Daily Cup of Tech

I was doing some research the other day on getting your self out of a difficult situation when you don’t have access to some vital system resources because you are running as a normal user and you lost your local admin password.

I discovered that there is a way to reset your user interface and run interactively as the LOCAL SYSTEM account. This is important because the LOCAL SYSTEM account has a lot of privileges available to it. According to Microsoft:

The system account and the administrator account (Administrators group) have the same file privileges, but they have different functions. The system account is used by the operating system and by services that run under Windows. There are many services and processes within Windows that need the capability to log on internally (for example during a Windows installation). The system account was designed for that purpose; it is an internal account, does not show up in User Manager, cannot be added to any groups, and cannot have user rights assigned to it. On the other hand, the system account does show up on an NTFS volume in File Manager in the Permissions portion of the Security menu. By default, the system account is granted full control to all files on an NTFS volume. Here the system account has the same functional privileges as the administrator account.

A little while back, some enterprising individuals discovered a way to run the LOCAL SYSTEM account interactively. Here are the instructions according to one website:

1. Start > Run > cmd.exe > type: at 12:03 /interactive “cmd.exe” (replace 12:03 with a time 2 mins from now). > close command prompt
2. New command prompt will open, when it does > Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL > find explorer.exe and End Process.
3. At command prompt type: cd.. > type: explorer.exe

This all words fine except that it is a bit confusing for someone who does not understand how all this works. So, I thought I would make it easier for those who do not have my background. I created a little program in AutoIt that completely automated the process. Simply run the program, wait for a couple of minutes, and you’re running as the LOCAL SYSTEM account.

You can download this program and play with it all you want.

WARNING: I have tested this program to the best of my abilities but this does not mean it is perfect. I did not have any problems with it but that does not mean you will not. If something goes wrong, don’t blame me! You’ve been warned.

For those of you who are interested, here is the source code for this little program I wrote. Feel free to hack around and make it do different things:

#include <Date.au3>
If $CmdLine[0] = 0 Then
;No command line options
;First run
$RunTime = _DateTimeFormat(_DateAdd(’n', 1, _NowCalc()),5)
$Command = @ComSpec & ” /c AT ” & $RunTime & ” /interactive “”" & @ScriptFullPath & “”" 2″
Run($Command)
Else
;Second run
$Command = @ComSpec & ” /c taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F & ” & @WindowsDir & “/explorer.exe”
Run($Command)
EndIf

Update: Someone asked in the comments how you get back to your normal account. Simply log out and then log back in as yourself. You should be back to normal.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/05/22/access-locked-resources-be-the-machine/trackback/

It has been long time since I have watched television like “normal” people. Ever since I found bittorrent, there was no turning back!

The problem that I have is that I am a pack rat! Once I download a TV episode, I don’t want to get rid of it. After all, I used up all that bandwidth!

So, I’ve started organizing my television shows into three categories:

1. Downloaded - these are shows that have just completed downloading and are in their original form from the Internet
2. Unsorted - these shows are in in one central location and should be in playable format. These are all my new shows that I probably have not watched yet
3. Sorted - once I have watched a show, the shows get moved into appropriate folders based on series and season name

The issue that I have run into in the past is that once an episode is downloaded, it may not be in playable format since many shows are archived, typically into RAR files. This means that I needed to manually extract these files or move the playable files to the Unsorted folder so that I could watch them.

I finally got fed up with this and I thought that there had to be a better way. It took me a couple of evenings work but I finally came up with a batch files that does the work for me! I simply have Windows programmed to run the batch file on a regular basis and it extracts all of the RAR files to my preferred location and moves all of the AVI files there as well (without copying the samples).

Here is the contents of that batch file:

@echo off
setlocal
cls

rem Set program variables below:
rem sourcedir - where files are saved once they have been downloaded
set sourcedir=C:\Downloaded

rem destinationdir - where you want all of the playable files to be placed
set destinationdir=C:\Unsorted

rem winrarpath - location of the unrar program
set winrarpath=C:\Program Files\WinRAR\

rem filelist - the name of the file which will store all of the RAR and AVI file names that have been processed
set filelist=FoundFiles.txt

rem tempfile - name of the temporary file that will be created and then deleted during the cleanup process
set tempfile=TempFile.txt

set path="%winrarpath%";%path%

echo Extracting new RAR files...
for /R "%sourcedir%" %%R IN (*.rar) DO find /C "%%R" %filelist% > NUL & if errorlevel 1 call unrar e -o- -y "%%R" *.* %destinationdir%\ & echo %%R>>%filelist%

echo Adding sample AVI files to no copy list...
for /R "%sourcedir%" %%R IN (*sample*.avi) DO find /C "%%R" %filelist% > NUL & if errorlevel 1 echo %%R>>%filelist%

echo Moving new AVI files...
for /R "%sourcedir%" %%R IN (*.avi) DO find /C "%%R" %filelist% > NUL & if errorlevel 1 echo Copying %%R... & copy "%%R" %destinationdir%\ & echo %%R>>%filelist%

echo Cleaning up %filelist%...
for /F %%R IN (%filelist%) DO if exist "%%R" echo %%R>>%tempfile%
del %filelist%
rename %tempfile% %filelist%

All you need to do is copy this file and save it as TorMove.cmd.  Then edit the three variables:

• sourcedir
• destinationdir
• winrarpath
• filelist
• tempfile

Only the first three are critical.  You just need to make sure that the last two do not clash with other files.

Also, you do not need to use WinRAR.  If you do not have this program, UnRAR for Windows will work just fine.

Once you have modified your file, save it and then schedule Windows to run it as often as you want!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/05/14/automatic-torrent-extractormover-script/trackback/

Every few months, I like to completely blow away my Windows system and reinstall it. This is primarily because I install so much junk on the system that it just starts to clog everything up. A freshly installed copy of Windows always runs so much quicker and has that “new OS smell”!

I firmly believe that more people would do the same if it wasn’t such a pain to do! Most people figure that you simply need to set aside a full day to do the job right.

So, I’ve put together a two part checklist of things that you should do before and after you completely reformat your system to start over.

Before You Reformat

1. Move all of your data off the computer and put it on a different system or drive. The most important folder to backup is the user profile (%USERPROFILE%) folder. This will usually back up 95% of what you want including your My Documents, music, pictures, favorites (for Internet Explorer), e-mail, etc.
2. Backup all of the device drivers that are being used on the system and store them somewhere else. I use a freeware program called DriverMax but I am sure that there are several other good ones out there.
3. Make sure you have a copy of all the software installed on your computer along with all of the license keys. A quick way to get a list of all installed software is to use something like Belarc Advisor. If you do not have the license keys, a program like Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder might be of help. This includes operating system and software that you bought by download. I usually start making this list a few weeks before I decide to rebuild my system.
4. Download AutoPatcher and prepare a Windows/Office update CD/DVD.
5. Create an image of the system just in case you missed/forgot something. There are a number of free imaging programs available. This way, even if there is something that you forgot to backup, you will still be able to get it back from the image.
6. Perform a thorough check of your hard drive. If your drive has errors or problems (r you just want a bigger hard drive), now would be a really good time to replace the drive. Some tools include:
• Seagate SeaTools
• Hitachi Drive Fitness Test
• Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic
7. Make sure that you have all of your account information for your Internet provider, including e-mail. Have their phone number handy in case you run into trouble.
8. If you do not have all of your online accounts information memorized, now is a good time to write record them so that you do not destroy the information when you reformat your drive.
9. Make sure that you have your wireless network information recorded and available.

If you have lost your passwords that are stored on your computer, here are some tools that may be able to help you out:

• MessenPass
• Mail PassView
• IE PassView
• Protected Storage PassView
• Dialupass
• Asterisk Logger
• AsterWin IE
• Network Password Recovery
• SniffPass Password Sniffer
• PstPassword
• WirelessKeyView
• Remote Desktop PassView
• PocketAsterisk
• RemotePocketAsterisk
• Unhide Passwords (Firefox)

After You Reformat

Well, you’ve reformatted your disk so there is no turning back. Here is a general overview of the process:

1. Make sure only the bare necessaries are plugged into the computer (monitor, keyboard, and mouse).
2. Boot from the Windows CD and install Windows.
3. Install all of the drivers that you backed up earlier.
4. Plug in all of your peripherals and ensure that they are all working correctly.
5. Install Office if you had it on your computer.
6. Install all of the updates from your AutoPatcher CD/DVD.
7. Run a disk clean and defragment on the drive.
8. Reconnect your systems to the Internet.
9. Install all of the applications that you want installed on the system.
10. Migrate all of your files to your newly built system.
11. Setup all of your accounts again.

I’m sure that there are a few things that I have forgotten but this is a really good start. Let me know what I’ve missed or if there is something that you do that I do not and I will add it to the list.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/05/10/windows-reinstall-simple-easy-and-quick/trackback/

I would be completely lost without my Internet connection. I had my central firewall die one day and it only took a few minutes for me to go into withdrawal! But, a lot of the times it is just sitting there doing nothing. And, like the lazy house guest who takes the trash out once a week, you really wish you could get more out of it.

One of the ideas that I have been working on is setting up my Internet connection with a WiFi hotspot so that people who are in the area and want quick Internet access can pay a small fee and get what they need.

This is a project that is still in the research phase but I have already made some really interesting discoveries.

1. I am probably going to use a piece of software made by Coova called CoovaAP. It is based on OpenWrt and allows you to turn several different stand alone commercial WiFi routers/firewalls into a full blown manageable hotspot. From the website:“CoovaAP is an OpenWRT-based firmware designed especially for HotSpots. It comes with the CoovaChilli access controller built-in and makes it easily configurable. CoovaAP is perfect for just about any HotSpot application - from WPA Enterprise (with RADIUS accounting) to Free WiFi with Terms of Service acknowledgment to commercial HotSpot captive portal applications. Use the embedded captive portal for a simple self contained HotSpot or use your own captive portal and RADIUS back-end. It is all up to you!” Other options that I have been looking at include WiFi-CPA and Worldspot.net.
2. If you are planning on doing this, make sure you read your Internet provider’s terms of service. You may not be allowed to do this without putting yourself at risk of being cut off!
3. You may want to look at boosting your WiFi signal to allow for the greatest amount of coverage. There are several ways to do this.
4. Make sure that you set up traffic shaping so that you can give your own computers priority over those who are using the hotspot. After all, it is your Internet connection.
5. Split up your internal network and protect it with a separate firewall. The last thing you want is your hotspot clients getting access to your personal information.
6. I’m still trying to figure out how to allow users to pay automatically when they create an account. It looks like PayPal will be the first most logical choice.
7. If you have a number of Internet connections in several different places, you could set up a single sign-on configuration to make it really easy for your clients.
8. It will be very important to determine how lucrative this will be because it could potentially be worth getting more Internet connections specifically for this purpose.

I think there could be some real opportunity here.  What are your thoughts?

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2008/02/08/make-your-internet-connection-pay-for-itself/trackback/