New programs that "must have"

I decided to wright all my new articles in english, cause it's more technically adopted for IT :-)
And better english practice, also...

So, my new favorite set of utilities http://www.uwe-sieber.de/misc_tools_e.html
Made in Germany :-)

1. I like it pretty much, cause it much simply to download program an run it, then
1.1. Open CMD.EXE set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
1.2. Then type devmgmt.msc
1.3. Tic Show hidden devices
1.4. And uninstall hundredes of useless devices after P2V or V2V by clicking (3 clicks per device)

Device Cleanup Tool V0.2.2 - removes non-present devices from the Windows device management

Here is my favorite PROGRAM, saving me now from longtime clicking - Device Cleanup Tool - http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/devicecleanup.zip



One more usfeful tool

COM Name Arbiter Setter V0.7 - gives control over reserved COM port numbers

Whenever a new COM port is installed, Windows looks for the first never used number. This ensures that there are no conflicts when two of the devices are attached at the same time.

In real live the users do not use their devices (as USB to COM adaptors) at the same time, but the COM numbers increase and increase...

Windows stores used COM port numbers in the registry in the value ComDB under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\COM Name Arbiter 

It is 32 bytes with 8 bits in each byte. A set bit makes a port number (1..256) reserved.

"Apply" writes the bits to the registry which requires admin previleges.

Removing the reservation does not do anything else than making Windows reassign the number to a new device when it is attached.

As long as the new device is not attached at the same time as the device which had these COM port before there is no problem.

If the devices are attached at the same time then the second one will not start because it cannot create its "COMx" symbolic link. This happens too if a new device wants to get a port which is supposed to be free because its arbiter bit is not set but in fact the port is in use! So don't clean up to much...

Since V0.5 you can delete a symbolic link by right-clicking it.

F5 refreshes the list (done automatically since V0.5).

Started with parameter /rnp (remove non present) it sets currently non present ports to 'available' and ends without showing the dialog.

There are some useful programs intended to help mostly developers:

UsbTreeView
The USB Device Tree Viewer, short UsbTreeView is based upon the Microsoft "USBView" sample application found in the Windows Driver Development Kits and now standalone here: USBView sample application
But it is source code only, there is no executable for end users provided. Meanwhile USBView comes as executables as part of the "Debugging Tools für Windows", see here: USBView.

runasystem.zip 

unAsSystem is helpful when admin previleges are not enough. For instance since Vista there are registry keys whose owner is the administrator but without the privileges to write or change the rights.

setfilesize.zip
Creates file with defined size.

SetFileSize test.bin 1024
SetFileSize test.bin 0x400
SetFileSize test.bin 1024Ki

The following units can be used:
Ki 1024
Mi 1024*1024
Gi 1024*1024*1024
Ti 1024*1024*1024*1024
K 1000
M 1000*1000
G 1000*1000*1000
T 1000*1000*1000*1000

createfiletest.zip
The CreateFile Tester is useful for testing different parameters for the Window API call CreateFile. Furthermore it can open files exclusively to test the behaviour of other programs when they try to open such an exclusiveley opened file.

And some other pretty tools...