James Finnigan : Tips

The best way to make UAC shut up for a while

James Finnigan — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:25:00 GMT

Let's say you want to install a few things and want UAC to stop bugging you while you install them. Should you turn off UAC and install the apps? Since that disables UAC's virtualization, it can destabilize things that depend on data written to those...(read more)

Making an MSI that doesn't need a UAC/LUA prompt

James Finnigan — Thu, 03 May 2007 05:03:00 GMT

The goal I think that most things don't need to require a UAC prompt to install - just install it for that user. Why not make the MSI so it doesn't prompt and your users get a smoother experience? (Also, I feel much better installing a program that doesn't...(read more)

How to launch an un-elevated process from an elevated process

James Finnigan — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:11:03 GMT

This question has come up a fair amount lately. The short answer is that you don't * - instead you should: first launch an unelevated process have that unelevated process launch an elevated process and wait for it to finish (or use some form of IPC) have...(read more)

Windows Live ID Client SDK alpha release

James Finnigan — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 07:20:54 GMT

On a recent post about BITSAdmin , someone commented on how you needed to be logged into passport to download certain things. Well I noticed in Brian's blog that there is now an alpha release of the live client SDK . I haven't tried it out (still busy...(read more)

RE: How to get rid of that pesky Windows Welcome Center at FIRST boot

james — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 07:16:21 GMT

While reading blog comments about Welcome Center, I came across this entry on how to remove welcome center at first boot.

...

With a simple .reg file though, you can kill Windows Welcome Center dead on first boot — simply put the following into your .reg file and save it, run it, or add it to your scripts:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] "WindowsWelcomeCenter"=-

...

That will do it. But if you run this command instead, you can avoid creating a file and the elevation prompt.

reg delete HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v WindowsWelcomeCenter /f

Oh, and sorry about waiting until the second time you see it before displaying the checkbox - that wasn't my idea. (Welcome Center was a feature with a lot of input.)

[original link]

How to use BITS to transfer files

James Finnigan — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 10:57:55 GMT

BITS is Microsoft's background intelligent transfer service. It's used to transfer files without it bothering you (roughly). The goal is to use idle bandwidth, so it doesn't affect that streaming radio station that you like, your video chat, etc. The...(read more)