GnuWin32: open source tools ported to Windows

Ever wanted to run some of those powerful Linux tools on Windows? Wouldn’t it be great to quickly pick a line out of a huge file with grep? GnuWin32 provides ports of these powerful tools that install quickly and easily on Windows. GnuWin32 offers these ports as one package, or you can download and install each tool individually.

I stumbled across these ports yesterday while I was looking for a way to use a grep like tool in a Windows script. It was just this morning that I found that the same project offers ports of other great GNU tools.

GnuWin32

Free Anti Virus Options and Reviews

Great little article on some of the best free anti virus solutions out there. ComputerSight has compiled a list of the top free anti virus solutions, along with a small review for each. The article also contains links and where you can download each of the programs.

Stop: Don’t Pay Another Dollar for Your Anti Virus When You Have So Many Other Great Free Options

Firefox 3 Bookmarks and the AwesomeBar

So Firefox 3 is now in beta 5, and it is very impressive. The new version of Firefox includes many improvments, and the addition of some new features.

Bookmarks:

Firefox 3 introduces a new, one-click way to bookmark pages and keep trak of your bookmarks. Check out this article on Dria.org:

Firefox 3 Bookmarks

The AwesomeBar

The new AwesomeBar truly is awesome:

Firefox 3 AwesomeBar

Firefox 3 also has a more Mac-like interface than previous versions of Firefox. I’ve been using the OS X version and I’m very pleased with it.

Boot BartPE from a flash drive

For a while now I’ve been looking for a way to use a flash drive to boot up a computer into BartPE. The CD works fine, but it is a little on the slow side. There are a few utilities that come with BartPE that are suppose to do this for you, but I haven’t been able to get them to work correctly (or not at all seeing as the machine wouldn’t boot from the flash drive).

After looking around for a bit, and doing some research, I finally found a small utility that will make the flash drive bootable and install BartPE onto the flash drive.

The utility is called PeToUSB, and can be found here. It’s a small program that provides a GUI for making the bootable BartPE flash drive. It has worked great for me so far.

BartPE Plugin For Ghost Version 11

After waiting for two months for Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 to come in, I’ve finally been able to create a plugin for BartPE. The version of Ghost included in the GSS 2.0 is 11.0, so I’ve named this plugin Ghost11.

It works like most other plugins, just add the needed files (see the included web page). You can find it here, along with some other things. I’ve even created an auto install of PE Builder with the plugin included in it. There’s also an auto install for Firefox 2.0.0.6.

I also plan to add some documentation on Ghost, BartPE, and nLite as soon as I’ve converted the documents to PDF.

EDIT: The documentation is now up.

Old Versions

The other day I needed to find an old version of Mozilla Thunderbird because the new 2.0 version isn’t compatible with my mail server. This is due mainly to the mail server. I’ve been running the same mail server software since November 2006, and there hasn’t been one update released for it. Odd, huh?

So, I had to go looking for the old version of Thunderbird. There may have been a link on the Mozilla web site, but I couldn’t find one. I Googled around a bit, and finally found an older version of Thunderbird.

I thought it was pretty cool that there are web sites that specialize in providing older versions of popular applications. So, I decided to make a short list of some of these sites. Most of these sites have both OS X and Windows apps. They may also have some Linux apps, but just in case they don’t, I threw in one that I use sometimes.

OldVersion.com

OldApps

Old-Versions.net

Real Legacy Software Archive (old versions of RealPlayer)

Rpmfind.net

Windows maintenance tips

One of the main things that I hate about Windows is the enormous amount of upkeep required to keep the system in good shape. You have to constantly keep an eye out for viruses, spyware, and quirks in the OS. Despite all this, I still find Windows to be a good operating system.

Here’s a list of some things I do to keep my Windows desktop going:

First, I use CCleaner. CCleaner is a small program that you can run to scan your computer and remove un-needed files that can slow down your system. CCleaner also has a great registry cleaner built into it. I normally run this about once a week. The scan doesn’t take long, and it helps keep your system clean. CCleaner is also free, so that’s an added bonus.

The second program I use is Spybot Search & Destroy, which is the best spyware scanner I’ve ever used. It’s fast, efficient, and just gets the job done. There are regular updates so that the scanner won’t overlook newer threats. Spybot also allows you to do a startup scan so it can scan the system before the spyware actually loads, thus making it easier to delete.

I also run Adaware from time to time. I can’t say it’s my favorite program, but it does get the job done. There is a free and paid version of Adaware. The free one seems good enough to me.

The last program, but the most important one, is an anti-virus program. I use AVG, mainly because I started out using the free version. I have also used Avast!, which also has a free version. I purchased AVG because I was so impressed with it. NOD32 is also an excellent choice.

I normally don’t shut down my computer, so I have the anti-virus do a scan around 2 AM so that I won’t interfere with it, and it won’t interfere with me.

Defragmenting the hard drive also a great way to keep your system running. It’s a time consuming process, but it does help. I set my computer to defrag when I now I’m going to be away for a while.

Those are the programs I use, but there are some other you may want to look into. Some other good programs to look into include SpywareBlaster and HijackThis. I’ve also heard that Windows Defender also does an excellent job, but I’ve yet to try it.

Firefox Add-ons

One of the best things that the Firefox web browser has going for it is the ability to install useful add-ons that make the browsing experience that much better. Firefox is already a great browser, but the add-ons can add a lot to it. Internet Explorer 7 allows add-ons as well, but I’ve not had much experience with IE7 or its extensions.

I do have some experience with Firefox add-ons, so I thought I would write down some of my favorite add-ons that I often use. So here they are, with a link to where you can get each one. Most of these work with Windows and OS X. I haven’t checked to see if they work with Linux, but most probably do:

Linkification converts text links into normal, clickable links. This is great for message boards where people post a lot of links to stuff. The link will actually be clickable, saving you the hassle of having to copy and paste the link into the browser.
Download Here

Download Manager Tweak beefs up the download manager in Firefox. It adds the ability to change how the download manager looks, and also gives you the ability to open it in a new tab or different window.
Download Here

Fasterfox is an add-on that will allow you to tweak and boost the speed of Firefox. I haven’t really noticed web pages loading faster, but I have noticed an increased performance in Firefox.
Download Here

Smart Digg Button allows you to see if a web site has already been submitted to Digg. If it has, you can see how many people have dugg the story. If the story hasn’t been submitted to Digg, you can click the button in the lower corner of Firefox that will take you to the Digg submission page so you can submit the article.
Download Here

User Agent Switcher allows Firefox to appear as if it is another web browser. Some web site block Firefox automatically, even if the web site works fine with Firefox. This add-on will prevent the web site from blocking you if you’re using Firefox.
Download Here

Registry Hacks For Windows XP

This is a list of registry hacks that I usually use on public computers. These help to just lock things down a little more.

You have to be careful when working in the registry. Doing something wrong can result in a non-booting system, which sometimes isn’t recoverable. Use these with extreme caution.

To access the registry, you need to be using an account that has administrative privileges. You can set the Public account to be an administrator while you’re setting it up, then switch it to a limited account once everything is setup. Log into the account, then go to Start and choose Run. In the Run box, type regedit.

Disable right click on the Start menu:

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer

– Right click the empty space on the right hand pane, and chose new -> DWORD value

– Name the new value NoTrayContextMenu

– Double click the new value and set it to 1 (1 = On, 0 = Off)

————————————————————————————————-

Restrict access to the Control Panel:

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

– Right click the empty space on the right hand pane, and choose new -> DWORD value

– Name the new value NoControlPanel

– Double click the new value and set it to 1 (1 = On, 0 = Off)

————————————————————————————————-

Stop Internet Explorer 7 from automatically installing:

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0
(if the full path isn’t there, you can create it)

– Right click the empty space on the right hand pane, and choose new -> DWORD value

– Name the new value: DoNotAllowIE70

– Double click the new value and set it to 1 (1 = On, 0 = Off)

**This will only prevent IE7 from installing automatically via Windows Updates. You can still download and install IE7 via the executable available from Microsoft**

————————————————————————————————-

Prevent MSN Messenger from running:

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

– Right click the MSMSGS value, and select delete

Programs for the public

I thought I would take a few minutes and write down some of the programs I usually install on public access computers. There aren’t many of them, but these few programs are usually enough to meet the demands of the average user. As you can see, most revolve around the Internet.

I’ve split these up into free and non-free programs:

Free Programs:
– Adobe Reader
– Quicktime
– Windows Media Player
– Flash Plugin (for Internet Explorer and Firefox)
– Shockwave Player
– Firefox
– Java Runtime Environment

Non-free programs:
– Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher)
– Nero
– Antivirus software (I recommend NOD32 or AVG)
– Security software (Clean Slate or DeepFreeze)

Some other programs you might want to look into include:
– Realplayer
– Spyware Blaster
– iTunes

That’s about it. I usually don’t allow the users to install their own programs, but some people do allow this. It really depends on the amount of control you want to have over the computers. I don’t allow programs to be installed due to the risk of viruses and spyware.

You may have noticed that I didn’t include any instant messaging clients. I don’t include any of them because most of them can cause problems. The AIM client from AOL and the Yahoo! Messenger client don’t ever seem to want to work correctly, and there can be problems with privacy (auto login, chat logs, etc). This isn’t really a problem because there are great services out there such as Meebo. Meebo offers users the ability to log into any of the major IM networks via a web interface. This is perfect because the user isn’t limited and I don’t have to install unstable software on the computers.