How do you spend your time using the PC? CyberTaskTimer will tell you!

Have you ever wished to know if and how much you working day has been productive? How long have you been distracted by email? By your instants messaging contacs? By browsing on your favourite web sites or by your beloved videogame? How much time have all this kept you off from your work? Well, CyberTaskTimer perfectly answers to this need!

CyberTaskTimer is a little freeware utility whose only target is to monitor any application is used, timing its using time. At system start-up it tasks place near the Windows clock (tray area) and it activates immediately.

Its user graphic interface (GUI) is simply made of two lists. One, the "applications log", is the history of all the used applications (or, more precisely, of all the windows brought to front, whose application they belong to will be automatically detected by CyberTaskTimer), reporting the executable file, title, date, start-up time and time of use. Two, the "statistics", activated by clicking on the same name tab, shows a classification of the most used applications, summing up the using times of all the windows belonging to the same application (so the using time will be grouped by application) and a chart of the most 10 used applications.

CyberTaskTimer may be also used to log all applications run on your own computer and even more, not only the applications, but all the windows that have been showed (even the screensaver and the browsed web-sites). This way you can detect improper use of your system/account and prohibited use of the account where CyberTaskTimer is installed to.

A note: CyberTaskTimer is able to deactivate itself automatically when current session is terminated, so not only when current user get disconnected from Windows, but even when he locks the session or uses the fast-user-change mode of Windows XP and above (<WIN> + <L> to activate it); the same when the screensaver activates. This way only the real use of the PC will be timed and not the inactivity time.

IMPORTANT: at any time you can deactivate CyberTaskTimer by clicking with right mouse button on its tray-icon, that will show up the control menu. A double click on the tray-icon will open up its main window.

PRIVACY NOTES:
CyberTaskTimer does not contain any malware at all and does not communicates in any way to any Internet server or in any other way.
The created database is placed in user Documents (in sub-folder "CyberTaskTimer", with "dat" extension, text-plain) and everything occurs hiding nothing to the user.

If you have any tips, implementation requests, or bug-reporting, please contact SilverCyberTech at the following email address: info@silvercybertech.com

The developing team will be happy to listen to you!

Executing VBS files from within a CyberInstaller package

Here is how to execute a .VBS file embedded into your CyberInstaller package, without using a batch file:

- STEP 4 "Data": add your files to the packages, with the file .vbs you want to be executed

- STEP 8 "External Applications": add an external application in the list "Applications to be executed AFTER installation", by clicking on the proper "Add" button

- In the window that will appear, insert the followings parameters:

Description: VBS description
Local path: cmd.exe
Embed into package: NO
Startup folder: |$SystemPath$|
Command line parameters: /c "|$AppPath$|\filename.vbs" (do not forget quotes!)
Execution mode: syncronous
User confirmation: your choice

That’s all: if everything is correct, at the end of the installation the vbs file added to the package (in the example called "filename.vbs") will be directly executed.

Looking for an English revisor

Now that I’m writing CyberInstaller NG, I’m looking for an English revisor for the English strings of the English language definition file.

I write all the English strings by myself, as soon as I need them, the revisor should just read and correct them, if necessary, in perfect English language. That’s all! So it’s not an hard work, especially if done since now, when strings are a few.

Thanks in advance for the help!

CyberInstaller NG is born

CyberInstaller NG project has started.

If CyberInstaller is now a revolution, thanks to its proprietary powerful engine, CI NG will be… revolution inside revolution.

…coming soon…

We can see above the Properties window of the just compiled executable of CING. Below the current main window… I bet there’s quite a lot to work about it!

Stay tuned.

CyberInstaller Suite 2008 1.2

It is now available an important update for CyberInstaller Suite 2008, that adds a major functionality in Studio and Installer modules, and fixes a minor bug in CIPEW.

CyberInstaller Suite 2008 1.2 (Studio 5.20.5497, CIPEW 2.10.321, Installer 4.960, Extractor 4.00.367, Updater 2.10.343).

It is possible to download the update from SilverCyberTech site or simply by CISUpdater, tool that makes the update process automatic and transparent.

NOTE: starting Studio with the "check updates on start" option enabled, if an active connection is detected, CISUpdater will inform you about updates availability automatically.

On SilverCyberTech you will find any information you may want to look for, including the complete list of fixed bugs and all the added features, and naturally the download page.

Resources:
download page
complete list of news and bugs fixed
details about purchasing the registered licenses
forum to talk about the new version and issues

I am looking forward to receiving your feedback and I stay at your disposal for any question. Have a nice work with CyberInstaller Suite 2008 1.2!

CyberInstaller Suite recommended by BrotherSoft

CIS has been listed BrotherSoft home page of  section Development, among  the recommended downloads.

I don’t know how long it will stay there - a year relying upon what the editor says - but it certainly is something good for CIS and it demonstrates the effort of SilverCyberTech towards its software and the success that this software is gaining abroad.

In fact if CIS downloads from BrotherSoft and other shareware sites weren’t meaningful numbers, I don’t know if this result could be achieved in such a short time.
So… thanks to all of you, really.

A virus in CyberInstaller? It’s a false positive!

A user, on a blog, has reported that his anti-virus, F-Secure, has warned that CyberInstaller Suite was an insecure software, probably carrying a trojan.

It has been years since CyberInstaller Suite was not reported as carrying a virus and, fortunately, other users in the same blog answered that F-Secure itself did not report anything to them.

So, how to unveil this mystery? It’ll be soon explained.

As often occurs for other prize-winning professional software (produced by Microsoft, Skype and even anti-malware as Spybot-Search&Destroy), it’s just a FALSE POSITIVE, that is an erroneous report from the anti-virus that identifies a virus in a completely un-harmful application. Probably antivirus software that reports this false positive has the heuristic scan turned on, option that applies more in depth scans but, to identify still unknown viruses, may report even many false positives.

I have to say that the CyberInstaller Suite module recognized as a trojan is CIPEW, that is the CyberInstaller Portable Executable Wrapper, that is the wrapper for the Setup.exe executable. Such wrapper uses advanced techniques to embed the executable and decompress it on-the-fly (it is necessary to execute some security controls over the serial numbers if used in the installation package) and probably is identified as "abnormal" from the heuristic scan of some anti-viruses. Another module that can cause a false positive, at least some versions ago, was CISUpdater, probably because it connects to SilverCyberTech site searching for updates (in a totally legal and user-aware way!).

In addition to this, all modules of CyberInstaller Suite are compressed with UPX, an utility to compress executables that does not only reduce their size without slowing down their loading (they are decompressed on-the-fly when executed in a nearly real-time mode), but also crypts all their content making it very difficult to hack and disassembling them. This utility is often used by virus-writers for these very reasons to compress their viruses and because of this an executable carrying the UPX signature is often identified as "abnormal" from the heuristic scan of a paranoid antivirus.

Finally, CyberInstaller Suite has no malware in it at all, no worms, no trojans, no dialers, no nothing. It is perfectly clean, as confirmed by the Softpedia award: "100% Clean, no spyware, no adware, no viruses".

Anyway, if you ever find false-positives with your antivirus, please contact me: I’ll try to recompile the module so that no false-positive will be reported anymore!

How to disable UAC from Windows Vista and enforce Administrative rights as in Windows 2000/XP

If you wish to definetely remove the User Access Control (UAC) from Windows Vista, enforcing at the same time the Administrator account giving it the same root rights exactly as in previous Windows versions, so that it can have complete control over the whole system, just follow this instructions:

1. log-in with the account created during the installation of Vista
2. from Start menu, go to "All programs", "Accessories"
3. click with right mouse button on "Command prompt" then choose "Run as administrator"
4. click on "Allow" from ConsentUI prompt
5. in the window that will open-up, write "regedit" and press <enter>
6. in RegEdit, go to key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WinodwsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
7. add a new key at that level, calling it "SpecialAccounts"
8. in "SpecialAccounts" just created key, create a sub-key calling it "UserList"
9. now the path is: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
10. in "UserList" just created key, create a new DWORD value (32 bit) calling it "Administrator" and set it a value of "1"
11. from command prompt input: “net user Administrator /Active:yes”
12. reboot system
13. now it is possible to log with Administrator account with maximum root rights

I haven’t verified this instructions personally, but they seem to work properly. However, in my opinion, the Windows Vista protection system, also known as User Access Control (UAC), if used together with the limitations to user account rights, even for the administrative users, should not be disable, if you don’t want a reduced system security and potential more likely malicious attacks from installed application or from outer sources. [to be continued in a next article . . . ]

Anyway, some user feel the need to have full power over the system for their Administrator account, as in Windows 2000/XP, without being asked for confirmation or, worse, without that the system denies the execution of some critical operations. For this reason I’m giving you this information, that slightly touch the borderline with "hacking" and thus are to be executed at your own risk.

I think it was necessary to make these considerations. And to strongly hilight my opinion that disabling UAC is the worst thing a Vista user could do…

And now, I can wish you all a happy Vista experience!

Installing SAPI with CyberInstaller

Installing SAPI, that stands for Microsoft Speech API, can turn out in something more annoying than expected. This is due to a strange behavior that occurs when sapi.dll library is placed in a folder different from System.

In fact, if sapi.dll file is placed in "|$CommonPath$|\Microsoft Shared\Speech" (where "|$CommandPath$|" is likely something similar to C:\Program Files\Common), CyberInstaller Studio, during the dependencies research, will correctly find it in that very path and, always correctly, will try to install it on the destination system placing it in that very path too.

Unfortunately, "correctly" doing so, it won’t be possible to register the sapi library (not only CyberInstaller, but even the RegSvr32 command will fail) and this will occur in a unsuccessful installation.

The solution is to move the destination folder for the sapi.dll file, setting it to System32 (CIS pattern "|$SystemPath$|"). this way the library will be correctly registered and the installation accomplished successfully.

NOTE: to change the destination folder of a file/component in a CyberInstaller Studio project neither having to remove then re-add the file, nor editing the file installation properties (double click on the file or click on "Edit" button, step 6), just click with the right mouse button on the file (or on the group of selected files), click on the item "Move into…" from the pop-up menu that will appear and select the destination folder from the sub-menu. This way allows to change the destination folder to more than one file at once.

Automatically start a process with administrative rights under Windows Vista

If you have the need to start a process (executable) with administrative rights under Windows Vista, without using the pop-up menu and the "Run as Administrator…" item, so that the user just double click on it, then it’s possible to use a manifest file with the following content:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ standalone=”yes”?>
<assembly xmlns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1″ manifestVersion=”1.0″>
<assemblyIdentity version=”1.0.0.0″ processorArchitecture=”X86″ name=”isVista” type=”win32″/>
      <trustInfo xmlns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2″>
         <security>
               <requestedPrivileges>
                   <requestedExecutionLevel
                       level=”requireAdministrator”/>
               </requestedPrivileges>
         </security>
      </trustInfo>
  </assembly>

This will automatically elevate the executable rights, but the user will be prompted for an administrator password (if he does not belong to the Administrators group).

An already compiled file can be found here. As all manifest files, it must be placed in the same folder of the .exe file and renamed in the following way:

<executable name>.exe.manifest

If you do not want the user to see the manifest file, it is possible to use MT (a Microsoft utility downloadable from here) to embed the manifest inside the executable itself. With this tool you can write the following line from the command prompt. Eg. supposing you have a test.exe file and a test.ext.manifest file you can write:

mt.exe -manifest “test.exe.manifest” -outputresource:”test.exe”

This way you will obtain a test.exe file with the manifest file embedded in it. The user will see the executable file only and he’ll just have to run it to execute the application with administrative rights (a password will be asked, of course).

More information here.

Remove flickering during resizing and correct controls rendering under Vista

In our applications, we often feel the need to avoid controls flickering during the parent controls resizing, to make them appear more professional.

Delphi 2007, supports all the advanced and hot features of Microsoft Windows Vista Aero (natively and without adding a single line of code), but some VCL controls are not rendered correctly if placed in the transparent window area.

Both these issues are easily resolved by code-setting to TRUE the "DoubleBuffered" property of the parent control, property made available from Delphi 2005. In fact, the issues in object take place because their DoubleBuffered property is False by default and furthermore such property is not reachable from the ObjectInspector, because it’s not marked as Published.

Because of this limitation, it would be much easier an automatic way to set to True all the DoubleBuffered properties of all controls that support it, without having to manually write a bunch of code lines for each control of our form (and for the form itself, do not forget!).

The Delphi team has run in your help, writing the following code that solve all the mentioned issues:

procedure TFormMain.DoubleBufferAll();
var
  i: Integer;
begin
  try
    Self.DoubleBuffered := True;
    for i := 0 to Self.ComponentCount - 1 do begin
      if Self.Components[i] is TWinControl then begin
        TWinControl(Self.Components[i]).DoubleBuffered := True;
      end;
    end;
  except
    on E:Exception do begin
      //
    end;
  end;
end;

Just call this new method (declared as private in the Private section of TFormMain class) in the OnCreate method of the form, and you are done!

A little side effect to take into consideration: with Turbo Delphi 2006 under WinXP with themes activated, the TPageControl and TTabControl are not rendered correctly: the background does not appear as gradient. The solution is simply to set their DoubleBuffered property to False.

VB6 vs Vista - registering ActiveX components

The registration of some among the most used VB6 components, can be a real pain under Windows Vista. Trying to register the following components, in fact, Vista will answer us with a nice "nope".

Here is the list of the ActiveX that generate the issue:

• msflxgrd.ocx
• comdlg32.ocx
• msbind.dll
• mswinsck.ocx
• msderun.dll
• msinet.ocx
• mswinsck.ocx
• mscomctl.ocx
• msdatlst.ocx
• msflxgrd.ocx
• msmask32.ocx
• tabctl32.ocx
• mscomm32.ocx
• msdbrptr.dll
• msdatgrd.ocx
• mscomct2.ocx
• mshflxgd.ocx
• msadodc.ocx
• msvbvm60.dll
• olepro32.dll
• comcat.dll
• msstdfmt.dll

So, how can we use these components in our applications running under Windows Vista? Easier than you thought: just unregister the component through the command:

RegSvr32 /u <file name>

Then simply register the same components again:

RegSvr32 <file name>

Thus, for each component you wish to use, you have to unregister it before, then register it immediately after. Eg., for "msflxgrd.ocx" component, just write this in the command line prompt (choose "Run as Administrator" from the pop-up menu on the Command Prompt link):

regsvr32 /u /s msflxgrd.ocx
regsvr32 /s msflxgrd.ocx

To make things easier for you, I prepared a batch file (.bat) that will do the dirty job for you, for every component of the list. The file can be downloaded here.

And to make things even much more easier, you can use CyberInstaller Suite 2008, that can easily manage package distribution on Windows Vista (and on every else Windows version). Use it and you’ll never have to worry about anything!

CyberBlog in English is back!

Finally I’m back, with this blog all in English, thanks to WordPress.

I have to explain why I was missing for so much time. I was firstly enjoying the power of Blogger, but when I moved to a new hosting for my site I wanted to host the blog itself, and the troubles began… I fight against the complexity of that blogging platform, but soon I gave up and I looked for another blogging platform. When I met WordPress, I totally fell in love with it! I downloaded the latest version, in Italian, then I installed it on my brand new hosting space and started to blog! I transferred all the old (Italian) posts to the new blog, but the old and glorious English were gone… So I had firstly to setup-up my new server, new site and especially to finish up the new version of my software, CyberInstaller Suite, in both languages Italian and English. And finally, now that everything is working fine (even the new official forum), I just finished installing and setting-up this brand new English blog, powered by the great WordPress.

With some more time I’ll translated all the Italian posts in English and I’ll post new articles as well, of course. So, if you are interested in, start commenting my articles, or… I’ll get very sad! And sorry me if my English is far from being perfect!