Blog: Jimmah.com is back... and better than ever!

Hello,

Sorry about the downtime. I am still trying to restore some images, but other than that, everything should be working now.

If you find something that's still broken, please drop me a line.

I've upgraded the site with the top 2 requested features: a what's new section on the front page and an RSS feed. I have another cool feature in the works, too. Let me know how you like the new design and anything else you would like to see.

Thanks,

- JB

FAQ: How do I run an administrative program (that needs my permission to start) every time I log in and prevent the "Windows has blocked some startup programs" message?

Windows Vista prevents administrative programs that need your permission to start from running automatically when you log in if they are being started from the normal "run" registry keys or startup folders.

However, you can allow an administrative program to start when you log in by creating a scheduled task.

Startup Program Unblocker

I have created a program that automates this process for you. You can download it here:

Download Startup Program Unblocker (English and French)
Download Startup Program Unblocker (French only)

(Thanks to Microsoft MVP Laurent Gébeau of toutwindows.com for translating this program into French)

How to do it manually

Note: This only works if you are an administrator. You cannot cause an administrative program to automatically start on a standard user's desktop.

1. Click start
2. Type: task scheduler
3. Press enter
4. Click create task in the right
5. Type a name for the task
6. Put a check next to the box that says 'run with highest privileges'
7. Click on the Trigers tab
8. Click New
9. Click on the dropdown next to "Begin the task", select At log on
10. Put a check next to 'specific user or group'
11. Click OK
12. Click the actions tab
13. Click New
14. Click browse
15. Find the program you want to run
16. Click Open
17. Click OK
18. Click OK

So... why exactly does Windows block administrative programs from running when I log on?

Most programs cause themselves to start every time you log in by placing an entry in your startup folder, your run registry key, or the system-wide startup folder or run key.

Because your startup folder and personal run registry key can be written to by non-administrative programs, Windows cannot allow administrative programs that are started from these locations to run without prompting you. This would allow untrusted non-administrative programs to place malware in these locations that would be started with admin privileges when you next logged on.

However, it is also unacceptable to allow administrative programs that are started from these locations to prompt for your consent every time you start up your computer. Besides being extremely annoying, a malicous program could potentially put hundreds of malicious administrative programs in these locations, creating an endless series of prompts for you to deal with, creating a denial-of-service scenario.

Since neither option is desirable, Microsoft decided to disallow administrative applications from starting automatically from these locations.

It would also be inappropriate to allow administrative programs to be launched from the machine-wide startup folder and run registry location, since administrative programs can only be started inside of administrative accounts, or from a standard user account with an administrator's credentials entered on-demand.

The reason the task scheduler solution is allowed to work is because non-administrative programs cannot create scheduled tasks, so there is no way for malware to abuse this service in the way that is possible with the other startup methods.

FAQ: How do I fix recurring error event id 5007 reported by WerSvc in the application event log?

After installing the microsoft update KB 931174, you start receiving the following recurring error in the application event log:

WerSvc event id 5007 The target file for the Windows Feedback Platform (a DLL file containing the list of problems on thiscomputer that require additional data collection fordiagnosis) could not be parsed. The error code was 8014FFF9.

This error means that a file associated with the customer experience improvement program, wertargets.wtl, is expired.

The root cause of the error is that KB 931174 updates your computer with an unusable, already-expired wertargets.wtl file.

To stop this error, you should uninstall KB 931174.

1. Click start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click Programs
4. Click Programs and Features
5. On the left, click View installed updates
6. Find KB 931174 and click on it
7. Click uninstall on the toolbar when it appears

If uninstalling the update does not stop the error, you can manually replace the file that is causing the problems:

1. Download and save wertargets.bin
2. rename the file to wertargets.wtl
3. Click start
4. Type: command prompt
5. Right-click command prompt and click Run As Administrator
6. Type the following commands, pressing enter after each line:
   

   cd %systemroot%\system32
   takeown /F wertargets.wtl /A
   icacls wertargets.wtl /grant Administrators:(M)

7. Move the downloaded wertargets.wtl file to your system32 folder

FAQ: How do I keep my password from expiring?

Some users are reporting that Windows is telling them that their password is expired or is about to expire, even though that have not set any password expiration policies.

Following these steps should turn off this feature:

1. Click start
2. Type: command prompt
3. Right-click it when it appears in the list
4. click Run As Administrator
5. Type the following command and press enter:

   net accounts /maxpwage:0

FAQ: I have unchecked the "Always Ask" checkbox for the "Open File - Security Warning" prompt, but it continues to prompt when I run a certain program. How do I stop it?

This happens when you save a program that you have downloaded from the internet to a secure location on your computer, such as the program files folder.

To solve this problem:

1. Move the program that is prompting to your desktop
2. Launch the file from there, and uncheck the checkbox
3. Close the program, and move it back to its orginal location

You can also fix this problem without running the program by using the command prompt:

1. Click start
2. Type: command prompt
3. Right-click command prompt, and click run as administrator
4. Browse to the folder where the application .exe is stored
5. Issue the following commands, where filename is the file's name:

   move filename.exe filename.bak
   type filename.bak > filename.exe
   del filename.bak