August 8th, 2008

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Windows Vista 64 Bit Autologin

Many of our free utilities are not ready for 64 bit. I have decided we will upgrade them one by one…in order of popularity :)

Just received a note from a reader:

Hi Steve,

Is the auto logon program you have for download supposed to work with Windows Vista Ultimate x64? (doesn’t seem to work)

It works just fine on x86 Vista, but doesn’t autologon with x64 machines.

Thanks

This particular utility writes to some registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software. That makes it a target for an application compatibility technology in Vista known as registry virtualization.

Many older Windows applications assume administrator access. This means reading and writing freely to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. This is not compatible with the Vista security model. To work around it Vista will intercept these requests and redirect them to a HKEY_CURRENT_USER key that looks identical. This way allows the application to work, and avoid asking for full administrative access via the UAC prompt.

There are a few rules 64 bit Vista uses for virtualizing registry reads and writes:

-The application must be 32-bit interactive process

-The key that is written to must be under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software

-The key requires administrative access to write to the key

-The application cannot be a service

These four conditions are met for our Automatic login utility. To fix it, we simply needed to make a slight change…that tells Vista that we really do want to write to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software key, and not a virtual one.

In the case of our autologin utility, it writes this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

If the write is virtualized, windows will never see the change, and our program will have no effect. There is a special flag we can set to tell Vista - yes we really do want to write to that key. After that it now writes to the proper area on all 64 bit versions of windows.

Download from here to get your copy.

Many of our utilities fit this same criteria. Send me an email if you have a favorite that needs some 64 bit TLC, and I will put it to the top of the list.

Check out our Windows Admin Tools

Written by Steve Wiseman on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Restore Window Title and Icon in Windows Explorer

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Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Previous Versions of files in Windows Vista

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Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Restore Window Title and Icon in Windows Explorer

In Windows Vista the window title and icon has been removed in all instances of Windows Explorer. The result is a blank space in the window that just does not look good where the window title normally is placed.Using a cool free utility called AeroBar …

Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News.

Restore Window Title and Icon in Windows Explorer

In Windows Vista the window title and icon has been removed in all instances of Windows Explorer. The result is a blank space in the window that just does not look good where the window title normally is placed.Using a cool free utility called AeroBar …

Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News.

Previous Versions of files in Windows Vista

Esther at The Windows Experience Blog show off the Previous Versions. This feature is part of the Shadow Copy feature in Windows Vista.Video: Windows Vista Demo: Previous Versions

Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Previous Versions of files in Windows Vista

Esther at The Windows Experience Blog show off the Previous Versions. This feature is part of the Shadow Copy feature in Windows Vista.Video: Windows Vista Demo: Previous Versions

Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News.

Previous Versions of files in Windows Vista

Esther at The Windows Experience Blog show off the Previous Versions. This feature is part of the Shadow Copy feature in Windows Vista.Video: Windows Vista Demo: Previous Versions

Written by ShaDow on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News.

Some Control Panel Applet Files some work in Vista….

Table I. Some Control Panel Applet Files

File Function Tabs (number in parentheses is index n discussed below)
access.cpl Accessibility controls Keyboard(1), Sound(2), Display(3), Mouse(4), General(5)
appwiz.cpl Add/Remove Programs  
desk.cpl Display properties Themes(5), Desktop(0), Screen Saver(1), Appearance (2), Settings(3)
hdwwiz.cpl Add hardware  
inetcpl.cpl Configure Internet Explorer and Internet properties General(0), Security(1), Privacy(2), Content(3), Connections(4), Programs(5), Advanced(6)
intl.cpl Regional settings Regional Options(1), Languages(2), Advanced(3)
joy.cpl Game controllers  
main.cpl Mouse properties and settings Buttons(0), Pointers(1), Pointer Options(2), Wheel(3), Hardware(4)
main.cpl,@1 Keyboard properties Speed(0), Hardware (1)
mmsys.cpl Sounds and Audio Volume(0), Sounds(1), Audio(2), Voice(3), Hardware(4)
ncpa.cpl Network properties  
nusrmgr.cpl User accounts  
powercfg.cpl Power configuration Power Schemes, Advanced, Hibernate, UPS (Tabs not indexed)
sysdm.cpl System properties General(0), Computer Name(1), Hardware(2), Advanced(3), System Restore(4), Automatic Updates(5), Remote (6)
telephon.cpl Phone and modem options Dialing Rules(0), Modems(1), Advanced(2)
timedate.cpl Date and time properties Date & Time(0), Time Zone(1), Internet Time (no index)
please do not put this on your own site,
link at least back to http://daily-it.blogspot.com

Written by Teus on August 8th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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