Windows 8!, What a Nice UI!

I just have a quick view at Windows 8. I really like its user interface! It's like a whole new world. What do you think?

Commonly Used Windows Shortcuts

Are you using Windows 7? Do you perfer keyboards to mouse? If you do, you might want to read on.

I am a Windows user, and I hate to take my hands off the keyboards. I love shortcuts. I am quite happy that Zia Munshi compiled and published 20 commonly used short-cut on Windows website. In fact, I learned it from Windows Weekly Show with Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott. Feel free to check their websites out.

Vista-XP File and Printer Sharing Compatibility

If you have recently installed window 7 or windows vista, you might have a networking problem with your previous windows servers. Here is the problem that I have.

I have a window XP running as a server at home, with password protected login capability. Everything works fines until I upgrade one of my systems to Window 7 (you might see the same problem if you are running Windows Vista). Then, I cannot logon to this XP server. It said the username/password is incorrect. The cause is the default networking of Windows 7 and Windows Vista do not work well with Windows XP. More specifically, it is the problem of what Microsoft called NTLM.

Standing for NT LAN Manager, NTLM is a Microsoft authentication protocol. It is used to verify who you are when you logon to a Microsoft-based machine. Various versions of NTLM are used as follows:

Window NT Challenge/Response (NTLM version 1 or NTLM 1)	Windows NT
LAN Manager (LM) Challenge Response:	Windows 95, 98, and 98SE
NTLM 2	Windows NT since SP4, Windows 2000, or later

Now that we know the cause of the problem. Let's fix it. Clearly, the solution is to activate NTLMv2. This is done by changing registry.

Solution: You will need to do to Here are the steps:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Look for the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value

• Value Name: LMCompatibility
• Data Type: REG_DWORD
• Value: 1 (for client; e.g., Vista or 7), 3 (for server; e.g., XP)
• The description of the meaning of the values are given at the end of the post (read it if you are interested).
• Note: A client machine is the one you are using. You are using this computer to logon to the server. The value must be set to 1. As for the server, you can set the value to be either 1 or 3.

4. Quit Registry Editor.

Meaning of the value for LMCompatibility. Client refers to your client computer, while domain controller refers to your server.

• Level 0 - Send LM and NTLM response; never use NTLM 2 session security.
  
• Level 1 - Use NTLM 2 session security if negotiated.
• Level 2 - Send NTLM response only.
  
• Level 3 - Send NTLM 2 response only.
• Level 4 - Domain controllers refuse LM responses.
  
• Level 5 - Domain controllers refuse LM and NTLM responses (accept only NTLM 2).
  

To read more visit:
[1] "How to enable NTLM 2 authentication", Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 239869, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239869
[2] "NTLM", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTL

Grave accent: A language switching key or an opening quotation mark?

Are you a LaTeX user? If so, you must know that the opening (left) quotation is in fact the grave accent (`). Writing two of (') would give you two ending (right) quotation marks. This works fine, until you install two keyboard layouts in your Windows OS.

By default, Windows use a grave accent key to switch between language. Hence, you cannot type an opening quotation mark. If you press on a grave accent, instead of showing (') on the screen, Windows will switch the language for you.

Does it mean you cannot use LaTex under multiple keyboard layout setting? Well, there are two workarounds:

1. Use different key for language switching bar: Windows allows you to use either alt+shift or ctrl+shift. I don't like this option, since I tend to miss one of the keys. And, it will mess up my typing rhythm.
2. Use Windows key: Most new computers would have a window key. By pressing windows+grave accent, Windows will show an opening quotation mark on the screen (rather than switching the language).

Well, the WINDOW+GRAVE ACCENT is my savior!!