Category Archives: windows

Windows: Don’t update Google Chrome (i.e. disable auto update)

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By default Google Chrome will update to the latest version automatically. It is however possible to disable this and instead update manually (when needed/wanted).

Note: This means you will not get security updates as threats are found and these get fixed – so this might be a bad idea to do if you don’t plan to update manually.

Open up a registry editor and check if the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update” exists, otherwise create it (the key is the tree structure in regedit).
Now enter a Key name “DisableAutoUpdateChecksCheckboxValue ” as a DWORD and give it the value “1”.
This will keep Google Chrome from auto updating.

Keep ie6 installed (don’t update ie to newer versions)

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For testing I like to keep older versions of Internet Explorer installed, here are some notes on how to disable the updating of Internet Explorer to newer versions.
I only recommend doing this on a machine that should keep Internet Explorer 6 in order to do development testing.

  • Disable Internet Explorer 7 Open up a registry editor and check if the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\7.0” exists, otherwise create it (the key is the tree structure in regedit).
    Now enter a Key name “DoNotAllowIE70” as a DWORD and give it the value “1”.
    This will keep Internet Explorer 8 from installing on this computer.
  • Disable Internet Explorer 8 Open up a registry editor and check if the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\8.0” exists, otherwise create it (the key is the tree structure in regedit).
    Now enter a Key name “DoNotAllowIE80” as a DWORD and give it the value “1”.
    This will keep Internet Explorer 8 from installing on this computer.
  • Disable Internet Explorer 9 Open up a registry editor and check if the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\9.0” exists, otherwise create it (the key is the tree structure in regedit).
    Now enter a Key name “DoNotAllowIE90” as a DWORD and give it the value “1”.
    This will keep Internet Explorer 9 from installing on this computer.
  • Disable Internet Explorer 10 Open up a registry editor and check if the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\10.0” exists, otherwise create it (the key is the tree structure in regedit).
    Now enter a Key name “DoNotAllowIE10” as a DWORD and give it the value “1”.
    This will keep Internet Explorer 10 from installing on this computer.
  • Disable Internet Explorer 11 Open up a registry editor and check if the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\11.0” exists, otherwise create it (the key is the tree structure in regedit).
    Now enter a Key name “DoNotAllowIE11” as a DWORD and give it the value “1”.
    This will keep Internet Explorer 11 from installing on this computer.

    • The values mean the following:

    • When the key value name is not defined, distribution is not blocked.
    • When the key value name is set to 0, distribution is not blocked.
    • When the key value name is set to 1, distribution is blocked.

    note This article is updated as new versions are released.

    If you need to do this on several computers then you can download Toolkits to do this from Microsoft (warning: read the instructions and verify that you ran it correctly on the first computer you run it on):

    Disable (or change) the Click sound in Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer

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    When you open a folder in Windows Explorer a click sound is played. To disable this there are two ways to do it:

    • Turn it off using the control panel:
      1. Open “Start”->”Settings”->”Control Panel”
      2. Open up “Sounds and Audio Devices”
      3. Open the tab that says “Sounds”
      4. Scroll down until you find “Windows Explorer”->”Start Navigation”
      5. When you mark this line at the bottom there is a drop down that is labeled “Sounds:” Here you should be able to change to anther sound or “none” if you do not wish a click.
    • The second option is a bit more direct and rude – but if the above does not work for you (for me something kept resetting the old sound); just remove the file that contains the click sound.
      1. Open up a Windows Explorer and go to “%windir%\Media” and find the file that is named “Windows XP Start.wav”
      2. Either remove it (permanently) or rename it to something that windows won’t recognize (but you can – so you later can reverse this if you would like to)

    Turning off VoddlerNet autostart in windows

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    VoddlerNet is a part of Voddler, it is used to distribute content via peer-to-peer technology in order to offload the company’s servers.
    However this means that it takes up bandwidth from the users (and also makes ping drop if you play on-line games).

    1. In run (windows button+r) enter “services.msc” (or you can open Services via the control panel if you like to)
    2. Find VoddlerNet in the list of Services, choose properties and now change startup type to “Manual”

    This changes the settings so that VoddlerNet don’t start automatically with windows, instead you have to start it manually (right click the VoddlerNet icon and choose start) before you start using voddler.

    What program is using port x?

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    netstat can be used to figure out what program is using a port.

    $ netstat -nlp
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1096/sshd
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:80              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1733/apache2
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      1096/sshd
Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node   PID/Program name    Path
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     6338     1071/gdm-simple-sla @/tmp/gdm-greeter-LvjLQPzT
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     5165     1072/X              /tmp/.X11-unix/X0

    If you have a lot open then grep can be used to only find what you are looking for

    netstat -nlp|grep :22
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      1096/sshd
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      1096/sshd

    For windows, simply start with

    netstat -n

    Showing (and/or) Clearing the arp cache

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    The arp cache should (normally) be cleared within 20 minutes (or less, this depends on what platform is used).

    If you don’t know what ARP is and what is is good for, then perhaps you should take a moment and read the man page:

    DESCRIPTION
Arp manipulates or displays the kernels IPv4 network neighbor cache. It can add entries to the table, delete one or display the current content.
 
ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol, which is used to find the media access control address of a network neighbor for a given IPv4 Address.

    On a windows platform to show the arp cache

    C:\> arp -a
Interface: 192.168.1.49 --- 0xb
  Internet Address      Physical Address      Type
  192.168.1.29          00-1d-92-08-49-25     dynamic
  192.168.1.34          00-24-81-85-ab-b6     dynamic

    To clear the cache

    C:\>netsh interface ip delete arpcache
Ok.

    To show the arp cache on a nix machine:

    $  arp -vn; cat /proc/net/arp
Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
192.168.1.254            ether   00:08:ae:09:20:a0   C                     eth0
IP address       HW type     Flags       HW address            Mask     Device
192.168.1.254    0x1         0x2         00:08:ae:09:20:a0     *        eth0

    To clear the apr cache on a nix machine.

    $  ip neigh flush all