PAL version 2.0 has officially been released on Codeplex by Clint Huffman.  If you are not familiar with the project PAL is short for Performance Analysis Of Logs Tool.  The tool reads performance monitor counter logs and analyzes them using known threshold limits.  Some of the features of 2.0 are an easy GUI interface for creating threshold files, HTML basted reports, and performance analysis that changes based on the computers role.

The main change in PAL 2.0 is that it is based on Powershell.  You can run it on any current Microsoft Operating System that has PowerShell v2.0, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, and Microsoft chart controls for .NET Framework 3.5 installed.

If you are an IT PRO or just somebody interested in performance analysis please check out this latest release.  I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.  If you like the tool please drop the Codeplex site and let Clint know that you appreciate the tool.

PAL Codeplex  Site
http://pal.codeplex.com/

PAL 2.0 has recently released the beta of version 2.0.  If you are not familiar with PAL it stands for Performance Analysis Of Logs.  In a nutshell PAL allows you to quickly analyze Windows performance logs and gives you a nice report you can hand to your manager.  The new version of the tool is written in PowerShell 2.0 which makes it very powerful.  I have used the tool several time to troubleshoot complex production issues.  This tool will help make you look like genius by being able to pinpoint the problem and provide pretty pictures.  Please stop by the codeplex project site and check it out.  If you like the tool please drop Clint a quick email and let him know how you are using the tool.

PAL Codeplex Project Site
http://pal.codeplex.com/releases

PAL 2.0 Beta Download
http://pal.codeplex.com/releases/view/46846

Intro To PAL Slide Deck
http://pal.codeplex.com/releases/view/46846#DownloadId=126279

Clint Huffman Talks About PAL On PowerScripting Podcast
http://powerscripting.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/episode-97-clint-huffman-and-his-pal-project/

IT professionals have allot of resources to choose from to get there information.  One of the better sites that I like to check out is talkingaboutwindows.com.  The great part about the site is that it covers a wide range of topics that we deal with on a daily basis.  I also enjoy hearing from IT pros who are my peers to see how they are solving real world business problems.  I strongly encourage you to head on over to talkingaboutwindows.com.  I guarantee that you will learn something new.

Talking About Windows
http://talkingaboutwindows.com/

Hash Tab 3.0 is a small program that allows you to calculate file hashes.  The great thing about hash tab is that it is supported as a Windows shell extension. This means that once you have the program installed all you have to do is look at the file properties to see the hash.  Hash Tab 3.0 supports several algorithms including MD5, SHA1, SHA2, RipeMD, HAVAL and Whirlpool.  Check out the link below to download the program and learn more about it.

Download Hash Tab 3.0
http://beeblebrox.org/hashtab/

Microsoft has been doing a great job at releasing new best practice analyzers.  They have now released one for SQL Server 2008 R2.   The analyzer will look at things like event logs, permissions, and SQL metadata.  The BPA will provide recommendations for any warnings or problems.  You can download the BPA by following the link below.

BPA For SQL 2008 R2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0fd439d7-4bff-4df7-a52f-9a1be8725591

The latest version of the Case Of The Unexplained by Mark Russinovich has been released on the Microsoft Tech Ed website.  The case of the unexplained allows you to see how Mark walks through issues step by step to resolve them.   Mark uses Microsoft Debugging Tools along with his own tools from Sysinternals.  This sessions continues to be one of the most popular sessions at Tech Ed.

Case Of The Unexplained 2010
http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/WCL315

I recently took on the task of upgrading a friends computer from XP to Windows 7.  I always forget that doing this also means you have to deal with all of the applications that they have installed.  The one app that I have learned to love and hate is iTunes.  It actually turns out the transferring the iTunes library was fairly easy except for one tricky part.  Here are the steps I completed to transfer their library.  Hopefully it helps somebody out.  The tricky part was step number seven.

1.  Backed up the user profile from the XP machine to the external hard drive.
2.  Connected the external hard drive to the new Windows 7 machine.
3.  Installed iTunes on the Windows 7 machine.  Should be the same version as the old machine.
4.  From the old profile I copied c:\documents and settings\username\application data\apple computer\itunes to             c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\apple computer\iTunes
5.  From the old profile I copied c:\documents and settings\username\application data\apple computer\itunes to
C:\users\username\appdata\local\apple computer\itunes
6.  From the old profile I copied c:\documents and settings\username\my documents\music\itunes to
C:\users\username\music\iTunes
7.  The final step I completed was to launch iTunes and open up preferences.  On the advanced tab changed the
iTunes media folder location from c:\users\username\music\iTunes\iTunes Media to
c:\users\username\music\iTunes\iTunes Music.

Majestic SEO released their new index on June 1st that includes 19 trillion unique URLs.  Majestic SEO also started offering reporting of EDU and GOV link counts at the domain level in May.  The data for Majestic SEO comes from Majestic 12 which is a distributed computing project that anybody can join.  Stop by the sites to learn more about Majestic SEO and Majestic 12.

Majestic SEO Main Site
http://www.majesticseo.com/

Majestic 12 Main Site
http://www.majestic12.co.uk/

One of the best boot CD that exist was just recently updated to version 5.0.1.  This is one of the must have tools for system administrators that deal with server different operating systems.  Check out the information below which is from the sites main page.

You need the Ultimate Boot CD if you want to:

• Run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CDROM drives. More and more PCs are shipped without floppy drives these days, and it is such a royal pain when you need to run diagnostic tools on them.
• Free yourself from the slow loading speed of the floppy drive. Even if you do have a floppy drive, it is still much much faster to run your diagnostic tools from the CDROM drive, rather than wait for the tool to load from the floppy drive.
• Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD. Wouldn’t you like to avoid digging into the dusty box to look for the right floppy disk, but simply run them all from a single CD? Then the Ultimate Boot CD is for you!
• Run Ultimate Boot CD from your USB memory stick. A script on the CD prepares your USB memory stick so that it can be used on newer machines that supports booting from USB devices. You can access the same tools as you would from the CD version.

Download Ultimate Boot CD
http://www.serverninjas.com/ultimate-tool-list/boot-utilities/ultimate-boot-cd/ultimate-boot-cd-download

Ultimate Boot CD Site
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

I ran across an error when launching task manager in Windows 7 which was “c:\windows\system32\taskmgr.exe  The parameter is incorrect”.  You can see a screen shot of the error below .  When I first received this error I was stumped as I had never had an issue with task manager in my life.  I then started thinking back to what I had done in the past few days and remembered what I had done.  I had enabled process explorer from sysinternals to replace task manager.  This is no big deal, but if you move the process explorer executable to a different location it is a problem.  I had been doing some house cleaning and moved the exe to another location.  To fix the problem all I had to do is launch process explorer again and under options select restore task manager.  When I had completed this process task manager started up without a problem.  Hopefully this post comes in handy to somebody else running into the same problem.

Error Displayed When Launching Task Manager