Category: Windows XP

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

How To: Administrative Shares in Windows XP

When you have more than one computer in your local network, you may want to be able to access all your files on all your machines, whichever one you’re sitting at. Here’s how you can accomplish that in Windows XP:

To be able to access all files you will be using something called Administrative Shares. These are default hidden shares of your local hard disks and optical drives that are automatically created by Windows on boot-up. These shares are not like normal shared folders, as they require administrative access to open via the network.

An administrative share is a hidden share, as indicated by a trailing dollar ($) sign. These shares do not show up by default when you access a computer through Windows Explorer. To access the C:\ drive via its administrative share for instance, you would type this in the address bar of Windows Explorer: \\computername\c$ 

 

[important]In Windows XP Service Pack 3, access to the administrative shares through the network is disabled by default.

To enable administrative shares you have to:

1. Open Explorer and select Tools -> Folder Options
2. Select the View tab and scroll all the way down to the bottom of Advanced Settings
3. Make sure that “Use simple file sharing (Recommended)” is not selected

This should work instantly without need for rebooting.

Note: Windows XP Home editions do not have this option, so they cannot show administrative shares.[/important]

 

You will also need administrative rights as a local user to access these shares on a different computer via the network. To achieve this, all you have to do is to create an identically named account on each computer, with the same password. Make sure it has administrative rights (select “Administrator” when you set it up). To do this, open Control Panel and go to User Accounts and make the necessary account and/or password changes there.

Now, whenever you want access to your files on your other machines, just open Windows Explorer and type in \\Computername\c$ in the address bar – replacing the letter c with the drive letter of the hard disk you want to access.

There’s an additional administrative share that’s standard on all Windows computers, and this is the Windows folder. To access this share, type \\Computername\admin$. If Windows was installed on a different drive than the C:\ drive, it doesn’t matter when you use this share. Pretty useful when you want to view Windows log files on remote machines.

Windows 7 / Vista troubleshooting:
In Windows 7 / Vista you will get prompted to enter a username and password. Enter the username and password, and tick the box to remember the password if you don’t want to be bothered again. You may get problems here, being denied access even if you entered the correct username and password. Should this be the case, you should read my article on enabling admin shares in Windows 7 / Vista.