xp – Williamo's Blog

Microsoft Support: Console (CMD) Fonts

Update: You can use the following registry script to automate this process – just copy/paste the code block below into a text file called “Add Consolas to CMD.reg” and run it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont]
"0"="Lucida Console"
"00"="Consolas"

If you’d like to use an alternative console font for CMD.exe in Windows, check out the scoop from Microsoft Support on how to set it up…

The fonts must meet the following criteria to be available in a command session window:

The font must be a fixed-pitch font.

The font cannot be an italic font.

The font cannot have a negative A or C space.

If it is a TrueType font, it must be FF_MODERN.

If it is not a TrueType font, it must be OEM_CHARSET.

Additional criteria for Asian installations:

If it is not a TrueType font, the face name must be “Terminal.”

If it is an Asian TrueType font, it must also be an Asian character set.

In Windows 2000, the installation of Console Fonts is no longer automated. This was done to give the console window greater stability in multilanguage environments. An unsupported work around is available by adding the following font specific entry:

Add a String Value
Name=00
Data= “Font Name” (without “”)

Into the following registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont

The name needs to be incrimented with “0” for each additional font. The Data entry needs to match the font’s entry in the following registry location:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

via Necessary criteria for fonts to be available in a command window.

And, if you’re itching to find a nice replacement for Courier New or Lucida Console:

Consolas:
If you have Windows Vista or windows 7, this is already installed, otherwise you’ll need to download the PowerPoint Viewer 2007 from Microsoft to get the font legally. (As an added bonus, the rest of the Windows Vista fonts come with it – see here for details: Download Windows Vista Fonts from Microsoft Office Website)
DejaVu Sans Mono:
This font comes pre-installed with many current Linux distributions and is released under a free license, which makes this font arguably the best of the bunch. Find it here: http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/index.php?title=Download
Droid Sans Mono:
Straight from the Android SDK comes the Droid Sans Mono font, which is quite similar to the DejaVu Sans Mono font listed above. You can grab this from the Android SDK download, or you can get it directly from the damieng blog here: Droid Sans Mono great coding font

Prevent Startup Programs from Running Twice in Windows XP

Finally! This problem was bugging me for so long – I just now thought to research it and found this article. Very helpful!

Prevent Startup Programs from Running Twice in Windows XP

A way to solve the problem of programs in the Startup folder being executed twice on Windows XP logon. The applications may appear doubled in msconfig.

Problem

Under Windows XP, programs placed in the Start MenuProgramsStartup folder may be running twice. This occurs even though only one shortcut or icon for each program appears in the Startup folder when viewed through Windows Explorer. When you use msconfig (Startup tab) or autoruns (Logon tab) to inspect the Startup listings, they appear twice. Unchecking one or both disables the program from running at all.

Cause

This situation can occur if the user-specific Startup folder is deleted from the user’s profile. When that happens, Windows looks for user-specific startup programs in the All Users startup folder instead. This causes doubling, because the programs from the All Users startup folder are executed once for All Users and again for the current user.

via Prevent Startup Programs from Running Twice in Windows XP.

Remove Windows Media Player Integration (such as from the Right-Click menu)

This has nagged me for soooo long! I use Winamp, which has its own context menu integration, and I find myself accidentally opening a folder to play in Windows Media Player all the time…

Leave my context menu alone! If you just let it go wild, every program in the world wants to install some option there. Windows Media Player not only puts itself there, but integrates itself throughout the shell. Actually removing this integration is surprisingly easy!

Remove WMP Integration:
1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type in regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll
4. Click Enter
Easy!

Thanks to Annoyances.org and especially to Tech-Recipes.com for this fix!

How-To Geek: Using Symlinks in Windows Vista

I haven’t tried using my favorite XP junction tool, NTFS-Link, since I upgraded my home computer to Windows Vista, and I’m a little apprehensive since the filesystem has changed a bit. Nonetheless, if you are still using XP, NTFS-Link is an excellent tool for those of you already familiar with symbolic links via other operating systems, such as Linux.

Luckily, Windows Vista does include a command-line tool for creating symbolic links, similar to “ln” in Linux. However, it’s not quite as straightforward. Here’s the scoop from How-To Geek:

Using the mklink Command

The command that you need to use is mklink, which you’ll use from the command line. Just type it on the command line to see the options:

C:Usersgeek>mklink
Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

        /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
                symbolic link.
        /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
        /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
        Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
        Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link

(continued via Using Symlinks in Windows Vista)

Making XAMPP (Apache) work with IIS on Windows XP/Vista

Update: This application will help you track down which applications are using which ports on Windows – very helpful for debugging if the steps below don’t solve your problem, or if IIS is not the only application answering on port 80: http://winnetstat.zapto.org/

Also, if you don’t specifically need all the features of XAMPP, but would like to run PHP/MySQL applications through IIS, give Web Platform Installer a try. Through WPI, you can choose to install PHP directly within IIS (so that IIS can serve both ASP.NET and PHP applications on port 80, for example) and you can also have a ton of applications installed and configured automatically for you, such as Drupal, WordPress, and Moodle (among many others). However, if you are still looking to run XAMPP specifically, or just run an Apache instance along with IIS, check out the instructions below. Thanks for visiting!