The Winhelponline Blog - Windows 7/Vista/XP Tips, Fixes and Troubleshooting

How to Use Sidebar 32-Bit Mode in Windows 7 and Windows Vista 64-Bit Editions to Run Silverlight Gadgets

In 64-bit editions of Windows 7 and Windows Vista, the 64-bit Mode of Windows Sidebar auto-starts by default. That means the Sidebar Gadgets (Desktop Gadgets) that use Silverlight, do not run, as 64-bit edition of Silverlight isn’t available yet. For example, take the case of BBC News Gadget when run in Sidebar 64-bit Mode, indicates that it requires Microsoft Silverlight even though Silverlight is already installed.

This is one reason you may want to use the 32-bit Mode of Sidebar.

Running 32-bit Windows Sidebar at Startup

Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}

Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Run

Double-click Sidebar and change the value from:

C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun

Restart Windows.

This should start the x86 (32-bit) mode of Sidebar.exe, which you can verify using Task Manager.

And the BBC News Gadget should now work!

Registry Fix

To automate the above setting using REG files, download sidebarx86-def.zip, unzip and run the file sidebar-x86-default.reg. To reverse the changes, run sidebar-x64-default.reg.

Internet Explorer History Entries and Windows Search Integration

When you type in the Internet Explorer 8 address bar, some of the previously visited URLs may appear in the dropdown even after clearing the history. No matter which method you use to wipe out the history, such as deleting the index.dat, using CCleaner or other third-party cache cleaners, some of the URLs continue to appear in the auto-complete listings.

This happens because Internet Explorer 8 uses Windows Search to index the visited sites, query and fetch results from the index as you type in the address bar. This is an enhancement added in Internet Explorer 8. (Note: Windows XP users need to install Windows Search to use this feature.)

For more information, go through post The IE8 Smart Address Bar Part 1 at the IE Team Blog.

Disable Windows Search Integration in Internet Explorer

If you wish to disable IE’s Windows Search integration, use these steps:

Start Internet Explorer, click Tools (ALT+T), click Internet Options

Select the Content tab.

Under AutoComplete, click the Settings button.

Uncheck Use Windows Search for better results, and click OK

Now "Internet Explorer History" is removed from the "Included Locations" listing in Indexing Options. (Indexing Options can be accessed from Control Panel, or by running the command "Control srchadmin.dll")

How to Extract Contents of .MSI File and Add “Extract All” To the Right-Click Menu?

There are situations when you need to pick a single file from an .msi package without having to go through the installation phase. One good example is that a stand-alone or portable application wrapped in a .msi package. In this scenario, you can avoid running the setup and extract the contents of the .msi package manually. Thus there won’t be a need for a System Restore point, addition of several registry keys and a few directories (which would be the case if you run the setup).

No third-party tools are needed; you can do this using the Windows Installer executable msiexec.exe command-line.

How to Extract the Contents of an .MSI File

I’ve got the ChristmasTheme .msi package downloaded from Microsoft site and would like to extract the background wallpaper from the package.

To extract the package, use the following command-line from the Run (WinKey + R) dialog:

msiexec /a "e:\downloads\ChristmasTheme.msi" /qb TARGETDIR="e:\downloads\theme files"

And here it is!

And the wallpaper image I was looking for is this, located under the Web\Wallpaper folder.

That’s how we extract the contents of an .msi file. To make this even easier, you can implement the command to your right-click menu (Context Menu)

Adding "Extract All" Right-Click Option for .MSI Files

Download msi-extract-all-menu.zip, unzip and run the REG file included in the archive. This adds "Extract All" option to the right-click menu for .msi files.

Clicking "Extract All" is all you need to do. It runs the msiexec.exe command-line in the background. As seen below, the package contents are extracted to a folder (with the same name as the source file, appended by the word "Files" ("ChristmasTheme.msi Files")

Hidden Registry Settings for the “Send to” Menu in Windows 7

The Send To menu in Windows allows you to quickly send a file to different locations including a floppy disk, CD-RW/DVD-RW, or to a third-party application. We’ve covered a few articles on the "Send To" menu before, and here are the three new and undocumented registry edits that can be used in Windows 7.

DelaySendToMenuBuild

By default when you right-click on a file or folder in Windows 7, it enumerates the items in your Send To folder to build the Send To menu. By setting the DelaySendToMenuBuild DWORD value data to 1 you can change the default behavior, so that Send To menu entries are generated only when you click the "Send To" menu, rather than on every right-click.

Also, you may notice that the context menu pops up little bit faster than before.

DelaySendToMenuBuild (REG_DWORD value) is implemented in the following registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer

NoSendTo

The NoSendTo value can be used to hide the "Send To" menu in the right-click menu for a file type. It’s implemented in the file type’s ProgID. For example, to hide the "Send To" menu for text files (.txt), you’ll have to create a NoSendTo (REG_SZ) value in this location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ txtfile

NoDrivesInSendToMenu

The Send To menu displays removable drives by default, as shown below:

By enabling the NoDrivesInSendToMenu (DWORD) value, you can hide drive-letters from the Send To menu without actually hiding the drives in Windows Explorer environment. This edit works in Windows 7 and Windows Vista, and is explained in this article and also here. It’s implemented in this registry location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

* You’ll need to logoff and login back for this registry edit to take effect.

Microsoft Security Essentials Version 2 Released With Additional Features

Microsoft Security Essentials v2 includes the following new features and enhancements:

Windows Firewall integration: Security Essentials setup enables you to turn on or off Windows Firewall. (And, no. It doesn’t include a firewall.)
Network Inspection System: This feature enhances real-time protection by inspecting network traffic to help proactively block exploitation of known network-based vulnerabilities.
New and improved protection engine: The updated engine offers enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities with better performance.

For More information read What’s New in MSE 2 Help Contents.

User Interface Changes in MSE 2

Fig 1: You can now control how much CPU time is used for scans. Default is 50%.

Fig 2: You can choose between the options Monitor all files, Monitor only incoming files and Monitor only outgoing files. And Enable behavior monitoring and Enable Network Inspection System options are added.

Download Microsoft Security Essentials 2.