StevenWhiting.com

I can never get into the BIOS under vmware
Published on 11/12/2008 in General.
Just paste the following text into the image’s vmx file while it’s shut down:
bios.forceSetupOnce = “TRUE”

# The VMware Fusion BIOS posts too quickly to access.
Most users will not need to access the BIOS, but advanced users might want to do so, to change the boot order, set a boot password, or enable a second floppy drive. To work around this problem, use a text editor to add the following line to the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine:
bios.forceSetupOnce = “TRUE”
The next time you boot up the virtual machine, it will automatically boot into the BIOS. This configuration option then reverts to FALSE. You must set the option to TRUE each time you want to boot the virtual machine into the BIOS.

http://ryanschwartz.net/2008/11/12/i-can-never-get-into-the-bios-under-vmware

VMware

To copy a pre-made VM that you made earlier load it into VM then go to VM and Clone. If you don’t clone it and just manually copy it you’ll run into trouble. Because the VMs have specific MAC address assigned to them. When you do a clone, it creates a new MAC address for the clone. If you just copy it, it doesn’t and then you run into network issues. Because when both VMs are on at the same time, only one of them will be able to access the network.

WSUS can only be installed on a standalone server 2003 box or a server 2003 box that is a member of a domain. It can’t be installed on a domain controller and will just bring up an error at the end of the install saying it failed.

StyleXP and SP3

I like unlicensed themes in XP, my fav being cocoa (http://stevenwhiting.com/files/[4455]cocoa.zip)I got it from a website long ago so not sure who created it.
Anyway. Having used StyleXP for ages to be able to use unlicensed themes, I came across an odd and annoying problem when I recently reinstalled XP and did all the updates. StyleXP no longer worked. Kept banging on about not working with my build of XP, even though it had SP3 installed so was the latest build.
Doing some searching it appears StyleXP doesn’t work with SP3 and it appears TGT Soft have never bothered to fix it according to reports from some users on the net.
Turns out all you have to do to use unlicenced themes is change a little known (well to me anyway) file in
windows\systems32
called uxtheme.dll
Meaning you can do away with StyleXP.
This forum can help out
http://www.belchfire.net/index.php?showtopic=9001
For my own notes uxtheme.dll seemingly can be changed without XP moaning. Might need admin rights. I just changed it to uxtheme.dll.old and used this one
For SP3 v6.0.2900.5512 English

http://stevenwhiting.com/files/6.0.2900.5512_EN.rar

Saved all the theme files I wanted to use in
WINDOWS\Resources\Themes
I can then choose themes in Windows normal Control Panel Display area. However cocoa wasn’t an option. But I just went into the directory were I stored cococa and double clicked the cocoa.msstyles. It then opened the Display Properties window allowing me to set the cocoa style.
This maybe because it’s not a complete theme I’m not sure.

Why all this trouble?

uxtheme.dll is a protected operating system file. As such, Windows keeps
several copies of uxtheme.dll, plus compressed uxtheme.dl_ files at various locations
on your system as backups. If it senses that uxtheme.dll has been replaced
with a different version, it will immediately overwrite the changed version with
one of it’s backup copies. This is why it is necessary to find and rename
all copies of uxtheme.dll and uxtheme.dl_ everywhere on your system. Generally
speaking, there are only a handfull of places these backup copes are stored:

• The Windows XP installation CD.

• The Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD.

• A Windows XP installation folder on your hard drive (HP, Compaq and Dell computers are bad for this – if your system came with a ‘Recovery CD’ and not an actual ‘Windows XP’ installation CD, the XP installation files are somewhere on your hard drive, on an additional hard drive or on a parition. Will be in a ~/i386 folder somewhere on your system).

• C:\Windows\System32

• C:\Windows\System32\dllcache

• C:\Windows\System32\LastGood (if exists)

• C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386

If just one uxtheme.dll or uxtheme.dl_ exists in any of these locations, Windows
will find it. That is why it is necessary to find ALL copies and backups
of this file and rename them so Windows can’t find them to overwrite your patched
copy. The reason you want to rename them is so that you can move them back
if you ever have to re-install Windows or SP3 comes out. Windows should
still run without a uxtheme.dll file. You’ll just be limited to the Windows
Classic desktop.

You’ll know that you’ve cleared out all the uxtheme.dll and .dl_ because when you go to replace the file XP will do this:

You just say Cancel and then Yes to the next box:

You’ll probably need to do a reboot.

For editing the VNCTool passwords
You’ll need a hex editor. Use this
http://www.hhdsoftware.com/Products/home/hex-editor-free.html
open up one of the VNC files like
VNCNewBuild.exe
And do a search like the following:

Important you put a . with the search string when searching and tick the Regular expression box or it won’t find the password you want to edit and then you have to spend ages looking for it.
Edit the password and then just Save As. and you’re done.
Simple.

runas /user:DOMAINNAME\USERADMINACCOUNT “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore”

To run IE as an admin with a regular user logged in. Useful if your admin account avoids proxies.

Comodo Internet Security Installation Error 1603

I have been using Comodo Internet Security since it’s initial release and it just keeps getting better and better. However whilst trying to install the most recent version 4.0 which was released on March 03 2010 I encountered an installation error 1603. Naturally I cleared all the junk files, disabled unnecessary services, cleared the registry and still couldn’t get it to work until I came across a clean up tool for cleaning up leftover data from previous installations.
Prerequisites

Version 4 is a major update so you will need to uninstall any previous versions that exist on your computer. I am assuming that you have already attempted installing the software and have it situated in a folder on your system.
Step 1- Download and Extract Software

Download the Comodo clean up tool from here. Extract the file using 7zip or similar. You should now have a folder called CIS Clean-up Tool.
CIS Clean Tool Folder
Step 2-Run File and re-install CIS4

Navigate to CIS Clean-up Tool folder and run the CIS File+Registry Cleaner.bat file. Vista and 7 users need to right click and select run as administrator. Follow the on-screen prompts. This file will clean all associated registry entries, files and folders that have been left over from previous installations.
CIS Clean Tool

To re-install CIS4 navigate to the download folder:

Windows XP C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/Comodo Downloader and run CIS_Setup.msi
I am not currently running Vista or 7 so I am unsure where the default download folder is situated.

Your installation should now run smoothly. I would like to thank Ragwing for creating this script. If you have any questions then please contact me.