Category Archives: Software

Software, sysadmin

Turn Off Updates • mozillaZine Forums

Here is the policies documentation.

Manage updates, policies & customization
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/produc … enterprise

Customizing Firefox Using policies.json
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cus … liciesjson

Create a folder called distribution where the firefox.exe is located and place the policies.json file there.

CODE: SELECT ALL
{
"policies": {
"DisableAppUpdate": true
}
}

Customizing Firefox Using Group Policy
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cus … cy-windows

Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is not available in Home versions of Windows 7, 8 or 10.

How to stop Firefox from showing the update nag screen?
http://superuser.com/questions/1407844

Enterprise Policies
http://klaus-hartnegg.de/gpo/2018-05-26-Firefox-Policies.html

Enterprise Policy Generator
http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/976971

I never tried the Enterprise Policy Generator addon.

policies.json being removed on browser updates via setup.exe (wontfix)
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1502188

P.S.

I got the DisableAppUpdate policy working with the policies.json file in Firefox Portable 71.0 32-bit.

* C:\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\distribution\policies.json

However, I had to remove the following registry keys before I got it working.

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Mozilla
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla

Here is how to test if the DisableAppUpdate policy is working.

Test DisableAppUpdate policy: viewtopic.php?p=14848020#p14848020

Source: Turn Off Updates • mozillaZine Forums

Software, sysadmin

Mozilla Enterprise Policies for Firefox and Thunderbird

Impressum

The Mozilla Enterprise Policies for Firefox (and Thunderbird)

This feature is meant to help enterprise admins, who deploy Firefox as software package to computers in their organization.

Versions

Policies were first added in Firefox 60, and back then were purely optional.

In Firefox 68 some settings from autoconfig stopped working (for example the option to disable automatic updates), thus it became necessary to at least partially switch to policies.

Thunderbird started to implement policies in version 68, and at the same time also stopped respecting some of the autoconfig options.

Overview

The Enterprise Policy feature provides two new ways to configure Firefox (besides the old autoconfig aka mozilla.cfg):

  • Windows Group Policy Objects (GPO)
  • A config file named policies.json

Interactions:

  • If any policies are set with GPO, the json file is ignored.
  • If autoconfig (old) and policies (new) provide conflicting settings, policies win.

Requirements:

  • Firefox version 60 or later.
  • Thunderbird version 68 or later.
  • In Windows some policies work only if you have either Firefox ESR or domain-joined PCs.
    (It is currently unclear how Firefox detects the domain membership, and whether it must be an Active Directory domain)

Howto use the admx templates (for GPO)

Firefox

  1. Copy firefox.admx to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions
  2. Copy firefox.adml to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US
  3. Run <class=”tt”>gpedit.msc or <class=”tt”>RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools), and open Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Firefox.</class=”tt”></class=”tt”>

Thunderbird

Some of the Firefox policies also work in Thunderbird.

There are official (but non-functioning) admx-templates on https://github.com/thundernest/policy-templates. They are just a clone of the templates for Firefox, and thus do not have an effect on Thunderbird.

Inofficial templates are on https://github.com/drlellinger/thunderbird-policies (announced here), and they acually work.

  1. Copy thunderbird.admx to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions
  2. Copy thunderbird.adml to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US
  3. Run <class=”tt”>gpedit.msc or <class=”tt”>RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools), and open Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Thunderbird.</class=”tt”></class=”tt”>

You can also copy registry keys from Firefox and rename them. For example this one works:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Mozilla\Thunderbird]
"DisableAppUpdate"=dword:00000001

Howto use create the json file (alternative for GPO)

The currently supported policies are listed here. New policies are added with every version, and so far all new policies are available both in the latest RR (Rapid Release), and in the latest ESR (Extended Service Release).

Multiple policies must be separated with commas. Multiple options to one policy must be placed in curly brackets, and separated with commas.

A Generator addon was published (german). More info.

The json file must be placed in a subdirectory named distribution in the program directory. In Windows the path will be something like
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\distribution\policies.json
This directory does usually not yet exist, you must create it.

Sample file:

{
 "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true,
    "DisableBuiltinPDFViewer": true,
    "DisableFirefoxAccounts": true,
    "DisableFirefoxStudies": true,
    "DisablePocket": true,
    "DisableProfileRefresh": true,
    "DisableTelemetry": true,
    "DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true,
    "EnableTrackingProtection": { "Value": true, "Locked": false },
    "Proxy": { "Mode": "none", "Locked": false },
    "SearchBar": "separate"
  }
}

Errors in the file are reported on the page “about:policies”, but this feature needs at least Firefox version 63. This is the typical way how Mozilla develops new feature: publish it long before its ready.

Howto not document a feature

Mozilla has created this labyrinth:

It seems that Github is now the official place for documentation. But even there a lot of info is missing. For example that this is supposed to replace autoconfig. And that in Windows several of these options only work if either the ESR version is used, or the PCs are members of a Windows Domain. Also how do the two methods relate to each other and to autoconfig: which one does take precedence?

Lets hope that eventually Mozilla will write some decent documentation for this new feature.

No, I’m not gonna read the source to extract infos from there.

Changelog:

  • 2018-10-22 Thunderbird
  • 2018-09-17 corrected directory, add interactions, add sample
  • 2018-05-31 cleanup
  • 2018-05-30 add howto use the admx templates, and links to generator and source.
  • 2018-05-25 new

Impressum

Source: Mozilla Enterprise Policies for Firefox and Thunderbird

Browser, Computer, Software, sysadmin

mod_rewrite Cheat Sheet by DaveChild

A mod_rewrite Cheat Sheet – a quick reference guide for mod_rewrite, with rewrite flags, regular expression syntax and sample rules.

mod_re­write Tutorials

mod_re­write Rewrit­eRule Flags

C
Chained with next rule
CO=cookie
Set specified cookie
E=var:­value
Set enviro­nmental variable “var” to “value”
F
Forbidden (403 header)
G
Gone – no longer exists
H=handler
Set handler
L
Last – stop processing rules
N
Next – continue processing
NC
Case insens­itive
NE
Do not escape output
NS
Ignore if subrequest
P
Proxy
PT
Pass through
R[=code]
Redirect to new URL, with optional code (see below)
QSA
Append query string
S=x
Skip next x rules
T=mime­-type
Set mime type

mod_re­write Rewrit­eCond Flags

NC
Case insens­itive
OR
Combine with next rule using ‘OR’ instead of the default of ‘AND’

Redire­ction Header Codes

301
Moved perman­ently
302
Moved tempor­arily (default)

mod_re­write Directives

Rewrit­eEngine
RewriteMap
Rewrit­eOp­tions
Rewrit­eBase
RewriteLog
Rewrit­eCond
Rewrit­eLo­gLevel
Rewrit­eRule
Rewrit­eLock

Regular Expres­sions Syntax

^
Start of string
$
End of string
.
Any single character
(a|b)
a or b
(…)
Group section
[abc]
In range (a, b or c)
[^abc]
Not in range
\s
White space
a?
Zero or one of a
a*
Zero or more of a
a*?
Zero or more, ungreedy
a+
One or more of a
a+?
One or more, ungreedy
a{3}
Exactly 3 of a
a{3,}
3 or more of a
a{,6}
Up to 6 of a
a{3,6}
3 to 6 of a
a{3,6}?
3 to 6 of a, ungreedy
\
Escape character
[:punct:]
Any punctu­ation symbol
[:space:]
Any space character
[:blank:]
Space or tab
There’s an excellent regular expression tester at: http:/­/re­gex­pal.com/

mod_re­write Server Variables: HTTP Headers

%{HTTP­_US­ER_­AGENT}
%{HTTP­_RE­FERER}
%{HTTP­_CO­OKIE}
%{HTTP­_FO­RWA­RDED}
%{HTTP­_HOST}
%{HTTP­_PR­OXY­_CO­NNE­CTION}
%{HTTP­_AC­CEPT}

mod_re­write Server Variables: Server Internals

%{DOCU­MEN­T_ROOT}
%{SERV­ER_­ADMIN}
%{SERV­ER_­NAME}
%{SERV­ER_­ADDR}
%{SERV­ER_­PORT}
%{SERV­ER_­PRO­TOCOL}
%{SERV­ER_­SOF­TWARE}

mod_re­write Sample Rule: Site Moved

# Site moved perman­ently
Rewrit­eCond %{HTTP­_HOST} ^www.d­oma­in.com$ [NC]
Rewrit­eRule ^(.*)$ http:/­/ww­w.d­oma­in2.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Rewrites domain.com to domain­2.com

mod_re­write Sample Rule: Temporary Page Move

# Page has moved tempor­arily
Rewrit­eRule ^page.h­tml$ new_pa­ge.html [R,NC,L]
Rewrites domain.co­m/p­age.html to domain.co­m/n­ew_­pag­e.html

mod_re­write Sample Rule: Nice URLs

# Nice URLs (no query string)
Rewrit­eRule ^([A-Z­a-z­0-9­-]+)/?$ catego­rie­s.p­hp?­name=$1 [L]
Rewrites domain.co­m/c­ate­gor­y-n­ame-1/ to domain.co­m/c­ate­gor­ies.ph­p?n­ame­=ca­teg­ory­-name-1

mod_re­write Server Variables: Special

%{API_­VER­SION}
%{THE_­REQ­UEST}
%{REQU­EST­_URI}
%{REQU­EST­_FI­LENAME}
%{IS_S­UBREQ}
%{HTTPS}

mod_re­write Server Variables: Request

%{REMO­TE_­ADDR}
%{REMO­TE_­HOST}
%{REMO­TE_­PORT}
%{REMO­TE_­USER}
%{REMO­TE_­IDENT}
%{REQU­EST­_ME­THOD}
%{SCRI­PT_­FIL­ENAME}
%{PATH­_INFO}
%{QUER­Y_S­TRING}
%{AUTH­_TYPE}

mod_re­write Server Variables: Time

%{TIME­_YEAR}
%{TIME­_MON}
%{TIME­_DAY}
%{TIME­_HOUR}
%{TIME­_MIN}
%{TIME­_SEC}
%{TIME­_WDAY}
%{TIME}

Source: mod_rewrite Cheat Sheet by DaveChild – Download free from Cheatography – Cheatography.com: Cheat Sheets For Every Occasion

microsoft, MicrosoftSucksAss, Software, sysadmin, Win10, Windows

How to Uninstall Edge Chromium When Windows 10 Won’t Let You

Edge Chromium is a decent web browser. I’d even go as far as to say it’s worth swapping over to from Google Chrome, given its improvements with memory usage. However, Microsoft has been incredibly annoying about stuffing Edge Chromium down everyone’s throats, and a recent Windows update locks this browser into your OS even more.

Sure, you could just set another app like Firefox or Opera as your default web browser and ignore Edge’s presence (and Windows 10’s incessant notifications to “try the new Edge”), but it’s better to remove Edge Chromium entirely if you never plan to use it.

The thing is, if you try to uninstall the browser from the Apps & Features menu in system settings, the “Uninstall” button next to Edge is now grayed out. If you’re like me, you probably hopped over to the Control Panel to uninstall it via the “Programs and Features” tab…except the update also removed Edge from the list of installed programs, so it can’t be uninstalled that way, either.

There’s a reason for this: some Microsoft apps require Edge to run properly, so Microsoft made it harder to uninstall Edge to avoid unnecessary issues that could be caused by its absence (and it just really wants you to use Edge).

This doesn’t mean Edge Chromium has to take up permanent residence on your computer—you’ll just have to get a little more creative to delete it. And no, you won’t break Windows by uninstalling Edge, though if all you intend to do is disable it and set a different browser as your default app, we’ll show you how to do that, too.

How to disable Edge and set a different default browser

Illustration for article titled How to Uninstall Edge Chromium When Windows 10 Wont Let You
Screenshot: Brendan Hesse

Given Windows 10’s bug-ridden history and the OS’s reliance on Edge, it may be safer to just switch to a new browser instead of uninstalling it completely.

  1. Open the Start Menu
  2. Click Settings and go to Apps > Default apps.
  3. Scroll down and click “Web browser.”
  4. Select the browser you want to use, which you’ll obviously need to have first installed in order to make the switch. Check our lists for the best browsers for ad-blocking and the best browsers for privacy if you need recommendations.
  5. You can also unpin Edge from your taskbar by right-clicking the taskbar icon and selecting “Unpin from taskbar.”

This will hide Edge most of the time, but Windows will still occasionally suggest using the browser, and some apps will open links in Edge even after changing the default program—but you can delete it from your PC if those behaviors bug you.

How to uninstall Edge Chromium

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to prevent users from delete Edge, you can uninstall it from Windows 10 with some simple PowerShell wizardry. We’ll cover two possible options just in case one doesn’t work for you.

Method one:

Illustration for article titled How to Uninstall Edge Chromium When Windows 10 Wont Let You
Screenshot: Brendan Hesse
  1. Open Windows File Explorer
  2. Type “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application” into the address bar and hit Enter. This should open the Edge installation folder—if not, try navigating to the folder manually, or search for “Edge” in File Explorer.
  3. There should be a folder with a numerical name. The name is the same as the current version of Edge installed on your PC. For example, at the time of writing, the folder on my machine is “83.0.478.58.” Open that folder.
  4. Find and open the “Installer” folder.
  5. In this folder, click the “File” tab in the upper-left of the File Explorer window, then go to File > Open Windows PowerShell > Open Windows PowerShell as administrator.
  6. Click “Yes” when prompted to allow the program to make changes to your system.
  7. Type.\setup.exe -uninstall -system-level -verbose-logging -force-uninstall into PowerShell and press Enter to run the command and let it run.

Assuming everything went according to plan, Edge should now be uninstalled. However, if this method doesn’t work for you, there’s another option you can try.

Method 2:

Illustration for article titled How to Uninstall Edge Chromium When Windows 10 Wont Let You
Screenshot: Brendan Hesse
  1. Search for “PowerShell” from the taskbar or Windows Start menu.
  2. Right-click “Windows PowerShell” from the search results and select “Run as an administrator.”
  3. Select “Yes” when asked if the program is allowed to make changes to your system.
  4. In the PowerShell window, type get-appxpackage *edge* and press Enter.
  5. Several lines of information will show up. Look for “PackageFullName” and copy the text in the column.
  6. Type remove-appxpackage into PowerShell and paste the text you copied from the PackafeFullName column.
  7. Press Enter to run the command. Edge should now be removed from your system.

This story was updated to add more information on why Microsoft is preventing the browser from being removed, plus two additional methods for removing/disabling the browser.

Source: How to Uninstall Edge Chromium When Windows 10 Won’t Let You

Software

Qtools – QuickBooks Updates

QuickBooks® Updates

The information is current as of May 19, 2020.

This page provides links to official product updates for U.S. editions of QuickBooks, hosted on official Intuit servers.

For Canadian editions, more information can be found at: QuickBooks Canada Updates (latest 4 versions). | email us for info on older QuickBooks CA Updates (2010-2016).

For U.K. editions, more information can be found at: QuickBooks UK Updates (latest 4 versions). | email us for info on older QuickBooks UK Updates (2008-2016).

If you notice any bad links or incorrect information, please contact support@qtools.com.

We strongly recommend that you use the update information found on the official QuickBooks Product Update pages when possible. Only use these links if you are unable to locate updates there.

The Update Page links below will open the page on the Official QuickBooks website that provides information about the specific product’s updates. The page usually includes a link for the manual download.

The Direct Download links below will download the specific update release installer file from the official Intuit site to your computer, which you can then run.

QuickBooks Enterprise® updates are listed separately for versions 8.0 and above. For Enterprise versions 2.0 to 7.0 use the same manual update file as other editions.

 

General notes on updates:

  • Sometime in 2012, direct downloads of all patches to QB 2005 and earlier became no longer available from Intuit’s servers, as well as some of the incremental patches to later versions. These are now marked in ORANGE. Sometime later, certain links to patches for older versions were re-established. Follow the link in the “Update Page” column to get them (as of Feb 2016, the patch files to QB 2004 and earlier are missing again).
  • Occasionally Intuit withdraws or skips a number in the update sequence. These are marked in GREEN.
  • QuickBooks update releases are cumulative. You only need to run the latest one to update any prior release version to the latest.
  • The update release installer files are not named by version and release (since QB 2003 they are all named qbwebpatch.exe, or en_qbwebpatch.exe for Enterprise). You must be quite careful to download and run the one that is correct for your product. You can look at an installer’s file properties to find out which version and edition to which it applies. If you intend to archive the update installers, we recommend renaming them by version.
  • To view the current release level of your QuickBooks installation, press CTRL+1 or F2 while QuickBooks is running. The Product Information dialog will open. Look at the end of the first line where the product is named. For instance, QuickBooks: Premier 2007 Release R11P would be at the R11 release level. This information can also be found in the file properties for QBW32.EXE.
  • If a new release causes problems and you need to go back to a prior release level, there is no built-in rollback capability in QuickBooks. Unless you have a workable Windows Restore Point, you will need to completely uninstall QuickBooks, reinstall QuickBooks, then run the prior update release installer.
  • The QB 2002 and older update release installer files (e.g. qbcdpro.exe) will fail to operate if renamed. You can rename them for archival purposes as long as you change the name back prior to executing.
U.S. Editions Only
Version Name Internal Version Number SDK Versions Update Page Edition Direct Download (from Intuit server)
2020

Ent 20.0

 30.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7
ENTERPRISE R3, R4, R5, R6, R7
2019

Ent 19.0

 29.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12
ENTERPRISE R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12
2018

Ent 18.0

 28.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15
ENTERPRISE R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15
2017

Ent 17.0

 27.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16
ENTERPRISE R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16
2016

Ent 16.0

 26.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17
ENTERPRISE R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17
2015

Ent 15.0

 25.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R74, R8, R9, R10, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17
ENTERPRISE R10, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17
2014

Ent 14.0

 24.0 1.0 – 13.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R14, R15, R16
ENTERPRISE R11, R14, R15, R16
2013

Ent 13.0

 23.0 1.0 – 12.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17, R18
ENTERPRISE R18
2012

Ent 12.0

 22.0 1.0 – 11.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16
ENTERPRISE R16
2011

Ent 11.0

 21.0 1.0 – 10.0 Link3 PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14
ENTERPRISE R14
2010

Ent 10.0

 20.0 1.0 – 9.0 Link PRO & PREMIER R2, R44, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16, R17
ENTERPRISE R17
2009

Ent 9.0

 19.0 1.0 – 8.0 Link PRO & PREMIER R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15
ENTERPRISE R15
2008

Ent 8.0

 18.0 1.0 – 7.0 Link PRO & PREMIER R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R10, R11
ENTERPRISE R11
2007

Ent 7.0

 17.0 1.0 – 6.0 Link ALL1 R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R10, R11, R12, R13
2006

Ent 6.0

 16.0 1.0 – 5.0 Link ALL1 R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R12
2005

Ent 5.0

 15.0 1.0 – 4.1 Link ALL1 R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R11
2004

Ent 4.0

 13.0 1.0 – 3.0 Link ALL1 R4, R6, R8, R9, R10, R11
2003

Ent 2.0

 12.0 1.0 – 2.1 Link ALL1 R2, R7, R8, R9, R10
2002 10.0 1.0 – 1.1 Link ALL1 R2, R3, R4, R4a, R6, R6a, R7, R8
2001 9.0 none Link Pro R2, R3, R4, R5, R6
Std R2, R3, R4, R5, R6
2000 8.0 none Link Pro R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8
Std R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8
99 7.0 none Link Pro R2, R3, R4
Std R2, R3, R4
6.0 6.0 none Link Pro R5
Std R5
5.0 5.0 none Link Pro R7
Std R7
  • Links and downloads that are no longer available are in ORANGE.
  • Download numbers withdrawn or skipped by Intuit are in GREEN.
  1. Update installer files linked in row labeled ALL1 are for all editions of QuickBooks, including Enterprise.
  2. Linked page does not display latest information or update release level.
  3. Link is to current QuickBooks Product Updates page. You need to select the appropriate version and edition on the QuickBooks website in order to view the applicable product information.
  4. This update was withdrawn by Intuit.
  5. Link displays a product page for the version, which includes a link to a manual download, however the patch download link is broken. Use the Direct Download link in the far column.

Source: Qtools – QuickBooks Updates

Software

Register New Install of Quicken 2013 — Quicken

Bypass registration (Quicken for Windows 2014 and older)

If all else fails and you get stuck on a Registration window, you can try the following to bypass registration:

Start or restart Quicken. Do not start a One Step Update or any other download activity.
Press and hold both the left CTRL and Shift keys, click Tools, then One Step Update.

When the message “You will no longer be prompted for registration” appears, click OK.


Additionally, you can find the LAST update to Quicken 2013 here:

http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/quickenpatches.html

Scroll down to the Quicken 2013 product patches.  

I would download and install the R12 Mondo Patch.  That would give you the most updated version of Quicken 2013.  

Source: Register New Install of Quicken 2013 — Quicken