Disable hibernation on Windows 7, 8, 8.1

By default hibernation is enabled, and uses the file named hiberfil.sys located on the root folder of the system disk. This file is as big as the total amount of RAM installed inside your computer.
To disable hibernation, the quickest way is running a Command Prompt session with Run as administrator

At the prompt type

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

To verify that hibernation is really gone issue the following command

dir /as %SystemDrive%\hiberfil.sys

if you get "File not found" then hibernation is disabled.

To revert the above command

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs

Usually Software Update can detect autonomously if your computer needs firmware updates.
If you want to be sure that your Mac's EFI and SMC firmware are updated, especially before upgrading the operating system, check this Knowledge Base document HT1237.

FAT32 is not fat enough

FAT32 is making its days.

If you frequently exchange data between Windows and Mac you should be aware of a relatively new file system called exFAT that extends FAT32 features.
As many of you know, NTFS would be the best choice but OS X cannot natively write on NTFS formatted volumes.

Windows prerequisites: Windows Vista onwards

Windows XP with this update Update for Windows XP (KB955704)

Mac OS prerequisites: OS X 10.6.5 onwards

More in depth explanation and links on exFAT from Microsoft knowledge base

In OS X use Disk Utility to format an external drive as exFAT.

IE8 misbehaves on virtualized Windows XP SP3 inside Virtual PC 7.0.2

A few months ago I subscribed to Microsoft TechNet Standard.

Today I installed Microsoft Virtual PC 7.0.2 onto my glorious PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz/1.5 GB, to test Windows XP Professional SP3.

The installation took quite a long time but in the end all went fine. Running XP on a PowerPC G4 is not the fastest experience, but acceptable anyway.

Next step, I updated Internet Explorer from version 6 to version 8.

I run IE8-WindowsXP-x86-ENU.exe, restarted the virtual machine, launched IE8, went along the first time run questionnaire. I don't like automatic updates, so I opted for not to let the system check for updates for IE.

Everything was in place. Time to test internet sites. I typed in the first URL that came to mind, hit return and waited for the page to load. I could see, on the status bar, the loading page progress, but I got nothing but a blank page. Tried a couple of other URLs. Same results.

What I discovered after some Google searches was that, I wasn't alone.
At first, the only resolutive suggestion I found was to uninstall IE8 and install IE7. I didn't like the idea. Tried harder and I came across this MacWindows.com post.

Now I knew that an IE patch would have fixed the issue. But which one?
Back to Google search engine I entered "Cumulative IE8 updates" into the search box. As expected, I got in return a plethora of links. I went for the first one in the list 

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP (KB969897)

and, YES, that did the trick :-)

Preventing iTunes to automatically backup your iDevice

I don't know about you, but I get very annoyed when I have to wait for iTunes to finish the backup of my iPhone or iPad. There is no option in iTunes to disable automatic backup.
Follow along this post explain how to accomplish that.

• Quit iTunes
• Open Terminal
• Type or copy and paste the line below

defaults write com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

That prevent backup to happen, but allows you to manually do it at your own will 'ctrl clicking' the device icon, like in the picture

To revert the original backup behavior

defaults write com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false

or completely get rid of the key AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled added with defaults write

defaults delete com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled

What about if you don't even want to be able to perform a manual backup?

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

To revert the original backup behavior

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false

or completely get rid of the key DeviceBackupsDisabled added with defaults write

defaults delete com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled


Footnote
I tested this hack on a Macintosh with iTunes 10.5.2 and worked as expected with iPhone 4, iPad and iPad2.

Enable FTP service in OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan

Beginning with OS X Lion (client), Apple removed in System Preferences,  the option to activate the FTP server.
Fortunately the daemon is still there, just dormant.

To wake it up launch Terminal and type

sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

You can disable FTP anytime typing the following command

sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

Enable Administrator in Windows 7, 8, 8.1

To enable the Administrator account, the quickest way is running a Command Prompt session with Run as administrator

At the prompt type

net user administrator /active:yes

At this point it is recommended to assign a good password.

To disable the Administrator account

net user administrator /active:no