Monday, August 10, 2009

WinBubbles Lite 2009, Access Windows 7 (and Vista) Customizations easily

A customization and tweaker designed for Windows 7 (Also works with Vista!). This is a small, light-weight, updatable and Open For All version of WinBubbles.

winbubblelite

In just few clicks, WinBubbles-Lite will let you access the most important Customization functions of Windows 7 (and Vista) easily.

The powerful utility includes a built-in Graphical User Interface designer and programmer called RegDevelop that will let you update the program the way that you want. Add Features that is needed.

ide

Any part on the program can be updated, Not just for the Programmers But For All.

Note: Before changing to IDE mode (update or change the program settings), It is a must and recommended to read first the documentations available regarding RegDevelop.

Features

Branding your new Vista and Windows 7 Machine

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Add or Change Original Manufacturers logo and information
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Separately Customize the Performance Information and Tools Logo
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Change or Customize the Background of Windows 7 Welcome Screen
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Change the Owner Information

More Customizations, Restriction and Tweaks

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Add Message before logon: Read here
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Customize Bubbles Screen Saver - Change to small/Medium size, Metallic Bubbles, remove the shadow and launch in a Black Background.
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Add “Move To” and “Copy To” Right-Click Menu
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“Opened with Notepad” Context/Right-Click Menu
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“Hide this file” and “Hide this Folder” Right-Click Menu – Standard and Run as Admin is included
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No Folder Option (Logoff is needed in Windows 7)
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Disable Regedit
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Disable CMD.exe
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Disable Windows Task Manager
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Disable Changing of Wallpaper
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Disable Control Panel
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Disable USB Drive in Windows 7 (Reboot is needed) and Vista
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Disable Control Panel
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Enter Username before login
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Changing UAC levels launcher and Change the settings to “Prompt for credentials”

WinBubbles-Lite 2009 Design:

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The program was designed for 800 x 600 resolutions and above. For lower resolutions you can access the Apply Button by pressing Alt-A.
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Compared to WinBubble, Because of RegDevelop IDE even if you switch from any resolutions, the vertical and horizontal scroll bar will show. Also, If the window become small or bigger, Just move or drag the program and it will automatically change in size.
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Every settings done by the program will be seen… No more Winbubble Anti-Registry Setting Theft!

For geeks and tweakers who wants to update the program. Read this first and Please share it to us afterwards.

Thank you very much and Enjoy!

*FreewareFiles.com Editors Pick! and *Softpedia 100% Clean Award
*Proudly Listed at Download.com and MajorGeeks.com!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

How-to Create a Windows Vista IIS7 MySQL PHP Web Server


Introduction
This guide shows you how to create a Windows Vista powered web server using IIS7, MySQL, and PHP (WIMP). I know, I know, a WIMP server doesn’t sound too appealing. Trust me, this server is far from a wimp and will blow your socks off if you provide the right hardware.
Note: This is a generic WIMP server that’s capable of running
WordPress, PHPbb, and other popular PHP and MySQL powered web sites. You might have to change a few things to get your WIMP server running just right depending on your usage.
The Limitations
Before you go too far you need to know that IIS7 running on Windows Vista is full featured with a few limitations.
Before you right this type of server off because it’s limited you need to realize if you ever reach one of the limitations you’ll have so much traffic you could probably buy an actual server with one day’s pay from the web site.
The Limitations
Request Execution Limit: IIS7 running on Windows Vista Basic, Starter, Home, and Home Premium have a Request Execution Limit of 3. Vista Ultimate is limited to 10. Request Execution Limit is how many simultaneous pages the web server can give out at one time. That means Vista Basic, Starter, and Home editions can serve up to 259,200 pages per day and Ultimate can serve up to 864,000 pages per day!
FTP: FTP is very limited. You can only download files as anonymous. No uploading via FTP to your web server. If this is a problem, check out the
FileZilla FTP Server.
Install IIS7
First thing first, we need to install a web server.
Open the Control Panel in classic view.
Double-click Programs and Features.
Click Turn Windows features on or off on the left.
Check off Internet Information Services.
Expand Internet Information Services, World Wide Web Services, Application Development Features, and then check off ISAPI Extensions। ISAPI will be needed later when we install PHP.





Click OK to install IIS7.
When the Windows Features box disappears IIS7 is installed and should be running. Test IIS7 by going to http://localhost in your web browser। You should see an IIS7 test page like the screenshot below.



The root of the default web site is located at C:\inetpub\wwwroot. Your web site goes there.
Install PHP
Now that we have a web server we need support for PHP. In this example I’m installing PHP 5.2.4.
Create a folder called php in the root of the C: drive.
Download the Windows Binaries Zip package from
http://www.php.net/downloads.php.
Extract the files and save them in the php folder you just created.
Copy C:\php\php.ini-dist and save it on your desktop so we can work with it.
Rename php.ini-dist you just copied on your desktop to php.ini.
Right-click php.ini and select Edit.
Search for extension=php_mysql.dll and uncomment it by deleting the ; in front of it. This allows php to login a MySQL database.
Now move up in the php.ini code and look for extension_dir = “./”. Change “./” to “C:\php\ext”. This shows php where to load the extension=php_mysql.dll extension you just uncommented.
Save php.ini.
Copy php.ini and save it in C:\Windows.
Open the IIS Manager by typing IIS Manager in the Start Menu’s search box and click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager in the search results.
Double-click Handler Mappings.
Click Add Script Map located on the right.
Fill out the Add Script Map window like the screen shot below.


Click OK to save the changes.
Click Yes in the window that asks you if you want to enable this ISAPI extension.
Click the back button in the IIS Manager and then double-click Default Document.
Type index.php, with a space behind , in the File names list.
Click Apply on the top right of IIS Manager.
Now you need to copy libmysql.dll from C:\php and save it in C:\WINDOWS\System32. Thanks for the fix Oruba.
Lets test to make sure php is installed and running correctly.
Open notepad.
Type < ? phpInfo() ?> in the blank document.
Note: Remove the space between < ? in < ? phoInfo() ?>. I had to add the space so the command doesn’t execute on this page.
Save it as test.php on your desktop and then move it to C:\inetpub\wwwroot.
Note: A common mistake when saving test.php is to save it as test.php.txt. Don’t forget to select All files under Save as type and then name the file test.php in notepad.
Go to http://localhost/test।php। You should get a php information page similar to the screen shot below.
Install MySQL
Before we can install MySQL we need to disable UAC in Windows Vista।


Open the Control Panel in classic view.
Click User Accounts.
Click Turn User Account Control on or off.
Uncheck Use User Account Control and then click OK.
Restart your computer.
Note: You can turn UAC back on after everything has been installed and working.
Now we can install MySQL. In this example I’m going to install MySQL Community Edition 5.0.45.
Download the Windows ZIP/setup.exe version
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#win32.
Unzip it and save setup.exe on your desktop.
Run Setup.exe.
The welcome window will popup। Click Next.


Since this is a general guide on creating a WIMP server leave Typical selected and click Next.

Let MySQL install in its default directory by simply clicking Install in this window.

Click Next to move through a few advertisements.
Leave Configure the MySQL Server now checked and click Finished.

Click Next at the welcome window.

I’m assuming that you don’t need to configure any advanced MySQL settings. If you did you probably wouldn’t need this guide or you should leave this job to an expert. Select Standard Configuration and then click Next.

Leave Install As Windows Service, the service name MySQL, and Launch MySQL Automatically checked and click Next.

Type the MySQL administrator (root) password twice and then click Next.

This part is VERY important. Hold your mouth just right, cross your fingers and click Execute to configure MySQL. If you did it just right you should get 4 check marks when it’s done.

Note: If you get a Connection Error, click Retry and it should work. This is caused by a slower computer not starting the MySQL service fast enough.
Click Finished.
Now that you have MySQL installed and running lets install the GUI Tools to make managing databases easy.
Download the GUI Tools (Windows x86) at
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html.
Install it just like any other software.
Click Start, All Programs, MySQL, MySQL Administrator.
Fill in the fields just like the screen shot below.

Remember: Root’s password is the one you set when you installed MySQL.
Once MySQL Administrator is open, you can create a new database by clicking Catalogs and then right-clicking under test and select Create Schema.

Give it a name and there you go!

Open Port 80
Now that you have a working WIMP lets open it up to the world। All internet (HTTP) traffic passes through port 80. Let’s open port 80 to the world.


Search for firewall in the search box in the Start Menu and click Windows Firewall in the search results.
Click the Exceptions tab in the Windows Firewall Settings window.

Click the Add port button.
Type HTTP as the name and 80 as the port number.

Adjust Vista for Web Server Performance
Because Windows Vista is not meant to be a server out of the box its priorities are backwards when it’s being used as a web server. Windows Vista prioritizes programs like Word before background services like IIS7 to give the end user the best experience possible. Since we’re configuring Windows Vista as a web server background services need to be Vistas priority instead of programs.
Let’s set Windows Vista’s services as a higher priority than programs to squeeze the most speed out of it as we can.
Right-click Computer in the Start Menu and then select Properties.
Click Advanced system settings.
Click Settings under Performance in the Advanced tab of the System Properties window.
Click the Advanced tab in the Performance Options window.
Select Background services.
Click OK and then restart your computer।


Hardware
A web server with low to modest traffic doesn’t have to be a powerful machine to get the job done। Any modern PC with at least 1GBs of RAM (2GBs recommended for MySQL) will do fine. If you become one of the fortunate ones who receives enough traffic to need a high performance web server here are a few hardware tips.


Memory: If you’re expecting any kind of modest traffic (many thousands of hits per day) memory is very important. 2GBs is a good start but 3 or 4 are better.
IIS7: A powerful processor(s) and a good amount of memory are important.
MySQL: A fast hard drive and lots of memory are important for a MySQL database.

The Command Prompt still lives in Windows Vista






Like many of you out there, my background in operating systems goes way back to the Command Prompt. In those days, all there was to the user interface was a > symbol and a blinking cursor. And the screen was monochrome--either light orange or bright green on a dark grey background. The rest was up to you and your imagination.

We've come a long way since then and are now preparing ourselves for a bright future with Windows Vista's Aero interface topped off with the Glass theme and all the other visual goodies that come with it. However, even though the fancy Windows user interface offers just about everything that I could ask for in an operating system, the old computer user in me still wants to open the Command Prompt and take my aged DOS skills out for a walk around the block. And why not? You can still accomplish some amazing tasks with just a couple of keystrokes. Granted, you have to know about and understand the commands that you have at your disposal.
Well, if you're like me, then you'll be glad to know that the developers at Microsoft have kept us in mind, even as they've been crafting the new Aero interface. The Command Prompt still lives in Windows Vista, the majority of the great command line tools introduced with Windows XP are still available, and there are several new native command line tools for us old timers to investigate. Plus, there are a few tricks that you'll want to know about. Let's take a look.

Opening the Command Prompt
To begin with, you can open a Command Prompt window in Vista in all the same ways that you can in Windows XP. You can use the Command Prompt shortcut on the Start menu or you can type CMD in the Run dialog box. When the Command Prompt window appears, you'll notice the new version number and the fact that the default user profile directory is now C:\Users rather than C:\Documents and Settings. Figure A shows the Windows Vista' Command Prompt window overlapping Windows XP's for comparison.

Figure A






You can better see the subtle differences in the Command Prompt windows when they appear with one overlapping the other.

You'll also notice that the new Command Prompt window takes advantage of Vista's Aero user interface window style with the new the Maximize, Minimize, and Close buttons and rounded corners. In Windows XP, the Command Prompt window uses the Windows Classic style. (Keep in mind that the default color scheme of the Command Prompt environment is still grey text on a black background.)

When you access the Command Prompt Properties dialog box, you'll find that the controls are almost identical. The only difference is that the Options tab in Windows Vista no longer provides the Display Options panel, which contained the Window and Full Screen settings. In fact, I received an error message when I pressed the Full Screen shortcuts keys [Alt][Enter]. It appears that running a full screen Command Prompt window in Windows Vista is no longer possible.


User Account Control (UAC) applies
As you may have guessed, there are command line tools that require administrative privileges and bring up what I'll call the Command Prompt equivalent of the User Account Control (UAC). For example, when attempting to run the Fsutil command from my local user account, which is an Administrator account type, I encountered the message shown in Figure B.

Figure B



There are command line tools in Windows Vista that require administrative privileges in order to run.

While this isn't exactly a UAC prompt like those in the GUI, it did force me to close the current Command Prompt window, return to the Start menu, right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut, and select the Run As Administrator command. I then encountered a regular UAC, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C


In order to run the Command Prompt administrative privileges you must go through a UAC.

While this was an inconvenience the first time I encountered it, it really won't be a big deal in the future, because I'll know that for certain command line tools, I'll have to use the Run As Administrator command. So I still don't mind working around UACs because I appreciate the level of protection they offer.

A few new command line tools
There appears to be quite an impressive list of command line tools in Windows Vista; however, the Windows Help and Support tool is still under construction and the command line tools aren't yet documented here. However, if you turn to the Help command at the command prompt itself, you'll see that all of your favorite command line tools are still available. You'll also find some very basic information on syntax and usage for the new command line tools, as I mentioned earlier.

The first new command line tool I encountered is Icacls, which is like Cacls on steroids. Even though Cacls is still available in Windows Vista, Icacls is designed as its replacement. In fact, when you run Cacls a note appears that reads:

Cacls is now deprecated, please use Icacls.

An odd word choice, I must admit. If Microsoft were actually going to denounce, condemn or denigrate Cacls, I would think that they would just remove it from the operating system.

In any case, Icacls is designed to not only display and modify ACLs but also to backup and restore ACLs for files and directories. In order to perform all these tasks, Icacls comes with a very hefty list of parameters and switches.

The next command line tool, Robocopy, isn't really new at all, it's just never actually been part of the operating system. Robocopy has been part of the Resource Kit toolbox since Windows NT 4.0. As you may know, Robocopy is an extremely robust copy utility that many folks use instead of Copy and Xcopy.

Another new, yet obscure, command line tool is called Mlink, and is used to create symbolic and hard links between files and folders. For example, I could use this tool to essentially map C:\CurrentWork, so that it points to C:\Documents and Settings\Greg Shultz\My Documents\My Work\Freelance\TechRepublic\July 06. This would save my from having to navigate though a long directory tree when working with files in the July 06 folder. Instead I could simply access CurrentWork.

Conclusion
As I experiment with Windows Vista Beta 2, I'll continue reporting on all of the new and improved features in this edition of the operating system. As always, if you have comments or information to share about Windows Vista's Command Prompt, please take a moment to drop by the Discussion area and let us hear.