SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that helps provide secure Internet communications for services like web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other data transfers. When you search over SSL, your search queries and search traffic are encrypted so they can’t be read by any intermediary party such as employers and internet service providers (ISPs).

Source: Google SSL Search Help

So, put simply, the announcement was great news for privacy and security enthusiasts everywhere. As one of these enthusiasts, I immediately switched to Google’s SSL search for all my web search needs. Sure, there were some drawbacks to switching – namely, a loss in performance – but in my mind, I rather wait a little longer, knowing I have increased security.  So, as a first step, I switched my homepage in Google Chrome. This was pretty straight forward, I simply had to press the Wrench icon, and then select Options.

The next step was to change the search provider – in Google Chrome, this is crucial – since it relies so heavily on one smart search/address bar. When I went to do that, I instinctively selected the existing search engine I was using: Google Canada, and attempted to edit it. Unfortunately, the URL field was grayed out, preventing me from making changes to the URL pattern.

I then figured out that some of these providers are built-in, and can’t be edited. You have to manually add a new search engine, which allows you to define all fields. Here’s what I entered for each field:

• Name: Google HTTPS
• Keyword: g
• URL: https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s

Once I selected the new engine as my as the default, I was ready to go. Google’s SSL search was my homepage, and my default search engine. Yet, I still had some flexibility: I chose keywords that would allow me to easily switch between engines. For example, by typing:

gc wikipedia ducks

Chrome understands that I want to search using Google Canada:

This allowed me to have a secure search engine by default, all the while making it easy for me to use others on-the-fly.

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Despite these mouse-powered shortcuts, I’ve always felt that keyboard shortcuts were faster. With that in mind, I took my search to Google, and eventually and found what I was looking for:

CTRL + SHIFT + N

Great shortcut… after you press it, you can immediately start typing the folder name. No need to use the mouse in between creating the folder, and typing the name.  There’s just one unfortunate catch – the shortcut only works in Windows 7.  Seeing as I needed something that worked across Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, I returned to Google for an alternative. Here’s what I found:

ALT + FWF

Certainly an awkward looking shortcut, but it works just like CTRL + SHIFT + N. The only difference is that it uses accelerator keys, a  long-supported feature of Windows. Back in Windows Server 2003, accelerator keys were easy to recognize visually:

Notice that certain characters are underlined in the menus?

All you had to do was look for underlined letters in the menu options. As can be seen above, the File menu option has the F key associated. If you hold ALT, the key combination you press will be sent to the menu bar. This also works in Windows Vista, and Windows 7 – though, by default, the underlined letters and menu bar are hidden. So, for example, you can follow the ALT + FWF path. Holding ALT, first press F to select File, then W for New, and F for Folder. After that, just type the name of the new folder, and press ENTER.

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Lately, when I booted my machine, I saw this dialog appear:

Learn Jing Now? No thanks, I already know how to use Jing. So… what other options do I have?

• “Replay”
• “Sign Up Now”

That’s it. The usual Minimize-Maximize-Close buttons from Windows aren’t there, and I don’t see a Close button. Replay just starts the tutorial video again, and Sign Up Now sounds like I have to register for something . I already created a Screencast account – I remember doing that specifically to satisfy Jing. So, as far as I know, I don’t need to sign up. Yet, the text above the Sign Up Now button seems to suggest that I should click it… but I know I already signed up, why would I do it again?  Because of the resulting confusion, I see the dialog as having a poor user interface. While it is visually appealing, I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to click. I’ve also been trained to avoid registration forms – I only use them when I absolutely have to. After all, each time I register somewhere – it takes time, and the information I provide could be exposed in one more location.

If I decide I want to close the window, I have to get creative… I can either:

• Right-click the window in the taskbar, and select Close Window.
• Press ALT+F4.
• Open Task Manager, and kill the process from there.

It could have been easily averted with a Close button, or at least clearer instructions.  If I have to sign up again to use Jing, then tell me why. If I have to click that button to get to the login page, then that’s terrible – just put a Login button alongside Sign Up Now. Either way, make it clear.

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Since Vista, Microsoft has decided to hide the bar, by default. In Windows 7, here’s what Windows Explorer looks like:

While the menu bar is no longer visible, it hasn’t been completely removed from the operating system. You can simply press ALT to make it appear. Once visible, it is designed to disappear whenever you left-click the Windows Explorer window. If you actually click the menu, you can execute one action, and then the bar will disappear again. In this manner, Windows ensures that the menu bar is never left to waste window space. Here’s a video illustrating this behavior:

I really like this approach, and actually found that other applications feature the same logic. For example, Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live Messenger, and Firefox 4 Beta 1 also show/hide the menu bar whenever ALT is pressed. I’m hoping it becomes a global standard for applications.

You also have the option of permanently showing menus… an option I don’t personally like. If you want to try that option, follow these steps:

1. Click Organize > Folder and search options in Windows Explorer.
2. In the Folder Options dialog, click the View tab.
3. In the Advanced Settings section, you’ll find an option titled Always show menus. Enable the checkbox.
4. Click OK.

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• There is a problem when the system tries to boot, so it attempts to communicate what went wrong – via a sequence of beeps.
• Too many keys were pressed at once on the keyboard.
• The system is configured to beep whenever an alert dialog appears.

The last one I found particularly annoying when I was developing Visual Basic 6 applications at my day job. For some reason, Visual Studio 6 likes to communicate with you via alert dialogs. Visual Studio .NET corrected this – instead of a typical alert box, they list the errors and warnings in another pane. Despite this, some of our code was still in VB6, so I had to use it. Thankfully, there is an easy way to disable the beeps.

In Windows Server 2003:

1) Click Start > Run.

2) When the Run dialog appears, type “cmd” and press ENTER.

3) When the command prompt appears, type “net stop beep”, and press ENTER.

If you want to disable the beep permanently, here are some instructions.

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When I look at my drives in Windows, here is what I see:

My drives. Notice how "F" is actually free?

Looking at the drives, I don’t quite understand why Windows thought I would be a good idea. I’m guessing it remembers another drive that had F, and wants to reserve it. Why it didn’t do that before, is beyond me.

To correct the shortcuts, I had to change the drive letter of the drive – which would make the paths valid again. I only had to do this once before, so I thought I’d offer the steps here, in case someone else would find it useful. The change is made using the Disk Management tool that comes with Windows.

In Windows 7, either:

• Search for “Disk Management” in the Start menu, and select the “Create and format hard disk partitions” option.

or

• In a “Run Command” window, enter “diskmgmt.msc”.

You’ll be presented with the Disk Management screen:

Once there, simply right-click the disk you wish to change, and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.

You’ll be presented with the following dialog:

Select the drive letter, and press “Change”.

When the dialog opens, select the letter you want to use. In my case, I changed the “Assign the following drive letter:” field value from I to F.

After that, press OK.  You’re get a warning saying:

Some programs that rely on drive letters might not run correctly. Do you want to continue?

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That’s right, whenever you see a dialog in Windows, like this:

A typical Windows error message dialog.

You can press CTRL+C to copy, and then open up Notepad, and press CTRL+V to paste:

The dialog title, contents, and even the button text are saved to the clipboard.

I had no idea this was possible until I read a Lifehacker article explaining it.  Since I’ve started using it, I’ve found it very useful in my every day work. Maybe you will too!

Just a note, though – it doesn’t seem to work everywhere. For example, JavaScript alert dialogs can’t be copied in Firefox, but they can in Internet Explorer.

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Windows features a special file simply called “hosts”, without an extension. This file allows users to map hostnames to IP addresses. More importantly, however, is that when Windows tries to locate nodes on any given network, it will take the hosts file into consideration. It will actually consider the hosts file prior to querying DNS server, and any mappings found within will override those in the DNS. This effectively allows us to write custom redirections that affect the entire system – this was the key to blocking the website. To demonstrate how I used this to my advantage,  here’s what the default HOSTS file looks like in Windows 7:

#def Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

If I wanted to permanently block:

I would add the following entries to the file, in bold:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 kanyeuniversecity.com
127.0.0.1 www.kanyeuniversecity.com
127.0.0.1 kanyewest.com
127.0.0.1 www.kanyewest.com

By doing this, I’m telling Windows that whenever it encounters one of those domains, it should immediately resolve them to the IP 127.0.0.1, rather than querying the DNS server for the IP. The IP 127.0.0.1 is a special “loopback” IP – it pretty much points to whatever machine you are currently using. That’s how these domains are blocked – Windows will actually be told to use 127.0.0.1, which will definitely not work (since the local machine is not a web server, and is not configured to serve such content). This exact technique is used by Spybot Search & Destroy‘s Immunize feature – so when you open your HOSTS file, you might already see a bunch of entries blocked.

Notice, also,  how I added two entries per website I want to block – one with “www.”, and one without it. I considered this necessary because of the following: from the point of view of a DNS server, “www.websitenamehere.com” and “websitenamehere.com” are two completely different domains; however, in most cases, on the Internet, they tend to be configured to point to the same IP address, so we rarely see instances where they behave differently. Still, since they are different at the DNS level, both possibilities needed to be added to HOSTS file.

Ultimately, once configured, the end result is this: whenever you try to access a blocked site, you’ll get this type of error:

Error seen when attempting to visit a site that has been blocked via the Windows hosts file. This example showcases Firefox, but keep in mind that the block is system-wide. Other browsers will react similarly.

There you have it – a way to block websites in Windows, and a browser-independent one at that. As for the procedure for editing the HOSTS file, it differs depending on which version of Windows you are using. For Windows Vista and Windows 7, click here. For Windows XP and older versions of windows, click here. These links will simply trigger appropriate Google searches, as I don’t have articles that cover these steps yet.

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Solution

Here’s how to enable it:

1) Open the Services Management Console by entering “services.msc” in the Run dialog.

To open the Run dialog, click Start > Run, or press Windows Key + R.

2) Locate the Themes service, right-click it, and select Properties.

3) On the General tab, select the Startup Type dropdown, and choose Automatic.

4) Click Apply.

5) Click OK.

6) Right-click the Themes service again, and select Start.

7) Close the Service Management Console.
Right-click on the desktop, and select Properties.

9) On the Themes tab, select the Theme dropdown, and choose Windows XP.

10) Click Apply.

11) Click OK.

The Windows XP option, by default, is not listed as an available theme in the Display Properties dialog. When we started the Themes service, the option was added… and there you have it. You can now use the XP theme (Luna), in a Windows Server 2003 environment.

The default XP theme, codenamed Luna, will appear in the "Display Settings" dialog as the "Windows XP" theme.

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Cannot delete file: Access is denied.

It appears when you try to delete a file or folder that is currently in use by an application. To be completely accurate, the file needs to be in use and locked by the application to prevent external edits – the lock is likely the reason we see the error message. Sometimes it is really obvious which application has a locked handle on the file – for example, if it is complaining about a Word document – perhaps the document is still open in Word. Personally, I consider scenarios like that acceptable because they can be solved easily; unfortunately, all too often I get into trickier situations where I can’t figure out which application is holding onto my file. In those cases, I used to just reboot, and that would usually solve the problem. Yet, there were still cases where rebooting didn’t even do the trick.

Eventually, I was tired of struggling in those moments, and began searching for an application that could help – that’s when I found Unlocker. It allows you to remove locks from individual files via an “Unlocker” option within the Windows context menu. Definitely a nice feature… but listen to this – they took it a step further via  a system tray program called Unlocker Assistant. If you encounter the “Access is denied” error while Assistant is loaded, Unlocker will automatically pop up a few seconds after you click “OK”, and it will show you the culprits:

From their interface, you have the option of either killing the process, or unlocking the files themselves – effectively breaking the hold the application has on the file without having to terminate it. Very handy. You can download Unlocker here.

If you’re more inclined to trust Microsoft-sanctioned applications, grab Process Explorer – a Sysinternals app. I didn’t try it for this purpose specifically, but from what I’ve read, it isn’t as simple as Unlocker when it comes to removing the “Access is Denied” error specifically. It serves multiple purposes, whereas Unlocker is specialized.

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