Enable or Disable UAC From the Windows 7 / Vista Command Line

Its always fun to work with command prompt in Windows. It always make you feel smarter in front of your customers. Back days I had talked about how to uninstall programs using Command Prompt, so keeping the trend going ahead I will be discussing on how to enable or disable UAC (User Access Control) using Command Prompt in Windows 7 and Vista.

All you need to do is fire up your command prompt with administrative rights. For doing so, simply right click on cmd.exe and choose Run as Administrator. Once you have the command box on your screen you are ready to geek.

Disable UAC

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Enable UAC

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

After you enable or disable UAC, you will have to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

However do not forget to backup your Windows Registry settings before updating registry using command prompt.

Technorati Tags: Enable UNC,Diable UNC,Windows 7,UNC

How to Protect USB Stick while using public computer

USB sticks or Pen drive is so common and it is so ubiquitous; and one of the biggest source of virus propagation. We cannot live without it and we cannot deny from the possibility of using it on a public computer or friends once in a while. It is possible that the stick me be laden with viruses; even though you have best anti virus installed but risk is always there.

Anti Virus company F-Secure has explained how USB worms work. “USB worms work by creating a file called AUTORUN.INF on the root of USB drives. These INF files then use Autorun or Autoplay (not the same thing!) to execute themselves either when the stick is inserted, or more commonly, when the user double-clicks on the USB drive icon from My Computer (Windows Explorer).”

A malicious worm targets this autorun.inf and inserts links to the malicious files which then infects the computer. One way to avoid exploit of autorun.inf is by creating custom autorun.inf file and set its permission to read only so that it cannot be modified or deleted. Please download HP USB Disk format Utility (download here) as we will be using this for our hack. Please follow the steps below.

1. Create custom autorun.inf file. Please follow the Youtube link.
2. Format the USB Stick to NTFS format using HP USB Disk format Utility
3. Place the custom made autorun.inf file to the USB stick
4. Change the autorun.inf file property to read only.

Now you are done and you can use the USB stick without any problem. Please do share any other hack regarding this if you have; we will share that with everyone.

Technorati Tags: USB Stick,Pen Drive,USB Worm,F-Secure,How to protect

How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee consumer products using the McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR.exe)

Sometimes un-installation of McAfee anti-virus program becomes a daunting task for a normal computer operator where they cannot remove it using Windows Add/Remove Program (in Windows XP) or Programs and Features (in Windows 7 or Vista). We if you have tried hand in un-installation of McAfee, you can obviously check the McAfee’s technical article where  they have mentioned how to do it using a tool named McAfee Consumer Products Removal Tool (commonly known as MCPR.exe in tech community). It is always good to know that running the McAfee Consumer Product Removal tool (MCPR.exe) removes all 2005 - 2011 versions of McAfee consumer products, and will not run on Windows 98 or ME. However there are few mistakes that we usually do while using this tool is, we often do not try to deactivate the licenses before uninstalling McAfee products. It is important to remember that  you must uninstall McAfee product using the Windows software removal utility (Add/Remove Programs in XP, “Programs and Features” in Vista and Windows 7) before running MCPR. Failure to do so can result in the number of your licenses being incorrectly counted.

If you are cannot successfully uninstall using Windows Add/Remove Programs, or have already run MCPR without uninstalling, you can deactivate your machine so that McAfee knows that your license is no longer installed on your computer for use with a future install:

1. Open a web browser and go to http://home.mcafee.com.
2. Click My Account in the upper right corner.
3. Select the My Account option.
4. Type your McAfee user account and password.
5. If you want your browser to remember your password, ensure that you select the Remember Me option.
6. Click Log In.
7. Under the My Protection Products section, select the subscription from which you would like a license released.
8. Find the computer you want to deactivate and click Deactivate.
9. If you selected this machine in error, click Cancel.  Otherwise click Deactivate to proceed.
10. Once you have deactivated the license, uninstall your McAfee consumer products using Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel:

    Windows 7/Vista users
    

    • Click Start, Search, type Programs and Features, and click Go.
    • Double-click Programs and Features.
    • Select the McAfee SecurityCenter product.
    • Click Uninstall and follow the steps provided.

    Windows XP users

    • Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
    • Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
    • Select the McAfee SecurityCenter product.
    • Click Remove and follow the steps provided.
    • Download the removal tool from http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe.
    • Click Save, and save the file to a folder on your computer.
    • Navigate to the folder where the file was saved.
    • Ensure that all McAfee windows are closed.
    • Double-click MCPR.exe to run the removal tool.

    NOTE: Windows 7 and Vista users must right-click MCPR.exe and select Run as Administrator to use it.

 

Technorati Tags: mcpr.exe,uninstall mcafee,add remove program,remove mcafee,security settings,security software,anti virus,anti malware

Scanemal.dll or Scanotlk.dll cannot be installed, loaded, found or is missing

Have you got error messages like “Scanemal.dll or Scanotlk.dll cannot be installed, loaded, found or is missing” while opening Microsoft Outlook? I am sure that you might have come across the same and I believe you might have paid someone to fix this problem as well however the cause of these error messages could be easily judged by the error message itself. I will discussed it in brief now.

While we use Microsoft Outlook on our computer, we often install programs (mainly security software like anti-virus or anti malware) which automatically gets connected with Outlook to serve better protection from the virus threat that could infiltrate our computer through email. However when we change our security software, the add-ins which were attached to the Outlook are often left behind while un-installation of old anti-virus software. Now you guessed it right, it is the left over add-ins of old security software which often want to execute itself while launching Outlook and when it could not find the relevant associated files, it shows error messages the one we discussed before. The error message specifically comes with Outlook installed with McAfee Anti-virus software. Some of other similar error messages are mentioned below:

The add-in C:\Program Files\Network Associates\VirusScan\scanemal.dll could not be installed or loaded.

The add-in C:\Program Files\McAfee\McAfeeVirusScan\scanemal.dll could not be found.

Unable to load C:\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan\scanemal.dll You may be out of memory out of system resources, or missing a dll.file.

Could not load plugin C:\Program Files\McAfee\Managed VirusScan\VScan\Scanemal.xxxxxxx.dll

C:\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan Enterprise\Scanotlk.dll

The Add-in "Outlook Scan" (C:\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan Enterprise\Scanotlk.dll) cannot be loaded and has been disabled by Outlook. Uninstall the Add-in if no update is available.

The add-in C:\McAfee\8.5i\Scanotlk.dll could not be installed or loaded.

The Add-in "Outlook Scan" (C:\Program Files\Network Associates\VirusScan\Scanotlkl.dll) cannot be loaded and has been disabled by Outlook. Please contact the Add-in manufacturer for an update. If no update is available, please uninstall the Add-in.

So to be more precise, this problem is due to the design of Microsoft Outlook because McAfee utilizes the Microsoft approved manner of switching out the scanemal.dll. However this switching method only works for one user. This issue will only be seen on shared computers with multiple user profiles. This problem or error message will also not be seen with any other mail client. So you can simply go to add-ins section of Outlook and disable McAfee from the list or just uninstall the McAfee add-ins and re-install it again.

 

Technorati Tags: error,outlook,Scanemal.dll,Scanotlk.dll,cannot be installed,loaded,file not found,file missing,mcafee,exchange mcafee

Tweak your Windows 7 and Vista using freeware Ultimate Windows Tweaker like TweakUI

Playing with the settings in Windows XP using Powertoy TweakUI was fun as it was very easy to use. One can remember that the settings of Windows XP was handled quite effortlessly and that too with ease. But after the release of Windows Vista and 7 the powertoy TweakUI which was meant for Windows XP only stopped working on the new platform leading us backward as we didn’t had any option other than manually handling Windows Registry and other Windows settings either to fix or optimize our computer which is quite a risky thing if you are not a pro. But many thanks to MVP Ramesh Kumar who came up with Ultimate Windows Tweaker for Windows 7 and Vista.

Unlike TweakUI, Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a freeware and works on both 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows 7 and Vista. You can simply download it and use it as a portable application to customeize your Windows to meet your requirement in terms of better performance. Ramesh has worked on it for quite a long time now and a new version is also available to download which is now its default downloadable file. With judicious tweaking, it can make your system work much faster, more stable and more secure and that too using only few mouse clicks.

The Ultimate Windows Tweaker is so powerful, it detects whether you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed on your computer and accordingly provides you the relevant tweaks only so there is not a single chance to alter your Windows settings with its incorrect or wrong versions. The best part of the newer version of Ultimate Windows Tweaker is, it works on Internet Explorer 9 and includes additional tools and tweaks too for the same, like “Enable Menu bar permanently” and many more.
Few features of new Ultimate Windows Tweaker as on its parent website is given below with a screenshot.

System Tweaks

• Revamped UI similar to Windows 7/Vista UI controls
• Improved: Optimize services, enable/disable services and start/stop as well instantly
• Added on System Information page
• Version with build no
• System Rating
• Computer description
• Added on Personalization page
• Disable Aero shake
• Disable Aero Snap
• Enable Jump lits and nos of jump list items
• Sorted Startmenu with all Windows 7 items
• Bing Search replaced Live Search in Custom Start Search
• Use large icons on Taskbar
• Disable Aero Peek preview
• Group when Taskbar full is added
• Added in User Accounts & UAC
• Welcome screen text and buttons’ effects
• Set custom background on Welcome screen (OEM Background)
• Added in System Performance page
• Trackbars’ Tooltip shows actual value in miliseconds
• Improved “Menu action”
• Improved “Enable support for 4GB of RAM on 32bit Windows”
• Disable Windows Security Center service
• Added in Security Settings
• Disable System Restore settings
• Disable Change Color and Appearance
• Disable to skip starting programs by pressing Shift key
• Added on Internet Explorer page
• Reset IE to factory default button added
• Additional Tweaks
• Disable Windows Startup sound
• Disable pagefile (Virtual Memory)
• Enable Large System cache
• Delete pagefile during shutdown process

Internet Explorer

• Supports Internet Explorer 9
• Enable Menu bar permanently
• Always on InPrivate Filtering
• Hide Compatibility View button
• Disable sending keystrokes to your default search engine
• Enable Quick Tabs
• Manage no. of rows in about:Tabs (IE9 only)
• Disable caching of SSL pages
• Enable software rendering instead of GPU rendering (IE9 only)

User Accounts & UAC

• Manage user accounts (improved)

System Performance

• Disable PAE

Other

• Extensive code optimization for speed improvement
• Improved refreshing capability after applying tweaks
• No more prompts after each Apply clicks
• Some UI and typo fixes.

 

Download Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Note: Please don’t detach Empty Icon from executable’s root, the Empty Icon is copied to system directory and referred in runtime.

It is always recommended to create a system restore point before tweaking your system, and hence an easily accessible button for creating the same has been provided in the tweaker.  Should you wish or need to, you can always restore your system to the Windows Vista default settings using the Restore Defaults button and applying them.

 

Technorati Tags: optimize,slow performance of computer,system settings,registry,tweaking tool,registry tweak,security settings,user accounts,network tweaks,windows7,vista,personlization,internet explorer,system information,fix,repair

Bandizip Lightweight, Fast, and Free archiving software

Yesterday I talked about ConcaDec (a free software for splitting and joining files), today I will let you know about a high performing archiving software Bandizip which is 100% free for home and office use. The best part of Bandizip is, it handles the most popular compression formats including zip, rar and 7z.

Bandizip supports for ZIP, RAR, 7z, Z, CAB, ISO, ALZ, TAR, BH, LZH, GZ, BZ2, EGG, WIM, XZ, and ARJ archives files and users can create self-extracting files (.EXE) and multi-volume (split) archives files as well.

The main advantage of this software / program is, it supports Unicode file system. Also non-English characters in file names will be displayed properly and can be extracted without breaking international characters. Bandizip has High Speed Archiving and Fast Drag & Drop function which also allow you to increase the archiving speed dramatically.

Bandizip supports the following features:

• Support for ZIP, RAR, 7Z, ARJ, ALZ, EGG, LZH, TAR, BH, GZ, BZ2, JAR, ISO, CAB, WIM, XZ, and Z archives.

• Support unicode to display international characters which display for filenames in archives.

• Bypass the bad compression files automatically by "High Speed Archiving" function.

• Extract the files to the destination folder directly by "Fast Drag & Drop" function.

• Create self-extracting file (.EXE) and multi-volume (split) archives.

• Optional archive encryption using ZipCrypto.

• Context Menu access including "Preview Archive" function.

• Create or extract multiple zip files simultaneously from windows explorer.

• Free to use at both home and in the office.

Download Bandizip

A comparison of Few Famous Archiving software

	Bandizip	WinZip	WinRAR	7-Zip
Freeware	O	X	X	O
Extracting .z01	O	O	O	X
Extracting .part1.rar	O	O	O	O
Extracting 7zip.001	O	X	X	O
Extracting zip.001	O	O	X	O
Unicode filenames	O	△	△	△
Fast Drag&Drop	O	X	X	X
High Speed Archiving	O	X	X	X

 

Technorati Tags: freeware,free,software,archive,zip,rar,7z,winzip,alternate,winrar,bandizip,archiving software

ConcaDec – File Splitting and Joining Free Software (Freeware)

There are times when splitting of a large file is required to either carry the file on a small capacitive pen-drive/flash-drive or need to send it across internet using email attachment. But getting a fully functional software is very hard. Even though there are many software which claims that they provide file splitter and joiner for free but often has hidden things with them like day limit, can split but require to purchase the software to join the split files back. Then I got to know about ConcaDec software which is completely free and lots of feature which we even cannot find in the paid version of other software.

ConcaDec is an easy-to-use and very effective freeware which can divide and join any file you like. It generates a tiny automatic rebuild file. It also generates a checksum (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256) which are very popular and secured hash algorithm. It can even handle files which are larger than 4 GB. While we are working with a file we can check the Division preview, Progress display. Even Processing can be paused or cancelled at any time. There are several division options by size, by number of files, choices of predefined sizes, etc. The GUI has feature Drag-and-drop facilities. Lastly the most important thing to mention here is, it does not require installation (only an executable file) which saves your computer from getting crumpy with installation file. So in few words it is a portable software with Multilanguage support like English, French, Spanish. ConcaDec is compatible with Win 2000/XP/Vista/7.

Download ConcaDec – English

Download ConcaDec – French

Download ConcaDec – Spanish

 

Few screenshots of ConcaDec:

 

Technorati Tags: split,join file split,large file attachment,outlook attachment,alternate of winzip,alternate of winrar,free software,freeware,break file