Setting up a Computer Running Windows XP or Vista

Fixing Vista to Mac OS X Networking

The default configuration of Vista breaks networking to machines running Mac OS X. The symptom is that when you try to open a share on the Mac from the Vista desktop, your username and password are rejected. To fix this, make the following changes on the Vista machine:

1. Open the Network and Sharing Center control panel.
2. Under Sharing and Discovery, turn on Network discovery.
3. Open the Administrative Tools control panel.
4. Open Local Security Policy.
5. Open Local Policies.
6. Open Security Options.
7. Look for the option "Network security: LAN Manager authentication Level".
8. Change the option to "Send LM and NTLM-use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated".

Vista "Estimating Remaining Time" File Deletion Bug

Vista sometimes creates files that cannot be deleted or moved: when you try, the "Estimating Remaining Time" message pops up and the operation hangs. This bug appears to be related to networking. I was able to delete the affected files by turning off the network adapter, rebooting, deleting the files, enabling the adapter, and rebooting again.

Sony Vaio Restore Disks

Sony Vaio laptops do not come with system restore disks, and you cannot buy restore disks from Sony. The first thing you should do after unpacking your system is to get some DVD+r disks, go into the Vaio help center application, and create several sets of Vaio restore disks. You can use these disks to restore your laptop to the "out of the box" configuration.

Free software:

1. cygwin (including latex, wget, perl, etc).Notes:
• Right click on My Computer, select advanced, and set the environmental variable HOME to your home directory.
• Copy these .bashrc and lib files into your home directory.
• Install the default configuration of cygwin first, before re-running setup to customize the installation.
• In a bash shell, perform the following steps:
  • cd /usr
  • mkdir homes
  • cd homes
  • ln -s ~ YOUR_LOGIN_NAME
• Next, rerun and install X11 and openssh
• Rerun and install tetex (Latex). Installation may fail during the postinstall phase because of incorrect file permissions. Check to see if the file /etc/postinstall/post-texmf.sh exists. If so, then:
  • cd /cygwin/c
  • find . -type d -exec chmod u+rx "{}" ";"
  • find . -exec chmod u+rw "{}" ";"
  • cd /etc/postinstall
  • bash -x post-texmf.sh
  • repeat line above until you are sure it executes without error and creates all the Latex font files; may take several repetitions
  • mv post-texmf.sh post-texmf.sh.done
2. nt emacs
3. Swap shift lock and control keys (download this file and execute it).
4. gsview & ghostscript
5. ssh
6. 7-zip (free replacement for Winzip)
7. Apple Quicktime player
8. Open Office
9. Palm desktop
10. Powerpoint Plugin CShow: Split Animations into Separate Slides
11. FireFox and extensions:
    • WebmailCompose - makes mailto: links work properly for e.g. Yahoo or Gmail
    • NoScript - selective blocking of javascript and flash, greatly speeds up pages that have advertisements

Commerical Software:

1. Adobe Acrobat Professional
2. Adobe Photoshop
3. Dreamweaver
4. AVS video converter
5. GoScreen
6. Microsoft Office