cd c:\windows\system32 copy "..\driver cache\i386\ntoskrnl.exe"

If prompted to overwite the existing file, type y and enter.
If you receive a file not found error, make sure that the path in the copy command is correct. If it is correct and you still receive the error, then try the following commands:

cd "c:\windows\driver cache\i386" expand sp1.cab -F:ntoskrnl.exe c:\windows\system32

Again, if you are prompted to overwrite the file, type y and then enter.
Also, if your OS is installed on a partition/drive other than C:, then replace any occurance of C: with the correct letter. (D: for example).
Replace any occurence of ‘windows’ with what is appropriate for your system. (winnt for example)
Reboot. Your system should start up normally.

It is paramount that you respect the user and their data. Don’t steal their MP3s. When working with email, look without reading. Respect them and they will respect you.

II. Thou shalt empower the user

The user is the customer. The system is not yours, it is theirs. Provide users the tools they need to be successful and they will be happy. Give them space to experiment, learn and create. Do not hold users back.

III. Thou shalt keep it simple

Keep It Simple, Stupid. The KISS principle will keep you from building barrels to keep a bottle’s worth of wine. Do not mistake over-engineering for quality. Quality work is concise and scalable.

IV. Thou shalt expect catastrophe

Expect the worst surprises. Make your resources redundant, backup your data, test your backups, and then backup the backups. The crap will hit the fan someday. Be prepared.

V. Thou shalt plan

Great work follows great plans. Stay on target by first identifying it. Plan your work carefully and surprises will be easier to handle.

VI. Thou shalt stay informed

Gather all the news, information, logs and statistics you can. Without the raw data to analyze, you cannot be secure, you cannot debug problems and you cannot forecast. Without new information, you cannot learn.

VII. Thou shalt share

No one is alone in this world. Pass your knowledge on to others. Give to others, contribute to the community and you will reap many rewards. It is not wise to horde knowledge. Don’t be an jackhole.

VIII. Thou shalt automate

Do more, faster by automating tasks. You are the puppet master, do not waste your time with menial work. Work smarter, not harder.

IX. Thou shalt document

Always document your work, your code and your plans. Then document their execution and maintenance. Document for others and document for yourself. Documentation should be an extension of your mind and a resource for others.

X. Thou shalt respect thy organization

Without organization, there is no system, there is no user and there is no job. Understand the organization and it’s business. Respect it and help it thrive.

This was originally published at Hacktux

Flash (flv)

If you are a Adobe geek and use IIS6 and you cannot fiqure out why a .FLV file will not render or you get the evil 404.3 error. Try this:

Flash Streaming MIME:
flv
extension: .flv
MIME type: flv-application/octet-stream

To add the MIME types to IIS6:

1. Choose your website in IIS
2. Open the context menu and choose "Properties"
3. Select the register "HTTP-Header"
4. Click on the button labeled "MIME Types…"
5. If .flv is not yet listed as a type, choose "New"
6. Enter the following description:
Extension: .flv

MIME type: flv-application/octet-stream7.

7.Click "Ok",
8. Choose "Apply" and you’re set!

Silverlight

If you want to host Silverlight on a web server that isn’t IIS7, such as IIS6 which is the second best web server in the world (2nd to IIS7 ) you’ll need to add the MIME types to support the correct content type interpretation by the browser. In the case of Silverlight this is the XAML content type – this also goes for WPF hosting as well. IIS7 has these MIME types already added but if they’re not there this will result in errors such as 404.3 and prompting to download etc.

There are 3 MIME types required

So what and how do I find out if my current version of Windows has the right .NET framework installed? Well like checking your Java version you usually would go to control panel and “add/remove programs” or if Vista/7 you would go to “Programs and Features”. Inside this list of programs that are installed on your computer you scroll down to the microsoft Service Pack X.XXX and see all the patches and what not. You could also go to your C:\Windows directory and open Microsoft.NET folder open the folder called Framework. Inside you will find folders like V1.0.3705 to V3.5. These are the versions of .NET framework installed on your computer.

1. I have found a easier and well interesting way to find the versions installed on your current computer. Add “ javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) “ to your Internet Explorer Bar and hit go and a message box will pop up with the information you want.

Please take note that that JavaScript code can be used in Firefox or Opera web browser to query their User Agent String too (but only the IE will report .Net framework version in its User Agent String).

2. Another interesting way to do it is:

Navigate to this Windows Registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP

The major version number of each .Net framework releases installed can be found at this Registry path. Click the major version number key and there is a string value called “version” on the right-pane that reports the full version number of that .Net framework.

3. Or try this: Navigate to the Registry path that keeps the IE User Agent String:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform

If you think this Registry key path is easier to remember than the shorter, one-line JavaScript code that query the User Agent String, then this could be your answer.

There is also some pretty good software that will tell you the version of .NET you are running. Called oddly enough Version Checker.

So now you have no excuse not to know which version is installed on your machine.

-Mike

You grab your trusty laptop and some chips and you favorite diet drink cause you cant handle drinking the calories but eating them seems like a good idea. You get all settled and comfortable and crack open your laptop (that you affectionately call Harvey.(dont ask I just make these things up)). Pushing the power button gives you a bit of exhilaration and you here familiar sounds of the hard drive spinning up.(of course if you have a new laptop you wouldn’t hear that but for the sake of argument you and harvey have been around a while.)

Then in the darkness of a dos prompt you get a harry ugly and just pathetic error with something almost sinister pops up saying something like NTFS.SYS error. What the *&(%! you scream spilling your diet soda and the dog steals you chips in your excitement. You then surf to my website and get this little convoluted list of how to fix it.

Enjoy:

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and reboot your pc.

2. Allow the basic setup files to load into memory.

3. At the Welcome to Setup screen press R.

4. This will start the Recovery console and the list of Windows installations will appear.

5. As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will typically be 1

6. You will need to enter your Administrator password. If you are using Windows XP Home edition the administrator password is blank by default so simply press Enter.

7. At the Recovery Console command prompt type: cd \windows\system32\drivers

8. Next press Enter.

9. The windows system 32 drivers directory will now open.

10. Now type: ren ntfs.sys ntfs.old

11. Again press Enter.

12. If a message appears telling you that the Ntfs.sys file was not found, then the file is actually missing rather than corrupt.

13. The above command will change the name of your corrupt file from Ntfs.sys to Ntfs.old

14. Now type the following at the command prompt substituting the X (after copy) with the drive letter of your CD and the X (after drive) with the drive letter of your hard drive. The hard drive usually being the C:/ drive.

15. copy X:\i386\ntfs.sys drive X:\windows\system32\drivers

16. Remove the Windows XP CD from your CD-ROM.

17. Now in the command prompt type: Exit

18. Restart your PC to make sure the problem has been rectified.

Please share this info and if it helps please click on a google ad just to see if it works.

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/p – Plugs in the specified VHD as a virtual disk device without mounting the volume.

/m – Plugs in the specified VHD as a virtual disk device and mounts the volume.

/f – Performs the specified operation without creating an Undo Disk. This parameter is applicable for /p and /m. All changes to the mounted disk are directly written to the specified VHD.

/u – Unplugs the virtual disk device for the specified VHDFileName.

/c – Updates the original VHD with all changes that were stored in the Undo Disk anddeletes the Undo Disk after unplugging the disk. This parameter is only applicable if the VHD was mounted without using /f.

/d – Discards all changes to the mounted disk and deletes the Undo Disk after unplugging the disk. This parameter is only applicable if the VHD was mounted without using /f.

/q – Displays the disk name of the mounted virtual disk device for the specified VHDFileName.

VHDFileName – VHD name including full path.

DriveLetter – Optional parameter for /m option. If drive letter is specified the volumes are mounted starting at the specified drive letter. If drive letter is not specifiedit is automatically assigned.

All – Applies the operation on all mounted virtual disk devices. This parameter is applicable for /u and /q.

By default, VHDMount creates an Undo Disk in current user’s temporary folder. All changes to the mounted disk are written to this Undo Disk. Use /c to commit or /d to discard these changes at the time of unplugging the disk device. Use /f option to mount a VHD without an Undo Disk.

Examples:
VHDMOUNT /p [/f] VHDFileName
VHDMOUNT /m [/f] VHDFileName [DriveLetter]
VHDMOUNT /u [/c | /d] VHDFileName | All
VHDMOUNT /q VHDFileName | All

Integrating VHDMount in the Explorer context menu

Ben Armstrong, a Program manager on the core virtualization team at Microsoft, has published a neat registry trick that allows you to mount VHDs by just double clicking on them. By creating a .reg file with the following contents:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell]
@="Mount"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Dismount]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Dismount\comma
nd]
@="\"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\vhdmount.exe\" /u \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Mount]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Mount\command]
@="\"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\vhdmount.exe\" /p \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.vhd]
@="Virtual.Machine.HD"

Double click on the .reg file (to load it into your registry) you will be able to double click a VHD to mount it, and right click on it to dismount it.

Windows will auto-install the correct driver and allow you to see the .VHD file as a new hard drive.

Issues with Windows Vista

Two notes about using this trick with Windows Vista:

   1. For some reason ‘double click’ does not work in Windows Vista. The only way around it is to right-click on the .VHD file and select "Plug in".

   2. VHDMount needs to run ‘As Administrator’. You can either disable UAC (read my "Disable UAC in Vista" article), or, to get this to work with UAC enabled, you will need to configure VHDMount.exe, go to the Compatibility Mode tab, and check "Run this program as an administrator".

When you’re done working with the mounted .VHD file you can right-click it and either choose to commit changes, or not.

Get the functionality of VHDMount without installing Virtual Server

If you need VHDMount but you don’t need or want to install Virtual Server you can install only the VHDMount components, use the Custom option in the Virtual Server R2 SP1 installer and clear all components except VHDMount.

SELECT ‘EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ”’+ SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + ‘.’ + OBJECT_NAME(object_Id) + ”’, ”dbo”’FROM sys.tables

In order to change the owner of an object in the current database, use the sp_changeobjectowner system stored procedure. The basic syntax is as follows:

sp_changeobjectowner [ @objname = ] ‘object’ , [ @newowner = ] ‘owner’
In order to generate the Script to Change Owner of all Tables in a database, use this query

SELECT ‘EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ”’+ SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) + ‘.’ + OBJECT_NAME(object_Id) + ”’, ”dbo”’FROM sys.tables
Executing the query in SQL Server Management Studio generates the script required to change the owner of all tables in the database. I ran this query on the AdventureWorks database which generated the following output. Right Click on the output and Copy all the records

All you need to do now is paste the script generated and execute it in a query window to change the owner of all tables in the data. The generated script is as shown below:

EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ‘Production.ProductInventory’, ‘dbo’EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ‘Sales.SpecialOffer’, ‘dbo’EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ‘Person.Address’, ‘dbo’EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ‘Production.ProductListPriceHistory’, ‘dbo’EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ‘Person.AddressType’, ‘dbo’EXEC sp_changeobjectowner ‘Sales.SpecialOfferProduct’, ‘dbo’
and so on…….

Rock ON!

So why is this a problem? Well since Virus developers and Script kiddies learned of this they would mask the virus file as a jpeg. So please what ever version of windows you are using please uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.

If you notice in the diagram on the left I would and do the following on every install of any Windows version I install.

-Uncheck Automatically search for network folders and printers

-Check: Do not cache thumbnails

-Bullet: Show hidden files and folders

Click apply and then Apply to all folders. Windows will prompt you to make sure. Click ok.

Now when you download a file or someone sends you a file you know what the true extension of the file.

To work around this problem, use the Attrib command at a command prompt (Cmd.exe) to view or to remove the Read-only or the System attributes of folders.
Back to the top
To view or to remove the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003 or in Windows XP

   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
   2. To view the syntax for the Attrib command, type attrib \? at the command prompt.

Warning If you remove the Read-only or System attribute from a folder, it may appear as a ordinary folder and some customizations may be lost. For example, Windows customizes the Fonts folder and provides a special folder view that permits you to hide variations, such as bold and italic. It also permits you to change the folder’s view settings in ways that are specific to fonts. If you remove the Read-only and System attributes of the Fonts folder, these customized view settings are not available. For folders that you have customized by using the Customize tab of the folder’s Properties dialog box, the folder icon and other other customizations may be lost when you remove the Read-only attribute.

If a program cannot save files to a folder with the Read-only attribute, such as My Documents, change the Read-only attribute to System by using the Attrib command at a command prompt.

To remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute, use the following command:
attrib -r +s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
For example, to remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute for the C:\Test folder, use the following command:
attrib -r +s c:\test
Be aware that some programs may not operate correctly with folders for which the System attribute and the Read-only attribute are set. Therefore, use the following command to remove these attributes:
attrib -r -s c:\test
Back to the top
To view or to remove the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Vista

   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER..
   2. To view the syntax for the Attrib command, type attrib \? at the command prompt.

To remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute, use the following command:
attrib -r +s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
For example, to remove the Read-only attribute and to set the System attribute for the C:\Test folder, use the following command:
attrib -r +s c:\test
Be aware that some programs may not operate correctly with folders for which the System attribute and the Read-only attribute are set. Therefore, use the following command to remove these attributes:
attrib -r -s drive:\<path>\<foldername>
For example, to remove both the Read-only and the System attributes from the C:\Test folder, use the following command:
attrib -r -s c:\test
If the Run command is not listed on the Start menu, do the following:
Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Run.

I work in a Unix/Windows environment that does include differing flavors of Linux here and there. Enough about me and lets get to the reason for the post shall we.

So there are a ton of freeware applications that will go out and do the exact thing we are doing and it just adds more crap ware to your Windows Install. So lets get your drivers the easy and no extra crap way.

Here is the command line to use to see all your drivers:

driverquery

Or to output in list or csv format instead of the default table format, you can use the /FO switch

driverquery /FO [list, table, csv]

So for instance, if you ran the following command to give you verbose information in list format:

driverquery /FO list /v

Then you can go more into it like this:

          driverquery /FO csv /v > C:\driverbackup.csv

then you can open it in excel.

Enjoy!

*Warning this article can tend to be very technical. However if you read it over it will help you with understanding how to correctly backup your data from the very simple to the very complex.

See that picture? When it happens to you, it may not look quite that bad (or be quite that obvious), but data loss sucks. And it does happen. I’ve been working with computers for 10+ years, and I’ve had it happen a couple times myself. Did I mention how much it sucks?

I’m not going to spend a couple pages telling you why you should backup, I’m just going to be straight about it, unless you really couldn’t care less if that happened to your computer, you are flat out stupid if you are not backing up your data on a regular basis.

Instead of telling you why to backup, I’m going to tell you how to ensure that you are not going to get your data back, even if you think you are backing it up.

Method 1: I’ll just back the data up to CD/DVD.

Well sure, this will work for a bit, but:

1. Ever try to save 20GB to CD? Or 250GB to DVD? Ugh.
2. How long do you think that optical desk is going to be readable?

Going this route, you can quickly end up trapped behind a small mountain of plastic. Or lets say you manage to somehow keep the optical disks to a manageable quantity, will the marker you labeled it with make the disk unreadable in a year, or is the dye layer unstable, rendering your disk unreadable in six months, or will the glue on the label you made for the disk make it worthless in a year or two? These are just a couple of examples of why optical media should not be considered an archive grade solution.

Method 2: ok then, I’ll just copy the data to a USB hard drive.

Sure it’s better than nothing, but single HDD solutions are not going to keep your data safe. Hard drives fail. In fact it will happen to every single hard disk you will ever come across. The only question is; when? It’s not a matter of if, or of MTBF (mean time between failure), it is more a matter of “you never know, it could fail in ten years, or in ten seconds”.

Don’t get me wrong, if this is the only way you can back the data up, then it is your only choice, and it’s better than nothing. Just be aware, as soon as you copy the data to that USB HDD, the “Clock of Death” is ticking.

Much better would be to copy the data over to a machine with a RAID storage system (preferably RAID5).

Method 3: I bought actual Backup Software (or use a vetted Open Source solution), and run Incremental Backups (to tape!) every single day!

Ok, so you spent some money on a tape backup solution, spent hours reading the manual and configuring your backup. Congratulations, I bet you think your data is safe! Until you find out how Incremental Backups really work (this usually happens after a disaster, and the tapes is all you have left of your pr0n, illegal mp3’s downloaded movies warez mission critical data).

Let’s pretend for a minute that your backup tapes look something like this:

Full_backup_tape (tape 1 – doesn’t matter what you tell it to be, the first backup is always and without exception, a full backup)

Incremental_backup_1 (tape 2)

Incremental_backup_2 (tape 3)

Incremental_backup_3 (tape 4)

Incremental_backup_4 (tape 5)

Incremental_backup_5 (tape 6)

And then you have a catastrophic failure. So you’re sitting there at 2am merrily running the restore, and you hit a snag: tape 2 won’t read. Doesn’t matter why, the tape could be bad, maybe you left it out of the tape safe overnight, and the radio station next door managed to erase it with the magnetic waves they transmit (this actually happened), the data is gone. So is all data after it. See Incremental backups require that all tapes since the last full backup be present and working. So tapes 3-6 may as well be empty, because you are never getting the data off of them. Ever.

If you can’t run full backups every day, use Differential backups instead of Incrementals. Let’s say that in the scenario the user had been running differentials rather than incrementals. They could then restore to current using just the original full backup, and the last differential.

Method 4: Now I’m running differential backups to tape every single day!

But you fail to check the backup logs every day, and the backup job you though had been running for the last year actually failed 273 days ago, and has been requesting the “correct” tape since then. I’ve seen this one a lot (in fact, I think this would be the most popular reason for data loss if you have backup software running).

You’ve got to check your backup logs. It sucks, and it’s boring, but it’s one of those things you just have to do.

Method 5: Alright, I’m running differentials to tape, and have been checking my logs for the last 2 years every single day!

But you’ve never run a test restore. If you haven’t restored data from the tape successfully, there is no data on the tape. The tape was bad, the backup software failed (silently of course), the gremlins ate it.

Method 6: Ok, now I spend two hours reading the log and then randomly restoring files from my backups (before putting the tapes in the tape safe) every single day!

And then your server room catches fire. All machines, and the safe holding the backup tapes are destroyed. You never took any offsite, because you have a tape safe. It happens. It’s unfortunate.

Method 7: Enough, I give up on tape! Now I run a full backup to a RAID5 NAS every single day!

But you ordered your NAS with the drives form the manufacturer, and they used 4 HDD’s from the same batch, and two failed. This is the one that always gets them! The strength of RAID5 is that more than one drive has to fail before the RAID is unrecoverable. The weakness is that hard drives from the same batch tend to fail at the same time (or thereabouts).

To strengthen your RAID system, always make sure that you have drives from different batches, if not from different manufacturers (this is not always the best idea, but that is an argument for another time). For instance: to take care of my backup needs at home, I bought a Buffalo Terastation. Unfortunately, Buffalo sent me a Terastation with 4 drives from the same batch (you can usually tell if they all have the same date on them, sometimes there will be a batch code on the drive). I bought 3 more of the same model drive from 3 different manufacturers, and now have the most healthy RAID I can.

These are not the only ways to lose data, but they are by far the most common. How would I know? I was the Worldwide Manager of Technical Support for a backup software company for several years. And I always got to be the one to explain to the customers why their data is gone.

So what do I do?

There are as many answers to that question as there are IT shops with backup systems. Here is how I protect data at my office:

I backup all data every day (full backup) to a NAS configured in RAID5, with a hot spare. I check the health of the RAID every day (it takes about two minutes). Once a week I backup the entire RAID to LTO3 tape, and take the tapes offsite (currently I am taking them home, where they go into a DATA rated fire safe (there is a difference, do your homework), and then into my large safe where I keep all my other valuables. My ideal would be to have them delivered to a bank safety deposit box, but that costs money.

At home, I back up all my data to the aforementioned Terastation. Once per month, I copy all the data off to a USB HDD (actually two of them), and take one to work where it goes into the tape safe.

Is it perfect? No. Does it stand a much better chance of keeping that data alive through a catastrophic event? Absolutely. You don’t have to go to these lengths to protect your data, but you should be aware of the risks.

http://www.asktheadmin.com/2009/06/how-to-lose-your-data

This Article was posted originally by Joe @ http://www.laoae.com

Summary: This document provides tables that illustrate, for a range of IIS authentication settings, the resultant identity that is obtained from each of the variables that maintain an IPrincipal and/or IIdentity object. (4 printed pages)

Principal objects implement the IPrincipal interface and represent the security context of the user on whose behalf the code is running. The principal object includes the user’s identity (as a contained IIdentity object) and any roles to which the user belongs.

ASP.NET provides the following principal and identity object implementations:

• WindowsPrincipal and WindowsIdentity objects represent users who have been authenticated with Windows authentication. With these objects, the role list is automatically obtained from the set of Windows groups to which the Windows user belongs.
• GenericPrincipal and GenericIdentity objects represent users who have been authenticated using Forms authentication or other custom authentication mechanisms. With these objects, the role list is obtained in a custom manner, typically from a database.
• FormsIdentity and PassportIdentity objects represent users who have been authenticated with Forms and Passport authentication respectively.

The following tables illustrate, for a range of IIS authentication settings, the resultant identity that is obtained from each of the variables that maintain an IPrincipal and/or IIdentity object. The following abbreviations are used in the table:

• HttpContext = HttpContext.Current.User, which returns an IPrincipal object that contains security information for the current Web request. This is the authenticated Web client.
• WindowsIdentity = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent(), which returns the identity of the security context of the currently executing Win32 thread.
• Thread = Thread.CurrentPrincipal which returns the principal of the currently executing .NET thread which rides on top of the Win32 thread.

Note   With IIS 6.0 running on Windows Server 2003, the identity Matrix works except that the Machine\ASPNET identity is replaced with NT Authority\Network Service.

IIS anonymous authentication

IIS basic authentication

IIS digest authentication

IIS integrated Windows

And yes there are more ways to do this.
First unpack a version from before the build you have as .VHD
(In this guide i will take build 7229 as an example)
to a folder.

Then go to the “control panel admin tools” :

There you go to : “Computer Management”

There you right click on : “Disk Management” and choose : “Attach VHD”
Then browse to your “.VHD” file.

And click “OK”
Then there will be added a “Virtual Drive”
In this example it is drive “J”
The drive icon color is blue.

Now open a “WAIK command prompt”
(there is a shortcut for that in your start menu)
In there paste this line :
imagex /compress maximum /flags “Ultimate” /capture j: c:\install.wim “Windows 7 Ultimate”
/capture j: (put your own drive letter there i used J: as an example)
Wait till its finished.
In this example it will place the new “install.wim” into “C:\”
Now copy the new “install.wim” into the folder where you extracted the build 7229 iso.
In the “Sources” folder

And overwrite the “install.wim” file.
Now open the build 7229 original ISO with a program like “UltraISO” and make a new iso from the folder where 7229 is extracted and the new “install.wim” is placed.
After that you can mount or burn it and run the setup.

Once again Enjoy!

Well I created a little script that will look at all the Windows Vista/Windows 7 Machines(PC’s) on your domain and give you the read out of what type of hardware is available on said domain/network.

strCompName = Inputbox("Get Hardware Performance Ratings" & vbcrlf & "of a Remote computer," & vbcrlf & "Input the Computer Name:")

Set objWMIservices = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strCompName & "\root\cimv2")
Set colWSA = objWMIservices.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_WinSAT")

For Each objItem in colWSA
    Wscript.Echo "Hardware Performance Ratings"
    Wscript.Echo "Processor : " & objItem.CPUScore
    Wscript.Echo "Memory: " & objItem.MemoryScore
    Wscript.Echo "Graphics: " & objItem.GraphicsScore
    Wscript.Echo "Gaming graphics: " & objItem.D3DScore
    Wscript.Echo "Primary hard disk: " & objItem.DiskScore
next

If you want you can download it from:

Windows Live SkyDrive

Enjoy!

I needed a solution for users with remote desktop disabled. If your remote user has administrator access to their machine, have them click on Start – Run and type:

netsh firewall set service remoteadmin enable

netsh firewall set service remotedesktop enable

[note: remoteadmin = remote administration, while remotedesktop = remote assistance and remote desktop]

You can also enable remote desktop over the network via regedit if you have administrator rights to the remote machine:

   1. Run Regedit
   2. Select File –> Connect Network registry
   3. Enter the name of the remote computer and select Check Name
   4. At the bottom of the registry tree you will see 2 Hives appear Hkey_Local_Machine and
      Hkey_Users (under the remote computer’s name)
   5. Goto hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server\FdenyTSConnections=1
   6. Change the FdenyTSConnections to 0
   7. Attempt to Re-Login

This worked okay, but I like to implement the most elegant solution possible.

So I fired up the command line on my local machine, and used psexec to configure the firewall service on the remote machine via netsh. The users never even knew I was working on their computer, which is fine by me.

To enable remote access to a machine via the command line, type:

psexec \\remotecomputername netsh firewall set service remoteadmin enable

psexec \\remotecomputername netsh firewall set service remotedesktop enable

If you aren’t familiar with the PStools suite of utilities have a look and let me know.

use MSCS_Admin
select s_PropertyName, s_Value
From dbo.resourceProps

This will return multiple values. This is helpful in knowing if you have Commerce Server 2007 installed correctly as well as helping you to identify the correct service pack upgrade number per database.

SP1

Transaction Database = 7.0

Transaction Config Database = 7.0

Product Catalog Database = 7.2

Inventory Database = 7.1

Direct Mailer Database = 6.0

SP2

Transaction Database = 7.1

Transaction Config Database = 7.1

Product Catalog Database = 7.3

Inventory Database = 7.2

Direct Mailer Database = 6.0

Enjoy!

@echo off

    :start
    set /p _input="Server? [y/n]"

    if %_input% equ y (
        echo Starting server services…
        sc start HTTPFilter     REM HTTP SSL
        sc start IISADMIN        REM IIS Admin
        sc start lanmanserver    REM Server
        sc start MSSQLSERVER    REM SQL Server
        sc start SQLBrowser        REM SQL Server Browser
        sc start SQLWriter        REM SQL Server VSS Writer
        sc start W3SVC            REM World Wide Web Publishing
        sc start WebClient        REM WebClient

        set /p ="Hit any key to continue…"
    ) else (
        echo STOPPING server services…
        sc stop HTTPFilter
        sc stop IISADMIN
        sc stop lanmanserver
        sc stop MSSQLSERVER
        sc stop SQLBrowser
        sc stop SQLWriter
        sc stop W3SVC
        sc stop WebClient

        set /p ="Hit any key to continue…"
    )

    :end

Truth be known these scripts should be included in every install of Commerce Server 2007.

Create CS 2007 Local Users VB Script:

' Set the local computer name
strComputer = "."

' Run the Load method
Load

' Encapsulates the processing of this script
Sub Load()

    ' Create the CS 2007 users
    CreateUser "CatalogWebSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Catalog Web service"
    CreateUser "CSDNSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Commerce Server Direct mailer service"
    CreateUser "CSHealthMonitorSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Commerce Server health Monitoring service"
    CreateUser "CSLOB","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Commerce Server adapters"
    CreateUser "CSStageSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Commerce Server Staging service"
    CreateUser "MarketingWebSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Marketing Web service"
    CreateUser "OrdersWebSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Orders Web service"
    CreateUser "ProfilesWebSvc","Pa$$w0rd","Account for running the Profiles Web service"
    CreateUser "RunTimeUser","Pa$$w0rd","IIS account for accessing a Commerce Server site or application"

    MsgBox "Complete!"

End Sub

' Create the local user
Sub CreateUser(userName, password, description)

    ' Check to see if the user exists; if so, then skip
    If NOT CheckIfUserExists(userName) Then
        Set objComputer = GetObject("WinNT://" & strComputer & "")
        Set objUser = objComputer.Create("user", userName)

        objUser.SetPassword password
        objUser.FullName = userName
        objUser.Description = description
        objUser.Put "UserFlags", 65600 ' Sets Password Never Expires to TRUE
                                       ' and sets User Can't Change Password to TRUE
        objUser.SetInfo
    Else
        MsgBox userName & " already exists!"
    End If

End Sub

' Check to see if user exists
Function CheckIfUserExists(userName)

    Set objComputer = GetObject("WinNT://" & strComputer & "")
    objComputer.Filter = Array("user")
    intFound = 0

    For Each User In objComputer
        If lcase(User.Name) = lcase(userName) Then
            intFound = 1
        End If
    Next

    If intFound = 1 Then
        CheckIfUserExists = True
    Else
        CheckIfUserExists = False
    End If

End Function

Create CS Logins and Assign Roles SQL Script:

Note:

I would recommend opening this in Notepad (or your favorite editor) and replace all the CSharpSite with your Website name.

As well as CS2007 with your Server HOST Name.

USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\ASPNET] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\CSDMSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\CSHealthMonitorSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO 

----------------------------------------------------------------
-- Assign database accounts to database roles in SQL Server 2005
---------------------------------------------------------------- 

-- ASPNET
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\ASPNET] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\ASPNET]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\ASPNET'
GO 

--CatalogWebSvc
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'ctlg_CatalogWriterRole', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_securityadmin', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Inventory_ReaderRole', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Inventory_WriterRole', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CatalogWebSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\CatalogWebSvc'
GO 

-- MarketingWebSvc
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'mktg_marketingService_role', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'mktg_promoCodeGenerator_role', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_owner', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'ctlg_CatalogReaderRole', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Reader', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Schema_Reader', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\MarketingWebSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\MarketingWebSvc'
GO 

-- OrdersWebSvc
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'mktg_runtime_role', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'ctlg_CatalogReaderRole', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Inventory_ReaderRole', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Reader', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Schema_Reader', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactionconfig]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactionconfig]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Orders_Management', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactions]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactions]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Orders_Management', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactions]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Orders_Runtime', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\OrdersWebSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\OrdersWebSvc'
GO 

-- ProfilesWebSvc
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Runtime', N'CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Schema_Manager', N'CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\ProfilesWebSvc'
GO 

-- RunTimeUser
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'mktg_runtime_role', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'ctlg_CatalogReaderRole', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Inventory_RuntimeRole', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Runtime', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Schema_Reader', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactionconfig]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactionconfig]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Orders_Runtime', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactions]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactions]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Orders_Runtime', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\RunTimeUser] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\RunTimeUser]
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\RunTimeUser'
GO 

-- CSDMSvc
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSDMSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSDMSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'mktg_directmailer_role', N'CS2007\CSDMSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSDMSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSDMSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_owner', N'CS2007\CSDMSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSDMSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSDMSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Reader', N'CS2007\CSDMSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Schema_Reader', N'CS2007\CSDMSvc'
GO
USE [DirectMailer]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSDMSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSDMSvc]
GO
USE [DirectMailer]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_owner', N'CS2007\CSDMSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSDMSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSDMSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\CSDMSvc'
GO 

-- CSHealthMonitorSvc
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSHealthMonitorSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSHealthMonitorSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\CSHealthMonitorSvc'
GO 

--
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'mktg_staging_role', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_marketing_lists]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'ctlg_CatalogWriterRole', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_securityadmin', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Inventory_ReaderRole', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_productcatalog]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Inventory_WriterRole', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_profiles]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Profile_Schema_Manager', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactionconfig]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [CSharpSite_transactionconfig]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'Orders_Management', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_Admin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'admin_reader_role', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
CREATE USER [CS2007\CSStageSvc] FOR LOGIN [CS2007\CSStageSvc]
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO
USE [MSCS_CatalogScratch]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_ddladmin', N'CS2007\CSStageSvc'
GO 

 

Make sure to have the xcalcs_installer.exe installed before going on.

Assign CS Permissions VB Script:

' Declare the users
Dim users(4)
users(0) = "RunTimeUser"
users(1) = "CatalogWebSvc"
users(2) = "MarketingWebSvc"
users(3) = "OrdersWebSvc"
users(4) = "ProfilesWebSvc"

' Run the Load method
Load

Sub Load()

    ' Write permissions to the catalog auth role
    strObject = "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\CatalogWebService\CatalogAuthorizationStore.xml"
    UpdatePermissions strObject, users(1)

    ' Write permissions to temporary ASP.NET folder
    strObject = "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files"
    For Each user IN users
        UpdatePermissions strObject, user
    Next    

    ' Write permissions to the Windows temporary folder
    strObject = "C:\WINDOWS\Temp"
    For Each user IN users
        UpdatePermissions strObject, user
    Next    

End Sub

' Update the permissions of the folder/file
Sub UpdatePermissions(strLocation, strUser)

    Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
    ' Make sure to have the xcacls.vbs file available.  Download from:
    ' http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/7/8/f786aaf3-a37b-45ab-b0a2-8c8c18bbf483/xcacls_installer.exe
    objShell.Run "xcacls.vbs """ + strLocation + """ /G " + strUser + ":XW /E", 2, True

End Sub

These Scripts should make life a little easier when installing Commerce Server 2007. Enjoy!

Hat Tip Wade Wegner

*Note you will want to have a USB Drive larger than 3gigs.

1. First format your USB drive in NTFS file system. You can do it by attaching your USB drive to your system and then format it from My Computer window.

2. Now open Command Prompt window from Start menu. Right-click on Command Prompt entry in start menu and select "Run as administrator" option.

3. Now type diskpart in Command Prompt window and press Enter. It’ll launch DiskPart program:

4. Now provide following command:

list volume

It’ll show a list of all drives in your system. Look for your USB drive entry. As in the below screenshot, the USB drive is "G" which you can determine from its "Type" entry.

Now you have to select the USB drive volume by providing select volume no. command. Since in our case volume no. of USB drive is "Volume 4", the command would be:

select volume 4

Now we have to make this drive active. So provide active command:

active

Now exit from DiskPart using exit command.

5. Now we need to create Boot sector on USB drive. We’ll use "bootsect.exe" utility for this task. You can find this utility in Windows Vista setup disk. It’ll be present in "Boot" directory.

Now provide following command in Command Prompt:

bootsect /nt60 G:

Here G is drive letter of USB drive. Replace it with the correct drive letter if your system has some other letter for USB drive.

6. At last, copy all files/folders from Vista Setup DVD to your USB drive and you have done.

Now you can boot using your USB drive and can install Windows Vista or Windows 7 on any system.

Happy Installing.

What is the “Shadow” command?  Lets for instance say you are using windows 2003 and want to gain screen(session) access to another users screen(session). Perhaps the person you are asking for shadow permission has an issue on his desktop and cannot figure it out.  Think Remote Desktop access without the Remote part.

To “Shadow” you have to know the session id of the user’s session that you want to view and or take over. This is done very easily. Right click on your taskbar and select task manager. Go to Users and pick the users name and the session number should be located to the left of the name.

Open up a command prompt(start->run in the open prompt type “cmd”) type:

Shadow 0(or the number of the session) and on the users session it will pop up a dialog box asking the other user for permission for you to access the screen(session).

Of course this can be denied from the other user. Frustrating? Yes.

Try this technique to gain that access you want without the permission of the other user or users.

To shadow any other session, without a prompt, you would use the RDP-TCP Properties dialog, on the Remote Control tab, and clear the require users permission box.

To remote control the console (session 0) without a prompt for approval:

1. On the Terminal Services server, Start / Run / Gpedit.msc / OK.

2. Navigate through Computer Configuration / Administrative templates / Windows Components / Terminal Services.

3. Right-click Remote Control Settings and press Properties.

4. Select the Enabled option.

5. Select Full Control without user’s permission, under Options.

6. Press OK.

7. Exit the Group Policy Editor.

8. To force this local policy to update now, open a CMD prompt, type gpupdate /force, and press Enter.

When you establish a Remote Desktop session, you can connect to the console and remote control it:

1. Open a CMD prompt.

2. Type Shadow 0 and press Enter.

The user will NOT be prompted for permission.

Sweet eh? Well this can be exploited and used in many wrong ways. So just be careful and use it wisely.

1. View high quality videos

Youtube gives you the option to switch to high quality videos for some of the videos, however you can check if a video is available in high quality format by appending ‘&fmt=18′(stereo, 480 x 270 resolution) or ‘&fmt=22′(stereo, 1280 x 720 resolution) for even higher quality.

2. Embed Higher Quality Videos

While the above trick works for playback, if however you want to embed hig quality videos you need to append “&ap=%2526fmt%3D18″ and “&ap=%2526fmt%3D22″ to the embed url.

3. Cut the chase and link to the interesting part

Linking to a video where the real action starts at 3 minutes 22 seconds, wondered if you could make it start at 03:22? You are in luck. All you have to do is add #t=03m22s (#t=XXmYYs for XX mins and YY seconds) to the end of the URL.

4. Hide the search box

The search box appears when you hover over an embedded video. To hide the search box add ‘&showsearch=0′ to the embed url.

5. Embed only a part of Video

Just append ‘&start=30′ to skip first 30s of the video. In general you can modify the value after start= to the number of seconds you want to skip the video for.

6. Autoplay an embedded video

Normally when you embed a Youtube video and load the page, the player is loaded and it sits there waiting for you to hit the play button. You can make the video play automatically by adding ‘&autoplay=1′ to the url part of the embed code.

7. Loop an embedded video

Append ‘&loop=1′ to make the video start again without user intervention after it reaches the end.

8. Disable Related Videos

Publishing your content in the form of Youtube video? Don’t want people to see other people’s content that may be related but may as well be in competition to you? Just add ‘&rel=0′ to the end of the url part of the embed code and you just turned off the related video suggestions!

9. Bypass Youtube Regional Filtering

Some videos are only available in certain parts of the world. Your IP Address is used to determine your location and then allow or deny access to the video. Change the url from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<somecode> to http://www.youtube.com/v/<somecode>

Did you however think great I have a way to backup the data and its working however my hard drives are filling up quickly. What do I do now?

Well you have options:

1. Backup Less often (this can make things a bit interesting if you are constantly changing files and you may lose critical info.)
2. Delete older backup files. (if your paranoid like me how far do you go back and delete backups?)
3. Backup your data to a outside source.

So I am going to talk about option 3.  We want to publish all the backups to a outside source. Well what source or applications are available?

There are a ton of great backup applications/services on the web. I decided to just reference a few:

Microsoft Skydrive

Amazon S3 and Jungle Disk

Carbonite

Mozy

Sugar Sync

Yes I have tested these applications/services. Here is the break down.

Microsoft Skydrive: 25gigs of Storage. No automatic backup and have to be signed in to upload. Web interface to upload only. Non Encrypted. Free

Amazon S3: Pay per Gig use. Only a service. To be able to interface the service you have to use 3rd party applications (Jungle Disk) to do your backup. Encrypted transfers. Pay.

Carbonite: Unlimited storage. Installs to your local c drive and you can drag and drop files. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan. *Used this service for 12months. Did not like the inflexibility of the service. Also after multiple emails asking if the data uploads and storage was encrypted. I was told in summary: Not to worry about what we do with your data. I promptly Canceled the service.

Mozy: Limited storage as of writing. A lot like carbonite. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan

SugarSync : Another Clone to Carbonite and Mozy. Non Encrypted. Monthly service plan.

So there is the run down on services. However some things you might consider because it is your data. Right?

-Auto Backup?

-Where is the Data really going?

-Who has permission to view your data?

-Availability?

-Encryption?

-Support?

-How to Restore?

In summary all these services are very good. It is hard to choose a service unless you really nitpick.

My personal choice after using all these services. Is amazon s3 and Jungle Disk. As a second backup I use SkyDrive and for stuff I want to just publish to the web I use Drop.io.

Why I use these services is partly out of habit. However I like the pricing schema of Amazon s3 and the ease of making the files stored there made public.

Your thoughts are always appreciated.

Things hang or people want their email better formatted. Or simply test out you spam messages you are going to blast before you well blast them.

Of course you run into issues like is my ports open correctly, is the SMTP server setup to block relaying? Has my domain been blacklisted from spamming?

These kind of questions are important. While I can’t fix the blacklisting domain issue the rest is well my night job.

However during the day I develop lots and lots of web code and sometimes and most often these applications need a way to contact people via email, txt and so forth.

Being behind a great firewall and sending test email can be a long and drawn out process. I found a  great application to do the SMTP testing for you inside you own localhost(127.0.0.1) Yes that is my localhost ip if you would like to “hack me” go ahead Ill wait.(if you don’t already know that is the IP of your pc).

PaperCut

This little app allows you to send SMTP messages without sending them anywhere.

Paper Cut is my favorite application for development. It allows me to debug the smtp messages without sending them to anyone.

Well fortunately there is a way. Couple of options.

My favorite is:

I started out using a cool little used utility called Synctoy and windows task manager to do the scheduled backup. Keep in mind I was using Windows XP Home with a login that had no password. Got all of the software installed. Created a task in the windows task manager (C:\windows\tasks).

Launching the Task Scheduler, right-click and select “Scheduled Task” in the menu again. Give a name to your work and then go to the properties of the task.
Launch the Task Scheduler and right click and select “Scheduled Task” in the menu bar. Type a name for your work and select the property of the task.
In the “Run” to the path of SyncToy, in the “Run As” – put what you want (one is advised).
In the “Run”, choose the path for SyncToy in the “Run as”.
Enter the parameters in the tabs “Planning”, “Settings” and “Security”.
Go back to the task tab and in the Run path, type : -R”test“.
Below will appear:
“C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToycmd.exe” -R”test”
Be careful, there must be a space between the –R and the phrase as well as at end.

*Note: You need to have a password setup for this task or any task to run.

Tools that are included in your install of the Windows Operating System:

———————————————————————————————————————

Windows XP Home/XP:

Installing the Ntbackup.msi for Windows XP Home or Pro.

how to install Backup from the Windows XP Home Edition CD-ROM. The Backup utility helps you protect your data if your hard disk stops working or your files are accidentally erased. With Backup, you can create a copy of all the data on your hard disk, and then archive it on another storage device, such as a removable hard disk or a tape. The Backup utility is not included in the default installation of Windows XP Home Edition. Therefore, to use Backup, you have to install it manually.

Manually install the Backup utility.

Download it if you don’t want to extract it.

• Drop.io
• Skydrive

To manually install Backup, follow these steps:

1. Put the Windows XP Home Edition CD in the CD Drive.
2. Double-click the Ntbackup.msi file in the following location to start a wizard that installs Backup:CD drive:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP
3. When the installation wizard is finished, click Finish.

If the wizard completed the installation, the program was successfully installed and you can now use the Backup utility.

XP Home has issues with doing any backups what so ever. The features are obviously very handicapped. I would then use the SyncToy method previously mentioned.

The Automated System Recovery feature of the Backup utility is not a supported feature in Windows XP Home Edition. However, Backup is provided on the CD-ROM as an additional value to help you back up important system data. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

302700 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302700/ ) An Error Message Is Displayed When You Attempt to Use the Automated System Recovery Wizard

of course this makes it difficult to use backed up files to recover files.

Windows Vista:

Scheduling a regular Complete PC Backup is one way to ensure you have recent images of your entire computer.

Complete PC Backup is not schedulable through the control panel, but you can work around this by creating a new task in the Task Scheduler.

If you choose to schedule Complete PC Backups, I advise periodic monitoring to verify that backups completed successfully. Why is this necessary? Because this method doesn’t notify you via a pop-up if the backups fail due to disk space issues or other transient problems. This should not be considered a replacement for using File Backup on a regular basis. That said, here’s how you can use Task Scheduler to schedule Complete PC Backup:

1. Go to Task Scheduler (which you’ll find in the Accessories\System Tools folder in the All Programs portion of your Start menu).
2. Click Create Task.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. Type a descriptive name, such as Scheduled Complete PC Backup.
5. If you want the task to run regardless of whether you’re logged on, click Run whether user is logged on or not.
6. Click Run with highest privileges.
7. Go to the Triggers page.
8. Click New and then specify when and how often the scheduled backup will take place.
9. Go to the Actions page.
10. Click New.
11. Under Program/Script, type wbadmin.
12. In Add arguments (optional), type the following command, adjusting the target drive letter as necessary:
Copy Code

Start backup –allcritical –backupTarget:D: -quiet

If you want to include additional volumes that are not the system, boot, or Windows Recovery Environment volumes, use the following statement instead, substituting the appropriate drive letters (separated by commas) for E and F:
Copy Code

Start backup –allcritical –backupTarget:D: -include:E:,F: -quiet

Note that the command should always include the allcritical flag. Not having this flag risks excluding important system volumes from the backup, which would lead to failure during restore.
13. Configure any other task-related settings.
14. Click OK.

According to Wikipedia.org

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve upon and replace GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) as an image-file format not requiring a patent license. It is pronounced /ˈpɪŋ/ ^[1] or spelled out as P-N-G. The PNG acronym is optionally recursive, unofficially standing for “PNG’s Not GIF”.^[2]

PNG supports palette-based (palettes of 24-bit RGB colors), greyscale or RGB images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics, and so does not support other color spaces (such as CMYK).

PNG files nearly always use file-extension "PNG" or "png" and are assigned MIME media type "image/png"

So in being a web developer I have little tweaks and special tools to help me stay sane and keep web pages loading quick .

Joe Levi had shown me a great little tool for optimizing your .png’s called pngcrush (http://pmt.sourceforge.net/pngcrush/). Of course this was back when I was using windows XP sp2 (cause we all know sp2 was another operating system within the original XP OS) so changing the context menu was much more simple and fun. However it was a 10 minute project to come up with a way to put "CrushthatfunkyPNG" in the right click context menu. So I will share it so maybe my wasted 10minutes with be 1 minute for you. Here Goes:

First download the latest version of  PNGCrush;

Second extract the exe and where you want it to live; ie(C:\Program Files\PNGCrush)

Now for some registry tom foolery(Hacking):

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\CrushthatfunkyPNG]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\CrushthatfunkyPNG\Command]
Modify the Command key to be this exactly including the quotes:

"C:\Program Files\PNGCrush\pngcrush-1.5.10-win32.exe" -fix -reduce -brute -d compressed "%1"

And now a pretty little png crushing app in your windows vista context menu.

Another hint if you would like to add any other programs to your context menu this works the same way.

Thanks to Joe Levi / Neilturner  for the idea.

A list of the first 100 web site domains ever registered.

1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985
2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985
3. think.com: May 24, 1985
4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985
5. dec.com: Sept. 30, 1985
6. northrop.com: Nov. 7, 1985
7. xerox.com: Jan. 9, 1986
8. sri.com: Jan. 17, 1986
9. hp.com: March 3, 1986
10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986
11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986
12. sun.com: March 19, 1986
13. intel.com: March 25, 1986
14. ti.com: March 25, 1986
15. att.com: April 25, 1986
16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986
17. tek.com: May 8, 1986
18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986
19. ub.com: July 10, 1986
20. bell-atl.com: Aug. 5, 1986
21. ge.com: Aug. 5, 1986
22. grebyn.com: Aug. 5, 1986
23. isc.com: Aug. 5, 1986
24. nsc.com: Aug. 5, 1986
25. stargate.com: Aug. 5, 1986
26. boeing.com: Sept. 2, 1986
27. itcorp.com: Sept. 18, 1986
28. siemens.com: Sept. 29, 1986
29. pyramid.com: Oct. 18, 1986
30. alphacdc.com: Oct. 27, 1986
31. bdm.com: Oct. 27, 1986
32. fluke.com: Oct. 27, 1986
33. inmet.com: Oct. 27, 1986
34. kesmai.com: Oct. 27, 1986
35. mentor.com: Oct. 27, 1986
36. nec.com: Oct. 27, 1986
37. ray.com: Oct. 27, 1986
38. rosemount.com: Oct. 27, 1986
39. vortex.com: Oct. 27, 1986
40. alcoa.com: Nov. 5, 1986
41. gte.com: Nov. 5, 1986
42. adobe.com: Nov. 17, 1986
43. amd.com: Nov. 17, 1986
44. das.com: Nov. 17, 1986
45. data-io.com: Nov. 17, 1986
46. octopus.com: Nov. 17, 1986
47. portal.com: Nov. 17, 1986
48. teltone.com: Nov. 17, 1986
49. 3com.com: Dec. 11, 1986
50. amdahl.com: Dec. 11, 1986
51. ccur.com: Dec. 11, 1986
52. ci.com: Dec. 11, 1986
53. convergent.com: Dec. 11, 1986
54. dg.com: Dec. 11, 1986
55. peregrine.com: Dec. 11, 1986
56. quad.com: Dec. 11, 1986
57. sq.com: Dec. 11, 1986
58. tandy.com: Dec. 11, 1986
59. tti.com: Dec. 11, 1986
60. unisys.com: Dec. 11, 1986
61. cgi.com: Jan. 19, 1987
62. cts.com: Jan. 19, 1987
63. spdcc.com: Jan. 19, 1987
64. apple.com: Feb. 19, 1987
65. nma.com: March 4, 1987
66. prime.com: March 4, 1987
67. philips.com: April 4, 1987
68. datacube.com: April 23, 1987
69. kai.com: April 23, 1987
70. tic.com: April 23, 1987
71. vine.com: April 23, 1987
72. ncr.com: April 30, 1987
73. cisco.com: May 14, 1987
74. rdl.com: May 14, 1987
75. slb.com: May 20, 1987
76. parcplace.com: May 27, 1987
77. utc.com: May 27, 1987
78. ide.com: June 26, 1987
79. trw.com: July 9, 1987
80. unipress.com: July 13, 1987
81. dupont.com: July 27, 1987
82. lockheed.com: July 27, 1987
83. rosetta.com: July 28, 1987
84. toad.com: Aug. 18, 1987
85. quick.com: Aug. 31, 1987
86. allied.com: Sept. 3, 1987
87. dsc.com: Sept. 3, 1987
88. sco.com: Sept. 3, 1987
89. gene.com: Sept. 22, 1987
90. kccs.com: Sept. 22, 1987
91. spectra.com: Sept. 22, 1987
92. wlk.com: Sept. 22, 1987
93. mentat.com: Sept. 30, 1987
94. wyse.com: Oct. 14, 1987
95. cfg.com: Nov. 2, 1987
96. marble.com: Nov. 9, 1987
97. cayman.com: Nov. 16, 1987
98. entity.com: Nov. 16, 1987
99. ksr.com: Nov. 24, 1987
100. nynexst.com: Nov. 30, 1987

Notice there is no microsoft.com or google.com.

Can you name how many of these domains still exist or are owned by the originating company?

Here is how my network is configured.

Yes I am running DSL to a T-Mobile @Home VIOP box. As well as a Belkin Wireless N Mimo Router.

So when Qwest and T-mobile ask what the config looks like. Here it is.

Adobe reader will talk to you check it out.

Stop reading PDF and start listening.
Here is how to listen from a pdf.
You can listen/Audible to any PDF /word instead of reading with Adobe
Reader 7 .0 Or 6.0, and the short cut is:
Ctrl+shift+b – to hear the entire Document
Ctrl+shift+v – to hear the page
Ctrl+shift+c – to resume
Ctrl+shift+e – to stop
Open any PDF File and test. Sweet. Perhaps that’s why the adobe reader is so bloated.

I have been editing flat file databases as well as old ini files for ever and a day. Trying to squeeze the better performance or squeak out a edit that one of the windows teams forgot to get rid of in a build of the windows operating system that gives more enhanced features to well everything.

Since XML has been taken on not only configuration as well as data access strings it makes it perfect for fast editing and multiple platforms can understand the format.

In fact if you go to any web development conference you cannot escape the REST or XML interfaces when pulling in data from other sites. In fact if you followed me during MIX08 you would see all the great mashing you can do.

Its almost sickening when I come across a XML file that I must see what is inside.

So here are just two of my more favorite XML viewers.

Notepad2 <-I know I have pimped this a lot.

XMLVisualizer <-Ever need to do a deep tag edit you need to use this.

These are two free tools I use on a constant basis. If you see or know of better let me know.

Many of us (talking about Americans) have been used to things like recessions as well as down markets. We usually ride them out by tightening up our budgets spending cautious and wait for some type of revolution.

The small revolution that happened after or during the Tech bubble in 2000 was the housing market got red hot even on fire.

People were purchasing homes they couldn’t afford and driving the stake of our issues into the economic heart of the problem now.

People became more and more greedy and wanted more. CEO’s became rock stars. We paid tons of money to be entertained and we didn’t care about what would happen tomorrow.

I liken it to the story of Pinocchio when all the kids go to the fantasy island and play have fun and do what ever and what ever they pleased without being responsible for anything.

We as a society have become accustomed to doing whatever we please as we go buy electronics, toys and cars and just throw them away. No wonder predatory banks and scammers became so rampant. I know how many people fell for the investor properties and had life savings just washed away because of the fast dollar. Fast dollar is usually as it says “Easy come, Easy go”.

So here we are. We have made all these mistakes due to pride and greed. We don’t save for the future cause as doctor Phil said “there is always more money to be made”. What happens when there is no money and everyone is afraid to spend any money?

I still am kicking myself for not listening to leaders of my church and those like Dave Ramsey saying “Save, Save, Save!” Something like hey there is a big storm brewing and prepare for the seven years of feast and of famine.

So again what is the answer? Our leaders are spending a ton of our future money and the banks are absorbing and still falling behind with the bad loans. Who do we hang?

The only revolution left that can solve our issues is the savings revolution going back and learning from our past. Saving and not using credit for everything. That is a very slow recovery since jobs are so much on the decline and there seems to be a dark mist of depression hanging over the balance of those hoping.

What saddens me the most is good people are being left destitute and homeless. With really great skills. Tons to offer and no need for them.

Anyone can lose their job as has happened to a good amount of friends of mine. Repo-men are knocking on doors. Foreclosures are looming. Banks are failing.

The question is hanging in the balance… What Happens Next?