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memory fill patterns for Visual Studio debug library

Reference

http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/w-p/win32/tutorials/article.php/c9535

Value	Name	Description
0xCD	Clean Memory	Allocated memory via malloc or new but never written by the application.
0xDD	Dead Memory	Memory that has been released with delete or free. It is used to detect writing through dangling pointers.
0xFD	Fence Memory	Also known as "no mans land." This is used to wrap the allocated memory (like surrounding it with fences) and is used to detect indexing arrays out of bounds.
0xAB	(Allocated Block?)	Memory allocated by LocalAlloc().
0xBAADF00D	Bad Food	Memory allocated by LocalAlloc() with LMEM_FIXED, but not yet written to.
0xCC	?	When the code is compiled with the /GZ option, uninitialized variables are automatically assigned to this value (at byte level).

Compiling with MinGW

To compile a C program under MinGW/Msys use

gcc -mno-cygwin -o x.exe x.c

The resulting binary can be run on Windows systems without cygwin1.dll support library, and only using Windows DLLs.

Link for turning on installer debugging

http://www.appdeploy.com/faq/detail.asp?id=73

In registry editor set

HK_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer\Logging

voicewarmup

Then look at MSI*.LOG files written in %TEMP%

March 13 8:59 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

Why does Windows 7 report it's version as 6.1?

Having just installed the Windows 7 beta, I ran the cmd program "ver" and instead of 7 one gets 6.1 just as you would expect for an update to Vista.

I presume the marvellous new feature for the real Windows 7 are yet to come, and I wonder how that will be named?

6.1 Windows 7

6.0 Vista

5.2 Was that Windows 2003 server?

5.1 XP

5.0 Windows 2000

4.0 NT4

3.5 NT

At least Windows 7 is better, so far, that my Vista experiences, but the beta is missing heaps of stuff, and I haven't tried to do anything too hard yet.

January 27 11:55 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it

Debugging driver crashes

Some mysterious crashes, led to BSODs. Particularly during shutdown, but at other times.

Tracked down to a ZoneAlarm provided DLL, which seems to have had BSOD issues over a number of versions over a number of years, and is included in Cisco VPN s/w which I also have. Latest ZoneAlarm update is dated 09/Jul/2008

\WINDOWS\system32\vsdata.dll

\WINDOWS\system32\vsdatant.sys

1. from the Microsoft downloads, find and install "Microsoft Debugging Tools"

2. My Computer->Properties->Advanced->StartUP & Recovery->Settings

3. enable write event to systm log, small memory dump, and take note of where

4. start a cmd prompt and run "verifier /all /flags 0xfb

5. reboot to enable

6. Do everything in slow motion from now on because of the verifier, everything takes forever. Expect various services to timeout before starting.

make it crash

7. on reboot, start a cmd window and, cd \\program files\debugging tools

8. dir /o:d \windows\minidump

9. kd -z c:\windows\minidump\mini???.dmp

kd> .logopen c:\debuglog.txt

kd> .sympath srv*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

kd> .reload;!analyze -v;r;kv;lmnt;.logclose;q

10 You now have a debuglog.txt in c:\, open it in a text edit (Notepad?).

According to the reference, look for MODULE_NAME and IMAGE_NAME

11. turn off the verifier, verifier /reset and reboot

12. Invoke Google, provide sacrifice to your god

References:

http://www.memecode.com/docs/minidump.php

verifier /?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244617

August 21 9:38 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

Bits in Windows error codes

Found the explanation of high bits in Windows Error codes.

Refer to Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio 8/VC/PlatformSDK/Include/WinError.h

The Facility and status codes referenced in below are also listed in this file.

//
// Values are 32 bit values layed out as follows:
//
//   3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
//   1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
// +---+-+-+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
// |Sev|C|R|     Facility          |               Code            |
// +---+-+-+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
//
// where
//
//      Sev - is the severity code
//
//          00 - Success
//          01 - Informational
//          10 - Warning
//          11 - Error
//
//      C - is the Customer code flag
//
//      R - is a reserved bit
//
//      Facility - is the facility code
//
//      Code - is the facility's status code
//

July 10 10:19 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

MozyHome Remote Backup hangs computer

I received a one year subscription to MozyHome. It is an online backup system. You install an agent on your desktop, and have an account on mozy.com. You configure a set of files/directories on your PC to be backed up. I have a 50G quota, and have around 6G in use. The agent starts running once a day (in my config) where it sees what files, and more particularly what blocks of those files have been updated since the last run. It then sends the deltas over a secure link to the Mozy backup server. Supposedly you can at some point retrieve files that have been modified. If you deleted a local file, you have 30 days to fetch it back. It has bandwidth throttling so you don't kill your CPU or network link, and time of day throttling on the network link (e.g. full throttle 1AM-6AM, 64kbps otherwise).

Sounds good. Reality is that the initial, and every few weeks a big backup uploads huge volumes of data, which may takes several days. When this is happening it appears that your PC stops responding to anything, or does operate a a snails pace. Some programs that have worked faultlessly for a decade suddenly start dying. It gets to the point where you have to resent or hard power cycle the box. So you do a backup to protect yourself against corrupting files, and then have to hard reboot - what do you expect of you file system after that. My contacts program now has been corrupted - thanks Mozy.

What is support like? Well I have asked several questions without an ack, let alone an answer.

You seem to end up with an "MS Software Shadow Copy Provider" service running on your box after you install it. Maybe that is the flaky component.

Either way, don't bother with this product. It does more harm than good in my opinion.

(Old version of) Family Tree Maker on Vista

Family Tree Maker (older and better releases) can be installed on Vista (well server2008 at least). The main issue is with a driver for the PDF converter (amyuni)

See "Family Tree Maker Update for Windows Vista" http://pastftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pastftm.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2777&p_created=1170200114&p_sid=CjL4*V3j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PTI3Nzc*&p_li=&p_topview=1

Which requires a download
http://past.familytreemaker.com/vistaupdate/FTMVistaUpdater.msi

June 09 3:49 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

installing edjpgcom under vista

http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/vista.html

A couple of tricks, setting permissions mainly plus things have moved.

Installing edjpgcom

download
extract to -> \Program Files
           -> new folder, give permissions, rr.com

Send to comment variant

start cmd window

' Give youseld access to your rightclick sendto menu
> cacls c:\Users\horton\SendTo /E /G horton:F

> cd c:\Users\horton\SendTo
> start explorer .

create a shortcut in here to \program files\rr.com\edjpgcom.exe called "Comment JPG"

Next browse in Windows explorer to edjpgcom.exe
Right click -> properties
At the bottom of tthe general tab is Security. Click the [Unblock] button.
Apply, OK


Now navigate to a JPG file, right click -> Send to -> Comment JPG

(Bloody warniong that can't appease the warning).

Open with variant

Add as edit program

control panel -> set program defaults
associate file type with program
double click .jpg

add program --> \program files\rr.com\edjpgcom.exe


Now right click a jpg file
open with -> edjpgcom.exe

(crap name, but don't get dumb warning).

Upgrading system disk without reinstalling windows

Original system configuration

30G Seagate IDE C: single partition Windows XP bootable 90% full

30G Seagate IDE F: (FAT) + H: (NTFS)[page files] + a linux partition

(That fills one IDE controller)

Second controller has DVD reader + CD-RW + DVD

I want to replace the first drive with a bigger (500G) faster (7200 c.f. 5400) newer drive. So A western digital WD500AAKB-00Y5A0 500G from Umart for $128

Get

- clonzsilla liveCD http://www.clonezilla.org/

- GParted live CD http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Debugging a windows exe

To get to the Microsoft command line debugger (not the pretty GUI)

ntsd imagename args...

May 02 3:57 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

Memory testing diagnostic

I suspect I am having errors arising from installing more memory in the computer.

I was looking for a memory testing tool. This one from microsoft is installed to a bootable CD, and boots to an old DOS like application that runs some memory tests over and over. (Though the detailed tst takes a long time). You may need to fix your BIOS setting to boot from CD/DVD.

Windows Memory Diagnostic
The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

March 23 10:30 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet