CurtisW's Windows XP Tips Page

1. How can I set the cache expiration date on an HTML file to, say, midnight of the day the page is first served?

Not possible. The expiration is set in the _http_ header and not the _HTML_ header. The browser is passed the expiration date and time - and it is upto the browser to do what it likes with this information. It cannot be done on the client side - as the browser (by now) has decided what it's going to do with the document.

 

Start Up to Blank Desktop,  Boot up to blank desktop

I found a fix for when booting Windows XP, the OS never fully loads up into Windows, and just sits there. The Fix is:

"robbieart24-May-2005, 01:43 AM
Just to let everyone know.... While surfing through the internet I found someone who solved this problem and has a way to fix it. There are 2 registry keys in the registry that are causing the problem. It affects the explorer.exe and iexplorer.exe files.

This is the key that needs to be deleted...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\iexplorer.exe

Once these keys are deleted the desktop and internet explorer should come back to life.

Thank you whoever found this information and I hope this will be a benefit to someone else out there.

Thanks."


This solution actually worked for me, when replacing explorer.exe and a repair install didn't work. I even tried to reinstall SP2 to fix this one. I did the SP2 through still being able to run programs after Ctrl+Alt+Del using the task manager.

 

Accessing Control Panel From DOS (cmd.exe) and other windows exploits
access.cpl -- Accessability Options
ALSNDMGR.CPL
appwiz.cpl -- Add/Remove Applications
bthprops.cpl
desk.cpl -- Desktop Properties (change wallpapers and stuff)
firewall.cpl -- Firewall Settings
hdwwiz.cpl -- Add New Hardware
inetcpl.cpl -- Internet Explorers Internet Options
intl.cpl -- Regional & Language Options
irprops.cpl
javacpl.cpl -- Java Control Panel
joy.cpl -- Game Controllers
main.cpl -- Mouse Properties (funny they should call it main huh?)
mmsys.cpl -- Sounds & Audio Devices Properties
ncpa.cpl -- Network Connections
netsetup.cpl -- Network Setup Wizard
nusrmgr.cpl -- User Account Management
nwc.cpl
odbccp32.cpl -- ODBC Data Source Administrator
powercfg.cpl -- Power Options Properties
RTSndMgr.CPL -- Realtek Sound Manager
sysdm.cpl -- System Properties
telephon.cpl -- Dial-up Setup Wizard
timedate.cpl -- Date & Time Properties
wscui.cpl -- Security Center
wuaucpl.cpl -- Automatic Updates


there is a list of all your control panel programs, you may have more, you may have less. This article, which i'm still in the process of writing, will list what every cpl app does and how turning off your control panel doesn't necessarilly secure your system from users using the control panel apps.


Basically, I listed what they are for the ones that will allow you to call them from the command line. Turning off your control panel does not get rid of access to these programs, it merely gets rid of the fancy interface that lists them.

In order to get a listing of these icons, at the command prompt enter the following

Windows 9x --

 
Code:
dir /w c:\windows\system\*.cpl

Windows NT/2K/XP

 

Code:
dir /w c:\windows\system32\*.cpl

this along with access to other applications on your system can increase your vulnerability.

Here is a list of other apps that may cause your system to be compromised -- There are more, and some of these I've gleaned from other articles on this site.

regedit.exe -- Registry Editor ( This one is a no duh )
regedt32.exe -- Registry Editor ( Yet another version of the registry editor )
reg.exe -- Console Registry Editor ( yes there are 3 registry Editors in windows )

reg.exe syntax output --

 

Console Registry Tool for Windows - version 3.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1981-2001.  All rights reserved


REG Operation [Parameter List]

  Operation  [ QUERY   | ADD    | DELETE  | COPY    |
               SAVE    | LOAD   | UNLOAD  | RESTORE |
               COMPARE | EXPORT | IMPORT ]

Return Code: (Except of REG COMPARE)

  0 - Succussful
  1 - Failed

For help on a specific operation type:

  REG Operation /?

Examples:

  REG QUERY /?
  REG ADD /?
  REG DELETE /?
  REG COPY /?
  REG SAVE /?
  REG RESTORE /?
  REG LOAD /?
  REG UNLOAD /?
  REG COMPARE /?
  REG EXPORT /?
  REG IMPORT /

-- Automatic Task Scheduler ( executes applications automatically as a system process )

example of an at exploit

 

Code:
at HH:mm /interactive cmd.exe

exchange HH:mm with the military time for one minute after you enter the command.

what this will do is open a system level version of cmd.exe. This is more power then the system administrator... another command that could be run is the following

 

Code:
at HH:mm /interactive explorer.exe

after entering the command hit ctrl+alt+del and kill the explorer process

diskpart -- NT Disk Partitioning Utility (Can be used to mount/unmount drives, create partitions and volumes)

mmc -- Management Control Consol ( remember those apps in Administration Utilities, well this will allow you to create custom versions of them )

tskill -- NT's version of the kill command

tskill syntax --

 

Code:
TSKILL processid | processname [/SERVER:servername] [/ID:sessionid | /A] [/V]

  processid                      Process ID for the process to be terminated.
  processname                 Process name to be terminated.
  /SERVER:servername      Server containing processID (default is current).
                                       /ID or /A must be specified when using processname
                                      and /SERVER
/ID:sessionid                  End process running under the specified session.
/A                                End process running under ALL sessions.
/V                                Display information about actions being performed.

tscon -- allows a user to open a command line as another user on the system

taskmgr -- Task manager ( GUI version of TSKILL )

tsdiscon -- disconnect a user from the system, unlike tscon, this command doesn't require the users password

bootcfg -- modify where windows boots from

cacls -- Access Control Lists ( Allows you to modify permissions of users )

control -- opens the control panel ( uh oh )

cliconfg -- sql server client utility

dcomcnfg -- component services ( set what services are running on the systems and which are enabled and disabled at boot up )

fsutil -- Allow user to create hardlinks to files in different locations on the same drive (so if you block c:\windows\regedit.exe for instance, they could make a direct link to it in their home directory that would not be blocked, in fact it would be like an exact duplicate of the file without taking up the aditional space, just making a node point to the same data from a different location )

ok, thats all i'm doing for now, i'll come back later and update with more material soon

Last edited by Mark; 12-05-2007 at 09:52 AM.