tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31893473875030904682024-12-19T03:24:13.498+00:00sporadically updated...Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-19297585942830950442012-11-21T20:59:00.002+00:002012-11-21T20:59:41.122+00:00

Strange, not blogged for nearly a year - must be too busy at work! Also strange that my last blog is a precursor to this.  LDP.exe is a great gui interface for quick ldap queries, but i wanted to automate, script and get output to a file. Enter ldifde. with a few switches it allows for simple ldap queries to be scripted and give txt files with results. You can also determine 

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-62275093375556174272011-12-14T12:38:00.000+00:002011-12-20T08:40:29.456+00:00

For getting info from AD in a text format, I'm finding LDP.exe which is part of the Windows Server 2003 tool-set VERY HELPFUL. Typically I need to list members in AD groups and in AD Users & Computers you cannot export the lists. LDP.exe, once bound to the domain can perform these simple queries and then you can grab the text output :) I had to change the buffer and page

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-72889664140954713512011-10-18T11:33:00.000+01:002011-10-18T11:33:30.966+01:00

A neat little script which checks a specified folder (here its C:\Presentations) for the addition of a new file every 5 seconds (WITHIN 5 WHERE) . Then the script checks for a certain file type, here Powerpoint or web page/link, and then triggers the app accordingly to run this file. When a new file is detected, the app currently running is closed and a new one started. I have a server

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-64366347049726608142011-09-30T21:13:00.000+01:002011-10-04T08:20:07.049+01:00

I recently had an issue. I have a report which exports into Excel. The date format from the report is US, and I work in the UK. Excel tries to recognise the dates as UK, so for dates that fit (eg. month is 1-12) Excel gives me an incorrect date.  For dates that don't fit (eg. month is 13-31) then Excel doesnt recognise this as a date and this is formatted as plain text. An example of this

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-41388136607716898332011-09-24T23:20:00.000+01:002011-09-26T08:49:35.446+01:00

Now my XBMC is up and running : using wireless remote all media on mounted USB share (Samba installed so I can access across home network eg configured as a NAS also) using the Quartz skin currently All music, video, movies, photos cataloged We have loads of CDs in the attic not currently on the media drive, so i thought - 'let the ripping begin' ;-) Strange however that XBMC

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-7338187660264287932011-09-01T16:04:00.001+01:002011-09-02T08:52:52.998+01:00

If you’ve made an iPhone ringtone before the process will be familiar to you. This will work the same on both Mac and Windows versions of iTunes 10: Making the ringtone • Launch iTunes 10 • Find and select the song you want to make a ringtone out of in iTunes 10  • Right-click on the song name and select ‘Get Info’ • Then click on the Options tab • Select the playback

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-47711290522165578172011-06-22T11:58:00.006+01:002011-06-22T12:12:05.271+01:00

Ok, so what I wanted to do was to run the Office 2007 install but to only install the MODI (Microsoft Office Document Imaging) component which for some reason has been excluded in Office 2010. This component amongst other things is an excellent .tiff editor. I first tried using the Microsoft Office Customisation tool, by running the command setup.exe /admin (see http://technet.microsoft.com/

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-17280135947226664952011-04-21T13:06:00.003+01:002011-04-21T13:07:36.959+01:00

It's very helpful to be able to know the registry settings for group policy settings, to enable simple scripting to automate the settings. Glad I found this link :o)

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-50375419885882929942010-11-20T23:35:00.001+00:002010-11-20T23:35:49.453+00:00

  Again I am looking at syncing tools.  Windows live beta has now gone and been replaced by Windows Live Sync. It comes as part of the 2011 Essentials pack, only installable on Windows 7 though, so that makes for a bummer on my main home Win XP laptop.  Will still use the web folder for live mesh there.  25 gig of free space is not something to be sniffed at. This is being

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-5103071472944583552010-09-27T11:04:00.002+01:002010-09-27T11:04:44.052+01:00

Our Sky+ remote went down this weekend, and whilst you can get basic functionality with the buttons on the front of the machine, it's a right pain and you can't really use Sky+ properly at all. Luckily my dad had a spare new Sky+ HD remote, which I thought would work. If you need to get a different type of remote to work with Sky, Sky+ or Sky HD. Here's how: 1 press the TV button 2 press and

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-59415666467212123462010-09-16T15:03:00.002+01:002010-09-16T15:08:44.378+01:00

A bit of googling I found this excellent article on tjb-ts.blogspot which gave me the quick indication that this COULD be done and how to do it. Basically, I extracted the factory.wim file from the recovery partition of a failing hard drive, and also got the imagex.exe and it's config files from the tools folder in the recovery partition and stuck them all on my external usb. Then, using a

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-82565414843957685582010-09-03T10:02:00.004+01:002010-09-03T21:28:15.353+01:00

I recently have began cataloguing and cleaning up my media library to enable the new media unit at home to more easily serve us the pics, music and video that I have amassed over the years... After renaming many files with prefixes to allow for faster searching, and getting all the mp3 tags correct and orderly, I wanted to check through my directories for any files that were NOT meant to be in

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-74129751635669864492010-08-18T10:09:00.001+01:002010-08-18T15:29:43.296+01:00

If you like me ever need to know at a glance how much storgae space you are using in a directory, then look no further than the excellent Tree Size application. It comes in free version or a paid version with lots more features. But the free version is fine. This will scan a directory or drive and breakup by folder how much space is used by files and folders. You can print a 'report' which is

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-81354111957188074762010-07-14T22:02:00.004+01:002010-07-15T16:12:33.125+01:00

Quite simply, whether just for fun, doing some home DIY, woodwork, floor plans... You gotta play with this, its excellent free software. I am completely immersed in the tutorials and am enjoying every minute. Have a look and play. http://sketchup.google.com/

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-12756706400203555172010-07-06T15:55:00.012+01:002010-09-03T10:46:24.919+01:00

I needed to find out how to query the active directory database easily and so looked into how to script an LDAP query. Code below shows the basics of the simple query based on the LDAP://rootdse object and a recordset connection to perform the query. Function LDAPsearch (strSearch,strQ) 'set variable to hold required amount of attributes Dim aResults(4) 'set LDAP defaults to root domain Set

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-15704572818083073342010-07-06T15:54:00.004+01:002010-07-08T08:24:14.607+01:00

After a year or so of using Microsoft's Synctoy 2.0 for ensuring I always have an up to date synchronised copy of my important data, I finally decided to look for something a bit more flexible. Synctoy didn't allow for easy changes to the directoris and files that you set up for synch. To cut a long story short there was a clear contender, namely PureSync from Jumping Bytes. This is a very

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-4031232713040963952010-07-02T22:00:00.004+01:002010-07-06T12:21:12.687+01:00

I have found Google's Calendar Sync tool most useful to keep my work outlook calendar synced with my gmail calednar meaning that on my personal and work phones (also synced to google calendar) my scehdule is always up to date with my google calendar and my outlook at work. Google's sync works simply and effectively and helps keep my life organised! Upon an upgrade at work to office 2010 (from XP)

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-40862119895545718302010-02-17T13:55:00.004+00:002010-07-07T21:53:53.976+01:00

A suprisingly pleasant and refeshing change and improvment on music management...(better in my opinion that itunes) I was looking for something better than iTunes as I have LOADS of music and need to keep it organised and searchable, but was finding iTunes both too slow (startup time especially) and creating duplicates and other various niggles. I have to say that within an hour of using (and

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-37848179682697289952009-10-30T09:48:00.005+00:002010-07-14T20:09:35.944+01:00

It is sometimes very helpful (and much easier than using a CD) to be able to boot into a lightweight OS from a USB stick - providing the BIOS in the system you target supports the 'Boot from USB' functionality. Thankfully all systems at work and home do, in fact most if not all modern (read last 5 years) systems shoudl have this capability. This is very helpful (and sometimes necessary) for

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-59655888270242800112009-09-29T09:17:00.007+01:002009-10-08T11:00:42.340+01:00

After playing with the Beta and RC of Windows 7 in virtual machines, I found that there is a fully loaded Enterprise version which is fully functional for 90 days (and potentially more with up to 3 activation period resets - see later) available for free download. Suffice to say I have now installed on our main home PC as it needed a reinstall of the OS and I thought why not??? I have to say

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-34348226605388496382009-09-04T14:13:00.003+01:002010-01-19T09:09:09.242+00:00

Upon having aquired a blackberry recently, I had to familiarise myself with the way it works (what the dang is it?), connects and specifically; syncs to Outlook. This meant getting to grips with Desktop manager, the bluetooth issues, IT policy issues and of course themes! I found out that first I needed to remove all IT policies. A lot of searching on google showed me that I had to download a '

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-83894217448992245122009-07-22T13:37:00.005+01:002009-09-04T15:16:07.904+01:00

Ok, a few things that I have done since last blogged: • Migrated a few machines / laptops from Vista to XP. • Found out the hard way NOT to use Vist 'Easy' transfer as XP cant import the files. Lol. • Using Drive Image XML (freeware) now for imaging - it creates bootable image discs too. Looks good. Using the plugin for BartPE in my Bart boot disc... • Looking for a good free duplicate file

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-58528717812773656412009-03-14T08:44:00.000+00:002009-06-18T08:22:27.560+01:00

Finally got my MCSA Certification - 18 or so months from when I started - which I am quite pleased with.

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-20594333280998355892009-03-06T14:35:00.002+00:002009-09-07T10:30:31.049+01:00

Just decided to sort out slipstreaming SP2 and all hotfixes to my Win 2k3 installation files/discs, as haven't got around to doing it as yet. Using nLite is a nice way to do it - google nLite and grab the latest version. This takes care of all the manual editing files and replacing files etc. you have to do otherwise. (Have't got it to integrate .Net framework 3.5 though - yet!) Anyhow, to

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189347387503090468.post-55187568441886362002009-02-05T21:30:00.001+00:002009-09-04T15:17:55.402+01:00

I wanted to do some simple routing from subnet A to subnet B. For some reason I got real confused to why it wasn't working... until I realised I have 'foolishly' missed the obvious and set up the incorrect default gateway on subnet A. This was because I was setting this subnet up on a network where I already had a default gateway to my router to the internet... let me explain. I had a gateway

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13827008434452054025noreply@blogger.com0