svētdiena, 2011. gada 27. februāris

Windows - arrghhh!...

Disclaimer

It was not my win xp machine, I use Linux.


Symptoms

Suddenly all USB flash drives stopped to work. While on my laptop (Linux, of course) I could easily mount and freely access them, that win machine failed to recognize them. Windows saw a USB mass storage device, but failed to see the disk device. "Unformatted drive, do you want to format it?" Yeah, sure, I want to format it and lose all my vacation pictures! Besides, it couldn't format, because it could not access the disk device.


What I did

It had happened also few days ago, when I solved it by uninstalling all USB composite devices from device manager and rebooting. This time this trick didn't work. But you could try it connecting your old working PS/2 keyboard before that.

After spending couple of hours in the jungles of all kinds of forums with smart a$$es suggesting completely dumb solutions (like using super-duper disk formatting tools etc.) I found out one of windows services (Universal Plug and Play Device Host Service) was not started. It was set on Manual startup mode and was stopped. When trying to start it system gave me an error message saying something like "didn't work because some of dependency services not started". This service was dependent on some HTTP and SSDP Discovery Service. A-ha. And where the heck is that HTTP service?? There was HTTP SSL (HttpFilter) in the list but no HTTP. Google told me it was some http.sys file related to IIS. OK, and of course I made that n-lite custom image without IIS.. (facepalm)

Have you ever tried to edit manually sysoc.inf (list of items for Add/Remove Windows Components)? I had to because n-lite removed not only those IIS parts but also the entry from that list. Thanks, n-lite.. OK, installed IIS, it asked for a CD (but of course!) some hundred times, but needed service didn't appear. Actually, maybe it was there also before but somehow hidden. Don't know. In regedit (HKLM/CurrentControlSet/.../LEGACY_HTTP) it kinda was, but not in services list and didn't work. Fine.

So.. there is such poorly documented command in winxp as sc. And a command

sc delete http
followed by
sc create http binPath="C:\Windows\System32\http.sys" DisplayName= HTTP start= auto 
somehow deleted a non-existent service and re-added it. Believe or not, I still didn't see that HTTP service in services list, but now both SSDP Discovery Service (also dependent on HTTP) and Universal Plug and Play Device Host Service started normally without errors. Re-inserted USB flash disk and - surprise, surprise! - winbox automagically recognised them like nothing had happened.


Conclusion

I won't tell you anything new. Windows sucks a$$ and must die. It is like trying to knit with both hands covered by a blanket - you kinda see a book with instructions, you feel your hands but you just can't be sure what exactly are you doing! That's why "arrghhh" in the title and that's why I use Linux. Save your nerves, make the switch!

pirmdiena, 2011. gada 21. februāris

How to get rid of FB apps

One of my friends asked me for help to "get rid of that joke", specifically CityVille. I thought - why not make a step by step how-to guide about this process because of FB's broken user interface? So here it is.


1. Game Requests.

You can find these on the left side of page close to top. I shows only when you have received a game request from your friend. Just click on that "menu item" and you will get another page:


2. Game Requests expanded.

Here you have an option to accept or to hide each request. If you are to get rid of it, obviously you need to hide it. Click on "X" button (see in pic on right). Request will be hidden and instead you will see some text saying you did what you did (hid a request) and some link with a keyword "block" in it. Sorry, no pic for that link.


3. Game News Feed

What is more annoying than requests are zillions of news feeds from apps especially if your friends are hyper active Flash gamers. Here you can see one of those news feed items. When you hover your mouse pointer over a news feed item, a small "X" button appears on it's top right corner. Click on it and choose "Hide all by [APP]". Do not choose hide all from friend or you won't see his status changes.


4. Block the App

If you did not managed to block the app in step 2, do it now.

First of all, find a game's official page. A bookmark menu on your top left with a name of the app will not get you to the game's page, it will get you to the game itself. It is not what you need. On the very top of FB page is search field where you can search just about anything you can think of. Type there the app's name. One of the first shown should be the one you need.

Beware of the scam pages (you know, the ones promising you "The Brand New Unreleased Golden Cow That Will Instantly Turn Your Farm To 100x100!!! It's Working!!!11one"..) Yeah, right.. Read more on The FaceGamer's blog.

When on the right page, look for a button "Block app". Click it and enjoy freedom from flash games! I will not cover how to unblock and unhide games. Trust me, it's not worth it. There are many much better things to waste your precious time on, like commenting this post just to say 'thanks'.. ;)