Sunday, November 23, 2008

How to configure ToggleNic.exe to work with Windows XP italian

ToggleNic is a useful Windows tool for enabling and disabling network connections from the command prompt. It can be downloaded here.

After installation, ToggleNic is configured (by default) to run with the english version of Windows: in other words, it doesn't work with localized Windows version, like mine (italian).

In order to let it work with a localized Windows version, all you need to do is to modify the file ToggleNic.exe.config found inside ToggleNic installation folder.

This config file is a simple XML-based configuration file. Specifically, you need to look at (and change properly) these settings:
  • NetworkConnectionsFolderName
  • EnableVerbName
  • DisableVerbName
These items respectively collect: the localized names of network connections folder, the menu item corresponding to "enable connection" and the menu item corresponding to "disable connection". Obviously, for a localized Windows version, they cannot be like those in the default configuration.

For the italian version of Windows XP, I've checked the following values work.
  • NetworkConnectionsFolderName: Connessioni di rete
  • EnableVerbName: &Abilita
  • DisableVerbName: &Disabilita

Please notice the & at the start of EnableVerbName and DisableVerbName: it's because menu items are provided with a keybord shortcut. (That's what &amp is meaning for).

A useful site for getting info on Windows processes

Sometimes it happens you don't know what a Windows running process is needed to or whether it's a normal Windows process or something different.

The Process Library site has a huge database of information about processes. So when in dubt...

When a good antivirus turns into a terrible virus

Some nights ago I was involved in an unexpected adventure: back at home after a day of work, I turned on my Windows XP laptop and after logging in I was alerted by AVG antivirus 8 Free edition that the file "user32.dll" contained a troian.

Although quite surprised, I didn't hesitate a moment and let my antivirus move the infected file into its vault.

It was a really bad move, because, after restarting, I wasn't able to start Windows XP anymore: a blue screen of death appeared regularly shortly after each restart and the computer booted up again coming at the blue screen of death and then restarting again.

I fought against this problem for about one hour, trying to find a way to get my "user32.dll" back in the right place. Finally, I came up with a solution: I booted from a Linux-live distro, then I copied the user32.dll under system32\dllcache into system32.

Now, thanks to Linux my Windows XP is back again. It's frightening to think that a good antivirus - as I consider AVG - turned suddenly into a terrible virus. For more information, check this out.

BTW during my Linux session I noticed Firefox is about 1.5x faster than the same version under Windows. I'm asking myself why I'm still using Windows...