RDISK is gone in Windows 2000

There is no RDISK.EXE in W2K.
To create a recovery disk:

Start - Run NTBACKUP.EXE
Tools > "Create an Emergency Repair Disk"
Insert a blank formatted disk in drive A: and click OK
Click OK again.

User accounts are now stored in AD and will not be recoverable from the recovery disk.
Active directory must be backed up and restored separately.

Fast Windows NT Shutdown

The process described here is not the recommended way to shut down your computer, but it can be performed in extreme circumstances when you either cannot normally shut down your computer, or you need to bring it offline without saving any current information. This process, however, is less harmful than turning off the power to your computer by performing a hard restart (reboot).
Performing an Emergency Shutdown in Windows

Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
When the logon information screen is displayed, press CTRL.
Press the TAB key to move to the Shut down option, and then while you are pressing CTRL, click Shut down or press ENTER.
When the following message is displayed, click OK to continue with the emergency shutdown:

If you continue, your machine will reboot and any unsaved data will be lost. Use this only as a last resort.

From: MSKB 279134

Regular Expressions

Unix jockeys use them all the time. What? You NT guys aren't using Regular Expressions? They are extremely powerful and often elegant way to get a lot done in a hurry.
Check out http://www.textpad.com for a great Win32 editor that supports using regular expressions. There may be others. Check out the Rx Cookbook for great examples of usable expressions to apply to your text. http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Rx

WINDOWS 2000::CMD.EXE::Tips

Autocomplete at command line

Why do I care?

Autocomplete for CMD.exe is not enabled by default in Windows 2000 and later.
When you type a path and then press the TAB key, the command processor searches for all files whose path (but not necessarily the file name) matches your entry. The command processor displays one of the matching file names each time you press TAB. To go backward through the list of file names, press SHIFT+TAB.

How do I get it?

To enable automatic complete for Cmd.exe, use Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) to view the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor

Edit the CompletionChar value, and set the value of REG_DWORD to 9.

Thanks Kevin and Microsoft

Outlook 2002::Printing HTML formatted e-mails

PROBLEM/BUG:

When printing an HTML formatted e-mail in corporate version of Outlook 98 and above the attachment name does not print. When printing a message, no indication if given that there were attachments let alone what they are. This works perfectly fine on Outlook Express 6.
ANSWER FROM MICROSOFT SUPPORT:
...several companies have filed DCR's (Design Change Request's) to
change the design for printing attachment icons using HTML email
formatting. Unfortunately, due to the scope of this design change
coupled with the work the Office development team was doing these DCR's
were not accepted. Following is information from Microsoft as to why
these request changing were not accepted.

"Outlook uses the standard Internet Explorer print dialog when printing
email formatted with HTML which has no mechanism for handling
attachments. Office development has examined the possibility of creating
a new print dialog specifically to handle this design change request and
found the risks to code stability and the introduction of new
localization dependencies unworkable for a service release of Outlook.
Inclusion of this functionality in a future version is under
consideration."

RANT

So a free version of Outlook that comes with about every PC you buy will perform this function. However, when a large company pays major money for the latest enterprise edition of Exchange and the newest version of Outlook XP it won't perform this function. Not only this, but that's the way it's been for years. It's been so long, in fact, there is a company who, for about $20 per seat, will sell us a "add-on" for Outlook that will fix this. That should be embarrassing to Microsoft, but after all they are keeping their development channel in business. Just another $200 worth of "add-on" software will make up for some pretty obvious features that people want, but Microsoft just plain doesn't care about that. What's more, our authorized Microsoft support company's answer was to give us a link to www.sperrysoftware.com. Paying for Microsoft support turns out to further an a ploy to advertise overpriced add-on software.
We spent huge money migrating to a mostly Microsoft environment. The e-mail system we migrated from provided this rudimentary capability. There are certain minimal, obvious options that reasonable people come to expect of software. Microsoft just hasn't been responsive to what real people want in the real world. They should balance the "risks to code stability and the introduction of new localization dependencies" against the guarantee of looking downright stupid.

Today is the first real day of this blog being public. If anybody is reading, please e-mail me and let me know your ideas or other technical tips.
This is one of hopefully very few blog-specific notes.
Although I will take a more conversational, explanatory, maybe humorous tone in future entries, there will be no remarks here about politics, my dog, my personal life, . . .

Unix::Vi-Line Numbers
From https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECN/Resources/KnowledgeBase/Categories/editors/vi
To display the line numbers in the left margin of a vi document, type :set nu. To turn them off again, type :set nonu.
If you want vi to display line numbers by default, you need to set the EXINIT to set nu.
You can set this in your .login or your shell start-up file.
Open your editor to edit your .login or your shell start-up file. Add the following lines:
For C-Shell:
setenv EXINIT "set nu"
For Bourne or Korn Shell:
EXINIT="set nu"; export EXINIT
For Korn Shell Only (alternate method):
typeset -x EXINIT="set nu"
Either log-out and log back in or "source" your shell start-up file.
-- Alternatively, you can put set nu in your .exrc file in your home directory

Unix::Vi
Vi Tutorial!
I plan to spend a good deal more time here after I complete ctssn.com tutorial.

Stuff

Testing out CYGWIN today - a Unix under Windows thingy. cygwin.org (the name needs work, but it's by RedHat)
I'm working through the tutorial at http://www.ctssn.com and as I go I'm adding modules/etc to cygwin.

And....
http://www.alltheweb.com is awesome. I may be a convert from Google.