Windows XP/Vista/7: Run program as a service

Open up a command prompt in Admin mode and type in the following command.

If any of the paths include spaces, you have to use (escaped) quotes around the path, like this:

sc create subversion binpath= "\"C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svnserve.exe\" --service --root C:\ServerFiles\svn_repository" displayname= "Subversion" depend= tcpip start= auto

A simplified pseudo version of the call is:

sc create shortname binpath= "\"C:\Path\To\Your\program.exe\" --your-program-options" displayname= "Full Name of Service for Service Manager" start= auto

A breakdown of the command arguments is shown below. Strangely enough, the space after the = sign is required.

• "sc create subversion"
  Creates a service named "subversion".
• "binpath= "
  The executable file.
• "--service"
  (Argument to SVN) Run it within the Windows native service wrapper. Shows how you can pass arguments to the executable.
• "--root= "
  (Argument to SVN) The root folder for repositories. Also shows how you can send arguments to the executable.
• "displayname= "
  A nice name for the service in the Service Manager.
• "depend= "
  Dependencies for this service.
• "start= "
  The starting method.

For more information, see the Microsoft's KB251192.

If you typed something wrong, type "sc delete subversion" to delete the service and start again.

Once created, type "net start subversion" to start it.

Win7: How to change back to XP style taskbar

Wow I can't believe I've missed this simple write-up.

The superbar is pretty neat, but it isn't for everyone. Someone asked me today how to change it back to the more familiar XP-style layout, with text and without the gayish OS X task grouping.

So, right click on the taskbar to bring up the menu. Select "Properties" to bring up this screen.

Enable "Use small icons" and change the taskbar buttons to "Never combine".

Thanks Microsoft for adding this in for people like us =)

Synaptics Touchpad with Multi-touch

I stumbled upon this thread when looking for a way to improve Synergy+. Since my Dell XPS m1330 also uses a Synaptics touchpad, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to give it a go.

Alot of forum posts linked back to the HP's FTP site for a file named "sp47815.exe" which contained the v15.0.9.0 drivers. Everytime I tried to download from there, it would give me an empty file.

So I searched online for ages for "sp47815.exe" but found nothing.

I gave up and tried v14.0.3 from Synaptics' official site. Did it work? Nope.

Eventually I stumbled upon this thread on LaptopVideo2Go. Thinking that the latest version would just work, I downloaded the first one I saw and tried it out. Nope, didn't work.

The only one which worked for me was the previously suggested v15.0.9.0 driver.

• Download the drivers from LaptopVideo2Go.
• Uninstall your old Synaptic driver.
• Reboot.
• Extract and install the v15.0.9.0 driver.
• Reboot.
• Once its loaded, it'll ask you to configure to your liking but the majority of the features are already enabled.
• If you accidently closed it and want to configure it, go to your "Mouse" preferences in the control panel.

Can't get much easier than that!

Sources

• New HP Touchpad Driver that Unlocks Multi-Touch on older Touchpad
• Software & Driver Downloads HP Mini 210-1000SA PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)
• Synaptics drivers page
• Latest Synaptics Touchpad drivers (LaptopVideo2Go forums)
  

Windows: Regain disk space on C drive with some uncommon methods

I admit I've been lazy and slacking on the computer maintenance side of things lately (which translates to a few years). As a result, things have cluttered up and I'm starting to constantly run low on C:.

I do however perform the usual trimming of the temp folders and restore points, which usually do the trick. I find programs that clear the browser cache to be stupid because the files are eventually redownloaded again when you browse.

So I resorted to TuneUp Utilities' Disk Space Explorer which is a bloody brilliant computer maintenance suite. The Disk Space Explorer is a nice tool that lets you see what folders/files are hogging up space on your computer.

Adobe Acrobat 9

First on the list, and somehow unsurprisingly, Adobe Acrobat. Delete the stupid installer cache files, with half the files in languages I cant even read!

Shaved: 1.22gb.

Windows Installer Cache

Much like the the previous program, incomplete or unsuccessful installations may leave horrendous cache files on your computer.

Use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (which is basically MSI Zap with a nice frontend) to remove the files in a safer manner. Just be careful with it. Its sort of like a big hammer so if you go apeshit with it, something will break.

Some programs will have broken shortcuts after this is run. Just edit the shortcut and set a target, or recreate a shortcut that runs the appropriate executable.

It also removes the install logs, which makes it impossible to uninstall the software. Just be sure you want to keep it ;)

Shaved: 2.16gb to 793mb (and thats just by removing Visual Studio 2005!)

ACDSee Catalogue Database

You may have noticed that I use alot of "strange images" in my posts. I'm a massive image hoarder, and that causes my image manager to suffer.

Remember to clean your ACDSee catalogue database!

Shaved: 1.6gb to 860mb.

NOD32 Antivirus Quarantine

The quarantine will store a copy of all infected files, including the gigantic (and infected) setup files that you might of grabbed off torrents.

Go to "Tools" > "Quarantine" and remove any files you know you wont need. Its a shame you cant sort by file size.

Shaved: 530mb to 5.38mb.

Compact Thunderbird POP3 Accounts

IMAP accounts will just download content from the servers when needed, but POP3 will store a copy of the email even after you've deleted it.

To delete the unecessary emails, clear your folders (inbox, sent, etc) and then delete them again from the trash folder. Now select your account, go to "File" > "Compact Folders".

Depending on how much crap you deleted, this may take some time. The first time I discovered this functionality, I saved over 1.2gb of space! Now I do this quite often, so I didn't save as much space.

Shaved: 1.66gb to 1.63gb.

Compact VMWare Virtual Hard Drives

All your VM machines need some loving too. See here to find out how to compact the virtual disks.

This will take quite some time, and the space saved will really depend on how much you use the virtual machines. While you're waiting, you can do the next part.

Vista was disgustingly slow and took the longest to shrink by far. Its ridiculous, because there wasn't even anything installed on the damn image and it took longer than overnight to complete! Vista went from being 6.59gb to 7.9gb. WTF?

Shaved: 60.3gb to 55.19gb

Clean Up Your Mess

You always have the feeling that one day, some point in your life you're gonna have to clean your room. Same deal with your downloads folder, one day you're gonna have to clean it out and remove those duplicate downloads.

Eclipse Workspace History

See here to reduce the size of your Eclipse workspace folder by deleting the local history. The local history is a backup copy of anything you save.

Clearing this also seems to speed up your Eclipse loading times.

Shaved: 943mb

WinXP: Thumbnail view doesn't show filename

Thumbnail view, in crippled mode.

Its nice that thumbnail mode shows a bigger preview for your images, but often it is annoying that the filename keeps disappearing.

Why? I don't know. How to fix it? That I do know!

Click on the views button in the toolbar and select another view (any type is fine).

 

Next, display the dropdown again but this time Shift+Click on the "Thumbnails" option. That should do the trick.

Now your icons should now display in thumbnail mode with the filename underneath the preview.

 
Thumbnail view, in useful mode.

Win7: Share a folder to XP computer without requiring a password

Step 1. Sharing something

Get to the "File Sharing" dialog by either:

a) Share with

• Right click on the folder you wish to share
• Click on "Share with"
• Click on "Specific people..."

b) Properties

• Right click on the folder you wish to share
• Click on "Properties"
• Click on the "Sharing" tab
• Click on "Share ..."

Now you should arrive to a screen that looks like this.

Step 2. Sharing with who?

Select "Everyone" if you want no fuss, no password sharing. The XP computer will be able to access your shared files across the network without any issues.

If you want to allow access to only a specific user, then the XP machine will be asked for a password before it is allowed access.

Click "Add" to add them, and click on the dropdown to modify what permissions they have (ie. Read and write).

Click "Share" to apply the settings and begin sharing.

The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed.

While repairing a Windows XP installation on my friend's computer, it ran into a strange problem.

"Files Needed"
The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed. Type the path where the file is located, and then click OK.

GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386

Solution A:

The tricks from Microsoft's KB didn't work for me, but it may for you. The instructions are fairly straight forward, but heres a translation to make things a bit simpler.

Note: Only use this if you're using NTFS for your partition. Otherwise, see the linked KB above.

• When the dialog appears, press "Shift + F10".
• Type in "regedit" and press enter.
• Select "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"
• Click "File"
• "Load Hive"
• Type in "%Windir%\System32\Config\System.sav"
• Enter "Test"
• Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Test\ControlSet1\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
• Delete any items in the right panel called "UPPERFILTERS" or "LOWERFILTERS"
• Now go back to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Test" and see if there are any other "ControlSet####" keys.
• Drill into "Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" for that keys and delete any "UPPERFILTERS" or "LOWERFILTERS" items. Repeat for all "ControlSet####" keys.
• Close the Registry Editor.
• Try clicking OK on the setup error to continue.
• If it doesn't work, cancel and try restarting to resume the setup.

That seems to be the solution that works for most people. For me, I used Solution B.

Solution B:

This is the one that worked for me. The majority of user advice seemed to stem from the fact that the DVD/CD drive not being loaded properly. I kinda winged it using an educated guess.

• Press "Shift + F10"
• Type in "sysdm.cpl" and press enter
• Go to "Hardware" tab
• Click "Device Manager"
• If the items under "DVD/CD-ROM drives" have a little yellow exclamation mark on them, right-click on it and select "Update driver"
• Select "No, not this time"
• Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)"
• Select "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install"
• Select the first generic "CD Rom Drive" driver.
• Finish the setup and it should load up your DVD drives.
• Now, continue with the Windows XP repair by replacing "GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386" with "X:\I386"
• Copy this into clipboard, you'll need it. (Yes, clipboard works even during setup! How awesome! Eat that crApple iPhone!)
• Whenever the next popup appears, paste and press enter. You'll need to do this alot of times throughout the setup.

Solution C:

Try some of the solutions suggested here.

Some people claim that ejecting the CD and then putting it back in works. Others claim a full power cycle of your computer (turning it off for a while and unplugging the power) will work.

To be honest, I found that a clean install proved to be much better than a repair. It seemed to cause more trouble in the long run.

Sources

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311755
• http://www.nocrash.com/ncbbs/msgs/1075.shtml

Windows 7: Disable search indexing

The "Windows Search Indexing" service once in XP was renamed to "Windows Search". Disabling this via "services.msc" (the Services Manager) will not break your search functionality, only the indexing.

You can also disable it via the options in:

• Windows Explorer
• "Tools" menu
• "Folder Options"
• "Search" tab
• Select "Don't use the index when searching the file system"

Moving on from last decade; My experience over a month migrating from XP to 7

Ahh, its time to come out of my XP cave and crawl into a new shell of an operating system. Vista, you've had your time to shine. I gave you some attention for a day or two but once I really get to know you better, the appeal quickly died (along with 500gb of valuable data *grr*)... very much like how you lose appeal for a girl once you find out she's been knocked up. In a sense, both Vista and pregnant women can even be considered "bloated".

Vista and the younger sister 7, BEFORE you knew any better.

In comes Windows 7 with same heritage as Vista, but she's learnt her lessons through her sister's mistakes. The stunning young hot sister thats lookin' fresh as ever with hourglass curves in the right places and a cute face to boot. Not to mention, 7 knows a few neat tricks that you'd love ;)~

 
Vista, after you've gotten to know her... Still cute but dumb as dirt.

Windows 7 successfully installed at 7:50pm on the 26th of August, 2009. Just to note, it took alot longer to install than the previous beta and RC versions.

First impressions?

• Hot damn! This is nice!
• Fast! Actually blazing compared to Vista and slightly slower than my super tweaked XP SP3, which is still a considerable effort! It even runs quite smoothly on my 5 year old computer.
• Polished. I've yet to experience a system crash which was due to anything from Microsoft. Only application level crashes related to 3rd party apps which do not officially support Win7 or x64 platforms.
• Drivers for unidentified devices were available straight from Windows Update. More amazingly, they worked! Even that useless finger print scanner!
• Confusing. Personally, I still hate the Vista Windows Explorer tree and jump-lists. The common dialog window is never consistent and the size varies so often that I have noticed myself resizing it out of habit.
• Explorer crumbs are still there, and they still suck.
• "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)", is there really a need for that? (64bit only)
• Snipper tool, if you were an electoral candidate you'd get my #1 vote!
• Desktop still displays "desktop.ini" files when showing hidden/system files.
• I'm already low on space, even after allocating 30gb for Windows. How the hell did it eat up 27gb!?
• The new method of hiding tray icons is pretty cool.

With installation and eye candy out of the way, below are the things that actually mattered to me when using Windows 7 for work on a day to day basis.

The New Taskbar on Steroids

So let me get this straight. With the new taskbar, one click is to activate the LAST active instance, hover to get a list of instances and another click to focus, while shift click opens a new instance.

Horribly time consuming. Before, I just click once to activate the tab and click once on a smaller icon to start a new instance.

Official Microsoft response? "YOU BETCHA! HOOOOOOOO~!" \o/

Don't get me wrong, the new taskbar is a nice. Especially with the fancy peek feature and pinned items. Despite its new functionality, I found it to be just as annoying and time consuming as the Mac OSX dock tray and quickly reverted back to the old style.

I'm a quick-launch kinda guy, mainly because I can fit more icons down there. I've got quite a bit of desktop space, why not use it?Taskbar shows instances of applications and quick-launch gives me the ability to spawn new instances, nice and simple.

A welcomed new feature is the ability to rearrange the taskbar items without any 3rd party apps like TaskShuffle. This feature is quite handy, but I wish we were able to rearrange tasks within the same application group (rather than being forced to move them as a whole).

Even after a month of using Windows 7, I've yet to decide whether the aero peek feature on the taskbar is super awesome or damn right annoying. Currently I'm leaning towards awesome but there are still times when it appears when you don't want it to.

 
Compare Aero peek to this rabbit; subtly annoying and ridiculously cute, but too cute to get rid of.

On a related note, the search feature on the Start Menu is quite handy and pleasant to use. It provides easy access to things you want by typing a few words to identify it.

Whats the catch? It also displays "Uninstall <Application>" shortcuts too. If the results were sorted by usage rather than alphabetically, this problem wouldn't exist.

Control Panel

Now that the taskbar is configured, time to move onto configuring the rest of the system. The "Control Panel" was the biggest "WTF!?" issue for me. It seems to have been ported from Vista without much thought put into it.

 
Firstly, here we have the old control panel. Segregated, laid out logically and things don't hide from you when they feel like it.

Every click lead me further and further into a never ending labyrinth of configuration pages which just morphs from one to another! Eventually my eyes glazed over the pages, not really caring if I have seen it or not.

The dialogs were incoherent, excessively wasted whitespace, lost settings and I'm damn well sure I'd hate to talk a computer illiterate person through these setups. I know I'm going to try out alot of 3rd party applications to configure my Windows 7 rig.

 
WHAT. THE. FUCK? Heres the new control panel.
Illogical and so many damn paths just to get to the same destination.

I found the best way to overcome this was to simply change the start menu settings to display the control panel as a menu item with links.

*edit 07/01/2010* Correction, the best way to overcome this is to use the "All Tasks" or "GodMode" trick.

Ok, I'm starting to go crazy after all this control panel mindfucking...

Behind the scenes

There are now TONNS of extra services. So many more than XP. It seems as if Microsoft has gone into a servicing frenzy and decided to put everything into a new service rather than configuration settings. Was there really a need to seperate "HomeGroup Listener" and "HomeGroup Provider"?

A major plus to the Vista'ish backbone seems to be that most drivers can be installed without the need for a reboot.

UAC? Surprisingly, I've still got it enabled. I havn't turned all access overlordy and ripped its heart out Kano style. Compared to Vista's UAC, which whinged the moment I tried to empty the recycle bin, the improved one seems to ask only once and let you go on your merry way.

Add/remove programs also allows you to remove functionality from Windows that you don't need (such as Faxing, Internet Printing or the Windows Media Centre). Although it existed in previous versions of Windows, the current iteration seems to allow for customisation.

For those Microsoft developers, you may be pleased to find that Powershell comes preinstalled. The calculator has also been redesigned to include new programmer modes (which is where hex conversion is now hidden).

New Windows key shortcuts! Woohoo! Being a keyboard warrior helps get the job done, especially when using a stupid little touchpad to get my tasks done. Now I can easily position Windows to the left or right halves of the screen with just the "Windows + LEFT/RIGHT" buttons. Maximise and restore/minimise can be done with "Windows + UP/DOWN".

What I found surprising was the fact that all my hard drives were shared by default. Even my Windows installation folder and "Users" folder (containing user data and settings) were shared by default! With all the huff about better security (yadda yadda yadda), WHAT THE HELL MICROSOFT!?

The battery life is frikken awesome! On XP I got about 2hrs, 1.5hrs on Vista and surprisingly 2.5hrs on Win7.

Libraries

Libraries are down right awesome! It lets you group together a bunch of folders of a certain purpose, like music for example. Especially useful for someone like me who cant get around to sorting all the music folders which spans over 3 drives and 15 folders.

 
Dear Libraries, you're AWESOMEEEEEE!

Homegroups

Ok, I've never found this useful during a month of using Windows 7. I've disabled it and don't miss it a bit. If someone knows how feature can even be remotely useful, please let me know!

Power modes for portable notebooks

This is top shit from the Vista era! Accidently pressing "Windows + X" gave me a dialog to configure the settings for the power mode I'm currently in.

 
The (actually easy to use) power mode settings.

It was so easy to set up my power settings, then unplug the laptop umbilical cord and then set it up one more time. If only I knew about this before spending more than 10 minutes setting it up in the hideous control panel version.

Doing the power mode setup in the control panel would be the effective equivalent of Mexican underpants wrestling.

Verdict?

Being the customisation-crazed caveman Hitler of computers, alot of people expected me to hate Windows 7, or at least trash talk about tiny changes until the point where I reverted back to XP (like I did with Vista).

Surprisingly (even to myself), I like Windows 7. I would even recommend it to anyone that asks, provided they don't try to install on a PC from last decade. Windows 7 does require a modern computer though.

Enough already! What can I change!?

I think that should sum up the majority of the changes that affected me on a day to day basis during my journey from yesteryear to a modern operating system.

Ok, review over. Time to crack those knuckles, rip off that shirt, drop those pants and get your hands dirty!

Despite all their efforts to make software more secure and "user friendly", sometimes it just becomes down right annoying to a power user.

Luckily, thats where the little changes come in to aid productivity. I haven't had the time to write up all the posts yet, so here's the link to all the Windows 7 specific topics. Let the tweaks begin!

Copy paste stops working for everything on Windows XP

This may affect more than one version of Windows, but I've only noticed it after a good long while with XP.

[Solved here!]

Normally I get pissed at the computer and just reboot, since I don't have the time to sit here and figure it out.

Today, I got pissed off enough to sit here for an hour or two and solve it.

Alot of solutions online revolve around the remote desktop feature and how it fails to release clipboard handles. If you have been using remote desktop recently and see either "rdclip.exe" (on the remote desktop server) or "mstsc.exe" (on the remote desktop client) tasks in your process list, simply kill them off and test your copy/pasta clipboard.

If your problem with the clipboard doesnt seem to be related to the remote desktop, then just try killing "explorer.exe" in your task manager.

Its ok, you may lose a few icons in the taskbar, or the taskbar altogether, but just run click "File" -> "New Task" and type in "explorer.exe" to bring everything back.

Now your copy paste should work again. It did for me at least. I must admit I still don't know why this happens.

Can't change directory to another drive in DOS Command Prompt

I'm not sure when Microsoft decided to change this syntax, but I am quite certain back in the old days of DOS I was able to type this "cd D:\games\mmx" and it'd work!

Sometime last year I noticed that I could no longer do this on the XP command prompt window. Its been nerfed. Why? I do not know.

At first I thought it was because I was using it via a remote desktop session and thought nothing of it (apart from being annoying).

Just today, I realised it also affected my local sessions also. So off I went to discover a way to fix it.

Typing in "cd /?", I found this.

CD [/D] [drive:][path]
Type CD drive: to display the current directory in the specified drive.

Use the /D switch to change current drive in addition to changing current directory for a drive.

I tried it and it worked.
What the hell?

C:\Documents and Settings\twig>cd d:
D:\

C:\Documents and Settings\twig>cd /d d:

D:\>

So I guess now we have to use the new syntax to change drives using "cd".
How annoying.

Windows XP Auto Login

Like many people, we only have one user account for our computers.
However, when we turn on our computers and walk away to get a drink, we expect it to be loaded and ready to serve our every little whim.

Its a shame though that by default Windows XP will wait at the login screen, even if there is one user with no password protection, for us to click to proceed.

Why? Just load damn you!

Luckily, theres a way around it.

1. Go to "Start" > "Run" and type "control userpasswords2".
2. Untick "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer".
3. Click "OK".
4. Enter the details of the account you wish to automatically log in as.
5. Profit!

[ Source ]

Useful ways of using an FTP server on your desktop

While searching through the net on various ways to set up my SVN server, I found a few tutorials on "how to map an FTP drive", some of which was utter bullshit as it only created a stupid shortcut in your Windows Explorer. [ Example 1, Example 2 ]


1. Use an FTP client
OK, this one is pretty straight forward.
Download a client like CuteFTP, SmarFTP or FileZilla and you're on your merry way.


2. Create a shortcut
Handy, but not terribly useful. As shown in the example earlier, simply right-click "My Computer" and select "Map Network Drive".

A wizard dialog appears, and click on the "Sign up for online storage or connect to a network server" link at the bottom.

Skip the intro page of the new wizard. Select "Choose another network location" and enter in your FTP address, such as "ftp://ftp.blogspot.com".

Next you can enter in your account details and give it a name.

Whalla, it appears under "My Network Places" with the given name, and also "Internet Explorer" as the given FTP address.

This method allows for drag and drop functionality as well as cut/copy/paste too.




3. WebDisk
If your web host is using cPanel as a CMS, you can access your host via WebDisk.

In your cPanel home page, click on "Web Disk" and then "Access Web Disk".

Select the appropriate operating system and follow the instructions from there.

Its not as versatile as the shortcut method, but this would work for other operating systems.




4. Map to a drive using WebDrive (3rd party software)
South River Technologies have developed a nifty peice of software called WebDrive, which allows you to map various protocols to a Windows drive. Unfortunately, it isnt free.

Once you've set up the details for your FTP site and assign it a letter, it'll work like a normal folder in your Windows Explorer. Definitely my favourite solution by far.



4 WebDrive - UNC Paths (Optional)
WebDrive also has an option to create a UNC path for this mapped FTP site, making it accessible via the path format of "//hostname_of_your_choice/share_folder". This is the method I used to set up my SVN server.

The options can be found under the "Advanced" item of the site properties dialog.

SVN server on Windows XP with repository on remote FTP server

The situation:
My dad's computer died about a fortnight ago. With it down, the SVN repository containing all my nerdish projects also went missing.

So, I took the opportunity to start fresh and rework the structure of my Subversion server.


The plan:
I am going to set up my PC as the server, and store my repository on a remote FTP server online. Since my web host provides daily backups, I wont lose my projects anymore!

I would connect to my FTP server as a mapped network drive, and give it a drive letter. That way, I could treat it like a normal directory and it'd just work. Sweet!

The last time I set up SVN as a service, it was a walk in the park...
This time... "Its just an upgrade to the server, what could go wrong?"
Answer: Lots.


What happened?
So I downloaded SVN from the official site. You can select binary packages for either "Apache 2.0" or "Apache 2.2". (In case you're wondering, download the binaries with the filename similar to "svn-win32-1.5.4.zip")
Personally I dont really care as I dont integrate it with Apache, but its best to pick the version which matches in case you change your mind later down the track.

Extract the contents of the file to where you want SVN to be installed.
For me, I set it up at "C:\Server\svn".


(Optional)
Add ";C:\Server\svn\bin" to your %PATHS% environment variable.
To do that, right click "My Computer" > "Properties" > "Advanced" > "Environment Variables".
Select "Path" from the "System Variables" list and append the string.


Creating a service
Before typing up the commands, be sure to note that the syntax requires a space AFTER the "=" sign. I don't know why Microsoft decided upon that syntax, its stupid.

[ Source ]

To install svnserve as a native Windows service, execute the following command (all in one line).

sc create subversion binpath= "C:\Server\svn\bin\svnserve.exe --service --root Z:\svn_repository" displayname= "Subversion" depend= tcpip start= auto

If any of the paths include spaces, you have to use (escaped) quotes around the path, like this:

sc create subversion binpath= "\"C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svnserve.exe\" --service --root C:\ServerFiles\svn_repository" displayname= "Subversion" depend= tcpip start= auto

A breakdown of the command arguments is shown below.

• "sc create subversion"
  Creates a service named "subversion".
• "binpath= "
  The executable file.
• "--service"
  Run it within the Windows native service wrapper.
• "--root= "
  The root folder for repositories.
• "displayname= "
  A nice name for the service in the Service Manager.
• "depend= "
  Dependencies for this service.
• "start= "
  The starting method.

For more information, see the Microsoft's KB251192.
If you typed something wrong, type "sc delete subversion" to delete the service and start again.

Once created, type "net start subversion" to start it.
If you encounter any error messages, refer to "the problem" section later in this post.


Creating a repository
As I have chosen "Z:\svn_repository" as the root repository folder, thats where all the repositories should be created.

To create a new repository, type "svnadmin create "Z:\svn_repository\new_repository_name""

Using an SVN client (I prefer to use TortoiseSVN), check out a copy of the repository by entering "svn://localhost/new_repository_name" as the location.


Authentication
Once you've tested your repository and know it works, modify the "svnserve.conf" file to disallow anonymous read access by adding the line "anon-access = none" under "[general]".

Also, uncomment the use of the password file where it says "password-db = passwd".
Edit the "passwd" file and give yourself an account.


The problem
Sometime between v1.4 and 1.5, the folks at SVN decided to add native Windows service support to "svnserve.exe".

[ Notable sources: Source 1, Source 2 ]
Although this may seem great, it makes life horrible for people who want to stash their repository on a mapped network drive. Services, by default, are run on the account "NT Authority\Local Service", which has no access to mapped network drives.

When trying to start the service from the Service Manager, I kept getting an error message.

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Spent a good few hours learning that lesson.
Great, there goes my initial idea.
Up until now its been smooth sailing.

I've tried running as my current login, giving it a password, changing to interact mode, switching to "NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" account and so many other little things that its caused me so much mental distress that my mind choses not to remember. They all failed.

Luckily, all that research didn't go to waste as I discovered an alternative, which is to access the FTP via a UNC pathname.

[ Crosspost: How to configure WebDrive ]
So rather than using "Z:\svn_repository", I configured the FTP server to a UNC path "//uncpath/home" using WebDrive.

The command to create a sevice becomes...

sc create subversion binpath= "C:\Server\svn\bin\svnserve.exe --service --root //uncpath/home/svn_repository" displayname= "Subversion" depend= tcpip start= auto

Now my SVN server runs off my home PC and stores the files onto the remote host via FTP.

In the wise words of Jeremy Clarkson, "SWEEEEEEEET!"

Enabling Hibernation on older PCs

If for some reason you cant seem to use the Hibernation feature, see if the BIOS settings has something silly disabled.

[ source ]
Firstly, check if ACPI is currently enabled or not by...

1. Going to the the Device Manager window and expanding Computer.
2. If the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC option is not displayed, your computer does not support ACPI features.

Reboot and check your BIOS settings and check if anything is disabling ACPI or APM.

Windows XP - Disable "Open File - Security Warning" on Files Copied over Network

I hate the "Open File - Security Warning" dialog. Fuck up and let me copy my shit in peace.
To disable it,

1) Run gpedit.msc
2) Local Computer Policy -> User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Attachment Manager
3) Enable "Do not preserve zone information in file attachments"

The files you already have are going to keep annoying you.
Theres not much you can do about it unless you redownload it, or copy it to a drive thats Fat32 and then copy it back.

Windows XP - disable native Zip file support

Once I got WinRAR or something else installed, I dont really need this anymore.

"regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" will remove zip support from XP.

This includes opening, extracting and searching.

NetGear - MrvGina.dll not allowing change of logon options

NetGear, not only the proud producer of crap network cards but also creators of the worst drivers EVARRRRRRRRRR.

I noticed that I was forced to logon to my computer after installing the drivers.
Not only that, I had problems changing the options and using remote desktop.
This was more than a year ago, so details in my mind are sketchy.
The only real thing I learnt from this was that NetGear produced absolute rubbish and the only thing I should of done was not purchase their shit.

It complained about some file called mrvgina.dll and not being able to do anything about it.
(Great name for the file by the way, mr vagina)

To resolve this issue, go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" and remove the registry key "GinaDLL"

Windows XP - Access "System Volume Information"

Accidently clicking on that folder in Windows Explorer is annoying.
Error messages such as "Access is denied." or "*folder* is not accessible." come up, even though its on your own damn computer!

This can be used to browse that annoying folder, or also grant you access to folders owned by other people if you have administrative rights.

[Method A]
1. Open up command prompt.
2. Type "cacls "Filename with quotes" /E /G username:F" where filename could be "C:\System Volume Information" and username is your current username.

[Method B]
1. Disable Simple File Sharing in Windows Explorer (Tools -> Options -> View)
2. Go to file/folder properties and find Security tab
3. Set yourself to owner and apply to all subfolders/files
4. Close the properties dialog, and open the properties dialog again.
5. Now grant yourself full access to the file/folder then click OK/Apply.

Windows XP - Fake SP2 version

If you're on SP1 and refusing to upgrade, you can trick applications into beleiving you're on SP2 by modifying this registry key.

Go to: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows"
And change "CSDVersion" from the SP1 value (0x00000100) to SP2 value (0x00000200)
I'd assume that the SP3 value is (0x00000300)