SSL Certs and Mono
Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 09:53 PM
I was recently plagued with an error while trying to make a connection to a secure website using Mono. After several hours of searching I came across this site talking about importing trusted roots. Having seen this same issue on windows servers, I knew I was in the right area.

What I ended up doing was running mozroots --import --machine to import all of the mozilla (aka firefox) browser trusted roots, and then certmgr -ssl -m URL to get the actual cert and add it.
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Selecting the correct language in Word 2007
Monday, January 25, 2010, 06:09 PM
I know everyone has a favourite language, and so do I. Unfortunately, I don't like to spell it favourite, because in the US we spell it favorite! Word 2007 refused to do this for me on a couple of documents I had, until I found this little trick.

1. Ctrl + a to select all
2. On the ribbon, click on Review then click Set Language
3. Select the language you need

done and done.
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Encrypting and Decrypting Config Files
Thursday, November 19, 2009, 12:38 PM - Programming, .NET, C#, VB.NET, ASPX
I've talked for years about how you need to encrypt and decrypt Web.config and App.config files, but it took a spur for me to actually look it up. Here is the command for those of you as lazy as me:

c:windowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727aspnet_regiis -pef connectionStrings . -prov DataProtectionConfigurationProvider


Decrypting is just as easy:

c:windowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727aspnet_regiis -pdf connectionStrings .

Just a note, this only works on Web.config files. If you want to encrypt an App.config, just rename it Web.config, run the tool, then change the name back.

If you want to get hardcore and write your own tool, it's all available in the API:

Aaron Feng's Blog


Configuration configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(appConfig);
ConfigurationSection section = this.configuration.GetSection("connectionStrings");
if (!section.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
{
section.SectionInformation.ProtectSection("DataProtectionConfigurationProvider");
section.SectionInformation.ForceSave = true;
configuration.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
}


To decrypt just do the oposite:

if (section.SectionInformation.IsProtected)
{
// …
section.SectionInformation.UnprotectSection();
// …
}

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Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsave attachments:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 04:39 PM - Windows
If you're like me, you've likely received an attachment from someone after spending half an hour talking them through attaching it, only to find that Outlook as blocked access to it. Here's all you need to do to make the ugly warning go away:

1. In the registry, under HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftOffice(VERSION)OutlookSecurity, add a string value "Level1Remove" and set the data to the extension of the file you need access to, like "tmp" or "exe;ini".

2. Restart Outlook and you now have access to these files.

Don't forget to remove this key when you are done!
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DVD Flick is the BOMB!!
Friday, August 28, 2009, 01:52 PM - Windows
Does anyone say that anymore? I guess now it rips, shreds, something? Anyway. I just downloaded DVD Flick, an open source dvd rendering and burning program. Take any video you have, and I mean ANYTHING and this app seems to rip them and spit them out in a nice, standard DVD format. I took a bunch of DIVX standard stuff I found somewhere and threw them into the app, said "make me a basic menu and burn the dvd" and it worked. First time. No fuss, no muss. It just works.

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