Permanently setting variables in Vista

Well, from XP I’m used to just pop up the current computer properties and just set permanent environment variables. In Vista this is however different. This will require a priviledge elevation, and thus you’ll only be able to edit the admin’s variables, but not the environment of a regular user.

This being said – the answer is quite simple: setx. To set a variable like JAVAHOME just call setx JAVAHOME "c:\Program Files\java" and that’s all.

Fast Switching GAC perspectives

You all know the classic (managed) view of the GAC at C:\WINDOWS\assembly as well as the pure view where you see all the folders and stuff. But to switch between these to views you have to tweak the registry each time. This can get teadious.

Another option is to enable the managed view and then enter in the run-command of ther startmenu for e.g. C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC_MSIL – and you’re inside the scambled GAC view – voila!

Some IE-bashing

OK, so I moved to the next century of browsing – at least that’s what I believed to be my next stop.

To get there, I decided to advance to IE8 – nevertheless of what’s going to happen to my computer … So installing is no pain so far.

Then comes the reboot and the first start of IE8 – and I’m greeted with a nice and warm:

Faulting application iexplore.exe, version 8.0.6001.18702, faulting module urlmon.dll, version 8.0.6001.18702, fault address 0x0003e819.

When this doesn’t make you feel welcome, warm and cosi – I don’t know what!

OK – so what’s next? Trying to start the browser without any addons … this seems to work. But hey, who wanna browse the web naked? There’s no survival without addons!

So trying to deactive them addons one-by-one – a little tedious – but … no success going that road.

After a short phase of nervous breakdown – there was another idea. So i fiddled with the IE settings, and after deactivating the startpage (which pointed to my local intranet) at least IE would start-up without any further complaint. But accessing any internal page would just bring back those screes of fault.

So I figured, that I hat one site in two security zones. After removing all sites from the zones that problem was kinda solved – except that I couldn’t be authenticated by my intranet anymore. And for some strange reason I could not remove one final entry from the trusted zone.

This was then more or lees known territory – just open up regedit and move to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\Domains and adjust the resisting site.

Welcome happy IE 8 surfing 🙂