Désactiver les redémarrages automatiques après les mises-à-jour Windows (Win 7 Pro)

Il est très désagréable de revenir à son poste et de trouver que l'ordinateur a redémarré et que les multiples fenêtres qu'on avait laissées ouvertes ont été fermées (surtout ce vieux logiciel qui ne fait pas de sauvegardes automatiques...) mais il est possible de désactiver ce mécanisme.

Sous Windows 7 Pro :

• Menu Démarrer.
• Tapez "gpedit.msc" et valider.
• Allez dans : Configuration ordinateur > Modèles d'administration > Composants Windows > Windows Update.
• Cherchez l'entrée "Pas de redémarrage automatique avec des utilisateurs connectés pour les installations planifiées de mises à jour automatiques".
• Double-cliquez et passez à la valeur "Activé".

Raccourcis touchpad incontrôlables sur Toshiba

J'utilise depuis peu un laptop Toshiba Z30t-B-10V dont je suis parfaitement satisfait. A part... le touchpad qui possède au moins 5 variétés de raccourcis différents (2 on/off + 3 selon les mouvements reconnus). Ces mouvements sont particulièrement complexes à maîtriser, et il en résulte des comportements aléatoires et frustrants, exemple : quand vous écrivez un post sur une page web et que le mouvement touchpad déclenche un retour à la page précédente, et que vous perdez ce que vous avez écrit...

J'ai enfin trouvé où désactiver ces options (sous Windows 7) :

Démarrer > Panneau de configuration > Souris > Extension > Paramètres des fonctions d'extension

et là s'ouvre le sésame pour la configuration (ou simplement la compréhension) des raccourcis du touchpad. Voilà.

Reloading NTFS permissions without logging out/in of your sessions

The command below lets you log out of your Windows session and in again, without closing your application. This, among other things, allows you to access a newly shared folder without logging off/on.

(It's of course better to make sure you're not using session related functions before restarting the explorer.)

taskkill /im explorer.exe /f & start "" "c:\windows\explorer.exe"

Fun fact: Google search ratios about problems, by OS

Search pattern	Number of results	Ratio of "problems"
"windows 98"	21,900,000
"windows 98" problem	6,770,000	30.91%
"windows millenium"	291,000
"windows millenium" problem	77,500	26.63%
"windows xp"	124,000,000
"windows xp" problem	61,400,000	49.52%
"windows vista"	80,900,000
"windows vista" problem	88,200,000	109.02%
"windows seven"	2,900,000
"windows seven" problem	551,000	19.00%

Raw unrefined suggestion about firewall rules

Since now we see attacks from inside intranets, using zombie networks, I think it could be a good idea to turn on the firewalls on each machine in the network (including on Windows stations, which I know is sometimes a problem) and to set up a detailed set of rules for them.

My problem was: how to figure out which rules for such a complex problem, so many machines?
My suggestion: why not propose a standard for a single file giving the positive rules necessary for a software to operate?

One file per application, that would come shipped with the application, and would describe all the things that need be open, for the application to work. The file would not describe what set of rules to put on which firewall, but simply what needs to be open.

If we have a look at the TCP/IP layers

This picture from Wikipedia under the GFDL license.

we see that simple firewalls operate on the Internet and Transport layers. Modern firewalls and proxies also operate on the Application layer.
I guess a simple XML dialect could be created to describe which things need be let in and out, on which layer. If this gets standardized or at least RFC'ed, there is a good chance to see opensource software adopt it, both on the application and on the firewall sides. On which case, since opensource is biggest marketshare on infrastructure, others should follow.
(All that raw and unrefined.)

Is Windows 7 closed-source?

It seems easy for the people allowed to test Windows 7 to leak it. My question now: how easy is it for some insider to leak the source or parts of it? I would rather say it's quite possible for a project this size and a company this size.

Now, what about the argument of secrecy? Has security through obscurity twilight a meaning?

My first virus under Linux [joke]

I just experienced my first virus under Linux. In a virtual machine running Windows XP. Of course, it was just for testing purpose... I installed a fresh Windows XP, tried to share files between the real machine and the virtual machine through Samba. To ease the configuration, I deactivated the firewall of Windows. I didn't use Internet Explorer at all.

And the result was there in less than five minutes. Multiple windows popped-up out of nowhere, proposing to install sex software, false anti-virus software... and I don't want to think of the things that happened without displaying a pop-up window.

There was a statistic a few months ago, saying that a non-secured Windows box alone in the wild was compromised in a few minutes. I can confirm.