General Windows Patches

I often get shanghaied by friends, family members and clients to "Tune-Up" their computers. The following is a brief, incomplete list of what this often entails:

Initial Setup

I like to see the menu, path, and extensions when I use Windows Explorer. The fixes below are much easier to implement if this is set properly in the "Folder Options" window. To get to there, open up Windows Explorer. [If the menus are not visible, click the ALT key to bring them up.] Click on "Tools" and select "Folder Options". Switch to the View tab and set the check boxes as shown in the picture below. In my mind, the "Hide extensions for known file types" is the most important one to fix.

Using Hosts file to block adware/spyware

One of the best tricks that I have picked up over the years is to use the hosts file to block malware and other annoying sites. A remnant of the Unix operating system, your system goes to the hosts file for DNS lookup services before asking the DNS servers on your network. By adding entries in this file to block malware/advertising IP addresses, your computer will not send requests to these sites. I like to use the list compiled by MVPs.org. Their site gives a more complete description of the process:

    http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

You can download the hosts file directly at

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip

Once I load this table, many of the advertisements on web pages disappear, and the number of popup windows decreases dramatically. There can be some problems with the approach, however. Some webpages depend on one or more of these servers. College Humor, for example. To accommodate these, I have added two shortcuts to my desktop to turn this filtering on and off.

First, download the zip file and unzip it. Rename the HOSTS file to hosts.new and move it to

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\

Second, create two batch files on your desktop, BlockHosts.bat and ClearHosts.bat.

BlockHosts.bat consists of two lines:
     copy "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.new" "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"
     ipconfig /flushdns

ClearHosts.bat consists of:
     del "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"
     ipconfig /flushdns

[The ipconfig command in each file is important. It flushes out the cache and forces windows to query for the IP addresses anew.]
Right click click on the icons and select "Run as Administrator" to swap the hosts file in and out.

Specifying DNS servers

I have noticed that one of the most common ways that Wi-Fi network connections fail is due to DNS requests not properly being served by the router. As a solution, I add two public DNS servers to my network setup, rather than depend on the router being setup correctly. [Note: If you are on a corporate network, you may have to stay with the default settings because internal mail servers, printers, etc. may be defined by your system router and this fix could disrupt these services.]

I like to use OpenDNS and Google as my servers.

http://www.opendns.com/

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

Changing DNS server settings

1. Go the Network and Sharing Center, either through your control panel or by clicking on the network icon in your system tray. (In Windows 8, you get there by selecting More Settings from the
2. Click on the network connection that you want to adjust. (You can also select the "Change Adapter settings" link to view all connections.)
3. Click on "properties" and select the select the "Networking" tab.
4. Select "Internet Protocol Version 4" and click "properties"
5. Select the "Use the Following DNS server addresses" radio button and fill in the new server addresses. (If these have already been filled in, make sure to write the existing settings down before proceeding.) Google and OpenDNS both provide two servers, I like to use one of each so that if one fails, the other is there to back them up.

Google servers:
    8.8.8.8
    8.8.4.4
OpenDNS servers:
    208.67.222.222
    208.67.220.220
So I use 208.67.222.222 and 8.8.8.8

6. Click OK and the repeat this process for Protocol Version 6" but use the IPv6 servers

Google servers:
    2001:4860:4860::8888
    2001:4860:4860::8844
OpenDNS servers:
    2620:0:ccc::2
    2620:0:ccd::2

You can check your settings by opening up a command window and typing:
      ipconfig /all

This will give you all the gory details about your network configuration.



Stop Flash Autoplay in Firefox

Have you noticed that when you surf around the web, pages insist upon automatically loading and play Flash videos? Netticat had created a Firefox addon that blocked this. Until recently, his addon could be found on the Mozilla website. To get a copy now, you need to go to his website and install it directly. (It appears that someone else has taken over maintaining it.) This StopAutoPlay link is ¾ down the page at

http://netticat.ath.cx/MyAddons/MyAddons.htm

I only wish that they had something like this for IE.