Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Grayed out options in Windows? No problem.
Me too. There are some simple things I like to do when setting up a new machine. One of which is place a shortcut to the command prompt in my quick launch. I'm running Windows Vista and am a believer in UAC, so I keep it enabled. But, when I want to run a command prompt as an Admin, I don't want to right click and choose "Run as Admin." So, I wanted to change the compatibility mode to always prompt for elevation and run this app as an admin. Here is what I found on the compatibility mode tab for that shortcut:
All options are grayed out. Bummer. Wait, there is a fix for this. It is called Windows Enabler. Download and install the app, and you will see an icon in your task bar that looks like this:
Open the window you want to enable the options on and click on this icon, which turns the image to this:
Then, here is what you can do on the same window I showed above:
Great!! Accomplished my goal with a great tool! Happy enabling!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Pwn Vista when you have physical access
Wow... what a concept. You can own a Vista box if you have physical access so says this article and video:
http://www.offensive-security.com/movies/vistahack/vistahack.html
The fact is, that when physical access is obtained, any computer will fall. This is true with all Windows operating systems as well as *nix and is most certainly not limited to Vista.
This is not a new concept. One of the most important rules of computer security is protection from physical access is critical. With the advent of pre-installed environments and Linux live CDs/DVDs, this rule becomes even more important.
This appears to be information that is blown out of proportion as it applies to all operating systems, not just Vista. Similar to the cold boot attacks that have been proven to work against disk encryption technologies like Windows BitLocker. Again, this exploit is not limited to Windows BitLocker, but is certainly the most commonly attacked.
Tired of automated phone systems?
Well... get human! This site lists tricks for bypassing the automated phone systems and getting an actual human on the phone. What a novel idea... a human answering the phone. Now you have the option. Happy calling!!
