♣ How to use TWACKER to check if my device is TWAIN Compliant? ♠

How to use TWACKER to check if my device is TWAIN Compliant?

Although most of the scanners in the market are TWAIN compliant, scanner model, such as ScanSnap, doesn’t support TWAIN. To find out, we can use the tool called TWACKER developed by the TWAIN Working Group for testing data sources like scanners, cameras, etc.
Pleae NOTE that TWACKER works only Windows, for Mac-only devices, please contact the scanner vendor for more info.
TWACKER can be downloaded here: TWACKER 32 bit   TWACKER 64 bit
To use the tool:
1. First open the installed program:

2. Select your device:


If your device is not listed, please check if the driver is installed. Or, you can try running Twacker as “Admin” since you may not have permission to access the data source.
3. Choose the settings and try scanning:

4. If the scanning is successful without any errors, then your device should be TWAIN compliant. You can also try other commands and see how it works.

If your scanner doesn’t work with TWACKER, please check your scanner model online and install a TWAIN driver. Our scanning SDK Dynamic Web TWAIN andImageCapture Suite both support TWAIN based scanners.

♣Installing Guacamole ( Web based HTML 5 Free RDP Client) from source♦

Installing Guacamole ( Web based HTML 5 RDP Client) from source

Guacamole is getting most popular nowdays since it can be integrated to any of the programming language to access the remote servers either over the RDP protocol or VNC protocol without proving users to login credentials. I see it’s a first initiate of such solution ie HTML5 Clientless Remote Desktop
Role of Guacomole
I see this tools will be useful those who is looking for RDP access to office from remote location without opening any port in firewall or not establishing VPN connection to access to server. he can access the RDP server immediately after the Guacamole login.

Pls keep in mind that opening Guacamole portal to public without SSL security is a RISK. So act wisely

Guacomole website provides binary distribution for Ubuntu and fedora. My initial attempts was with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and 11. Really Sucks !! Both attempts were failed due to lack of dependencies and may crashed Ubuntu package integrity. So I plan to compile it from source.
Compiling Guacomole
I got it work on Amazon Linux AMI (32 bit) and CentOS 6 as well.
Package Requirements are
a. libguac-0.7.0.tar.gz
b. guacd-0.6.2.tar.gz
c. libguac-client-rdp-0.7.1.tar.gz [ I skipped this option since I uses only RDP support]
d. libguac-client-rdp-0.7.0.tar.gz
e. guacamole-0.7.0.tar.gz
f. apache-maven-3.0.4-bin.tar.gz
g. YUM package support for freerdp,libvncserver [optional],cairo-devel, automake,libtool,gcc++
h. You may need to install repository support for RpmForge and EPEL repository.
Let’s start,
Download and install Rpmforge repository fromhttp://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/RPMForge

[root@rc-136 guacomole]#wget http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.i686.rpm
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#rpm -ivh rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.i686.rpm
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#yum clean all

Now we need to edit /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo and make enabled =1 for the first selection “Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6″ to install freerdp package.

########### installing dependencies ############
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#yum install libng* freerdp freerdp-devel cairo-devel gcc* gcc++ make automake libtool
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#cd /home/installation/guacomole
#### Installing  libguac  #######
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# tar -xzf libguac-0.7.0.tar.gz
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# cd libguac-0.7.0/
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#  ./configure
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#  make
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#  make install
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#  ldconfig
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#  cd ..
#### Installing  guacd reverse proxy daemon #######
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# tar -xzf guacd-0.7.0.tar.gz
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# cd guacd-0.7.0/
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# ./configure –with-init-dir=/etc/init.d
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# echo “/usr/local/lib” >> /etc/ld.so.conf && ldconfig
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# make
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# make install
#### Installing  RDP support #######
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#  cd ..
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#tar -xzf libguac-client-rdp-0.7.1.tar.gz
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# cd libguac-client-rdp-0.7.1/
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# ./configure
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# make
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# make install
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# ldconfig #### Installing apache-maven package installer #######
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# wgethttp://www.eng.lsu.edu/mirrors/apache//maven/binaries/apache-maven-2.0.11-bin.tar.gz
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#cp -r apache-maven-2.0.11-bin /usr/local/maven
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#M2_HOME=/usr/local/maven/;export M2_HOME
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/maven/bin;export PATH
#### Installing apache tomcat6 installer #######
[root@rc-136 guacomole]##yum install tomcat6
# webapps directory will in “/var/lib/tomcat6/”
#### Installing Installing Guacamole  building from source #######
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# tar -xzf guacamole-0.6.1.tar.gz
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# cd guacamole-0.6.1/
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# mvn package
[root@rc-136 guacomole]# cp target/guacamole-0.7.0.war  /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/guacamole.war
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#mkdir /etc/guacamole
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#cp doc/example/guacamole.properties /etc/guacamole/guacamole.properties
[root@rc-136 guacomole]#ln -s /etc/guacamole/guacamole.properties /usr/share/tomcat6/lib/

Now we need to create a guacamole config. file. This will manage all the settings inside the application. Here is one sample file for /etc/guacamole/user-mapping.xml
Create a file (/etc/guacamole/user-mapping.xml) having the following content.

<user-mapping>
<authorize username=”admin” password=”admin”>
<!– First authorized connection –>
<connection name=”VNC_Server_46″>
<protocol>vnc</protocol>
<param name=”hostname”>192.168.0.46</param>
<param name=”port”>5901</param>
<param name=”rain”>pass</param>
</connection>
<connection name=”Windows7_Server”>
<protocol>rdp</protocol>
<param name=”hostname”>192.168.0.71</param>
<param name=”port”>3389</param>
<param name=”username”>user1</param>
<param name=”password”>pass</param>
<param name=”color-depth”>32</param><!– 8,16,24 or 32 –>
<param name=”width”>1280</param>
<param name=”height”>720</param>
</connection>
<connection name=”WindowsXP_61″>
<protocol>rdp</protocol>
<param name=”hostname”>192.168.0.61</param>
<param name=”port”>3389</param>
<param name=”username”>user1</param>
<param name=”password”>pass</param>
<param name=”color-depth”>32</param><!– 8,16,24 or 32 –>
<param name=”width”>1280</param>
<param name=”height”>720</param>
</connection>
</authorize>
</user-mapping>

Now we are going to restart all the services required for this platform.
a. Starting guacd reverse proxy daemon

[root@rc-136 guacamole]# /etc/init.d/guacd start
Starting guacd: guacd[17267]: INFO:  Guacamole proxy daemon (guacd) version 0.7.0
guacd[17267]: INFO:  Successfully bound socket to host ::1, port 4822
guacd[17267]: INFO:  Exiting and passing control to PID 17268
SUCCESS
guacd[17268]: INFO:  Exiting and passing control to PID 17269
[root@rc-136 guacamole]#
[root@rc-136 guacamole]# netstat -nlp | grep “4822”
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:4822                0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      17269/guacd
[root@rc-136 guacamole]#

Pls note I see some cases, we used to get “server error” when guacd started automatically through startup script. So we need to run it manually after booting.
b. Starting Tomcat service and Guacamole Application.
Pls note that we already had copied guacamole.war inside tomcat webapps (/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps)

[root@rc-136 guacamole]# service tomcat6 start
Starting tomcat6:                                          [  OK  ]
[root@rc-136 guacamole]# netstat -nlp | grep “8080”
tcp        0      0 :::8080                     :::*                        LISTEN      9403/java
[root@rc-136 guacamole]#

c. Setting Guacamole app as proxy application to outside the world in clean url.
Pls note that I did not use any SSL security here. We need to install Apache and edit the config. file. I expect proxy module is already enabled in Apache install.
Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and add the following lines

<Location /guacamole/>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
ProxyPass ajp://localhost:8009/guacamole/ max=20 flushpackets=on
ProxyPassReverse ajp://localhost:8009/guacamole/
</Location>

Then restart Apache

[root@rc-136 guacamole]# service httpd restart
Stopping httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
Starting httpd:                                            [  OK  ]
[root@rc-136 guacamole]#

Now you can access Guacamole over either http://localhost/guacamole orhttp://localhost:8080/guacamole and configure it on any application you want to integrate.
You will get some issues if you plan to use Guacamole using tomcat url ( localhost:8080) This may lead to get Connection Closed” freequently. So better to configure it as proxy in Apache/or Ngnix using the option max=20 flushpackets=on 
Here are some screens
Login form 
User name and password will be “admin” 

Landing Page 

Connecting a Windows XP box from Guacamole

Connecting to Windows 7 Desktop 

Multiple session screen 

☺Change your Processor’s Name Temporarily☻

Are you bored with your old processor? Do you want a new processor with a breath-stopping name but are not going to upgrade any time soon? No need to worry. You can still have that new processor’s name displayed in your computer. Well not only that, you can also have a better one than the one you are planning to buy. Just follow this trick.

With this trick, you can change the name of your processor to a personalized one like My Processor or something extreme like Decacore Processor 50 GHz .  These are just a few examples. You can change the name of your processor to anything you like. To have one such cool processor name displayed in your computer, follow these steps:-

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type “regedit” without quotes.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HARDWARE/
5. From HARDWARE, navigate to DESCRIPTION/System/CentralProcessor/.
6. In the work area, double click on ProcessorNameString, and change its value according to your choice.
7. Click OK

Right click on the Computer icon and select properties.The final outcome would be something like the one in the image.
Try it on your PC and show it to your friends to see the fun.
P.S.: Personally, I have recently changed the name of my processor to “iLife Processor 7, Alien Technologies”. Tell me what you change yours to.

♠Change Processor Name Permanently ♦

A while ago on Tweak And Trick, I published an article on changing your processor name. But recently, Anil Kumar pointed out that the trick only changed the name temporarily.

After a user restarts his computer, the name reverted back to original which is obvious as each time Windows boots, it checks the connected hardware and updates the registry value automatically. So, changing the processor nameusing the earlier article did not have permanent results.
Thus, the alien processor name you had earlier again reverted back to the boring old one.

Problem: To, make the name change permanent, it was required to update theProcessor Name String registry key every time Windows starts.
Solution: It is very easy to change your processor name permanently by creating a registry key and placing a shortcut to it in the Windows start up folder. To do so, just follow the steps given below:-
Steps :-
1.  Open Notepad.
2.  Copy and paste the exact code given below:-

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\0]
“ProcessorNameString”=”My Processor name 50000MHz”

To change the processor name, edit the part of the code given in blue. Also understand that \0 in the above code should only be present if Windows store your processor name at that location. Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the above mentioned keys to check whether or not to include the \0.
3.  Click on File Menu, click on Save As and select “All Types” in the Save as Type option. Save the file as ProcessorNameChange.reg or *.reg.
4.  Create a new shortcut on your desktop. Enter regedit / S “Location of the .reg file” as the location of the item. For example, enter regedit /S “C:\Processor Name.reg” if your registry file is located in the root of C:\ drive.

5. Copy the created Shortcut file.
6.  Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows XP) or to C:\Users\ User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Also remember that AppData is a hidden folder.)  if C: is your System drive.
7.  Paste the copied file.
This registry file would now execute each time when Windows starts and the Processor Name String would be modified each time. This means that even upon restarting your computer, you will see that the changed processor name is permanent.

♥Hide and Restrict drives or partitions in Windows♥

Today everyone need to hide or secure data from anonymous user. Here, I have three simple tricks to hide and restrict use of drive.

1. Using Group Policy
2. Using Windows Registry Trick
3. Using Disk Management – An easy way

Using Group Policy
1. Run Group Policy: Type gpedit.msc in Run dialog box or in Start Search in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
HIDE DRIVES
2. Now navigate to: Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer. Now look for “Hide these specified drives in My Computer” and double click and set the state“Enabled” and pick one combination to hide specified drives.
NOTE: You can access these drive by typing path or drive letter in Run dialog box or in address bar.
RESTRICT ACCESS
3. It’s same as above but it restrict access instead of hide a specified drive. At the same location in Group Policy look for “Prevent access to drives in My Computer” and double click and set the state “Enabled” and pick one combination to hide specified drives.
NOTE: We can hide and restrict specified drive or combination of drives
Using Windows Registry Trick
1. Its perform the same as above but We can hide or restrict any specified drive or group of drives. Run Registry Editor and Type regedit.exe” in Run dialog box or in Start Search in Windows 7 and Window Vista.
HIDE DRIVES
2. Now navigate to:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and Right click on right side pane and create a new DWORD value and name it NoDrives
3. All drives will be visible as long as its value is set to 0. Now set the value ofNoDrives in decimal (make sure you have selected decimal not hexadecimal)
Set the value of NoDrives according to following list.

Drive	Value
A	1
B	2
C	4
D	8
…
…
Z	33554432
All	67108863

To hide multiple drives, just add drives value. For example we want to hide B: and D: drives, the NoDrives value should be 2+8=10. Logoff or restart the system to take effect.
RESTRICT ACCESS
4. Now navigate to:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and Right click on right side pane and create a new DWORD value and name it NoViewOnDrive
5. All drives will be visible as long as its value is set to 0. Now set the value ofNoViewOnDrive in decimal (make sure you have selected decimal not hexadecimal)
Set the value of NoViewOnDrive according to following list.

Drive	Value
A	1
B	2
C	4
D	8
…
…
Z	33554432
All	67108863

To restrict multiple drives, just add drives value. For example we want to hide B: and D: drives, the NoViewOnDrive value should be 2+8=10. Logoff or restart the system to take effect.
Using Disk Management – An easy way
It is the simplest way among all three. We can assume that today anyone that have knowledge in Windows Administration; can  remove security. But it’s new and easier. The advantage of this trick is that there is no access via typing path in Run Dialog box or address bar.
1. Run Disk Management: Right click on Computer or My Computer > Manage and navigate to Disk Management and select the drive that to be hide and secured. Right click on specified drive and click on Change Drive Letter and Paths. Here click on “Remove” button and “OK” and then “Yes” to commit changes.
NOTE: No need to Restart or Log off Windows. System partition or contain pagefile of Windows partition can’t be hide and secured.
TO REVERT BACK TO DEFAULTS: REMOVE ALL REG SETTING AND ASSIGN DRIVE LETTER.
Applies To:

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows 7 Ultimate
• Windows 7 Enterprise
• Windows 7 Professional
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows Vista Enterprise
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition