For those of us that find ourselves disabling Vista UAC for the whole system (points finger at self), we now have the ability to disable UAC per application. Thanks to Microsoft KB946932, here’s the solution:

Using the tool and steps below, you may disable UAC prompt for the specific application. This does not disable the User Acount Control feature for the whole computer.

1. Download and install the Application Compatibility Toolkit from this link:Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24DA89E9-B581-47B0-B45E-492DD6DA2971&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24DA89E9-B581-47B0-B45E-492DD6DA2971&displaylang=en)

2. In the Start menu, locate the new folder. Find the shortcut icon for Compatibility Administrator. Right click it and clik Run as administrator.

3. In the left hand pane, right-click on the database under Custom Databases and select Create New, and select Application Fix.

4. Enter the name and other details of the application you want to alter behavior on and then browse to it to select it. Click Next.

5. Click Next until you are in the Compatibility Fixes screen. 6. On the Compatibility Fixes screen, find the item RunAsInvoker, and check it.7. Click Next and then Finish.8. Select File and Save As. Save the file as a filename.SDB type file in a directory you will easily find it.9. Copy the <filename>.sdb file to the Vista computer you want to alter the elevation prompt behavior on.

10. Click Start>All Programs>Accessories. Right click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator.

11. Run the command below:

sdbinst <path>\<filename>.sdb

For example, if you saved the .SDB file as abc.sdb in the c:\Windows folder, the command should be like this:

sdbinst  c:\windows\abc.sdb

It should prompt: Installation of <name> complete.

Now do this for each program that annoys the heck out of you with UAC and you should be good to go. This really helps if you share your computer with other users since UAC cannot be disabled on a per-user basis. You get to keep your kids safe (read, “protect them from destroying your computer”) and you get to keep your sanity!

I’m currently using Vista x64 with a nVidia-based videocard with dual monitors and have run into the following issue:

 I work on my machine, then I lock it.  Later I come back and type my password to unlock it and I get to stare at black monitors with only the cursor showing.  Previously I would have shutdown the machine (power button does this gracefully) and then start it back up.

 Yesterday, I found a workaround while trying a bunch of different things, since I had a couple of Visual Studio 2008 instances open among other things:

1. Lock your machine again (Windows Key + L) or (Alt+Ctl+Del, then L).  At this point, you still won’t be able to see anything, but your cursor should technically be in the password box for your login.
2. Now, type your password, hit enter, and your desktop should come back they way it should have when you first unlocked it.

Update 04/04/08 - You may have to repeat these steps a couple of times to get it to work.

Annoying, but at least now I don’t have to restart my computer everytime I get the BSOD (Black Screens of Death).

Well, my brother decided to take the plunge and try the latest Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate (XP SP3 RC1). After everything was all installed and settled he was trying to right-click on the taskbar, choose toolbars, and then select Address to add the address bar to the taskbar. Alas, Address was not an option. So after much searching it was discovered that this option has been removed from SP3 completely due to “legal restrictions”. The quote from the TechNet posting says “We had to remove the address bar functionality due to legal restrictions. The release notes carries this as a known issue.“, however, I could not find any reference to this in the latest copy of the release notes. Anyways, I hope this helps those of you out there that are searching for the address bar option in XP SP3. We’ll see if we can get John from MuvEnum to come up with a program to add it back for you.

MuvEnum Address Bar is the ultimate replacement for the missing address bar in Windows XP SP3. It recreates the experience of the original address bar with auto-completion while adding many new features, including a system-wide hotkey, that allows you to quickly open Web pages, navigate to favorites, start programs, search the Internet, and more from you Windows Taskbar.

MuvEnum Address Bar (x86 and x64 compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 2000, 2003, and 2008)

New Home: http://www.muvenum.com/products/freeware/ 

Download

Post bug reports and suggestions at: http://muvenum.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=992

Donations : http://www.muvenum.com/products/freeware/donate/ - Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

• Added real-time updates of Favorites and Desktop Items in the auto-completion list.
• Added System Items to the auto-completion list along with their modified names, if they’ve been changed by the user.
• Modified the final loading of a keyword to search on the keyword if it doesn’t contain a period and to navigate to a webpage if it contains a “period”.  This modifies the original address bar behavior but saves time compared to the useless navigation to http://keyword/ which will never exist.
• Modified auto-completion list to show all Favorites in all Favorite folders.  In v3.0.0.0 it would only show the favorites in the root of the favorites folder.
• Modified auto-completion list to not show folder paths from Favorites as it now shows all of the Favorites.
• Fixed an issue where certain system folders would open when hitting “Ctrl+Enter”, “Shift+Enter”, or “Ctrl+Shift+Enter” to navigate to a website if the keyword matched a system folder.  It now navigates to the webpage with the added url prefix and suffix.
• Fixed an issue where Explorer may crash when entering certain invalid characters.
• Fixed an issue with environment variables immediately followed by folder or file paths opening a browser to search for the terms instead of navigating to the expanded environment variable path.

• Added Tab support for navigating through the auto-completion list!
• Added instructions for enabling the toolbar on the finish page of the installer.
• Added support for looking in HKEY_LOCALMACHINE for quicksearch urls if none exist in HKEY_CURRENTUSER.
• Added support for automatically searching on keywords when they contain spaces without requiring “go ” in front of them.
• Added the ability to set the default search engine.
• Added first level favorites, favorites root folders, and desktop items to the auto-completion list.
• Added support for loading desktop items and items in your documents folder based on their name.
• Added logging to the event viewer on initialization of the address bar to help diagnose non-loading issues.
• Added support for typing in “clearhistory” into the address bar to clear your browsing history.
• Modified options dialog to always be on top.
• Renamed “support” button to “manual” to take the user to the product manual.
• Decreased the minimum allowed size for address bar so it can take up less space.
• Fixed an issue where one of the files may have not been updated properly when upgrading from an older version (should fix address bar not staying open between computer restarts).
• Fixed issue with options dialog displaying correctly on machines with a DPI higher than 96.

• Fixed search option in auto-complete drop-down not working on different languages of Windows.
• Fixed Hotkey support not working on different languages of Windows.  *No longer steals the A key due to ctrl and shift not existing in some languages.
• Added Save, Cancel, and Restore Defaults buttons to the options dialog.
• Added Clear History button to the options dialog to allow the users to clear the Internet Explorer/Windows Explorer/MuvEnum Address Bar (they all share the same history) typed url history; works the same as the Delete Browsing History in Internet Explorer.
• Fixed search engine searches using %20 instead of + for spaces in the search keywords. 

Update 06/04/2008: v2.0.5.0 Beta 6 Released

• Fixed the “search for” option in the auto-complete list showing an error instead of opening the page when the user didn’t have an IE SearchURL setup in the registry.
• Updated auto-update settings to allow for localization in the future.  If you used beta 5 and changed the frequency of the checks, you will need to change them again.

Update 06/03/2008: v2.0.4.0 Beta 5 Released

• Added the ability to have the address bar check for updates automatically.  Default of enabled and checks every 7 days.
• Fixed the installer not properly updating from v1.3.1.0.  Previous betas would require an uninstallation of the currently installed version before working correctly.  This beta removes the old version, correctly.
• Fixed the resetting of your taskbar (only once) after updating from v1.3.1.0 to v2.x.x.x beta 4 or lower and restarting the computer.

Update 06/02/2008: v2.0.3.0 Beta 4 Released

• Added support for enabling inline autocompletion (tab is not supported; you will need to use the arrow keys instead).
• Fixed global shortcut duplication issue when loading the options dialog from the address bar ‘options’ method.
• Replaced the Support the Developers text in the address bar with http://www.muvenum.com.  The Support the Developers text just looked weird and sounded more like a command to the user than an option.
• Cleaned up the Options dialog.

Update 06/01/2008: v2.0.2.0 Beta 3 Released

• Added floating toolbar support.
• Added the ability to hide the Options button. Also added support for opening the options by typing options into the address bar and hitting enter. How else you would get to the options dialog if you had hidden the button?
• Added Support the developers text to the address bar when it is first loaded. Hitting enter in the box will take you to the donation page. Typing in any other text will no longer show this message. This was done to make the donation ability more prominent which helps us create new freeware and continue updating current freeware. Also, since it doesn’t interfere with your computer usage like other freeware that uses annoying popups that you have to continually close, we hope it is okay that we added it.
• Fixed address bar not showing correctly if the start menu was docked on left or right of the monitor (vertical).
• Fixed settings possibly being lost when updating to a newer version.

Update 06/01/2008: v2.0.1.0 Beta 2 Released

• Added support for a global (system wide) hotkey to set focus to the MuvEnum Address Bar. In my own use of the original address bar, this was a very wanted but missing feature. It can be disabled. It defaults to enabled and to the shortcut combination of CTRL+SHIFT+A.
• Added support for ESCAPE for closing the options dialog.
• Fixed “My Documents” and “Documents” showing an error instead of opening the folder.
• Removed support for opening “Control Panel” as the clsid, {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}, did not work correctly.

Update 05/31/2008: v2.0.0.0 Beta 1 Released

• *Added support for typed urls adding to the history, used in IE and the address bar).
• *Added support for a specified search engine (default search): regedit:(HKEY_CURRENTUSER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl\) Key - (Default) , value: http://www.google.com/search?q=%s where %s is replaced by the text typed in the address bar.
• *Added support for the title “Address” to be shown in the front of the address bar. It can be removed by unlocking the taskbar, right-clicking on the toolbar and unchecking “Show Title”.
• *Added the “search for” option to the autocomplete box.
• *Added support for moving through the auto-completion list using up and down arrow keys. See http://muvenum.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=946&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a for why tab completion was not able to be added.
• *Added support for environment variables.
• *Added support for opening favorites by their shortcut name.
• *Added support for opening system locations (example: “My Computer”, “My Documents”).
• *Added quick search support.
• Fixed selecting items from the regular drop-down requiring the user to then press “Enter” before the item would be loaded.
• Fixed address bar not being centered on a multiline taskbar after restarting the computer.
• Fixed issue with the installer which may have caused the address bar to not show up after installing.
• Fixed issue with the installer not adding the program to the “Add/Remove Programs” section.
• Modified installer so it no longer shows the “command prompt” windows when registering the extension files.
• Removed the “MuvEnum Google Sponsored Search” feature.
• Redesigned the address bar to better represent the operating system settings.
• Redesigned the options button to be more noticeable.
• Redesigned the options dialog to allow for better feature additions and references to finding out about the extension and updating it as well.
• And more…
• * denotes replicated feature from the original address bar.

Update 04/30/2008: v1.3.1.0 Released

• Added x64 support.
• Added support for checking for updates from the about dialog.
• Added support for showing Typed Url history from explorer/internet explorer in the dropdown.
• Added support for running applications with arguments.
• Added ability to clear text by pressing escape.
• Added support for MuvEnum Google Sponsored Search (currently redirects directly to Google).

Update 04/03/2008: v1.2.0.0 Released

• Fixed the issue with the address bar not being restored after a restart of the computer.
• Removed addition of “/” at the end of a URL without an extension that would cause some websites to return a 404 because they can’t handle an ending “/”
• Added threading support so operations don’t cause the explorer process to not respond until after they finish (mostly seen when trying to access UNC paths that don’t exist).
• Added an about dialog.
• Added a tiny dot on the right of the toolbar that when clicked, shows the about dialog with an option for hiding the “Go” arrow.

Update 12/28/07: John here. I’ve released a beta version which you can read about at the above “TechNet posting“. It is currently not x64 compatible as of v1.3.1.0.

Previous to version 11.x.x of cPanel’s WHM interface there was an option in the SSL/TLS section to either generate a self-signed SSL certificate for the server or to install a real SSL certificate.  However, in 11.x.x (not sure exactly when this changed) this option no longer exists.  Even if you install your SSL certificate through the normal process for installing SSL certificates for domains it won’t work as expected. 

If you have changed the Tweak Settings option “When visiting /cpanel or /whm or /webmail with SSL, you can choose to redirect to:” to Hostname or SSL Certificate and you navigate to a hosted domain at https://www.domain.com/cpanel it will redirect to https://servername.com:2083/, however, it will not be using the SSL certificate that you just installed.  “But why?”, you may ask.  The reason is because you installed the SSL certificate for Apache, but you did not install it for the WHM/cPanel interface.  The installation for the cPanel/WHM SSL certificate has been moved to a different section of WHM. This is because cpsrvd handles SSL requests for WHM/cPanel whereas Apache handles SSL requests for normal domain traffic.

Under the Service Configuration section of the standard WHM theme there is an option for “Manage Service SSL Certificates”.  Navigate to this page and you will see it lists certificates (self-signed) for Exim, Courier, FTP, and surprise… WHM/cPanel!  This is where you need to install your newly purchased SSL certificate. If you click on “Install New Certificate” you will be taken to the standard WHM SSL certificate installation form.  If you have already installed the certificate through the standard domain method then all you have to do is click on “Browse” next to Domain this CRT is for and select the servername from the list.  This will install your previously installed SSL certificate in the correct location. 

If you did not already install the SSL certificate you will have to do so by pasting the necessary information into the form and submitting it. If you haven’t already changed the Tweak Settings option to redirect make sure you don’t forget it. At this point you should be good to go!

I’ll get straight to the point.  I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 with no significant issues since the beta was published via Steam…until recently.  For some reason I was randomly getting crashes when the map changed on a server.  The specific error is as given in the title of this post.  I could not for the life of me figure out what might have changed that would have caused an issue like this (completely forgetting I had recently reinstalled Vista).  Instead of actively searching out a solution I continued restarting the game each time it crashed.  This seems to be a problem of mine, putting a band-aid on the problem rather than researching the cause to find a true solution.  Well it turns out it was actually a problem caused by Windows Vista itself in the way it handles memory allocation. 

This issue actually affects more than just Team Fortress 2, but my exposure to the problem was limited to this game.  The solution is a patch provided by Microsoft which I had installed on my previous instance of Vista, and was the reason I had not experience crashing prior to my reinstall.  Hopefully if you’re reading this you’ve taken the initiative to research your problem rather than trying to do what I did.  I have been running successfully with no crashes since installing the patch.  With that said, install the patch and get back to the game!

Microsoft KB Article 940105 - Virtual address space usage in Windows game development