Start++ 0.2.2
Last night I updated Start++ to 0.2.2 in response to a user named Suren who pointed out that multi-word web searches were broken. Check out the Download page to get the update.
You can also subscribe to just see Start++ updates via RSS.
New tool I made for Vista: Start++
UPDATE
Lots of people are linking to this post. A much better place to link would be to the new Start++ web site. Thanks!
I’ve decided to share a little tool that I wrote on a whim a week or two ago for Vista. This is a personal project of mine, not related to MS in any way.
Users of WDS on XP may recall the “Deskbar Shortcuts” functionality that allows you to create little aliases between words or characters with commands and searches. For example, you could set up the Deskbar so that you could type “g Stuff” to search for the work “Stuff” on Google. You could also launch programs, run scripts with parameters, and more.
Windows Vista replaced the Deskbar with Instant Search built-in to the Start menu, which is totally awesome. Unfortunately, it lacks all of that fun shortcut functionality that the Deskbar had. Unless you have my tool, which for the time being I’m calling Start++.
Here are a few of things it does:
This will open the “Longhorn Server” page on Wikipedia.
This will launch Visual Studio with administrator permissions.
Start++ also works from the command line!
Search Actions let you perform actions over search results. In this case, “Play Radiohead” will:
- perform a search for music with the keyword “radiohead”
- Write all the results to a .M3U file
- Open the results in Media Player
That’s the configuration UI, which lets you create your own custom commands / aliases.
Like I said, this is kind of something I threw together, so it might still have some bugs, and I’ll probably add more to it when I get the time on weekends and such. Anyway, let me know what you think.
WDS 3.01 has shipped!
Today we’ve released Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. This release includes many bug fixes and improvements based on user feedback received since the release of WDS 3.0 last fall. Some users noticed the lack of UNC / network share indexing support in WDS 3.0 and insisted we put it back. So we did! The UNC / network share add-in is no longer a seperate downloaded and is included in WDS 3.01.
WDS 3.01 also brings back full Group Policy support (previously available in the WDS 2.6 Enterprise releases).
Special congratulations to the indexer team, many of whom worked some pretty heavy hours through January to make sure this release had that extra layer of polish on it. Thanks guys! Now go home already!
Download links:
Group policy ADM file is included in the package. Run the installer with the /extract parameter to extract the contents directly.
There’s also an updated Advanced Query Reference for 3.x / Vista.
The WDS website and related docs are in the process of being updated as I write this.
Our screening of Uganda Rising at the UW HUB Auditorium is tonight!
We also have released the new Tusubira website early this morning. There are still a few updates to be made to it, but we wanted to share the new design in time for tonight’s event (made possible by a few sleepless nights by yours truly!).
No personal checks, please.
Wow, I can pay off my car! Heck, I can buy a new one!
I’m estimating that Jack Tretton owes me about $72,000 as I count about 60 units (actually it’s probably 63). While it may look like there’s one missing, and that might lead you to think it has been sold, you would be wrong. I joked to one of the blue shirts, “I guess you sold one!” He just shook his head and pointed me over to the PS accessories section, where the PS3 box had been placed on the floor, ostensibly after its carrier realized the price was per unit and not per stack of 60.
Cupertino, start your copiers!
Ryan Faas has an article up highlighting the upgraded Spotlight feature of Apple’s upcoming “Leopard” 10.5 release of OS X. It’s got some really cool stuff coming, including:
- Searching remote Leopard clients and server shares
- Full support for file permissions and ACLs
- Expanded “Recent Items” functionality
- Advanced search with a much more robust query syntax
- Use Spotlight as an application launcher (a sort of “Start Menu” if you will)
- Preview results and files without opening them
Those are all really great features! I just can’t put my finger on it, but for some reason I feel like I’ve seen them before.
Lamar Smith is insane
Apparently this Republican congressman has sent forth from his dark lair in Mordor Texas a bill proposing that all ISPs in the US be forced to log traffic from all internet users (including full text of all e-mails, IM conversations, etc) indefinitely. Not only would such a law be laughably illegal and unethical, but it’s logistically impossible.
For example, this would require Comcast to keep copies of all my Microsoft internal e-mails, since I access them from home. Of course, Comcast couldn’t possibly do this since my corporate e-mail is encrypted until it reaches my computer.
Perhaps we should also force gas stations to submit records to the government of everywhere I drive, including wrong turns I make and precisely how long I sit in traffic on the 520 bridge. Nevermind the fact that gas stations don’t have access to that information, and that obtaining it would be a gross violation of my right to privacy. Nevermind the fact that it would be impossible for them to track every customer 24 hours a day and store all of that data in a secure fashion indefinitely.
Oh better yet, he’s proposing in the same bill that ISPs be fined $150,000 for “permitting” a subscriber to perpetrate certain illegal activities using their service. I say the gas stations should be held accountable the same way. They do provide the fuel that permits me to drive around US roads, right? If I do something bad, shouldn’t they be held responsible for permitting me to use their fuel to perform nefarious acts?
Next Friday, February 16, our non-profit organization (Tusubira) is hosting a screening of the documentary Uganda Rising at the University of Washington’s HUB auditorium. Please come and support our efforts in Uganda!
Warning: The default configuration of UAC is far more secure, you should not alter it or turn it off!
Warning #2: Microsoft does NOT endorse any practice that reduces or disables UAC functionality, and neither do I. I do NOT use this mechanism on my own machines, and run all of them with UAC completely enabled.
However, if you’re going to turn it off anyway, at least consider the following…
There are TWO ways to effectively disable UAC. They are:
- Hit the big master switch that disables UAC. This runs every application with admin privileges and access to everything on your system.
- Enable the “Elevate without prompting” option. This means requests for elevation automatically succeed, no prompt.
So how is method #2 different?
- Applications will still run with non-Admin privileges unless they request them.
- Requests for elevation will succeed automatically.
- Filesystem and registry virtualization (ie. the “sandbox”) will still be enabled for applications running with low privileges.
- Protected Mode IE will still work
You can do it by running this reg file which won’t even require a reboot. However, it WILL set off the Security Center alert just like completely disabling UAC. If you had previously disabled UAC using the other method, you will have to re-enable it and reboot first.
So if you currently have UAC disabled, or are going to – try this instead. No, it is not nearly as secure as the default setup. Remember, any application requesting elevation will get it without telling you! But it’s better than just running with everything elevated all the time.
I’ve noticed some users arriving at my blog by searching the web for the message “Error modifying the Read-Only ACL on one of the permission restricted keys” – which was reported on one of the comments to an old post of mine back in November.
Unfortunately, we are unable to reproduce this problem – it’s believed to be caused by anti-spyware software modifying the permissions on certain registry keys. However, it’s difficult to know for sure.
If you arrive here because you’re having this problem, please e-mail me.