I was curious - is Windows still using the services file for determining which port to use when connecting with a specific protocol, or is it hardcoded in the OS?
I mean, if we type http://test.com/ into Start->Run dialog, will it check the standard IANA services file to check which TCP port to use or will it just assume it’s port 80?
Let’s find out!
I created a standard Windows XP Professional SP2 virtual machine. I downloaded Microsoft Network Monitor for capturing TCP/IP traffic.
I did a simple test, by Going to google.com with IE 7 to check if Network Monitor is working fine - it was:
Then I edited the standard services file and added an extra dummy service with port number 77:
Then I tried accessing the newly created protocol, both by Start->Run and by typing it into IE’s address bar.
Unfortunately, in both cases, there was no TCP traffic initiated.
Conclusion
Windows doesn’t use the standard services file when determining if it knows the protocol, and how to connect to it. This has been verified for Windows XP SP2, but I assume newer version would not switch to the “old” method.
I have reinstalled Vista on my primary computer some time ago. I was still missing one device installed - Mustek BearPaw 2400TA Plus - because there are no official drivers for Windows Vista. I’m running a 32-bit Enterprise flavour of Vista, so previously I had the Windows 2000/XP drivers installed with some registry hack and it quite worked. However, when I tried to find that information now, I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Finally, after more than hour of googling, I found a way to do it. I’ll just make a note here for myself or anyone else who would like to do the same trick and find that information faster.
Here we go:
- Download 2000 / XP drivers for your scanner
- Change HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProductName registry key to say “Microsoft Windows 2000″
- Reboot Vista and start it in Safe Mode
- Install the drivers, they should now install fine
- Reboot Vista, start normally. After logging in, it will ask you if you want to use an unsigned driver - agree
That’s it - everything should be working more or less normally. I just tried that and it works for me - this trick should work for all XP / 2000 drivers.
My girlfriend just found the most useful Windows Vista feature. Which one? The live taskbar thumbnail.
How can it be that useful? Well, she does her job on her Vista laptop, but sometimes she wants some fun as well. Today I saw her doing some accountant job in Excel, while watching TV in the same time in the taskbar thumbnail. Of course using USB-plugged TV tuner. I would never though it can work as PIP, but the world is full of surprises.
