Customize Windows XP - Security

First some apologies...those 'advanced' security features I promised will not be covered in this post.They were just too many!!!And gettin the best is too much trouble for a lazy guy like me :D

Windows Installer

This can be found under Local Computer Policy>Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components

Now lets discuss each of the settings.

1.If you do not want new applications to be installed on your computer,then change the value of "Disable Windows Installer" to Enabled.

2.This is a important setting in case you are the admin for a network.This setting "Always install with elevated privileges" must be disabled to make sure that users with limited permissions are not given access to directories/settings in some very important computer.

Note:This setting is available in both "Computer Configuration" and "User Configuration". For the changes to be effective, this setting must be disabled under both.

3.The next setting discussed is the "Enable user control over installs". In most cases when a limited user tries to install software and tries to change the installation path,the installation would halt due to a security violation.However, the installation program must be running under a 'privileged security context' which would grant it permission to directories which the user himself does not have.
It must be set to "Enabled".

4.Enable "Allow Admin to install from Terminal Services Session" to give the admin the rights to install program through the Terminal Services.

5.Enable 'Logging' to specify the types of events you want the Installer to log into the file "msi.log" .This provides you with some very important info about the installation including the arguments given during the execution of the installation.

6.Do enable the "Prohibit the removal of Updates" to maintain a good control over program updates. If you enable this, neither an admin nor a user would be able to remove updates individually. If you disable this, the user can remove updates only if he has the rights.

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I should make a safe bet that most of you have already moved on to Mozilla Firefox but in case you are using Internet Explorer, you can stop others cribbing about it lacking security. Just check out the settings available in Local Computer Policy> User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Internet Explorer.
Whoa! Check out the features.An exhaustive coverage is almost impossible but taking a day off improving your browser is sort of cool!

Thats it for now...Its [NpoWEr] signing off.

Customize Windows XP

Note 0:Read the whole post completely before attempting these!!!And read Note 1(at the end of this post)

There have been comments on the previous post saying I've been too lazy not updating this blog even after a week!!! So here are some things I was experimenting with all these days...and this is original work.

Ala ©Naveen Kumar M.

I begin by telling you that you are doing this at your own risk and do create a restore point before you do this...I had some problem remembering all the changes I did in this program called "gpedit.msc" .

Check out the screenshots

This is a better approach than using msconfig.exe because the changes in msconfig can too easily changed accidentally.

Without further ado let us start off.

1.Click on Start button and select "Run"(or alternatively Windows Key + 'R').
2.Enter gpedit.msc and press Enter.
3.You will see a window with the title "Group Policy"

Now under "Local Computer Policy", choose Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components

Windows Messenger

Most of us do not use Windows Messenger ,so we can actually disable it.
Choose Windows Messenger and on the right-pane you will see two items.Double click on them and choose Enable.

Digital Rights Management

Again, how many of us do actually purchase music...and that too on the net.Disable Windows Digital Rights Management by choosing the same in the left pane and modifying the value of the item on the right to "Enabled".

Windows Update

Assuming that all of you use pirated versions of Windows(or even otherwise), you would not want your computer to work slower just because Windows is contacting some microsoft.com

Select Windows Update in the left pane and then you will see a list of items in the right pane,11 in all.Arrange them in alphabetical order by clicking on "Setting".Now I will list out the values of these in that order.
First four :"Disabled"
Next two :"Enabled"
Then "Disabled",again "Enabled" and then all the other three "Disabled".

Recycle Bin

This probably is the most important feature you will be using :-)
If you are a person who consistently uses "Shift+Delete" instead of "Delete", then you must be a person absolutely confident of what you want on your computer and what you don't.How about making "delete" work the same as "Shift+Delete".

Under "Local Computer Policy>User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Explorer" .

In the right pane, you have the option "Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin" option(Here is the screenshot).Just "Enable" it.

And if you are absolutely sure of what you are deleting, then the next option "Display Confirmation dialog while deleting files" can be set to "Disabled". This is highly not recommended, though.

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Thats it for now,we'll discuss more advanced security features(most of them won't be important to you but in case somebody is very much interested in using these Power Features ...then have fun!)in the next post.

Note 1: Please use the picture links provided for reference in case you have a doubt.Actually I wanted to include them in the post itself but have some problem aligning them in proper positions.

Of Messengers and Yahoo

Frust....that is all messengers have left me with ,the last two weeks. Explanations later on but the statement at present is that Yahoo's help sucks.

And that Windows XP can be fallen in love with (more of that in next post maybe or even later).

Well,back to the topic of 'messengers'.

To connect through Yahoo messenger has been an awful experience,thanks to Sign In problems and IIT's mahaan proxies set to block chats. The problem began someday when I signed into my mobile and Yahoo messenger refused to sign back in from my comp giving some crappy error that my account has been signed in through another device. Then why the heck am I able to sign in through meebo and now Gaim ,my default messenger for all other accounts other than Google's.

Another hell of a trouble has been Windows Live Messenger.Beautiful as it looks ,it hides such a poor troubleshooting wizard that the end result can be guessed even by a layman.Guess what it points out!!!It tells you that your Internet connection is alright but the connection to Live Messenger cannot be made. Oh Thank you!I never knew that!???

Mention must also be made of the stupidity in cookie handling by Firefox.And thanks to Google's intelligence(hello...I'm kiddin), I cannot open my Gmail and Orkut accounts simultaneously since they are not the same 'Google Account'. I never asked it to verify that,did I ,or did you?

Courtesy Pranesh, I came to know of a website http://www.firefoxmyths.com . Please note that it will redirect to http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html(just in case the former link does not work).

And yes, I almost forgot,to speak of Yahoo's great customer care.It sucks and the worst part is that only the Indian portal(http://in.yahoo.com) has this big problem.The international(more correctly ,the US portal page) is much better and in fact very good.The Indian portal does not have a single mention of where to mail your queries to. Right now I just have the address to contact in case you have a problem with your messenger, and here it is(the Indian version) : in-messenger@cc.yahoo-inc.com

And a scan of the main page of the portal gives you two pages of link errors(those elements on the page which have been hyperlinked to an unavailable address) excluding those with Error 403 : Forbidden.

Click here for screen shots

And to end this story of the portal that has made it real big, I must confess that my problem hasn't yet been solved, thanks to a reply from customer care very politely saying

"
Hello Naveen,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! India Customer Care.

We're sorry to hear that you're currently experiencing difficulties when
attempting a connection to our servers.

Please be sure that you have established your Internet connection before
attempting to sign in/connect with Messenger. Launching Messenger will
no longer initiate a connection to the Internet.

<......All that was already tried out....>

Further, we recommend that you upgrade to the current version of
Microsoft Internet Explorer. If you use Netscape or Mozilla Firefox as
your browser, you don't have to switch to Internet Explorer, or even run
Internet Explorer. However by upgrading to the current version of
Internet Explorer it will offer you increased functionality and
stability with the latest version of Messenger.

"
That was it and then another mail from Yahoo! Customer Care with the subject line "Yahoo! would like to get your feedback for Support Case".

Sorry, I did not oblige.Just too pissed off that day.

The only point I wanted to make was that I was really shocked not to find a single helpline on the Indian portal.If Yahoo was always like this it might not have shocked me like this.But the US version also has a Premium phoneline service!!!Why don't we have it?Why don't we pull up our socks.Why does a portal that looks so glitzy on its homepage have such an unattractive help page(yes ,yes there exists one). And why does it not care to update it when it does to its services pages.Would another hundred hours of work on the Help page really matter or is it that voices like mine will never be heard for they form a minority in India( we do have a large population, don't we? :D).

The last post....before the split

The time had come...to make the decision...err...to put the decision into action.The decision:split the blog.Excuse me for that would not have made much sense but there is always the chance to explain.

Here we go.

It has been long since I've been planning to make this blog an exclusive 'technical posts only' blog and separate my personal life ...I mean ...non technical posts.The aim of this blog is now to practice well my technical writing and start off a career of sorts.The Step was taken and it has to be continued with all enthusiasm and interest, both of which I still retain fortunately.

I've been having some ideas lately but been lazy,I must confess , to enact them and as a result, no posts on the blog. This also had its own advantages.The ideas have been thought over that they've been assimilated, understood(ya...by me) and matured (err, these words do not go together,I know) that it is now 'about' the right time(Heisenberg....precision..bah).

Make hay when the sun shines,
They said then,
Write blogs when you have time,
Says Naveen now :-D

So!The time cometh to make the Announcement de finalé (same prob...my invention...probably ruining French but don't care)

Starting today the 8th of Jan,2007 ,
This blog, addressed in the web, as http://naveendageek.blogspot.com
With the alternate address http://snipurl.com/wif0 ,
Shall be a technical blog only
And its author hath set upon
Separating his non-technical writing from this blog.
With some mercy , however,
He shall be allowed to
Link up the new blog in the sidebar,
In due time.

Phew!!!Over with the catholic style baptism(!).

Now a prayer (a request to pardon me if there are any errors in this, recovered from memory)

Our program who art in memory,
Hello be thy name,
Thy operating system come,
Thy command be done ,
At the printer as they are
On the screen.
Give us this day our daily data,
And forgive us our I/O errors,
As we forgive those whose logic circuits are faulty.
Lead us not in frustration,
And deliver from power surges.
For thine is the Algorithm,
The Application,
And the Solution.
Looping forever and ever.
-Return.

And to finish off,the wise saying "The geek shall inherit".

PS:Hey Pranesh,A lil too many of poems in the post?

The day that was....fulfilling

Yep.At last a fulfilling day after coming back to KGP.

Yesterday I got my computer up and running(it has to be put that way,because of the unorthodox way that my comp came into existence!!!).Only the monitor had to be connected and there it was.Up and ready...all the 8GB required for putting it on sharing...And as a new comp would,this did have its effect on me...requiring me to sleep at 4:30am today morning.

Well,all this intro to enter 'The Day', the 4th of January,2007.So,it began. And as the new Spring semester time table would have it, our class starts at 7:30 am. It required some efforts from friends to wake me up.A mere 2 hr sleep is extremely insufficient on a winter day.

Well it was PDS(Programming and Data structures) class and I didn't want to miss the class.So up and quickly to the class 'we' went.And the class was far below expectations and the day seemed far from what the post-head says.The class was followed by Mechanics,another subject that I hated through my class 11 and 12.It only made things worser.But only until the next prof came.What was expected to be a boring lecture on SHM turned out to be very interesting more due to the way it was being treated...'damped oscillations really give beautiful graphs' was what I was thinking midway.A one hour break was given with perfect timing and it was a relaxing period topped with an interaction with a senior. Now a class in the new GSSST building.Mathematics!!! What would be on offer this semester! It was to be matrices...no simple things these.As words like 'three diagonal matrix' and other words(I don't even remember them now :-/) flew out of the profs mouth it was our turn to stare back at him in excitement(and for some,disgust...lol...god save those who hate math and took up engineering).Phew!One hour passed by and we were back to our hall for lunch.

No afternoon classes only meant I would not give up the seat in front of the comp and so it was to be.

Back in KGP with a comp is proving to be a real good thing.With an obvious distraction being the network gaming scene here it is to be seen if I give into the temptation.

This semester has unwoven itself beautifully and it is to be seen what it has to give me (and what I have to give up...fun!?).With Kshitij and Spring Fest lined up back to back in Feb., surely this is a semester to watch out for!

And to end this post in my style(hope to develop one with this blog and post),I must tell you some geek humor...
The famous Murphy's Laws of Computing

1. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.

2. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, it's probably obsolete.

3. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.

4. When the going gets tough, upgrade.

5. For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

6. To err is human . . . to blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human, it is downright natural.

7. He who laughs last probably made a back-up.

8. If at first you do not succeed, blame your computer.

9. A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

10. The number one cause of computer problems is computer solutions.

11. A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want to do.