When you open up the Classes Root you’ll see a huge list of extensions starting with *:

If you scroll down a bit further, you’ll notice that soon the list of extensions end - after the extensions starting with .z - and the registry keys are no longer extensions, but rather they are the definitions for the extensions:

To make it easier to work with multiple different extensions that are really the same file type, like JPG and JPEG, Microsoft set it up so that you can create a definition and then link it to each different extensions. To put it in an analogy, the extension is the house address while the definition is the actual house. Keep in mind the difference between extensions and definitions and the relationship between them because that is really important.

Clicking on any of the extensions will reveal some values:

The only two we care about is (Default) and Content Type: (Default) is the name of the definition for that extension, while Content Type is the MIME type that web developers are probably familiar. Only the (Default) value is required for a key, though if the file does have a MIME, it’s not a bad idea for it to have Content Type also.

For every name present in the (Default) value for an extension, there is a corresponding definition key. For example, for the .png extension shown in the screenshot above, there is a pngfile definition:

This definition controls some key aspects for the file extension it is connected to, such as what the file type is called, the icon used by default, and what items appear in the right-click context menu for that file type. In this case, for definitions, (Default) is the name of the file type, like PNG Image (see above screenshot), Microsoft Word Document, or Video File.  It can be any string, and yes spaces are allowed.

Under the definition key, there are a few sub keys:

The two we are interested in are DefaultIcon and shell:

• DefaultIcon is exactly what it sounds like - controls what is the icon that will appear by default for the file extension the definition is connected to. The (Default) value is the location of the icon to show in Windows for that file type:

For this (Default) value, you are allowed to either point it to the location of an icon file (i.e.  C:\Icons\icon.ico) or the location of an icon embedded in an executable or a DLL (i.e. C:\Windows\System32\url.dll,0).

• Shell contains a list of the items that appear in the right-click context menu for the associated file extension:

Not all the items you see when you click on a file are here; this list only contains items added specifically for this file type (as opposed to be global), like Open or Print. For each item there is a sub key with an internal name of the item, as you can see from the screenshot above. Each key’s (Default) value is the text shown to the user in the right-click context menu:

The name of the registry key and the (Default) value may be, and probably are, the same, except the key cannot have any spaces; they can be different too, though.

Under each item’s key there is another key called command:

(Default) for command is the command that is run when the item is clicked on (usually double left-click, but will vary depending on your computer settings). For example, as you can see in the above screenshot, clicking on Edit for a Word Document opens Microsoft Word: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde. The /n and /dde can be considered command line parameters - they give Windows special instructions on how to execute the command in question. Often times you may also find a %1 at the end of the command string. When you click on a menu item, Windows looks at the command, and replaces the %1 in the command string with the file, so if you are opening C:\text.txt and the command is C:\MyProgram.exe “%1”, Windows launches C:\MyProgram.exe “C:\text.txt”.

That is really all I have to say about the Classes Root for now. Keep in mind this is only a basic view of the Classes Root (yes, I know you advanced techies out there must be thinking - "he skipped over so many things") but for our purposes it is good enough. Get to know the Classes Root well and next time I’ll show off some really cool stuff.

A quick thank you to PC Magazine’s Neil J. Rubenking for showing me this - thanks Neil!

The first salvo came when Nokia, the biggest cell phone manufacturer in the world, sued Apple in October ’09. Nokia claimed that Apple had violated ten patents of Nokia's in the iPhone.  In December ’09 Apple counter-sued saying Nokia violated some of Apple's patents. The result is that the United States International Trade Commission (US ITC) has got involved, meaning that now all that is left to do is wait and see what happens. (On May 5, 2010, Nokia added to its complaint that the iPad also infringed on another 5 patents.  Okay, nothing too groundbreakingly surprising considering the iPad and the iPhone have so much in common.)

In March 2010 Apple sued HTC over 10 patents that are from the iPhone, prompting question of whether this was a proxy battle with Google or maybe even Microsoft (HTC is producing many of the "Google phones" available on the market right now, and has many handsets that are running Android and Windows Mobile).  In response, HTC joined Nokia's "lets-serve-Apple-with-papers" party by counter-suing Apple, claiming Apple violated its patents; HTC even went as far as requesting the ITC to ban the iPhone OS platform from the USA.

To make matters worse (for Apple), another company called SoftView is suing Apple and AT&T over their method of displaying web content on small devices, like the iPhone.

It is worth noting, however, that lawsuits from firm-to-firm are a regular occurrence in the high-tech industry; open a newspaper and chances are there will be news about how company A sued company B over violation of patents (or some other litigation). Sometimes these lawsuits have teeth, while other times they are more bark than bite; most of the time these matters are settled out of court via the exchange of royalties for the use of a particular technology. However, in these particular issues regarding Apple, no matter who is right and who is wrong, I wouldn’t want to be Apple right now! (Or maybe I would, considering how much money they are making.)

[Via multiple PCMag articles: HTC Asks ITC to Bar iPad, iPhone, iPod Imports | SoftView Files Suit Against Apple, AT&T | Nokia Now Claims Apple iPad Infringes Its Patents | Nokia Sues Apple Over iPhone Patents | Apple Countersues Nokia Over Patents | ITC Opens Apple-Nokia Probe | Apple-HTC Suit Cites Multitouch, Gesture Patent]

In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy uploaded a video to Google Video of them bullying an autistic schoolmate.  As soon as Google was notified, they took down the video and helped Italian authorities track down the offenders. Most would agree Google reacted well in the situation and did right by taking down the video ASAP and helping Italian authorities; so the case closed, right? Wrong. A public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees of criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code over this incident.  On February 24, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 employees and found them guilty of failing to comply with Italian privacy code.  All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. Drama doesn't end there, though.

On the same day as the conviction, Google announced on its Google Public Policy Blog that 3 European companies, Foundem, ejustice.fr, and Ciao! from Bing, levied complaints against Google to the EU.  According to Google, the three companies are charging Google with demoting their websites in search results because they are vertical search engines. Neither the EU nor any of companies from Europe have confirmed this as of now, but one would hardly think Google would publicly make an announcement if it held no little truth to it.

It seems Europe has had its fun with Microsoft and is now moving on to Google. Is it that Europe hate American tech powerhouses, or Europe is just more strict about "fair competition" (whatever that term may imply - keep in mind much of Europe is less capitalistic in terms of markets than the USA)? In that regard, it should also be mentioned that some of the companies that supposedly levied complaints against Google (remember the complaints have not been confirmed by the EU yet) have ties to Microsoft so to say Europe has an agenda against American companies would a tiny, itty-bitty stretch of the truth.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below.

(Please keep in this mind this article is not pro/anti Europe, America, Google, Microsoft, etc. The humor in the article is just that - humor. We do no intend to take sides; rather we are just reporting the juicy details.)

[via PCMag.com]

Now whether you like the registry or not it (although I am sure many people are indifferent on their feelings towards the registry), is a very powerful tool and if used correctly it can be used to customize your computer so it was more the way you want it to be, or it can just simply make your computer run better.  However, as with super heroes, “with great power comes great responsibility”.  One wrong move in the registry can, at best, make something happen you didn’t mean to and, at worst, make your computer crash, burn, and die.  To help avoid either situation, this first article on registry hacks will explain what the registry is, how it works, what it can do, and provide precautionary tips on what to do to avoid trouble in the future; subsequent articles will then expand on the nifty hacks/tweaks I have to share.

As a general rule of thumb, before starting to work with the registry, you want to:

1. Back up your files. Yes backing up the registry is important, but your files are more important. Think about it: do you really care that much about the registry because you like the registry or do you care about the registry because if the registry is messed up you will lose your files? Backing up your files ensures if the worst does happen, you still have your files. If only specific, or a few number of, files are important to you use a file backup software like GFI Backup. If your whole computer is is important, use an image backup software - Ashraf has mentioned many before. Image backup will be more comprehensive and more appreciated by you if something does go wrong; however image backup will also be slower and take up more space.
2. Back up your registry. When the registry messes up, sometimes everything can be fixed by simply restoring the backup you have. However, not all the times - sometimes you may not even be able to access the registry if someone goes wrong - so don't depend on your backup to be a know-all-fix-all solution. Yet, you still should have it. You can backup your registry many different ways. Some mehods are to use CCleaner or GFI Backup, or just open up Regedit, go to "File" -> "Export".
3. Create a System Restore Point so that you can try to fix any problems that do occur. System Restore is the easiest way to try to undo a problem. Sure it may not necessarily always undo the problem you are looking to fix, but it is the quickest and most convenient method - the first step you should almost always try before resorting to other measures.
4. Read this whole post 10 times. Make sure you know what you are doing.

In general, registry hacks can be divided in to two groups: hacks that help personalize the system and hacks that change how the system works. Personalization hacks change things like the Context Menu (that menu that pops up when you right click) or icons that files use.  System hacks change things like what shell Windows' will use.  For the most part, I will focus on personalization hacks since they are less dangerous.

The registry is organized like your file system with “drives” called Hives, “folders” called Keys, and “files” called Values.  There are five Hives in the registry, though we will only be dealing with three of them: Classes Root, Local Machine, and Current User:

• Classes Root (HKCR) has the settings for extensions. It stores all the information about how to handle files’ types, like what it’s called, what context menu to show, what icon to show, what to do when double clicking it, etc.
• Local Machine (HKLM) stores settings for all users, like the computer's name and information about the hardware.
• Current User (HKCU) stores settings for the current users, like what wallpaper to show.

Under each Hive are Keys that, like folders on your computer, can contain other Keys.  In both HKLM and HKCU there is a Key called Software, and under it you would find a key for most companies that you have installed software from.  In each company Key, you will find Keys for software from them, which should contain settings and information about the program.

In each Key, besides containing other Keys, there can also be Values, which store the actual information.  A Value is made up of three parts: Name, Type, and Data. The Name is simply a name for the Value and can be anything, like how you can name a file. The Type tells the system what kind of data is being stored. The two we will be dealing with are REG_SZ which means a string of text and REG_DWORD which means some number from 0 to 4,294,967,295. Data will contain, well, the data associated with that Value. All the hacks/tweaks I will discuss will be accomplished by changing, mixing, matching, cloning, etc. the Keys, and Values.

Now, I think that's enough for you to take in. As I said, reread this post 10 times so you know exactly what you are dealing with. Next time I'll show you some real hacks!

Whether you like it or not, IE has had big impacts on the Web, some which they aren’t given credit for. For instance, AJAX as we know was first supported in IE, with a Javascript Object Microsoft created. So whether you use it or not, like it or not, it’s a good idea to know what the IE team is up to. And the latest news from the IE team is Internet Explorer 9.

Although IE9 is only 3 weeks old, this is what we have been told about it so far:

• It will use DirectX2D to render. What that means is that rendering web pages will be done by the GPU instead of the CPU, which should make rendering faster. This will also mean that font's should look smoother as shown bellow.
  96 point Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad at 100% Zoom using GDI (note jaggies):
  
  96 point Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad at 100% Zoom: Direct2D (without jaggies):
  
• It will run JavaScript faster (about 1/3 the time of IE8).
  
• IE9 currently gets a 32 on the ACID3 test.  While that’s not so great, if you factor in that they’re only 3 weeks in, and it is bound to increase as IE9 is developed more, it’s not so bad.
  
• It also now supports rounded borders.
  

So although a lot isn’t known yet about IE9, it does seem to have some stuff going for it. And just one request: Don't tell me about how IE should use Webkit (if you read the comments on the IEBlog you'll understand).

[via IEBlog]

Love IE? Hate IE? Vent or cheer below!

Now while I agree in principle with Ashraf about Ads but at the same time I just can’t stand some!  The ones I don’t like are the Flash based ones that make sounds or expand when your mouse goes over them.  Now being a big fan of using what I’ve got on my system to do what I want, so I found a way to do it using just IE’s own settings.  It’s done using IE’s Zones, which are ways to give trusted site more access then normal sites or not trusted sites less.  What I’ll show you how to do is make it so that not trusted sites can’t run Flash and then I’ll give you a list of sites I found to be serving Flash ads.

First open up Internet Options; either from IE its self or from the Control Panel (I only show from IE).

Once that opens go to the Security Tab.

Then select the Restricted sites Zone and click the Custom level button.

In the settings, make sure that the following settings are set to disable:

• Allow Previously unused ActiveX controls to run without promotion
• Allow Scriptlets
• Automatic prompting for ActiveX controls
• Binary and script behaviors
• Download signed ActiveX controls
• Download unsigned ActiveX controls
• Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting
• Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins
• Script ActiveX control marked as safe for scripting

Now whatever sites we add to the Restricted Zone can’t run Flash. To add sites to the Zone Click on the Sites button on the Restricted sites options

The sites I found and blocked are (A ‘*.’ before one of them means that any sub servers are also blocked):

• *.googleadservice.com
• *.googlesyndication.com
• *.paypopups.com
• *.rad.live.com
• *.rmxads.com
• *.tumri.net
• ad.doubleclick.net
• ads.adbright.com
• ads.adbrite.com
• ads.yimg.com
• g.doubleclick.net
• m1.2mdn.net

You can add your own to the list but remember that you’re really blocking all Flash on that server, not just Flash ads. So be careful not to block a site that also gives you Flash you want.

What I’m going to show you is how to make Outlook work with these accounts. However, be warned this method will work for some accounts but not for others; it depends wholly on the server settings of the e-mail service you are using.

The first step is to find out if we can do it. To do this open up command prompt, which you can do by opening up Run and typing “cmd”, no quotes:

Type into it “ping smtp.mailserver.com” replace mailserver.com with your email’s server. If the email was admin@dottech.org you would do “ping smtp.dottech.org” (I’ll use the dotTech server in the rest of my examples):

If you get something saying that it couldn’t ping or that it got no response then this trick won’t work:

If you get something saying, “Reply from” and then some technical stuff, this will probably work:

Now, we have to make sure Outlook doesn’t try to check for emails while we are setting this up (doing so would mess it up). So open up the Send/Receive Menu go to Send/Receive Settings and check the Disable Scheduled Send/Receive:

Next, create a new account and select “manually configure servers…”:

Fill in your name and your email address with your information. Leave the account type as POP3. Set the incoming server to some real account you have; take note the incoming server can be of any e-mail service - it just needs to be an actual server because Outlook looks for one. What incoming server you set is not very important; it can literally be anything. For the outgoing server, set it to the server we used above (smtp.dottech.org in my example), use the email address as the user name, and leave the password blank:

Finish creating the Account. Next, you need to tell Outlook not to try to check for email for this account so that you can enable Send/Receive.  To do this, open up the Send/Receive Settings:

Then click the edit button so that we can change the settings for the account:

Now go to the new account we just created, and under Account Option uncheck “Receive Mail Items”:

You can close all the Send/Receive windows now and enable Send/Receive again. After you have finished setting everything up, when you go to send a new email, under the Send button there will be another button called Account. From this button, and if you select the account we just created it should send an email from your Alias Email address.

Enjoy!

While Windows 7 adds the ability to create and mount them natively (and theoretically ISO files as well), to do any of those actions you must use either DISKPART in command line or the Disk Management Console (DMC); and to use either you have to have Administrator rights.  Unfortunately, the only way to fix the Administrator rights problem is to turn off the UAC, a very bad idea.  However, there are ways to mount VHDs without using DISKPART or DMC. In this post, I am going to discuss two ways to do just that.

The first way is by using program called VHD Attach. All users have to do is install the program, and VHD Attach will add the the ability to "Attach" (mount) or "Detach" (demount) directly into the context menu (the menu that you get when you right click a file) for VHD files:

The cool thing about VHD Attach is once you run the installer, you need not (ever) run the program again. The context menu entries are done by editing the Windows registry and other geeky stuff so VHD Attach does not have to be running in order to use "Attach" and "Detach" from the context menu.

However, if you do want the run the program part of VHD Attach, you can use it to gain information about VHD files:

One *additional* feature VHD Attach adds is a "Detach" option on the context menu of real physical hard drives/partitions.

The second way is for the users who want more control over the whole process, or more options from the context menu, or just prefer not to download a program. Ben Armstrong, a Virtualization Program Manager at Microsoft, published on his blog “Virtual PC Guy’s Blog” a script that can do similar things as VHD Attach.  What makes his different and a bit more complex is that it uses DISKPART in the background, giving it more power.  Of course, "installing" the script is a bit more involved than running a simple EXE file. To install it run the code with the word install after it like “VHDBatch.cmd install”.  That will add the ability to mount, mount as read-only, demount, and compact the VHD.

My only complaint is that Ben Armstrong set the default double click action to mount as read-only, so if you’re like me and want it to mount it normally by default, you can download a version I modified.

You can download VHD Attach, Ben Armstrong's script, and my modified version from the following links:

VHD Attach

Version reviewed: v1.00

Supported OS: Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2

VHD Attach homepage [direct download]

Ben Armstrong's Script

Version reviewed: Unknown

Supported OS: Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2

Virtual PC Guy's Blog homepage

[Direct download - Ben's Script]

[Direct download - my modification of Ben's script]

Here is a quote from the WindowsSteam Blog:

When people purchase Windows 7 through our online Microsoft Store, they are given 2 options:

• Have the copy of Windows 7 packaged retail product (boxed product) shipped to them.
• Download a digital copy as an ISO image.

The Microsoft Store will be providing a tool called the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (rolls right off the tongue doesn’t it?) – or WUDT for short. For netbook users without DVD drives, the WUDT will take an ISO image and create a bootable USB device that can be used to install Windows 7. The WUDT can also create a Windows 7 installation DVD from the ISO file as well.

Of course the catch is you must purchase Windows 7 from Microsoft's online store, so if you have already purchased it from somewhere else you are better off sticking to A Bootable USB or WinToFlash. However for those netbook users who have yet to move to Windows 7, it may well be worth their while to get Windows 7 directly from Microsoft.

Update: It looks like you actually don't have to purchase Windows 7 from Microsoft to use WUDT. Anyone, and everyone, can freely download it from here. The system requirements to run WUDT are:

• Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• 50MB of free space on your hard drive
• DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive

Thanks Gerald!

Update: Microsoft has pulled the WUDT, so the link has been disabled. For more information read Ashraf's article Microsoft removes the new Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool… because it stole from open source software?

Update2: Microsoft will now release the source code for WUDT as per GNU GPLv2 guidelines. For more information read Ashraf's article Microsoft issues an apology for stealing open source code and will release the source code for Windows CD/DVD Download Tool.

[Ashraf made minor edits to this post.]

At its most basic, a Process Virtual Machine (PVM) is somewhat like the Virtual Machines (think VirtualBox) that run whole operating systems. The main difference between the two being  PVMs only virtualize processes, not whole operating systems. The main idea of a PVM is to simplify the creation of programs as well as making programs easy to use for the end user.

Java and .NET both have their own systems, but the basic idea remains the same: a coder can make a code once and the PVM deals with making it run on different computers.  In Java’s case, this means that a programmer can make one code that will run on Windows, Mac, UNIX, Linux, and even mobile phones.  In the case of .NET, a programmer can target any Windows based device and have the code work with little or no changes. This helps developers target very large groups of people with minimal expense in terms of time and money. Furthermore, PVMs makes programming easier since a lot of things that a programmer normally has to worry about, things they would usually have to code manually, can be easily called instead of created. Continuing on that trend, PVM based programs are also safer since the program is running in a virtual machine, making it harder to mess up the system (though not impossible, trust me, I know =D).

On the flip side not everything is rosy in PVM park. For starters you need to have the PVM installed on your computer, though in the case of .NET if you keep your computer up to date odds are you will have .NET (or, depending on what Windows you have, you may not even need to download it from anywhere because various versions of .NET come with Windows Vista and Win7). If you don’t have the PVM or even the correct version (in general having a new version is ok) the program won’t run.  And the PVM is not always that small - the installer for .NET 3.5 SP1 is 250 MB. PVMs are also controversial. PVMs are considered to be cheating by some since the programmer has the PVM doing a lot of the work for him or her. However, that also hurts the programmer since if something is not in the PVM they have to access native (or non PVM) code to do it, which can be very hard sometimes. Finally, though this is more true with .NET than Java, a PVM program will only run if the PVM is supported on the OS in question.

I personally am a PVM programmer. My “native” programming language is Visual Basic (.NET PVM), but I know Visual C# (.NET PVM), and am in the process of learning Java (Java PVM). I also plan to learn to code natively in the future. Though I admit that using PVMs has some problems, I believe that just because a program uses them doesn’t make them any worse than a program that’s written natively. However, in the end I suppose that’s your call.

[This article has been contributed to dotTech by Samuel with minor edits from Ashraf.]