The upgrade from VMware Fusion 1.x to 2.0 was smooth except for an error from Windows XP’s Device Manager. Before I could install the newest VMware Tools, Windows complained about “missing driver for Base System Device.”

Dismissing the error I installed VMware Tools 2.0 but the error persisted. On this tip I reinstalled VMware Tools using the Custom option. The VMCI driver was already selected (a head scratcher since this would suggest it was previously installed) but I continued the installation. Upon restart the missing driver was found.

Today I was tussling with a client’s computer in an effort to remove malware. During the process Windows XP decided it was no longer activated and during a reboot demanded to be activated or I would be logged off.

Windows Product Activation was either hosed and/or the malware prevented me from properly accessing the Internet. I decided against the 4-to-8 hour reinstall of Windows and application software while preserving existing user data. My shortcut? A spare hard drive and legit copy of Windows XP.

Cracking open the PC case I plugged in the spare hard disk, disconnecting the original one. The next hour was spent installing Windows XP to the same Service Pack level (WPA has changed over time). Without installing any additional updates I copied the WPA data file (c:\windows\system32\wpa.dbl) to a USB flash drive.

Reverting to the original hard disk I booted into Safe Mode (which recognizes USB flash drives) and copied the wpa.dbl file to its respective location on C:. Reboot.

At login, Windows asked to be activated and prompted me with choices - I was no longer stuck. The rest of the process was quick and painless.

Regardless of your backup strategy consider keeping a copy of the WPA file. Lest I forget to mention it, the malware was successfully removed.

A few weeks ago I built a computer for my son. The parts were salvaged from an old PC my father passed along and after the long, arduous, process of locking down Windows I installed some kiddie software.

There is No Simple Menu Software for Windows

Children learn quickly but asking a three-year old to navigate the Start menu is a far stretch. Surely there was a kid-friendly “program launcher” reminiscent of Power Menu for DOS. I imagined a menu whose items included an image thumbnail and user-defined text adjacent to it.

After 20 minutes of Googling I found nothing.

Enter Kiosk Mode

Considering alternatives, I devised a simple HTML page with large images and text links. The page, rather menu, needed to automatically run at login and not easily exited from. This got me thinking about “kiosk mode” and web browsers. Internet Explorer does kiosk mode quite well, presenting a full-screen experience without any on-screen navigation controls (although [Alt-F4] can be used to exit).

It’s easy to do, don’t bother with registry tweaks, just use this command-line in your shortcut:

iexplore -k path-to-html.htm

You Can’t Get There from Here

Big usability problem though. IE won’t let you open a local executable from any web page, instead assuming you are being attacked by the Internet. This is sound logic but considering how user-customizable Windows is supposed to be, I could not find any way of overriding this for my local and trusted HTML file.

Regardless of my security settings I was always prompted “are you sure you want this HTML page to open a program?” Fortunately you only have to answer this question once per session at the computer.

Considering how far technology has come since DOS it’s astonishing that a simple (I said simple) program launcher does not exist for Windows. Interestingly enough, some distributions of Linux have such a menu. Typical.

Although I make a habit of avoiding Windows it’s unavoidable. A typical installation of Windows is devoid of many useful tools such as ISO creation and burning, a tabbed text editor, a useful file archiver…the list goes on.

I’ve built a list of core software, all free, which fills many of these gaps in Windows including:

• Unzipping
• Text editing
• Media codecs
• Remote control
• Secure file deletion
• ISO manipulation

Check out the complete list here.

Today I found myself staring at a FireWire drive formatted under Mac OS X with not a Mac in sight but an urgent need to extract data from said drive.

A bit of Googling revealed HFSExplorer, an excellent piece of software by Erik Larsson which reads Mac formatted volumes under Windows. This is a lightweight Java application with full source code and executables. A quick install and at launch HFSExplorer will autodetect an HFS volume or ask me to choose a volume from a list. In moments I’m greeted with a fully-browsable directory listing of the Mac HFS volume.

Extracting a 2 GB file took a few minutes to complete but a progress bar guides you to fulfillment. A confirmation dialogue informs of completion and the file is at your disposal in Windows.

There are some limitations in volume types, such as Mac OS X Extended with Case Sensitivity, but your typical OS X Non/Journaled volume works fine.

HFSExplorer is a must-have for those times when you forget to copy your Mac-centric data files to Windows-friendly media.