Reader to Reader - April 1998

[Editor's note: Share your NT discoveries, comments, experiences with products, problems, and solutions and reach out to other Windows NT Magazine readers (including Microsoft). Email your contributions (under 400 words) to Karen Forster at karen@winntmag.com. Please include your phone number. We will edit submissions for style, grammar, and length. If we print your letter, you'll get $100.]

More Power (Toys) to You
Rick Cogley's November 1997 Reader to Reader tip, "Open a CMD View of Explorer Folders," discussed how to use the Send To menu to open a CMD prompt in a current directory of Windows NT Explorer. Although his solution works, I know of a more efficient method.

Shortly after the release of Windows 95, the Windows Shell Development Team developed PowerToys, a series of programs that enhance the functionality of the Win95 shell. These programs offer a few bells and whistles that the official release of Win95 left out.

Although Microsoft doesn't support PowerToys, they are free add-ons you can download from http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm. Microsoft has updated about half the PowerToys to run on NT 4.0.

One invaluable PowerToy is Command Prompt Here 1.1. This .inf file creates an Explorer association for directories and adds that association to their context menu.

Specifically, the file creates the Registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\DosHere\command, which has a default value of %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\CMD.EXE /k cd "%1". (This file modifies several keys, but this key gets the job done.)

Command Prompt Here opens a CMD prompt in the selected directory, but it doesn't provide all the functionality that Cogley's batch file offers. You can get the best of both worlds by following these steps:

1. Install the Command Prompt Here 1.1 PowerToy.
2. Open Explorer.
3. Select Options from the View menu.
4. Click the File Types tab.
5. Select File Folder from the Registered File Types list box. (Be sure not to select Folder, because it has a different meaning to the shell.)
6. Click Edit.
7. Select Command Prompt Here in the Actions list box.
8. Click Edit.
9. Enter .bat or .cmd file to execute.

Make certain that the .bat or .cmd file has START /D%1 /B as its last line. If the file has this last line, you can customize the CMD prompt environment in any way that you see fit. You simply right-click to open a fully customized CMD prompt.

—Jon Boggs
jon.boggs@metamor.com

Two Easy Ways to Search for Filenames
My network clients occasionally ask me who is accessing a certain file. For example, someone might try to open a file but is denied access because another user has that file open.

The most common method to retrieve this information is to double-click \\SERVER in Windows NT's Server Manager and then click In Use. Unfortunately, you can sort through the files only by user. If you work in an environment with thousands of users and files, you can quickly become frustrated scrolling through page after page of files, trying to find the file in question. And you can easily miss the filename you want.

I know of two ways to avoid this frustration. If your system has a file manager, you can run winfile.exe, click the appropriate filename, and press ALT+ENTER. You will get a screen that shows the file's properties and gives you access to the Open By button. You can learn who has the file open by clicking that button.

If your system doesn't have a file manager, you can use the FINDSTR command to get the same information. First, you must create a batch file. Here is my batch file, whatopen.bat:

@ECHO OFF
NET FILES > WHATOPEN.TXT
FINDSTR /I %1 WHATOPEN.TXT|MORE

Next, you must make sure that the filename of the file in question is in a directory contained in the PATH variable. Finally, you must go to a command prompt and type

WHATOPEN <filename>

NT will reveal the usernames of people who are accessing that file via the network. You can also use the FINDSTR command to display the files that user has opened by typing

WHATOPEN <username>

You can get more creative with the FINDSTR command. For example, you can find files that are open in the write mode by entering:

WHATOPEN <username> in <directory>

These are a few examples of the many uses for the FINDSTR command.

—John Ross
johnr@wordlink.com

Use Policies to Control NT's Password Warning Message
Windows NT's Password Warning Message appears 14 days before a network password expires. My company requires that employees change their password after 30 days, so half of every month I'm pestered with the question of whether I want to change my password. Wouldn't it be nice to have this message only appear a few days before expiration?

In October 1997 "Tricks & Traps," Bob Chronister discussed how to change the length of the new password warning period in NT. But with his solution, you must edit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Registry hive on every machine. Instead of using regedt32 to make this change manually on every workstation, I use system policies.

Listing 1 contains a policy template that you can use to change when the warning message appears. Although this template gives you the option for 1 day to 14 days, you can change the template so that you can get warnings any number of days (e.g., 15, 30, or even 90) before password expiration. Screen 1 shows what the template file will look like when loaded in the Policy Editor. (For more information about system policies, see Douglas S. Frisk, "Using System Policy Templates," October 1997.)

A copy of the .adm file in Listing 1 is available from the Windows NT Magazine Web site at http://www.winntmag.com. This .adm file is plain text, so you can open it with any text editor.

—Larry Dragich
dragich@mich.com

Workaround for Mac Printing on NT Problem
I've identified a problem when running Print Services for Macintosh on Windows NT 4.0. The problem occurs when you attach more than 127 printers to an NT print server. If you have more than 127 printers, Mac clients can no longer print through the Appletalk zone advertised by NT. (Mac clients can still print directly to the printer via Appletalk.)

A Microsoft developer has confirmed this glitch. He claimed that, because this glitch results from a shortcoming in Apple's Printer Access Protocol, Microsoft won't provide a fix. You can, however, use this workaround:

1. Identify printers that Mac clients don't print to. You'll need enough printers to get below the 127-printer threshold.
2. Create a user account on the domain, such as Macuser.
3. Open the Services applet in Control Panel, and access Print Services for Macintosh. Set this service to log on using the Macuser account rather than a system account.
4. Open the Permissions box for the non-Mac printers identified in step 1. Add the Macuser account to the Permissions list, and grant it No Access. This step prevents non-Mac printers from being advertised through NT. This fix isn't glamorous, but it works.

—Curtis Stall
cstall@chw.edu

Bill Gates: The Stories Are True
I recently attended the 1998 Microsoft Technical Briefing in Seattle, Washington. This annual event, known at Microsoft as the Winter Briefing, provides technical presentations for Microsoft's systems engineers and consulting staff. In years past, this briefing was private, but this year, Microsoft invited senior technical representatives from its solution provider channel. Although I had once worked for Microsoft, I attended the 1998 Winter Briefing as a solution provider.

Microsoft offers many different sessions in this 5-day event, but the most anticipated was the general session featuring Bill Gates. Microsoft employees were just as anxious as the solution providers to hear the Microsoft story straight from the source. There wasn't an empty seat in the house.

When Gates arrived, he immediately dived into his presentation. Although he will never win an award for public speaking, he was very relaxed and direct as he shared his views on the industry's direction. Shortly after Gates started his presentation, it became evident that he was sick. He could barely string three sentences together without a coughing spasm.

Although Gates is one of the wealthiest people in the world and could have had any number of people fill in for him, he showed up for this presentation, speaking with energy and enthusiasm. He even stayed and answered attendees' questions. I had heard stories about Gates' drive and commitment, but this time I witnessed it firsthand. Perhaps this drive and commitment is the reason why one person in the audience asked if he could fulfill a dream by shaking Gates' hand--a request to which Gates graciously complied. (An indepth account of the 1998 Winter Briefing is available on the Windows NT Magazine Web site at http://www.winntmag.com.)

—Mark Eddins
meddins@alpha88.com

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