WinAbility Software

AB Commander 8.4 released

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:02:33 +0000

A new version 8.4 of AB Commander is available now for download and purchase!

This version features a new Quick Find command that you can use to search text files for specific text fragments you are interested in. (The built-in Windows Search command is still available as the alternative/external quick finder.)

As usual, the trial version of AB Commander comes with a free license for 30 days of full use. If you have not tried it yet, please feel free to download it and give it a try.

And, of course, if you have purchased your AB Commander within the last 12 months, you can upgrade to this version free of charge (for the earlier purchasers the 50% upgrade discount is also available.)

AB Commander 8.4 released is a post from: WinAbility Software

We are sending our CEO to build the water stations for elephants in Africa!

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:35:09 +0000

It happened rather unexpectedly. During the last office party, after discussing the usual round of the latest technology gossip, the talk somehow shifted to how disgusting most of the CEOs of the large companies seem to be. You know, the buying-huge-yachts-shooting-elephants-in-Africa-lying-on-their-resumes CEOs that you hear a lot about in the news lately. That's when our CEO joined the conversation and started arguing that not all CEOs are a******s and a lot of them do plenty of good things, too. Apparently, he'd had one cocktail too many, because after we pressed him to give us examples, he said that he himself would go to Africa to work to help the elephants, to help reverse the damage done by other CEOs.

Next Monday, after researching the elephant volunteering programs over the weekend, we presented our CEO with a plan:

we would send him to the African desert,
in summer,
where the air cools down to 110F during the night,
to build stone walls around the water sources, to make the water accessible to both people and elephants,
for a week,
where he would go without taking a single shower, because the water is so scarce there, and, worst of all,
be without WI-FI or cell coverage.

Did we mention it's for the whole week? Nice, huh? That should teach him how to defend his CEO buddies next time!

Of course, being a CEO, he was trying to outsmart us, saying he did not mean it like that. He would rather just donate some money, etc. But we would have none of that and stood our ground. Work means work, not just writing a check or giving a speech! Well, he said, at least I'll fly first class to Africa, to which we said, no way, you are going to fly coach just like other volunteers do. "OK", he said, "I'll fly coach, but only if you pay for it."

That set us back a bit, but we were back in no time. "We will ask the good people who buy our software to chip in, and make no mistake, you are going to Africa and you are going to work you a** off building the water stations for the elephants!" (No, we didn't actually say that. We are not that crazy, but you get the idea.)

So, here we are. Would you like to see our CEO go to Africa and work for a week there, in the desert heat, without taking a shower, mixing the cement, carrying stones, and building the walls around the water wells? We thought so!

Here is how you can help:

Donate $5 or more, and our CEO will whisper your name in an elephant's ear, if he ever gets close enough to a wild African elephant to do that.
Donate $50 or more, and our CEO will send you a hand-written thank-you postcard from Africa, after he finishes his week of hard labor.
Donate $500 or more, and, in addition to the postcard, our CEO will bring you a small souvenir from Africa (something made by a local artist).

And no matter how much you donate, you will have earned a huge thank-you on behalf of the African elephants and you will definitely go to elephant heaven!

We are sending our CEO to build the water stations for elephants in Africa! is a post from: WinAbility Software

WinAbility software and Windows 8 get along just fine!

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:25:26 +0000

As you probably know, Microsoft has announced recently several significant changes to the Windows user interface that are going to appear in the next major upgrade to Windows. Since they released a preview version of Windows 8 a few days ago, we've been eager to see how our software would perform on the new version. Especially since Steven Sinofsky made a point that any existing program that works with Windows 7 should work with Windows 8 as well.

Of course, we wouldn't expect our software to plug into the new Metro interface right away: any software needs to be programmed specifically to take advantage of it. However, since Windows 8 has a special compatibility mode to run the familiar desktop applications, we figured we should try to run our applications in that mode.

So, we've download the Windows 8 DVD image, installed it, and spent some time familiarizing ourselves with Windows 8. Turns out that the desktop mode is just one click away from the Metro interface. And when you make that click, you immediately feel at home. We've installed AB Commander, Space Investigator, Folder Guard, and USBCrypt on the Windows 8 desktop, and after a brief testing we didn't notice any major difference in their appearance or performance:

Sure, it's too early to do the real testing of our software on Windows 8, because a lot of things are going to change before Windows 8 hits the shelves. That's what we will be busy with in the coming months while Microsoft is getting Windows 8 ready for the prime time. Meanwhile, it's nice to know that our software runs on Windows 8 preview as it is.

As for our impression of Windows 8, the Metro interface is quite a significant change that will take some getting used to. It will probably fit the tablets and the smart phones just fine, while when it comes to the conventional desktops and laptops, we are not so sure. Time will tell!

WinAbility software and Windows 8 get along just fine! is a post from: WinAbility Software

Using Folder Guard to protect from the “social engineering” attacks

admin — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:04:42 +0000

[sniplet FG_ACTION]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ran a test recently to see how easy it could be to trick people into plugging random USB sticks into their computers and potentially infect them with malware. The test showed that the human factor is possibly the weakest link in the computer security: your network may have the best firewall, you can have the strongest policies prohibiting the users from downloading random files from the Internet, yet all that is useless when people have little hesitation in using the USB sticks they find on the company parking lot.

Microsoft has attempted to address such a problem somewhat by disabling the AutoRun feature for the USB sticks in Windows 7. Still, it leaves a rouge program on the USB stick just a few clicks away from running. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stop running programs form the USB sticks completely?

It’s possible to achieve that with our software Folder Guard, by creating a file access filter that would restrict the use of the executable files off the the removable drives. Let us show how to do that in detail:

Run Folder Guard, and switch to the window that shows the existing filters, by choosing View – Filters from the menu. If you use Folder Guard version 8.3 or later, you should see a filter that we need already in the list, it’s called Lock external drives:

If you don’t see this filter in the list, it’s easy to create it: choose Filter – New from the menu, and then enter the properties of the filters as follows:

The most important part of this filter is the content of the Except for folders box: it contains the mask C:\* . Why it is there? Because we don’t want the restrictions that this filter will create to apply to the files located on the main drive of your computer (which is most probably the drive C:). We only want the restrictions to apply to other drives, which would have drive letters other than C:. The star character (*) in the mask means any set of characters, so the mask C:\* would match any folder located on the C: drive. As a result, the filter would not apply to any file or folder on the C: drive, just what we want.

[sniplet FG_FIND_ON_FACEBOOK]

Now, if there are other drives permanently attached to the computer and you want the users to be able to use such drives without restrictions, you should add the appropriate masks to the Except for folders box, too. (You can separate masks with comas, semicolons, or line breaks). For example, if your computer has a DVD drive that has the drive letter D: and you want the users to use the DVD drive without restrictions, modify the content of the Except for folders box to read as follows: (Press the [...] button to modify the content of the box.)

Did you know you could use our new software USBCrypt to password-protect the USB flash drives and other external drives? You can try it free for 30 days. Read more…

C:\*;D:\*

The rest of the filter properties can be left empty. An empty Apply to box means Apply to all and an empty Except for box means Except for none. We have entered a star character in the Apply to files box, to emphasize that it should apply to all files, but we could have left the box empty, it would produce the same result as the star character.

Now that we have created the filter that we need, it’s time to apply a restricting attribute to it. If you want to completely lock access to the removable drives, assign the No access attribute to the filter:

The result of the No access attribute would be that the users would be prevented from both opening the files from the external devices, and saving the files to them. This way, if someone attaches a USB stick to the computer protected with such a filter, he or she would not be able to use the stick at all.

[sniplet FG_ADMIN_KIT]

What if at some point you do need to access a removable drive? Just disable the protection of Folder Guard, perform the task, then re-enable the protection back (no Windows restart required).

[sniplet FG_MORE_INFO]

Using Folder Guard to protect from the “social engineering” attacks is a post from: WinAbility Software

How to erase Windows login password if you forget it

admin — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:36:55 +0000

When you start your Windows computer, you probably have to enter your login password before Windows would let you see your desktop and do stuff. Have you ever wondered how secure the built-in password protection of Windows is? The answer may surprise you! This article shows how to use the tools freely available on the Internet to create a bootable CD that can be used to erase the Windows password. If you forget your Windows login password, you can use this information to erase your own password and restore access to your Windows files and folders. Be aware, however, that anyone who has the physical access to your computer can do that, too! If you have private files that you really don't want anyone to see, the Windows password is not enough to protect them. (More about this later.)

Summary of the steps:

Read the instructions first!
Download a CD image file
Burn the CD image file to a recordable CD-R disc
Boot your computer from the CD-R disc
Make the correct selections to clear your Windows password
Restart the computer as usual and login to Windows without password!
Secure your files for real

Read the instructions first!

Yes, read this whole page before you start doing anything and see if you feel up to the task. If anything is unclear, ask a friend, or a colleague who has more experience with the computers than you, or seek help from a qualified professional. Don't take this lightly: if you do something wrong, you may end up with an inoperable computer or destroyed files. Better ask for help now than when it's too late!

Let's check a few things before going any further. Does your computer run Windows or is it a Mac? If it's a Mac, stop here and go look for a password-resetting tool specifically designed for the Mac computers. This information won't help you if you have a Mac, don't even try it.

OK, so your computer runs Windows. Which version? Is it XP, or Vista, or Windows 7? Or is it an much older version such as Windows 95, 98, or Windows Millennium? If it's the latter, stop here and go look for another tool, this information won't help you reset a password to an old Windows computer, don't even try it.

So, you have Windows 7, Vista, XP, or Windows 2000. Is it 32-bit or 64-bit? The method discussed here works for either one, but if you can't tell, it's probably a good indication that you better ask someone more experienced with Windows than you are for help.

Another question: have you used Windows Encrypted File System (EFS) to encrypt files on your computer? If you don't know, it probably means that you have not used it, which is OK. However, if you did use it, be aware that any file that you've encrypted with EFS will be lost after you've erased the Windows password. If you have such EFS-encrypted files and you don't want to lose them, stop here and consult with a qualified computer professional. (This does not apply to the files encrypted with other encryption software, such as our USBCrypt: the Windows login password has no effect on such files.)

If you are OK so far, go on.

However, first things first:

DISCLAIMER: THE INFORMATION DISCUSSED HERE CAN CAUSE HARM TO YOUR COMPUTER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: THE IRREPAIRABLE DAMAGE TO THE FILES, MAKING THE COMPUTER INOPERABLE, AND/OR VOIDING THE COMPUTER MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTY. YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE INFORMATION DISCUSSED HERE. THE INFORMATION DISCUSSED HERE INVOLVES THIRD-PARTY TOOLS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN TESTED BY WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION. THE USE OF THE TOOLS AND INFORMATION DISCUSSED HERE MAY BE ILLEGAL IN YOUR JURISDICTION. THE INFORMATION DISCUSSED HERE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE INFORMATION AND TOOLS DISCUSSED HERE MAY BE INCORRECT, OUTDATED, INVALID, OR HARMFUL. BY USING THE INFORMATION AND TOOLS DISCUSSED HERE YOU AGREE WITHOUT EXCEPTION THAT YOU WILL BE THE SOLE RESPONSIBLE PARTY FOR DETERMINING WHETHER THIS INFORMATION AND TOOLS ARE SUITABLE FOR USE BY YOU, AND YOU AGREE THAT ALL RISK ARISING FROM ANY USE OR MISUSE OF THE INFORMATION AND TOOLS WILL REMAIN WITH YOU. THE INFORMATION AND TOOLS DISCUSSED HERE ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION. SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS OR ASSISTANCE WITH REGARD TO THE INFORMATION AND TOOLS DISCUSSED HERE YOU SHOULD SEEK COMPETENT LEGAL AND/OR TECHNICAL ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION "AS-IS." NEITHER WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION NOR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS OR RESELLERS MAKES ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION AND ITS SUPPLIERS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SYSTEM INTEGRATION, AND DATA ACCURACY. THERE IS NO WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR VIRUS-FREE, OR THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET ANY PARTICULAR CRITERIA OF PERFORMANCE, QUALITY, ACCURACY, PURPOSE, OR NEED. YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF SELECTION, INSTALLATION, AND USE OF THE SOFTWARE. THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY CONSTITUTES AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS AGREEMENT. NO USE OF THE SOFTWARE IS AUTHORIZED HEREUNDER EXCEPT UNDER THIS DISCLAIMER. To the extent that this Warranty Statement is inconsistent with the jurisdiction where You use the Software, the Warranty Statement shall be deemed to be modified consistent with such local law. Under such local law, certain limitations may not apply, and you may have additional rights which vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, some states in the United States and some jurisdictions outside the United States may: (i) preclude the disclaimers and limitations of this Warranty Statement from limiting the rights of a consumer; (ii) otherwise restrict the ability of a manufacturer to make such disclaimers or to impose such limitations; or (iii) grant the consumer additional legal rights, specify the duration of implied warranties which the manufacturer cannot disclaim, or prohibit limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts.

INDEPENDENT OF THE FORGOING PROVISIONS, IN NO EVENT AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, TORT, CONTRACT, OR STRICT PRODUCTS LIABILITY, SHALL WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER MALFUNCTION, OR ANY OTHER KIND OF COMMERCIAL DAMAGE, EVEN IF WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS LIMITATION SHALL NOT APPLY TO LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

IN NO EVENT SHALL WINABILITY SOFTWARE CORPORATION'S LIABILITY FOR ACTUAL DAMAGES FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF THE PURCHASE PRICE PAID FOR THE SOFTWARE LICENSE OR ONE UNITED STATES DOLLAR, WHICHEVER IS THE GREATER.

Download the CD image file

To prepare for the password-erasing procedure, you need another computer to connect to the Internet, download the necessary file, and burn the CD image to a CD-R disc. (Obviously, since you are reading this page, you are already using such a computer.) Click on the link below to download a zip file, save it to the hard drive (remember where you've saved it and its name!). Note: this link points to a file located on a third-party server. If the download does not start, it means a problem with that server. In such a case, please wait a minute or two, and try again. If the problem with the link persists, please let us know.

Download the password-erasing CD image

This should download a Zip file that contains the software created by Petter Nordahl-Hagen.

Burn the CD image file to a recordable CD-R disc

The Zip file that you have just downloaded contains an ISO file that you need to extract our of the Zip file. (If you don't know how to do it, ask someone.) Then use a disc-burning software to burn the ISO image to a blank CD-R disc. Note that you should not burn the ISO file itself to a disc, you need to burn the image inside of the ISO file to a disc. Usually the CD-burning software can figure it out. If not, again, ask someone for help.

To verify that you have burned the CD-R correctly, open it with Windows Explorer. If you see BOOT.CFG, BOOT.MSG, and other files there, it means the disc has been created correctly. If however, you only see one ISO file there, that's not right, such a disc will not work!

Boot your computer from the CD-R disc

Now that you've prepared the CD-R disc, go to the computer for which you have forgotten the password. Insert the CD-R in the CD or DVD drive and turn the computer on (or restart it if it's already on). If you see no difference in how the computer starts (that is, you see a Windows logo displayed and then it prompts you for a password to log in) it means that your computer is configured to boot from the the hard drive directly. What you need to do is change its BIOS settings to make it try to boot from the CD first. The exact procedure depends on your computer model and the version of BIOS that it has. Locate the manual that came with your computer and find the instructions there or search the vendor's web site for the information. If you don't know how to change the BIOS settings, again, ask someone how knows for help. Keep in mind that when you get ot the BIOS settings screen, your mouse most probably won't work here, you would need to use the keyboard to make the changes.

The boot settings are usually located on the Boot menu of the BIOS screen, similar to this:

Move the CD-ROM entry to the top of the boot list. When done, don't forget to save the changes:

The computer will restart and hopefully this time instead of the Windows logo you will see a black-and-white screen filled with information, probably scrolling up rather fast. If that's what's happening, it means you did it right, the computer has booted from your CD-R and is getting ready for the procedure. Wait a few seconds until the scrolling stops. Now pay attention and be very careful what you do, it's very important!

Make the correct selections

At this point you are probably seeing a screen similar to the following:

Pay attention to the bottom part of the screen, that's where the text explaining what's expected from you is. As the example above shows, what you need to do now is select the partition of the hard drive that has Windows installed. In most situations it's not as scary as it sounds. If you have Windows XP or Windows 2000, then the first partition is where Windows usually is. However, if you have Windows 7 or Vista (which is the case for the example screen above), then the first partition could be a small (100MB) boot partition, and Windows partition most probably is the second one. If you select a wrong partition here, the software will check for the presence of Windows on it later on and if not found, it will return you back to this screen and you will have an opportunity to select another partition. Enter the number of the Windows partition here (which is 2 in this example) and press the Enter key to continue:

Here, it asks you to enter the path to the registry directory. Most probably, Windows is installed in its default location, so you don't need to change anything here. Just press Enter to continue:

If you see a screen that has --More-- at the bottom, it means that you have probably selected the correct Windows partition in the previous step. Press the q key to dismiss the screen. If you don't see such a screen, it probably means that you have selected a wrong partition. In such a case press q to go to the previous screen and try another partition.

Type 1 and press Enter to continue.

Type 1 and press Enter here, too.

You are almost there! Now, enter the name of your user account that you want to reset the password for. In this example, the account name is AdminUser, your user name will likely be different. Check the list of the users at the bottom of your screen to see how your user name appears there, that's how you are supposed to enter it.

Type your user name and press Enter to continue.

Type 1 and press Enter to continue.

If you see the message Password cleared! near the bottom of the screen, that's good, but you are not finished yet: the program still needs to save the changes back to the Windows partition. To do that, type ! and press Enter to continue:

Here, type q and press Enter to continue. You will be asked to confirm that you want the program to write the file(s) back:

Type y and press Enter to continue.

This screen asks if you want to repeat the procedure (New run?). Type n and press Enter to decline, unless you see an error message and want to try again.

Now you are done! Remove the CD-R disc from the tray, and restart the computer. It should start as usual now, displaying the Windows logo, and finally showing the Windows login screen. Just click on your login icon (if it asks for a password, leave it blank) and you should enter Windows without the password! Now you can use Windows Control Panel to create a new password for your account. Take care to remember it this time, or you would have to go through this procedure again.

Secure your files for real

[sniplet USBC_ACTION]

As you can see, it's quite easy to erase the Windows login password and get to your Windows desktop and files. This is a good thing if it's you who forgot your own password who is erasing the password. However, what if you lose your laptop or someone breaks into your office and steals your computer? If you have any important files that no one should see (such as your client database, your accounting or tax records, or maybe even the family photos you took during your last vacation), you need to secure them more strongly than with just the Windows password.

To secure your files for real, you need software that uses strong encryption to protect your files. "Strong" encryption means that even if someone has an unrestricted physical access to your computer, even if someone can examine every bit of information stored on your computer, even if someone is the brightest person in the world, s/he would not be able to decrypt your files without knowing your password. Search the Internet, you will find plenty of software products offering the encryption (be aware, though, that not every software that claims to be able to encrypt your files offers the "strong" encryption). Try them all, then come back here and check out our strong encryption product USBCrypt: it will keep your sensitive files much more secure than Windows itself.

How to erase Windows login password if you forget it is a post from: WinAbility Software

AB Commander v.8.3 released

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:50:41 +0000

[sniplet ABC_ACTION]

We've just released an update to AB Commander, version 8.3. This update offers several improvements:

The Rename and Delete commands are now faster and handle the selection of the files better: after a file has been deleted or moved, the next file is automatically selected for you, minimizing the need to scroll, if you have a large number of files displayed.

A new option to show the Re-establishing/Closing Connections messages has been implemented. When AB Commander is starting and attempting to connect to the network shared or drives, the connection to such network folders can take a rather long time. Previously, AB Commander did not display any visual indication about the process, and that could leave the user wondering why AB Commander did not display its window fast, as it usually does. Now, AB Commander shows a progress window informing the user that AB Commander is trying to re-establish the connection. A similar message is also displayed when AB Commander is shutting down and attempting to close the network connection that takes longer than usual. We hope such messages offer better user experience. However, if you don't like seeing such messages, you can turn them off using the Options command of AB Commander.

Better handling of some unusual situations that previously might have caused AB Commander to crash.

Several minor improvements and corrections have been made: the Free Space indicator is now displaying the result with an additional decimal point; the Quick Editor no longer prompts you to restart as Administrator when you open a text file located on a CD-ROM drive, etc.

As usual, if you have purchased your AB Commander license within the previous 12 months, you can upgrade to this version free of charge: just download the new version and install it over the previous one. If your one year of free upgrades has already expired, you can purchase the new version and receive the automatic 50% upgrade discount. If you have not purchased a license yet, feel free to download AB Commander and give it a try: it's free for 30 days!

AB Commander v.8.3 released is a post from: WinAbility Software

How to unhide a folder hidden with Folder Guard

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:53:59 +0000

[sniplet FG_ACTION]

If you've used Folder Guard to lock a folder with a password, it's obvious how to unprotect such a folder: just double-click on the folder's icon, enter your password, and the folder would be unlocked. However, what if you have set up the folder to be hidden altogether? In such a case, when you browse your computer, you would not see the folder in the Explorer windows, and there would be no icon to double-click on! So, how to unlock the folder if it's invisible?

One solution that's available right out of the box is the Toggle Protection command that's added to the Windows Start - All Programs - Folder Guard menu when you install Folder Guard. When you use this command and enter the Master password, it turns off the protection of all folders that's you've protected with Folder Guard. In particular, it unhides any hidden folders, as well. You can also set up a hot key or enable the Folder Guard taskbar icon to give yourself a quick access to this command. However, what if you don't want to turn off the protection completely, and only want to unhide just one particular folder, while keeping the other folders protected? Well, it's quite easy to achieve such an effect with Folder Guard, too.

The solution is simple: all you need to do is create a shortcut to the file FGKey.exe that would run this program with the command line switch /UNLOCK with the path to the hidden folder. When FGKey.exe is started this way, it prompts for the unlocking password that you've set up for that specific folder (which may be different from the Master password), and, if the password is correct, it unlocks (and unhides) the folder.

Let's show an example. Suppose you've created a folder named Hidden Folder in the root folder on the C: drive. In such a case, the path to the folder is "C:\Hidden Folder" (including the double-quotes, because the path contains spaces). Now, if you have not done so already, run Folder Guard, locate this folder in its window, and use the Lock with password command to, well, lock it with a password. Don't forget to assign the hidden attribute to the folder, too, to make it hidden. Enable the protection and verify it's working: the folder should disappear from the Windows Explorer view.

Now, let's create a shortcut to unhide the hidden folder. Right-click on an empty space of your Desktop, choose New - Shortcut from the menu, and enter the following command as the target for the shortcut:

If you use Windows 32-bit:

"C:\Program Files\Folder Guard\FGKey.exe" /UNLOCK:"C:\Hidden Folder"

If you use Windows 64-bit:

"C:\Program Files\Folder Guard\FGKey64.exe" /UNLOCK:"C:\Hidden Folder"

Here is how the Create Shortcut screen should look in the 32-bit case:

Finish creating the shortcut, (you can choose a suitable name for it, such as Unhide my folder, or similar). Now try it: double-click on the shortcut, and you should see a prompt to enter the password:

Enter the password for the folder (remember, it may not be the same as the Master Password) , and you should see the Hidden Folder to appear back in Windows Explorer! Now you can open the hidden folder and use the files it contains, as usual.

How to hide the hidden folder back? The easiest way is to use the Toggle Protection command we've discussed above, and choose the Lock all folders option:

However, if you have other unlocked folders, this command would lock them, as well. If that's not what you want, you could create another shortcut to run FGKey.exe, but this time with the /LOCK option in its command line. Such a command would lock only one specific folder that you provide for this option, without affecting other protected folders. See the Folder Guard User's Guide for the details about this and other options that you can use with FGKey.exe.

[sniplet FG_MORE_INFO]

How to unhide a folder hidden with Folder Guard is a post from: WinAbility Software

How to repair Windows desktop icons with AB Commander

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:36:46 +0000

[sniplet ABC_ACTION]

Sometimes something happens and Windows starts displaying wrong icons on the desktop. For example, you might have upgraded an application and the new version came with a new and improved application icon, but you still see the old icon on the Desktop. Or, a blank or damaged icon image appears where a perfectly good icon was displayed before. Does this sound familiar?

The most common reason for the problem with the icons is the corruption of the Windows icon cache. If you don't know what icon cache is, it's a special file that Windows uses to keep copies of each icon handy. When Windows needs to draw an icon, it uses the copy from the cache rather than retrieving the icon image from the original application file. It makes Windows draw the icons much faster.

The location of the icon cache file depends on the version of Windows that you have. In Windows 7 and Vista, the icon cache file is:

C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\IconCache.db

In Windows XP the icon cache file is:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\IconCache.db

So, what to do if the icon cache file became corrupted or damaged, or if Windows did not replace a copy of an icon in the icon cache with a new image of the icon for some reason? The solution is simple: you need to force Windows to rebuild its icon cache! The easiest ways of doing that is by deleting the IconCache.db file. If that file is missing, Windows will build it from scratch. However, deleting this file is tricky: it turns out that Windows keeps a copy of this file in the RAM memory, and if you delete it, with will create a new copy of this file from it's RAM copy, without refreshing the icon images!

To prevent Windows Explorer from recreating the old icon cache file, you can do the following:

1. If you have not done so already, make Windows display the hidden files and folders. To do so, choose the Folder options command from the Tools menu of AB Commander (or open it from Windows Control Panel), select the View tab, and change the option:

If you don't like Windows displaying the hidden files and folder, you can change this option back after completing the steps below.

2. Use AB Commander to navigate to the folder where the IconCache.db file is located (see above for the possible locations):

(If you have just enabled the Show hidden files option, you may need to press F5 in AB Commander to refresh is window and make the hidden files and folders to appear in the file listings.) Delete the IconCache.db file, and keep AB Commander window open, do not close or minimize it, you will need it a bit later.

3. Now end the Windows Explorer process. To do that, start Windows Task Manager (by, for example, right-clicking on an empty space of Windows taskbar and selecting Start Task Manager from the menu). Select the Processes tab and right-click on explorer.exe in the list. Finally, select End Process from the menu:

The icons on your desktop will disappear, but don't panic, they will be back in a minute!

4. Finally, restart the Explorer process. To do that, switch to AB Commander window, enter explorer in its launch box, and press OK:

(You could also start Explorer using the File - New Task (Run) command of Windows Task Manager.) Your desktop icons should be back.

The above procedure should force Windows to recreate its icon cache file from scratch. If you don't see the IconCache.db file right away, don't worry, it will appear after you log off and log back on to (or restart) Windows.

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How to repair Windows desktop icons with AB Commander is a post from: WinAbility Software

Slow network in Windows 7 Virtual PC? Speed it up!

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:34:41 +0000

As you probably know, Windows 7 comes with an optional component that allows you to create a virtual PC within your real computer. The virtual PC can have a different operating system that you can use independently of the real PC. The virtual PCs come very handy if you need to use some old program that was not updated to work well with Windows 7. Or, if you want to have a virtual sandbox to try things out without worrying about messing up your real PC’s configuration. We, for example, use virtual PCs extensively to test our software on different version of Windows.

With Virtual PC software you can even set up a virtual network and use it to transfer the files between the virtual and real PCs, back and forth. However, in some situations the transfer of files through such a network occurs very slowly. For example, when browsing the shared folders of the host computer from the virtual PC, it can take a few seconds just to display the contents of a folder. When trying to transfer a file from the real PC to the virtual one, the speed of the transfer may become very slow.

If you experience such a problem of a slow speed of the virtual PC network, you can try the following solution that may solve it:

SlowVirtualPCNetworkSolution.reg

This file contains a tweak to the network settings in Windows Registry that may solve the slow network problem. How to use this file:

Create a system restore point, to be able to revert the changes, if anything goes wrong.
Right-click on the link above and choose Save Target As (or Save Link As) and save the file somewhere on your hard drive (of the real PC, not the virtual one!)
With Windows Explorer (or AB Commander) navigate to the folder where you have saved the file and double-click on it.
Confirm that you want to import the file into Windows Registry.
Restart the host computer.

Disclaimer: This tweak has solved this problem for us (and for quite a few other people), but we cannot guarantee that it will work for you. Use it at your own risk! As always, it’s a good idea to backup your computer before making changes to it.

Slow network in Windows 7 Virtual PC? Speed it up! is a post from: WinAbility Software

How to show drive letters first in AB Commander and Windows Explorer

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:58:17 +0000

As you probably know, Windows assigns a drive letter to the each drive that your computer has. If you open the Computer folder (or, if you use Windows XP or Windows 2000, the My Computer folder), you should see the list of drives currently attached to your computer. By default, Windows displays the drive letters after the names of the drives. Since AB Commander uses the same internal engine to display the contents of the folders as Windows itself does, the same convention is true for the way AB Commander displays the names of the drives, too: it shows the label first, followed by the drive letter:

It’s possible, however, to change this default behavior and make both AB Commander and Windows Explorer display the drive letters before the drive names. In fact, there are even more possibilities: you can make the drive letters to be shown before the names for the network drives only, and you can even hide the drive letters altogether!

Below are the links to the registry files that make the necessary changes in the Windows Registry. Note that there are two separate sets of files: one for Windows 7 or Windows Vista, and another one for Windows XP or Windows 2000:

For Windows 7 and Windows Vista:

For Windows XP and Windows 2000:

To use a registry file, right-click on its link, and choose Save Target As (or Save Link As, or a similar command) and save the file somewhere on your hard drive. After that, open the link directly from the folder where you have saved it, and confirm to Windows that you do want to import the information from the file into Windows Registry. Finally, to see the change in AB Commander, restart it. For example, if you’ve imported the DriveLetters-Before.reg file, then the list of the drives should now look like this:

To see the result in Windows Explorer, log off and then log back on to Windows. If you want to return to the default way of displaying the drive letters after the drive names, use the DriveLetters-After.reg file.

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How to show drive letters first in AB Commander and Windows Explorer is a post from: WinAbility Software