Ohlamon’s Technology News Blog

Microsoft introduced new feature with its SP2. It will automatically reboot your computer after installing updates. If you do not restart your computer after updating it you get the popup that just asks you “restart now or later”, but after a day or so it starts coming up with the popup that has a 5 minute timer. If you do not see the popup within the 5 minutes, it will restart itself. Of course you could disable the updates, but this is not a good solution in this way.

So question is: How to disable this auto-restart feature?

Solution from Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555444)

Go to registry editor and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Policies \Microsoft\Windows \WindowsUpdate\AU

Change the “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” DWord value to the required number.

0 = False (Allow auto-reboot)
1 = True (Disallow auto-reboot)

Solution if you have WindowsXP Pro

* In the Start Menu go to Run type “gpedit.msc” and press Enter
* Now a Group Policy editor will open. In this window navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
* Double click on No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations
* In the settings window Choose Enabled and click OK
* Close Group Policy Editor

So, It is no more auto-restatrs, but we still have that annoying “Restart Now/Restart Later” dialog popping up every 5 minutes

There are two ways to deal with it.

1. With this registry change you can set frequency of this dialog appearanse from 5 minutes to 24 hours.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
“RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled”=dword:00000001
“RebootRelaunchTimeout”=dword:000005a0
“NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers”=dword:00000001

2. Go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools-Services. Scroll down the list to the item “Automatic Updates”. Right-click that item and choose “Stop”.
Another way to do so just go to Start->Run and then type “net stop wuauserv” in the box and press Enter.

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. /   |   |  |  |  | __    /      /  _  /     .
./    |       Y    |__/ __ |  Y Y  (  <_> )   |  .
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.        /     /          /      /            / .
......................................................

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Couple years ago when Mac was more like exotic toy then real competitor to PC I tried to connect Macbook into existing windows network. With different settings I was able to share drives or to print something. I was unable to do both things in the same time.

Time is changed and now I am about to get the new Mac for myself, but before that I tried to make some research about this problem that I have before.

This is what I’ve found: Step by step walkthrough about how to connect Macintosh OS X systems to Windows networks.

10 things you should know about connecting Macintosh OS X systems to Windows networks

Everybody should know about all this by now, but in case somebody still don’t.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (Final Release)
Microsoft Windows Defender (Final Release)

Mozilla Fondation FireFox 2.0 (Final Release)

In case you don’t like Windows Genue Advantage (WGA) which required to istall IE7 and Defender here is a small utility to bypass it.

I never understand why so many people have so many troubles when they need to make a copy DVD. I always think it is very simple process. You need to make just two or three simple steps and only one of them required some brain activity. Internet is full of some strange programs like 1Click DVD Copy, DVD X Copy, DVD Cloner and many many more. All of them promise you one-button-click solution. None of them can really do a good job. Bad quality, bad compatibility and high price.

How do I make a copy of any DVD? Like I said its 2 or 3 step process.

Step 1.

(For this step we need freeware program called DVD Decrypter)

1. Open DVD Decrypter.
2. Go to Mode->File.
3. Check size of your DVD.
4a. If you size is less than 4.7 GB then go to Mode->ISO->Read and then choose folder and click Decrypt Button. You ready-to-burn ISO file is ready. You can skip to Step 3!
4b. If your size is more than 4.7 GB that means that DVD has two layers you need to remove some stuff from it. Choose folder and click Decrypt button. Then go to Step 2.

Step 2.

(For this step we need program called Elby Clone DVD 2)

1. Open CloneDVD.
2. Click Clone DVD. Choose folder with your files from DVD Decrypter. You should see your DVD Titles.
3. Your goal is to keep your compression rate in the green zone as close as possible to 100%. Just check each title and uncheck all unneeded ones. Get rid of all “coming soon” and “how to make movie like this one” sections.
4. Click Next. Here you can choose your audio streams. Remove all French, Spanish and Chinese streams. (of course if it is not your native language
) If you have DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 get rid of DTS.
5. Click Next. Choose ISO/UDF image. Choose folder. Click Next. Wait. then go to step 3.

Step 3.

(For this step we need freeware program called DVD Decrypter again)

1. Start DVD Decrypter.
2. Go to Mode->ISO->Write
3. Choose your ISO file from Step 1 or Step 2.
4. Click Write.

That’s it. Enjoy your copy.

PS: DVD Decrypter: http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip
Elby Clone DVD : http://www.elby.ch/products/clone_dvd