FettesPS » Windows Vista

The system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation

FettesPS — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:17:49 +0000

While I was installing Arduino for Visual Studio I encountered this annoying message:

There are a few ways to fix it, including deactivating User Account Control (UAC) or logging in as the Administrator user (and not a regular user with Administrator privileges), but the method I chose to handle it was the following. I chose this method because it didn’t not open any needless security risks such as turning off UAC and I didn’t feel like logging into another user.

Open Administrative Tools
Open Local Security Settings
Click on Software Restriction Policies
If there are no software restrictions defined, right click on Restriction Policies and
select New Software Restriction Policy
Double click on the new enforcement and select All Users Except Local Administrators
Click OK
Reboot your computer and run the installer again

Windows Vista – Enable Telnet

FettesPS — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:03:29 +0000

It is quite rare that I use Telnet these days, so it took a long time for me to notice that by default it was not packaged with Windows Vista. This is also the case for Windows 7. Telnet is very insecure and whenever you have the choice you should always use SSH, so more than likely this was an attempt to make Windows more secure by default.

With that being said, you can quickly re-enable Telnet by following these steps:

Start
Control Panel
Programs And Features
Turn Windows features on or off
Check Telnet Client
Hit OK

After that you can start Telnet via Command Prompt or through the Start Menu.

How to Remove the Windows 7 Build Number

FettesPS — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:42:09 +0000

So you’re still using the Windows 7 Release Candidate, and plan on using it until it expires in on June 1, 2010, but you’re sick of looking at the build number that’s etched in the bottom right corner of your screen. Thanks to our friends at DeepXW, this is quite simple to remove.

Download the Patch
Extract the archive
Right click the appropriate executable and select Run As Administrator
When prompted, enter Yes to apply the patch
When it is complete, hit enter to close the program
Reboot

If after rebooting you find the watermark is still present, then perform the following additional steps:

Hold down your Windows key and hit R to open the Run dialog
Enter cmd and hit enter
Type mcbuilder.exe into command prompt and press enter. After it has finished, reboot your computer once again

You should now be free of the Windows build number watermark!

Windows 7 – Enable Telnet

FettesPS — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:59:31 +0000

It’s very rare that I use Telnet these days, so it took a long time for me to notice that by default it was not packaged with Windows 7. I did some research and found out that this was also true for Windows Vista. More than likely this was an attempt to make Windows more secure by default, as Telnet is very insecure and whenever you have the choice you should always use SSH. However, with that being said, you can quickly re-enable Telnet by following these steps:

Start
Control Panel
Programs And Features
Turn Windows features on or off
Check Telnet Client
Hit OK

After that you can start Telnet via Command Prompt.