M.A.S. Electronics' Blog

Takeaway: Windows XP’s environment variables control the behavior of batch files and programs, and also control the way Windows XP and the MS-DOS subsystem appears and works. Check out this list of environment variables, along with their descriptions. Environment variables are used to control the behavior of batch files and programs in Windows XP; they also control the way Windows XP and the MS-DOS subsystem appears and works. To see a complete list of the environment variables that are active…

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If you’re like most Windows XP aficionados, chances are good that you prefer the Folders pane in Windows Explorer to the Task pane that displays by default in My Computer. If that is the case, you probably avoid My Computer or simply click the Folders button on the toolbar each time you open My Computer. If so, you’ve probably never spent much time looking at the commands on the Task pane and may be missing many handy command shortcuts. For…

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If you’re familiar with Windows XP’s My Pictures Slideshow screen saver to display photos of loved ones, here’s a twist that you might find interesting — you can use a photo for the texture in the 3D Flying Objects screen saver. Here’s how: Locate the photo you want to use in this screen saver, load it into a graphics program, and save it as a BMP file. (BMP is the only file type the 3D Flying Objects screen saver will…

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The New Technology File System (NTFS) is essentially a huge database that keeps track of all the files on your Windows XP Pro hard disk. When you create a file, or edit and then resave that file, the NTFS creates an entry and records the date in the Created or Modified timestamp so you can access the Properties sheet of the file and check the Created or Modified entries later. NTFS also creates and keeps track of another timestamp called…

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Wireless networking can be kind of scary from a security standpoint. It opens up whole new attack vectors that were not present with wired network infrastructures. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it securely, however, and I aim to give you some ideas that can help you in that regard. Many of these tips are likely to be inapplicable to a lot of people. For instance, if you’re running a wireless network that has to allow connections from a changing…

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As long as Microsoft Windows has been a network capable operating system, it has come with quite a few services turned on by default, and it is a good idea for the security conscious user of Microsoft’s flagship product to shut down any of these that he or she isn’t using. Each version of MS Windows provides different services, of course, so any list of services to disable for security purposes will be at least somewhat particular to a given…

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If you try to remove objects from your Windows 2000 Professional system through the Add/Remove Programs object in the Control Panel, some of the installed components, such as games and other accessories, don’t show up in the components list. In order to provide a common base of applications on each system for support reasons, Microsoft hid these files. Having Solitaire on your system, however, may not seem like a good way to simplify support. Here’s how to unhide these applications….

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In order to protect Windows Vista from malware and inadvertent disastrous mistakes, Microsoft endowed the operating system with the User Account Control (UAC) system. This system requires all users to use the standard user mode, and then prompts for administrative credentials before performing an operation. If you like the idea of the UAC system, but you’re not ready to upgrade to Windows Vista, you can use UAC’s predecessor in Windows XP: the RunAs command. Here’s how to use Windows XP’s…

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AutoRun has drawn attention from security experts because it can be misapplied by viruses and other malware, historically when they were run from CD and DVD-ROMs. Any removable media type can carry an autorun.inf file, however. What makes AutoRun risky is that it allows Windows to execute program instructions when a properly configured disk is accessed, sometimes without any intervention from the user at all. Windows is configured this way by design, to make things “easier” on the end user…

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You can change the icon used for a Windows 2000 Professional shortcut by right-clicking the shortcut, choosing Properties, and then clicking Change Icon. You can browse for the file or specify the path to the file containing the icon (.ico, .dll, or .exe files). Desktop objects like My Computer behave differently, however. You can change the icons for these objects through the Display Properties sheet. To do so, follow these steps: Right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Click the Effects…

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