Personal IT Experiences

Prevent Malware Use a Hosts File

Scott — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:47:34 +0000

Extensive list of blocked websites in a single text file.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/hostsnews/default.aspx

Open-source Network Scanner

Scott — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:29:03 +0000

If you’re looking for an open TCP/IP address on the local subnet, this is a useful software tool. Angry IP Scanner is an open-source and cross-platform network scanner designed to be fast and simple to use. It scans TCP/IP addresses and ports. Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Link: download and view more about it’s features here.

Microsoft Safety Scanner

Scott — Thu, 26 May 2011 23:46:28 +0000

A new (to me) virus/malware scanning utility from Microsoft for 32 or 64-bit Windows workstations if you think your’s has been contaminated and your anti-virus software wasn’t up to date. No registration required and the download works for 10 days.

What Changed Between Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 R2 File Services

Scott — Tue, 24 May 2011 01:40:09 +0000

Chkdsk time improvements, transfer throughput improvements and scalability are just the beginning.

Link: Jose Barreto’s Blog

How To: Windows 2008 R2 on a Laptop As a Mobile Hyper-V Server

Scott — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:18:07 +0000

Step by step instructions on how (including pictures) to establish a portable Virtual Server platform hosting AD, DNS, clustered file servers and a SQL backend. Great instructions. Put the software in that Microsoft Technet Subscription to good use!

Link: Jose Barreto’s Blog

How To: Sysprep a Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 7 OS Disk Image

Scott — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:08:11 +0000

Sysprep works for Windows 2000, XP and Windows 2003. It doesn’t work for 2008 R2 or Windows 7. Steps outlined in the blog post require the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) on a working workstation or server to configure settings.

Link: Brian Desmond

Computer Manufacturers That Sell Their Used or Returned Laptop Computers, With Warranties

Scott — Sat, 21 May 2011 18:49:56 +0000

The following major computer manufactures sell their warranty returns, buyer’s remorse returns, discontinued inventory or lease return computers with varying degrees of manufacturer warranties to you or me for significant discounts.

A computer is a computer in appearance and it’s a depreciating asset. There is no status in paying for the latest and greatest hardware. I’ve personally purchased a desktop computer from the Dell Outlet store and a Macbook Air laptop from the Apple Store Special Deals area. Each came with full manufacturer warranties just like brand new computers are sold with.

Software for Writing Documents and Editing Spreadsheets

Scott — Sat, 21 May 2011 18:09:57 +0000

For Microsoft Windows applications to create or edit business documents, it’s difficult to beat the Microsoft Office suites. There have been a number of suite versions over the years since 1994.

Microsoft Office 95
Microsoft Office 97
Microsoft Office 2000
Microsoft Office XP
Microsoft Office 2003
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Office 365

Today’s free alternatives to the Microsoft Office suite versions:

Zoho applications – requires an Internet connection and Zoho account.
Google Docs – requires an Internet connection and Google Gmail account.
OpenOffice – download and install on your workstation. No account required.
LibreOffice - download and install on your workstation. No account required.

Learning PowerShell Cmdlets Through Bing Search Link

Scott — Fri, 20 May 2011 00:13:40 +0000

This link leads to a Bing (visual) search query. Learn about 238 Windows PowerShell cmdlets through examples and syntaxes. Click through the visual tiles to expand the PowerShell topic.

Virus Removal Utility

Scott — Mon, 16 May 2011 01:35:14 +0000

For Windows workstations, download the McAfee Stinger utility to remove viruses. This is a clean up utility, not a regular anti-virus product.

How to download and install Stinger here.

McAfee’s anti-virus software is a good, safe home and enterprise-grade product.

If you’re averse to yearly anti-virus subscriptions, these products may help you out: Avira Personal, Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG Free. A complete list of Microsoft Trusted AV partners here.

For Mac workstations, try the Sophos anti-virus product.

Mac Keyboard Shortcuts For Snapping Screenshots

Scott — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:46:51 +0000

To capture the entire desktop, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.
To copy the entire desktop, press Command-Control-Shift-3. The screen shot will be placed on your clipboard for you to paste into another program.
To capture a portion of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier.)
To capture a specific application window, press Command-Shift-4, then press the Spacebar. The cursor will change to a camera, and you can move it around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and the screen shot will be saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier.)

From about.com

Restore A Dell Hard Disk OS Image

Scott — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:12:10 +0000

Restoring the factory Windows OS partition (assuming Windows XP here) for your Dell hard drive.

When the computer boots up and you see the blue Dell menu bar at the top, press Cntr-F11
Follow the menu choices to restore the OS partition.
You will have to reinstall all of your software programs – this restore process completely replaces the contents of your hard drive with the Dell factory image.
Once the restore is completed, don’t forget to apply ALL of the Microsoft OS patches http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and AFTERWARDS install your favorite anti-virus utility.
Only after Microsoft patching is completed, anti-virus utility installed and updated, then install your other software programs.

More details from Inside the Dell PC Restore Process

Parts List For My Home Lab Server

Scott — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:23:46 +0000

The hardware configuration I sought for my home lab server was a single server with 4 cores and 8 GB of RAM. All of these items were purchased at NewEgg.com for about $664, not including the shipping charges or sales tax.

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case. Item #: N82E16811129042. Qty 1.
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX. Item #: N82E16819103471. Qty 1.
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5. Item #: N82E16820145184. Qty 2 (equals 8 GB).
ASUS M4A78-EM AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard. Item #: N82E16813131384. Qty 1.
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply. Item #: N82E16817153052. Qty 1.
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive. Item #: N82E16822136098. Qty 2.

The rest of the items typically needed to build a bare-bones computer such as a CD drive, keyboard, mouse and monitor were castoff items already at hand.

This setup currently hosts 2-64-bit guest operating systems using XenServer 5.5. No compatibility problems. It’s a quiet setup and I am very happy with its speed and performance.

Recovering Missing Volumes After Restoring A Ghost Disk Image

Scott — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 03:42:14 +0000

Experienced this problem with HP DL360 servers w/ 2-72GB disks, RAID 1.

After restoring a Windows 2003 DISK image (GHOST image) to the server, able to boot and work with drive C:. Unable to see and access drives E: and F: also thought to have been restored in the DISK image.

Solved by using DiskPart this way:

At a command prompt, type Diskpart
Type List Volumes
Missing volumes are seen, but they don’t show labels or drive letter assignment
Type Select Volume 2
Type Assign
You’ll see an affirmative message.
Type List Volumes
Does the drive letter appear along with a volume label? Good.
Type Select Volume 3
Type Assign
You’ll see an affirmative message.
Type List Volumes
All drive letters appear with their volume labels?
Type exit and close the command prompt.
Reboot the server to verify drive letters appear normally.

List Of Windows Variables For Scripting With

Scott — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:54:19 +0000

%HOMESHARE%
%ERRORLEVEL%
%APPDATA%
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%

You can use the command shell to create and edit batch files (also called scripts) to automate routine tasks. For example, you can use scripts to automate the management of user accounts or nightly backups. You can also use the Windows Script Host, CScript.exe, to run more sophisticated scripts in the command shell. You can perform operations more efficiently by using batch files than you can by using the user interface. Batch files accept all commands that are available at the command line. For more information about batch files and scripting, see Using batch files

Microsoft Command Shell Overview

Join Two Text Files Together From A Command Prompt

Scott — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:00:50 +0000

No third party utilities required.

Merge two file names ( may.csv and may1.csv ) into a new file called may2.csv, use the following from a command window:

copy/b may.csv +may1.csv may2.csv

How do I merge or join files from the command line?

Mount A Stored DVD Image From Your Hard Drive

Scott — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:59:32 +0000

Alcohol 52 is emulation software allowing users to play CDs DVDs without the need for the physical disc. Notebook users and PC Game players would benefit the most from Alcohol 52%. It supports 25 plus languages and can handle up to 6 virtual CD DVD-ROM drives, all at once. The reading speed of a virtual CD-ROM is 200X.

Example use: Trying to install the Windows Vista Automated Installation Kit to access the Windows PE utilities. This WAIK download saved to a hard disk is stored as vista_6000.16386.061101-2205-LRMAIK_EN.img (note the .img file extension). Mount the WAIK image via the Alcohol 52 interface.

Alcohol 52% Free Edition

Windows XP – Fat32 Windows Partition Size

Scott — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 03:38:21 +0000

Have a 40GB external USB drive you’re trying to use with Ghost? If you format the external drive with the XP formatting tool, the maximum size XP will format it to is 32 GB. To format the drive to a full 40 GB, use Windows 98 or ME formatting tools — yes that means booting into one of those operating systems.

From a XP command prompt type:

format X:/fs:fat32

Windows XP Retrieve Accidentally Deleted Files

Scott — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:13:27 +0000

Undelete Plus is a quick and effective way to retrieve accidentally deleted files, NTFS files, files removed from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from a network drive, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down. Free utility software that does not have to be “installed” before using.
Undelete Plus. Free file recovery software. Retrieve accidentally deleted files

What Group Policies Have Been Applied?

Scott — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:57:47 +0000

In Windows XP or Windows 2003, open an entire command window and type -> GPUpdate . All of the current policy settings affecting your computer (or server) and your account are displayed.

You can also see a history of the application of group policies by inspecting the registry.

To inspect the group policies applied to your local computer, use Regedt32 to navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\History

To inspect the group policies applied to your account, navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\History

Each sub-key represents an installed Group Policy Extension and each Group Policy Object is a subkey numbered from 0, the first GPO applied.

JSI Tip 2487. What group policies have been applied?

Add Or Remove An Administrative Template

Scott — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:14:23 +0000

Simple Microsoft how-to to install an .adm file in your GPO.

Add or remove an Administrative Template (.adm file)

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Scott — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:13:16 +0000

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074.

Download details: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Terminal Services – Enable User Environment Debug Logging

Scott — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:10:24 +0000

Microsoft article on how to enable debugging for Terminal Service sessions and Citrix – Win2k and Win2k3.

How to enable user environment debug logging in retail builds of Windows

Free Online Training From Microsoft

Scott — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:51:27 +0000

Many of the courses listed here are for up and coming Microsoft products.

English Catalog, Free Products

Capturing Application Crash Dumps

Scott — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:03:01 +0000

A very nice write up on application crash dumps (dr. watson).

Ask the Performance Team : Capturing Application Crash Dumps

TestDisk – Hard Drive Data Recovery Utility

Scott — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:48:00 +0000

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting your Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.

TestDisk can

Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables
Rebuild NTFS boot sector
Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
Fix MFT using MFT mirror
Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock

TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery.

TestDisk Download

Clear Explaination Of Various Raid Options

Scott — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:21:49 +0000

This is a link to a PowerPoint presentation that gives what I thought was a clear explanation of the various kinds of hardware RAID.

Thank you sqlserverfaq.com