Windows® 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 – First Look for Device Manufacturers

Microsoft has released the new long-term service version of Windows 10. The article takes a first look at the changes to consider to migrate from version 14393 to version 17763.

New Book: Java and Eclipse for Computer Science - Now Available!

Practical Textbook for Learning Java Programming, Computer Science, and Eclipse

Almost every job today has some interaction with a computer or a computing device. Computers come in all shapes and sizes such as smartphones, ATM machines, thermostats, test equipment, robotics, point-of-sale systems, cloud servers, projection systems, and, oh yes, personal computers. All of them need to be designed, built, and programmed. Having a good understanding of computer programming and Computer Science can provide a good foundation for one’s career. The Java programming language is one of the most popular programming languages used today. By learning Java, you will have a good understanding of structured programming, and Java is a good vehicle to learn the basics of Computer Science.

Employers are always looking for new-hires to have practical experience. The best way to stand out during the interview process is to demonstrate that you have a familiarity with the tools used by professional programmers. There are many Java development tools available, but when it comes to Java programming, Eclipse is the tool frequently used in the industry. Eclipse is a popular Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports Java, C/C++, and web development.

The goal of this textbook is to combine Java programming, Computer Science, and a popular development tool that not only prepares you for the Computer Science curriculum but also beyond the classroom into your professional career. The 14 chapters start with the basics of how Algebra flows into computer programming, moves on to logical program flow, and then to Object Oriented Programming. After these fundamentals come the advanced topics of recursion, search, sort, and Big-O notation. Going beyond the basic curriculum material, the later chapters cover graphical programming with JavaFX, File I/O, an introduction to data structures, and finishes with JavaFX 2-D Game development. There are many computer activities to provide a hands-on experience and keep you involved during the reading of this book.

GUI and Command Line Utilities for Keyboard Filter

The Windows® 10 Keyboard Filter feature can block keyboard combinations like CTRL+ALT+DEL, ATL+F4, and CTRL+SHIFT+ESC. The keyboard filter is a service that can be enabled and disable through services control panel or the sc.exe command. The predefined hot keys are store in a registry key. The GUI and command line Keyboard Filter utilities are built using the Keyboard Filter WMI API set and allow control of the keyboard filter service and 75+ hotkey combinations. KBFUtility64.exe and KBFUtility32.exe are the GUI utilities that provide a single interface to all the settings and service control. The kbfmgr64.exe and kbfmgr32.exe provide a command line control.

GUI and Command Line Utilities for Shell Launcher

Windows comes with the standard Explorer.exe shell with taskbar, start button, and desktop. Embedded/IoT OEMs looking to make their product look unlike Windows replace Explorer.exe with their own application. To make the shell replacement more manageable, the Shell Launcher features allows you to change the main shell form Explorer.exe to a custom shell executable of your choice. A simple enable / disable capability allows you to switch from custom shell to explorer shell. The feature also allows you to setup different shells for different users. There is only the WMI API set for managing Shell Launcher. The SLUtility and the command line shlmgr.exe were built on the WMI API set to assist with setup and management of Shell Launcher. SLUtiltiy provides a GUI interface with the key functions to setup a default shell and different shell for different users. Shlmgr.exe is the command line version that be called within a batch file to setup Shell Launcher. For example: when you create a customer installer with System Image Manager (SIM), the batch file can be called with a synchronous command.

UWFUtility - Free GUI Utility for UWF Released

The Unified Write Filter (UWF) protects a drive by redirecting all disk writes to an overlay. Out of the box Windows 10 Enterprise supports a command line utility (uwfmgr.exe) to manage UWF. The UWFUtility provides a graphical interface to UWF so you don’t have to drop to the command line each time. Built on the UWF WMI API set, the UWFUtility provides basic status and some functionality to interact with the UWF. It also includes a couple of actions that are not included in the uwfmgr.exe utility: enable/disable TSCAL and Domain secrete key write-through, and getting a list of the files in the overlay.

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Windows® 10 IoT Core
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