Good Morning Glory

Tech Tips: Unable to open .XLSX, .DOCX, .PPTX files in Windows 7 or Vista?

2011-10-24T15:41:00.000+08:00

If you're having issues opening (via double clicking, not from the Word, Excel or Powerpoint applications) the Microsoft office 2007/2010 files i.e. .xlsx, .docx, .pptx and etc.

Fear not, just download the following application and disassociate it in your Windows 7 or Vista (since there's no option to disassociate the file types in such OSes) this little neat tool allows you to do just that, and before you know it, the files can be opened immediately right after you disassociated them.

http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/231/1/An-Utility-to-Unassociate-File-Types-in-Windows-7-and-Vista.html

Time Fibre Internet 24Mbps Speedtest.net results

2011-02-14T11:52:00.000+08:00

Got a new Internet line in the office and here are the test results conducted this morning:

Tech Tips: Terminal Server 2003 / 2008 Users getting blank screen profile?

2011-02-14T10:35:00.000+08:00

Do the following to fix it:

There is a System logon Group policy under Computer Settings --> Administrative Templates --> System/Logon --> Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon which was enabled, I disabled this policy and ran GPUPDATE /FORCE to force the system to get the updates and it fixed the issue.

Tech Tips: Three ways to kill a frozen vSphere ESXi host virtual machine

2010-07-08T14:51:00.002+08:00

Posted by: Eric Siebert
Eric Siebert, ESXi, vSphere, stuck VM, VMware

At some point, you may need to know how to kill a stuck or frozen VMware vSphere 4.0 ESXi host virtual machine when the traditional power controls do not work. As with VMware ESX, there are several methods, which I covered in a previous post, killing a virtual machine (VM) on a VMware ESX host in vSphere.

The methods for ESXi are very similar to that of ESX, but the execution is different as ESXi doesn’t have a service console like ESX’s. The methods below are listed in order of usage preference, beginning with using normal VM commands and ending with a brute force method.

Method 1: Use the vmware-cmd command in the vSphere command-line interface (CLI)

Note: The vSphere CLI is formerly known as the Remote CLI and is not to be confused with the vSphere PowerCLI. The vSphere CLI is the CLI equivalent of using the vSphere Client. Because ESXi does not have a service console like ESX’s, you need to use the remote vSphere CLI to run the vmware-cmd command with ESXi. The vSphere CLI can bedownloaded and installed on any Linux or Windows system and can be used to run specific commands remotely on any ESX/ESXi host, and consists of a collection of Perl scripts for each specific ESX/ESXi command. To use this method, follow the steps below.

Run the vSphere CLI on the system that you installed it on. You’ll need to switch to the \bin subdirectory where the Perl scripts are located to run the commands.
The vmware-cmd command uses the configuration file name (.vmx) of the VM to specify the VM on which it’s going to perform an operation. You can type vmware-cmd.pl -H -l to get a list of all VMs on the host and the path and name of their configuration file. The path uses the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or long name of the data store; alternatively, you can use the friendly name instead. You’ll be prompted for a log in to the ESXi host before the command will execute. Here you have the option to specify a vCenter Server with -H and you use -T to specify the ESXi host that the vCenter Server manages. Note: You can avoid entering log-in information every time you run a command by using a configuration file or Windows authentication passthrough using Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI). See the vSphere Command-Line Interface
Installation and Reference Guide documentation for more info.
You can optionally check the power state of the VM by typing vmware-cmd.pl -H getstate.
To forcibly shut down a VM, type vmware-cmd.pl -H stop hard.
You can check the state again to see if it worked; if it did the state should now be off.

Method 2: Use the vm-support command to shut down the VM

When you use the vm-support command to shut down a VM, you must first find the virtual machine ID (VMID) and then use the vm-support command to forcibly terminate it. This method does more then shut down the VM – it also produces debug information that you can use to troubleshoot an unresponsive VM. On ESXi hosts the vm-support command can be using the special tech support mode which provides access to its Busybox, Posix-based management console.

On the ESXi console, press Alt-F1.
Type the word unsupported (text will not be displayed while typing) and press Enter. A password prompt will appear, enter the root password for the ESXi host and you will be at a # prompt in the root partition.
The vm-support command is a multi-purpose command that is mainly used to troubleshoot host and VM problems. You can use the -X parameter to forcibly shut down a VM and also produce a file with debug information. As with ESX hosts, running this command will create a .tgz file but it will not be located in the directory that you run the command in. Instead it will be created in the /var/tmp directory which points to the 4 GB Virtual File Allocation Table (VFAT) system swap partition. You can also set a Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) volume as your working directory for the .tgz file. First, type vm-support -x to get a list of VMIDs of your running VMs.
To forcibly shut down the VM and generate core dumps and log files, type vm-support -X . If you wish to specify an alternate directory for the .tgz file that is created also add the -w parameter. You will receive prompts asking if you want to take a screenshot of the VM. This can be useful if you want to see if there are any error messages. You will also be prompted about whether you wish to send an non-maskable interrupt (NMI) and an ABORT to the VM, which can further aid in debugging. You must say yes to the ABORT prompt for the VM to be forcibly stopped. Once the process completes, which can take 10-15 minutes, a .tgz file will be created in the /var/tmp directory that you can use for troubleshooting purposes.
You can check the state of the VM again by typing vm-support -x. You should not see the VM listed at this point. Be sure and delete the .tgz file that is created when you are done to avoid filling up your host disk.
You can leave tech support mode by typing ‘exit’ and pressing Alt-F2 to return to the normal console mode.

Method 3: Find the VM’s process identifier and forcibly terminate it

This method also relies on using the tech support mode console that is used in method 2 to run the commands.

On the ESXi console, press Alt-F1.
Type the word unsupported (text will not be displayed while typing) and press Enter. A password prompt will appear. Enter the root password for the ESXi host and you will be at a # prompt in the root partition.
The process status (ps) command shows the currently-running processes on a server, and the grep command finds the specified text in the output of the ps command. Type ps -g | grep which will return the WID (first column), CID (second column) and process group ID (PGID) (fourth column) of the running processes of the VM. You will have several entries returned; the number in the fourth column of the entries is the PGID of the VM.
The kill command sends a signal to terminate a process using its ID number. The ‘-9′ parameter forces the process to quit immediately and cannot be ignored like the more graceful ‘-15′ parameter can sometimes be. Type kill -9 which will forcibly terminate the process for the specified VM.
You can check the state of the VM again by typing vm-support -x; you should no longer see the VM listed.
You can leave tech support mode by typing ‘exit’ and press Alt-F2 to return to the normal console mode.

All three of these methods work identically on ESXi hosts in both VMware Infrasture 3 and vSphere.

Tech Tips: How to automatically shut down VMware ESXi gracefully during power failure using an APC UPS

2010-06-17T15:20:00.000+08:00

In this latest post by TechHead guest contributor James Pearce he covers a topic near and dear to many of us – how to get VMware ESX/ESXi and its VMs to shut down gracefully upon power failure to the host. Tighter integration between a UPS and a VMware ESX/ESXi host is no doubt something that will become more mature over time though for now it can be an issue for many administrators especially those running the free version of ESXi. So read on to find out how James overcame this issue in his virtualization lab.

A Nearly Free UPS

I recently acquired an APC Smart UPS that was being chucked out from work (having never worked) for my home lab along with an ancient AP9606 management card. With the batteries changed the UPS burst into life – but after some messing about getting the right firmware on it, I was disappointed to find no easy way to get it to shutdown my ESXi box when it needed to.

VMware License Restriction

The VMware management appliance (vima) can shutdown only paid-for installations of ESXi (using apcupsd and VMware community member lamw’s scripts) – the necessary interfaces on the free version have been made read-only since ESXi v3.5 U3.

Burp Suite

I’ve been finding a lot of use recently for network sniffers, so thought I’d have a look at how the VMware vSphere Client works, as obviously that can shut down the host. As luck would have it, the client is nothing more than a glorified web browser with the slight complication that it’s talking over SSL – but that’s no problem for PortSwigger’s Burp suite in its transparent proxy mode.

The traffic captures revealed that only three frames would be needed to perform the shutdown (hello, authenticate, and shutdown). A little manipulation is needed to get the session keys in, but that is basically it. ESXi’s startup and shutdown policy will do the work suspending or shutting down individual VMs, as configured through the vSphere Client.

The Script – shutdown.bat

Using this newly found knowledge I’ve created a Windows batch file (with a few supporting text files which are basically HTTP requests) that takes the hostname, username and password as parameters and will then shut down the host cleanly. The script needs something to launch it –APC PowerChute Network Shutdown in my case – and a utility to send the commands over SSL, for which I’ve used Nmap ncat (which just needs to be installed).

I have put all the necessary script files into a single convenient zipped file which you candownload from here – the scripts are fairly well commented so you should be able to follow what is happening.

APC PowerChute

A potential issue is that APC’s PowerChute Network Shutdown utility will always shut down the Windows machine it’s running on. I’ve therefore used a separate Windows management VM to host PowerChute and my script, since I wanted everything else just suspended.

PowerChute has an option to ‘run this command’ but it’s limited to 8.3 paths and won’t accept command line parameters. A separate batch file is needed (poweroff.bat) that runs the shutdown script with the parameters – but that could shut down other ESXi boxes as well if required. Also the PowerChute service needs to be run as local Administrator as the default Local System account doesn’t have sufficient rights.

Testing the Scripts

Download the ZIP and extract the files – I’ve assumed the package will be extracted to c:\scripts\esxi; update the path in poweroff.bat otherwise. Also the hostname, username and password also need to be specified in poweroff.bat.

Next install and configure PowerChute (in particular change the service user account) and enter the script in the ‘run this command’ box – I also increased the time allowed, but in practice it runs in a few seconds.

Some waiting around can be avoided when testing by setting the UPS low-battery duration as high as it will go – just remember to change it back.

Next open up vSphere Client from a real machine, pull the UPS plug and once the battery get’s down to the specified number of minutes remaining, the script should run and the tasks will appear in vSphere Client. Shortly afterwards the VM used to launch the script will itself shutdown under the control of PowerChute!

In Summary

The complete set of files can be downloaded here, and nMap ncat installation for Windows fromhere. Then a UPS management application is needed, for APC Smart UPSs use PowerChute for Windows.

The shutdown script includes logging and should report most errors. Bear in mind though that once a host is shutdown, it probably won’t be restarted when utility power is restored.

Burp Suite is a handy utility to bypass device limitations by enabling the scripting of management tasks that are only usually available through a web interface. I’ve used it to build scripts to regularly reboot home-spec routers every couple of weeks to keep them stable, and to set the time on the APC AP9606 management card daily since it doesn’t support NTP – and here to build a UPS shutdown script for ESXi; functionality that should really be built into ESXi in the first place.

*articles fully cut and pasted from http://www.techhead.co.uk/how-to-automatically-shut-down-vmware-esxi-gracefully-during-power-failure-using-an-apc-ups

Humour: Thailand Panda...

2010-03-10T20:03:00.000+08:00

Lol... WTF!

Tech Tips: Free Anti-virus, spyware scanner, trojan removal and etc

2010-02-03T15:42:00.002+08:00

Just check this link out for all your computing protections for FREE....

http://www.freebyte.com/anti-spyware/

Tech Tips: Excel not opening the file when double clicking?

2010-01-11T16:39:00.000+08:00

Ever had issue with Excel when double clicking on an excel file and nothing except a blank sheet or not even a worksheet is being opened? Applicable to both Excel 2007 in my case. Just uncheck the following check box to fix it.

Forget Viagra !!

2009-10-16T09:57:00.002+08:00

FORGET Viagra.

Try this natural home-made recipe which has almonds and honey among its ingredients.The simple-to-brew drink is said to be more effective. And it costs a fraction of the blue pill.Women can also have it but be warned. This is really potent and it may cause you sleepless nights (wink, wink).

Recipe:200ml milk (fresh, UHT, anything)
6 almonds or 1 tablespoon ground almonds (skinned and pounded or ground – if you want a quick fix, then buy ground almonds from the store)
1 egg (preferably free range eggs or ayam kampung eggs – must be fresh)
1 tablespoon honey (Tualang honey is very good!)
Heat the milk up until it is warm. In a blender, blend all the ingredients together for a minute and ENJOY!

Published Oct 15, 2009, By FARIDAH BEGUM

Tech Tips: HTTP Error 401.1 - Unauthorized: Access is denied in CRM 4.0?

2009-09-30T15:21:00.003+08:00

Read the following links if you've gotten the abovementioned error while setting Microsoft CRM 4.0 (in my case it was two servers configuration, one for CRM 4.0 Enterprise and one for SQL 2005 SP3)

http://thecrmarchitect.com/2009/01/23/crm_401_unauthorized/#comment-105

http://www.shanmcarthur.net/crm/crm4-articles/crm4-installation-and-upgrade-tips

Tech Tips: How to make VMware Vsphere Client 4 works with Windows 7

2009-09-23T18:13:00.002+08:00

Again, too lazy say my own words...

http://www.tquizzle.com/2009/08/30/vsphere-client-in-windows-7/

Tech Tips: How to fix corrupted Windows user profile (Vista)

2009-09-23T10:41:00.002+08:00

Too lazy to write anything on my own today, please refer the following link:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/130095-user-profile-service-failed-logon-user-profile-cannot-loaded.html

Tech Tips: How to clear login wallpaper for remote desktop/terminal login

2009-07-29T11:26:00.002+08:00

I had a server that had an annoying Dell logo that took forever to paint every time I logged in remotely, so I wanted to ditch it.

Use registry editor (regedit) and go to key HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Look for the string value Wallpaper under the Desktop key.

You can change the value to be any bitmap file, but in my case, I just deleted it.

If you do want to just change the wallpaper, then you will also want to find the key WallpaperStyle - you may have to create it. Set the string to 0 (zero) to display the wallpaper bitmap centered; a value of 1 will tile it, and a value of 2 will stretch it to the screen resolution.

reference: http://www.kirkhamsystems.com/node/108

Tech Tips: Getting "the form required to view this message cannot be displayed contact your administrator"?

2009-05-22T14:53:00.003+08:00

If you're getting the following error in your Outlook 2003 or 2007, the following will fix your problem.

Close your Outlook and delete the frmcache.dat file in the following location:

Windows XP: \Documents and settings\your_user_name\AppData\Microsoft\Forms\

Windows Vista: \Users\your_user_name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FORMS

Tech Tips: How to remove dodgy printer drivers when printer spooler keeps crashing

2009-05-05T16:17:00.006+08:00

If the Print Spooler service fails when printing, when Windows starts or it can not be restarted, the usual reason is that one or more printer drivers is defective. If the Print Spooler service is not running, the Printers and Faxes folder will be empty and you can not use it to remove (or add) printers or printer drivers. If you have a Lexmark printer, see special information about Lexmark printer drivers.

It's important to only install printer drivers that are designed and built specifically for the Windows version you have. This is particularly important for Windows XP; many of the CDs and floppy disks distributed with printers (particularly older models) do not have Windows XP drivers - check the printer manufacturer's web site for printer drivers for the version of Windows you have (see Links).

A common cause of printer driver problems is to upgrade to Windows XP from Windows 95, 98 or ME without first removing the printer and the printer drivers.

The steps on this page will remove all printers and printer drivers from the computer. The printing subsystem is then "clean" and ready for printers to be added using printer drivers specifically for the Windows version you have.

If you have drivers for several printer models installed (e.g. on a Print Server computer) it may only be necessary to remove the defective printer drivers. At steps 2, and 7, just delete the entries for the printers or printer drivers you suspect are defective. Unfortunately, the files that comprise the drivers are all in the same folder. Also, the same files may be used by the drivers for several printer models. So, selectively deleting the driver files at step 12 may be difficult or impossible. With Windows 2000 and XP, in most cases, deleting the registry entries for the drivers (step 7) will be sufficient, so you may want to skip steps 10 through 12 if you have multiple printer models and don't want to re-install all of them.

Check in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs; if there is an entry relating to one of the printers, select it, then click Change/Remove. Follow the dialog and "uninstall all" or "remove all" as appropriate. Some "printer software" have programs that show up here and it will be a good idea to remove those before going any further.

If the Print Spooler service is operational:

Open the Printers (Printers and Faxes on Windows XP) folder
delete all of the printers
click File, Server Properties
select the Drivers tab
for each entry:
1. select the entry
2. click Remove

Usually, this will do a pretty good job of cleaning out drivers with Windows 2000 and later (not so with Windows NT 4).

If the Print Spooler service is not operational, or you want to make certain there are no printer driver remnants, either follow the instructions below or use cleanspl.exe from the Windows 2000, XP or 2003 Resource Kit (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&DisplayLang=en). cleanspl.exe from the Windows 2003 Resource Kit tools will work on Windows XP.

Some information about cleanspl.exe:

cleanspl.exe does a very thorough job of cleaning up the print spooler stuff, but it does not remove the spooler service dependency on the Lexmark service (see special information about Lexmark printer drivers).
You can use it to clean up the spooler stuff on another computer (i.e. remotely).
When you run it, it asks you if you want to remove some things that are actually delivered (and installed by default) with Windows. In most cases, you should answer No to the corresponding prompts (you don't want to remove the Standard TCP/IP Port or the BJ Language Monitor).

Here's how to clean up the print spooler stuff if cleanspl.exe is not available or you prefer to do things manually.

Warning! be very careful using regedit - if you delete the wrong things, you may render your computer inoperative!

open regedit (e.g. click Start, key regedit and press Enter)
navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers

under this key, there will be the keys Version-2 and Version-3 (one or the other of these may be absent - not a problem)

the sub-keys under these contain the printer driver configuration information

delete all the sub-keys inside Version-2 and Version-3, but not these keys themselves

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312052 lists some other registry entries to delete, but this is not usually necessary.

open a Command Prompt window
key the commands
net stop spooler
net start spooler
open Windows Explorer
navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\ and delete any files there. By default, this is where the print spooler stores print files.
navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 (%systemroot% is usually Windows, but it might be winnt or something else; this is set when the OS is installed).
inside w32x86, there will be folders with the names 2 and 3 (one or more of these may be absent - not a problem)
delete all of the files and sub-folders in each of the 2 and 3 folders, but not the folders themselves
inside w32x86, there may be other folders with names starting with "hewlett_packard", "hphp" or something else; delete these folders also
restart the print spooler (see steps 8 and 9 above)

At this point, the system should be pretty well back to the way it was before any printers were installed.

Some would suggest restarting Windows at this point, but with Windows 2000 and later, this does not seem to be required.

If you have a Lexmark printer, these additional steps may be necessary (thanks to Robert Orleth [MSFT] for providing this information). The Lexmark printer installation process sometimes installs a service that makes the print spooler service dependent on itself. If there is a problem with Lexmark service or a Lexmark printer driver (or you removed it using the steps above), the print spooler service may not start (see also http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324757). The steps below make the print spooler service only dependent on the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service (RPCSS), which is normal. The print spooler service dependencies are stored in the registry at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Spooler\DependOnService

The sc config command at step 16 resets the value of that entry.

Open a Command Prompt window
key the command
sc config spooler depend= RPCSS
(note the space after the = but not before)
restart the print spooler (see steps 8 and 9 above)

Reference: http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/CleanPrinterDrivers.htm

Many uses of Vodka

2009-04-20T15:41:00.002+08:00

Aside from being a fantastic drink, vodka has many uses which you may not have known about. Since vodka is one of the world's most popular drinks, many of us have a bottle handy in the home. And since its typically filtered and pure, it makes a handy liquid to have around.

Here are a few uses:

To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves adhesive
To clean the caulking around bathtubs and showers, fill a trigger-spray bottle with vodka, spray the caulking, let set five minutes and wash clean. The alcohol in the vodka kills mold and mildew.
Clean jewelry. Soak the jewelry in vodka for five minutes, then rinse, and dry.
Clean lipstick from clothing. Rub the stain with vodka, then throw into your regular wash.
Remove the glue left behind by a bumper sticker. Rub the glue with a soft, clean cloth soaked with vodka
Prolong the life of razors by filling a cup with vodka and letting your safety razor blade soak in the alcohol after shaving. The vodka disinfects the blade and prevents rusting.
Spray vodka on vomit stains, scrub with a brush, then blot dry.
Using a cotton ball, apply vodka to your face as an astringent to cleanse the skin and tighten pores.
Add a jigger of vodka to a 12-ounce bottle of shampoo. The alcohol cleanses the scalp, removes toxins from hair, and stimulates the growth of healthy hair.
Fill a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle and spray bees or wasps to kill them.

Pour one-half cup vodka and one-half cup water in a Ziplock freezer bag and freeze for a slushy, refreshable ice pack for aches, pain or black eyes.
Fill a clean, used mayonnaise jar with freshly packed lavender flowers, fill the jar with vodka, seal the lid tightly and set in the sun for three days. Strain liquid through a coffee filter, then apply the tincture to aches and pains.
To relieve a fever, use a washcloth to rub vodka on your chest and back as a liniment.
To cure foot odor, wash your feet with vodka.
vodka will disinfect and alleviate a jellyfish sting.
Pour vodka over an area affected with poison ivy to remove the urushiol oil from your skin.
Swish a shot of vodka over an aching tooth. Allow your gums to absorb some of the alcohol to numb the pain.
Soothe a sore throat. Add a tablespoon of vodka to glass of warm water and gargle. The alcohol helps numb the sore throat.

Eliminate swimer's ear. If you don't have rubbing alcohol, fill an eardropper with vodka, and squeeze it into the affected ear, then let it drain out

excerpt from http://www.divinecaroline.com/user/profile/36185

Tech Tips: Cannot run Exchange command in PowerShell, do this first...

2009-04-10T15:45:00.005+08:00

If you're new to Microsoft PowerShell (PS) and Exchange 2007, you soon will realized that why you're not able to run any command in PS and keeps getting the error similar to the following:

(example:)

The term 'Move-Mailbox' is not recognized as a cmdlet, function, operable program, or script file. Verify the term and try again.

At line:1 char:13

Type in the following and you're good to go:

1. To check if the snapin has been installed:

PS C:\>Get-PSSnapin -Registered

Name : Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin
PSVersion : 1.0
Description : Admin Tasks for the Exchange Server

To manually add this to the current PowerShell session, use the Add-PSSnapin cmdlet:

PS C:\>Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin

This is just the command to allow the exchange snapin to integrate with the PS, for more info about the usage, hit the following link:

http://mcpmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=763

Tech Tips: How to install Exchange Management Tools for Exchange 2007 on Vista

2009-03-16T11:24:00.004+08:00

Download Windows PowerShell for Windows Vista from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx
Run the installation package to install Windows PowerShell.
From the Start menu, open the Windows Vista Control Panel and then open the Programs and Features applet.
In the Tasks area, click Turn Windows features on or off.
Expand Internet Information Services, expand Web Management Tools, and then expand IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
Select the checkboxes for IIS 6 Management Console and IIS 6 Metabase and IIS 6 configuration compatibility, and then click OK.
Download Exchange 2007 Management Tools from Microsoft website, make sure to select the correct version based on your OS as well as the type of Processor whether it's 32bit or the 64bit version and install it. 32-bit version is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6BE38633-7248-4532-929B-76E9C677E802&displaylang=en

For more info about Microsoft Exchange Server requirement, visit this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx

Tech Tips: Outlook 2007 Offline Address Book not showing the latest records

2009-03-11T16:55:00.009+08:00

I don't know about you but I have this problem where Outlook 2007 stopped getting the latest entries.

Scenarios:

Webmail OWA is able to check and resolved the new names and email (which means AD is working just fine)

Re-downloading the address book via Outlook > Tools > Send and Receive > Download Address Book didn't work

Solutions: (in Windows Vista)

Close the Outlook
Go root drive C:\Users\Your_Login_Name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook and delete all the .oab files (back them up if you want
Restart Outlook and voila, you'll see the latest records!

Tech Tips: Playing music from iPod without iTunes

2009-03-04T23:21:00.005+08:00

Let's just say you have the iTunes where you sync your music installed in your home computer and your company IT policy does not allowed you to install any other software as well having music files in the laptop other than the business applications. What would you do to put yourself to sleep or just plainly listen to your music via the laptop speakers?

Fret not, go download Pod Player and have your problem solved immediately... and it's FREE!

(www.ipodsoft.com)

Tech Tips: My way of restoring Regedit, Task Manager, Search functions disabled by nasty virus/trojan

2008-07-29T16:41:00.010+08:00

There have been quite of a number of computers in the organization where the Registry edit, Task Manager and even Search function got disabled by a nasy trojan or virus which I'm still unable to tell due to the stupid McAfee AV is not picking up any detection so far...

Since I can't tell which variant of trojan/virus struck the computers, i relied on my own methods after studying methods use by various netizens, here i compiled the steps in search for a cleaner systems.

1. Scan your system for virus/trojan

In this case, I opted for the online scan due to the antivirus installed on those machines are not detecting anything. I chose Pandasoft Free Online ActiveScan from http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/ You're need to register a FREE account in order to clean the detected malware (low risk cookies cannot be disinfected by using the free account but that's OK) Disinfect whatever that got detected by Pandasoft.

2. Scan the processes running on the system

This is rather technical and meant for those who knows what they're doing only. Download Hijack This (FREE) from http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis or AnVir Task Manager Pro (20-Days trial) http://www.anvir.com/products.htm and carefully scrutinize and delete/quarantine the high risk processes off your system (AnVir Task Manager Pro can identify which of those consider high risk)

3. Bringing Regedit, Task Manager, Msconfig and etc Back

There are a few ways to do it actually, some running VB script or a cracked regedit.exe but the easiest one would be running this little app RRT With Removable Media Malware from http://en.sergiwa.com/modules/mydownloads/ Although it's not a freeware but it allows the features to bring back all the blocked functions mentioned here.

Good Luck.

references:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic18950.html
http://www.troublefixers.com/folder-options-disabled-by-virus-trojan/
http://www.wareprise.com/2006/12/21/how-to-delete-virus-that-disables-task-manager-regedit-from-launching/
http://www.viprasys.com/vb/f82/restore-task-manager-regedit-folder-options-disabled-virus-18301/

Tech Tips: How to identify your SQL Server version and edition

2008-06-11T09:38:00.002+08:00

SELECT  SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')

RTM	2005.90.1399
SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1	2005.90.2047
SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2	2005.90.3042

RTM	2000.80.194.0
SQL Server 2000 SP1	2000.80.384.0
SQL Server 2000 SP2	2000.80.534.0
SQL Server 2000 SP3	2000.80.760.0
SQL Server 2000 SP3a	2000.80.760.0
SQL Server 2000 SP4	2000.8.00.2039

Lesser vehicles on the road, after gasoline hitting RM2.70 per litre

2008-06-06T10:18:00.006+08:00

Could it be co-incidental, people's over reaction or the weekend is around the corner? It's very apparent that there were lesser vehicles on the road for the past two days during rush hour along one of the busiest roads in Klang Valley, Jalan Tun Razak that is.

All these while, vehicles coming from Sg Besi, Seremban highway will packed Jalan Tun Razak every evening after work without fail but yesterday was a totally different story altogether, I have never seen that stretch leading to the city that empty before... and driving on the other direction heading Sg. Besi was a breeze too.

Coming to work this morning was faster than ever too, whizzing through at 80, 90 or even 100km/h on the usual bumper to bumper stretch.

Whatever happen now could be just the aftershocks of the 4th of June announcement and gradually the roads will be filled with cars again because we all know that most Malaysians are just too dependent on their cars, not because they want to but due to the crappy public transport infrastructures that we have over here.

Only time can tell for how long the streets will remain like this...

Office Troubleshooting: Outlook 2003 does not print email headers

2008-05-10T00:53:00.005+08:00

SYMPTOMS
When you try to print an e-mail message by using either Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Outlook Express, the message header information does not print. This problem only occurs when Windows Internet Explorer 7 is installed. Note This problem may also occur in earlier versions of Office Outlook. However, this problem does not occur in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

CAUSE
This problem occurs when the "Shrink to Fit" feature is enabled, and the size of the message is reduced in order to fit on the printed page. When this occurs, the message header is not printed.

RESOLUTION
A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Windows Internet Explorer 7 service pack that contains this hotfix.To resolve this problem, submit a request to Microsoft Online Customer Services to obtain the hotfix. To submit an online request to obtain the hotfix, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6294451 or download the patch from HERE

Password: {qrdPjqN

source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931657

Office Troubleshooting: Word appears to hang when you open some docs

2008-05-10T00:34:00.002+08:00

Word appears to hang when you open some (but not all) documents - documents take a long time to open

Consider the following scenario: You replace an existing file server with a new one. During the testing phase, both the new server and the old server are online. Everything works great. During the operational phase, you take the old server offline. Suddenly, users complain that Word hangs on their client computers when they open some--but not all--documents from shared network locations or from their local drives. What happened?

Every Word document has an attached template. If that template is missing, Windows XP will try to locate the missing template multiple times. If the missing template was located on the old file server that has been taken offline, Windows XP won't be able to find the template. The process of locating a missing template may cause a Word document to take longer than expected to open. Word will appear to hang. If you wait long enough, however, the document will open eventually. It will take longer to open the document when you are connected to the network compared to when you are disconnected from the network.

If Word appears to hang because a document is taking a long time to open, you can view the attached template for the affected document using the following steps.

Word 2007
1) Be sure the affected document has been copied to the client computer. Disconnect the client computer from the network. Open the document.
2) Click the Office button and click Word Options to open the Word Options dialog.
3) In the Add-Ins options choose Templates in the Manage list and click Go. The Templates and Add-ins dialog is displayed.
4) The path and file name to the attached template is displayed in the Document template field.

Word 2003 and earlier versions
1) Be sure the affected document has been copied to the client computer. Disconnect the client computer from the network. Open the document.
2) From the Tools menu choose Templates and Add-Ins. The Templates and Add-ins dialog is displayed.
3) The path and file name to the attached template is displayed in the Document template field. The value in the Document template field might look something like "\\old_server_name\old_path\template_name.dot".

NOTE: If the attached template is Normal.dotm (for Word 2007) or Normal.dot (for Word 2003 and earlier versions)--and the template is located in the default location in the user profile on the client computer--the field will simply display "Normal". If this is the case, then something else is wrong; it's not an attached template issue.

What can you do?

You could bring the old file server with the old template files back online so that the Windows XP client computers can find them. This is usually not an option and it would require you to maintain an old file server into the future.

Fortunately, Microsoft Knowledge Base article 830561 “Documents that have attached templates take a long time to open in Word 2002 and in Word 2003” at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;830561 includes information about workarounds that you can use.

In my experience, the favorite workaround in KB 830561 among IT professionals appears to be “Method 2: Use a custom Visual Basic Application to change the attached template to the global template (Normal) when a new document is opened.” This is because changing the attached template to be the Normal template will prevent the problem from happening again in the future. However, you need to ask the affected users first how they are using Word, because you might be permanently breaking an important relationship between the document and its attached template.

If the "Automatically update document styles" option is selected in the Templates and Add-ins dialog for an affected document, this means that the user who authored the document expects to be able to change styles in the attached template and then have those modifications affect the styles in the document when the document is opened.

No matter which workaround you choose to use from Knowledge Base article 830561, be sure that the affected documents are being programmatically opened on a computer that has been disconnected from the network to make the process complete more quickly.

If you don’t want to use a custom Visual Basic program to resolve the attached templates issue, you can leverage Word's attached template discovery logic to attach a new template to an affected document. You can do this by copying the existing template files from the old file server (or the new file server, for that matter) to specific locations on the client computer. Alternatively, you can create new template files using the same names as the missing templates and then copy those new template files to specific locations on the client computer. Word will attach the appropriately named template file to an affected document when the document is opened. Once again, be sure that the affected document has been copied to the client computer and disconnect the client computer from the network in order to speed things up.

Word will look for the missing templates in the following locations on the client computer in the following order.
Office 2003 on Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\

Office 2007 on Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP\
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/ryan_christiansen/archive/2008/04/28/word-appears-to-hang-when-you-open-some-but-not-all-documents-documents-take-a-long-time-to-open.aspx