Batchography: Useful keyboard shortcuts for editing and working with the command prompt

In the Batchography book, not only you will learn about the command prompt’s keyboard shortcuts, macros and what not, but you will also learn the basic and fundamental topics for programming in the Batch language.

In this blog post, I present to you an excerpt from Chapter 1 in the Batchography book that covers all the useful keyboard shortcuts. My new favorite one is the F11 keyboard shortcut that is present in Windows 10 and up.

Get the book from Amazon: printed editionor the Kindle edition . Continue reading “Batchography: Useful keyboard shortcuts for editing and working with the command prompt”

May 14, 2016June 17, 2018

WifiPasswordReveal: A script to reveal all the saved WiFi passwords in Windows 7 and above

Hello,

The “How to show saved Windows 7 Wifi passwords” turned out to be a popular article and to make the life of my readers easier, I decided to apply a newly acquired knowledge and write a tool to make it SUPER EASY to get all the saved WiFi passwords without needing administrative privileges and without having to click through various settings dialogs.

Note: In some cases, if the script fails to run, then you may want to run the script as administrator.

Read on! or download the script. Continue reading “WifiPasswordReveal: A script to reveal all the saved WiFi passwords in Windows 7 and above”

April 18, 2016

Enable and use Bash under Windows 10

Starting from Windows 10 build 14316 you will be able to use Bash from Windows, with the Ubuntu flavor without running a VM.

Bash will run natively on the OS without virtualization. It is implemented as new Windows subsystem.

In this article I will show you all the required steps to get Bash up and running in Windows 10! Continue reading “Enable and use Bash under Windows 10”

March 7, 2016January 14, 2018

Backup and restore NTFS files permission with the ResetPermission utility

This is a follow up article to the popular article Resetting NTFS files permission in Windows – Graphical Utility.

In this article, I document the new feature in the ResetPermissions utility v1.1.5, where you can now backup and restore the NTFS files permissions. Continue reading “Backup and restore NTFS files permission with the ResetPermission utility”

February 8, 2016

Mouse Without Borders: Control up to 4 computers with one mouse and keyboard

Mouse without Borders is a prototype that makes you the captain of your computer fleet by allowing you to control up to four computers from a single mouse and keyboard. This means that with Mouse without Borders you can copy text or drag and drop files across computers. Mouse Without Borders is a Microsoft Garage project by Truong Do. Garage projects are side projects that Microsoft employees like Truong build for fun on their nights and weekends. Mouse Without Borders was designed for people who use many computers in the same room. For example, a laptop or tablet that you take to meetings might sit right alongside the desktop PC in your office.

I love this software. I use it whenever I have my laptop and desktop sitting next to each other. I can just use my desktop’s keyboard / mouse to control the laptop’s mouse and keyboard. The moment the mouse is moved away from one monitor, it crosses the borders to the other computer’s monitor. Not only that, any clipboard content will also transfer across borders. If I copy text or files on one machine, I can then paste them seamlessly on the second machine!

You can set up how your computer screens are laid out. For example, in the screenshot below, my desktop screen raised above the laptop who sits beneath it. Therefore, the moment I move my mouse from the computer’s screen all the way down, it then goes (across borders) to the laptop’s screen and activates the keyboard as well:

It is very easy to set up and configure the “Mouse Without Borders” software. You can download it from Microsoft’s website here: http://aka.ms/mm.

You might also like:

February 1, 2016January 28, 2019

Control Color Explorer: Explore your colors

As part of Windows apps development cycle, especially WinForms applications in Visual Studio, you may want to pick the right colors for your ListViews, Buttons, Labels, etc…

The best way to pick the colors is to visualize them.

With Control Color Explorer, you can visualize all the colors in the System.Drawing.Color type. You have the option to render the colors using the BackColor attribute or the ForeColor attribute:

Once you chose the colors you like, you may simply click the “Copy Color names” to copy them and use them in your application.

You may grab the source code of this tool from my GitHub repository to compile it by yourself, or just download the binaries from here.

You might also like:

January 25, 2016January 28, 2019

Windows Events Providers Explorer

Introduction

Windows Event Providers are part of the Windows Event Log services. An event provider is usually registered with the event logging and tracing service, so it can publish application specific events to the event log.

Each event provider contain metadata information required to interpret these events and to display that information in readable strings.

To list all providers in the system, you may use the logman utility like this:

logman query providers

C:>logman query providers

Provider                                 GUID
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.NET Common Language Runtime           {E13C0D23-CCBC-4E12-931B-D9CC2EEE27E4}
ACPI Driver Trace Provider             {DAB01D4D-2D48-477D-B1C3-DAAD0CE6F06B}
Active Directory Domain Services: SAM  {8E598056-8993-11D2-819E-0000F875A064}
Active Directory: Kerberos Client      {BBA3ADD2-C229-4CDB-AE2B-57EB6966B0C4}
Active Directory: NetLogon             {F33959B4-DBEC-11D2-895B-00C04F79AB69}
ADODB.1                                {04C8A86F-3369-12F8-4769-24E484A9E725}
ADOMD.1                                {7EA56435-3F2F-3F63-A829-F0B35B5CAD41}
Application Popup                      {47BFA2B7-BD54-4FAC-B70B-29021084CA8F}

…

Each provider, in turn, has metadata containing fields such as: keywords, levels, tasks, opcodes and a message template. The article entitled “Getting Provider’s metadata” on MSDN describes how to use the Windows Events APIs to enumerate the provider’s metadata programmatically.

Enter WEPExplorer

Continue reading “Windows Events Providers Explorer”

January 11, 2016January 10, 2018

Introduction to writing x64 assembly in Visual Studio

This article completes the previous article about writing x86 assembly code in Visual Studio. Therein, I will show you how to extend the previous knowledge and give you a head start on how to write x64 assembler code instead. Continue reading “Introduction to writing x64 assembly in Visual Studio”

July 3, 2014August 3, 2017

Introduction to writing x86 assembly code in Visual Studio

Hello,

In this technical blog post, I am going to give you a head start on how to write assembler code and compile it directly from the Visual Studio IDE.

If you are interested in x64, please check this article.

You are expected to be familiar with:

The Intel x86 assembly language and writing basic assembly code
Understanding of various calling conventions (stdcall, cdecl and fastcall)

Okay, let’s get started! Continue reading “Introduction to writing x86 assembly code in Visual Studio”

June 11, 2014June 13, 2016

How to show saved Windows 8 and Windows 10 Wifi passwords

In this blog post, I am going to illustrate how to reveal the saved Wifi passwords under Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10 in three easy steps.

Do you want to master Batch Files programming? Look no further, the Batchography is the right book for you.

Available in print or e-book editions from Amazon.

Alternative method

You can just use the WifiPasswordReveal script to automatically reveal the saved password with a click of a button!

You might also like the following posts:

How to show saved Windows 7 Wifi passwords

WifiPasswordReveal: A script to reveal all the saved WiFi passwords in Windows 7 and above

Free WifiShare Tool – Turning your laptop into a hotspot and internet connection sharing station

Batchography: The Art of Batch Files Programming

Step 1 – Open the Network and Sharing Center

Right click on the wireless networks icon in the tray bar (just next the clock):

Then right click on select “Open network and sharing center”

Step 2 – List all network adapters

Select “Change adapter settings”

This will give you a list of all available network adapters:

Step 3 – Show the WiFi properties and reveal the password

Double click on the Wifi card adapter icon for which you want to retrieve the password. In my case, I double-clicked on the “Wi-Fi” card.

The “Wi-Fi Status” dialog will show up. Press the “Wireless Properties” button:

Then switch to the “Security” tab:

Press “Show characters” to reveal the password.

I hope this short and concise article was useful. Please leave your comments or start following this blog to get notified about new / other useful tips.

August 26, 2013July 24, 2018

Resetting NTFS files permission in Windows – Graphical Utility

Update 04/30/2017:

New version 1.2.0 released with Unicode support and lots of bug fixes!

Download the reset permission tool from the download section below.

The post entitled “Resetting NTFS files security and permission in Windows” is very useful to show you how to reset the files permissions from the command line.

However, not all readers are savvy with following system commands and for that reason, I made a small graphical utility to automate NTFS resetting files permissions and taking their ownership:

Usage

This utility needs administrator privilege in order to run. To use it, first click on “Choose folder” to select the folder you want to reset permissions then press “GO” to proceed.

It is also possible to edit the commands, change or add new commands before you press the “GO” button.

Explanation of user interface:

The options:

Reset files permissions: This is the basic option. You may uncheck it if you want to carry other operations.
Take ownership: Sometimes it is necessary to take ownership of the files before resetting their permission. For that reason please check this option if needed.
Apply for all sub-directories: Use this option to apply the selected commands recursively.
Reset hidden and system files: This command will make invisible files visible.
Don’t follow links: this option applies to the “Reset files permission” and “Take files ownership” options only.
More options: see the section below.

The action buttons:

GO: executes the commands in the “Command that will be executed” text box.
HELP: takes you to this blog post
ABOUT: Shows the version and about text

Advanced

This is a new feature introduced in version 1.1.0. When you press this button, you get two options:

Add to Explorer folder context menu
Remove from Explorer folder context menu
Backup / Restore permissions. Those two features are explained in details in this article here.

Note: always press “GO” after you select any of the advanced options.

When the ResetPermission utility is added to the Explorer folder context menu, you will be able to right-click on any folder and then choose a new option called “Reset Permission”.

Check this screenshot:

How it works

To keep the explanation short and less technical, this utility is just a shell that uses the following utilities from Microsoft:

icacls.exe – Change files permissions
takeown.exe – Take files ownership
attrib.exe – Change files attributes

All the commands that are going to be executed are showed to you beforehand.

You have a chance to tweak the commands before you press “GO” and execute them.

Checkout the free tools:
Pic2Pdf
WifiShare
Windows Error Reporting – Local crash dump collection graphical tool
MAC address changer on Windows

Backing up / Restoring the files permissions

Don’t you wish you could undo all the permission changes you did because your system became unstable due to misusing this utility?

Now you can, with the two new “Backup permissions” and “Restore permissions” functionalities. Please read more about that in this article.

Disclaimer

Please use this utility at your own risk. Backup the permissions beforehand if you have to.

I am not responsible for mishaps due to using this tool recklessly (for example trying to reset system or root folders permission), however, I display a warning when this tool is about to be used on a root folder:

Check the “How it works” section above then please refer to Microsoft TechNet site for information about the tools used.

Download

Download the utility executable – use the password: lallouslab

Note: Windows Defender might block this attack. Add a folder exclusion to Windows Defender to solve the issue.

Download the source code

Do you want to master Batch Files programming? Look no further, the Batchography is the best book on the topic and the most up to date!

Available in print or e-book editions from Amazon.

12/19/2016 – Very important – ResetPermissions.exe is NOT a virus or trojan, read on:

ResetPermission tool continues to be plagued by Antivirus falsely reporting it as a Trojan or virus!

It is a shame that even in 2016, AntiVirus solutions are very poor at distinguishing malware from good ware.

If you follow this VirusTotal link here, you will see that as of 12/19/2016, only 2/41 falsely detect the ResetPermission.exe as a virus and the remaining AntiVirus solutions detect correctly.

What is more shameful is that “top” and “reputable” AntiVirus solutions like “Windows Defender” from Microsoft, “BitDefender”, “Kaspersky Antivirus” among many other AVs do a very poor job telling which is a malware and which is not!

In the AntiVirus hacker’s handbook book that I co-authored, I explain how Anti-Virus solutions are not optimal and just give you a false sense of security!

If you want to learn more about the Antivirus industry and how their technology is outdated, then read Part IV (Chapters 16 and 17) in the Antivirus Hacker’s handbook. Part IV is written in simple English and does not require you to be a computer geek to understand what the A/V industry is all about!

Please support my efforts and time put into writing this utility by donating through PayPal:

Thank you.

Interesting Batch programming articles:

You might also like:

June 14, 2009May 7, 2017

Resetting NTFS files security and permission in Windows

UPDATE:

I have released a new graphical user interface utility to reset the files permissions.

Try it out!

I was running Vista with two NTFS partitions (C: and D:), then formatted C: partition and installed Windows 7. The second partition (D:) had some files security set on files and folders.

After Windows 7 was installed, some files on drive D: were not accessible anymore and I was getting “Access Denied”. I tried to right-click/properties on the folders that were not accessible and changed their owner and changed permissions but still some folders were still inaccessible not matter what I did.

After some research, it turned out the tool “cacls” that allows one to display or change ACLs (access control lists) can help to reset ACLs. In Windows 7 it is called “icalcs”.

To reset files permissions, follow these easy 3 steps:

Step 1: Run “cmd” as Administrator.

Note: In MS Windows 8 and above, press the Win+X keys, then choose “Command Prompt (Admin)”.

Step 2: Go to the drive or folder in question, for example:

CD /D D:

Step 3: To reset all the files permissions, type:

icacls * /T /Q /C /RESET

That’s it! After that, the files permissions were reset and I could access them back again.

Very Important note:

Step 3 is irreversible. Make sure you backup the permissions before you proceed!

It is possible that “icacls” might fail. For that try to take ownership of the files first. Just before Step (3), please type the following command:

takeown /R /F *

Download the graphical utility instead!

Do you want to master Batch Files programming? Look no further, the Batchography is the right book for you.

Available in print or e-book editions from Amazon.

You might also like:

Category: Tech Monday

Batchography: Useful keyboard shortcuts for editing and working with the command prompt

Like this:

WifiPasswordReveal: A script to reveal all the saved WiFi passwords in Windows 7 and above

Like this:

Enable and use Bash under Windows 10

Like this:

Backup and restore NTFS files permission with the ResetPermission utility

Like this:

Mouse Without Borders: Control up to 4 computers with one mouse and keyboard

Like this:

Control Color Explorer: Explore your colors

Like this:

Windows Events Providers Explorer

Introduction

Enter WEPExplorer

Like this:

Introduction to writing x64 assembly in Visual Studio

Like this:

Introduction to writing x86 assembly code in Visual Studio

Like this:

How to show saved Windows 8 and Windows 10 Wifi passwords

Step 1 – Open the Network and Sharing Center

Step 2 – List all network adapters

Step 3 – Show the WiFi properties and reveal the password

Like this:

Resetting NTFS files permission in Windows – Graphical Utility

Update 04/30/2017:

Usage

Advanced

How it works

Backing up / Restoring the files permissions

Disclaimer

Download

Like this:

Resetting NTFS files security and permission in Windows

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Introduction

Enter WEPExplorer

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Step 1 – Open the Network and Sharing Center

Step 2 – List all network adapters

Step 3 – Show the WiFi properties and reveal the password

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Update 04/30/2017:

Usage

Advanced

How it works

Backing up / Restoring the files permissions

Disclaimer

Download

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