Jun 9 2011

Visual Studio 2010 Build Error: Unable to find manifest signing certificate in the certificate store

This error can appear during a project build in Visual Studio if you decide to create a stand alone installer when the project was initially set to use ClickOnce technology. The error message can occur when the signing certificate (.pfx) is deleted or the project is moved to another computer.

To prevent this message from displaying, right click on the project and select Properties. Click on the Signing tab and you will see the Sign the ClickOnce manifests checkbox selected. Remove the check here and then you can re-build the project without errors.

By Johan • How To • 0

Jun 1 2011

A More Powerful Way to Administer Passwords (control userpasswords2)

Windows users typically modify their login accounts through the User Accounts or Computer Management apps in the Control Panel. This would typically be sufficient for performing the most common tasks, such as changing your password.

I recently activated an Administrator account through a registry hack in Windows XP. This was done by adding Administrator as a dword and setting the value to 00000001 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList. Administrator is then an option to login to Windows, along with the administrator account that you created when Windows was installed. There is no way to delete the old administrator account through the Control Panel options because its the default administrator account. In order to delete it, you need to use another app.

In the Start menu, select Run (or press WindowsKey R). Enter control userpasswords2 in the Open text box, and press OK (see below).

The User Accounts dialog box will open. You can change any password by selecting the User Name and pressing the Reset Password button. Access level can be changed by pressing the Properties button. You have many more options here than in the Control Panel for setting the access level.

The advanced tabs offers the ability to set passwords for network shares by pressing Manage Passwords. This option can be done manually through the command line. The advanced options also gives you the ability to require users to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to login to their account. This will increase the security of your computer because it will prevent a hacker on the outside from gaining login access to your machine.

By Johan • How To • 0