Disable Print Screen Key in Windows

Often abbreviated Prt Scr, the Print Screen key is a useful key supported on most PCs. In DOS, pressing the Print Screen key causes the computer to send whatever images and text are currently on the display screen to the printer. Some graphics programs and Windows, use the Print Screen key to obtain Screen Captures.

1. Maximize the window you'd like to capture.
2. To copy/capture the current window, hold down ALT + Print Scrn at the same time. To capture the entire screen, just press Print Scrn.
3. Open a new document in MS Word, MS Photo Editor, or Adobe PhotoShop.
4. Paste the screen shot by holding down CTRL and V at the same time.
5. Print the document when you're finished pasting screen shots.

Macs prove more versatile because the screen captures are automatically saved as files in the PICT format - Apple's version of Microsoft's BMP. This file is created when one presses Command plus Shift plus 3. To save just the window you want, hold down Command plus Shift plus 4 plus caps lock. Now you can open any window and make a copy by holding down the Control key and clicking inside it.

Q How can I can disable the Print Screen function to prevent users from copying images to the clipboard?

A. Windows implements Print Screen using a registered hotkey. Windows uses the predefined hotkeys IDHOT_SNAPDESKTOP and IDHOT_SNAPWINDOW to handle Print Screen. These correspond to Print Screen, which captures the entire screen, and Alt+Print Screen, which captures only the active window. To disable these functions all you have to do is register the hotkeys, which causes Windows to send your app a WM_HOTKEY message when the user presses either hotkey. Your implementation can ignore the message to bypass the default screen-capture behavior. A good place to do it is in your mainframe class.

The ALT-PRINTSCREEN captures the active window. If you had a dialog box open and wanted that image only, ALT-PRINTSCREEN will only capture that part, while PRINTSCREEN captures the entire monitor screen's view. If there is only one window open (blue title bar at top), then ALT-PRINTSCREEN essentially does the same as PRINTSCREEN.

In Windows, you can capture only the active display by pressing Alt and the Prt Scr key. That key is usually to the right of the function keys at the top of the keyboard. Or, by pressing the Control key and Prt Scr, the entire screen showing the currently selected window and all other stuff can be acquired.

In either case, these moves create a file in the highly detailed BMP format, holding a pixel-by-pixel version of the page at the precise time the keys were pressed. The BMP file is held in the computer's memory, so one needs to paste it into some kind of a program that accepts photos, like the Paint program in Windows or flavors of Photoshop.

Free Clip Art and Templates

Microsoft Office free Clip Art and Media Home Page:

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx

Microsoft Office free Templates Home Page:

http://office.microsoft.com/templates/default.aspx

If you're using MS Office, it's definitely worth a visit from time to time.

Must Have Tools for Web Design

ColorPic - There certainly is no shortage of specialized eyedropper utilities, but few have pulled all the right functionality together as usefully and elegantly as Nico Westerdale's ColorPic.

Accessibility Toolbox - Ian has pulled together some of the accumulated wisdom found at his renowned Accessify.com site. At this point, it comprises of an 'accessible form element builder' paired with an 'accessible pop-up builder'. There are buttons reserved for 'accessible tables' and 'accessible forms' but there's no word as to whether these are due any time soon

MWSnap - Screen capture? What's wrong with the old Print Screen button? Nothing at all but MWSnap is one of those nicely crafted little apps that makes it faster and easier for you to continue working the way you already do. It's all about ease and convenience.

TopStyle - Nick Bradbury got sick of the HTML editor he was using and decided to sit down and darn well write his own. HomeSite went on to become one of the early success stories of HTML editing until it was eventually subsumed by the Macromedia Megaship. Nick snuck out of HomeSite, but continued doing what he does best - writing nifty little editors for burgeoning technologies. In this case, it's a beautiful little CSS editor called TopStyle.

Get Windows XP SP2 on CD

Microsoft will ship the CD to you free of charge. This CD includes the same Service Pack 2 software that is available for download from Windows Update. You'll wait 4-5 weeks for delivery, according to the site. You can also download the complete service pack here.

Note that Microsoft started the electronic delivery of SP2 to Windows XP Home Edition users last week, and to XP Professional Edition today via the Automatic-Updates distribution route.

I received my Windows XP SP CD today.

Microsoft Website Layout

Microsoft have updated their main website, Microsoft.com.

The site features a new layout, with more focus on directing users towards security and feature updates like service pack 2 for Windows XP. The navigation also appears clearer, allowing easier access to the many parts of Microsoft's site.

One problem that still remains, however, is the site's lack of standards compliance. It doesn't validate to the very basic (and somewhat aged) 4.01 HTML standard. Also, the site appears quite different in non-IE browsers - Firefox users don't see all elements of the site, and they also enjoy 'poor' images due to DHTML image rendering filters. See this post for more information.

StopDesign has an interesting piece on the new design, pointing out that Microsoft have moved away from tables, towards css, the effect being to reduce page size massivly. They've also moved away from "bulky javascript" that previously dominated the code.

'SP2' a Must For XP Users

Service Pack 2, "SP2" for short, is Microsoft's most important release since XP itself. It aims to stop viruses, worms, browser hijackings and worse by including security features that people had to add and adjust on their own. (Users of Windows 2000, Millennium Edition, 98 and 95 will still need to do that, since Microsoft has no plans for a comparable update of those systems.)

The most important part of SP2 is an new firewall program to stop break-ins by network worms such as Blaster. Unlike XP's earlier firewall, this one is turned on automatically and protects every connection on a computer -- even if you already have another firewall active. It also watches what your programs do; if one wants to open its own channel of communication with the Internet, you'll need to approve this action.

Service Pack 2 is a free update, but it's not easy to get -- yet. A 266-megabyte download is available at Microsoft's site, while users with automatic updates enabled will have a smaller version sent to their PCs over the coming weeks. Around the end of the month, SP2 will be available on CD-ROM; to Microsoft's credit, it will ship these CDs at no charge. [Via]

If you run XP, you need to install SP2. Period.

Secure Linux Computers from Internet Hackers

What you should do to a new Linux PC before connecting it to the Internet. Always keep the software on your computer up to date with the latest security patches should you be running Linux, Windows, BSD or WhoKnowsWhat. Your distribution will release regular security patches that should be applied and are available off the Internet. As with Windows, this should always be your first Internet destination. Your second Internet destination may be to install system monitoring software.

Configuring the /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow files

To further secure this server from unwanted traffic or potentially hackers, we may wish to limit the hosts or computers that can connect to this server application. The /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow files allow us to do just that.

When a computer attempts to access a service such as a secure shell server on your new Linux PC the /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow files will be processed and access will be granted or refused based on some easily configurable rules. Quite often for desktop Linux PC's it is very useful to place the following line in the /etc/hosts.deny file:
ALL: ALL

This will deny access to all services from all hosts. It seems pretty restrictive at first glance, but we then add hosts to the /etc/hosts.allow file that will allow us to access services. The following are examples that allow some hosts remote secure shell access:
sshd: 192.168.0.1 #allow 192.168.0.1 to access ssh
sshd: somebox.somedomain.com #allow somebox.somedomain.com to access ssh

These two files provide powerful host based filtering methods for your Linux PC.

If your new Linux PC has some services that will receive connections from the Internet make sure you understand their configurations and tune them as necessary. For example, if your Linux PC will receive secure shell connections make sure you check the sshconfig file (for Mandriva it is /etc/ssh/sshd_config) and disable options like root login. Every Linux PC has a root user so you should disable root login via ssh in order to dissuade brute force password crack attempts against your super-user account.

Unlike Windows, Linux does not present itself as a "server" version or as a "desktop" version. During a typical installation of Linux the choice is yours as to exactly what software you wish to install and therefore exactly what type of a system you are constructing. Because of this, you need to be aware of the packages that the installation program is installing for you.

Install and configure a software firewall

A local software firewall can provide a "just in case" layer of security to any type of network. These types of firewalls allow you to filter the network traffic that reaches your PC and are quite similar to the Windows Firewall. The Mandriva package called Shorewall along with a component of the Linux kernel called Netfilterprovides a software firewall. By installing and configuring Shorewall during the installation process, you can restrict or block certain types of network traffic, be it coming to or going out from your PC.

Blocking or allowing network traffic is one layer of security, but how do you secure a service that you do allow the Internet or your intranet to connect to? Host based security is yet another layer.

The Linux kernel itself can provide some additional networking security. Familiarize yourself with the options in the /etc/sysctl.conf file and tune them as needed. Options in this file control, for example, what type of network information is logged in your system logs.

Connect the PC to a router

A hardware router provides multiple PC's to share one visible or external Internet address. This is generally bad news for any hacker or otherwise malicious program that may take a look at your new Linux PC as it blocks any and all network traffic that you don't specifically allow. Home networking routers are just smaller versions of what the big companies use to separate their corporate infrastructure from the Internet.

Services that are not running don't provide security holes for potential hackers and don't take up those precious CPU cycles. Shut them off.

Google Web Hosting Service - Unlimited Storage, Web Analytics

Google, an ICANN-accredited registrar of domain names, could soon expand into the web hosting industry. Google is approved to sell names in seven top-level domains (TLDs) including .com, .net, .org, .biz, info, .name and .pro.

Google Web Hosting recently made a proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects on Google Servers. Wikimedia Foundation are continuing to talk with Google Hosting about creative ways in which they might provide support to the project.

Blogger, a free Google Web Hosting platform already has the largest user base. Google can easily acquire some of the most popular web hosting companies and use it as a base to build a business around. Alternatively, Google could simply buy up tons of customers from smaller hosts.

Web hosting requires tons of servers, data centers, and skilled technical support staff. Google already has all that. Google also acquired Urchin that offers web analytics to customers for free. Most business customers want Email (gmail) and Web hosting (google) from the same company.

Google still doesn't have a free web files hosting platform like Yahoo Geocities or Angelfire or Lycos Tripod. We just hope Google quickly enters the webhosting arena and offers unlimited space like GMail and I am will to see Google Ads in return.

Wishlist for Google Web Hosting Service - Unlimited server storage (GMail), Visitor Tracking (Urchin Or Google Analytics), Site Search (Google), Google Hosting Software for Desktop (like Picassa, GDS), Monetization with Adsense, Domain Parking with Adsense Domains.

If Google offers web hosting, there's little doubt: they will win, if they carry it out as well as they did Gmail. And Web Hosting is ultimately about service. And we all know how famous Google Adsense are for their excellent customer service.

Download Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2)

Microsoft Service Pack 2 for Windows XP is available for people to download and install on their systems. The XP SP2 file, at just over 250 Megs, is a hefty download yet is packed with new updates well worth getting (Microsoft will allow people to order a CD with it on in due course).

The install took about 5-10 minutes, yet clearly this figure will vary from system to system. After installing and rebooting XP asked me to turn on automatic updates (even before reaching windows). An excellent move on Microsoft's behalf, and one that serves to highlights a growing commitment to security and user safety. On the first run, Microsoft also loads up the new Security Center. The Security Center monitors your Antivirus, Firewall, and Auto Update situation. If it detects anything that is potentially damaging or hazardous, it will prompt you with a warning and give you advice on how to resolve the issue. Microsoft has saved a lot of hassle for users in that if you have Zone Alarm installed, they leave the Windows Firewall off to prevent conflicts.

Less importantly for a Firefox user like me, Internet Explorer has been updated (screenshot)and the new features seem helpful. As well as a new version of IE, Outlook Express, Microsoft's free mail client bundled with Windows has been updated with better protection against email spread viruses and worms. I spent a few hours using the improved browser and it does seems somewhat nippier than before. With additions like pop-up blocking, IE becomes a slightly more attractive prospect. However, it still lacks features like tabbed browsing and standards compliancy that make some of the new features moot points. To really start winning back people, Microsoft need to get IE 7 out the door with these features (Before longhorn though?). I'd like to say i was impressed, but IE in SP2 is playing catch up, not adding features.

Microsoft have also updated the wireless capabilities with SP2, which in previous service packs have been dubious at best. The new wireless network setup wizard (screenshot) allows users to easily deploy and manage networks, and at first glance appears to be reasonably effective. Asides from these major additions, there are many more subtle changes that XP SP2 has brought in (NX code, improved security and stability). The No eXecute technology will allow users with AMD chips to have a bit more protection against nasty bits of code, yet the true extent that it will protect it's users is really un-known; it currently seems to be more of a PR thing than anything else. Intel / no NX chip enabled users will benefit from what could be described as a "toned down" software version of NX, called DEP (Data Execution Prevention - screenshot).

As a user, my computer does seem to be doing tasks a bit faster than before; basic tasks like loading up explorer windows or getting desktop properties up are definitely going faster than under SP1. The only minor problem in encountered with SP2 was to do with MS Messenger. XP re-installed MS Messenger (to be expected) after I’d previously removed it, and on rebooting post install continued to load it up even though MSN Messenger is running! Silently wasting 5 megs of Ram, it's annoying and something Microsoft doesn't seem to want to tackle! However, it's thankfully removable. I haven't had any of the problems that a few people have mentioned, and would thus recommend SP2 to all. To people who might have had bad experiences with earlier beta releases of the service pack, I'd urge them to try the final version, which is (somewhat obviously) substantially more polished than the betas. You can download it at the links below.