Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE, July 29, 2002

Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE—brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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July 29, 2002—In this issue:

1. COMMENTARY

2. FAQS

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS

4. CONTACT US

1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected])

This week, I examine how to stop Windows Media Player (WMP) from acting on HTML scripts, how to use Windows XP's Runas command to execute programs located on mapped drives, and how to always win at Minesweeper. I also explain the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions, describe the Wow6432Node registry setting, and explain how to dump event logs from the command line.

My new book, "The Windows XP/2000 Answer Book: A Complete Resource from the Desktop to the Enterprise" (Addison-Wesley), is now available for preorder on Amazon.com at the URL below. The book will be available at the end of September.
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2. FAQS
(contributed by Paul Thurrott, [email protected])

A. In a previous FAQ, I discussed the Windows 2000 MultiLanguage Version, which lets multiple users use many languages simultaneously on one machine. A Language Interface Pack uses the same technology but adds only one language at a time to XP Professional Edition. A Language Interface Pack lets the user localize an English-version installation of the OS with language-specific menus, dialog boxes, and other GUI elements. Language Interface Packs are available for:

A. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-032 ("26 June 2002 Cumulative Patch for Windows Media Player"— identifies several version-specific patches to secure WMP against script attacks. To manually disable WMP's HTML-processing feature, perform the following steps:

A. XP's implementation of the Runas command lets you execute a program under the context of another user. However, if you attempt to use Runas on a program located on a mapped drive, XP enforces mapped-drive credentials and displays one of the following error messages:

RUNAS ERROR: Unable to run - :.exe 3: The system cannot find the path specified.The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000022). Click on OK to terminate the application. 

These errors result because mapped-drive connections use the security context of the currently logged-on user, and Runas can't use this security context because Runas is attempting to run programs under another user's security context. To resolve this problem, you need to use a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name instead of a mapped drive. For example, instead of using

runas /user: h:progsdelold.exe

use

runas /user: \server1share1progsdelold.exe

Unlike XP, Windows 2000's Runas implementation doesn't enforce the mapped-drive credentials, so a Win2K user can access a mapped drive by using another user's security context.

A. You can configure Minesweeper to display either a white or black pixel on screen, depending on if the cursor is over a mine (black) or not (white) by following these steps:

The pixel in the top left-hand corner of the desktop will be black if the cursor is over a mine square or white if the cursor is over a safe square. This trick works on all versions of Minesweeper supplied with Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 3.1.

A. You can currently purchase 64-bit versions of recent Windows versions, including Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Windows .NET Enterprise Sever (Win.NET Enterprise Server—formerly Win2K AS) and Windows .NET Datacenter Server (Win.NET Datacenter Server—formerly Win2K Datacenter Server) will also be available in 64-bit versions.

The 64-bit versions of Windows include some file-system structure and registry differences, but the GUI looks and acts the same. The differences between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions are internal, as the following table shows:

                 32-Bit Windows     64-Bit WindowsMemory           4GB                16GB (artificial limitation; will                                       be 128GB on server products)Virtual memory   4GB                16TBPagefile         16TB               512TBSystem cache     1GB                1TB 

The 64-bit versions of Windows run 32-bit applications in the same way that 32-bit Windows run 16-bit applications: by using an emulation layer. (However, 16-bit applications can't run on 64-bit versions of Windows.) Because of this emulation, a 32-bit application will run slowly on a 64-bit box, so you shouldn't attempt to run important 32-bit services on a 64-bit version of Windows.

A 64-bit application can't load a 32-bit DLL and vice-versa because of user memory space limitations and because 64-bit applications can access 8TB of memory whereas 32-bit applications can access only 2GB. As a result, neither the 32-bit nor 64-bit Windows versions can accurately pass memory pointers to the other version.

A. The Wow6432 registry entry indicates that you're running a 64-bit version of Windows. The OS uses this key to present a separate view of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE for 32-bit applications that run on a 64-bit version of Windows. When a 32-bit application queries a value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE subkey, the application reads from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432Node subkey. Figure 1 ( http://www.windows2000faq.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=25995 ) shows the structure under Wow6432Node that 32-bit applications will see. A "registry reflector" copies certain values between the 32-bit and 64-bit registry views (e.g., mainly for COM registration) and resolves any conflicts by using a last-writer-wins approach.

A. The Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit includes the elogdmp.exe utility, which lets you display the contents of a particular type of log file. Valid event-log types are

To use the Elogdmp command, go to the command prompt and type

elogdmp \ 

To dump the event-log files for the local machine, type

elogdmp \. 

The Elogdmp output is comma-delimited (you can output the information to a file by adding "> filename.txt" without the quotes to the end of the command), so applications such as Microsoft Excel can easily read the information. The following text shows an example of Elogdmp output:

"07/17/2002","13:59:05","EventLog","INFO","None",6009,"N/A","TITANIC2K","5.0/2195/Service Pack 2/Uniprocessor Free/" 

Windows XP users can use eventquery.vbs, which ships with the OS, to dump event logs from the command line.

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)

While the cost of buying storage capacity continues to drop, the cost of managing storage and keeping it available continues to rise. Find out why this happens and how to address it by bringing your Windows storage under control. Register today for this important online seminar sponsored by VERITAS!
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Then you need to visit our JSI FAQ site. Updated daily, this vast list of FAQs includes more than 4000 tips, tricks, and registry hacks to help you solve your toughest problems. Check it out!
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4. CONTACT US
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