Further to my previous post which describes how to install and run ClamAV as a service on Windows, here is extra info on what is required for Windows Server 2008 x64, discovered the hard way, through trial and error, by the persistent IT brains at SET-BC (Special Education Technology British Columbia). Particular thanks to IT Manager Gordon Eddy.

Configuring ClamD and FreshClam services

No special configuration is needed for the services. Clam and FreshClam both run fine under Local System, with automatic start and defaults for other service settings. The service account needs read/write access to C:\ClamAV, which it would have by default if Local System is used.

Starting the services

If the ClamD service is started from the services UI and there is no database, or the database is no good, it will fail silently. This could lead one off on a long goose chase looking at service accounts, permissions, service settings, etc. trying to figure out why the service won’t run, when in fact all you need is to run FreshClam once to get a good database, and then ClamD will run fine.

Run FreshClam immediately after installing ClamAV, before trying to run the ClamD service the first time. If FreshClam reports corruption or other problems with the existing database files, delete everything in ..\data and run FreshClam again.

There is no useful error info returned when trying to start ClamD from the services UI. On the other hand, starting it from a command prompt using "NET START CLAMD" does return a bit of useful info. Executing it directly as "clamd.exe --daemon" also returns some (different) info.

Registry setting required

There is a registry file in the ..\docs folder called clamav.reg that contains some path information. The docs seem to be saying that this is not necessary unless you are running Clam from somewhere other than the default location. We found this is not true. Even if installed to C:\ClamAV, Clam will not run without this info in the registry.

TCPAddr setting required

In clamd.config, the comments suggest that the TCPAddr setting is optional. It is not. Set it to the address at which ClamD should respond. If this is missing, the Clamd service will run, but will not respond to requests.

This'll be a short post, but there are many things I love about Windows 7, and many things I really like, but I've just discovered something that you might not have heard about yet: in Windows Explorer, you can now tab to complete the path in the address bar. For example, in the path below, I can type "Of" and then hit tab and it will automatically complete "Office" followed by the next backward slash, ready for me to continue on down the path.

This might not seem like a big deal, but see how much time it saves navigating to "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files". And yes, that's if you haven't already set up Executor/Launchy/Enso (note: does not work on x64)/Etc. to have a shortcut already to that particular location. However, it's even better than those launchy applications in that it's a) in Explorer already, b) it allows you to sometimes tab, sometimes type, sometimes arrow down to a selection, and c) hitting enter opens the current directory, but then you can go right back up with alt-d to the address bar and continue on again. If you use any of the above launchy-type applications, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you're not yet using one of them, hello?!? (and yes, while the new-in-Vista start button is an improvement, it's still not near as feature complete).

Another handy thing that I needed a third party app for before is the now-native "Copy as path" option for files (although you need to shift-f10 to open menu, or shift-left click to get it to show):

>

Is just one shortcut worth a whole blog post? Yes.

I love keyboard shortcuts. I especially love it when I come across one that removes regular angst-causing silly stuff. One great silly-stuff-zapper shortcut is described in a post I just stumbled upon by James Blackwell.

A horrible thing about Vista: goofy things that happen in Windows Explorer. One of these Windows Explorer things in all versions of Windows, including Vista, is the way the views never show properly. in Vista, if you're lucky enough to have your Explorer window actually list files without thinking you're always in media mode (if you use Vista Ultimate or Vista Premium, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about), you're still never really fortunate enough to immediately see entire file names etc. as shown here: 

Press  Ctrl-+ (that's the Ctrl key along with the "+" key on the number pad) and voila:

All column names are sized as applicable in one fell swoop! Amazing! No more fumble-finger double-clicking on each column, which in Vista is even more fumblefingery than before.

Thank you Mr. James Blackwell. I don't know you, but you're a fine fellow (and yes, it was nice to first see "What Application Pool does this W3WP.EXE belong to").

UPDATE: As per one of the comments, yes this is still possible for a laptop. You just need to switch into numpad mode by holding down one more key usually called "Fn". And it's usually blue. Unless it's Denise's new laptop in which case it's probably red...because she likes it that way. So Ctrl-Fn-Shift-= makes it work on a laptop.

Quoting some comments in Jeff Atwood's "Revinventing the Clipboard" blog post:

What I dislike the most, about the clipboard, is the really bad behaviour in VS. Say you cut something, then you try to past it elsewhere but you hit the C instead of the V (without any text selected) and bravo, you've lost your clipboard content! You now have to undo 3 or 4 times to re-start the manipulation. This is anti-productive at the most.

Fabian on January 22, 2008 03:01 AM

Fabian: That one gets me too, but the good news is that you can turn off that behaviour in Visual Studio.

Go to Tools->Options...->Text Editor->All Languages->General and untick "Apply Cut Copy commands to blank lines when there is no selection"

(I guess this goes towards what Jeff was saying about software having reasonable defaults).

GrahamStw on January 22, 2008 03:10 AM

It's one of those things that I never remember how to reset so here it is. Glory Hallelujah.

And btw, using ClipX and loving it (and yes, the beta seems to work fine in Vista).

In Visual Studio 2005, the default is to not automatically insert attribute value quotes when typing in the HTML editor. I don't like that. If you're like me, change this default behaviour by going to Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> HTML -> Format. Then check off "Insert attribute value quotes when typing."

On another note, you'll notice the "Insert attribute value quotes when formatting" checkbox right below. This is on by default; I find it very useful in that one of my favourite shortcut key chords (ctrl-K, ctrl-F) not only formats the selected text, but also then automatically enters any missing attribute value quotes.