Dear Readers, I've changed to a different blogging platform (WordPress), and make a note of the new Web address for the Winhelponline Blog:

URL: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/
RSS : http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/feed

Thought it's a good time to post the site statistics.

Report generated on Dec 19, 2007 by AWStats.

A question which I came across recently...

I go to Start, Run and type in "cmd", I get an Open With prompt window that asks me to

Choose the program you want to use to open this file: File: cmd

I've used the "Browse" button to locate the Windows Command Processor, but I have to select it from the list of "Program." The "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" check box is grayed out. I don't even know why Windows has decided cmd is a file to be opened by an external application.

This problem happens if there is a file named CMD in your profile folder, and Windows tries to execute it when you type CMD (without the .exe suffix, the file extension) in Start, Run dialog.

Click Start, Run and type:

%comspec% /k dir "%userprofile%\cmd*" /s

Press {ENTER}

This lists files within your profile directory which contain cmd in the file name . Spot the files which contain the names (CMD, CMD.EXE, CMD.COM, CMD.BAT) located within your user profile path and rename them or move them somewhere else.

If those files appeared in your user profile folder without you doing anything, then it's a good idea to run a thorough scan for Viruses and other Malware.

When you type CMD in Start-Run dialog, Windows searches for the file in the following locations in the same order given, and executes the first one found:

• Your user profile folder
• Checks the App Paths registry key
• Searches all the folders included in the PATH variable

The search order may vary depending upon the Operating System you use, and the Service Pack level of your system.

Note: The problem was fixed when the user removed a 0-byte file named cmd in his profile folder. If you run across a similar situation at some time, this blog entry should help.

Unable to assign Acceleration Key for an Action

I have found what I consider to be a bug in Windows XP. It would affect almost no one, but still a bug. As an example, assume that Microsoft Word is already installed and a person installs the Microsoft Word Viewer also.

1. Open Control Panel/Folder Options/File Types tab.
2. Select a file extension. (Say .doc)
3. Click Advanced and the Edit File Type dialog box opens.
4. Select New button and the New Action dialog box opens.
5. In the Action: text box, type &View (with the intent that the keyboard shortcut for this is Alt+V)
6. In Application used to perform action:, type the path to wordview.exe
7. Select OK to close the New Action dialog box.
8. Select OK to close the Edit File Type Box.
9. Select OK to close the Folder Options Box.
10. In Windows Explorer, right click a .doc file. The context menu will show &View instead of View.

Does this happen to others?

--Paul

Workaround

Hi Paul, Yes! You've found a bug in the Windows XP File Types dialog. I can reproduce the problem exactly, but have a workaround for this issue.

When you type the name of the new Action (in Step 5 above), add a blank space after the action. For example, type "&View " instead of "&View" (without quotes). Or, type a multi-word string (such as "Open with Word &Viewer") in the Action text box. This circumvents the problem.

Another workaround is to edit the registry and set the file type description manually. This can be done by modifying the (default) value in the file type's ProgID, which is located here:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<ProgID>\shell\&View]

Where <ProgID> is the actual ProgID for that file type. To better understand what ProgID is, have a look at the graphic below:

Here are some ProgID examples: txtfile, jpegfile, giffile, Wordpad.Document.1, xmlfile and so forth.

Summary

In article 142 - How to hide the "Delete" command from Recycle Bin context menu in Windows Vista published on Feb 14 2007, I provided a .REG file which removes the Delete command from the Recycle Bin context menu in Windows Vista. That tip helped hundreds of users so far. This article explains how that tip works.

Creating a dummy "Delete" verb in the registry

After working for an hour in the registry, I found the way to hide (actually override) the system default Delete option in the Recycle Bin context menu. The trick was the create a dummy Delete verb in the registry, under the Recycle Bin namespace GUID, and assign it a different display name (such as "Search") by altering the (default) value for the Delete verb. The user will now see Search when they right-click the Recycle Bin, and the Delete option remains hidden, as we've just overridden it with Search.

Next task is to make the Search option operable. This is done by creating the sub-key named command, and assigning c:\windows\explorer.exe as the value data. However, I preferred %windir%\explorer.exe as in the above REG file.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} \ shell \ Delete \ command

Next step was to create a ddeexec branch, as you can see in the REG file in article 142 - How to hide the "Delete" command from Recycle Bin context menu in Windows Vista, and assigning appropriate data. The DDE string FindFolder invokes the Search window.

Editor's Note: Hope this little background information helps you override the Delete option in the Recycle Bin. Based on the idea above, you can add your own context menu entries in that location (Examples: "Open My Computer", "Clear Temporary Files" etc). Already I see my original tip being stolen and republished in other Websites (without my permission). Well. It happens!

Question

I had a problem loading a HP compatibility file for Windows Vista, for my new scanner. The HP Technical person suggested I download Windows Script 5.6 because of the installer error code 2738. The instruction stated to go to Microsoft and download this file for your computer. There is not a Script 5.6 for Vista, but only for XP, 2000, 98 and the like. Will downloading the file for XP cause any problems for Vista?

Answer

Windows Vista already includes the latest scripting engine (version 5.7), so you do not need to install Windows Script 5.6 in Windows Vista. The Windows Installer error 2738 occurs if the module vbscript.dll is not registered in the system. To fix the problem, use these steps:

Open an elevated Command Prompt. To do so, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. Type the following command and press ENTER.

regsvr32 vbscript.dll

When you right-click a file and choose Open With, and click the Choose Program... option, the list of registered applications are displayed in the Open With dialog. Programs that are not already listed in the Open With dialog can be added manually using the Browse... option.

OpenWithAdd tool which I wrote, can be helpful in circumstances where, when you browse to locate an application, it does not get added to the Open With dialog. It can now (v1.2 onwards) run under Windows Vista as well. Here are some screenshots:

OpenWithAdd can be downloaded from this link.

After reading the blog post Folder Redirection for Favorites on the Same Machine at IE Team blog, I planned to relocate my Favorites folder to a different drive. After relocation, when I tried to add a URL to Favorites, I received the following error:

Unable to create 'Title':

Unspecified error

Resolution

There were many posts in the Windows Vista newsgroups about this problem, and here is the thread containing the original solution from MS-MVP Jimmy Brush. The solution is as follows:

• Open an elevated Command Prompt. To do so, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
• Browse to the folder that contains your Favorites folder
• Type the following command:

icacls favorites /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low

You should now see this message:

processed file: favorites
Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

• To verify if the Integrity Level is correctly set (optional) to the Favorites folder, type:

icacls favorites

You should see the following line in the output:

Mandatory Label\Low Mandatory Level:(OI)(CI)(NW)

• Type EXIT to close the Command Prompt window.

You should be able to add an URL to Favorites now. Reportedly, this problem occurs as Internet Explorer in Windows Vista runs under Protected mode (low integrity level) by default, and therefore will only be able to modify objects marked with a low integrity level in their system ACLs. When you relocate the Favorites to a different drive, you need to set the integrity level for the relocated folder, so that Internet Explorer (Protected mode) can write to it. This problem does not seem to occur if the Favorites folder is located within your user profile home directory.

Defined Integrity Levels

Here is a screenshot from the Windows Vista System Integrity Technologies Webcast:

Here are some useful links for more reading on Mandatory integrity control in Windows Vista:

[Securityfocus.com] Introduction to Windows Integrity Control

[MSDN] Understanding and Working in Protected Mode Internet Explorer

[Webcast] Windows Vista System Integrity Technologies

[Steve Riley] Mandatory integrity control in Windows Vista

Sysinternals (acquired by Microsoft in 2006) has released an updated version of BgInfo 4.10 in the last week. Here is the announcement made in the Sysinternals Utilities Home page:

BgInfo has been updated to correctly reports version of IE 7, remove extraneous network adapter info that appears under Vista, and improve text readability when overlaying on a background image.

Previous versions of BgInfo, when run in Windows Vista systems, displayed every network adapter (including the WAN Miniport entries). Here is a screenshot of what I'm talking about:

Fig 1: BgInfo 4.7

And BGInfo 4.10 fixes the above problem.

Fig 2: BgInfo 4.10

The erroneous reporting of Internet Explorer version (shows IE version as 6.0 in a system running Internet Explorer 7.) is fixed, as well.

The shell: command can be used to open a special folder directly from the Start, Search menu. For example, the command shell:sendto opens the SendTo folder (%userprofile%\sendto) of your user profile. To launch the Documents folder of your user profile, you'd type shell:Personal. Below is a complete shell: commands listing for Windows Vista. The entire listing is stored in the following registry key in Windows Vista:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ FolderDescriptions

Credits to MS-MVP Keith Miller for this tip.

shell: commands for Windows Vista

• shell:Common Programs
• shell:GameTasks
• shell:UserProfiles
• shell:MyComputerFolder
• shell:SyncSetupFolder
• shell:DpapiKeys
• shell:SamplePlaylists
• shell:Favorites
• shell:My Video
• shell:SearchHomeFolder
• shell:System
• shell:CommonVideo
• shell:SyncResultsFolder
• shell:LocalizedResourcesDir
• shell:Cookies
• shell:Original Images
• shell:CommonMusic
• shell:My Pictures
• shell:Cache
• shell:Downloads
• shell:CommonDownloads
• shell:AppData
• shell:SyncCenterFolder
• shell:My Music
• shell:ConflictFolder
• shell:SavedGames
• shell:InternetFolder
• shell:Quick Launch
• shell:SystemCertificates
• shell:Contacts
• shell:TreePropertiesFolder
• shell:Profile
• shell:Start Menu
• shell:Common AppData
• shell:PhotoAlbums
• shell:ConnectionsFolder
• shell:Administrative Tools
• shell:PrintersFolder
• shell:Default Gadgets
• shell:ProgramFilesX86
• shell:Searches
• shell:Common Startup
• shell:ControlPanelFolder
• shell:SampleVideos
• shell:SendTo
• shell:ResourceDir
• shell:ProgramFiles
• shell:CredentialManager
• shell:PrintHood
• shell:MAPIFolder
• shell:CD Burning
• shell:AppUpdatesFolder
• shell:Common Start Menu
• shell:LocalAppDataLow
• shell:Templates
• shell:Gadgets
• shell:Programs
• shell:Recent
• shell:SampleMusic
• shell:Desktop
• shell:CommonPictures
• shell:RecycleBinFolder
• shell:CryptoKeys
• shell:Common Templates
• shell:Startup
• shell:Links
• shell:OEM Links
• shell:SamplePictures
• shell:Common Desktop
• shell:NetHood
• shell:Games
• shell:Common Administrative Tools
• shell:NetworkPlacesFolder
• shell:SystemX86
• shell:History
• shell:AddNewProgramsFolder
• shell:Playlists
• shell:ProgramFilesCommonX86
• shell:PublicGameTasks
• shell:ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder
• shell:Public
• shell:Common Documents
• shell:CSCFolder
• shell:Local AppData
• shell:Windows
• shell:UsersFilesFolder
• shell:ProgramFilesCommon
• shell:Fonts
• shell:Personal

shell: commands for Windows XP

• shell:Common Programs
• shell:Favorites
• shell:My Video
• shell:System
• shell:CommonVideo
• shell:LocalizedResourcesDir
• shell:Cookies
• shell:My Pictures
• shell:Cache
• shell:AppData
• shell:My Music
• shell:InternetFolder
• shell:Profile
• shell:Start Menu
• shell:Common AppData
• shell:ConnectionsFolder
• shell:Administrative Tools
• shell:PrintersFolder
• shell:ProgramFiles
• shell:Common Startup
• shell:ControlPanelFolder
• shell:SendTo
• shell:ResourceDir
• shell:ProgramFiles
• shell:PrintHood
• shell:CD Burning
• shell:Common Start Menu
• shell:Templates
• shell:Programs
• shell:Recent
• shell:Desktop
• shell:CommonPictures
• shell:RecycleBinFolder
• shell:Common Templates
• shell:Startup
• shell:Common Desktop
• shell:NetHood
• shell:Common Administrative Tools
• shell:SystemX86
• shell:History
• shell:Common Documents
• shell:Local AppData
• shell:Windows
• shell:Fonts
• shell:Personal