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So you just got a new computer for Christmas. Now what?

2009-10-01T15:19:00.001-05:00

(Note this was written 12/31/2008 and has been updated with Microsoft Security Essentials Link on 10/1/2009)

With the economy the way it is the price of the personal computer has reduced so drastically that many people are finally able to own one. I am writing this article for the first timer who just got a new computer this Christmas as a guide to places you can go to get help and point out some free utilities that will make your life easier.

First of all of course I am assuming since you are reading this that you have figured out how to get your computer hooked up to the internet. This was probably accomplished by the ATT, Time Warner, Wowway, Directv, AOL, Geek Squad or whatever guy coming to your house, plugging in a box, running a utility on your computer, handing you a sheet of paper and Saying, Yup, you're all hooked up Maam, I gotta go call in..y'all have a nice day. You are left holding a stack of papers and trying to sort through the ugliness of it all.

If you just plugged your computer into the internet the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT thing you want to do is Update, Update, Update. Assuming your computer is running some version of Windows be it Windows XP or Windows Vista you need to go out to the Microsoft Windows Update site BEFORE YOU GO ON ANY OTHER WEBSITE! To get to the windows update site open your Internet Explorer browser and click on the Tools Menu at the top and choose Windows Update from the drop down. One of two things will happen depending on what version of Windows you are running. If you are running Windows XP a new screen will popup and you may get a prompt asking to run ActiveX controls. Click OK. You may need to right click on a bar across the top of the screen and choose Allow active X control. Then you should click on the Grey Express button to start searching for updates. Once all updates are found Microsoft will give you a list of them. Click on the Install now link to install all of them. Wait until they are done installing. Click on Reboot if you are prompted to.

When the computer comes back up. Repeat the above procedure Over and Over and Over again until there are no critical updates left. DO NOT GO ON ANY OTHER WEBSITES UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THIS! If it is Windows Vista you are using another Window will pop up with a yellow box you need to click on to search for updates. Search for updates, allow Windows to install them, reboot if necessary, repeat, until it tells you there are no more updates. If you do not do anything else in this article to your PC this is the THE most important piece of inforamation you should take away from it.

Now your PC is updated and protected for the most part but you are still not ready to go off into the annals of the World Wild Web. If you did not have Microsoft Office and want to install that install it now. Put the disk in, follow the prompts, install it. If you are Windows XP go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/FX101859091033.aspx otherwise if you are Vista go back to the Microsoft Update site and keep updating until there are no more. Lather, rinse, repeat. Install any other Microsoft software repeat.

Antivirus is next. Some computers come with Antivirus preinstalled or a trial version installed.

Whatever it is unless it is Microsoft Security Essentials, Mcafee or Trend, go to your control panel from your start menu and choose programs (or add remove programs on XP) and uninstall it and then go back to Best Buy or whatever computer store you bought it from and demand a discount on one of those packages because you just paid $500 for a computer from them and the AV software they installed is for the most part crap. There are free antivirus programs out there and I have written about them, but it is worth $30 to protect your investment and your time is worth more than that. Spend a weekend(weeks maybe even) without a PC while someone cleans off a virus for you and you will know what I mean. Symantec/ Norton Antivirus is just an OK product compared to Trend or Mcafee. Just trust me on it. One of my first jobs in IT over 25 years ago was as a Virus Technician at NASA Glenn (former Lewis) Space center. I've followed these products and know what is and isn't going to be useful.

Now install the Antivirus of your choice. Go into the program and run the update feature. Keep running it until there are no more updates. Lather, rinse, repeat.

NOTE: Since I wrote this, Microsoft Onecare has been Released as a FREE product called Windows Security Essentials. I highly reccomend you install this product which can be donloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/
Further Trend makes a web browser add on to keep you safe while you are surfing at:
http://free.antivirus.com/web-protection-add-on/ which should also be installed on all of your systems.

Now your experience on the web is useless unless you have 3 utilities installed on your computer and they are now owned by Adobe. They are Acrobat Reader, Shockwave, and Flash. The 4th program you'll need is Sun's Java. You may as well do these first.

Lets start with Shockwave first. Go out to the Adobe website at http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/ Click on the Yellow button that reads "Agree and Install now" If you are running Vista you may have to click OK on a User Access Control prompt

Uncheck the box to include Norton Security scan in the popup if you get it and click on Next, you may get a yellow bar across the top of your browser that you have to right click your mouse on to allow the installation. If all goes right shockwave will finish installing and you will be done.

Next lets install Adobe Flash. A LOT of websites require Flash. Head on over to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ Click to uncheck the box in front of "Free Google Toolbar" (you don't need it) and then click on the yellow Agree and install now button. You may have to click inside the box on the next screen on the Green Shield and choose Install ActiveX and then continue or Allow on the Windows Vista User Access Control prompt. Then Click Install in the next popup window. Flash should then be installed and you are done.

Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF's at http://get.adobe.com/reader/ is installed in much the same way as the Flash Player. Be sure to click to UNCHECK the box in front of Free Google Toolbar and then click on the download button. Right click on the yellow bar across the top of your Internet Explorer browser window and choose Install Activex control from the drop down. If you have Vista as your Operating system click Continue on the User access control prompt that comes up. Next click on the Install button in the popup window. Follow the prompts to finish Adobe Reader installation. Note that there are other free versions of PDF readers like Foxit but Adobe is the industry standard.

Finally you will need Java installed. Go out to http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
and click on the blue button that reads "Java Download" , if you are Vista, click Continue in the User access control popup you get, allow any other firewall prompts you may get. Then click on Install in the popup. The java installer will download java. Accept the license agreement by clicking on the accept button. Then click on Finish when it is done. Watch for check boxes along the way prompting to install MSN or Google Toolbar and uncheck those boxes if they come up.

Now you are ready to enjoy and surf the web. Try out your new installs over on my Stressedpuppy games Site at http://www.stressedpuppy.com/ it makes use of many of the plugins we just installed! Happy computing!

Here is an additional tip from Microsoft on what to do before you connect your computer to the internet: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/advanced/xppc.mspx

Microsoft Releases Free Antivirus Solution

2009-09-29T11:41:00.004-05:00

Today Microsoft Corporation Released Windows Security Essentials. A free solution for Genuine users of Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system.

The product is lightweight, fast and will be updated by windows updates. The product is a stripped down version of the paid Windows Live Onecare product that Microsoft announced it would be discontinuing. The backup, multicomputer and firewall features have been removed from the Onecare product to make up Security Essentials.

Still a very compelling download if you are using some other free third part antivirus software.

You can download and get Windows Security Essentialst at:

http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/

Note for those of you who use Grisoft AVG it installed right along side my AVG on my Windows 7 Installation without issue. Pretty cool. Trend Micro has yet to release a Windows 7 client for their SMB client suite so I can't say if it plays well.

Windows 7 Remote Administrator Tools available

2009-08-18T13:16:00.004-05:00

Microsoft has released the RTM version of the Windows 7 remote administrator tools which includes admx templates and updated versions of Remote Desktops and AD Users.

You can download it from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d

Note that even though the 64 bit version appears to be labeled AMD it should work on any processor.

After you install the MSU file you will have to go to the Control Panel, Programs applet and choose "Turn Windows Features On or Off" and select the administrative tools you want added and allow them to be installed.

Listing of SBC Communities / New Xenapp CTO

2009-07-10T06:04:00.003-05:00

Rich Crusco of Citrix has compiled an excellent very inclusive list of some of the best Citrix Community Websites. It brings back memories of Thethin.net and some of the links it had to offer. Great Job Rich!

You can check out the links page at:

http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Community+Featured

In other Citrix News Harry Labana has joined Citrix as VP and CTO of the XenApp product group. Harry is from Goldman Sachs where he was Vice President leading global efforts for Desktop and Application virtualization. I am certain he will be a great asset to the team.

Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) 5.1 Released to MyCitrix.com

2009-06-09T20:49:00.009-05:00

Today Citrix released its latest version of Provisioning Server release 5.1.
You can download the file from your http://www.mycitrix.com/ account.

PVS 5.1 download is the same for both Citrix Provisioning Server for Data Center and Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops. SO Whats new and is it worth the upgrade?

Here is the Chart of what is new

(Click on the image to read the text)

Basically the new features are:

-Standard Image NIC Teaming - Enables teaming of NICs on provisioned systems using Intel or Broadcom nic teaming

-Offline vDisk Maintenance - Provides the ability to boot Provisiong Server VHD images within Xenserver OR Hyper-V for offline maintenance w/o requiring access ti a streamed device.

-User Assigned vDisks - selects the vDisk to stream to a provisioned system based on user logon

-Offline database Support - Allows continued operation of provisioned server hosts and provisioned systems in the event of a database failure.

- Server Maintenance Mode - Provides a mechanism to place a provisioned server host into "maintenance mode" automatically moving streamed sessions to other hosts in the farm.

- Multiple partition vDisks - Enables imaging systems with multiple disks into a single vDisk

- Read Only vDisk storage - Improves system performance by allowing VHD's to be deployed on read only volumes, reducing disk I/O

- Auditing and enhanced logging - Provides enhanced ability to monitor system and administrator activity.

- XP Embedded Streaming (YAY!!!) - Provides the ability to build and stream XP Embedded
images used by thin client machines.

There you have it! Go give it a try!

Congratulations to Citrix 20th Anniversary!

2009-04-17T08:00:00.008-05:00

Today Citrix Systems celebrates their 20th anniversy. We have been using Citrix at Cuyahoga County Public Library where I work for 13 years since 1996!

Our saga with Citrix started with our need to get graphical internet working in our 28 branches that serve over 6 million patrons. At the time we had hundreds of VT 100 terminals running our library catalog and access to the internet via a Lynx nongraphical browser. We had about 6 Windows 3.11 workstations dispursed throughout the branches that ran CD rom programs like encyclopedia britannica and Stock reports. We wanted a way to easily manage and get our patrons Graphical Internet using Mozilla. (It wasn't called Firefox back then) Our Vendor brought in a Wyse Winterminal connected to a server running Windows NT 3.51 along with something called Citrix Winframe and showed us how we could possible use it for our problem. We eventually bought one server for testing and proved it could work. And purchased Computers for our staff and 500 Wyse Winterminals for our patrons. We were the first public library to offer Graphical Internet in the United States thanks to Citrix. I learned I could publish the CDROM content over Citrix to ALL of our branches via Citrix and we were able to eliminate all the local servers at the few branches we had them at.

We proceded through the years to get the next version of Citrix - Metaframe, Presentation Server, Xenserver and now use Citrix for our Staff to use Office 2007 applications.

We are testing Citrix Provisioning Server to publish desktops out to our patrons to assist with our ever increasing computer management headaches.

The library and myself have participated in many case studies for Citrix over the years, I've beta tested as many of their products, and spent countless hours supporting their products.

Citrix has matured into an outstanding corporation and has evolved with the industry to the point where they are now a market leader in most everything they do. With everything I have seen over the last 13 years I am really excited to see what the next 20 years will bring. Congratulations Citrix!

Here is my Video Congratulations submission:

Conficker Worm Warning No April Fools Joke

2009-03-25T17:01:00.004-05:00

Various news outlets and antivirus vendors are warning against a malicious worm that will trigger on April 1st of this year called the Conficker. It is considered a troublesome worm that will render your PC over to the hacker who will have the ability to control it as if he were sitting right in front of it.(Yahoo sample article here: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/128643/beware-conficker-worm-come-april-1/ )

While this is a real threat, particularly ominous warning (and a lot of sensationalism in my opinion) the fact of the matter is, if you have up to date antivirus software, are careful about what you download and have been diligent about performing Windows updates on your home computer you probably need not be concerned about this virus.

There are many ways that you can get a worm or virus on your computer but the latest scheme involves a spoofed email that appears to come from your Internet Service Provider (ATT, Comcast, etc) and instructs you to click on a link to download"important service updates" to your computer. When you click on the link it takes you to a realistic looking(albeit fake or spoofed) web site from your provider and an immediate download box appears on the screen. If you click OK to install it, the worm is installed and your computer is now owned by the hacker. (Pwned in hacker slang) This is also known as a drive by download.

Notice that it takes action by the user in order for this to happen. So it is always important to question WHY, if you are ever asked to download a file and verify the website you are on before you do so for maximum protection

You can check your home Computer with FREE tools available from Trend or Microsoft. Most of these tools will require that you allow an ActiveX control be run on your computer in order to run. You can trust content from the Microsoft.com, Live.com and TrendMicro.com web sites, just verify you are on the correct link.

Microsoft has Live Scan you can use to scan your Computer Online at:http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
Just click on the Full Service Scan and follow the directions and Microsoft will test your computer to verify there is no malware installed.

Microsoft offers a plethora of information on how to protect your home computer here: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx

TrendMicro has provided many useful FREE utilities also that can be used on your computer.

Housecall is very useful and will scan your entire computer Online for malicious thingshttp://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/free-tools-and-services/index.html

Click on the Housecall link and then click on the launch Housecall Free scan button and follow the instructions

Also on the above TrendMicro page is a utility called TrendProtect. This utility is a plug-in for Internet Explorer that will help prevent you from accidently going to a web site that contains Malware or Viruses. Click on the link for it and click on the download button on the next page to install it. Click on the "Install for Internet Explorer" button and choose Run. The install will continue.

There are also several other useful FREE utilities on the TrendMicro link above.

It is inevitable that some nasty bug may someday creep inside your computer but if you follow the above advice it is hopefully more likely that it will be a real fly or mosquito versus a piece of malware software with intent on stealing your data.

Citrix Provisioning Server (PVS) 5.0 Service Pack 2 has been released to web!

2009-03-11T09:47:00.003-05:00

Just got the following from Pete Downing at Citrix. PVS 5 SP2 has been released to Web

All,

I am happy to report that Provisioning Server SP2 has officially released to web (RTW) and available for customer download.

The key improvements in this release center around bug fixes and licensing updates. These include:

· ~10 bug fixes, including duplicate SPN generation and other Active Directory compatibility items

· Technology Preview support for Windows 7 Beta

· Licensing changes for Citrix Essentials and XenApp

Provisioning Server 5.0 SP2 is a full product install.

For a complete list of new features, refer to the release notes, or the product software download page (https://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/results.asp?productID=1297541).

To download the release notes, documentation or programming guides, please see the support website (http://support.citrix.com/product/provsvr/psv5.0#tab-doc).

Thanks!

Pete

Pete Downing
Senior Product Manager, Provisioning services
Citrix Systems, Inc.

TSRunLogoff Another Freeware Utility from Ctrl-Alt-Del

2009-01-28T11:31:00.004-05:00

Hi All

Between our many clients and the thin community, I’ve been given a lot of challenges so far this year. Following hot on the heals of TSKaaSplat, TSKaapop, and TSKaapow, the house of Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy is proud to offer another freeware utility that should be of use to everyone.

TSRunLogoff is the latest edition to the CAD Util Pack and it allows you to run an application and then a logoff script through one command.

As always download it from here: http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au/CAD_TSUtils.htm

TSRunLogoff is a command-line utility to run a single application from one command with the additional function to run a logoff script upon exiting the initial application.

This utility was written to allow a single call to launch an application in its own process, and on closing that application, a logoff script is executed to perform additional clean up tasks or post application processes. TSRunLogoff with its parameters can exist as a shortcut on the desktop, can be run in a script, or published as a single application. TSRunLogoff will work as a
Seamless Published application in a Citrix environment. If single applications are launched via TSRunLogoff in a Seamless environment, the session will close after it has completed the processing of the logoff script as defined in the command line.

TSRunLogoff does not require a special logoff command in the provided script. On closing of the initial application, the provided script will run in a hidden state and the user is presented with a small status window, identifying that the logoff process is underway. On completion of the script, the session will be logged off.

Usage:
TSRunLogoff [[PATH][Application] [[PATH][Scriptname].] [/?]

PATH - Path to the Application
Application - Application Executable
PATH - Path to the script
Scriptname - Script executable - can be .bat,.cmd, or any executable process.
/? - Show this help file

TSRunLogoff without parameters will display this help file.

NOTE: If a PATH or Application does not exist, TSRunLogoff will
terminate at that point. The first parameter must be the initial
application to run.

E.G. TSRunLogoff "c:\Program Files\Office11\EXCEL.EXE" myscript.cmd

This command will launch MS Excel. When MS Excel is closedby the user, the system will then run myscript.cmd until complete and finally logoff the session.

This utility is FREEWARE and was written by Warren Simondson of Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy, Australia. www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au

Although written for Terminal Server and Citrix environments, this application will function on non-TS/Citrix workstations and servers. This application has been tested on the following platforms:

Windows 2008 Server
Windows 2003 Server SP1 w/ Citrix PS 4.0/ XA 5.0
Windows 2003 Server SP1 (Terminal Server Application Mode)
Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ Citrix MF XP
Windows 2000 Server SP4 (Terminal Server Application Mode)
Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ Citrix MF 1.8

The freeware version is offered AS IS. Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy has made
every effort possible to ensure that TSRunLogoff is free of any bugs or errors,
however in no way is TSRunLogoff to be considered error or bug free.
You assume all responsibility for any damages or lost data that may result
from any errors or bugs in TSRunLogoff.

IN NO EVENT WILL CTRL-ALT-DEL IT CONSULTANCY BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY GENERAL,
SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF
THIS PRODUCT.

--
Warren Simondson

Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy Pty Ltd
Website: http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au

Download Pick: TSKaasplat - Close and clean processes after exiting Citrix or Terminal Server Session

2009-01-28T07:58:00.004-05:00

Warren Simondson at Ctrl-Alt-Del has come up with another brilliant utility to solve an issue that one user was having on the Thin List.

TSKaasplat is a command-line utility to run a single application from onecommand with the further ability to close other given processes on exitingthe initial application.

It can be download from http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au

This utility was written to allow a single call to launch an applicationin its own process, and on closing that application, other processes within the same sessions, as specified in the command line, can be terminated simutaneously.

TSKaasplat with its parameters can exist as a shortcut on the desktop, can be run in a script, or published as a single application.

TSKaasplat will work as a Seamless Published application in a Citrix environment. If single applications are launched via TSKaasplat in a Seamless environment, the session will close after it has terminated the given processes as listed in the command line.If for example, notepad.exe is launched via TSKaasplat as the first parameter, and calc.exe and excel.exe are listed as processes to be terminated upon notepad.exe closing, then when the user closes notepad in the normal fashion, calc and excel will be terminated. If this command was presented
as a published application in Citrix or directly called from a TerminalServices Client, then the session will also close.

Usage: TSKaasplat [[PATH][Application] [Processname *] ...] [/?]

PATH - Path to the Application
Application - Application Executable
Processname - Process name to kill on exiting the application.
* - Kill all session processes on exiting the application and logoff.
/? - Show this help fileTSKaasplat without parameters will display this help file.

NOTE: If a PATH or Application does not exist, TSKaasplat willt erminate at that point.

The first parameter must be the initial application to run.E.G.

TSKaasplat "c:\Program Files\Office11\EXCEL.EXE" notepad.exe calc.exe

This command will launch MS Excel. When MS Excel is closedby the user, the system will then look for any processes of notepad.exe and calc.exe running in the same session and terminate them if they exist.
E.G. TSKaasplat "c:\Program Files\Office11\EXCEL.EXE" *

This command will launch MS Excel. When MS Excel is closed by the user, the system will then look for any other processesrunning in that session, terminate them and logoff the session

This utility is FREEWARE and was written by Warren Simondson ofCtrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy, Australia. www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au

Although written for Terminal Server and Citrix environments, this application will function on non-TS/Citrix workstations and servers.This application has been tested on the following platforms:
Windows 2008 Server
Windows 2003 Server SP1 w/ Citrix PS 4.0/ XA 5.0
Windows 2003 Server SP1 (Terminal Server Application Mode)
Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ Citrix MF XP
Windows 2000 Server SP4 (Terminal Server Application Mode)
Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ Citrix MF 1.8

The freeware version is offered AS IS. Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy has madeevery effort possible to ensure that TSKaasplat is free of any bugs or errors,however in no way is TSKaasplat to be considered error or bug free.

You assume all responsibility for any damages or lost data that may resultfrom any errors or bugs in TSKaasplat.

Download Pick: Project Virtual Reality Check

2009-01-26T08:56:00.001-05:00

Hi All
Just received the following from Ruben Spruijt

Today we (Jeroen and I) are very proud to finally announce the official launch of “Project: Virtual Reality Check” (VRC).

This is a independent research joint venture between our companies Login Consultants and PQR. The primary purpose of VRC is to release multiple whitepapers to provide information about the scalability and best practices of virtualized Terminal Server and Desktop workloads. The first phase of Project VRC on virtualizing Windows XP and 32-bit Windows 2003 Terminal Services on ESX, XenServer and Hyper-V.

The whitepapers can be downloaded freely from www.virtualrealitycheck.net.;

The goal of Project VRC is to investigate, validate and give answers to the following questions:
How does various Microsoft Windows Client OS’s scale as a virtual desktop?
How does a VDI infrastructure scale in comparison (virtualized) Terminal Server?
Which performance optimization on the host and guest virtualization level can be configured, and what is the impact of these settings on user density?
With the introduction of the latest hypervisor technologies, can we now recommend running large scale TS/CTX workloads on a virtualization platform?
How do the two usage scenarios compare, that is Microsoft Terminal Server [TS] only, versus TS plus XenApp?
How do x86 and x64 TS platforms compare in scalability on bare metal and virtualized environments?
What is the best way to partition (memory and vCPU) the Virtual Machines the hypervisor host, to achieve the highest possible user density?

All together over 150 test have been carried out. However, project VRC is not finished, and probably never will be. Additional publications are planned about virtualizing x64 workloads and the other (Vista and Windows 7) client OS’s. Also, we look forward to evaluate new innovations in the hypervisor, broker and hardware arena.

Download Pick: WMI Script to execute Delprof on your Citrix server remotely from your desktop

2009-01-21T09:37:00.004-05:00

Ever have to remotely reboot a hung Citrix server that had users on it and then have to connect back to it to delete the stuck profiles on it once it came back up?

Here is a blog posting I found that has a WMI script to remotely run Delprof on your server from your desktop. Save the script to your desktop and click on the icon to run it. Just put the server name into the popup and it will perform the action. No // required.

The Blog posting describing the script is here:
http://sogeeky.blogspot.com/2007/03/vbscript-execute-process-remotely-with.html

And he has the link to the entire script which you may not pick up right away in the article to download which is here

http://rajeshkmr.googlepages.com/DelProf.v2.vbs

I tested it from my Vista Machine and it works great! Nicely done!

Download Pick: TSSelfServReset Allow Citrix / Terminal Services users to reset their own sessions

2009-01-14T07:30:00.004-05:00

Received the following from Warren Simondson at ctrl-alt.del.com.au about his latest utility.
Hi All

This is the last of the new free applications I have been working on over the New Years break.I was able to spend a few minutes here and there finishing them off whilst our customers took aholiday – but now their back!The latest offering from the house of Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy is TSSelfServReset.

As always download it from http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au/CAD_TSUtils.htm
(check out all the other great utilities while you are there)

TSSelfServReset is a standalone Windows GUI tool designed to allow users within a domain, the ability to manage their own Terminal Services/ Citrixs essions from a single location. This application is designed to enable a user to logoff or reset any TS/ Citrix Session that belongs to them in the specified domain. Additionally, processes within those sessions can beterminated should they be hung or simply not required.This utility was written for the purpose of allowing users to terminate their own frozen session/s or processes within a Terminal Services/ CitrixEnvironment.

This in turn should reduce the requirement of helpdesk staff to complete the same task, thus freeing up resources for other matters.The TSSelfServReset GUI lists all the current user's sessions and associated processes, noting the state of the connection and the server/s which it resides. The user's details and domain name are encoded into the application therefore only allowing the user to view and manage their own session details.It is recommended that this application should be run from either a workstation within a domain, a Terminal Server/ Citrix Server that is not used for general applications, or as a Published Application on a Citrix Server in isolation.

TSSelfServReset is intended that it should be run separately from the current user's session to ensure that existing sessions in a hung state can be reset. After correct user training of TSSelfServReset, helpdesk calls can be significantly reduced by allowing users to terminate unresponsive sessions and applications, without the concerns that the user canterminate other processes not running in their session.

Although written for Terminal Server and Citrix environments, this application will function on non-TS/Citrix workstations and servers.

This application has been tested on the following platforms:

Windows 2003 Server SP1Windows 2003 Server SP1 w/ Citrix PS 4.0
Windows 2003 Server SP1 (Terminal Server Application Mode)
Windows 2000 Server SP4Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ Citrix MF XP
Windows 2000 Server SP4 (Terminal Server Application Mode)
Windows 2000 Server SP4 w/ Citrix MF 1.8Windows XP Professional (domain member)

This utility is FREEWARE and was written by Warren Simondson ofCtrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy, Australia. www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au The freeware version is offered AS IS. Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy has made every effort possible to ensure that TSSelfServReset is free of any bugs or errors, however in no way is TSSelfServReset to be considered error or bug free. You assume all responsibility for any damages or lost data that may result from any errors or bugs in TSSelfServReset.

IN NO EVENT WILL CTRL-ALT-DEL IT CONSULTANCY BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY GENERAL,SPECIAL, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,INCIDENTAL OR OTHER DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS PRODUCT.

Server 2008 / Vista Hotfix for Unable to log you on because your profile could not be loaded, please contact your administrator

2009-01-09T07:39:00.006-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

If you have been using Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista on a network with roaming profiles for any period of time you most likely have gotten the error "Unable to log you on because your profile could not be loaded, please contact your administrator" when trying to log on to the PC at some point or another.

The error occurs because of a profile corruption. There is a workaround to this issue by deleting the .bak hive profile key in the registry for the user or you could install a pre Vista SP2 hotfix released by Microsoft to resolve the problem.

The kb for the issue is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960464/

You must request the hotfix from Microsoft but it is a simple thing. Click the link at the top of the article that reads View and request hotfix download that will take you to the following link:
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=960464&kbln=en-us

Agree to the terms and conditions, enter in your email address and Microsoft will send you an email with the download link to the hotfix at the bottom of the email along with a password. You can download the fix and you will need to enter the password from the email Microsoft sent you to extract the hotfix.

Until Vista Service Pack 2 is released this is one that is probably going to bite you so you probably want to get it.

One very good website to follow and keep up on Microsoft Knowledge base articles and hotfixes for ALL of their software and hardware products is http://kbupdate.info/

Don't Shout at your Hard Disks People!

2009-01-06T13:36:00.002-05:00

I picked this up off of The Register. Apparently shouting at your hard disks really does upset them. According to Sun's Fishworks engineer Brendan Gregg, who explains just how to upset your drive on his blog and with the obligatory YouTube video:

Year end Compilation Videos Go Viral

2009-01-02T11:06:00.006-05:00

Well 2008 is at an end and none too soon! Several people have made video compilations to chronicle the year. Here are a few.

Uncle Jay is out with his Musical year end extravaganza.

And Jay Leno premiered the Jib Jab one that is very funny featuring baby new year which is hilarious and is a must see here.

And the web isn't without it's top 2008 lists but my favorite is the top 20 Mugshots of the year over at The Smoking Gun.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1217081mugyear1.html?rss

And here is a link on Boston.com that has a fabulous review of the year in pictures:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/the_year_2008_in_photographs_p.html

Here is to a better 2009 for us all! Happy New Year

3 Useful Websites to save your Favorites or Bookmarks Online

2008-12-31T10:10:00.021-05:00

When you constantly move from computer to computer be it from home to office or to your phones browser or at the library the constant that stays in place is that you are probably always going to the same websites most of them time. Sure you can save your bookmarks in an html word file and carry them around on a USB flash drive with you or save them online in an email but there is another way.

There are a plethora of different internet sites that provide ways to save your bookmarks online but in this article I am going to describe some of the sites I have tested and tried and use frequently and give you instructions on how to set up bookmarks on each one.

Google Bookmarks
One of my favorite online sites is iGoogle. You must have a Google account in order to access iGoogle but once you do it is a simple thing to make yourself a home page that contains all of your favorites/bookmarks as well as favorite newsfeeds and applets. Go to http://www.google.com/ig and click on sign in up in the right and corner and sign in on the next page using your Google username and password. If you do not have one you can create one by clicking on the link that reads "Create an account now". You will need a current email address to set up the account but the form is fairly simple. You can use Google for all of your needs like for email with Gmail and editing and sending pictures with Picasas. Once you have a Google Id you have access to all of these great features. Look here for all of the cool free Google services available to you.

So now that you have a Google ID go to the above iGoogle page link click on Sign in, up in the right hand corner and enter in your Google username and password on the next page. You will be logged into iGoogle and are now ready to set up your iGoogle page.
You can add all sorts of things to your iGoogle page but I am only going to describe how to set up bookmarks/favorites here.

On your page you will see a link in the upper right part of the screen that reads "Add Stuff" like in the picture above. Click on that. Then in the search for gadgets box on the right top of the page, like in the picture below, type in the word Bookmarks and click on the search button.
The first result you get will be for the Google Bookmarks Gadget and look something like below. Click on the Add it now button to get it into your iGoogle page.

Now click the back to iGoogle home link in the upper left part of the page to get back to your iGoogle page. You will now see at the top of your iGoogle page the bookmarks gadget for you to start entering in and saving your bookmarks. Just click on add bookmarks and you can start creating a list of all or your Favorites/Bookmarks that will always be available to you on the iGoogle website at http://www.google.com/ig once you have added them in.

My Yahoo
I like the way Yahoo handles bookmarks/favorites quite a bit. You do need to sign up for a Yahoo account but once you do it is quite simple to get your bookmarks going. First go to http://my.yahoo.com/ You don't really need a Yahoo account to customize the page but you won't be able to move from workstation to workstation or add bookmarks if you don't set one up. Once you have a Yahoo account sign in at the My Yahoo page and click on the +Add Content button in the top left of the screen. We are again going to type in the word Bookmarks in the searchbox in the upper right of the screen and click on the magnifying glass to search.

Above is an albeit fuzzy image of what you will see as a result. The first choice on the left will be Bookmarks, click on that icon to add it and then click on the yellow I'm Done button on the bottom left. You will now have the Bookmarks Gadget on your My Yahoo page and can go about adding bookmarks to it by clicking the Add Bookmark link. You can import your current bookmarks from Internet Explore and Firefox by clicking on Manage at the top of the Bookmark applet and then Tools in the upper right part of the blue bar on the following page. Follow the instructions to import your bookmarks into your My Yahoo.

Delicious.com
Delicious.com is a social bookmarking web site that allows you to add a gadget right on to your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox toolbar to add bookmarks as well as add them online. You certainly can't add the gadget to public computers but can do it on your home computer. Go to the signup page for Delicious at https://secure.delicious.com/register and fill out the form. You will them be able to go to the login page and get started bookmarking! Once on the Delicious bookmark screen you can import your current bookmarks. In the upper right of the screen click on the Settings Link. Click on the "Import\Upload Bookmarks" link and follow the instructions on the following pages to upload your bookmarks to Delicious. Click the "Bookmarks" tab at the top of the page to see your bookmarks. Click on "Save a new bookmark" in the upper right of the page to create your own and add a new bookmark to your page. You can create categories and sort and search through your bookmarks. Check the help pages for tips on how to best use Delicious at http://delicious.com/help Click the Home tab at the top of the page to see some of the most popular sites other users of Delicious are bookmarking and which ones are the most populr. While browsing the web you might see the Delicious logo at the bottom of articles or on blogs. You can click the delicious link while logged into delicious to add the page to your bookmarks.

While Delicious is probably the most popular and most used, About.com has a good list of 9 other Social Bookmarking sites out there on the web you can try out at: http://websearch.about.com/od/bestwebsites/tp/freebookmarks.htm

And here is a link to a blog at Mashable who has 50+ social bookmarking sites!
http://mashable.com/2007/08/08/social-bookmarking-2/

Now social bookmarking sites are not the same as say Yahoo or Google bookmarks but they are useful alternatives. Some sites require a lot more work than others. You just need to find one you like and stick with it. With social bookmarking sites you have the benefit of users ranking web sites as to their usefulness so it helps you weed out ones that are most helpful.

One of the social bookmarking sites I recently came across that appears to be fairly new is http://www.yattle.com/ .
Simple to sign up for an account, respond to confirmation email and you are ready to login and start creating bookmarks. There is a microblogging feature on this site like Twitter also.
The site claims to be in its alpha stages so tread lightly.

That is one of thing that scares me about all of these social bookmarking sites. Some come and go rather quickly. That is why it is important to back up your bookmarks to a USB Flash Key drive every so often (hopefully the site you choose allows exporting of your bookmarks) in case the unforeseeable happens and the web site disappears. That is probably not going to happen with Google, Yahoo, or Delicious (the three I mention above) but always err on the side of caution.

Download Pick: Veeam Software Vmware VI3 Monitor

2008-12-22T12:22:00.003-05:00

Veeam Software has released a neat little monitoring utility for your VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 servers called Veeam Monitor.

"The Veeam Monitor Free Edition is an easy-to-use VMware monitoring solution designed to meet the day-to-day needs of VMware administrators who need real-time performance monitoring and alerting. Built from the ground up specifically for the virtual world, Veeam Monitor provides a bird’s-eye view of key performance metrics across your virtual ESXi infrastructure."

For more information see:
http://www.veeam.com/esxi-monitoring-free.html

"With Veeam Monitor, you can view real-time resource usage data for any virtual infrastructure object or collection of objects, as well as known infrastructure events, all on a single screen. This allows you to finally see your virtual infrastructure as a unified entity, not just a collection of isolated hosts and guests."

Download it from:
http://www.veeam.com/download.asp?step=2&license_type=36

Internet Explorer 8 will probably break websites but has compatibility view to "fix" the problem.

2008-12-19T14:11:00.004-05:00

The hits just keep on coming. Many websites will break when Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 out to the world very soon.

By the end of 2009 it will be on Millions of computers.

One of the features Microsoft has added is called “Compatibility View” which will help show those pages which do not conform to the new standards. You will be able to download a list of not compatible sites from Microsoft into your browser (a pain) so that they show in compatility view.

Something else IT will eventually inevitably have to manage. Sigh… for more info see here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/12/03/compatibility-view-improvements-to-come-in-ie8.aspx

Sign on to the Thin List

2008-12-04T16:26:00.002-05:00

You can sign up to be on the Thin Discussion list at http://www.freelists.org/list/thin !

ajaxWindows YAWOS (Yet Another Web OS)

2008-12-02T19:24:00.007-05:00

Well I have written about a few of the "cloud" type Web OS tools out there including G.ho.st and Windows Live Mesh to name a few but today I would like to tell you about AjaxWindows. AjaxWindows is a project funded by Michael Robertson of MP3.com, Linspire(aka Lindows) and Mp3tunes.com fame. AjaxWindows is an online full desktop that includes word processor, email client, IP telephony with an app called Gizmocall, instant messaging and more. Ajax Windows is best run under Firefox but can be run under Internet Explorer once an active X control is installed.

As its name implies ajaxWindows uses javascript so you must have that enabled within your browser in order to run it.

ajaxWindows does not contain a built in browser, rather it uses an application launcher to use your local machines browser. This makes sense because you can't use the program in the first place if you haven't got a browser installed on your computer.

The site uses something called SyncWizard which will help you Sync your files and mobile phone, pda and even your Amazon Kindle info up to your online ajaxWindows desktop.

You can sign up for an account at the below URL:
http://www.ajaxwindows.com/apps/windows/content/index.html

Here is a demo video of Ajax Windows.

Download Pick: PowerGui - A graphical user interface and script editor for PowerShell.

2008-11-28T10:00:00.003-05:00

Hello All,
Here is a great FREE utility to get you started learning and using Windows Powershell. The utility is called PowerGui and it is an extensible graphical administrative console and IDE for managing systems based on Windows PowerShell.

What is really cool is that PowerGui has built a pretty large following and community and already there are many contributions of what they call PowerPacks that are prebuilt consoles for things like Active Directory, Terminal Services, Hyper-V and yes even Citrix!

So here are a few links to get you started:
You can download PowerGUI from here:
http://powergui.org/downloads

Once you download and install PowerGui you can download and add the community created PowerPacks
There is a Terminal Services PowerPack you can get from here:
http://powergui.org/entry.jspa?externalID=2071&categoryID=296
This PowerPack allows basic administration of Termial Servers (view settings, permissions, enable/disable connections), RDP sessions (message, connect to, disconnect) and RDP connections (launch, edit settings).

There is one for the Citrix Console available at this link:
http://www.powergui.org/entry%21default.jspa?categoryID=296&externalID=2033
This is a pretty cool thing, you can logoff specific users, view printer, hotfixes, enable or disable apps and more. It would be excellent start to create a console for your help desk.

And one for Hyper-V here!
http://powergui.org/entry.jspa?externalID=2142&categoryID=290

There is quite a library of Powerpacks in categories such as Active Directory, Exchange, Windows Server, Reporting and more!
You can search through them here:
http://www.powergui.org/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=21

What is really cool is once you load the power packs there is a tab that lets you see what the powershell script is doing in the background.

Download Pick: Xenapp Web Interface 5.01 Paint by Number Kit - Pimp My Xenapp

2008-11-11T08:09:00.014-05:00

For those of you who have installed Citrix Xenapp Web Interface 5.01 you will find that Citrix has changed a lot of the file structure and made a whole lot more of the interface javascript.

The Xenapp Web interface 5.0 SDK has some instructions in it on how to make some changes and do things but unless you are a developer or programmer it reads like a knitting instruction manual looks like to an auto mechanic.

Anyhow Citrix has offered a Paint by Number kit on their Pimp my Xenapp site.
Check it out here:

http://community.citrix.com/display/xa/PimpMyXenApp

When I started playing around trying to figure out where things are I realizedthat the WI Access management console makes most all of its changes in the WebInterface.conf file located in:
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\AccessPlatform\conf\WebInterface.conf

I like the black interface and really the only thing I wanted to do is just put a few links across the top of apps screen of the web inteface. So here is a brief tutorial of how I did it.
Navigate to the above conf directory and make a backup copy of the Webinterface.conf file. Right click on the file and choose edit or open and open the file in Notepad. Go to edit in Notepad choose find and put in Appwelcome.
It will take you to the following line:

AppWelcomeMessage_en=

Now all you need to do is write some html code like in the below text box to include your links and add it after the = sign after AppWelcome message

Save the file and you should be done.
The above code would give you three links across the to of the apps page. The "nbsp " will put a space between the links. You will want to add the target="new" tag at the end of your url to make the links open in a new window or they will open in the same window and close your web interface. If you have workspace control enabled that will also close all of your users open apps!
Anyways here is what the finished product across the top would look like.
eTime Timecard Library Intranet Library Home Page

No neeed to stop and restart IIS after editing the Webinterface.conf file just a refresh of your apps page you can see the changes.

My upgrade of Citrix Presentation Server Web Interface 4.5 to Xenapp Web Interface 5.01

2008-11-07T20:19:00.005-05:00

Hi All,
Just wanted to pass along my experience today of upgrading our external Citrix web interface from Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 to XenApp 5.01.

For the most part I was pleasantly suprised with the ease of it and how well it went. I am still figuring out some of the new file structures and customizations but I will pass those tidbits along as I figure them out.
I started by downloading the Citrix Xenapp 5.01 Web interface file from Mycitrix.com which is buried under Xenapp 5 server on the Citrix Site. You will need a mycitrix.com login in order to download the free Web Interface 5.01 file. You can try this link after you login:
http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?downloadID=1681219&productID=-1
I then made a backup copy of my program files\citrix folder and my Inetpub\www folder just in case things went terribly wrong.

Needless to say the documentation for 5.1 was rather lacking. There was a paragraph in the XA 5 admin guide saying you could upgrade from 4.5 to 5 but good luck finding anything else out there. So I gave it a whirl, I closed all apps on the server stopped the antivirus and my WI website in IIS and ran the WI 5.01 executable. It immediately crapped out because it did not find the Xenapp 5.01 console installed on the server. So I had to go back out to MyCitrix and find the Web Interface Console installation files.

After some searching I finally pegged them down. I downloaded and had to unzip them to run the executable. It was called the Web Interface 5.01 Console Extension on the web site. I found it at
http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1681221&productId=186

I ran the Console installation, nexted through it with defaults and all seemed well.

Next I ran the WI installation executable. I chose defaults on all that and nexted through the prompts. Went back to IIS restarted my website and restarted my antivirus and jumped on another machine to see how it looked. Well WI came up and it is a simple black login screen. So I ran the WI console and went through the choices, played around a little bit and made some modifications. This version of WI doesn't use the include files in the same way as 4.5 and has a little bit different directory structure but the new version of the console setup for the website does allow for some additional configurations of color and html links in it. This weekend I will poke around the Web Interface 5.01 SDK that was recently released on the Citrix Site to see what I need to do to get my headers and footers back and pretty it up, but the site is running just fine.

It was an easy upgrade, no problems except for the console surprise. WI 5 seems to load the apps faster and I tested it out on my Tmobile dash to see if it detects the mobile version and it indeed does. Now I just got to get the ICA client working on my dash and I can have my office with me in my pocket wherever I go!

New Windows IT Pro ITTV Video Using TS Easy Print to Redirect Printer In Terminal Services

2008-11-05T07:58:00.003-05:00

In the latest edition of Windows IT Pro magazine newsletter one item caught my eye. The group is creating a video site for IT Pros called ITTV. IT Pros can upload their IT related videos to the site ala YouTube.

One video I came across that might interest some here is one by John Savill on how to use Easy Print to redirect a printer in Terminal Services.
http://www.ittv.net/VideoPlayer/tabid/57/VideoId/215/Using-TS-Easy-Print-To-Redirect-Printers-In-Terminal-Services.aspx

One thing that would be useful and that is currently lacking is a link to embed videos in blogs. Hopefully that will come.

The site is having a video contest called "If I ran Microsoft" encouraging you to upload a video of yourself saying what you would do if you ran Microsoft. Lets see, Fix Vista, Fix Vista, Fix Vista....lol

Enter your video here:
http://www.ittv.net/Contest/tabid/242/Default.aspx