Administrative Tools Metro Tile, Control Panel "God Mode" Metro Tile, Windows Update Metro Tile , Windows Explorer Search Metro Tile for Windows 8.1 / Server 2012 R2

The following script will add new Metro styled tiles for Power Admin Users to the start menu.

               Custom Icons for Control Panel, Administrative Tools and Windows Update 

Icons copyright Metadata Consulting, except for Windows Explorer Search icon and Windows logo!

Compatible with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2.


New tiles include;  

1. Windows Explorer Search - go directly to Windows Explorer and perform a search
2. Control Panel (Standard Icons)  - links to a list of all icons as in Windows 7/S2008, not category 
3. Control Panel (All Tasks) - list all tasks, a hidden feature  
4. Control Panel (All Settings) - referred to as "God Mode" in Win 7/S2008, a hidden feature
5. Administrative Tools - root link, not a sub-directory of Control Panel as in current Tile in Win 8+/S2012+
6. Windows Update - a better designed icon

Purchase $0.99, Download and Install  , see license/instructions below.

     

If you use this please donation a coffee as a bonus, because that is ridiculously cheep.

 

License:

The script is free to use and sourced from Microsoft Gallery. The icons (the artwork) are .99$ for personal license for a single computer install, but not commercially. Commercial/Small businesses requires a license to buy the rights to use the icons, which I created, except for Windows Explorer Search icon and Windows logo in Windows Update icon however a mash-up is considered copyright- able work. Don't get shocked, we are talking pennies here. License and Disclaimers listed in scripts.

             Contact metadataconsult@gmail.com for a commercial license.

Instructions: 

Purchase $0.99, Download and Install  

1. Unzip and copy contents to C:\Windows\System32 directory.
2. Right-click on doWin8AdminTiles-RunMe1st.ps1 and Run with Poweshell. This loads the Poweshell Editor (ISE) with administrator privileges.
3. In Poweshell Editor (ISE), press green arrow to run the script.
   
4. Complete.
   
   If you see the above light green messages in the console area of the PowerShell ISE, the you have successfully run the script. 
   
   If you see red, you may have re-run the Powershell IDE with administrator privileges.  Use Windows Search for PowerShell, right-click and run with Adminstratative privileges, see article here.

If you have issues further issues click this link for better pictures and instruction.

Shutdown, Restart, Log-off, Hibernate, Lock Workstation, Switch User Start Tiles for Windows 8.1 / Server 2012 R2 featuring new Metro Icons

Tags: Administrative Tools Tile, Control Panel "God Mode" Tile, Windows Update Tile, Windows Explorer Search Tile for Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2

Shutdown, Restart, Log-off, Hibernate, Lock Workstation, Switch User Start Tiles for Windows 10 /8.1 / Server 2012 R2 featuring new Metro Icons

I created one script that creates Win 8/8.1/10 "Metro" tiles for popular "power" links with new icons to appear on the start menu.

Update: New procedure for Windows 10/ 8.1 users see below.

Metro Style Icons with Lock Workstation, improved Switch User and Logoff Icons

click to view larger image

This PowerShell script installs a Lock Workstation, Switch User, Logoff, 
Restart, Hibernate and Shutdown tile with new Metro styled icons on the Start screen for Windows 8, 8.1, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2.

Purchase $2.25 USD, Download and Install 

License:

The script is free to use and sourced from Microsoft Gallery. The icons (art work is what you are paying for ) is .99$ to use for a personal license for a single computer install, but not commercially. Commercial/Small businesses requires a separate license to buy the rights to use the icons, which I created. Don't get shocked, we are talking pennies here. License and Disclaimers listed in scripts.

             Contact metadataconsult [(at)] gmail.com for a commercial license.

Instructions: 

Purchase $2.25 USD, Download and Install 

contains (doWin8Tiles-RunMe1st.ps1, ShutdownRestartLogoffSwithUserWindows8MDCTiles.ps1,Win8Tile-LogoffWorkstationCutKey256.ico, Win8Tile-Hibernate256.ico, Win8Tile-LockStation256.ico, Win8Tile-LogoffWorkstation256.ico, Win8Tile-Restart256.ico,Win8Tile-ShutDown256.ico, Win8Tile-SwitchUserChannel.ico,IconsCopyright-OriginalArt.txt)

1. Unzip and copy contents to c:\Windows\System32 directory.

2. Right-click on doWin8Tiles-RunMe1st.ps1 and Run with Poweshell. This loads the Poweshell Editor (ISE) with administrator privileges.

3. In Poweshell Editor (ISE), press green arrow to run the script.

click to view larger image

1st time Powershell users will get a "...running scripts is disable..." error. In Powershell type this command: Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Just re-run the script using green arrow and it will work.

4. Completed.

If you see, the above light green messages in the console area of the PowerShell ISE, the you have successfully run the script. 

If you see red, then that process step failed and you may have re-run the Powershell IDE with administrator privileges.  Use Windows Search for PowerShell, right-click and run with Adminstratative privileges, see article here.

Update for WINDOWS 10/8.1 Users

If the above script does not work, contained in the zip file is are 2 additional customized for Windows 8.1, which has additional execute permissions turn off for scripts, unlike windows server 2012 R2. 

1. From the start menu, right-click 
2. Select "Command Prompt (Admin)"
3. In the Command Prompt type-> powershell win81only-runme1st.ps1
   
   
4. Now you see the following results windows appear and close automatically. You see a bit of red text, that's okay since in this context its a warning.
   
   
5. Success, you should now see the following tiles on the start screen if you click the down arrow to reach Apps.

   

   Windows 8 Start Menu Apps

   
   

Windows 10 Menu

Update for Server 2012 R2 

Run doWin8Tiles-RunMe1st.ps1, you'll see the above, new tiles in the Start Menu by Apps. Just right-click each tile like Shutdown and pin to Start Menu, and you get the below image in Sever 2012 R2.

Tags: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Switch User Metro Icon, Log-off Metro Icon, Restart Metro Icon, Hibernate Metro Icon, Shutdown Metro Icon, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, Start Menu, Tiles, Windows 8.1 Start screen and lock screen, Windows 8.1 new look

A Primer on Metadata: Separating Fact from Fiction Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D. Information and Privacy Commissioner Ontario, Canada

On July 9th, Steven G. Bradbury, a key Justice Department lawyer behind the NSA’s call log program, defended it by arguing that it did not amount to surveillance. “Surveillance,” he said, “means content collection, not metadata collection.”According to whom? The word “surveillance” means “close watch kept over someone or something.” A program centered on the sweeping seizure of communications metadata would indeed fall under the definition of a surveillance program, capable of facilitating the indiscriminate monitoring of individuals.

Ann Cavoukin

If preview is missing the file is named "metadata.pdf" on this site - https://www.ipc.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/Resources/metadata.pdf

Koodoos - Kapersky is my 3rd biggest referrer to my blog!

This is coincidental, since I use Kaspersky extensively.

Everybody Knows You’re a Dog - Happy Halloween

Metadata lurks everywhere.
Re: http://boingboing.net/2013/10/17/everybody-knows-youre-a-do.html

Fixing Yahoo Media/Web Player to work as of Sept. 2013

Yahoo! Web/Media Player deceased June 30, 2013

If you’re a publisher and currently using Yahoo! WebPlayer on your site, after June 30 the Yahoo! WebPlayer won’t load. Your users will continue to be able to play media files using native browser support. You may wish to locate and remove the following line in your code:

A suggestion to replace the URL "http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/js" with the URL 

"http://webplayer.yahooapis.com/player-beta.js" was working for 3 months,  but is no longer working. 

I have gotten this to work by hacking the code as seen in this article:

"For those going this route: it’s important to note that you need to poke through the player code and make sure that all of the elements are served locally. There still are some images and bits that come off Yahoo servers, and given that they’re not supporting this software anymore, it’s a safe bet those elements will go dark sooner or later. It’s a hell of a piece, as others have stated here, it’s the best web media player out there, ESPECIALLY for music, by a country mile."
 http://ericdin.com/rip-yahoo-web-media-player/

If you need this done on your site, email me (see contact page).

Chrome, IE store website passwords in plaintext and are easily revealed

As from the Verge, today "Chrome stores some sensitive data in plaintext, but Google says it's supposed to" http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/11/4828958/chrome-history-cache-security-flaw

"A flaw in Google's Chrome browser could find it storing personal details that users don't expect to be recorded. The security firm Identity Finder reports that Chrome will sometimes store data that's been entered into secure websites, and that it'll store that data in plaintext so that anyone can read it. The details are kept inside one of Chrome's cache files buried within the file system, but anyone could see it if they had access to a Chrome user's computer and knew where to look. It's unclear exactly when Chrome chooses to store what would seemingly be secure data, but Google tells us that it realizes this can happen and that Chrome generally doesn't protect against attackers who already have access to a user's computer.

That security model has gotten Google into hot water before: over the summer, Chrome was criticized for storing saved passwords in its preferences menu where anyone can easily view them."

Further exploration has revealed; the following results; 

Chrome

Difficulty to obtain passwords: Easy

Internet Explorer

Difficulty to obtain passwords: Easy/Medium/Hard (Depends on version)

Firefox

Difficulty to obtain passwords: Medium/Very Hard

Results fully explained here in the excellent post

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/11/4828958/chrome-history-cache-security-flaw 

Setting Windows 8/7 date-time to Canada's NRC (NTP) Atomic Clock

Set your Windows 7, 8, 8.1 date and time to Canada's NRC (NTP) Atomic Clock, and get 'n sync. 

How ? 

1. Right click on your clock in the system bar, and choose "Adjust date/time". 
2. Choose tab "Internet Time" and click button "Change Settings". 
3. Type in "time.nrc.ca" in server field, and click "update now" button. 

The NRC's NTP server to the following host name (do not use the IP address, as this may change):

• time.nrc.ca
• time.chu.nrc.ca

This second time server is located at a different site on a different network than the first time server. Both servers are controlled in the same way by atomic clocks operated by NRC and provide official time with the same accuracy. The maintainance of seperate servers will offer redundancy and a more reliable time service to Canadians in case of network outage and other difficulties.

More here, thanks to NRC!

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/time/network_time.html

Google Chrome Update: Recently closed tabs removed on new tab/page

Google Chrome Update: Recently closed tabs removed on new tab/page
Google's recent Chrome update to version 29, has removed the access tabs you've recently closed on a new tab. 

Well the good news, it's just relocated to the preferences "Customize and Control Google Chrome " 3-bar menu. 

Facebook Like/Send Button not working, error, broken - Google Hotel Finder - Ironic JavaScript Errors "google is not defined"

Posit: Quality Control Severely Lacking in Web 2.0

As I have been developing with Google, Facebook, Linked-in and other Social Media APIs, I have noticed that there is real lack of attention to detail and quality in code.

Considering, these companies livelihood is online, I see these JavaScript errors constantly on these leading site and on many other website integrated their libraries.

To see these errors, in Chrome press [CTRL][SHIFT][J] keys to show console. 

    

Here some examples from major leading web companies;  

Ex 1) Facebook Developer Page - Like Send Button Fix JavaScript Error - Blocked a frame with origin "https//www.facebook.com" ...
Comment:

I clicked on Like then Send button to produce this error. The Send button pop- up produces an error in the form of blank white screen. Some solutions suggest changing the opacity in css, but this will not work for me since, the Fb JS API loads an iframe anyways, and you can style content in the iframe from an external css. Anyhow FB JS API defeating the purpose of an Async HTML5 solution.

Checking the Chrome JavaScript console log read  Blocked a frame with origin "https//www.facebook.com" from accessing a frame ....

Again, ironic that on the FB developer site where you get this code, their own code produces errors ! Great quality control.

For other whose Like/Send button button is broken and not working,  I have a fix, keep on reading below.

Like / Send button combo code issues by Facebook is broken as of Sept 27, 2013, for the record as seen on their own developer site.


The Send button throws up a blank screen, instead of the Facebook email dialog box to send this page. 

Solution here; this is for JavaScript library, not old IFRAME code.

I had to hack the Like / Send button to work!


Ex 2) Google Hotel Finder - JavaScript Error - google is not defined

Comment: 
   Ironic 

Error 1: Google Hotel Finder newly minted - Javacript Error is a little ironic

Ex 3) Linked-in Home Page - JavaScript Error - GET http://s.c.lnkd.licdn.com/scds/concat/common/jquery.min.map 404 (Not Found) 

Comment: 
This is a simple error to correct, it's in the wrong location. Again, this speaks to lack of quality control and attention to detail.




So what the excuse, to this poor quality control?

Turning off Bing Search History in the "Cloud"

Bing Search is now tracking your search history online (like Google).
To turn off Bing Search History in the Cloud, login and click on preference wheel, and then click History. Choose the Turn off button. Clear all to erase you history.

Save TechNet Or Create An Affordable Alternative To MSDN Petition

Techies, this is outrage for the Microsoft Developer Community that is trying to learn new software and promote Microsoft software use. How backwards is this. Bad move if developers cannot learn to use at a expert level and develop your software in a meaningful way. Free evaluations for 90-day or 180-days is a royal pain, considering you need 4 virtual servers to mimic SharePoint to run in a enterprise setting, this is huge effort to build out for it then to be blown away.

Please sign the following petition to save Technet so we developers have access to affordable Microsoft Technologies.

https://www.change.org/petitions/continue-technet-or-create-an-affordable-alternative-to-msdn

13,197 Supporters so far to Save Technet

PS. Still have access to Technet and want to queue downloading the entire library ?

Microsoft® File Transfer Manager 

How do I determine if I already have a current version of FTM on my computer?

Try to launch the FTM client that may exist on your computer. Following are the ways in which you can launch FTM:
• Check if you have a desktop shortcut for FTM. If yes, you can click it to launch.
• Check if you have FTM in your start menu. If yes, you can click it to launch.
• If you are using Internet Explorer, you may already have FTM installed on your machine automatically from your earlier visits to a Microsoft Program's web site. Follow the below steps to verify this and launch:
• Open a command window (Start, Run and type cmd or command depending on version of Windows)
• Change Directory to %SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files\
• Type TransferMgr.exe <enter>

Once launched, you can check the version of FTM by viewing the control menu from upper left corner of the window and selecting the "About" option.

Where is the Windows 7 or Vista "Send To" Menu

Customize the Windows 7 or Vista Send To Menu

You’ve seen the SendTo folder in action any time you right-click a file and select the
"Send To" folder from the context menu. What you might be unaware of is that you
can customize the items in this menu.

Go ahead, right click a file. You should see something that looks like this:

To get to the SendTo folder, you’ll need to open up an Explorer window, and then paste in the following to the address bar.

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

%APPDATA% is an environment variable that actually maps to something like C:\users\\AppData\Roaming.

You should now see a bunch of shortcuts:

Let’s say you wanted to add an item to the Send To menu to open files in Notepad. You could just drag a shortcut to Notepad into this folder, or create a new shortcut. Now you can see the new Notepad item in the menu:

This method should work for any application that allows you to open a file by using a command line argument.

Boolean Search Operator Reduction - Using Google Search Operators results ambiguous

Logicktronic Search is my solution to Boolean search operator (and/or)  simplification for PHP/Wordpress plug-in.

Ever search with Boolean operators (AND/OR) in Google or website local searches and wonder what really is being searched for ? 

Let's use Google, the search engine company, to perform a search using Boolean operators. 

Take for example the following search Mark OR AND OR Wahlberg  in Google you get the result; (at the bottom of the page)

Google cannot make up its mind or inform you what it's looking for ???
Is it searching "Mark" "AND" "Wahlberg" ?
Is the OR AND OR here excluded as boolean operators. Is AND being searched for?
The results are greatly different from Mark AND Wahlberg or Mark OR Wahlberg. 

Well clearly this is confusing. Google does this wrong! You heard it. Clearly this is the attention to detail that even Google has not paid attention to ;) Bing does a better job. 

Worse still are similar search on websites that use Wordpress, Jumla, Drupal.  

----------------------------------------------!~!------------------------------------------

My Logicktronic Search technology will take any search string and try to make sense out of any number of Boolean operators (and, or) that are used and rationalize them into a single term for PHP/Wordpress plugin.

Moreover, Logicktronic Search implements search for an exact word or phrase by using double quotes to delineate phrases. 



For example, lets take the following search examples; 

1. Fred "Accounting Financial Services"
   
   Logicktronic SEARCH ->  Fred OR "Accounting Financial Services"
   
   EXPLANATION: Added OR to make clear of Boolean operand used
2. Fred and or and "Accounting Financial Services"
   
   Logicktronic SEARCH ->  Fred AND "Accounting Financial Services"
   
   EXPLANATION: Reduced Boolean operators to first one
3. Fred or and "Accounting and Financial or Services"
   
   Logicktronic SEARCH ->  Fred OR "Accounting and Financial or Services"
   
   EXPLANATION: Reduced Boolean operators to first one, and search phrase is preserved.
4. Fred Wilma and Barney or or and or "The Flintstones"
   
   Logicktronic SEARCH -> Fred OR Wilma AND Barney OR "The Flintstones"
   
   EXPLANATION: Will reduced any number of combination of Boolean operators to first one, and search phrase is preserved.

Please contact me for a solution.

Final standings in 37th Annual World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest - Canada is slipping

Problem Set
http://icpc.baylor.edu/download/worldfinals/problems/icpc2013.pdf

Scorboard
http://icpc.baylor.edu/scoreboard/

Huge list of Sharepoint Videos

http://list.ly/list/5IC-sharepoint-videos

Canada's naïveté leading to greater hosting of cyber criminals, malware, Wordpress break-ins - CIRA .CA issuer needs to step-up

The number of Canadian websites falling victim to malware – most of them completely legitimate, like the content management platform WordPress – also increased by 25 per cent this year, slotting Canada into the 10th position of all countries hosting malware.

Chrome : This page wants to install a service handler

When accessing Google Mail or Google Calendar from Chrome, a protocol handler icon  may appear in the in address bar (omnibox in Google parlance) that indicates installing a service handler
for this page.

What does this mean?

There are certain URL links that are listed on the HTML Page that can be associated to open programs or applications on your computer.

When you click a link, the associated program will launch for that link type (detailed below). You'll get the protocol handler icon  if Chrome can open the same link but currently is not control of it. It's associated with another program. 

Let's take an email address link embedded in a webpage, for example (metadataconsult@gmail.com).

The email address is sometimes referred to as a "mailto:" link. It gets its name from the HTML code used to construct the email link, which looks like <a h ref="mailto:metadataconsulting@gmail.com?Subject=Test%20Email"> .

The mailto: prefix is part of well defined URI scheme. Each URI scheme (mailto:, webcal:)  is associated with a program/app. One program is associated with each type of URI scheme.

If you have Microsoft Office installed on your computer, the Outlook mail client will be associated (mailto:, webcal:) and clicking the the above mailto link will open Outlook. The mailto:metadataconsulting@gmail.com?Subject=Test%20Email tells your associated mail client, to create a new email to metadataconsulting@gmail.com with a subject line "Test Email". In Outlook, a new message window will appear with To: metadataconsulting@gmail.com and subject line "Test Email".  

For others, it maybe Mail App client for Mac OS X or Mozilla's Thunderbird mail client for Linux machines.

So when "This page  wants to installing a service handler"  pop-up appears, Google Chrome would like to take that specific URI scheme over, and remove you other applications associations. There can only be one, so be cautious. 

Mailto: and webcal: are common (URI schemas) that Google Chrome wants to commandeer, but there are many described here. Webcal is short for web calendar, and used to set appointments from links.

The tooltip for the protocol handler icon is: This page wants to install a service handler.

If you Use Gmail option, it will allow mailto: links in page while in Chrome to be opened in GMail. Similarly, you can enable  webcal: links to be opened in Google Calendar, visit the Google Calendar page to enable. There is no penalty for performance using this handler service. Using Manage handler settings... list all handlers available for Chrome to take over.

You can reset your default links back to Microsoft Outlook here.

Soln: To disable "...to install a service handler" warning

Type this in address bar to get to current handlers in Chrome.

 Chrome://settings/content 

Scroll down to Handlers section and select “Do not allow any site to handle protocols.”  You can click Manage handlers (button)  to view current handlers for a website.





Or to disable or re-enable these messages in Chrome, follow the steps below.

1. Click the Chrome menu  on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Settings > Show advanced settings.
3. In the "Privacy" section, click Content settings.
4. In the dialog that appears, find the “Handlers” section:
   • To allow requests, select “Allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols.”
   • To disable requests, select “Do not allow any site to handle protocols.”

How to Enable Gmail to handle mailto: links

Type this in address bar to get to current handlers in Chrome.

 Chrome://settings/content 

Scroll down to Handlers section and select “All sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols (recommended).”  

Goto GMail and now the protocol handler icon  will appear in address bar. Now you are ready to add Gmail to open mailto links. 

1. You must be in Gmail (https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox) for this script to work
2. The protocol handler should be indicated
3. Open Chrome Console window - Press  <ctrl><shift><j> keys simultaneously (Windows) and this will open the Console tab:
4. Cut and paste the following script at line with blue greater than sign > navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto", "https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s", "Gmail");
   or cut from here
   

To check if this you added Gmail to open mailto links correctly; 

Type this in address bar to get to current handlers in Chrome.

Chrome://settings/content

Scroll to Handlers and click Manage handlers (button)  and you should see Type mailto and Site Gmail. 

You can create your own service handlers !

For Chrome (13+), Firefox (3.0+) and Opera (11.60+) it is possible to register web application as service handler for custom URI scheme using JavaScript API:

window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(protocol, uri, title);

• protocol is the protocol the site wishes to handle, specified as a string.
• uri is the URI to the handler as a string. You can include "%s" to indicate where to insert the escaped URI of the document to be handled.
• title is the title of the handler presented to the user as a string.

Specifically for Chrome there is a limitation that does not allow to use custom schemes that don't start with web+ prefix (except standard ones: mailto, mms, nntp, rtsp and webcal). So if you want to register your web app as service handler as GMail do, you should write something like this:

navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto", "https://www.example.com/?uri=%s", "Example Mail");

OR 
navigator.registerProtocolHandler("web+myscheme", "https://www.example.com/?uri=%s", "My Cool App");

Pay attention at URI pattern, it have to contain %s which will be replaced with actual URI of the link user clicks. For example:

 href="web+myscheme:some+data">Open in "My Cool App"

will trigger GET request to http://www.example.com/?uri=web%2Bmyscheme%3Asome%20data




List all service handlers on your computer

Nirsoft URLProtocolView is a simple utility that displays all URL protocols (for example: ftp:, telnet:, mailto:) that are currently installed on your system and is free.