Comments on: Demystifying Windows 7 Local Packs and the MCT folders

By: David Koresh

David Koresh — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:57:32 +0000

No you all have it wrong.. Obama is not the antichrist.. he is preparing the way for me to return.
WHen i come back you will all bow down and worship me and love me as your god.. thats how it should be.
I will take over the world thanks to my friends in Microsoft and Apple and Walmart that have subverted you into nothing more than idol worshipping materialistic pagans.. Then when i have your souls i will rule the universe!

MUAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:47:03 +0000

@AnthonySPT,

The anti-christ has no age, just a number. That’s what Obama is trying to hide, didn’t you know that? Geez, where have you been? Living in REALITY!?

lol.

-Stephen

By: Mel

Mel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:56:44 +0000

Rafael,

Do you know why the name of the wallpaper folder (..\MCT-XX\{country name}, e.g. ..\MCT-FR\France) is not the same as the actual folder path (..\MCT-FR\Wallpaper)?

Try this: copy “..\MCT-FR\France” folder to another folder, say “C:\myFolder”. Now copy “..\MCT-JP\Japan” to “C:\myFolder” too. I was expecting that I now have 2 new folders “France” and “Japan” in “C:\myFolder”. But not, Windows complains that “France” folder already exists, merge?

It seems that “France”, “Japan”, etc. are nicknames for “Wallpaper” folder…

By: AnthonySPT

AnthonySPT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:19:10 +0000

@Jay

Conspiracy theory, really? The order Obama signed to revoke Bush’s ability to hide records behind executive priviledge is perverted into some insane birth certificate argument?

Reagan signed in Order 12667 in 1989, which is similar to Obama’s executive Order. It was Bush in 2001 that signed 13233 that changed the Reagan Order and Obama simply changed it back.

Are people really this insane? Or do people think Reagan was hiding his Birth Certificate too?

By: slear

slear — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:00:24 +0000

Slight off-topic, but if you wish a good logon screen changer, look at this
http://www.julien-manici.com/windows_7_logon_background_changer/

By: Yatti420

Yatti420 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:32:09 +0000

Good post… Warning to all people running slower \ older processors.. If you load up windows 7 with every microsoft (official) theme your personalization performance will suffer tremendously.. Core 2 duo 1.6 *Lappy*… Hopefully SP1 will fix this issue..

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:06:52 +0000

@Rafael I imagine “Local Packs” were originally coded as just MCTs, and thus the folder name made sense. Later on they added links and rss feeds and renamed the feature, but either due to laziness or poor hard coding of the folder name in 100 places, they decided not to rename the folder. That would make some sense.

And Jay you need to cut back on… whatever substance it is you’re abusing.

By: pizzaboy192

pizzaboy192 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:53:04 +0000

@jay:
I’m assuming you’re a Mac fan, who happens to be booting it off linux because it isn’t “free” enough without it?
MS’s Office 2k10 software that you pay for will be advertisementless, but if you feel like being free, and getting just the basics (which is what is going to replace the MS Works suite, thank God) then you get free, with ads.
Websites aren’t free, hence Ads.
Life isn’t free, hence job.
Sex isn’t free, hence marriage (or STDs, your choice)

Go put your tin foil hat back on, and stand on your corner yelling “the sky is falling”

By: z0iid

z0iid — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:19:09 +0000

@planetarian – gonna have to go with “complete and total moron.” and the conspiracy theorists wonder why they aren’t taken seriously…

By: planetarian

planetarian — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:09:10 +0000

Jay: I can’t tell if you’re a genius or just a complete and total moron.

By: Jay Campbell

Jay Campbell — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:11:36 +0000

@MarkKB

Your goose was cooked a long time ago! Who wouldn’t want to edit a Windows Theme? Unless, the Windows Theme is PERFECT for EVERYONE, everyone would want to change it for their own needs. The question here is, why did Microsoft make such a mess of it….?

It’s very obviously, Microsoft PLANS to ADVERTISE using Windows Themes! The PAID advertisements will target regions, hence the reason for their layout, to include ISO codes, feeds and links with the product! Microsoft wants to use the DESKTOP as a method of selling, to earn more PROFITS!

Didn’t anyone see this coming, since in Office 2010, advertisements are placed within the product! It’s totally amazing how PAID proprietary software succumbs to PUSHING advertisements as a means of income, when the FREE open source software, like OPEN OFFICE, has NO ADVERTISEMENTS and is FREE! Did I mention how FREE software is FREE, so why PAY for software that comes with ADVERTISEMENTS?

Go see the PROOF, http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/personalize

Microsoft is using themes to PUSH marketing brands, like “COKE”, Ducati, Ferrari, Porsche, and it’s own Bing, Zune, but NO iPhone or iPod of course! That would be forbidden!

I’m sure we will see an “Obama Theme” coming soon too! Only, will it show the birth certificate, his Indonesia Passport, or any of the records all forbidden by presidential executive order 13489. For those who don’t believe, see for yourself here: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-1712.pdf

By: MarkKB

MarkKB — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:37:02 +0000

Addendum: I’m not saying it’s not a mess. It certainly could be a lot better. You’re also entitled to your opinion. And I guess it’s not like you’re going to type out “this folder structure is terrible, but I can see how it’ll make sense to programmers because of this and that and the other thing” every time you encounter a bad folder structure. (Certainly don’t start doing it on my accord. That’s the way *I* think…)

By: MarkKB

MarkKB — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:23:49 +0000

Normally I’d agree, except I don’t think this was a feature that was intended to be tinkered with at the folder level, even by IT pros or tinkerers. That’s why they provided the (oddly named) tool, right?

The name “MCT” isn’t self-evident, but once one’s gotten over that, each folder has a standard structure and naming scheme (although why every folder is “MCT-xx” instead of just “xx” strikes me as odd.) From a programmatic standpoint, it makes sense, and all things considered, it could be a lot worse.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:46:59 +0000

@MarkKB: I agree, users really don’t care about the pool of files and folders on disk… but I target a more advanced crowd (e.g. IT pros, security zealots, and hobbits). I don’t believe “users won’t care” is a valid excuse for poor — what amounts to — design.

By: MarkKB

MarkKB — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:23:08 +0000

It’s not really like the user’s supposed to be exposed to the folder structure, and I’m sure the name made perfect sense to the developer. In the same way, RSS is a really poor scheme to write user readable documents, but that doesn’t matter since the software will format it for them.

Otherwise, good article.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:43:49 +0000

@pizzaboy192: None of these packs have Logon UI changes :(

By: pizzaboy192

pizzaboy192 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:19:20 +0000

Quite the useful bit of information there…
I’ll still stick to my own pictures, thanks
One question though, do these packs also contain a Logon Screen?

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:16:20 +0000

I wonder when Rafael will be able to write a blog post without slandering someone.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:18:16 +0000

What did MSFT steal? Windows?