Keep Unneeded Services Turned Off

In any environment, it is wise to not install unneeded software. Software and services which are rarely used may be run only when needed.

Microsoft Windows print spooler vulnerability affects systems actively running the print server. The service unfortunately runs as Administrator, so the vulnerability is significant. The CERT notice of July 2021 notes, "... VulNote for a critical remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Print spooler service ..."

In MS Windows 10, let's set the service to MANUAL and create a script to start the service when needed. To begin, run services.msc as Administrator from the Start menu. Set the Print Spooler service to Manual.

Create a file named printspoolerstart_RunAsAdministrator.bat.

Using a text editor such as Notepad, place these lines in the file named printspoolerstart_RunAsAdministrator.bat
@echo off
echo This should be Run As Administrator to start Print Spooler service.
pause
net start spooler
pause

Save and close the file.

 

 

 

 

Run the file as Administrator. 

Refresh the Services windows to verify the service is running.

GUI Interface Switching Confusion

Good, simple, clean user interfaces are consistent. Cutesy-hacks to change consistency harm the user experience.

Microsoft Windows alt-tab has been used to switch between applications. Microsoft's Edge web browser changes the alt-tab behavior so it switches between tabs in Edge, instead of switching from Edge to the next application. This is annoying to users because it is inconsistent.

To restore alt-tab so it switches ot of Edge, in MS Windows 10 choose the MS Windows Start button, Settings App, Multitasking. In the "Alt + Tab" section, choose "Open windows only".

 

While considering web browser user interface annoyances, the Brave web browser can be configured to not auto-play embedded videos. In a new Brave tab, enter brave://settings/content/autoplay

 

Brave web browser has it's own implementation of cycle-through-tabs-in-the-app, via ctrol-tab, which can be configured.

Remove Android Apps with ADB

Many pre-installed Android apps can not be easily removed within the phone app store. With a PC you can remove unwanted apps.

On phone, enable developer mode. Open the Settings app on phone and scroll down to About Phone, Software Info. Tap on the Build Number seven times to enable Developer Options.
On phone in Settings app, enable USB Debugging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plug the phone into PC with USB cable.

On MS Windows, download Google's adb tools from https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-windows.zip

Unzip the file.

Open MS Windows PowerShell.

In the PowerShell window, cd into the downloaded directories. 

In the PowerShell window, run: ./adb devices

The phone device is listed with status "unauthorized". Phone can not yet be accessed from PC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the phone there should be a prompt to allow connection to PC. Press Allow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the PowerShell window, again run: ./adb devices

 

After running the next command to enter the shell, the remainder of commands in this example will be run within the shell. In the PowerShell window, run: ./adb shell

    pm list packages

 

 

 

 

 

You may want to copy the list of packages to a text editor for review. 

Let's remove the weather apps.
    pm list packages | grep weather
acexlm:/ $ pm list packages | grep weather
package:com.lge.sizechangable.weather.platform
package:com.lge.sizechangable.weather.theme.optimus
package:com.lge.sizechangable.weather

 

 

 
Uninstall each entry:
    pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.lge.sizechangable.weather.platform
    pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.lge.sizechangable.weather.theme.optimus
    pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.lge.sizechangable.weather

 

 

 

On the phone please refresh the list of apps. Notice the weather apps are listed as "Not installed".

 

Remove a few other apps. Notice the shell command "pm list packages" is used with flag "-f" instead of a pipe to "grep".

The older Google Duo app is "tachyon":
acexlm:/ $ pm list packages -f tachyon
package:/product/app/Duo/Duo.apk=com.google.android.apps.tachyon
acexlm:/ $ pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tachyon
Success

 

 

 

Remove Google Pay:
acexlm:/ $ pm list packages -f wallet
package:/system/app/GooglePay/GooglePay.apk=com.google.android.apps.walletnfcrel
acexlm:/ $ pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.walletnfcrel
Success

 

 

 

 

Restart the phone and check for functionality.