Control USB Drive letter

The USBDLM is a freeware for personal use Windows service that gives control over Window's drive letter assignment for USB drives. Running as service makes it independent of the logged on user's privileges, so there is no need to give the users the privilege to change drive letters.It automatically solves conflicts between USB drives and network drives of the currently logged on user. Furthermore you can define new default letters for USB drives and much more.


USB drive letter manager - USBDLM http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html


What can USBDLM do for newly attached USB drives?
Check if the letter is used by a network share of the currently logged on user and assign the next letter that is really available
Reserve letters, so they are not used for local drives
Assign a letter from a list of new default letters, also dependent on many different criteria as the active user, drive type, connection (USB, FireWire), USB port, volume label, size and others
Assign letters for a specific USB drive by putting an INI file on the drive
Remove the drive letters of card readers until a card is inserted
Show a balloon tip with the assigned drive letter(s)
Define autorun events depending on many different criteria
Many other things, see help file, available online as HTML version too


All functions are applied to USB drives at the moment they are being attached, when the USBDLM service starts up and when a user logs on.
Usage


Instructions can be found on the author's site, so you'd better read them from there.


Running without a configuration USBDLM only prevents that an USB drive gets the letter of a network share drive of the currently logged on user. It remounts then to the next letter that is really available.


However it is worth noting that USBDLM is configured thru a text file, the USBDLM.INI. The USBDLM.INI is read from the folder of the USBDLM.EXE.


New default letters for new USB drives (flash or hard drive)
[DriveLetters] Letter1=U Letter2=Y Letter3=Z



USBDLM can have up to 9 'LetterX' entries in each section. They don't have to be continuous.


For Card readers, the typical 20-in-1 card reader eats one drive letter for each of its slots - if we have a card for or not. USBDLM can remove the reader's drive letter until a media is inserted.
[Settings] NoMediaNoLetter=1



USBDLM assings then a drive letter as configured. If you need different drive letters for a multislot cardreader, then use the criterion 'DeviceType' in a DriveLetters section (MSCR is short for MultiSlotCardReaders which can be used too):
[DriveLetters1] DeviceType=MSCR Letter1=R Letter2=W Letter3=



You can prevent Windows mounting to certain letters by putting them into section ExcludedLetters. This is especially useful for letters of network shares which Windows may assign to USB drives while booting.[ExcludedLetters] Letter1=F Letter2= Letter3=



USBDLM can show a balloon tip with information about the drive letter(s) or mount points used for a just attached drive:
[BalloonTips] Enabled=1



I hope you found this article useful, and that it saves you time on the job!

How to Run Windows XP for Free in Windows 8

Microsoft gave Windows 7 users a way to run older applications via Windows XP Mode. With Windows 8, however, that mode is no longer officially supported, and if you want to run Windows XP in a virtual machine, you need the license for it. Lifehacker reader Miloš, however, has found a workaround.

He discovered that within the free WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe file, there's a VirtualXPVHD file containing the Windows XP virtual machine, which you can open in VirtualBox. Here are the steps to get this working:

1. Download WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe from Microsoft. You'll need to run the validation tool to prove your copy of Windows is valid.

http://www.microsoft.com/taiwan/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

1. Then use 7-Zip or another archive tool to open the EXE file as an archive.
2. Within that archive, find the "sources/xpm" file within it, and extract that folder to your hard drive.
3. Finally, in the extracted xpm file, you'll find a file called VirtualXPVHD. Rename it with a VHD extension.

In VirtualBox, open the VirtualXPVHD virtual machine, and voila! You've got Windows XP Mode (running Windows XP Professional) in Windows 8, no need for the XP license.

This might also be possible with Windows 8's built-in virtual machine manager, Hyper-V, but that's only available in Windows 8 Pro.