Category: Windows Vista

How to Fix Alt Gr Key Not Working

If the Alt Gr key stops working, close Remote Desktop Connection if it is open. Try it out now!

There’s an old bug that causes the Alt-Gr button on your keyboard to mysteriously malfunction.

This is an old problem which still persists on Windows 10.

This bug has been plaguing me and others for many, many years. Since we use the AltGr key to produce the @ (at) sign here in Norway,

Even in 2019, I still get this problem all the time.

I just wanted to share the solution in case anyone else has the same issue, so hopefully it helped you out if you’re reading this, if not, please leave a comment!

PS! You can still try to help by voting for this Alt Gr bug to get fixed.

Either search for “Feedback Hub” on Windows 10 and log in if it asks you to.

Then click here.

Or, alternatively, open Edge in Windows 10, and paste this into the URL (address) bar:

feedback-hub:?contextid=937&feedbackid=bbb4ec30-a366-47c0-bc4b-610604517539&form=1&src=1

Thanks to Slingshot in the comments for this initiative!

Script to Re-Map Windows Shares

I had some problems with the Windows Shares becoming unavailable at odd times, just randomly now and then. This meant I could no longer list and open my media files from my LG Home Theater or my Raspberry Pi.

I discovered that restarting a few services associated with Windows Folder Sharing solved the problem without the need to reboot.

This is a quick little script that I use to re-map my shared folders in Windows, including the disk shares (i.e. d$, e$) every night:

net stop LanmanServer /y
net start LanManServer
net start Browser
net start HomeGroupListener

Copy these lines in to a text-file using Notepad and save the file as “Sharemap.bat”, for example.

To set up an automatic scheduled job to run the script, open Task Scheduler (Start -> Run -> taskschd.msc) and set up a basic task: Right-click the folder area on the left and select “Create basic task”.

For the actions pane, select “Start a program” and point to the Sharemap.bat script.

For the triggers, you can set it to run every night at 5 in the morning or something similar.

If you’re using TrueCrypt and need to make disk shares (d$, e$ etc) map up after TrueCrypt mapping has taken place, create a trigger and set it to run “At log on”, with a delay that’s long enough to allow you to mount the TrueCrypt volumes before it runs (5-10 minutes maybe).

Alternatively, you can simply create a shortcut to “sharemap.bat” or save the file directly to your desktop and run it manually as needed.

How it works:
Stopping the LanmanServer service automatically stops the child services Browser and HomeGroupListener as well, automagically – so we only need to start those services, or at least I chose to do it that way to be on the safe side.

These network services are responsible for making Windows Shares available on the network, so it is sometimes necessary to restart them if there are any issues with finding shares, especially disk shares that are not automatically mapped by Windows, caused perhaps by delayed mounting from TrueCrypt or similar applications.

How To Stretch Your Wallpaper Across Multiple Monitors in Windows

Even Mr Bolt-on knows

Even Mr Bolt-on knows this.

Everyone with some experience with Windows and more than one monitor connected, knows that Microsoft’s good old operating system just can’t handle multiple monitors very well.

Little has improved in Windows 7, and I was therefore faced with some odd challenges just trying to make a simple 3840×1080 pixels wide wallpaper fit properly.

The only built-in “wallpaper mode” that works with multiple monitor wallpapers is the “tile” mode. However, it didn’t work correctly on my setup, as it kind of started on the wrong display due to the internal “ranking” of my monitors, making the result look like so:

After a quick Google query or two, I happened upon the perfect tool to MacGyver this problem away: Continue reading

Efficient File Copying With Microsoft Richcopy

Download Richcopy Now

Many are already familiar with the Robocopy command line utility from Microsoft, bundled with all recent versions of Windows. Robocopy basically provides a good level of granular control over folder copy operations. Since Windows 7 and Server 2008, Robocopy even supports multithreaded copying.

Robocopy has its limitations, however, and I would most times prefer to use a tool with a user interface. This has actually existed since 2006, when Microsoft engineer Derk Benisch created “Robocopy GUI”, but there is an even better alternative around these days…

Continue reading

Multithreaded File Copies with Robocopy in Windows 7

Robocopy is included in Windows 7 and features a new multi-threaded copy option. To perform a multi-threaded copy, you use the new /MT[:n] switch, where n indicates the number of threads to be used. By default, n is 8 when you use the /MT option, and can be any value from 1 to 128.
Note that the multi-threaded option is not compatible with the /IPG and /EFSRAW options.