I’ve switched from using the basic Putty to using a customized version called Putty Tray. Why? Because Putty Tray allows me to click on URLs! This is extremely useful while using naim, the console based Linux messaging client I use in conjunction with Bitlbee (I use Bitlbee to communicate on GoogleTalk through IRC).
Finally, no more selecting, clicking, and then pasting URLs into a new Firefox tab!
On my office laptop, I discovered the Internet Explorer “Remember my password” checkbox option was missing. This was quite annoying, as I started using Eclipse’s internal browser to test my development work on the staging server I setup at home. The staging server is protected by a simple .htaccess file, which prompts you for a username/password with a dialog box like the one below:
As you can see, its missing the “Remember my password” option, which means I have to reenter the credentials every time I want to login. After a lot of research on Google, I finally figured out the problem: the Protected Storage service needs to be running. Either I disabled the Protected Storage service or a Windows security update did. Either way, after changing the “Startup type” to Automatic and restarting all IE browsers, here’s how the password dialog looked:
I have a feeling that a Windows, or an Internet Explorer, security update changed the way IE stores passwords. For most users, the update had no effect since the Protected Storage service is set to Automatic by default. But not for me; I love tinkering with stuff. I disabled a lot of unnecessary Windows XP services on my laptop last year to help keep it secure while I’m on the move.
Update:
In the comments, Haiman posted the following alternate fix. Several users reported his fix worked for them, so I’m including it here. (You’ll need to use the registry editor to make this change, Start->Run->regedit.exe, but be sure to make a backup of your registry before fooling around with it!)
Your office pushes out a GPO or registry change to disable users from caching passwords.
User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Internet Settings]
Value Name: DisablePasswordCaching
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = default, 1 = disable password cache)
The other day I needed to update a bunch of links inside several files for a website, which was hosted on a Windows 2000 server (ugh!). I had no idea which files needed to be updated, and there were well over 60 files. You may recall I had to do the very same thing a week earlier, however that website was hosted on a Linux machine.
Then I realized I had installed Cygwin on the Windows 2000 server awhile back, but never got around to using it! I copied and pasted the search and replace command I had used on the Linux machine and pasted it in the Cygwin console, changing the directory to the one I needed to search. Ten seconds later, all the files were updated!
After this event, I have a new found respect for Cygwin.
Last week I was testing network connectivity with another engineer and he used pathping instead of tracert on a Windows machine. I had never heard of pathping so I was quite interested to see how it was different. After using it, I realized that it’s much faster than tracert on Windows! When I run the traceroute command on Linux, it usually completes the trace lightning fast. Using tracert on Windows, however, usually takes at least 10 – 15 seconds to complete a trace.
Here is what Wikipedia says about the pathping command:
“Pathping is a network utility supplied in Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It combines the functionality of Ping with that of Traceroute (in Windows: tracert), by providing details of the path between two hosts and Ping-like statistics for each node in the path based on samples taken over a time period, depending on how many nodes are between the start and end host.”
So, I have officially replaced pathping with tracert in my mental toolbox of diagnostic commands for Windows machines.
Up until now, on my PC, Internet Explorer and Firefox have had different “View Source” editors — that is the editor used when you right click on a web page and click View Source. To keep things consistent, I decided to find a quick, syntax highlighting, notepad replacement which I could use to quickly view source code on both browsers.
After some quick research, I decided to go with Notepad2. I may eventually switch to gvim, as I’m an avid vi fan, however for now I’ll see how things work out with Notepad2. I’ve already replaced my Windows Notepad with Metapad, which I think is a perfect replacement, however I wanted something with syntax highlighting for the View Source editor.
To change the editor which is used for View Source in Internet Explorer, do the following:
Start -> Run -> regedit.exe
Click OK, then open the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
|- Software
|-- Microsoft
|---- Internet Explorer
|----- View Source Editor
|------- Editor Name (Default) = C:\Program Files\Notepad2\Notepad2.exeYou can change
Editor Nameto the path of whatever editor you want to use.Close the registry and now Internet Explorer’s View Source editor will use the editor you specified above!
To change the View Source editor in Firefox:
Type
about:configin the URL box, press enter.You should see a whole list of different options you can change. In the filter box, start typing
view_source.editor.externaluntil you see it in the list. Double click it to change the value totrue.You should also see
view_source.editor.path. Double click it and enter the path to the editor of your choice.Click OK, restart Firefox, and you’re all set!
