18 November 2012

Eliminating UAC prompt for individual programs


Here is how I was able to stop the annoying UAC prompt in Windows 7 everytime I started Fraps without disabling it completely.

  1. Download the Windows Compatibility Toolkit from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7352
    • ApplicationCompatibilityToolkitSetup.exe
    • And install it
  2. Open the Compatibility Administrator (use 32 bit for 32 bit programs and 64 for 64)
  3.  Click the Fix Button which will bring up a wizard
    • Type the name of the program (eg. Fraps)
    • Click the browse button and select the program
    • Check the RunAsInvoker box and nothing else
    • Click Next twice and then Finish
  4. Click Save
    • Type in a name for the database, I used Fraps
    • Select a location/name for the save, I used the same directory as the program and fraps.sdb
  5. Exit Windows Compatibility Toolkit
  6. Start an elevated command prompt
    • Click the start button
    • Type: cmd
    • Right click on the cmd result and select "Run as administrator"
  7. Navigate to the directory you saved the sdb file to
  8. Type: sdbinst Fraps.sdb
  9. You should see the following result:
    • Installation of Fraps complete.
  10. All done! Enjoy your starting of the program without UAC prompts!

Source: http://pcsplace.com/windows-vista/how-to-turn-off-user-account-control-for-individual-programs-in-vista/

03 November 2012

Windows X11


To install a X11 window manager in windows, I used Cygwin and made sure to check the X11 options when installing.

To start the X11 window manger open a cygwin terminal and type:
xwin -multiwindow

You can then use X forwarding in PuTTy to open Linux Guis on windows! Each window will have windows native minimize, maximize, and close buttons.