Category: Blog

UsbAutorun is an application that enables autostarting of applications upon insertion of USB memory cards in Windows. Autostarting of applications when inserting new media is generally used for CDs and triggered by a file called autorun.inf in the root of the disk. This function is not supported for USB memories in the base OS although Windows XP sp2 introduced some support for it.

This application is provided as-is and is free for any use provided that it is not resold or included in any commercial offering.

Installation

To install this application:

1. Extract the application (UsbAutorun.exe) to your disk.
   Open a command promt window and change directory to where the application was extracted
2. Type usbautorun /install
3. Type usbautorun /password {password} (with a password of sufficiently high entropy)
4. Type usbautorun

Usage

As long as the application is running it will react on device insertions and use the autorun.inf file in the root of the USB memory to start any application indicated in the file. The autorun.inf file needs to have a new segment named UsbAutoRun which gives details on what to do when the USB memory is inserted. It also provides a password which must match the password configured in the computer itself. If the passwords don't match, the application will silently disregard the insertion of the USB memory. Below is an example of an autorun.inf file.

[AutoRun]
UseAutoPlay=1
ShellExecute=HelloWorld.vbs
icon=setup.ico

[UsbAutoRun]
ShellExecute=HelloWorld.vbs
Password=pwd

Running usbautorun /install writes data to the registry at HKCU \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Run to make the application autostart when the current user is logged on. After it is installed the application must not be moved as the path is written to the registry. For more information on command line parameters, type usbautorun -? at the command promt.

Note: Is is highly recommended to use a password as the ability to run an application on the computer just by inserting a USB memory card otherwise may be misused as a way to spread viruses.

Attachments

• UsbAutorun.zip

On more than one occassion I have found myself with a need to save a Real audio stream from a web site. Each time I have had to browse through multiple web sites to find a working solution. This is how I managed to do it last time around.

1. Download and install FlashGet (http://www.flashget.com/index_en.htm)
2. Copy audio stream URL (ending with .ram) from the web browser
3. Create a new download in FlashGet using the URL taken from the previous step
4. Run the download job to get the Real audio file
5. Download and install Switch (http://www.nch.com.au/switch/)
6. Use Switch to convert the Real audio file to the desired format

If required, use an application such as Mp3splt (http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net) to split the file into manageable parts.

All of the above applications are free to download and use.

SimpleSocket is a COM DLL server that wraps basic UDP send/receive functionality. It is quite simple to use from all major Windows programming environments (C++, C#, VB, VBScript etc).

This application is provided as-is and is free for any use provided that it is not resold or included in any commercial offering.

The DLL must be registered prior to use. Although this can be done in many ways, one simple way is:

1. Extract the File SimpleSocket.dll to a suitable folder
2. Press the start button and select “Run…”
3. Type cmd and press OK
4. Type regsvr32 followed by the full path to the DLL

Although the exact usage varies depending on programming environment, the following sample should be able to serve as a guide. It includes a sending and a receiving application. Put each of these code segments in a file with the suffix .vbs, then run them both.

Receiver

Set socket=WScript.CreateObject("SimpleSocket.Udp", "event_")
Sub event_OnReceive(data)
    WScript.Echo "Received: " & data
End Sub

socket.Listen "127.0.0.1", 10000
While(True)
    WScript.Sleep(5000)
Wend
socket.Abort

Sender

Set socket=WScript.CreateObject("SimpleSocket.Udp")
socket.Send "127.0.0.1", 10000, "Data sent from the client"

Methods

The following methods are supported

• Listen {ip}, {port} – Starts listening for incoming data on the ip and port.
• Abort – Stops listening for data.
• Send {ip}, {port}, {data} – Sends the data to the peer using the ip and port. The data must be provided in text format.
• OnReceive – Callback method for asynchronous notification of incoming data.

Uninstallation

1. Press the start button and select “Run…”
2. Type cmd and press OK
3. Type regsvr32 -u followed by the full path to the DLL

Attachments

• SimpleSocket.zip

Descript provides for an easy way to stop specific VBScripts. VBScripts running under either WScript.exe or CScript.exe, the two script hosts in Windows, turn up with just the name of the script host in the task manager and it can be difficult to know which process to kill.

By using this application the scripts are distinguished by the name of the actual script file.

This application works on Windows XP and later only. This application is provided as-is and is free for any use provided that it is not resold or included in any commercial offering.

To install this application:

1. Extract the application to your disk
2. Run descript.exe

Usage
Right-click on the icon in the notification area (system tray) and select Stop. A list of scripts, if any, is shown. By selecting a script it is terminated. As an alternative, all scripts can be stopped in one operation. The icons to the left of the script names indicates if the script is running under WScript.exe or CScript.exe.

Attachments

• Descript.zip