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Sat, Feb 27, 2010 9:12 pm

Windows Easy Transfer from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7

If you are upgrading a prior version of Windows, such as Windows XP or vista, to Windows 7, you can use the Windows Easy Transfer program to transfer files and settings for accounts on the system.

[ More Info ]

[/os/windows/win7] permanent link

Sat, Feb 27, 2010 7:20 pm

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

You can use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to check on whether a system is compatible with Windows 7.

After installing the software, start it and click on Start check.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor start check

The check of the system may take several minutes. When it completes, you will see a list of the issues found.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor issues found

If you scroll down through the issues found, you can determine if any issues were found with hardware in or attached to the system, such as a video card in the computer or a printer attached to the system, by examining the Devices section.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor issues found with devices

If you click on Save Report, you can save a report on what the Windows Upgrade Advisor found in .mht or .html format. A compatibility report for an HP Pavilion a1630n system can be seen here. The report indicates the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE video card in the system is compatible with Windows 7 and that Windows Aero support should be available.

[/os/windows/win7] permanent link

Fri, Feb 19, 2010 11:14 pm

Files for Windows Live Messenger Custom Emoticons

In trying to determine how to copy Windows Live Messenger version 2009 emoticon files from one system to another, I found a C:\Users\acctname\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger\user@example.com\ObjectStore\CustomEmoticons directory on a Windows 7 system. For the directory path acctname is the particular Windows account. The email address used for logging into Windows Live Messenger would appear in place of user@example.com. The equivalent directory on the Windows XP system from which I was going to copy the custom icons was \Documents and Settings\acctname\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Messenger\user@example.com\ObjectStore\CustomEmoticons.

The directory contained .dt2 and .id2 files. When I checked .dt2 files with FileAlyzer, I found that they were actually GIF files. Most were GIF89a files, but some were GIF87a files as is revealed by the first 6 bytes in the files. GIF89a files have 47 49 46 38 39 61 as the first six bytes in the files while GIF87a files have 47 49 46 38 37 61 as the first six bytes. If you change the extension on a file from .dt2 to .gif, you can view the file with an image viewing program.

FileAlyzer .dt2 file

There is a .dt2 and .id2 file for each emoticon with names similar to the example shown below.

ZysU6LltaOP0MVYOBvV4YcbnHr4=.dt2
ZysU6LltaOP0MVYOBvV4YcbnHr4=.id2

These are associated with the emoticons you see in the Custom emoticons section when you select an emoticon within Windows Live Messenger.

Custom Emoticons

I was able to transfer all of the custom icons for Windows Live Messenger from the Windows XP system to the Windows 7 system, by copying all the files in the CustomIcons folder on the Windows XP system to that folder on the Windows 7 system. Where the files already exist, you can choose to skip or copy over those files.

Note: if you have Windows Live Messenger open on the destination system at the time you copy the files to it, you will need to close all Windows Live Messenger windows and close the program and then reopen it to see the custom icons you copied.

References:

  1. GIF
    Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  2. Decrypting Messenger Id2 files
    Date: July 2, 2007
    Fanatic Live

[/network/chat/live_messenger] permanent link

Fri, Feb 19, 2010 8:48 pm

Mac GNU Privacy Guard 2.x

A version of GNU Privacy Guard is available for Mac OS X systems from Mac GNU Privacy Guard. A .zip file, MacGPG2-2.0.14RC2.zip, can be downloaded from Mac GNU Privacy Guard v2.x Files.

To install the software, once you've downloaded it, unzip the contents of the zip file, which you can do from a shell prompt with the unzip command. Then use the Finder to locate the .mpkg file that was extracted from the .zip file. Double-click on it to start the MacGPG2 Installer.

Welcome ot the MacGPG2 Installer

Click on Continue to continue with the installation. The next step will be to view the Read Me information, followed by the display of the GNU General Public License Version 3, which covers the use of the software. After agreeing to the license, you will be informed of the amount of space that will be used by the software, which is 21.6 MB for version 2.0.14RC2. When you proceed with the installation, the gpg executable will be installed in /usr/local/bin.

You can see other files installed during the installation with lsbom -fls /Library/Receipts/macgpg2.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom.

$ lsbom -fls /Library/Receipts/macgpg2.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Info.plist
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/MacOS/applet
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/PkgInfo
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Resources/._applet.icns
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/._main
.scpt
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/main.s
cpt
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Resources/applet.icns
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Resources/applet.rsrc
./Applications/start-gpg-agent.app/Contents/Resources/description.rt
fd/TXT.rtf
./Library/LaunchAgents/com.sourceforge.macgpg2.gpg-agent.plist
./private/etc/paths.d/MacGPG2
./usr/local/sbin/MacGPG2-login.sh
./usr/local/sbin/MacGPG2-logout.sh

Your keyrings, such as pubring.gpg, will be installed in /Users/acctname/.gnupg/. where acctname represents the particular account you are using. If you have keyrings already on another system, you can copy those keyrings to that location. I.e., you can copy pubring.gpg, secring.gpg, and trustdb.gpg from the other system. You can see what keys are in your public keyring with gpg --list-keys.

References:

  1. GNU Privacy Guard
    Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  2. Mac GNU Privacy Guard
    SourceForge
  3. Uninstall applications installed from packages
    Date: January 11, 2010
    By: oblahdioblidaa
    Mac OS X Hints

[/os/os-x/software/security] permanent link

Mon, Feb 15, 2010 10:37 pm

Taskbar Color Not Changing for Themes on a Windows 7 System

My wife reported that the taskbar color on her Windows 7 desktop system was not changing when she changed the theme as it did on her laptop. The background color would change for a theme, but the taskbar color remained the same gray color.

I right-clicked on the desktop and chose Personalize. At the bottom of the window where one could select a theme, there was an option to Troubleshooot problems with transparency and other Aero effects . I clicked on that option. A window then appeared where I could click on Next to troubleshoot Aero problems.

Troubleshoot Aero Problems

When I clicked on Next, I saw a window with "Update the driver for your video card" and the message that "The current video card may support Aero with a driver that is compliant with the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). Contact the manufacturer of your computer or video card for a WDDM-compatible driver."

Update the Driver

I clicked on Next and saw a "Troubleshooting has completed" window stating the following:

Problems found

Video card driver doesn't support Aero effects

Aero Not Supported

I decided to check the Windows Experience Index (WEI) score for the system. I clicked on the Start button and selected Control Panel. The View by settng was Category. I changed it to Large icons and then selected Performance Information and Tools, which showed me the WEI score was 1.0.

The WEI assesses key system components on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9. A system is rated with an overall score, called the base score, and with subscores for each of five individual hardware components: processor, memory, graphics, gaming graphics, and primary hard disk. The base score is determined from the lowest of the five subscores, because a system's performance is limited by its slowest or least-powerful hardware component.

Windows Experience Index

In this case the values were as follows:

ComponentWhat is ratedSubscore
Processor:Calculations per second4.2
Memory (RAM):Memory operations per second 4.6
Graphics:Desktop performance for Windows Aero 1.9
Gaming graphics:3D business and gaming graphics performance1.0
Primary hard disk:Disk data transfer rate 5.9

In this case the overall score was 1.0, because of the gaming graphics score. I clicked on Re-run the assessment. The only score that changed was the one for memory, which changed from 4.6 to 4.9. I had replaced the memory modules in the system.

According to the table provided at Winows Experience Index, a value of 3.0 is typically needed to have Windows Aero automatically enabled.

[/os/windows/win7/video] permanent link

Mon, Feb 15, 2010 9:04 pm

Unattended Installation of Paint Shop Pro 9

The Paint Shop Pro 9.01 installation program, English_PaintShopPro901_Jasc_PREMIUMESD.exe appears to be an InstallShield PackagefortheWeb (PFTW), i.e. an InstallShield tree bundled up into one file. If you open the file in WinRAR, WinZip, or similar program, you will see the following files within it.

NameSize
\Data1.cab107,916,138
\0x0409.ini4,632
\instmsia.exe1,708,856
\instmsiw.exe1,822,520
\Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9.msi2,120,312
\setup.exe225,280
\Setup.ini1,221

When you run English_PaintShopPro901_Jasc_PREMIUMESD.exe without any options it will extract the files listed above to C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Setup Files\English PaintShopPro901 Jasc PREMIUM ESD. The setup.exe file will be executed, which will install Paint Shop Pro 9 to the default installation directory of %PROGRAMFILES%\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 9\, e.g., C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 9\.

If you run the program from the command line and specify INSTALLDIR, though, you can change where the software is installed. E.g., you could use the following:

c:\Users\JDoe\Downloads>English_PaintShopPro901_Jasc_PREMIUMESD.exe /s /a /w /v" /qn /l* C:\Users\Public\Documents\PSP9.log INSTALLDIR=\" C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9\" ALLUSERS=2"

The options used are listed below:

/s : Silent mode

For an InstallScript MSI or InstallScript project, the command Setup.exe /s runs the installation in silent mode, by default based on the responses contained in a response file called Setup.iss in the same directory. (Response files are created by running Setup.exe with the /r option.) To specify an alternative file name or location of the response file, use the /f1 option.

/a : Add

The /a ... ("add") switch allows you to add switches to the command line of the underlying setup.exe process. You may provide any of the normal InstallShield switches here, including /r, /s, and /sms.

Note: the PFTW package recognizes the /s and /a switches. The /s switch instructs the PFTW package to run silently, but this does not necessarily mean that the setup.exe program within it will run silently.

/w : Wait (Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI projects)

For a Basic MSI project, the /w option forces Setup.exe to wait until the installation is complete before exiting.

/v"ISSCRIPTCMDLINE=\" \"" : Pass arguments that should be passed to the script (Basic MSI projects only)

This option specifices command-line parameters to be passed to the script. Any property supported by InstallScript MSI (where appropriate) can be specified. (The most common ones are /d and /z.)

For example, the following indicates that you want to debug the script, and that the CMDLINE variable should contain TEST.

Setup.exe /v"ISSCRIPTCMDLINE=\"-d -zTEST\""

Note that as shown above, when you want to specify that a double quote character is not a delimiter for the command line but a delimiter for the property, use \".

Note also that as with any public Windows Installer property, this property should be specified with all uppercase letters.

So, I've put the \ before each of the double quotes in INSTALLDIR=\"C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9\ to "escape" the meaning of them on the command line. The option thus specifies that the software should be installed in C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9\ rather than the default directory of C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 9\.

But the first switch I pass down to msiexec, which is the Microsoft Windows provided installer program is /qn. That makes the installation non-interactive, i.e. yields an unattended installation. You could use /qb, instead, for an unattended installation, however, in this case there is still a brief display of a window during the installation about preparation for the installation.

The /l* C:\Users\Public\Documents\PSP9.log specifies that a log file should be produced with information on the installation.

Information on the ALLUSERS option can be found at ALLUSERS Property webpage.

You can provide named options, or "properties", at the end of the command line; which properties are supported depends on the package. If you wnat to know which properties are supported for an installation you can install the software with the /l* option and then look in the log file after the installation is completed, which is what I did to determine what property to use to specify the installation directory for the software. The * after the l indicates that all types of log messages should be included in the log file. You can see the types of messages that can be logged at Command-Line Switches for the Microsoft Windows Installer Tool.

I saw the following in the log file:

Property(S): INSTALLDIR = C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 9\

So I then knew I could specify the directory for an unintended install by using INSTALLDIR=. I wanted to install the software in C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9\. Since the directory path contains spaces, I had to enclose the path and file name in double quotes. But, since those double quotes would be appearing within an outer set of double quotes, I needed to put a forward slash before each one. Otherwise the first double quote could be interprested as closing the outer set of double quotes, so I used INSTALLDIR=\" C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9\"

During the installation, the following registry keys are created:

Paint Shop Pro 9 registry keys

During the installation the setup files are extracted to C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Soetup Files. I install Paint Shop Pro 9 to C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9 and delete the C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc directory and every thing beneath it after the installation, since the setup files consume 108 MB of disk space. You can delete the directory from the command line with rd /s /q "c:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\".

A silent uninstall can be peformed for Paint Shop Pro 9 using the command MsiExec.exe /x{F843C6A3-224D-4615-94F8-3C461BD9AEA0} /q.

I created the following psp.xml file to be able to perform a silent install of Paint Shop Pro 9 with WPKG

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<packages>
      
<package
   id="PSP"
   name="Paint Shop Pro"
   revision="9"
   priority="3"
   reboot="false">
 
<check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9" />
 
<install cmd='%SOFTWARE%\Graphics\English_PaintShopPro901_Jasc_PREMIUMESD.exe /s /a /w /v"/qn 
/l* c:\Users\Public\Documents\SysInfo\Reports\Install\PSP9.log 
INSTALLDIR=\"C:\Program Files\Graphics\Paint Shop Pro 9\" ALLUSERS=2"' />

<remove cmd='MsiExec.exe /x{F843C6A3-224D-4615-94F8-3C461BD9AEA0} /q'/>

</package>

</packages>

References:

  1. InstallShield
    Unattended, A Windows deployment system
  2. Setup.exe and Update.exe Command-Line Parameters
    Flexera Software - Knowledge Base
  3. InstallShield
    Flexera Software
  4. ALLUSERS Property
    MSDN: Microsoft Development, MSDN Subscriptions, Resources and More
  5. Command-Line Switches for the Microsoft Windows Installer Tool
    Microsoft Support
  6. Paint Shop Pro
    WPKG | Open Source Software Deployment and Distribution

[/os/windows/software/wpkg] permanent link

Sun, Feb 14, 2010 5:19 pm

Firefox 3.6 Silent Install with WPKG

An "unattended", aka "silent" install can be performed on Firefox 3.6. Instructions on performing a silent install can be found at Installer: Command Line Arguments.

You can use the -ms option with the setup file, though this is listed as being a deprecated option. However, the alternative option, /S, for a silent install is listed as being broken currently [This is as of February 14, 2010]. Or you can use the option /INI=<full path to configuration ini file>. You can't mix the /S or -ms options with the /INI file. If you place the /INI option after one of those options, the /INI option will be ignored and there's really no need to do so, since a silent installation will be performed when you specify the /INI option.

Configuration ini file, e.g. firefox.ini syntax:

[Install]
; The name of the directory where the application will be installed in the
; system's program files directory. The security
; context the installer is running in must have write access to the
; installation directory. Also, the directory must not exist or if it exists
; it must be a directory and not a file. If any of these conditions are not met
; the installer will abort the installation with an error level of 2. If this
; value is specified then InstallDirectoryPath will be ignored.
; InstallDirectoryName=Mozilla Firefox
 
; The full path to the directory to install the application. The security
; context the installer is running in must have write access to the
; installation directory. Also, the directory must not exist or if it exists
; it must be a directory and not a file. If any of these conditions are not met
; the installer will abort the installation with an error level of 2.
; InstallDirectoryPath=c:\firefox\
 
; By default all of the following shortcuts are created. To prevent the
; creation of a shortcut specify false for the shortcut you don't want created.
;
; Create a shortcut for the application in the current user's QuickLaunch
; directory.
; QuickLaunchShortcut=false
;
; Create a shortcut for the application on the desktop. This will create the
; shortcut in the All Users Desktop directory and if that fails this will
; attempt to create the shortcuts in the current user's Start Menu directory.
; DesktopShortcut=false
;
; Create shortcuts for the application in the Start Menu. This will create the
; shortcuts in the All Users Start Menu directory and if that fails this will
; attempt to create the shortcuts in the current user's Start Menu directory.
; StartMenuShortcuts=false
 
; The directory name to use for the StartMenu folder.
; note: if StartMenuShortcuts=false is specified then this will be ignored.
; StartMenuDirectoryName=Mozilla Firefox

If you want to spcify the directory where Firefox should be installed, rather than having it go into the default location, e.g. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox, leave the semicolon in front of InstallDirectoryName="Mozilla Firefox" to keep it commented out. But remove the semicolon from the InstallDirectoryPath option. E.g., if I wanted to specify C:\Program Files\Network\Web\Firefox as the installation directory, I could put the following in that line:

InstallDirectoryPath=c:\Program Files\Network\Web\Mozilla Firefox

I normally don't want the desktop cluttered with shortcuts, so I would remove the semicolon from in front of DesktopShortcut=false to keep a shortcut for Firefox being added to the desktop.

By default, a start menu entry will be made named Mozilla Firefox, but, if I instead wanted the start menu entry to go under Network Web\Mozilla Firefox, I could use StartMenuDirectoryName=Network\Web\Mozilla Firefox for the StartMenuDirectoryName option.

To perform an unattended install using WPKG, I could use the following for a firefox.xml package file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<packages>
     
<package 
	id="Firefox"
	name="Mozilla Firefox 3.6"
	revision="3600"
	reboot="false"
	priority="30">
 
	<check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Mozilla Firefox (3.6)" />
	<install cmd="taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe">
		<exit code="0" />
		<exit code="128" />
                <exit code="-1073741515" />
	</install>
	<install cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\network\web\Firefox Setup 3.6.exe" /ini=%SOFTWARE%\network\web\firefox.ini' />
	<upgrade cmd="taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe">
		<exit code="0" />
		<exit code="128" />
                <exit code="-1073741515" />
	</upgrade>
	<upgrade cmd='"%SOFTWARE%\network\web\Firefox Setup 3.6.exe" /ini=%SOFTWARE%\network\web\firefox.ini' />
	<remove cmd="taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe">
		<exit code="0" />
		<exit code="128" />
                <exit code="-1073741515" />
	</remove>
	<remove cmd='"%PROGRAMFILES%\Network\Web\Mozilla Firefox\uninstall\helper.exe" /s' />
</package>

</packages>

References:

  1. Firefox - WPKG
    WPKG
  2. Installer:Command Line Arguments
    mozilla wiki

[/os/windows/software/wpkg] permanent link

Fri, Feb 12, 2010 3:57 pm

Using OpenSSL to calculate Message Digest

The md5sum command can be used to calculate an MD5 message digest (MD5 is an abbreviation for "Message-Digest algorithm 5"), which is a cryptographic hash function. The md5sum program is commonly found on Linux systems and programs which the provide the same functionality are also available for Microsoft Windows systems, e.g. digestIT 2004. But, if such a program isn't present on a system, e.g. an OS X system, but OpenSSL is present, you can use the openssl command to obtain message digests, which can allow you to verify that a file, such as an executable file, was not changed since it was released by the originator.

If you issue the command openssl dgst filename, openssl will, by default, provide the MD5 checksum for the file. You can also use other cryptographic hash functions, such as SHA, SHA1, MD2, or you can specify MD5.

$ openssl dgst images.zip
MD5(images.zip)= 796faa884fb0125eda60cd5e8aa8daa1
$ openssl md5 images.zip
MD5(images.zip)= 796faa884fb0125eda60cd5e8aa8daa1
$ openssl sha1 images.zip
SHA1(images.zip)= 3070ac89b7a4327e217045b1cac790c1dc048d8f
$ openssl sha images.zip
SHA(images.zip)= 021e35f63c55e22355bea99f73df885659a46d15
$ openssl md2 images.zip
MD2(images.zip)= 47bd3f0cc33710997f2fe57b1f7cc2c5

The available message digest options include the following:

MESSAGE DIGEST COMMANDS

       md2       MD2 Digest

       md5       MD5 Digest

       mdc2      MDC2 Digest

       rmd160    RMD-160 Digest

       sha       SHA Digest

       sha1      SHA-1 Digest

       sha224    SHA-224 Digest

       sha256    SHA-256 Digest

       sha384    SHA-384 Digest

       sha512    SHA-512 Digest

[/security/encryption/openssl] permanent link

Thu, Feb 11, 2010 10:24 pm

WPKG Package Settings File

I had an error in a package file that I used for installing Debugging Tools for Windows with WPKG. When I created windbg.xml, I copied an already installed package's xml file to the windbg.xml. I forgot to change the uninstall condition to match what it should be for Debugging Tools for Windows, however. I had the following in windbg.xml:

<check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Vim 7.2.320"/>

As a result, when I tried using WPKG to uninstall and reinstall the software, I was unable to do so. To fix the problem, I edited C:\Windows\system32\wpkg.xml and changed that line in the file to the correct uninstall condition, which is the following:

<check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)"/>

The corrected windbg.xml file contains the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<packages>

<!-- Debugging Tools for Windows 32-bit Version -->
<!-- Source: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx#a  -->

<package id="WinDbg" name="Debugging Tools for Windows" revision="1" reboot="false" priority="0">
      
  <check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)" />
 	
  <install cmd='msiexec INSTDIR="C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\" /i %SOFTWARE%\Utilities\SysMgmt\dbg_x86_6.11.1.404.msi  /q' />
  <upgrade cmd='%SOFTWARE%\Utilities\SysMgmt\dbg_x86_6.11.1.404.msi  /q' />
  <remove cmd='msiexec /x {300A2961-B2B5-4889-9CB9-5C2A570D08AD} /q' />

</package>
	
</packages>

References:

  1. Unattended Install for Debugging Tools for Windows
    MoonPoint Support

[/os/windows/software/wpkg] permanent link

Thu, Feb 11, 2010 6:02 pm

Troubleshooting with openssl

You can use the command openssl s_client -connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyyyy command, where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the server and yyyyy is the port number on the server used for HTTPS. The port is usually 443, but does not have to be that port. You can, of course, also use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), such as paypal.com, instead of an IP address.

By using the command, one can determine if a system is responding correctly using the HTTPS protocol. E.g. below is an example of a query issued against paypal.com:

$ openssl s_client -connect paypal.com:443
CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=2 /C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority - G2/OU=(c) 1998 VeriSign, Inc. - For authorized use only/OU=VeriSign Trust Network
verify return:1
depth=1 /C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)09/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G2
verify return:1
depth=0 /C=US/ST=California/L=San Jose/O=PayPal, Inc./OU=Information Systems/CN=paypal.com
verify return:1
---
Certificate chain
 0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=San Jose/O=PayPal, Inc./OU=Information Systems/CN=paypal.com
   i:/C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)09/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G2
 1 s:/C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)09/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G2
   i:/C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority - G2/OU=(c) 1998 VeriSign, Inc. - For authorized use only/OU=VeriSign Trust Network
---
Server certificate
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIFDjCCA/agAwIBAgIQPma+WJDWF71INO8b3EN2LDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADCB
tTELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxFzAVBgNVBAoTDlZlcmlTaWduLCBJbmMuMR8wHQYDVQQL
ExZWZXJpU2lnbiBUcnVzdCBOZXR3b3JrMTswOQYDVQQLEzJUZXJtcyBvZiB1c2Ug
YXQgaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudmVyaXNpZ24uY29tL3JwYSAoYykwOTEvMC0GA1UEAxMm
VmVyaVNpZ24gQ2xhc3MgMyBTZWN1cmUgU2VydmVyIENBIC0gRzIwHhcNMDkwNjEx
MDAwMDAwWhcNMTAwNjExMjM1OTU5WjB/MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzETMBEGA1UECBMK
Q2FsaWZvcm5pYTERMA8GA1UEBxQIU2FuIEpvc2UxFTATBgNVBAoUDFBheVBhbCwg
SW5jLjEcMBoGA1UECxQTSW5mb3JtYXRpb24gU3lzdGVtczETMBEGA1UEAxQKcGF5
cGFsLmNvbTCBnzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOBjQAwgYkCgYEAqCjJNlLuv02o0lG7
YPO3vreiUl5ptCTgbLD7TkYRrYivoZQUQZh0whOchbh3kabbPnqyVULcq4dGZeNx
eQLppc0n/YhxJnsPqoBoyg45/Xpc5HWKVuMsDMBRtTLwyjcfH7GVljUiDH/YoKL7
OCtpdJ+mgmLyqTWj+d8DpYWiDA0CAwEAAaOCAdEwggHNMAkGA1UdEwQCMAAwCwYD
VR0PBAQDAgWgMEUGA1UdHwQ+MDwwOqA4oDaGNGh0dHA6Ly9TVlJTZWN1cmUtRzIt
Y3JsLnZlcmlzaWduLmNvbS9TVlJTZWN1cmVHMi5jcmwwRAYDVR0gBD0wOzA5Bgtg
hkgBhvhFAQcXAzAqMCgGCCsGAQUFBwIBFhxodHRwczovL3d3dy52ZXJpc2lnbi5j
b20vcnBhMB0GA1UdJQQWMBQGCCsGAQUFBwMBBggrBgEFBQcDAjAfBgNVHSMEGDAW
gBSl7wsRzsBBA6NKZZBIshzgVy19RzB2BggrBgEFBQcBAQRqMGgwJAYIKwYBBQUH
MAGGGGh0dHA6Ly9vY3NwLnZlcmlzaWduLmNvbTBABggrBgEFBQcwAoY0aHR0cDov
L1NWUlNlY3VyZS1HMi1haWEudmVyaXNpZ24uY29tL1NWUlNlY3VyZUcyLmNlcjBu
BggrBgEFBQcBDARiMGChXqBcMFowWDBWFglpbWFnZS9naWYwITAfMAcGBSsOAwIa
BBRLa7kolgYMu9BSOJsprEsHiyEFGDAmFiRodHRwOi8vbG9nby52ZXJpc2lnbi5j
b20vdnNsb2dvMS5naWYwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEFBQADggEBAA9sBxK8/hfHF6iKghED
jNTMpTLHT3lx8rdHnHD1UN5/lA0H8oMbjt6uzQVp9h9Xv/pOop/ItNNitdffTOnW
fVds+nMb56WSuX1d0fPn5KGGQcTMzTpA5Uxn3qnWXQc92O47qGEZSZ/aEYZjaHn2
VX5MFf2JXX1FQOyL288vCalmGAPLggjo3Hn0tWgK4Dd69l8JPm51FtEyijor/svw
FoxF7cJ6g92mgmu3JC10xhIXYDHiIAiTIzA3KCdAZikM4waZU8quRjgAIGrS0rRa
ohw0aAvy7gUrMWaws7+de3H0y/zQxfEbAsVzZ0+QA2WrGsa6EVKjcwW+VCJSLNZq
NeU=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
subject=/C=US/ST=California/L=San Jose/O=PayPal, Inc./OU=Information Systems/CN=paypal.com
issuer=/C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)09/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G2
---
No client certificate CA names sent
---
SSL handshake has read 3029 bytes and written 308 bytes
---
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is DES-CBC3-SHA
Server public key is 1024 bit
Compression: NONE
Expansion: NONE
SSL-Session:
    Protocol  : TLSv1
    Cipher    : DES-CBC3-SHA
    Session-ID: E24FE41E08BCBB5246EE5EAC08E7E4ACBB4708F0CD0089E9EF602E4F3C435922
    Session-ID-ctx:
    Master-Key: FFF8BF97F79796457EE44860212C5F887FFE8F62F4A6FC908DB1A382489BE5C2963C2D5F84BC526911FA5EB096634603
    Key-Arg   : None
    Krb5 Principal: None
    Start Time: 1262641575
    Timeout   : 300 (sec)
    Verify return code: 0 (ok)
---

You can check the expiration date of an SSL certificate by first retrieving the certificate using commands such as in the first line below. You can then check the expiration date with a command such as the one on the next line, which shows that the current certificate for PayPal expires at midnight Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on June 11, 2010.

$ echo "" | openssl s_client -connect paypal.com:443 > certificate
depth=2 /C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=Class 3 Public Primary Certification Authority
 - G2/OU=(c) 1998 VeriSign, Inc. - For authorized use only/OU=VeriSign Trust Net
work
verify return:1
depth=1 /C=US/O=VeriSign, Inc./OU=VeriSign Trust Network/OU=Terms of use at https://www.verisign.com/rpa (c)09/CN=VeriSign Class 3 Secure Server CA - G2
verify return:1
depth=0 /C=US/ST=California/L=San Jose/O=PayPal, Inc./OU=Information Systems/CN=paypal.com
verify return:1
DONE
$ openssl x509 -in certificate -noout -enddate
notAfter=Jun 11 23:59:59 2010 GMT

Another example below shows the results returned for a self-signed certificate:

# echo "" | /usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl s_client -connect 10.10.0.108:443 > certi
ficate
depth=0 /C=EU/ST=SomeState/L=SomeCity/O=SomeOranization/OU=SomeOrganizationUnit/
CN=localhost
verify error:num=18:self signed certificate
verify return:1
depth=0 /C=EU/ST=SomeState/L=SomeCity/O=SomeOranization/OU=SomeOrganizationUnit/
CN=localhost
verify return:1
DONE
# /usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl x509 -in certificate -noout -enddate
notAfter=Feb 12 11:44:04 2018 GMT

References:

  1. OpenSSL: Documents, s_client(1)
    OpenSSL: The Open Source toolkit for SLS/TLS
  2. When does my certificate expire?
    barndonhutchinson.com -- Linux, Solaris, and general UNIX notes.

[/security/encryption/openssl] permanent link

Thu, Feb 11, 2010 5:53 pm

Unattended Install for Debugging Tools for Windows

I wanted to install Debugging Tools for Windows on several systems. I wanted to do an "unattended", aka "silent", installation where the installation would occur automatically without any user intervention, except perhaps at most a command being issued at a command prompt. The Debugging Tools for Windows comes as an .msi file, which is a Microsoft Windows installation file.

At Forcing MSI Installation Into a Specific Directory, I found a suggestion to put TARGETDIR on the command line when using the msiexec command. E.g. to specify the directory where an application should be installed when the installation file for that application is an .msi file, the author of that page suggested that you can use a command similar to the following:

msiexec TARGETDIR="C:\MyTargetDirectory" /i MyProject.msi

You can use the /q option to specify that the installation does not present a GUI installer window or prompt the user - see Command-Line Options for other command line options.

That did not work in this case, however. So, I decided to try the webpage author's suggestion to turn on logging during an installation of the software where I performed the install normally from the GUI installation method. I turned on verbose logging using the command msiexec /i dbg_x86_6.11.1.404.msi /l*v c:\windbg.log, which created a log file c:\windbg.log.

During the installation process, I chose a "custom" install and specified the installation directory be C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\ rather than the default installation directory of C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\. When the installation was completed, I saw the following when I opened the log file with Notepad:

MSI (c) (44:D8) [16:44:12:281]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying INSTDIR property. Its current value is 'C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\'. Its new value: 'C:\'.
MSI (c) (44:D8) [16:44:13:291]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying INSTDIR property. Its current value is 'C:\'. Its new value: 'C:\Program Files\'.
MSI (c) (44:D8) [16:44:16:866]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying INSTDIR property. Its current value is 'C:\Program Files\'. Its new value: 'C:\Program Files\Utilities\'.
MSI (c) (44:D8) [16:44:18:062]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying INSTDIR property. Its current value is 'C:\Program Files\Utilities\'. Its new value: 'C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\'.
MSI (c) (44:D8) [16:44:24:941]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying INSTDIR property. Its current value is 'C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\'. Its new value: 'C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\'.
MSI (c) (44:D8) [16:44:25:095]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying _1394 property. Its current value is 'C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\1394\'. Its new value: 'C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\1394\'.

I could see that the property being modified was INSTDIR rather than TARGETDIR, so I then tried the following command at the command line:

msiexec INSTDIR="C:\Program Files\Utilities\SysMgmt\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\" /i dbg_x86_6.11.1.404.msi /q

That put the software in the directory where I wanted it installed and did not display a GUI window or any prompts.

To uninstall software installed through an MSI file, you can use msiexec /x Package|ProductCode. In this case, after the installation, I ran regedit and checked the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. I could see that the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{300A2961-B2B5-4889-9CB9-5C2A570D08AD} registry key was the appropriate one, since within it I saw the following:

NameTypeSize
DisplayNameREG_SZ Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)
DisplayVersionREG_SZ 6.11.1.404
UninstallStringREG_EXPAND_SZ MsiExec.exe /I{300A2961-B2B5-4889-9CB9-5C2A570D08AD}

That told me that the ProductCode for Debugging Tools for Windows is {300A2961-B2B5-4889-9CB9-5C2A570D08AD}. However, if I used MsiExec.exe /I{300A2961-B2B5-4889-9CB9-5C2A570D08AD} to uninstall the software, I would get a GUI uninstall window where I would have to select the "remove" option. For a silent uninstall from the command line, I can use msiexec /x {300A2961-B2B5-4889-9CB9-5C2A570D08AD} /q. The /x option indicates that you want to remove the software. The /q option indicates you want a silent uninstall. Without the /q option, you would be prompted to confirm the removal of the software.

The DisplayName registry entry is what you will see under "Uninstall or change a program" or "Add or Remove Programs" under the Windows Control Panel. E.g., in this case, I would see Debugging Tools for Windows (x86) there.

References:

  1. Debugging Tools for Windows
    WHDC - Windows Hardware Developer Central
  2. File Extension .MSI Details
    FILExt - The File Extension Source
  3. Windows Installer
    Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  4. Forcing MSI Installation Into a Specific Directory
    Arthur Zubarev
  5. Command-Line Options
    MSDN: Microsoft Development, MSDN Subscriptions, Resources, and More
  6. Unattended/Silent Installation Switches for Windows Apps
    Unattended, A Windows deployment system

[/os/windows/utilities/sysmgmt] permanent link

Sat, Feb 06, 2010 4:37 pm

Installing FlieAlyzer with WPKG

I installed FileAlyzer 1.6.0.4 on a Windows 7 system using WPKG, which is open source software for deployment and distribution of software. I created a filealyzer.xml file which I placed in WPGK's packages directory on the server from which I install software. The filealyzer.xml file contained the following commands:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<packages>
      
<package
   id="FileAlyzer"
   name="FileAlyzer"
   revision="1"
   priority="3"
   reboot="false">
 
   <check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="FileAlyzer"/>
 
   <install cmd='%SOFTWARE%\utilities\filealyz.exe /sp- /verysilent /Dir="%PROGRAMFILES%\Utilities\FileAlyzer"'/>
 
   <upgrade cmd='%SOFTWARE%\utilities\filealyz.exe /sp- /verysilent /Dir="%PROGRAMFILES%\Utilities\FileAlyzer"'/>
 
   <remove cmd='"%PROGRAMFILES%\Utilities\FileAlyzer\unins000.exe" /sp- /verysilent /norestart'/>
 
</package>

</packages>

%SOFTWARE% is a variable representing the directory on the server where software to be installed is located. I was able to specify the directory where the software should be installed with /Dir="%PROGRAMFILES%\Utilities\FileAlyzer" rather than having to accept the default installation directory, since FileAlyzer uses Inno Setup, an open source installer. If you don't specify the directory where it should be installed, FileAlyzer will be installed in C:\Program Files\Safer Networking\FileAlyzer

After FileAlyzer is installed, you can right-click on a file and choose Analyze file with FileAlyzer.

[/os/windows/software/wpkg] permanent link

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