Windows Survival

Survival snippets for development on Windows.

Developing on Windows?!

Despite detesting so much of this wretched OS, I am sometimes forced to use it for on-site work.

This is a quick personal reference to work around some of the pain of Windows world.

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Active Directory

Clean-up

Command-Line

Commands

/dev/null

Editors

Diff Folders

Drive Mapping

Essential Programs

File Transfer

Keys

Hosts

.msc

Passwords

Power Configuration

Program Installation Folders

sendto

Servers

Services

Start Batch

Taskbar

Telemetry

Updates

Windows

Windows Explorer

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Active Directory

Corporate environments love Active Directory (AD). I don't.

AD periodically copies files from My Documents and adds them to a remote network server(s).

For corporate PC roaming file access you might want this, else you probably won't.

If not, move personal files out of My Documents to another location, such as C:/mydocs

– which will then rely on your backup schedule, not AD's (not that I found AD's consistent anyway).

Clean-up

• CCleaner

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Skype\<skype_name>\xxxx-journal

• putty -cleanup (wipe session data)

Command-Line

For a resized terminal window on Windows < 10

    mode con cols=140

Change encoding:

    chcp 650001        Unicode
    chcp 1252          Latin 1

Open terminal in current folder:

• current directory (nothing selected) > Shift + right click > Open command window here

Registry hack:

• Windows + R > regedit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Folder\Shell\
• create new key called Command Prompt
• default value: cmd
• create new key below Command Prompt called Command
• default value: cmd.exe /k "pushd %L"

Commands

A few network and file commands.

command	description
comp	compare two files
fc	file contents compare
find	text string in file	/n line nums, /c line count
findstr	string search in file	findstr /si password *.txt
fsutil	file utils	fsutil file createnew <f> 1024 null chars
getmac	MAC address
hostname
ipconfig	IPs
more	pager
mstsc	RDP
net	network info
netsh	netshell	netsh interface ip set address local dhcp
netstat	network stats	-a all, -b exes, -o owner, -p TCP, -r routing, -s stats
net use	network connections
path	search path
pathping	network ping stats
ping
ren	rename
route	routing table
sort	sort text	-r reverse
start	exe or cmd
systeminfo
taskkill
tracert
tree	dirs	tree /F /A
type	view text file
unzip
where	file locator
xcopy	file / dir copy

/dev/null

A bitbucket

p = program

    p > nul
    p 2> nul             error to nul
    p > nul 2>&1         error + out
    p >f 2> nul          out to file, suppress error
    (p) > f 2> nul       out to file, suppress cmd.exe error

Editors

Just don't use Windows Notepad, which has one level of undo and no recognition of non-CRLF line endings. (Probably just fine on Windows 1.0 in 1985.)

Diff Folders

    ROBOCOPY cmp cmp2 /e /l /ns /njs /njh /ndl /fp /log:diff.txt

Drive Mapping

\\10.0.0.147

Essential Programs

• Git

  • not just for Git, but for what ships with it:
    • curl
    • gpg
    • grep
    • md5sum
    • openssl
    • shred
    • ssh

• 7-Zip

• CherryTree

• diff program (CSDiff, WinMerge etc)

• password vault (KeePassX)

• PDF viewer (SumatraPDF)

• ptime

• PuTTY

• WinSCP

Standalone Programs

Add standalone programs to C:/<directory>, and add this directory location to $PATH, so the programs are available on the command-line from any location.

File Transfer

Easy Way

Win 10

• ssh, scp

Win 7

• local server upload, netcat, WinSCP, network storage, online storage ...

Hard Way

Win 7

• Network and Sharing Center, enable:
  • network discovery
  • file and printer sharing
  • public folder sharing

Win XP

• Windows + R > services.msc > Server, Computer Browser (required)
• Firewall > exceptions > File and Printer Sharing > enable

Keys

Windows + ...

keys	purpose
Alt + PrtScrn	screenshot of active window
Break	system properties
E	Explorer
F3	file search
L	lock
M	minimise windows
P	projector
R	run
R	Ctrl + Shift + Enter = admin
Shift + L-Alt + PrtScrn	high contrast

Others

keys	purpose
Shift + right click	open terminal
F2	rename
F3	search
F5	refresh
Alt + TAB	cycle windows
Alt + Shift + TAB	cycle backwards
Ctrl + Shift + ESC	taskmanager

Hosts

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Create shortcut:

• Windows + R > notepad /A <path>
• right click > Run as administrator

.msc

.msc	description
compmgmt.msc	computer management
devmgmt.msc	device manager
diskmgmt.msc	disk manager
eventvwr.msc	event viewer
fsmgmt.msc	shared folders
gpedit.msc	group policy
lusrmgr.msc	local users / groups
ntmsmgr.msc	removable storage
ntmsoprq.msc	"
perfmon.msc	performance
secpol.msc	security
services.msc	services
wf.msc	firewall
wmimgmt.msc	WMI

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.cpl	description
nusrmgr.cpl	user accounts
firewall.cpl

Passwords

Windows + R > rundll32.exe keymgr.dll,KRShowKeyMgr

Power Configuration

Windows + R > regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg > CurrentPowerPolicy
    0  home office
    3  always on
    4  minimal management

(Win 7 Pro: bugs prevent the above working.)

Program Installation Folders

(theoretical, Windows doesn't usually care)

\Program Files (x86)\     x32
\Program Files\           x64

sendto

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

or

Windows + R > shell:sendto

Servers

• WAMP

  • x64, x32, multiple PHP versions

• XAMPP

  • x32, ancient PHP versions available

IIS Conflict

Kill IIS when it stops WAMP / XAMPP:

• Control Panel > Admin Tools > IIS Manager > stop
• Windows + R > services.msc > Web Deployment Agent Service > manual start

Services

• DCOM Server Process Launcher: defragging
• Diagnostics Tracking Service: telemetry

Start Batch

1. start.bat

    @echo off
    start cherrytree.exe
    start firefox.exe
    exit

2. add the program locations in start.bat to $PATH

Taskbar

Thumbnail Preview Disable

• Windows + R > gpedit.msc > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Turn off taskbar thumbnails > Disabled

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced new DWORD > ExtendedUIHoverTime > 30000

(Both disabled by Win 10 Creators Update ... sigh.)

Telemetry

Win 10

• Start > Settings > Privacy
  • disable as many as possible, especially Inking

Disable Services

• DiagTrack
• Connected User Experience and Telemetry

Disable via Registry

    sc delete DiagTrack
    sc delete dmwappushservice
    echo "" > C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl
    reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" /v AllowTelemetry /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Updates

Win 7 Bad Updates

1. disable Win 10 upgrade path:

• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate DisableOSUpgrade > 1

• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade ReservationsAllowed > 0

2. KB3133977, March 2016
   • prevents booting, looks like hard drive failure
   • remedy: disable UEFI secure boot; OS Type > Other OS

Borked Updates

Updates jammed / Updates Service disabled error

• Windows + R > services.msc > stop WindowsUpdate
• C:\Windows\ > rename SoftwareDistribution directory
• Windows + R > services.msc > start WindowsUpdate

Windows

Unreachable Offscreen

• right click window on taskbar, or select it and use Alt + Space
• if Restore option available, select it to get window out of minimised/maximised state
• Move
• cursor
• move mouse

Windows Explorer

Kill and Reboot

    taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
    start explorer.exe

License

Licensed under the MIT License.