Tech(nological) Tradecraft

IIS Broken After June 2017 Windows Updates

2017-07-04T10:05:00.002-04:00

Since installing a few updates at the end of June, we ran into a problem with a couple IIS servers. Because there's a lot of information on these issues I wanted to add this to the search results as a recent fix for the troubles.

When you Browse to the IIS server, you may end up with the following, though the TL;DR are:

The webpage throws a Runtime or Compile error and Event ID 1310:

Exception message: (0): error CS0016: Could not write to output file 'c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\rdweb_pages\decbd09c\9f1642a3\App_Web_default.aspx.cdcab7d2.j7qh1wlj.dll' -- 'Access is denied. '

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Windows XP just keeps searching for updates

2015-05-06T12:00:00.000-04:00

When attempting to manually run Automatic Updates in Windows XP, you may get stuck at the page that displays "Checking for the latest updates for your computer..."

I tend to only have this happen on new installs of XP, which due to software requirements, still have to get installed from time to time. It doesn't seem to matter whether I launch AU from the Start Menu or from within IE, or if I click the "Express" or "Custom" update options.

Sometimes, you can force it from the command line:

wuauclt.exe /detectnow

These days I find Internet Explorer needs to be updated first.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/internet-explorer/download-ie
(Or just google "Download Internet Explorer".)

I uncheck the prompt to install updates as I prefer to have control over what it installs.

Once it's installed, you can either wait or use the above command line to check for updates. There won't be many at first, but it does seem to get the ball rolling.

The Failings of Canada's Emergency Alert System

2015-04-28T15:06:00.003-04:00

Alert Ready

Canada has launched a new emergency alert system to notify their citizens of important information. The problem is, instead of using it as an opportunity to build a new and better system suited for the digital age, they've recreated the decades old system already existing in the US.

Before I continue, I want to make it clear that I'm not against the alert system. There's a lot of value in building something this important based on a system that's been reliably operating for a long time. But there are a number of problems and missed opportunities.

What is it?

Essentially, it's a system that allows information regarding "threat-to-life" or "threat-to-property" situations to interrupt normal programming on TV and Radio. (Although media is allowed to broadcast alerts with their own staff on their own schedules instead of interrupting programming immediately.) While many notices are sent out daily, only the most important events are flagged to interrupt service. Extra content, like press releases, pictures and maps, can be included in these alerts for news staff to manually upload to websites or push to social media.

There are plenty of situations it's been designed for, such as:

Weather emergencies from a tornado or flood.
Man-made disasters like a plant failure, chemical spill or train carrying dangerous goods.
Amber Alerts.

Blogger only displays some images in Lightbox

2014-12-20T13:40:00.001-05:00

Just solved this one for myself. I've got a page (Hordeboloods) that for formatting reasons, I create in Dreamweaver, then copy the code to a Blogger post whenever I want to update it. Noticed an image that the browser would just open instead of displaying in the lightbox display.

Here's how I solved it:

I compared the image to some of my other images, found some discrepancies and the problem ended up being the "alt" property of the image. Even if you don't have any text in the alt text, it appears you need it. Make sure your IMG tag contains:

alt=""

or with a description.

There are a few other differences. There's an imageanchor tag in the A link, the link and the image path had different paths, but changing these (even after I got it working) didn't change whether it worked or not.

Schrodinger's Backups

2014-07-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

A comment on a cautionary tale from Spiceworks offers a wealth of IT insight:

Schrodinger's Backups:
"When you are not testing them the backups are both there and not there at the same time."

- Wilkins IT Solutions (Though I don't know the original source of this quote.)

Apparently this is a thing. What's this mean? The Schrodinger Cat theory basically boils down to a situation where two states are considered true at the same time until someone checks them. In the case of the cat, you've got a cat in a box that will be poisoned at an unknown time, therefor without looking in the box, the cat is considered to be both alive and dead. (Personally, I'd say it's "unknown" not in both states, but hey, what do I know of quantum mechanics?)

So, you're doing backups? Great. Do they work? Have you ever tested restoring even one?

In this case, backup files physically exist, but without testing them, you don't really know if the backup is valid.

Recycle Bin Backup Files

2014-06-28T09:08:00.001-04:00

Came across this over on FailDesk and my how it brought me back to an incident I dealt with / created once. We had issues with the Exchange server filling up and while users weren't bad about deleting large emails or backing them up to local PST's, they never emptied their Deleted Items. This led to full mailboxes and serious performance issues.

I had the bright idea to instigate a group policy that emptied Deleted Items when they closed Outlook. This worked great and quickly managed everyone's accounts for them. Until... "All my important emails are gone!" What? Turns out. A user who, yes, had what I would consider important emails, turned out to use a rather peculiar method of record keeping. They stored emails they wanted out of sight that they'd dealt with, but might have to reference later, in the Deleted Items. What? When they were done with them for sure, that's when they'd manually remove them permanently. (These were emails I probably would have stored, not even deleted.)

So, that caused a bit of an incident. The user could not be convinced that storing emails in the trash was unwise. I believe I was able to restore the emails in question, but wow. Moving forward, I left the GPO in place and it solved a lot of email woes.

SVCHOST.exe 100% CPU Usage [XP]

2013-12-12T09:19:00.000-05:00

Microsoft may be cancelling support for Windows XP, but that doesn't mean your computer's going to stop secretly checking for updates. Ran into an issue today and one of the things I noticed was that in the Task Manager "svchost.exe" was at 99% usage and staying that way. I thought maybe it was LogMeIn since I was connected remotely, svchost's a network process and upon checking another XP machine, it too had the same redline. Dropping out of LogMeIn and reconnecting showed the CPU usage remained constant.

After a little digging, I saw that this issue can point to Automatic Updates tripping up and the solution is to disable AU. Funny thing is, these are mission critical PCs and thus already have AU disabled... double-checking confirmed that.

By now on the other PC I'd checked, it's svchost.exe was back to normal. From what I read, this issue only affects some PCs. (Obviously, since the internet didn't totally blow up.)

SOLUTION
~

First, make sure Automatic Updates are turned off.

Control Panel -> Automatic Updates

I'm not saying don't do updates - In a business environment it's a good idea to control when updates occur. If you've got a bunch of specialized software, you can lower the chance of random conflicts and errors since you'll be able to draw more cause and effect if a problem creeps up when you can control what software is installed, when.

Identify test users from multiple departments who you can roll updates out to and see how things work. You'll get the best control from configuring your own WSUS server. That's Windows Server Update Services. It allows a domain environment to push updates out yourself, to specific computers, in a user friendly GUI. If your site is bandwidth limited, this is a must as your server will download all the Microsoft updates overnight and domain PCs will grab them locally.

Disable the Automatic Update Service

I've seen updates appear when Automatic Updates were turned off and heard that your computer will still check in to Microsoft from time to time and grab the occasional update. Since I already had Automatic Updates turned off, here's what's fixed it for me.

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services

Find Automatic Updates in the list and the status will probably already say "Started".

You can select it, then click the little stop button in the menu bar or right-click and choose "Stop" but all that did for me was drop CPU back to normal for a few seconds and back up to 99% with an error that the service can't be stopped right now. The second time I clicked "Stop" it actually stopped and things calmed down.

The sure-fire way is to right-click, choose "Properties" then change the "Startup type" to "Disabled" in the drop-down. This will prevent the service from starting when your computer boots up.

In theory, disabling this service will stop Windows XP from secretly checking for updates.

Leaps of logic [photo]

2012-06-22T13:11:00.004-04:00

The leaps of logic people are willing to make when something goes wrong no longer surprises me.

source: Faildesk

I deal with this sort of thing all the time....

Transferring Outlook Rules (Cleanly)

2012-06-06T02:00:00.000-04:00

"this computer only" was not set on the original computer

Just a simple one here today - have you ever run in to problems with your Outlook rules after transferring a PST from one computer to another?

See, when you create a rule in Outlook, a hidden value in the rule is the computer that the rule was created on, EVEN IF you don't check the option "On this computer only." (That option is more for managing rules in Microsoft Exchange.) This means that even though rules are stored in PST files, if you move a PST to a different computer Outlook will still ignore all your rules and display "(For other computer)" next to them.
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The Internet Argument Keyboard?

2012-06-01T12:51:00.000-04:00

Biggest CapsLock key ever, or biggest CAPS LOCK key ever?

and that's all I have to say about that...

Automating a Backup DHCP Server in Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008

2012-05-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

Something that many companies take for granted is their DHCP server. You set one up, and away you go. Even if you really utilize it with reservations, static blocks, extended DNS options, etc... what happens if it crashes? Do you have a backup? Is there an up to date backup with all those reservations and such?

Windows domain computers can still login a few times if your domain controller is unavailable - but they'll still need an IP to get online and perform most of their duties while you deal with why the primary DHCP server is down.

The following discusses creating backups of your Windows Server DHCP server, transferring them to a second server and even automatically enabling the backup if the primary goes down.

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Stream multiple computer screens online

2012-05-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

The BIG technological hurdle that had to be accomplished for the Headshots from the Heart Marathon was the part that actually turns this into a gaming marathon - we don't want you just watching a webcam feed that shows a bunch of people sitting around playing video games, even with all the extra exciting entertainment and auctions we're going to have going on... we want to bring the action to YOU. We want you to be able to watch us gaming and see every frag we make. In addition to having a webcam that'll show you the hosts and what's going on around us while we play, we're going to be feeding the in-game action DIRECTLY to the stream.

There are a few ways to handle this, and really, it all depends on what exactly you need to setup, and how much money you want to spend.

Just a notice... While I go in-depth in my tutorials, there is a fair amount of stuff here that may be overly technical for some.
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Modifying a Borderlands save (to reset the critical kill achievement)

2012-05-09T14:00:00.000-04:00

For the Headshots from the Heart Marathon, one of the technical hurdles that we needed to overcome was "What happens if someone hits 2500 kills?"

Background:

See, we're taking pledges determined by the number of critical kills we make. Borderlands keeps track of this for us because there's an achievement to reach 2,500 crit-kills. This presents a few problems:

At 2,500 kills, it no longer displays the current count.
Does it keep counting in the background?
I had a save with well beyond this number, but that was lost last year when a flood blew up my old computer.
Even if it keeps counting and there was a way to access that from the save file, does it max out at some point?

In the following, I'll cover how we plan to deal with this...

Removing a Twitter Virus

2012-05-04T02:00:00.000-04:00

During your travels on Internet, it's very possible that you'll come across a website or two that ask to connect to your Twitter profile. Some of these are so you can use your Twitter identity on social platforms, others so that you can manage your Twitter account through another app, website or mobile device.

Not all these platforms are reputable though, so what happens if you suddenly find yourself spamming viagara ads to all your followers?
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Blog-Fu

2012-04-27T02:00:00.001-04:00

I've covered a number of topics quite extensively in the past when it comes to tips for websites and blogging.

Rather than repost everything here, I'm just going to link to my other blog:
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User Checklist

2012-04-26T12:22:00.001-04:00

I like checklists.. like this one from here: http://faildesk.net/2012/04/25/the-literal-user-guide-aka-34-things/

I've highlighted the issues I've had...

When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children’s art. We don’t have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.
Don’t write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.
When an I.T. person says he’s coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won’t be there when we need your password. It’s nothing for us to remember 300 screen saver passwords.
When you call the help desk, state what you want, not what’s keeping you from getting it. We don’t need to know that you can’t get into your mail because your computer won’t power on at all.
When I.T. support sends you an E-Mail with high importance, delete it at once. We’re just testing.
When an I.T. person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.
Send urgent email all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.
When the photocopier doesn’t work, call computer support. There’s electronics in it.
When you’re getting a NO DIAL TONE message at home, call computer support. We can fix your telephone line from here.
When you have a dozen old computer screens to get rid of, call computer support. We’re collectors.
When something’s wrong with your home PC, dump it on an I.T. person’s chair with no name, no phone number and no description of the problem. We love a puzzle.
When an I.T. person tells you that computer screens don’t have cartridges in them, argue. We love a good argument.
When an I.T. person tells you that he’ll be there shortly, reply in a scathing tone of voice : “And just how many weeks do you mean by shortly?”. That motivates us.
When the printer won’t print, re-send the job at least 20 times. Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.
When the printer still won’t print after 20 tries, send the job to all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.
Don’t learn the proper name for anything technical. We know exactly what you mean by “my thingy blew up”.
Don’t use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.
If the mouse cable keeps knocking down the framed picture of your dog, lift the computer and stuff the cable under it. Mouse cables were designed to have 20kg of computer sitting on top of them.
If the space bar on your keyboard doesn’t work, blame it on the mail upgrade. Keyboards are actually very happy with half a pound of muffin crumbs and nail clippings in them.
When you get a message saying “Are you sure?” click on that Yes button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren’t sure, you wouldn’t be doing it, would you ?
When you find an I.T. person on the phone with his bank, sit uninvited on the corner of his desk and stare at him until he hangs up. We don’t have any money to speak of anyway.
Feel perfectly free to say things like “I don’t know nothing about that computer crap”. We don’t mind at all hearing our area of professional expertise referred to as crap.
When you need to change the toner cartridge in a printer, call I.T. support. Changing a toner cartridge is an extremely complex task, and Hewlett-Packard recommends that it be performed only by a professional engineer with a master’s degree in nuclear physics.
When you can’t find someone in the government (or any) directory, call I.T. Support.
When you have a lock to pick on an old file cabinet, call I.T. Support. We love to hack.
When something’s the matter with your computer, ask your secretary to call the help desk. We enjoy the challenge of having to deal with a third party who doesn’t know anything about the problem.
When you receive a 30mb (huge) movie file, send it to everyone as a mail attachment. We’ve got lots of disk space on that mail server.
Don’t even think of breaking large print jobs down into smaller chunks. Somebody else might get a chance to squeeze a memo into the queue.
When an I.T. person gets on the elevator pushing $100,000 worth of computer equipment on a cart, ask in a very loud voice: “Good grief, you take the elevator to go DOWN one floor?!?” That’s another one that cracks us up no end.
When you lose your car keys, send an email to the entire company. People out in Birmingham like to keep abreast of what’s going on.
When you bump into an I.T. person at the grocery store on a Saturday, ask a computer question. We do weekends.
Don’t bother to tell us when you move computers around on your own. Computer names are just a cosmetic feature.
When you bring your own personal home PC for repair at the office, leave the documentation at home. We’ll find all the settings and drivers somewhere.
In no way do we believe that end-users are ungrateful. It hurts our feelings that one could even think such a thing on the basis of the above statements. In truth we wish to express our deepest gratitude to the hundreds of wonderful end-users portrayed herein, without whom none of this would have been remotely possible.

Yeah, that's a lot of headaches over the years... how do you do?

Changing the text colour in the Blogger Twitter Widget

2012-04-20T02:00:00.001-04:00

If you're like me, and use non-standard colours on your blog, then you might find that some of the widgets you want to add, just don't work.

This solution works for Twitter, but you might find it works for other services.

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Feedburner Socialize Hack

2012-04-13T02:00:00.000-04:00

Google Feedburner used to offer a "Socialize" feature (under the "Publicize" section) for blogs that would connect to your Twitter and automatically tweet links to all new blog posts for you. It was a great way to advertise your blog to people who may not follow your RSS or are glancing at your Twitter feed.

As of the writing of this post, this service has been removed from Feedburner, but still works. Who knows if Google's planning on getting rid of it in the future? But for now, here's how to use it yourself...
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Spam Bot Poetry

2012-04-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

Behind a full computer prevails the abolition adult. Why does the enlightening blanket succeed underneath a butter? The religion mends with the fear! The tongue snacks after a satellite. How can a handful pose an important tome? The penny liberal enlarges the bat in the perceived snow.

Securely boot a computer with auto-login

2012-04-06T02:00:00.000-04:00

There are plenty of situations where you'll want to ensure a program starts when the computer does. Best case scenario, these programs start as a Service... meaning, they'll run in the background as soon as the computer hits Windows and BEFORE you log in. Unfortunately, there's plenty of specialty software out there that doesn't run as a service, and requires a user to log in for it to start. (From the "Start Up" folder, registry, wherever)
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Facebook LIKE fixed

2012-04-03T22:12:00.004-04:00

I noticed the "Like" button for some reason switched back to Wargaming Tradecraft's FB page for some reason... That's fixed now, so feel free to LIKE Tech Tradecraft and visit the FB page, ask a Q or 2.

winmail.dat can DIAF

2012-03-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

pretty much how those couple weeks felt...

Situation:

A user is reporting that when they receive emails from someone, all they see is "winmail.dat".

They've had files resent, but they still shows up like that.

There's a good chance that they only show up as "winmail.dat" when receiving emails from this one user, or maybe a couple.

The problem could even be intermittent, making it extremely difficult to track down.

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Spam Bot Poetry

2012-03-28T02:00:00.000-04:00

The efficient pulp reads a suspect token. Why can't the eastern digest stumble before A Mad Mom? The wizard hesitates. A Mad Mom chews after a cooling broadcast. The hysterical symmetry transforms A Mad Mom. The stunned mystic stretches.

Mounting objects to fragile surfaces

2012-03-23T02:00:00.000-04:00

There may come a time when you need to mount something to some ceiling tiles.

You know the ones... white and pock-marked... make a huge mess any time you have to move them... always end up with one corner out of place, taunting you...

Very fragile...

Of course, this'll work on other fragile or soft surfaces.

The solution is a pretty simple though, so I'll quickly throw a little walk-through up here.
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Spam Bot Poetry

2012-03-21T02:00:00.000-04:00

Across girls prevails an agony. Girls damages the correspondence. Girls illustrates the wind after the socket. A daylight rolls behind whatever correspondent carrier. The delight relaxes throughout the constrained news.