I got into programming before I got into Linux – consequently, many of my earlier programs were targeted for the windows platform. I want to showcase those apps in this post. I no longer use them – but if anyone finds any of these useful, it wont go to waste.

I wrote many programs in my Window days. But most of them are useful only to me – its pointless to list them here. These are the list of programs that others might find interesting.

This post is a part of a series I am doing on Windows. The other posts in this series so far are…

• 3 Windows Speed Tips from a Linux User
• Windows Hacks: ‘The Escape’
• Using Linux for a better Windows Experience

Command Line Apps

I had an affection for the Command Line even when I was in windows. Due to the lack of tools in DOS, I created a few DOS tools myself. Most of them are done in C++…

bd – ‘dir’ command replacement

BD is a `dir` replacement. This program displays the contents of a specified folder in a colorful and more understandable way. BD displays files of different types in different colours, letting you see at a glance which files are executable, which are documents, directories etc.

BD helps to cross the boundary between the starkness of DOS and the color of Windows and is a perfect utility for anyone who is experienced with Windows but wishes to start working in DOS.
                Completely Free Softwares

Boot Booster

Boot Booster is a program that tries to put the booting time of the computer to good use. It can log the booting time, display a joke or an inspirational message that will change at every booting, display any message, display any reminders you have set etc. Boot Booster can be configured to log the booting time, shutdown time and the time the session lasted etc. Works only in Windows 95/98. It will NOT work on anything newer.

I don’t expect anyone will find this useful. But at the time I created it, it was one of my favorite applications. I have created other apps to parse the result of its log and create some ‘interesting’ graphics.

Batch Programming Helpers

People into DOS will also be into batch programming. I wrote quite a few batch scripts to automate stuff. Since the batch scripting language had very little features, I wrote utilities to improve its abilities…

Batch ToolKit

Batch ToolKit is a collection of 5 programs intended to make batch programming a bit more feature rich…

• Becho
• Message
• Tnd – Time ‘n Date
• Select
• Getline

If you are in windows and you use Batch in a non-trivial way, please switch to linux – you are going to love the features that is provided by bash(Linux shell scripting language). Then after a while, you will hate that too – and will use higher level languages. And thus, a programmer is born.

GUI Applications – Tcl/Tk

I also did some Tcl/Tk programming in Windows to create GUI applications. I continue that even today – as Tcl/Tk is well supported in Linux(even though Tk apps looks very bad in linux). All the Tcl apps I created are available on the Tcl/Tk page.

I enjoyed programming in the Tcl language that I created a tutorial for Tcl/Tk. Later I create the Hello Script for Tcl(for quick reference).

If you are a Windows user who want more stability(but unwilling to switch to Linux completely), this post is for you. Basically, you have to create a dual boot system with Linux and Windows – and use Linux for doing the more ‘unsafe’ operations. The end result is windows remains stable – and you will be able to do things that are potentially dangerous.

Dual Boot System

Install a Linux distro on your system. I would recommend Ubuntu if you are a beginner and Fedora if you are not. There are many tutorials on the net that will take you through the process of installing – so I am not going into it. Now boot into Linux when ever you wish to do stuff that might run the risk of infecting your system…

Browsing

Unfortunately, the net is currently the number one source of virus infection. So, if you want to browse, boot into linux and browse – this will make it impossible for virus to infect the system. But there are some problems with this approach…

• Might be impractical for full time broadband users
• Some special applications might not have linux alternatives(eg. Online games, Yahoo Video Chat software etc.
• Some ISP’s dialup applications might not work on Linux

My brother uses this method – and he swears by it. It will cut down virus infections by about 75%.

Using Pen Drives/External Hard Drives

Another method that virus use to propagate itself is pen drives. Everytime you connect a pen drive to your system, you run the risk of getting a virus infection. Using linux to check out pen drives will make sure you will not get infected this way. Its so effective that my brother prefers to check the pen drive in linux over checking it with a anti-virus.

Troubleshooting Help

Another advantage of having Linux in your system is that you can use it to troubleshoot hardware. Say that you mouse stops working – now you have to decide if its a hardware or a software issue. It could be a symptom of a virus – or it could be a problem with the mouse. If you just have windows, the only way to find out is to connect a different mouse – not the most convenient way. But if you have linux, just boot into it. If the mouse is working in Linux, its a software issue. If not, then the hardware is to blame.

Emergency Computing

When disaster strikes(in case of windows, once every six months) and your windows system is rendered unbootable, you have a bailout mechanism. You can use Linux to work on that urgent presentation, or backup the files, or send that email, etc. Point is, you have a working system – until you re-install Windows – or choose to abandon it for Linux.

Linux Live CD/DVD

If you don’t want to install linux due to some(propably invalid) reason, then your next best bet is to have a Linux Live CD handy. Live CDs enable you to have a complete OS that boots directly from the CD/DVD. I would recommend Knopix for this. Just make sure that it works on your system – and you are able to mount your partitions and do read/write operations using the Live CD.

You can use the live CD to troubleshoot hardware and to backup the files in case your ‘Window is broken’. It might not be practical for the other reasons outlined above – because its slower than a permanent solution.

Ironically, we have reached a point that, if you want a stable Windows system, you need to have Linux installed.

What’s the keyboard shortcut to close an application? Yes, its Alt+F4. Its not an easy shortcut to hit. I always thought that the Escape key was a much better shortcut to close applications. Once I convinced myself that it was the ‘One-True-Way’^TM, I decided to impose that shortcut on the applications that I use. Metapad and Irfan View already had that option – the other application I had my sight on was the Windows Explorer(explorer.exe). This tutorial will teach you how to add the Escape key as a shortcut to close Windows Explorer.

By the way, this is a post about my Windows days – this is much easier to do in Linux – but thats another story.

Stuff you need to know before continuing

This is a fairly advanced hack – its not for everyone. It involves editing core Windows files – which might be dangerous if done incorrectly. It also involves a bit of reverse engineering which might be considered illegal by some lawyers. So continue only if you are sure.

This hack involes modifying Windows core files – which might some problems if done incorrectly. I cannot be held accountable for the outcome – be it good or bad. Actually, scratch that. Ff the result was a success, feel free to hold me accountable.

If you decide to continue, I would say that the result is worth the risk – you will learn a method that will let you add custom shortcuts to application that don’t provide you with the source code. And it gives you a really cool feeling if you actually manage to pull the hack successfully.

I originally made this hack for Windows 98 – but it works on Windows XP as well. I have not tested it in Vista – I would be very grateful if anyone lets me know if it works in Vista or not.

Stuff you are going to need…

• Get Resource Hacker – you will be editing core windows DLLs with this tool.
• FreeDOS or Linux Live CD/DVD – you have to save the file to the original location when windows is not running. You must also know how to work in the Live OS – be it DOS or Linux.
• Courage – As I said before, this hack is not for the faint of heart.

Lets Begin

Install Resource Hacker.

Make a backup of ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\browselc.dll‘ and ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\filelist.xml‘ before doing anything – just in case.

Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32

Make sure that you are seeing all the files there…
Tools -> Folder Options -> ‘View’ Tab -> Hidden Files and folders -> Show hidden files and folders(must be checked)

Refresh the folder and then find the file ‘browselc.dll‘

Make a copy of that file in some other folder – say C:/Hacks/

Now open Resource Hacker

Open the DLL file in Resource Hacker…
File -> Open -> C:/Hacks/browselc.dll

In the ‘Menu’ find look through all sections to find a menu with the ‘File->Close’ item.

It should be at Menu -> 263 -> 1033

Find the string
MENUITEM "&Close", 40993, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED

In this the number 40993 is what we want. Write the number down somewhere. Think of it as the function that gets executed when that menu item is clicked. You can create a shortcut for any menu item by find out this number for that menu item.

Now we have to add a shortcut for this ‘function’ – go to the ‘Accelerators’ section – ‘Accelerators -> 256 -> 1033′. We found the menu at Menu -> 263 -> 1033 – so the Shortcut should be at Accelerators -> 256 -> 1033. See the pattern?

Find the line
VK_ESCAPE, 41498, NOINVERT, VIRTKEY

Modify it to read
VK_ESCAPE, 40993, NOINVERT, VIRTKEY

I have changed the number to 40993 – the call for the ‘Close’ action.

Now hit the ‘Compile Script’ button on the top. If you have done it correctly, you should not get any errors.

Save the new version using File -> Save

Congratulations, you have successfully created a new ‘Accelerator’(shortcut). Now the hard part – putting the file back into ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32′.

If you are on Windows XP, it monitors for changed files – so if we put the changed DLL file back, it will be reverted to the original file on the next boot. To get around it, follow the steps below…

Open up the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\filelist.xml in a editor like notepad

Find these lines…

<Exclude>
	<REC>%windir%\system.ini</REC>
	<REC>%windir%\tasks\desktop.ini</REC>
	<REC>%windir%\win.ini</REC>
	<REC>*:\AUTOEXEC.BAT</REC>
	<REC>*:\CONFIG.MSI</REC>
	<REC>*:\CONFIG.SYS</REC>
</Exclude>

Add the line…
<REC>%windir%\system32\browselc.dll</REC>
after the line <REC>*:\CONFIG.SYS</REC>

After doing this you may not be able to save the file. Curse windows for a bit and continue.

Open up a DOS Shell and enter these commands in order…

attrib -S -H C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\filelist.xml
attrib -R C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\filelist.xml

Now you will be able to save this file – do so.

Replace Original browselc.dll with Modified Version

The next thing to do is replace the original browselc.dll file with our hacked version. This cannot be done when windows is running. It must be done when windows is down – that’s where FreeDOS CD or Linux Live CDs comes in.

FreeDOS

If you have FreeDOS CD, boot into that as the LiveCD(I hope you know how to do this – basically, you put in the CD, reboot the system, change the setting in the BIOS to make the CD the primary boot device and boot into the CD. Needless to say, you need a bootable CD for this to work.)

After you have booted into DOS, execute the command…
copy C:\Hacks\browselc.dll C:\Windows\system32\browselc.dll

Now remove the FreeDOS CD, reboot back into windows.

Linux

If you have a live Linux CD, pop it in and boot into that. Now mount the partition that’s the C partition in windows(usually sda1 or hda1). Then all you have to do is copy the modified DLL file from the ‘Hacks’ folder to ‘Windows\system32\’ folder in that partition using the File manager for that distribution.

Once that is done, you reboot into windows.

All Done

Finally, its all over. All you have to do is open up a folder – and press the Escape key. If all went well, the explorer application will be closed.

This is a rather complicated way to do a rather simple thing – you set custom shortcuts easily using tools like AutoHotKey and setting up macros. But by doing it my way, you will learn a method to peek into exe and dll files. And if you are a programmer like me – it will give you hours of entertainment. I have actually found left over stuff from Windows 3.1 in Windows XP DLLs – but that’s a post for another time.

Most of my regular readers know that I do most of my work in Linux. After all, my development platform is LAMP(L being Linux). But it was not always so – I used to be on Windows(in a period now referred to as the dark ages). Being a power user, I found a lot of tweaks on Windows. But I never managed to share them on any of my blogs – because I started almost all of them after I moved to Linux. So here is three tips on how to make Windows a bit better(or at least less painful).

I started on Windows 95 – my first computer(400 MHz, 32 MB RAM, 4 GB HDD) had it pre-installed. That was my introduction to computers. But soon I migrated to Windows 98. I have very fond memories of that OS – Windows 98 is my favorite OS in the windows family. As a matter of fact, even now, my systems have that green background of Windows 98. I moved to Linux(Fedora Core 1) after that. So most of the tips shared here was tested on Windows 98 – but I am sure it still applies to the later versions as well. I don’t use these tricks anymore(I don’t use Windows that much now) – so I wanted document them before I forget them.

Being a speed junkie – and having a 32 MB RAM – made me optimize my system a lot. I found most of the tips below with a lot of trial and error(we did not have the internet back then – why do you think I call it the dark ages?). Anyway, here are my top 3 tips to make your windows a little better…

Speed Up Explorer.exe

You can speed up the time taken to show a folder contents using this trick…

• Open a folder in Explorer
• Choose Tools > Folder Options
• Select the ‘Use Windows classic folders’ in the Tasks section
• Press OK.

This will get rid of the ‘Common Tasks’ to the left of the explorer. Now try browsing for files – you will notice a considerable difference in speed.

Startup Optimization

You might already know this tip if you are a ‘Power User’ – msconfig. To make your system more responsive and consume less memory, you can remove unwanted tasks from startup…

• Go to Start > Run.
• Type in ‘msconfig’ without the quotes
• Go to the Startup tab
• Unselect the application that you know you don’t need.
• Press OK – you don’t have to restart.

The deactivated apps will not start from the next boot. In some cases, this will really speed up your system.

Replace Default File Viewers

Notepad should be replaced with Metapad Lite. Not Notepad++ or other ‘Advanced Editors’ – they take half a second to load. Metapad Lite is much faster – as fast as notepad – but with more features.

Use Irfan View as your default Image viewer. I am sure most of you guys are doing this already.

Replace Internet Explorer with Firefox. You will not see a immediate speed improvement. But in the long run, Firefox will prevent many virus from getting access to your system – giving you a stabler, faster system.

Foobar2000 is a better and faster audio player than default audio player provided by Windows. But then again, do anyone use Windows Media Player?

If you are a programmer I would recommend Notepad++ – as an editor – not as a Notepad replacement.

Other Tweaks

There are many other tweaks as well – but most of them are obsolete due to faster machines and newer OSes. Some of them include…

• Disabling Wallpaper/Screensaver
• Use XSetup to optimize hidden settings
• Using a better terminal than Command Prompt
• Disabling the ‘Effects’ – Fade effects, Menu Shadow, etc.
• Disabling File Indexing
• Disabling HDD Paging(Virtual Memory)
• And more…

In my next post, I will introduce you to my great Windows Hack – ‘The Escape’