Tag: windows

Launch ‘Configure advanced user profile properties’ from Command Prompt

If you’re a Windows sysadmin in an environment with locked down user rights, and you want to perform an administrative action without needing to log out a current user, you can find yourself in a tight spot. Luckily, if you Shift-RightClick Command Prompt, click Run As another user, and login as your admin user, you can launch administrative tools all without needing to log out.

One such tool is the User Profiles window under Advanced system settings. To launch it from Command Prompt, type:

rundll32.exe sysdm.cpl,EditUserProfiles

 

Windows Environment Variables from Command Prompt

If you’re supporting an end user on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, or 10, and don’t want to completely log them out, you can use Run As on a Command Prompt as an administrator and then run the following:

rundll32 sysdm.cpl,EditEnvironmentVariables

Now edit your variables and relaunch your application. This is very useful if you find yourself needing to correct the PATH, let’s say, for Java.

Is Firefox just a browser?

http://xkcd.com/c198.html
Image from xkcd.com

To so many people, their computer and technological affiliations are becoming a way of life, a basis for their identity. Mac vs. PC vs. *nix/*BSD, Internet Explorer vs. Firefox vs. Opera.

It’s not about the quality of the technology, it’s about making oneself feel superior through the competition of technology. We, as individuals, don’t even have a real stake in the battle, but because of our use and affiliation with it we end up feeling compelled to defend it as to justify our own past decisions.

If you’re a ___-fanboy and identified, in one way or another, as such then it means you consider the well-being of whatever ___ as important to your own well-being and sense of worth. To defend your viewpoint, then, much to the annoyance of other people who don’t want to hear about how ___ is so great a thousand times, is for the sake of your own self-esteem.

But seriously, stop, because I’m not putting your self-esteem over my own sanity.