Windows Notes and Todo

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

How to stop some background process that starts Windows starts?

Press ❖ Window+r to start the run dialog, then type “msconfig” to launch System Configuration.

What are some standard log files? In particular, when Windows froze or crash, where can i check logs?

Start Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management tool, then System Tools, Event Viewer.

When in a browser, i drag a image to a folder to save it. However, when the folder already has the image of the same name, Windows pops up a dialogue asking you whether to over-write it. Is there a way to just have Windows save the file with a new name with number appended? (For example, like OS X.)

there's no general way. Try a differetn browser.

Is there a page that lists all control panel apps with their command line program names?

no.

Here's a temp list to be added as i go:

How to disable the context menu for drives in SendTo in Explorer?

Type ❖ Window+r to launch the run dialog. Then, type regedit.exe to launch the registry edit. Then, go to this location HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If it doesn't exist, create it under the menu [Edit ▸ New ▸ Key]. Then, create a DWORD value by the menu [Edit ▸ New ▸ DWORD]. Then, double click the value and enter the value of “1”. Now, exit the registry edit then relog into your account.

When pressing Ctrl+Alt+f, it starts Microsoft File Transfer Manager. How to disable this key?

See: Disable Ctrl+Alt+S Shortcut for HP Support Info

When opening a Windows help file (.chm) downloaded from the web, Vista will popup a dialog saying that this is a potential security risk. You can open it anyway by just clicking the Open button. I want to open the file, however, the source is not a trusted source. Is there a way to check if the file actually contains malware code before i open? Or, can i set somewher to turn off scripting when launching chm file?

The following info does not answer my question.

See: Viewing Downloaded CHM Files by Rob Caron http://blogs.msdn.com/robcaron/archive/2005/06/23/431976.aspx .

MS05-026: A vulnerability in HTML Help could allow remote code execution http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896358/

Security Update for HTML Help released today by Assistance Platform Team Blog. http://blogs.msdn.com/apblog/archive/2005/06/14/429122.aspx

Often, Vista has these strings:

S-1-5-21-1677906968-2349816792-3240826983-1000
S-1-5-21-1677906968-2349816792-3240826983-500
S-1-5-21-2052964817-3031232471-2881579612-1000
S-1-5-21-2916703103-2250467028-1779095260-500

the above are dir names showing up in c:/$Recycle.Bin:. Sometimes i see similar string when viewing a file's property under security Tab as users, lasting for a second or 2. What are these?