Here’s the list of what’s new and shiny.

I was recently tasked with upgrading a server installation of Paychex Preview software, which according to documentation cannot be done on the host server, it has to be upgraded from one of the workstations via mapped drive. It seemed simple enough, until the point of the install “wizard” where it prompts for installation directory. It listed C:\RAPID, and had a dropdown menu so I could choose one of the mapped drives; but instead of listing mapped drives it only offered the local C:\ drive. No problem, the instructions on the screen said reboot if it doesn’t list your mapped drive. Wait a few minutes for the reboot… and no good, just C:\RAPID again; time to call support.

After starting a WebEx session, so the tech could see what I was saying was true, we copied the RAPID directory from the mapped drive to C:\, then ran the Paychex Preview software upgrade on C:\RAPID. When the upgrade was complete, it was just a copy and replace over the RAPID directory on the mapped drive and the deed was done. Oh yeah, don’t forget to run WS_Setup.exe from each workstation to create appropriate shortcuts to the mapped drive.

A good friend of mine recently lost a rather good blog post due to a server issue (it was on a Linux box, so I’m not sure how that could ever happen ;^) and there wasn’t a backup.

In a moment of brilliance (or just a misfiring synapse) I suggested he do a Google search for his lost post and see if they had a cached version of it. And low and behold, they did, crisis averted. If I could come up with great ideas like this more often, having a job would be unnecessary :)

It turns out that if the Boot Booster is enabled in the BIOS, it limits the amount of usable RAM. To fix this, press F2 during boot-up, go to the Boot menu, use the arrow keys to highlight Boot Booster and press Enter to change it to Disabled. Next press F10 to save, then reboot and you are done.

Note: You may still only have 1.75 GB usable, but that can be blamed on the leeching onboard video.

Change Printer Spooler Service Recovery options to Restart
sc failure spooler reset= 60 actions= restart/600/restart/600/restart/600

Backing up an MSDE Database
osql -E -Q “BACKUP DATABASE mdss TO DISK= ‘C:\BB_DB_Backup\mdss.bak’”

Copy Database and then Appending with Date
copy t:\plandata.mdb C:\PlanDataBackup /Y

For /F “Tokens=1-8 Delims=.:/ ” %%a In (‘Echo %Date%’) Do (Set All=%%d-%%b-%%c)
@For %%a in (“plandata.mdb”) do rename %%a “%%~na-%All%.mdb”

Deleting Old OWA Logs
forfiles -p “C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\W3SVC1″ -c “cmd /c echo del \”@FILE\” & del \”@FILE\”" -d -21

What’s in this bag I lug around to each client? Of course there’s my HP tc4400 Tablet PC and battery charger, but there’s a whole lot more, in no particular order:

• Small TechNet binder (Contents will be another post).
• An assortment of small screwdrivers for laptops and PCs alike
• Cables: 7′ Ethernet, Cisco serial, USB to PS2 converter, USB to serial, iPhone charger
• 160 external hard drive, USB (for moving files and dumping images)
• Leatherman
• A small handful of unlabeled customer access badges and keys
• Three USB thumbdrives (1GB, 2GB (BitLockered) and 32GB)
• Small metal business card holder
• Sharpie and blue pen
• Tape measure

Exchange Management Shell to the rescue! If you enter just the basic Get-MailboxStatistics command it will be sorely lacking (and the sizes will be in KB). The command below will get Exchange to cough up a full list and friendlier MB display suitable for analyzing in Excel.

Open Exchange Management Shell and run the following:
Get-MailboxStatistics | Sort-Object TotalItemSize -Descending | ft DisplayName,@{label=”TotalItemSize(MB)”;expression={$_.TotalItemSize.Value.ToMB()}},ItemCount

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Vista (I think I may be only one of eight people), but as an IT professional I should be using the latest operating system.

So I got started with swapping out the hard drive to start with a fresh install (always the best way to go), and tossed in the install DVD. The install went flawlessly and I followed with Windows Update, as one always should. Upon rebooting the system, it failed to start.

What followed was a large pain in the posterior: After attempting to do a System Restore (it failed, of course), I reinstalled. This time during Windows Update, I deselected some of the likely updates that may have caused the boot failure issue, same result. This process went on five times before I found the (in)correct update:Intel Corp – Display – Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family 16.6MB. Not surprising that it’s a video driver, since those are typically the drivers that will hose a Windows system most often (rather embarrassed it took five tries to find out the obvious). Anyway, the update was released in September, 2009 and is one version behind what is available on the Intel website.

Once I skipped the Windows Update version of the driver and installed latest display driver from Intel, I was in business, actually Windows 7 Professional (can’t MS marketing decide on a consistent nomenclature?).

I thought I’d be using Notepad++ or TextPad, both fine in their own right, but instead found PowerGUI. This PowerShell editor which finds syntax errors, includes definitions and much more; all for the low, low price of free. This seems to be a community supported by Quest Software who has a bunch of fine (not so free) tools for SysAdmins.

I’m now able to work on, and run, the script off network (read: at home). It’s a helluva deal for the price, try PowerGUI for your next PowerShell outing.

Typically the simplest fix is to boot from the Vista install media and choose Repair, then System Restore. The trouble with this system was that System Restore was turned off and there weren’t any checkpoints to go back to.

Enter the endless search online. More IT troubleshooting by Bing and Google. I’m not exactly sure which search engine got me there, but one forum listed the answer (albeit two hundered or so, lines down the page).
Boot from a Vista or Windows 7 disk and choose Repair, then Recovery Console. Once you have a command line to work with, cd to C:\windows\winsxs and del pending.xml, exit to reboot again and you’ll see the “Configuring Updates…” message once more, but it will continue to the Windows login screen allowing for celebrations all around.

This was the fix that worked for me, hopefully you’ll have the same luck.