The registry is a weird and wonderful place in the operating system. Just a few key strokes can make your machine the way you want…or into a brick. If you decide to use any of these registry settings, make sure you back up your registry before you mess around.
The settings are geared toward optimizing the operating system for the hardware, securing potentially dangerous options from users and getting rid of general annoyances. There are many more registry settings that you could apply to your computers - these are just the ones I apply to all of mine. Read more…
Tags: registry, settings, tweaks
Back in the day, I carried around a binder of CD’s - each with a few programs or tools that I might need to fix my computer, or my programming toolbox (reusable code, snippets, guides, etc.)
Now I have an 8GB U3 USB key. Here’s what I have loaded on it: Read more…
Tags: antivirus, IT, performance, tools, USB
Part of my plan to control web access is to funnel all communications through a proxy server with a whitelist of work-approved web sites. To do this, I have to set each method of connection to the Internet to use the proxy server. With Telus’ AirCard’s the process is simple since each connection type is persistent. What I mean by that is that when the card is removed from the computer, all of it’s settings still stay.
Bell doesn’t play that way. Read more…
Tags: Access, Bell, Control, Novatel, proxy, web
When I took my current position, part of my mandate was to find a way to stop the field users from accessing web sites that could be the source of malware or viruses. (By the way, it should be virii, but what the heck.)
I found a way to do that by creating a white list in Internet Explorer. What I did was point all connections to a proxy server of 127.0.0.1 with the exception of the domain names and IP addresses of sites that the user needed to perform their duties. It worked.
But it wasn’t ideal. If a site changed any of the URL’s or IP’s then that also had to be changed on each and every field computer and had to be done hands-on by me. You can see the problem with that.
Read more…
In order to enforce compliance with the Internet Acceptable Use Policy, my users have all their communications routed through a proxy server that I control with a whitelist. If the site isn’t on the whitelist - the user cannot visit it.
Some users have circumvented this by running their own web browser from a USB Thumb Drive, often a U3 enabled drive using either Firefox or TorPark or something like that. I’ve found a way to stop that too.
Read more…
Tags: drive, internet, proxy, restriction, U3, USB
