Hands on: Bubble and tweak

We’ve been waiting for the Vista equivalent of Tweak UI for nearly two years, and it looks less likely that Microsoft is going to come up with anything to follow in the grand tradition of the 95/98/ME and XP Powertoys. So, let’s say a big welcome to Winbubble.

This comprises seven tabs of tweaks. The General tab includes modifying the OEM info in Computer Properties and adding all sorts of right-click commands, such as the ability to turn the transparent Aero effect on and off with a right-click on Computer. The Specific tab lets you do traditional tweaks, such as removing the arrow from shortcut icons, as well as new twists, such as replacing the arrow with a little heart. You also get access to hidden screensaver options and a configurable panel of tools.

There’s a whole tab devoted to system icon tweaking; a security tab to restrict access to various commands and hide drives; tabs for Internet Explorer and optimisation; and a miscellaneous tab that includes more context menu customisation. A further tab provides links to hints, tips and other tools on the Unlock For Us website. Winbubble is free and you’ll find it at http://unlockforus.blogspot.com. As ever, tweak at your own risk, so make Restore Points before doing so.

Crying wolf
After downloading Winbubble, I had a good poke around the folders and files and discovered several .bat and .vbs files. You probably know that the former runs a batch of commands as if you had typed them in a command window, whereas the latter runs commands using the Windows scripting host. Neither is the sort of thing you’d want to run out of curiosity, so the smart thing to do is right-click, then Edit, which will let you see the contents in Notepad. So, doing this, I was surprised to get a warning that a .bat file didn’t have a digital signature, the publisher could not be verified and was I sure I ‘wanted to run this software’?

Having checked that I hadn’t misclicked, I found that right-click Open and Edit produced identical warnings, and to edit the file in Notepad I had to click the Run button. The VBS file summoned a different warning: ‘While files from the internet can be useful, this file type can harm your computer. If you do not trust the source, do not open this software.’ Again, you get the warning for both the Open and Edit commands.

Is this overweening or just sloppy? A bit of both. Just as many Vista users have turned off User Account Control (UAC) for being more trouble than it’s worth, people will ignore these warnings – with regrettable consequences. Anyway, to set the record straight, you cannot execute code by opening a file in Notepad.
I’ve since found that first the same applies to Windows XP SP3, but not SP2, and that it also affects .reg files. What’s happening here is that the files contain Alternate Data Streams (ADS). We looked at these in June 2008, but in brief a file on an NTFS partition can contain hidden data. Some common uses for this are attaching Summary Information to files, Favicons to browser bookmarks or history items, and Zone Identifiers to files. And it’s Zone Identifiers that prompt this warning message.

Why the warning on running a file has been extended to editing it, I don’t know, but you can get round this in several ways. The safest is to add a shortcut to Notepad to the Send To folder. Sending a file to Notepad won’t produce the warning. Moving the files to a non-NTFS partition will also remove the ADS – and the warnings - completely, as will round-tripping it through a zip file.

UAC sidestep
Having mentioned Vista’s UAC, here’s a rather neat way to circumvent it for particular programs without turning it off globally. Let’s say you want to run Msconfig.exe. You are logged on with administrator status, so you don’t have to provide a password, but you do get the Secure Desktop (aka the Dark Screen of Panic) followed by a ‘Windows needs your permission…’ message. Here’s a way to create a shortcut that bypasses this.

First start the Task Scheduler from All Programs, Accessories, System Tools. When you’ve jumped through the UAC hoop, the Task Scheduler will appear. On the right of the window, click on ‘Create Task…’ In the window that appears you fill in a task name and make sure the ‘Run with highest privileges’ box is ticked.