Windows 8 Protogon

I just installed the latest leaked version of Windows 8 and went looking for the Protogon File System. Just three files show up in the System32 directory with the “protogon” string in them.

The registry has the following “protogon” entries:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Wbem\CIMOM

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_microsoft-windows-f..lityprotogonlibrary_31bf3856ad364e35_none_add8868785921662

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_microsoft-windows-protogon.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_en-us_4c077269037a9bef

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_microsoft-windows-protogon_31bf3856ad364e35_none_d825a4fc7bdfc172

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_microsoft-windows-protogonformat_31bf3856ad364e35_none_7acda77dafed518b

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_microsoft-windows-protogon-fsd_31bf3856ad364e35_none_104e47a7ef43a05e

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_microsoft-windows-protogon-mof_31bf3856ad364e35_none_107b9535ef214f59

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\x86_microsoft-windows-f..lityprotogonlibrary_31bf3856ad364e35_none_51b9eb03cd34a52c

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\x86_microsoft-windows-protogonformat_31bf3856ad364e35_none_1eaf0bf9f78fe055

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WINEVT\Publishers\{cc875ce6-ec74-4463-aed8-64ac7de23417}

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\WMI\Autologger\ProtogonWmiLog

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\EventLog\System\Protogon

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Protogon

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\WMI\Autologger\ProtogonWmiLog

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\WMI\Autologger\ProtogonWmiLog\{b2fc00c4-2941-4d11-983b-b16e8aa4e25d}

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\EventLog\System\Protogon

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\Protogon

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ProtogonWmiLog

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger\ProtogonWmiLog\{b2fc00c4-2941-4d11-983b-b16e8aa4e25d}

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\System\Protogon

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Protogon

Updated – Top ten free apps to install on Windows 7

One year later and I have to update this list, not significantly but there is a change in priority and mix of applications.

1 – Windows Security Essentials, is still  number one because it is important and it is still free: http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/ The complete protection page is at: https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/definitions/ADL.aspx

2 – Windows Live Essentials 2011 has moved up to number two because it is the icing on the Windows 7 cake and includes the morphed Mesh to sync with your other computers and Skydrive, blog editor, family safety tool, mail, photo gallery and messenger : http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials

3 – Skydrive/Office/Live/Hotmail account is the other icing on the Windows 7 cake, 25G of backup and media storage, syncing and online Office documents: http://skydrive.live.com/. Live services are widely integrated with social media and other services and are an easy one stop shop replacement for DropBox, SlideShare, Photobucket, etc.

4 – IE9 is still in beta but will take surfing the net to a whole new level and if you press [F12] you can surf in stealth mode (imitate Firefox, Chrome or Safari): http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/

5 – Silverlight is used more often for many applications: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/

6 – You still need a PDF file viewer but I am not recommending Adobe Reader anymore, NitroPDF is much “slimmer” and just as functional: http://www.nitroreader.com/

7 – You are probably still going to need Flash but not as often if you installed IE9 and the web site has been updated to support HTML5:  http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

8 – Photosynth is still cool and is integrated with Photo Gallery: http://photosynth.net/. Take a look at the sister site at: http://zoom.it/

9 – You should be running Office 2010 now, you can choose one of three versions, online, home/student of professional: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/

10 – Still the Koolaid placeholder and an absolute requirement for your iPhone/iPod/iTouch, remember to not install the crapware: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

installing SQL Server 2005 Express in Windows XP SP3

After spending too much of my day trying to install an application that also installs Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express and failing, here is the quick fix summary. The failure is documented in KB968749 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968749).

1 – Install the Windows Server 2003 support tools on the subject workstation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755948(WS.10).aspx (drive:\support\tools\suptools.msi)

2 – Run msizap to uninstall the culprit MSXML6: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/duetsupport/archive/2009/10/07/duet-install-of-sql-express-fails-if-msxml-6-service-pack-2-kb954459-is-installed.aspx 

<path>\msizap T! {1A528690-6A2D-4BC5-B143-8C4AE8D19D96}

3 – Rerun the SQL Server 2005 Express installer (joy!).

Facebook and the future of marketing

Here is a quick summary of an article concerning Facebook and the future of marketing/advertising.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/02/facebook-bigger-google/

1  – Instead Facebook is siphoning from Madison Avenue TV ad spend dollars. Television advertising represented $60 billion in 2009, or roughly one out of every two dollars spent on advertising in the U.S.; the main challenge marketers have with the Internet till recently has been that there aren’t too many places where they can reach almost everybody with one single ad spend. Facebook fixes that problem.

2 – Facebook Ads employ demographic characteristics (Age/ Sex / Location and Interests), which corporate brand managers and television ad buyers have been accustomed to purchasing for half a century.

3 – Five years from now, billions of dollars of advertising will be spent to direct consumers from one part of Facebook . . . to another part of Facebook, where we’ll be offered real items to buy for ourselves or others (birthday alarm, anyone?), premium services to subscribe to, virtual goods to procure and play with, and deals-of-the-moment available for immediate purchase (or we’ll miss out forever!).

4 – Imagine if any Facebook Page or Facebook Place could make Groupon-like deals with its fans any time it wants. Now there would be an actual reason to pay Facebook money for ads that can augment the fan base of a Page or Place!

Facebook plus Windows Live

trying the new integration of Facebook with Windows Live

Top 10 free apps to install on Windows 7

Here is my top 10 list off apps to install on Windows 7, this is after a clean install or running a "decrapifier".

1 – Windows Security Essentials, need I say more, you need security, this is simple, effective and free: http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/

2 – Live Mesh, sync files and folders between computers (PCs, Macs, Windows Mobile devices), remote access to your workstations, secure  sharing with other people: https://www.mesh.com/welcome/default.aspx

3 – Windows Live, pick and choose what you want. I would highly recommend Mail, Writer, Photogallery and Office Live: http://download.live.com/

4 – Adobe Reader, there are still too many sites that have content in pdf format, make sure you don’t install the baggage that comes with reader: http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

5 – Adobe Flash, same as above, there are still too many sites that have content in Flash format: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

6 – Silverlight, just another tool you need in the toolbox: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/ 

7 – Office 2010 live (Skydrive), you can now securely save, share and edit Office documents in the cloud: http://skydrive.live.com/

8 – Photosynth, this is just cool, not just a photo but an immersive view of a location including geotagging: http://photosynth.net/

9 – Office 2007 document converter, if you have not yet upgraded to Office 2007: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466

10 – iTunes, if you drank some Apple Koolaid and have and iPod/iTouch/iPhone, the same cavaets apply to make sure you don’t install some additional unintended crapware: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

If you didn’t drink the Apple Koolaid go for Bing 3D Maps: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e9298080-50c4-4f2e-9fc4-4009074996ba

 

Photosynth

I have created a couple of photosynths. I am trying to determine how much overlap you need to get them to synth correctly. My first Starbuck’s synth had some gaps. I created a second one by dropping a couple of photos and adding a couple of photos from another camera.

GP install batch files

In the process of updating group policy install batch files to determine the existence of a previous install I ran across a great site with examples of batch files for various flavors of Windows: batch file examples.

modify Cisco VPN client msi for Group Policy install

With credit to www.appdeploy.com ( http://www.appdeploy.com/packages/detail.asp?id=495 )

 

The following is necessary to modify the vpnclient_setup.msi file to allow it to install withtout errors using Group Policy.  To prevent these errors modify the vpnclient_setup.msi file as follows.

 

1 – download the VPN client

2 – download the Platform SDK to allow access to orca.msi ( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/255905 )

3 – install the Platform SDK, after install you can find orca.msi at:  c:program filesMicrosoft Platform SDKbin (assuming defaults on install)

4 – install orca.msi

5 – make a copy of vpnclient_setup.msi and then edit it with orca

 

In ‘CustomAction’ table drop entries where ‘Action’ is ‘CcCaDll_GetInstallDriveType‘ and ‘CcCaDll_GetInstallDriveType1‘ (right click, drop row)

 

6 – copy to your install location for Group Policy install and create the Group Policy object for install.

Dell Latitude D620 decrapifier

cut and paste into a batch file

 

rem Dell decrapifier Latitude D620
rem HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentversionUninstall

rem HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentversionrun
rem HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentversionrun

reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun /v BuildBU /f
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun /v ECenter /f
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun /v "Google Desktop Search" /f
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun /v "ISUSPM Startup" /f
reg delete HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun /v ISUSScheduler /f
reg delete HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentversionRun /v SunJavaUpdateSched /f
reg delete HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentversionRun /v DLA /f

rem Sonic update manager
MsiExec.exe /I{30465B6C-B53F-49A1-9EBA-A3F187AD502E}

rem URL assistant
regsvr32 /u /s "C:Program FilesBAEBAE.dll"

rem Dell quickset
RunDll32 C:PROGRA~1COMMON~1INSTAL~1PROFES~1RunTime91Intel32Ctor.dll,LaunchSetup "C:Program FilesInstallShield Installation Information{C5074CC4-0E26-4716-A307-960272A90040}setup.exe" -l0x9  APPDRVNT4

rem Dell support
MsiExec.exe /X{CEE2252C-4035-4B27-8EC6-0B085DD3A413}

rem Google desktop
"C:Program FilesGoogleGoogle Desktop SearchGoogleDesktopSetup.exe" -uninstall

rem Google toolbar
MsiExec.exe /I{DBEA1034-5882-4A88-8033-81C4EF0CFA29}

rem Google toolbar
regsvr32 /u /s "c:program filesgooglegoogletoolbar1.dll"

rem Dell search assistant
call C:DELLSearchAssistUninstSA.bat