The Microsoft AppLocale (or Application Locale) utility is a temporary solution to these limitations caused by non-Unicode applications running on the Unicode (UTF-16) based Windows XP. AppLocale detects the language of the legacy application and simulates a corresponding system locale for code-page to/from Unicode conversions.

Unicode based platforms, such as Windows XP and Server 2003, emulate the language environment required to run non-Unicode applications by internally converting application’s non-Unicode text data to Unicode using a system wide variable commonly called the “system locale” (or “language for non-Unicode applications”). The language of the non-Unicode applications should be the same script or family as the one defined by the “system locale”. Failing to meet this condition results in display of garbage characters in the UI of the application.

The AppLocale utility allows users to run a legacy application without changing to the code-page/system locale needed by that particular application. AppLocale emulates the code-page required by that legacy application without changing the machine’s system locale. This emulation is only applied to the application that has been chosen during the AppLocale configuration wizard. AppLocale can be an attractive workaround in these situations:

• A user is running the English version of Windows XP with the system locale set to English-US (Windows codepage 1252). This user wants to run a popular Japanese application that is code-page based. In order to run this app flawlessly in Windows XP, the user needs to set the system locale to Japanese (Windows codepage 932) and reboot the machine. Two restrictions: the user might not be an administrator to force this setting change; and/or the user might not want to force a reboot.
• An educational center in Israel has all its machines running localized Hebrew versions of Windows XP with their system locale set to Hebrew (Windows codepage 1255). This allows even non-Unicode Hebrew applications to run properly. But this educational center also offers Russian courses that use a legacy Russian application (required codepage 1251). This Russian application cannot run unless the system locale of the target machines is changed to Russian and a reboot is forced. Keep in mind that with this new configuration, existing Hebrew legacy applications will stop functioning properly.

I have encountered one problem recently whereby one of the laptop passed to me has no floppy and the external CD-ROM is missing. Worst still, nobody knows the Windows Adminstrator login password.

Luckily, the notebook supports booting from USD hard drive. After going through the tools that I have, I managed to reset the password using my thumb or pen drive.

The tool that I used is Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. To do this is very simple.

1. Download the bootable CD or ISO image from the website.
2. Using another computer, create a bootable CD from the image.
3. As described in the README.txt in the bootable CD, do the following

   To make a bootable USB drive / key:
   
   1. Copy all files from this CD onto the USB drive.
      It cannot be in a subdirectory on the drive.
      You do not need delete files already on the drive.
   2. Install the bootloader:
      On the USB drive, there should now be a file
      "syslinux.exe".
      Run this from a command line, like this:
   
   	j:\syslinux.exe -ma j:
   
   replace j with some other letter if your USB drive
   is on another drive letter than j:
   If it says nothing, it did install the bootloader.
   
   Please note that you may have to adjust settings
   in your computers BIOS setup to boot from USB.
   Also, some BIOS (often older machines) simply
   won't boot from USB anyway.
   

In case your notebook does not support booting from USB hard drive, here are some useful links

HP Drive Key Boot Utility

How To Boot From A USB Flash Drive

Thanks to the developer for this awesome tool !!

For those of you who want to have a more powerful scripting language on Windows comparable to *nix platform, you may already been using PowerShell.

As described by Microsoft, PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT professionals achieve greater control and productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation.

The learning curve is not so steep but initially you need to spend some time to get yourself familiarized with it. You will love PowerShell once you started using it.

Other useful links to look for more resources on PowerShell.

The PowerShell Guy - http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/pages/powertab.aspx

PowerShell Community Extensions - http://www.codeplex.com/PowerShellCX

Most of us have the experience of after visiting certain websites, our IE settings like the main page, title or some of the Windows settings are changed. This happened specially in the early age of Internet usage. Now there are lots of tools that can help to prevent this, but it is important that as programmer or system engineer that you understand what are actually being changed by these malicious adware or spyware.

1. WshShell.RegWrite “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Policies\System\DisableRegistryTools”,”1″ ,”REG_DWORD”

This is really bad. It prevents you from using Windows Registry tool anymore.

2. WshShell.RegWrite “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page”,”http://twit88.com/blog”, “REG_SZ”

This sets your IE start page to the desired website.

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