issuing this command:
Get-WindowsFeature *Web*
And if it is missing just quickly add this via the following command:
Add-WindowsFeature Web-Mgmt-Console
GUI options mentioned above are also valid (see answer from #Joe Wu) but PowerShell it is best way to do IT for IT Pro or let's put it as "if you have to do this slightly more often than once a year" :)
Press the Windows Key and type Windows Features, select the first entry Turn Windows Features On or Off.
Make sure the box next to IIS is checked. You good to go.
Launch Windows Features On/Off and select your IIS options for installation.
For custom site configuration, ensure IIS Management Console is marked for installation under Web Management Tools.
I arrived here because I was having the same issue.
If you are here and everything above didn't work, it's likely that you butchered your path somehow.
Go to System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> Machine or User and add the following entry to the end, or append to the existing, separating with a semi-colon:
C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv
After closing and opening your shell, you should now be able to access inetmgr from the command line.

Crashing Windows 7 using batch

I came across this link : https://vmxp.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/stress-testing-an-esxi-host-with-windows-server-vms/
.Since I am not so good in powershell i turned the whole thing to a simple batch script:
:loop
start testlimit64 -d
timeout /t 15
taskkill /f /im "testlimit64.exe"
timeout /t 9
goto loop
Note that I got into SYSTEM ACCOUNT before doing that using PsExec. The system I am using is a VM under ESXi. But nothing is happening, even the vm is not crashing. My aim is to crash whole esxi server.
I have two VMs under the ESXi and I ran the above scripts in both of them.
Still no luck. Am I missing something?
Windows 2000 Feature Allows a Memory.dmp File to Be Generated with Keyboard
Q244139
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.
SUMMARY
Microsoft Windows 2000 includes a feature that enables you to have the system stop responding and generate a Memory.dmp file (if configured to do so). The "Stop" screen that generates contains the following parameters:
*** STOP: 0x000000E2 (0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000)
The end-user manually generated the crashdump.
MORE INFORMATION
WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT or Windows 2000, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).
This feature is disabled by default. To enable this feature, you must edit the registry as indicated below and restart the computer. After restarting the computer, you can generate a system to stop responding by holding down the right CTRL key and pressing the SCROLL LOCK key twice. Pressing left CTRL key does not generate the system to stop responding.
Please note that the steps below will not work on Legacy Free computers, i.e., those that use a USB keyboard. For those, you must attach a debugger.
Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value Name: CrashOnCtrlScroll
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
Quit Registry Editor.
Additional query words: blue screen force dump bluescreen crash memory.dmp
For USB keyboards a USB one was added in a later OS. This sets Left Ctrl + Space, Spece for both USB (kbdhid) and PS/2 (i8042) keyboards.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\crashdump]
"Dump1Keys"=dword:00000020
"Dump2Key"=dword:0000003D
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\crashdump]
"Dump1Keys"=dword:00000020
"Dump2Key"=dword:0000003D
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=-
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters]
"CrashOnCtrlScroll"=-

File properties information in windows server 2008 (R2)

I know this is not a very common problem and very few people has concern with this but problem is still there, waiting for your feedback guys.
In windows XP, write click on file, select "Version" tab and you will have complete information about your file, for example "BuildType" and very important "Comments" to check that your application is Unicode or Non Unicode. As you can see it this picture.
But in Windows Server 2008, if you right click and select "Details" you will get some information and most of them are just crap, for example windows copyright year, file description, language , original name. As you can see in this image,
My Question, is there any solution that you can activate these hidden information in system settings some where in windows 2008 server or any small application which i can install and can get my required information.
Problem arises because as we know that in coming year technically windows XP will be in grave.
Thanks in advance
Fortunately somebody has written a 3rd party extension to bring back this functionality.

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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