Symptoms:
Opening Windows Search, clicking "Search now" and the explorer process hangs / freezes.

Fix: (queue eyebrow-raising solution)
If you download ProcMon and filter for explorer.exe, you'll see it is trying to open the same file again and again. For me, this was a zip file containing icons for a web project I'm working on.

To make the search feature work again, rename the file it is getting stuck on and restart explorer. You should find everything is operational.

If anything is unclear and you think this problem might be affecting you, leave a comment and I'll have a look.

Unfortunately, this proved to be a BIG MISTAKE!

Moments after installing the software, all my new shell windows reported that mkdir, doskey, ipconfig and even HELP are 'unrecognized' - so began my hour-long search for a resolution to the amnesia that had suddenly afflicted the command-line.

The problem turned out to be two-fold:

1. It would seem the installation script (setup_xampp.bat) or shell script (xampp_shell.bat) had a misunderstanding with some of my custom command-line settings. In fact, it decided my PATH environment variable wasn't up to scratch... so it erased it! This meant that the command-line had no idea where to look for system apps. and as result shut-down a large portion of my system utilities.
2. In addition to the above, the script added to my default shell script (HKEY_USERS\...\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun) a small 'set PATH=' command that each time it was run added the XAMPP directory to PATH and then deformed it with an increasingly long string of semi-colons.

Needless to say, I'm somewhat annoyed that there is no visible warning during installation that it could potentially FUBAR your environment variables. I hope this provides some insight for people who might be experiencing a similar problem.

My guide will describe how to upgrade the current XAMPP PHP version to the second release candidate of version 5.3. It is expected that this method will also work for the third release candidate when it is released later this month.

Step 1: Make backups

Before starting, make sure to backup any settings, custom modules and most importantly the htdocs directory, which contains your scripts and page resources. This directory is normally located at C:\xampp\htdocs\

Step 2: Preparation

1. Download PHP 5.3.0rc2. I use the VC6 build in order to minimise any potential compatibility issues.
2. It is also recommended that you download the latest Windows version of XAMPP. While this is an upgrade guide that should work with previous versions of XAMPP, it is recommended that a fresh copy of the core files is used.
3. Stop any instances of the Apache service that might be running.

Step 3: The upgrade

This guide will assume your XAMPP directory is C:\xampp\

1. Extract the XAMPP archive to a directory of your choosing, I would recommend using the default C:\xampp\
2. Extract the contents of the PHP archive to C:\xampp\php\, overwriting the contents of this directory with the new files.
3. Open the file C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf and ensure the following lines are present in this order:

   LoadFile "/xampp/php/php5ts.dll"
   LoadModule php5_module "/xampp/apache/bin/php5apache2_2.dll"

4. Replace C:\xampp\php\php.ini with C:\xampp\php\php.ini-dist
   Uncomment the lines:

   ;extension=php_mbstring.dll
   ;extension=php_pdo_sqlite.dll

   Replace the line

   magic_quotes_gpc = On

   with

   magic_quotes_gpc = Off

5. Copy all files in the C:\xampp\php\ to C:\xampp\apache\bin\ (do not copy the subdirectories or their contents).

After following the above steps, restart your Apache service (this can be done using C:\xampp\xampp-control.exe or manually through the control panel/command prompt). Your PHPinfo should indicate that the upgrade has been successful.

I will update this post if I discover any problems from using this method, or a cleaner (automated) means of performing the upgrade.

I'm moving into exam / dissertation territory now. My updates probably won't be too frequent until they're finished in May. Recently I've started using LaTeX (or to be more exact, MiKTeX, since I'm a Windows user) and have found it to be most useful as a complete replacement for writing scientific reports using Word.

To simplify the process of compiling a pdf using the MiKTeX package, I've written a small batch file that links together all the preparatory processes with ps2pdf. Just download it and then drag and drop the .tex file onto it to get started!

Download make.bat here.

(NOTE - I haven't tested it extensively, so it may not work as expected - make backups!)

//-plasm!d-//

EDIT: At step 7 of the installation, click on the advanced settings and select the drive on which the boot manager should be installed. This has been verified using Ubuntu 8.10rc1. I don't remember seeing this in the menu of 8.04, maybe they should put something so important in a more prominent place (or I should at least look harder)!

The problem

In a nutshell (please forgive the amateur dramatisation):

• You make the reasonable assumption that: because you're installing Ubuntu to a USB stick and not the system partition, it will put GRUB on to the USB stick so you can boot it as a USB-HDD.
• Upon rebooting the system, you find that Ubuntu has OVERWRITTEN your system disk boot partition - uh oh! Inexplicably, Ubuntu still installs GRUB to the USB stick, even though it has modified the system MBR. Booting is now impossible without the USB stick plugged in! (oh dear, oh dear!)
• After furious searching, you can't find a working XP installation disk so try to use this little guide on downloading the recovery console to rebuild your MBR.
• Rebooting once again, you find the recovery console BSODs before you can even touch the fixmbr command.
• Getting desperate now, you Google again for anyone else who might have the same problem but find they're using Vista and this is inapplicable to your situation.
• You spend the next hour facepalming until your hand starts to bleed ...

The solution (hurrah!)

Fortunately, Google did come up trumps in the end. A little tool know as MbrFix can be run from within Windows to fix the problem and dispose of the broken GRUB once and for all!

If you don't fancy reading through the entire manual, here is my 3-step fix:

1. Download a copy of MbrFix.exe
2. Extract it anywhere on your hard disk.
3. Run the program (as admin) with these parameters:

   MbrFix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes

After restarting, your system should boot Windows as normal!

This tutorial assumes you are running either Windows 2000/XP and have a copy of WinRAR installed (Download WinRAR: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm). This tutorial works best for RAR files that contain video media.

There are a number of caveats associated with this method (e.g. extraction of text files or images is unlikely because the packaging software will have probably compressed it); please read the list before continuing. With this in mind, let's get started...

Background

Archive files that have been split are often suffixed .001, .r01 or simply .part01 (where the final digits represent which piece of the overall archive it is, i.e. a 5 part archive might have files with .001, .002, .003, .004 and .005 as suffixes). WinRAR extracts and assembles files in the Windows temporary folder, we will exploit this mechanism to extract files from archives where we do not have all of the pieces.

The method in the madness!

1. Double click one of the archive files (or open it manually from within WinRAR).
2. Tell the program to extract the file somewhere on your computer.
3. An error message will pop-up and inform you that not all pieces were present to complete the extraction.

   

   DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW!!!

4. Navigate to the temporary directory for your username. The default on Windows XP is:
   C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp.
5. This folder/directory is usually pretty full. Look for a directory called Rar$****.*** (where the *s represent any character). The naming convention might be different between versions, if you are having trouble finding this directory, try searching the temporary directory for file that you are trying to extract (CTRL+F and then the file name).
6. Once you've located the file, copy it to your desktop or another 'safe' directory (i.e. outside of your temporary folder).
7. The file you've extracted should be the combined contents of the archive pieces you have available at the time of extraction.

Caveats

There are several caveats to this method, please read these before trying the above or you might find yourself wasting a lot of time!

1. Text and image files are almost always compressed, the output will be completely useless without all the parts since WinRAR seems to perform the decompression step last!
This method cannot be used to extract password protected files if you do not know the password.
2. The data will only be extracted up to the last sequential piece, e.g. if you have pieces 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 of a 10 piece archive - the extraction will halt after extracting from piece 3.

This tutorial will explore the potential for using 'Alternate Data Streams' (ADS) to store information on an NTFS partition. All of the steps detailed below can be accomplished directly from within Windows.

Theory

Files act as pointers to physical data on a storage medium; they are a convenience, a way of managing information on a computer as discrete units. It should be this fantastically simple - one pointer for one file - but it seems Microsoft had other ideas...
Macintosh computers use a different file system to Windows computers. It was decided that NTFS should be able to emulate some aspects of the Mac file system to improve file compatibility. As a result, it is possible to 'attach' data to a file in a way that is not visible to users (oh dear!).

Getting your hands dirty

1. Load up a command-prompt Window (Start->Run->'cmd').
2. Create a file to run this demonstration on. In the console type: echo Hello, World! > test.txt.
   (The file 'test.txt' now contains 16 bytes of information. This is the default data stream)
3. In the console, enter type test.txt to show the information in 'test.txt'.
4. Let's hide some data! In the console type echo I am hidden! > test.txt:hidden.txt. Notice the colon (:) - this is very important!
5. If you repeat step 3, you should only see 'Hello, World!' printed to the console. Check the properties of the file using Windows Explorer and you'll arrive at the same conclusion, the file still contains only 16 bytes. You could even enter in type test.txt:hidden.txt to try and see the text in 'hidden.txt', but it will return an error. Where is the hell has the information you just entered gone?
6. To reveal the contents of 'hidden.txt', type more < test.txt:hidden.txt in the console, et voila - the magically disappearing information has made a miraculous reappearance!
7. The file 'hidden.txt' is now linked with 'test.txt'. You could say that 'test.txt' is acting as a pointer to two data streams. Furthermore, if you copy 'test.txt' to another folder - 'hidden.txt' is copied with it!

Conclusion

The above is a basic demonstration of how ADS can be used to store hidden information. The article at governmentsecurity.org goes on to explore how an executable could be hidden within a file too. I've written a small batch file that attaches a user-defined message to itself (using ADS) and presents it using notepad. To remove the hidden file, you can either try the method suggested at gov.sec. or just delete the batch file itself!

Download files

ads_demo.rar - extract and run.

Method One

This is suitable for creating/overwriting a file with multiple lines of text.

copy con SOME_FILE.txt
Type your text here
You can even have multiple lines!

When finished, press CTRL+Z to confirm your action (or CTRL+C to cancel) and ENTER.

If you want to append some text instead of overwriting it completely, follow as above but using:

copy SOME_FILE.txt + con

Method Two

Open up the command prompt and type:

echo SOME TEXT > SOME_FILE.txt

This method creates/overwrites SOME_FILE.txt with the text you entered before the >. It is only suitable for entering a single line of text into a file.

As with method one, it possible to append text using >> instead of > in the command.

I came across MadMACs some time ago and it has become an invaluable part of my portable network security. Recently I've been looking to see what else is out there and found Mac MakeUp which provides a number of advanced features (integration with Wireshark, IP networking options, etc.) and has a straightforward graphical interface.

Both programs have been tested thoroughly and work a treat, but if you feel the only way to do a job properly is to do it yourself, then here is the step by step to DIY MAC spoofage:

1. Click Start->Run and enter 'regedt32' (no ' marks) to start up the registry editor.
2. Find the key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}
   and you should have a list of 4 digit subkeys (0000, 0001, 0002 etc.)
3. Leaving the registry editor window open, go to Start->Run and enter 'cmd /k net config rdr' (no ' marks).
4. The console should list your PC and network details. Right click the start of the text next to NetBT_tcpip (the bit that looks like: {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}) and right click->select 'Mark'. Drag over the whole text (as shown in the brackets previously) and then press CTRL+C to copy to the clipboard.
5. Go back to the registry editor and click on the first subkey (i.e. 0000).
6. Click menu Edit->Find (or press CTRL+F). Paste in the text from the console and click 'Find next'.
7. It should return a result very quickly (if not - you've done something wrong!).
8. Right click anywhere on the right hand side pane apart from on one of the listed items and choose 'New->String'. Give the value the name 'NetworkAddress' (case sensitive, no ' marks) then simply double click it and enter a new MAC address!
9. Reboot your machine and enjoy!

For more information, check this Wikipedia article on MAC addresses.

1. Ctrl + Alt + Del, bring up task manager.
   
2. Select 'spoolsv.exe' from the processes list and click End Process.
   
3. Use either File->Run in task manager (or Start->Run from the taskbar) and enter 'spoolsv.exe'.
   

This is a dirty (but effective) way of forcing the print spool server to reboot. You should see the document queue clear within a minute or so and then you will be able to send new documents to your printer.