How to Map Generic Rights to Standard and Specific Rights There are two equivalent ways trustees can be assigned a specific set of permissions on Windows: via generic rights and via a combination of standard and specific rights. Generic rights […] Read more
How the App Paths Registry Key Makes Windows Both Faster and Safer Why can you start Mozilla Firefox by typing “firefox” in the Run dialog and press enter? Firefox.exe is not located in any directory in the path. The same with Outlook […] Read more
What is the SYNCHRONIZE File Access Right? When dealing with Windows NTFS file system permissions, one quickly encounters the SYNCHRONIZE access right, the purpose of which may not be obvious. SYNCHRONIZE belongs to the standard access rights, […] Read more
Free Script: User Profile Domain Migration with SetACL This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. When administrators migrate user accounts between domains, […] Read more
How to Generate Directory Listing with Full Path from Batch Sometimes you need a list of all the files and/or folders in a directory with their full path, without any additional information. “DIR /B” would be the right command, if […] Read more
Taking Ownership Fails With UNC Path, Works Locally!?! Why? Here is an interesting tidbit related to Windows security: Create a test file share, e.g. C:\temp\test, and share it with full permissions for everyone (share, not NTFS permissions) as “test” […] Read more
How to Modify Default Share Permissions and Other Tweaks NTFS permissions are stored in the file system, that is well known. But where are share permissions stored? As so often with Windows: in the registry. Network shares are defined […] Read more
EFS Encryption and CopyFile(Ex): Why DIY is Better Generally I am not the type to recommend re-implementing functionality present in some API. But with the Windows function CopyFile(Ex) there may be no alternative, because of the less than […] Read more
Will We Use Cloud-Based Virtual Desktops in 2020? A desktop delivered from the cloud, accessible from everywhere, providing just the right amount of computing power for the task at hand, maintained by the cloud provider and paid for […] Read more
Registry Tricks Here are some pretty cool ways to work with the Windows registry. Regedit Multiple Instances Start multiple instances of Regedit by appending the command-line parameter -m, e.g.: regedit -m. Read more
Migrating from Blogger to Custom Domain on WordPress Without Losing PageRank Migrating a blog can be a very painful process, part of which stems from the fact that, if not done correctly, search engine valuation (aka PageRank) that took years to […] Read more
64 Bit: The Final Frontier – Slides From my Presentation at PubForum Only a few days ago I attended PubForum in Frankfurt – a weekend well spent! I had an altogether good time and very much enjoyed meeting so many great people. […] Read more
Should AppData be Redirected or Left in the User Profile? This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. Redirecting AppData from the user profile to […] Read more
New OS = New Profile = User State Lost. True or False? Going to Windows 7 or Server 2008 (R2) means trouble. Let me use an analogy to explain why. You are in charge of moving people from their old houses to […] Read more
New Articles, Tools, Tips and Tricks: Office 2010, RDS/XenApp, Windows, Web As before this is mainly a condensed and beautified version of my twitter postings. You can get them unfiltered and without delay by following me. Read more
Where is the App Store for Windows? Why Microsoft Should Fear Developer Drain. Selling little apps for little money is next to impossible – on Windows. It works great on another platform, though: the iPhone. Such an imbalance has consequences: Apple making it […] Read more
How to Enable Drag and Drop for an Elevated MFC Application on Windows Finding good information on how to enable drag and drop for MFC applications is hard enough (why?). But just when you think you should have it working, you hit a […] Read more
Poll: Do Companies Use Local or Roaming Profiles for Desktop PCs? Would it shock you if 35% of all enterprises used roaming profiles on their desktop PCs? Well, that was the average I got when I asked via Twitter. But is […] Read more
Deploying Visual C++ Runtime Files as Private Assemblies If you create a C++ project in Visual Studio and configure it to “Use MFC in a Shared DLL” (the default) you need to make sure the C runtime (CRT) […] Read more
.NET Applications on Windows x64 – Easy? Yes and No When migrating to 64-bit Windows, traditional “unmanaged” applications can pose challenges. That is because unmanaged binaries contain hardware-dependent CPU instructions – and the view on the hardware differs between 32- […] Read more
Citrix User Profile Manager 5 Years Ago: Birth Citrix User Profile Manager is pretty well-known in the SBC space today. Five years ago, things were quite different. Citrix did not have a user profile solution, and neither did […] Read more
Visual Studio: Adding DLL References Whose Version Changes Frequently Let’s assume you have a C# project in Visual Studio. In that project, you reference an assembly (DLL) created by another of your projects. Because both projects are in active […] Read more
Which Software Installed That Driver – And When? Installing a software that includes a driver may leave your system in an inconsistent state. If the install fails, parts may remain on the system. And if the remaining part […] Read more
New Articles, Tools, Tips and Tricks: Windows (7 and 2008 R2), PowerShell and Citrix Windows General Good info for troubleshooting DFS-Namespaces in the MS KB: Storage locations, inconsistencies and how to deal with them. Complex passwords and security guidelines for end users? No, thank […] Read more
Are Mandatory User Profiles Deleted at Logoff – or Cached? This article is part of Helge’s Profile Toolkit, a set of posts explaining the knowledge and tools required to tame Windows user profiles. A popular misconception about mandatory user profiles […] Read more
Visual Studio: Fixing Broken $(WindowsSdkDir) Variable If you get weird errors in Visual Studio that basically state files like Windows.h cannot be found, the reason may be a missing or incorrect WindowsSdkDir variable. In my case, […] Read more
Syntax Highlighting PowerShell Code in HTML – With a PowerShell Script When you are publishing PowerShell code on the web, you soon discover that it looks much nicer with syntax highlighting – as did I. There are several ways to add […] Read more
How to List All Installed Applications From the Command Line This article describes how to list all installed MSI packages. A more comprehensive listing of all applications displayed in Programs and Features can be obtained through our monitoring and analytics […] Read more
PowerShell Script Lists App-V Package Dependencies (Dynamic Suite Composition, DSC) Update 2010-04-20: Thanks to Stefan Henseler the script now works correctly with multiple dependencies in a single file. Be sure to download the current version below. App-V’s Dynamic Suite Composition […] Read more
