This blog has moved, and is now available here: http://justinho.com/blog/

The RSS feed is available at http://justinho.com/feed/

There will be no new posts at this new location.

 

Symptoms:

Some of my users are unable to change their passwords via OWA on Exchange 2007 on Server 2008.  My DCs are running Server 2003.

 

Argh.

 

Since most ISPs block unencrypted SMTP (tcp port 25) outbound connections, I've configured my managed mobile clients to connect to my mail server on port 465 (SMTPS) and use TLS to authenticate to "phone home".

This allows these clients, even on untrusted client IP segments to authenticate over a secure connection, and deliver email as to their current whereabouts (IP address.)

First, configure RemotelyAnywhere to use port 465, and force TLS/SSL.  (Obviously, you'll have to provide a username/password etc. here.)  I created a dedicated mailbox/user for this purpose.

Next, on the Edge Transport machine, create a new receive connector for port 465.  You'll have to rearrange your existing connector(s) to ensure there's no port/scope overlap:

• Edge Transport
• New Receive Connector
• port 465, enable TLS
• Allow exchange users ONLY
• In the Shell: Get-ReceiveConnector server\connector | add-adpermission -user USERNAME -extendedrights ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Sender

Replace USERNAME with the dedicated user.  Replace server\connector with the identity of the connector.  To get the name, do "Get-ReceiveConnector" by itself, and pick the appropriate entry.  Note that this will force the Exchange Edge server to permit ONLY current Exchange Users (ie. not anonymous/unauthenticated users) to submit mail via SMTPS on port 465.

So now, I have machines that can check their local IPs every X minutes, open a secure connection to my email server, and send an email with its current IP address, on any internet connection that permits tcp port 465 (SMTPS) outbound.

 

Installing the Hyper-V RC0 update for Windows Server 2008 rendered my virtual machines unable to connect to the network.

I installed the hypervisor - Hyper-V RC0 build today.  After rebooting, my network configuration would not function.  I was unable to add an External network and bind it to the NIC successfully.

I'm running Windows Server 2008 RTM x64, and I had the beta (in-box) Hyper-V code running with virtual machines.  My physical machine has two onboard NICs; one was dedicated for the host, and the other was for the virtual machines.

So I removed the HyperV role, and rebooted the box.

The box hung like this.  I power cycled it, which restored service.  The configuration was "resumed" and the role was successfully removed, with an error.  Unfortunately, the Virtual Switches stayed in Network Connections.  I then reattempted install of the Hyper-V role.  This completed, but with an error: it wasn't able to set up the networking components.

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Network-Admin
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Network
Event ID:      14070
Level:         Error
User:          SYSTEM
Description:
Switch set up failed, name='6d861a9b-39ef-4d01-a181-e163e5a21908', external port='f6400f7a-0dea-4b1f-bf91-3a78b00092f5', internal port='30b4be1c-5c03-48a6-84ed-7f590a3ffae7', NIC='{506E5818-0E27-4E13-8835-DDC8B7393D36}', internal name='9e3e1874-09ab-423b-904e-75420369499f', internal friendly name='New Virtual Network', error=2147749889, mof code=0.
Event Xml:
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Network" Guid="{0a18ff18-5362-4739-9671-78023d747b70}" />
    <EventID>14070</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <EventRecordID>88</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="1088" ThreadID="1196" />
    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Hyper-V-Network-Admin</Channel>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
  </System>
  <UserData>
      <Switch>6d861a9b-39ef-4d01-a181-e163e5a21908</Switch>
      <ExternalPortName>f6400f7a-0dea-4b1f-bf91-3a78b00092f5</ExternalPortName>
      <InternalPortName>30b4be1c-5c03-48a6-84ed-7f590a3ffae7</InternalPortName>
      <NIC>{506E5818-0E27-4E13-8835-DDC8B7393D36}</NIC>
      <InternalName>9e3e1874-09ab-423b-904e-75420369499f</InternalName>
      <InternalFriendlyName>New Virtual Network</InternalFriendlyName>
      <Error>2147749889</Error>
      <MofCode>0</MofCode>
    </NvspSwitchSetupError>
  </UserData>
</Event>

I've posted to some MSDN blogs' comments... but I doubt I'll hear back.

So now, I have no Hyper-V machines running anymore, and I can't get rid of the Virtual Network Switches.  I have heard from some people that manually removing the entries in the registry for the NICs will cause everything to "blow up".  I'm unable to delete the Virtual Switches in Network Connections, or in Device Manager.

My physical box has production workloads on it, so I can't blast it away.  Since the "finish line is in sight," I was kind of hoping that these kinds of things wouldn't happen, especially since they shipped the beta I was running inbox with the RTM code.

I can't find any evidence of Hyper-V on Connect, so there doesn't appear to be a way to report this.

Advice:

I would suggest that you remove not only the machines, but also the virtual networks, AND the Hyper-V role, before applying the update for Hyper-V RC0.  Then reinstall the role to make sure things are cleanly in place.

Further reading:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949222/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949219

 

It took me around a day to notice... but after I installed IE8 beta, all my RSS feeds from my "Common Feed List" stopped updating.

As a result, a few things have happened/I have noticed several things:

• Outlook 2007's RSS folder deletion sucks.  I created a "temp" folder, and dragged all my old folders into the temp folder, then deleted the whole temp folder.  Result of design by committee: Your product sucks at very simple tasks because not all use cases end up being included.
• RSS feeds are background noise.  And after a day or so, I "miss" the noise.  Makes me wonder if I should be spending more time on important things instead of reading all this "news".  RSS feeds are a form of noise pollution in my life.
• I manually re-added the 8 or so feeds that I actually need, into Outlook 2007.  Reddit and Digg are both cut, due to the poor signal to noise ratio.
• IE8 opens a lot more connections - and loads sites faster.  Also mentioned here: http://www.ajaxperformance.com/2008/03/07/ie8-the-performance-implications/
• Outlook 2007's RSS functionality is... decent... but still leaves much to be desired.  I have 3 machines, each with Outlook on them against my Exchange server.  This means that most of my RSS feeds come in THREE times over.  Who decided THAT would be a good idea?  The committee did.

 

 

I downloaded the nightly trunk of VLC 0.90 on Win32 today.

I've only used it for about 10 minutes, but:

• New privacy warnings - good idea
• Volume goes up to 200% - nice
• The UI has some strange artifacts, but is easy to use
• The preferences window is usable!
• Dragging files from UNC \\server\share\filename causes VLC to crash

 

 

 

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to email users at Yahoo.com.  Their MTAs continuously reject email I send:

421 Message from (209.161.207.163) temporarily deferred - 4.16.50.
Please refer to http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/defer/defer-06.html

I've already put in reverse DNS entries, so cairo.justinho.com <--> 209.161.207.163 both resolve, whichever way you try.

I'm not even sending spam.  I'm trying to send emails to friends or responding to friends' emails.  I had a Craig's List post a few days ago - and I was responding to a Yahoo user.  But it's no use - I still can't email Yahoo.com users.

I've contacted Yahoo tech support lots of times.  I've requested to be "unblocked" - heck, I've even filled out their form.

Why is it that I somehow need Yahoo's permission to send email to their users?  Why do they even NEED my contact information?  Two weeks since sending all this information they wanted, I STILL can't email @yahoo.com email addresses.

This is ludicrous.  If you are a Yahoo.com user, I strongly suggest you get an email account at another provider.

Applying for Permission to Email Yahoo.com Addresses

1. Please provide all ACTIVE IP addresses you are currently using to send mail.
2. Do you have a dedicated IP address or do you use a shared mail server/IP address (i.e., the mail server/IP address is hosted by a service provider and is also being used by organizations other than your own)? If you use a shared server, please specify which service provider you use.
3. Please indicate all types of email being sent from the servers above, e.g., personal/corporate emails, transactional mailings, mailing list postings, marketing messages, newsletters? (Indicate which IP sends which type of mail, if applicable.)
4. If you send periodic or subscription-based mailings, please indicate the means by which a user is signed up for your subscription list. 
   1. Do you take any steps to confirm that the subscription is valid, or was initiated by the true owner of the email address?
5. How many subscribers do you currently have? And approximately how many emails do you send on a monthly basis?
6. Do you remove email addresses from mailing list if emails to them bounce--i.e., for soft (4xx) and hard (5xx) SMTP response codes?
   1. If yes, how many bounced emails are required before you consider an email address to be inactive and subject to removal from your list?
7. How long does it typically take for an email address to be removed from your list once an unsubscribe request has been received?
8. Please provide the URL of your web site, including the links to your Privacy Policy, Affiliate Policy, and/or Terms of Use pages, if available.
9. Please copy and paste a text-only example of a recent mailing, including the full Internet headers. Or, include the entire error message you're seeing in your SMTP logs if email is being deferred or blocked.
10. Where possible, Yahoo! uses DomainKeys to determine the original sender of a message. Do you plan to or currently use DomainKeys to authenticate your mailings?
11. Please provide the following contact information:  Company name, Contact information, Postal Address, Email address

When was the last time you applied for permission to send email to someone?

 

Background:

I'm running Exchange 2007 SP1 with UR1 on Windows Server 2008 x64.

Problem:

The UI seems to have a few bugs in it.

I opened:

• Microsoft Exchange Management Console
• Organization Configuration
• Hub Transport
• New Remote Domain...
• Double click on new Remote Domain... (Properties window)

Weird:

 

• The title of the tab looks wrong
• "sender's" has a strange character in it

 

Whoa.  New feature in my Lenovo Screen Magnifier.  (At least, a new ADVERTISED feature.)

 

In the name of "accessibility", I think this feature is actually more useful than the buttons in Windows / OS X / most shells, as it allows you to use your secondary monitor in a way that is more difficult otherwise: dragging and then maximizing a window on a second screen.

Cool.  A free software upgrade of a utility that actually does something "novel".

 

Abstract:

Windows Server 2008 introduces a DNS block feature that may affect the ISA Server automatic discovery mechanism when implementing WPAD using a Windows Server 2008 DNS Server.  Therefore, additional configuration steps are necessary to get WPAD to work, when clients are running against a 2008 DNS server.

Details:

The block feature provides a global query block list to reduce vulnerability associated with dynamic DNS updates. Dynamic update makes it possible for DNS client computers to register and dynamically update their resource records with a DNS server whenever a client changes its network address or host name.  This reduces the need for manual administration of zone records, especially for clients that frequently move or change locations and use DHCP to obtain an IP address. This convenience comes at a cost, however, because an authorized client can register any unused host name, even a host name that might have special significance for certain applications. This can allow a malicious user to "hijack" a special name and divert certain types of network traffic to that user's computer. WPAD is a commonly deployed protocol vulnerable to this type of hijacking, and by default WPAD look up is disabled by the blocking mechanism.

If you want to use WPAD with a Windows Server 2008 DNS, note the following behavior:

• If WPAD entries are configured in DNS before the DNS server is upgraded to Windows Server 2008, no action is required.
• If you configure or remove WPAD after you deploy the DNS server role on a server running Windows Server 2008, you must update the block list on all DNS servers that host the zones affected by the change. The affected zones are those where you registered the WPAD servers.
• To update the block list, use the dnscmd command-line tool. Open a command line prompt, and do the following:
• To check whether the global query block is enabled, type:
  dnscmd /info /enableglobalqueryblocklist. A value of 1 is returned if the block list is enabled.
• To display the host names in the current block list, type:
  dnscmd /info /globalqueryblocklist
• To disable the block list and ensure that the DNS Server service does not ignore queries for names in the block list, type:
  dnscmd /config /enableglobalqueryblocklist 0
• To remove all names from the block list, type:
  dnscmd /config /globalqueryblocklist

Further reading:

   "DNS Server Global Query Block List" from TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/bb629410.aspx.

Source:

http://blogs.technet.com/isablog/archive/2008/02/19/windows-server-2008-dns-block-feature.aspx

 

Abstract:

Even with Exchange 2007 SP1 installed, some users are still unable to edit rules in Outlook Web Access (OWA).  The problem appears to be caused by rules that are present that OWA cannot handle; removing the problematic rules appears to restore access.  The logging is quite poor as the UI doesn't really provide any reason for the failure.

Potential Causes:

• Remove any rules that contain "and stop processing more rules"
• Remove any rules that contain "clear message's categories"

 

• Rules that have the toolset icon next to them, as above, are not editable in OWA.
• First log on in OWA after mailbox is moved may result in rules not being editable.  Log off and log back on.
• Ensure Rules are Enabled in Exchange System Manager (Server Configuration, Client Access, Right click on OWA directory, Properties, Segmentation tab)

 

Abstract:

My quest to eliminate the Dell CERC 1.5/6ch SATA (due to its poor performance) from my production environment has been a long one as I opted to wait for Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007 before migrating to my 3Ware card.  This post contains a summary of all the issues I encounter, and will be updated as I proceed.

Solutions:

• Backup headaches - Setting up Exchange 2007 to back up on a Windows 2008 Server:
  "Exchange 2007 Aware Backups on Windows Server 2008"
  http://blog.justinho.com/2008/03/10/Exchange2007AwareBackupsOnWindowsServer2008.aspx
• CAS problems with RPC proxy - Some tweaks are necessary to get Outlook Anywhere to work with Exchange 2007 on Server 2008
  "Outlook Anywhere RPC over HTTPS Proxy on Windows Server 2008 Fails to Communicate with Exchange 2007"
  http://blog.justinho.com/2008/03/10/OutlookAnywhereRPCOverHTTPSProxyOnWindowsServer2008FailsToCommunicateWithExchange2007.aspx
• More to come...

 

 

Abstract:

Outlook Anywhere may not work properly on a Windows Server 2008 machine with Exchange 2007.  The DSAccess RPC proxy listens on ports 6001 and 6002 on the IPv6 stack, and listens on ports 6001, 6002, and 6004 on IPv4.  The missing listener on port 6004 causes connectivity to fail.
A workaround exists and is documented which gets this working, regardless of where the RPC proxy is installed (on the Exchange box, or otherwise.)

Details:

If your RPC proxy is on 2008, but not on the same box as Exchange 2007, remove the IPv6 binding to force the proxy to communicate with Exchange on IPv4.

Otherwise, modify your host file, as per: http://weblog.bassq.nl/?p=79

• Comment out the line “:::1 localhost”
• Add the following two lines:
  <IPv4 address> <hostname of the computer>
  <IPv4 address> <FQDN of the computer>

So, for my server, I have:
10.0.0.5 servername
10.0.0.5 servername.subdomain.domain.com

To confirm functionality:

Open telnet to localhost 6004

Sources:
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2975122&SiteID=17

 

Abstract:

Exchange 2007 SP1 on Server 2008 can't back up using in-box tools.  Either use DPM, or a 3rd party tool ($$$), or hack NTBackup to run on 2008 Server.  A workaround/hack is provided that allows NTBackup to run on Server 2008 x64 with Exchange 2007 SP1.

Background:

The Exchange Team Blog has the following text:

Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows Server 2008 does not include a backup utility that supports the Exchange ESE streaming backup APIs. The Windows 2008 backup application, Windows Server Backup, cannot be used to take backups of Exchange.

Exchange still includes the ESE streaming backup APIs, but the absence of an Exchange-aware backup application in Windows may come as a surprise to many. Another change we made that may also affect you is the removal of remote streaming backup support on Windows 2008.

This leaves you with two choices for taking Exchange-aware online backups when running Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows 2008:

1. Move to a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)-based backup application. You can use Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 or a third-party backup application that supports Exchange-aware VSS-based backups of Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008. Windows Server Backup in Windows 2008 is a VSS-based backup application, but it does not include a VSS requestor for Exchange, which is a necessary component in order to use VSS to take an Exchange-aware backup.
2. Use a Third-Party application that supports ESE streaming backups using a local backup agent on the Exchange server. Because the ESE streaming APIs remain in Exchange 2007, you can still use them to backup Exchange. But to do that, you must use a third-party backup application that runs a local agent on the Exchange server so that the streaming backup is made locally, and not remotely. You cannot take remote streaming backups of Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows 2008 with or without a third-party product. Any streaming backups that are performed must be performed locally on the Exchange server.

Annoyances and anger aside, NTBackup (the old utility) can be made to run on Server 2008.  I found this: http://cs.thefoleyhouse.co.uk/blogs/karl/archive/2008/02/10/how-to-backup-exchange-2007-on-server-2008.aspx

To Install and use NTBackup on a Server 2008 Machine to Backup Exchange 2007 SP1:

1. Install NTBackup, as per http://www.petri.co.il/installing_windows_xp_ntbackup_on_windows_vista.htm
   1. Copy these files from a 2003 server (C:\Windows\System32\) to Server 2008 (C:\Program Files\NTBackup\):
      1. ntbackup.exe
      2. ntmsapi.dll
      3. vssapi.dll
2. Install the Removable Storage Manager from Server Manager.  (Features, Add Features, Removable Storage Manager.)
3. Copy Exchange DLLs to access Exchange (as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/275876).  You need to copy esebcli2.dll from 2003 (C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin) to 2008 (C:\Program Files\NTBackup)
4. Run regedit and change the esebcli2 key from C:\Program Files\Micrsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\esebcli2.dll to C:\Program Files\NTBackup\esebcli2.dll

Discussion:

I would seem that several product groups at Microsoft have failed to do comprehensive use-case analyses of customer requirements.  This has happened with Vista (poor file copy performance, poor video card gaming performance, 4GB RAM BSOD with RTM, to name a few), and with Exchange 2007 (Exporting to PST in 2007 requires a 32-bit box, Server 2008 CAS does not work properly with single server deployments since DSAccess fails to listen on the IPv6 on port 6004, and Server 2008 does not provide an in-box backup solution for Exchange 2007.)

 

Summary:

The latest firmware/drivers (February 2008 beta) with 3Ware 9650SE (8LP) and Windows Server 2008 do not get along.  The system gets to the boot screen with the progress indicator, then locks up.

The problem is resolved with older firmware version 9.4.0.1 with bootloader 3.05.00.002, using the latest beta drivers (3wareDrv.sys is version 3.0.3.108).  I have Windows Server 2008 Enterprise running now.

Workarounds:

1. (March 20th 2008) Use the latest in-engineering firmware and drivers, as per http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14928
   Firmware 3.08.00.022 or newer should be compatible, when using the driver 3.0.3.108.
2. (March 2nd 2008) Downgrade the firmware.  Download firmware/bootloader: http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=15103 (older firmware 9.4.0.1 with bootloader 3.05.00.002)
   Drivers: http://www.3ware.com/download/productseng/Driver/windrv_x64.zip (I'm using 3wareDrv.sys, version 3.0.3.108)

Known Issues:

• Back up your RAID containers before downgrading - I had some weird errors.  I ended up nuking my RAID containers, then recreating them.
• I'm running the latest management utilities - no problems so far.

Details:

January 13th 2008

I have a Tyan FT48 with a quad core Xeon E5335.  I moved my 3Ware 9650SE (8LP) over to it this afternoon to do a Windows Server 2008 RC (Hyper V) install and discovered that the drivers provided for 3Ware are non-functional with Server 2008.  The system hangs at start up, at the Server 2008 boot up screen.  The green progress indicator locks up.

This is also happening with a 9550SX on a different system.  But just to be safe: The system BIOS is the latest available, 2.00b, from Tyan.

The 3Ware 9.5.0 production driver, and the in-engineering drivers have been tested.
Both cards have been updated to the latest firmware.

http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14928 is not very helpful.  Has anyone tried the 9650SE with Vista?  Any boot problems?

My server remains on Server 2003 R2 x64 until this issue is resolved.  I'm disappointed that 3Ware doesn't have functioning drivers, still.

January 15th 2008

My email to 3Ware was promptly replied to. They've sent me updated drivers, soon to be posted on their website under "In Engineering", I'm told.  Bypassing the signature requirement is still necessary at this point, via http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14928 I'm told.

I will get these tested the coming weekend.

February 2nd 2008

I got the 2008 RTM bits off Connect today - and I'll try to find some time to get this tested this coming weekend, using the latest engineering drivers.

February 6th 2008

I'm not checking the 3ware KB daily at http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14928 , but some more 'information' has been posted: 64-bit Vista/Windows 2008 support is not currently available.  A firmware upgrade for the 9550SX(U)/9590SE/9650SE is required.  This will be officially supported with the 9.5.1 code set (due out August 2008), but a beta version will be posted to the 'In Engineering Phase' section of the 3ware web site soon (February 2008).

Later this month?  This is surely a problem that became obvious in earlier builds.  Perhaps I will dig up some older beta builds of 2008 that I have, and test.  I'm curious as to why they've done so little.  I'm very disappointed.

February 6th 2008 (again)

3Ware says they found the current bug last week (week of January 28th.)  They say they should have updated code by the end of this week (week of February 4th) and testing will be done next week (week of February 11th).  I'm told the code will be posted to the "in-engineering" section the week after (week of February 18th).

Pretty disappointing.  But at least they respond to emails, with real answers, unlike Adaptec.

February 26th 2008

Tried this past weekend with latest beta firmware on the 9650SE with the latest driver.  No boot.  Argh.

March 2nd 2008

Success!  I booted from a Windows 98SE floppy, and flashed my 9650SE (8LP) to 9.4.0.1 with bootloader 3.05.00.002 from http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=15103 .
My RAID containers were a bit wonky in the BIOS after, so make sure you do a complete backup of your RAID containers first.  I ended up re-creating the containers - and everything seems functional, so far.  Using that firmware and bootloader, coupled with the latest beta driver (3wareDrv.sys is version 3.0.3.108) I'm able to get Windows Server 2008 x64 RTM booting.

Thank you to the person who left the comment!  I have contacted 3Ware support, and they have updated the KB article to reflect this workaround.

 

Background:

I run Vista Ultimate x64 (64-bit).

Message:

When I open the Windows Photo Gallery, I am told that, "An Update to Windows Photo Gallery is Available".

Sure.  Sounds good to me.    If I choose to download the update, I'm directed to a Canon page, which looks like this:

Discussion:

So the 64-bit version is not supported.  Lovely.  Someone botched the 3rd party software integration.

If the app was written in-house, then it would already have been ported to 64-bit, be localization-ready, undergone a security review, etc. Because those are basic ground rules for coding at Microsoft.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/02/25/7885570.aspx

 

Background:

I have two Intel Xeon P4 Xeon servers.  The clock speed on both is 2.8GHz.

Problem:

Everything takes an eternity on them.  They're so slow.  And they do nothing but generate heat.

and a quick peek inside Task Manager on this particular machine shows:

 

Yup.  A massive amount of physical memory (6GB) that is sitting there, waiting to be used.

NetBurst was something that never should have happened.  AMD was around to make them realise that - and now we're being shipped lots of P3 cores on a die.

Meanwhile, I have a significant portion of my infrastructure that is, essentially, useless.  Perhaps it contributes to global warming by wasting lots of electricity, but Intel should have to deal with this.  Take back old P4 and Xeon processors and replace them with a new Core-based Celery or E2XXX series processor or something.

*sigh*  Unnecessary downtime.

 

What is PowerGUI?

PowerGUI is an extensible graphical administrative console for managing systems based on Windows PowerShell. These include Windows OS (XP, 2003, Vista), Exchange 2007, Operations Manager 2007 and other new systems from Microsoft. The tool allows to use the rich capabilities of Windows PowerShell in a familiar and intuitive GUI console.

How much does it cost and is registration required?

PowerGUI is a freeware product thanks to the support we are getting from Quest Software. You can download the product and access all information on this site absolutely for free and without any registration or login. You will have to register only if you want to post information to the discussion forums or library, or subscribe to notifications by email (RSS subscription does not require registration.)

What are the system requirements?

The main system requirement is Windows PowerShell (which in its turn requires .net framework 2.0). If you don't have this installed on your computer PowerGUI setup will detect that and open a web page from which the system can be downloaded. In terms of operating systems we support Windows XP, 2003, Vista, and Longhorn; both 32- and 64-bit. Particular snapins may add their specific system requirements. For example the Exchange 2007 snapin we ship today naturally requires Exchange 2007 or its administrative tools.

What can I do with PowerGUI?

Pretty much anything that the underlying system permits. You can browse through the system, filter/sort what you get, select the columns, perform actions on selected objects, change their properties, export data to clipboard, Excel, xml, or just html reports, and much more. And if you don't believe this is all being done by Windows PowerShell just switch to another tab and you'll see the PowerShell code behind what you've been doing.

Download: http://powergui.org/downloads.jspa

 

Robert McMurray: Earlier today Microsoft released the RTM version of the Microsoft FTP Service for IIS 7.0 for Windows Server 2008!

Listed below are the links for the download pages for each of the individual installation packages:

FTP 7 (x86) Installation Package
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1619

FTP 7 (x64) Installation Package
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&i=1620&g=6

 

We've all seen it happen. Two servers are configured the same way, but suddenly, one of them stops working. The content is same, everything looks right, but one server is exhibiting unusual behavior. You could try to take the config from the working server and overwrite the broken one. But that won't tell you what happened, nor if it might happen again.

There's also the case where you only have one server, which suddenly breaks. Restoring from backup if you have one or manually sifting through config might be your only option. But often the problem isn't easy to spot and backups take time and effort to restore.

Enter MS Deploy. You can compare two live sites, a site with an archive, or compare two archives. In this case, I'll show you comparison of a live web site and an archive. An archive is like a snapshot of a site or server at a given point in time. When you take the archive, you may be doing it for a manual backup, to do an offline sync or to make a copy of a specific version of your app. It's a great way to quickly take a snapshot of your working app (and config) before you make changes.

http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/archive/2008/02/02/using-ms-deploy-to-compare-sites-or-see-what-components-your-site-uses.aspx

via http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/archive/2008/01/22/welcome-to-the-web-deployment-team-blog.aspx

Technical Preview 1

x86
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1602

x64
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1603

 

This white paper provides the information that you need in order to configure Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with multiple address lists so different groups of users can have their own address list and secure those address lists so that groups of users can only see their specific address list.

Much of the information in this white paper originally appeared as individual Help topics in the Exchange Server 2007 Help. In this white paper, we have consolidated the information that you need to deploy and manage segregated address lists in one central location. We have also provided sample scripts, which can be modified to fit your environment, to help automate the provisioning of virtual organizations and users.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb936719.aspx or
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb936719(EXCHG.80,printer).aspx

More technical papers: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164340(EXCHG.80).aspx

 

Background:

A clean install of Windows Vista SP1 is attempted on an hp Pavilion dv1603tn.  The "high definition audio device" shows failure in Device Manager.  The HP provided Vista package was installed.  The "High Definition Audio Device" device error goes away, but the resultant "Conexant High Definition Audio" device is silent and refuses to play any sounds.  Attempts to do so show sounds appearing in the sound mixer - the levels change - but nothing comes out the main system speakers.

Solution:

The HP provided Vista package is non-functional.  Download and install the "XP" driver package on their website.  Windows Update then will provide an updated driver package for Vista if necessary.

XP package installed: Release Date: 2006-05-15           Version: 3.21.0.0 A
Vista package attempted: Release Date: 2007-05-15           Version: 3.38.0.50 A
It is possible that an "updated" package will be released in the future by the manufacturer to correct this problem.

1. Download the XP driver package, and open it with WinRAR or 7-zip or a similar archiver, and extract it's contents.  (This will prevent the package from auto installing.)
2. Next, right click on the High Definition Audio Device in Device Manager and update the driver to this package, by pointing the wizard to the folder where the files were extracted it.

The functional driver with Vista SP1 has a date of "4/18/2006" and is version "3.21.0.0".

Note:

Ensure also you download and install the latest video and chipset drivers from Intel.com - NOT HP's support website, which shows releases several builds behind.

 

How to obtain the latest update rollup for Exchange 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937052

 

 

What will support Windows Server 2008 at RTM?

• .NET Framework 2.0 (installed)
• .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 ( part of Application Server role )
• .NET Framework 3.5
• Dynamics CRM 4.0
• Exchange Server 2007 SP1
• Forefront Security Server 1.0
• MOSS SP1 ( installation notes for Windows Server 2008)  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936988
• SQL Server 2005 SP2
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (Formerly SMS)
• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 SP1 ( installation notes for Windows Server 2008 ) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936988
• Visual Studio 2008
• WSUS 3.0 SP1

What are we planning to support in the first half of 2008?

• We will ship the Hyper-V technology 180days after RTM
• Dynamics AX 2009
• MOM SP1
• SCCM 2007SP1
• System Center Essentials 2001
• Forefront Client Security SP1

What are we planning to support in the second half of 2008?

• Application Virtualization 4.5
• Commerce Server 2007 SP2
• HIS 2006 SP1
• MOM 2005 SP1
• SQL Server 2008
• System Center Essentials 2001
• Windows System Center VMM 2.0
• Windows Essential Business Server
• Windows Home Server vNext
• Windows HPC Server 2008

So what will not be supported?

• SMS 2003
• System Center Reporting Manager
• Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006 and earlier

Source:

http://blogs.msdn.com/neilhut/archive/2008/02/07/microsoft-server-and-tools-support-for-windows-server-2008.aspx

 

Windows Media Services

To obtain the new features and tools available in Windows Media Services for Windows Server 2008, such as the built-in WMS Cache/Proxy plug-in, you must obtain and run the appropriate Streaming Media Services role installer file on the updated platform.

• Windows Media Services and the rest of the Streaming Media Services role in Server Manager, on “full” installations of Standard and Enterprise editions of Windows Server 2008
• The Streaming Media Services Server Core role, on “Server Core” installations of Standard and Enterprise editions of Windows Server 2008
• The Windows Media Services snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC) on a computer that is running the Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9ccf6312-723b-4577-be58-7caab2e1c5b7&displaylang=en&tm

 

Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Data Sheet

This data sheet provides a comprehensive product comparison of the Visual Studio 2008 IDE products. It does not provide data about Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Explorer, or Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Load Agent. This data sheet is provided for illustrative purposes only.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/f/e/5feb6914-bcdf-432f-81c7-e386812b086a/visualstudio2008productcomparisondatasheet.pdf (2.2MB)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/f/e/5feb6914-bcdf-432f-81c7-e386812b086a/visualstudio2008productcomparisondatasheet.docx (266KB)

 

Instead of just being rants, I found the following pages to be rather helpful.  There are some nice troubleshooting tips, changes you can make to improve performance, etc..

Why Outlook 2007 is slow: Microsoft’s official answer
http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=123

Outlook 2007 is slow, RSS broken
http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=54

Problem with Outlook 2007 - Email Receive is Broken!
http://www.roundtripsolutions.com/blog/2007/02/19/208/problem-with-outlook-2007-email-receive-is-broken/

What can I do about Outlook's huge PST?
http://ask-leo.com/what_can_i_do_about_outlooks_huge_pst.html

 

Symptoms
You connect a Windows Vista-based computer to a network.
A router or other device that is configured as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server is configured on the network.
The router or the other device does not support the DHCP BROADCAST flag.

In this scenario, Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address.

Cause

This issue occurs because of a difference in design between Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Specifically, in Windows XP SP2, the BROADCAST flag in DHCP discovery packets is set to 0 (disabled). In Windows Vista, the BROADCAST flag in DHCP discovery packets is not disabled. Therefore, some routers and some non-Microsoft DHCP servers cannot process the DHCP discovery packets.

Resolution

Summary

1. Use getmac and ipconfig /all to determine the GUID of the adapter that is having the problem.
2. Set the following in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}
   Value name: DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag
   Value type: REG_DWORD
   Value data: 0
   Note A data value of 0 disables this registry entry. You can use this registry entry to prevent Windows Vista from using the DHCP BROADCAST flag. After you set this registry entry, Windows Vista never uses the DHCP BROADCAST flag.

Details

1. Start, run, cmd
2. Run ipconfig /all
   You'll get something like this:
   Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
      Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
      Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
      Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
      Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX
      DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
      Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Note the MAC address of the wireless adapter (shown here with XXs).  Note this is a WIRED adapter in this example; you want your wireless NIC.
3. Next, run getmac
   Match the MAC address to the GUID of the adapter.
   Physical Address    Transport Name
   =================== ==========================================================
   XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX   Media disconnected
   YY-YY-YY-YY-YY-YY   \Device\Tcpip_{F37508DE-020D-43A3-916A-ED3EE080C910}
4. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then right click on regedit, and choose "Run as Administrator"
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. 
5. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}
6. In this registry path, click the (GUID) subkey that corresponds to the network adapter that is connected to the network.
7. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
8. In the New Value #1 box, type DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then press ENTER.
9. Right-click DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle, and then click Modify.
10. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
11. Close Registry Editor.

See also: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233

 

Assigning SCL to messages scanned by 3rd-party antispam filters

The Unix/Linux/Security folks in your organization don't trust Exchange to do the filtering. They insist on using open source anti-spam software, such as SpamAssasin on the non-Exchange SMTP gateways. After tweaking it for a number of weeks, they are able to make it work the way they want it to, or are close to it.

Their solution is to insert an X-header in messages that looks like this:

X-Spam-Status:yes

That's it. Their job ends there.

As the Exchange team/administrator, your job is to ensure messages with that header end up in users' Junk Mail folder.

Now what?

http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2008/01/assigning-scl-to-messages-scanned-by.html

Exchange.2007.Assigning.SCL.to.Messages.Scanned.by.3rd.Party.Filters.pdf (164.02 KB)

 

Max PST size limit is 20 GB, as this uses the Outlook provider.  See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830336/

• Export/Import to PST must be run from a 32 bit client machine with Exchange Management Tools installed (Version Exchange 2007 SP1 or later). The 32bit requirement comes from a dependency with the Outlook client.
• Either Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 must be installed on the client machine.
• The user running the task must be an Exchange Organization Admin or an Exchange Server Admin on the server where the mailbox to export/import lives.

Export-Mailbox –Identity <mailboxUser> -PSTFolderPath <pathToSavePST>

PSTFolderPath must be a full path pointing either to a directory or to a (.pst) file. If a directory is specified a PST file named after the mailbox alias will be used as the target of the export. Note that if the PST file already exists the contents of the mailbox will be merged into it.

• To export multiple mailboxes to their respective .pst files at once you can pipe in the identities of those mailboxes to the export task. Notice that when bulk exporting the PSTFolderPath parameter must forcefully point to a directory since one .pst file will be created for each mailbox.
  Get-Mailbox -Database 'MDB' | Export-Mailbox -PSTFolderPath D:\PSTs
• Just as with the export to PST scenario, when bulk importing mailboxes the PSTFolderPath must forcefully point to a directory and the task logic will try to match mailboxes alias with the .pst file names under that location. If no match is found for a particular mailbox, that mailbox will be skipped.
  Get-Mailbox -Database 'MDB' | Import-Mailbox -PSTFolderPath D:\PSTs

Running a scheduled task is a two step process:
 1) Create the powershell script and save it as a .ps1 file.  E.g:
     get-mailbox | export-mailbox -PSTFolderPath:'C:\' -Confirm:$false

 2) Create the scheduled task to run powershell and load the exchange snappin; then run your script.  The action of your scheduled task should look like:

powershell.exe -PSConsoleFile "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\ExShell.psc1" -Command ". 'C:\script.ps1'"

 

"My mailbox size is 7.4GB. I send/receive around 200 emails a day; so that 7.4GB of email goes back several years. I don't use too many rules so most of my email ends up in my Inbox (30k items).

My background is in software performance (especially storage performance); so I couldn't live with the status quo. I was stuck, I needed my large mailbox; but I also needed a great/fast user experience so I could effectively process my mailbox. All of my machines had sufficient memory (2GB or more) so I couldn't solve the problem by adding memory (to provide the Windows System Cache with more memory to buffer the OST IO's). "

Continued: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/12/17/447750.aspx

Summary:

1. Make a set of folders containing content that is over a year (or two) old - so that your mailbox size becomes manageable.
2. Separate the content in these folders chronologically.  2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, etc.
3. Set Outlook not to sync these archive folders to your devices.  While online, you have access to this content; offline, you can't access anything older than 2 years.

This maintains the following:

1. Your large mailbox, allowing you to keep all your email online in Exchange for backup and quick access (via a web browser).
2. No PST usage.  No management of pesky PST files, and you don't have to worry about backup - the Exchange is stored on a RAID set, and backed up frequently.
3. Good laptop/desktop/workstation Outlook 2007 cached user mode experience.
4. Ability to search entire mailbox.  Open Outlook in online mode, or open up OWA.
5. Low processing on the server.  Working in offline mode means that the basic mail processing is done locally on my machine, not on the server.

 

Problem:

Exchange 2007 SP1 Will Not Support the Searching of Content Within Office 2007 Attachments in Messages Until the Respective Office 2007 Search Filters are Installed

Because Exchange 2007 SP1 does not include the search filters from the 2007 Microsoft Office release, Exchange 2007 SP1 cannot index Office 2007 attachments in mailboxes. Therefore, users who have mailboxes on Exchange 2007 SP1 Mailbox servers will not be able search their mailboxes for content within Office 2007 attachments in their messages. However, as soon as the Office 2007 search filters are available, installed, and integrated with your Exchange SP1 installations, this search functionality will be supported.

2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack
This download will install and register IFilters with the Windows Indexing Service. These IFilters are used by Microsoft Search products to index the contents of specific document formats. This Filter Pack includes IFilters for the following formats: .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=60C92A37-719C-4077-B5C6-CAC34F4227CC&displaylang=en

How to register Filter Pack IFilters with Exchange Server 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;944516

More information:
Exchange 2007 SP1 Release Notes
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/e/6/5e672458-592a-44a2-b489-11cec19d3c82/RelNotes.htm

 

Sharepoint 2007 Articles

How to move MOSS2007 from W2003_32bit to W2008_64bit
How to move the Shared Service Provider Search database
How to configure a content Source to crawl Exchange 2003 public folders in Moss2007
How to configure Email Enabled Lists in Moss2007 RTM using Exchange 2003
How to configure Email Enabled Lists in Moss2007 RTM using Exchange 2007
Securing Central Administration in SharePoint 2007
Modify Alert Notifications using AlertTemplates.xml in SharePoint 2007
Inplace Upgrade of SPS 2003 Medium Farm to 2007 RTM

http://www.combined-knowledge.com/Downloads%202007.htm

SPS2007-2003x86-to-2008x64.pdf (1.07 MB)

 

Summary: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125236.aspx

1. Export XML data.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997590.aspx
   New-EdgeSubscription -FileName "C:\EdgeSubscriptionInfo.xml"
2. Import XML data. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123538.aspx
1. Open the Exchange Management Console. Expand Organization Configuration, select Hub Transport, and then in the result pane, click the Edge Subscriptions tab.
2. In the action pane, click New Edge Subscription. The New Edge Subscription Wizard starts.
3. On the New Edge Subscription page, in the Active Directory Site: drop-down list, select an Active Directory site.
4. On the New Edge Subscription page, click Browse. Locate the Edge Subscription file to import. Select the file, and then click Open.
5. On the New Edge Subscription page, click New.
6. On the Completion page, click Finish.
3. Force synchronization if necessary.
   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123512.aspx
   If running RTM: Start-EdgeSynchronization
   If running SP1: Start-EdgeSynchronization -Server <Hub Transport server name>

 

Background:

Installing Exchange 2007 SP1 gives an error on the Mailbox Role.

Error:

Unable to remove product with code 6574fdc2-40fc-405a-9554-22d1ce15686b.  Unable to remove product with code 6574fdc2-40fc-405a-9554-22d1ce15686b. Fatal error during installation. Error code is 1603.
Fatal error during installation

Solution:

1. Stop the "Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer" service and the "Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search" service.
2. Remove the Microsoft Full Text Indexing Engine for Exchange using msiexec.exe /X {6574fdc2-40fc-405a-9554-22d1ce15686b}
3. Refer to http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q111019 for additional causes.

 

Background:

Installing Exchange 2007 SP1 on a Client Access Server gives the error "A failure occurred while trying to update metabase properties. The system cannot find the path specified."

Error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeSetup
Event Category: Microsoft Exchange Setup
Event ID: 1002
Description:
Exchange Server component Client Access Role failed.
Error: Error:
A failure occurred while trying to update metabase properties.
The system cannot find the path specified.

Further, the Exchange 2007 SP1 log contained:
[2] [WARNING] IIS://<fqdn>/W3SVC/1/ROOT/EWS was not found. Please make sure you have typed it correctly.

Cause:

Note: The SP1 log is located at <system drive>:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log

1) Ensure there are no orphaned virtual directories in the Exchange metabase, as per http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998589.aspx.

2) Ensure all the necessary CAS virtual directories are present.  Browse the IIS metabase using the IIS Resource Kit Tool, creatively named "Metabase Explorer".  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840671 has a download link.
The Client Access Server virtual directories are as follows:
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Autodiscover
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/EWS
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/owa
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Exchange
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/ExchWeb
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Public
( as per http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201672.aspx )

3) For directories which are not present in IIS Manager and/or missing from the IIS metabase, remove the Exchange directory, and recreate it.
For example, in the case of my error, I did a "Get-WebServicesDirectory | fl" which revealed the /ROOT/EWS entry - with the missing IIS metabase entry.  Thus, I removed the EWS directory using the Remove-WebServicesDirectory cmdlet ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124231.aspx ) and recreated it using the New-WebServicesDirectory cmdlet ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125176.aspx .)

You can check all the access directories: (via Exchange Shell)
Get-WebServicesDirectory | fl
Get-OabVirtualdirectory | fl
Get-ClientAccessServer | fl
Get-OabVirtualdirectory | fl
and look for any directory that is missing.

4) Reattempt installation.  Pull the log as necessary and keep Googling error messages, or try to understand the errors. =)

5) Verify Exchange installation - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125254.aspx

6) Since we messed with them, make sure the web services are functioning: Test-OutlookWebServices -identity administrator | ft * -AutoSize -Wrap

 

Symptom:

"No program start menu found." Installing Blizzard Entertainment Games on Vista x64

Installing Blizzard games on Vista x64 gives this error message.

Resolution:

1) Start, run, regedit
2) Navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Shell Folders"
3) If there is no string in there called "Programs" put that in with the value: (note the double slashes - escape sequences - which are necessary)
C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs
4) If the string is already present, and you are running Vista with UAC enabled (it prompts you to Continue/Cancel and/or enter a password before installing the game) log off, log on as an administrator, and install the game, and any expansion packs necessary.
5) Go into \Program Files (x86)\StarCraft and grant "COMPUTER\Users" full access to all subdirectories and all files.*
This will ensure you're able to save games, replays, download new maps, and update the application WITHOUT being an administrator.

If you get an error message:
Type "regedit" into the Start Menu search box.  Right click on the application, and run as administrator.

* If you don't know what this means:

• http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/592/1.html
• http://cc.jlab.org/docs/services/windows/ntfs_permissions.html

 

Problem:

After I moved my RAID set from 1 server to another, the SQL Server service refused to start on the old machine, even though the data files are still intact on the system.

The SQL Server error logs resided on the RAID container I moved; I wasn't aware of this.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (2)
Event ID: 17058
User:  N/A
Description:
initerrlog: Could not open error log file '<full file path and filename>'. Operating system error = 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).

Great.  I search online, and I get stuff about MOVING the data files at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;224071.  But what if I had already pulled the RAID container?  My data is safe... I just want to move the error log file.

Solution:

Edit the startup properties of the service to point the Error Log to a new location.  Make sure you don't just specify a target directory, but also the target log file name.  Here's what I did.

I went into the SQL server directory ("C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn" for me) and tried to start SQL Server manually.  (If you go into Admin Tools\Services, right click on the SQL Service, Pproperties, check out the "Path to executable".  Note the -sMSSQLSERVER or any other start up parameters that specify the instance you're having trouble with.)

I did a sqlservr /? in a cmd window:

usage: sqlservr
        [-c] (not as a service)
        [-d file] (alternative master data file)
        [-l file] (alternative master log file)
        [-e file] (alternate errorlog file)
        [-f] (minimal configuration mode)
        [-m] (single user admin mode)
        [-g number] (stack MB to reserve)
        [-k <decimal number>] (checkpoint speed in MB/sec)
        [-n] (do not use event logging)
        [-s name] (alternate registry key name)
        [-T <number>] (trace flag turned on at startup)
        [-x] (no statistics tracking)
        [-y number] (stack dump on this error)
        [-B] (breakpoint on error (used with -y))
        [-K] (force regeneration of service master key (if exists))

Next, I did "sqlservr.exe -eH:\SQL -sMSSQLSERVER" at the command prompt.  (Hit CTRL+C to safely terminate the instance if necessary.)  This generated this error in my event log.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (2)
Event ID: 17058
User:  N/A
Description:
initerrlog: Could not open error log file 'H:\SQL'. Operating system error = 5(Access is denied.).

Oops.  I checked the ACLs; they looked fine.  I had forgotten to specify a full path/filename for the log.
Tried "sqlservr.exe -eH:\SQL\err.log -sMSSQLSERVER"  Bingo.  Service starts.  (Hit CTRL+C to safely terminate the instance if necessary.)

Good.  Now to update the service so that it behaves.  Went into the "SQL Server Configuration Manager" - NOT the Management Studio.  Right click on the service, Properties.  Advanced tab, change the Startup Parameters.

Edit the text in the red location in the image above, so that it contains the updated error log path we had tested in the console.

 

Problem:

"Windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system volume"

I had booted Windows Server 2008 RC, loaded my RAID (3Ware 9650) drivers from USB stick, and created a partition and formatted it.  I go to install, and Windows stops dead in its tracks.

Solution:

Leave the stick plugged in, reboot the system, and go into the BIOS and REMOVE the stick from the boot order entirely.  Ensure the RAID array is 1st in the list, and give it a try again.

See also:

After I discovered this, I also read these websites, which I thought might be useful...
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/vista-and-nforce4-sataraid-an-installation-guide-vt66299.html
http://www.dashken.net/index.php?/archives/204-Windows-could-not-determine-if-this-computer-contains-a-valid-system-volume.html#extended
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2201257&SiteID=17

 

Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) Refresh - Build 17128 v.744

Working well on my x64 laptop. =)  Dual display works properly now; no more black screens.

 

An Exchange Server message routing myth forever being propagated (including by me):

If 2 SMTP Connectors (or Send Connectors in case of Exchange Server 2007) exist, one with a more specific address space, like exchangepedia.com, and one for a more generic address space like *, messages are always routed over the Connector with the more specific address space.

http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2008/01/smtp-connector-myth-messages-are-always.html

 

On a Windows Vista-based computer, you configure the following Group Policy setting:
   Delete user profiles older than a specified number of days on system restart
Therefore, you expect the user profiles that have not been used within the number of days that you specify to be automatically deleted when Windows Vista restarts. However, you notice that some user profiles that have been used within that period are unexpectedly deleted some days later.

This problem occurs because of an error in the User Profile Service. The Group Policy setting uses the time at which the profile was created instead of the time at which the profile was last used as the basis for determining when to delete the profile. Therefore, even if the user profile is still being used, it is deleted after the specified number of days have elapsed since the time at which you created the profile.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945122

 

PacketProtector is a Linux distribution for wireless routers, built on top of OpenWrt. The goal of this project is to transform the router into a unified threat management device.

• a stateful firewall (iptables)
• WPA/WPA2 Enterprise wireless (802.1X and PEAP with FreeRADIUS)
• intrusion prevention (Snort-inline)
• remote access VPN (OpenVPN)
• content filtering/parental controls (DansGuardian)
• web antivirus (DG + ClamAV)
• a local certificate authority (OpenSSL)
• secure management interfaces (SSH and HTTPS)
• advanced firewall scripts for blocking IM and P2P apps
• IP spoofing prevention (Linux rp_filter)
• basic protocol anomaly detection (ipt_unclean)
• Each of these services is automatically bootstrapped and configured with sensible defaults. A secure web interface makes common configuration tasks as simple as a point and click.

All you need is a Linksys WRTSL54GS or ASUS WL-500g (Deluxe or Premium) router, and a USB 2.0 drive with 100MB of free space.

http://packetprotector.org/

 

In my IBM xSeries server, I have a 3Ware 9550SX 8 port SATA2 RAID card with two 80 GB SATA2 drives in RAID1.  One of the drives died last night during the nightly verify, and I received an email: "Jan 05, 2008 12:10.39AM (0x04:0x000A): Drive error detected: port=0, unit=0"

I went to Canada Computers this morning and purchased a Seagate 7200.10 160GB (ST3160815AS) drive.  Pulled the drive out of the simple-swap slot, removed the 4 screws and put the new drive in.  The 3Ware card started rebuilding.

Painless.  Simple.  Fast.  It's already 32% done rebuilding.

 

After installing the RC0 of the IIS7 FTP service on Server 2008, I had some local Windows Firewall issues.

Abstract
This post is the first one from the mini-series on firewall configuration for FTP7 (full product name: Microsoft FTP Publishing Service for IIS 7.0). The goal of this post if to provide instructions on how to setup local Windows Firewall to enable access to FTP over non-secure or secure connections. This post does NOT address IP address translation related issues and other issues that apply when there is an external firewall (such as ISA server) between client and server.

Background
It is often a challenge to setup firewall rules for FTP server to work correctly. The root cause for this challenge lies in the FTP protocol architecture.
Each FTP client requires 2 connections to be maintained between client and server.
FTP commands are transferred over connection called control channel. That is the one that typically connects to well known FTP port 21.
Any data transfer, such as directory listing, upload and download happen on secondary connection called data channel.

To open port 21 on firewall is an easy task. But having port 21 opened ONLY means that clients will be able to connect to FTP server, authenticate successfully, create, delete directories but will NOT be able to see directory listings or be able to upload/download files. It is because data connections for FTP server are not allowed to pass through the firewall.

Many firewalls simplify the challenge with data connections by scanning FTP traffic and dynamically allowing data connections through. Some firewalls enable such filters by default but it is not always the case. These firewall filters are able to detect what ports are going to be used for data transfers and temporarily open them on firewall so that clients can open data connections. Windows Firewall has such filter. It is called StatefulFtp.

Guide

http://blogs.iis.net/jaroslad/archive/2007/09/29/windows-firewall-setup-for-microsoft-ftp-publishing-service-for-iis-7-0.aspx

I've also created a PDF, here.  3 pages, nicely formatted for printing.

Windows.Firewall.and.IIS7.FTP.pdf (255.76 KB)
 

doPDF installs itself as a virtual PDF printer driver so after a successful installation will appear in your Printers and Faxes list. To convert to PDF, you just have to print the document to the doPDF free pdf converter. Open a document (with Microsoft Word, WordPad, NotePad or any other software), choose Print and select doPDF. It will ask you where to save the PDF file and when finished, the PDF file will be automatically opened in your default PDF viewer.

http://www.dopdf.com/
Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista (32 and 64-bit)

Download: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/doPDF/1171636577/1

 

I had blogged about this a few months back: http://blog.justinho.com/2007/08/10/JunkInThePreload.aspx

But it seems like someone's gone to the trouble of making them look silly as well.

December 12, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Nearly two-dozen different laptop models sold by Hewlett-Packard Co. ship with software plagued with multiple zero-day vulnerabilities, security researchers said today.

The bugs are in an ActiveX control included with the HP Info Center software preinstalled on both HP- and Compaq-branded laptops running Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and Vista, Symantec Corp. said in a note to clients of its DeepSight threat network. Info Center is a part of HP's Quick Launch Buttons application, which gives users one-click access to information and configuration details on the portables.

"One of its ActiveX controls deployed by default by the vendor has three insecure methods that allow a malicious person to target the HP notebook machines for a remote code execution- and remote registry manipulation-based attacks," said a researcher using the alias "porkythepig" in posts to both milw0rm.com and the Bugtraq security mailing list.

Affected: HP 510 and 530; the Compaq 2710, 2510, 6120, 6220, 6230, 6325, 6510, 6715, 6910, 7300, 8220, 8230, 8440, 8510, 8710 and 9440; and the NC, NW and NX series notebooks.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9052758&source=rss_news10

 

Have a WD2500SD-01KCB0 drive hooked up to an Adaptec HostRAID SATA2 1420 controller.  Drive is still in warranty.

Log Name:      System
Source:        disk
Event ID:      11
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk2\DR2.

Log Name:      System
Source:        aar81xx
Event ID:      15
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
Description:
The device, \Device\Scsi\aar81xx1, is not ready for access yet.

Replaced cable and put another drive in this system.  Put drive into another machine, and running diagnostics now.  SMART tests are fine... but when are they not? =)

More later...

 

I filed a bug a few weeks ago about a problem with Vista SP1.  The beta code caused a "black screen with mouse cursor" when the display driver came out of standby or hibernation.  The fix made it into the codebase yesterday, apparently, so the RC1 release has this problem.

Any time you resume from hibernation or standby with a multi-display configuration, or connect via TS/RDP (which causes a display driver resolution change) this appears to happen.  Starting/closing Media Center fullscreen is also a trigger for this problem.

Time to wait for the next build to show up on Connect...

 

Universal Extractor is a program do to exactly what it says: extract files from any type of archive, whether it's a simple zip file, an installation program, or even a Windows Installer (.msi) package.  This is still a work in progress (see details below), but so far it's proven quite useful and I feel others can also benefit from it.

I should stress that this application is not intended to be a general purpose archiving program.  It will never replace WinRAR, 7-Zip, etc.  What it will do is allow you to extract files from virtually any type of archive, regardless of source, compression method, etc.  The original motivation behind this project was that I wanted an easy, convenient way to extract files from installation packages, such as Inno Setup or Windows Installer packages, without pulling up a command line every time.  In the process I got a little carried away and ended up throwing in support for every kind of archive format I possibly could find.

Universal Extractor, like most of my Windows programs, is written in AutoIt, a powerful open source scripting language.  Universal Extractor itself, however, is just a front-end that uses many other programs to do the dirty work.  Please see the Credits section below for additional information.

http://www.legroom.net/software/uniextract

 

Question:

So you bought a new copy of Office 2007 Professional.  How many computers can you install it on?

The license agreement contains the following:

1. OVERVIEW. These license terms permit installation and use of one copy of the software on one device, along with other rights, all as described below.
2. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS. Before you use the software under a license, you must assign that license to one device. That device is the "licensed device."  A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device.
a. Licensed Device. You may install and use one copy of the software on the licensed device.
b. Portable Device. You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device.
c. Separation of Components. The components of the software are licensed as a single unit.  You may not separate the components and install them on different devices.

Answer:

You can install it on your desktop, and your laptop, as long as you use both machines.

 

The wise old men of mainstream tech journalism are once again repeating the conventional wisdom that Vista is slow to start up and slow to shut down. They’re wrong.

Five secrets to faster Vista starts
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=332

Is Vista really slow to start up?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=239

More details about Vista startup times
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=240

The final word on Vista startup times
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=241

Five secrets to faster Vista starts _ Ed Bott Microsoft Report _ ZDNet.pdf (74.19 KB)
 

Problem:

SVCHOST.exe sucking 100% CPU

Solution:

• Stop the automatic updates service
• Download http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43264
• Run WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe /wuforce
• Rename C:\windows\software distribution to C:\windows\software distribution.old
• Rename C:\windows\windowsupdate.log to c:\windows\windowsupdate.log.old
• Restart the automatic updates service.

See also:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914810
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916089

 

The error message:

Event Type:        Warning
Event Source:    MSExchangeTransport
Event Category:                TransportService
Event ID:              12017
Description:
A direct trust certificate will expire soon. Thumbprint:<thumbprint>, hours remaining: <some number>

Summary Solution:

1. Make a new Exchange certificate, and enable it for SMTP transport.
   1. If the error is logged on the hub transport server:
      1. Create the cert on the HT where the warning occurred - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/aa998327.aspx
      2. Restart the EdgeSync service to update certificate information on the edge transport servers which are subscribed to the organization
      3. Run Start-EdgeSynchronization
   2. If the error is logged on the edge transport server:
      1. Create the certificate on the ET server - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/aa998327.aspx
      2. Resubscribe the ET server to the Exchange organization - see http://blog.justinho.com/2008/01/20/SubscribingResubscribingMicrosoftExchange2007EdgeTransportServersToAnExchangeOrganization.aspx
   3. If you're not using the EdgeSync service, and you have things configured manually: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/bb232082.aspx

More information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb217963.aspx

More information:

To resolve this warning, you must use the New-ExchangeCertificate cmdlet to create a new internal transport certificate (also referred to as a direct trust certificate) on the computer that returned this Warning event. Running the New-ExchangeCertificate cmdlet with no arguments creates an SMTP-enabled internal transport certificate for direct trust. For more information, see New-ExchangeCertificate.

If this warning occurred on a Hub Transport server, you must create the internal transport certificate on the Hub Transport server where the warning occurred. After you have created the certificate, restart the Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync service to update the certificate information on the Edge Transport servers that are subscribed to the organization.  (I also ran Start-EdgeSynchronization on my hub server to be safe.)

If this warning occurred on an Edge Transport server, you must create the internal transport certificate on the Edge Transport server where the warning occurred. After you have created the certificate, resubscribe the Edge Transport server to the Exchange organization to update the certificate information in Active Directory.

 

From The SANS Institute: (November 20 2007)

Security bug researchers (and others with more malicious purpose) have

been focusing on Apple OS X, and they have been very successful. Quoting

from the first item in this week's issue: "...several [OS X]

vulnerabilities are exploitable by remote users. Several file format

vulnerabilities are also present. Several implementation errors also

exist in the Mac OS X application firewall."

 

If you are ever asked which operating system is safer, the following

'non-aligned' rule may be of some help.  Given a fixed level of

programming skill, the number of vulnerabilities in software is directly

proportional to the number of lines of code and inversely proportional

to the length of time the software has been in wide use.  Large numbers

of critical vulnerabilities are being, and were bound to be, discovered

in Apple's operating system because Steve Jobs may design better

hardware, but his programmers are no better at writing secure code than

programmers in other software organizations.

                                    Alan

 

Error Message:

System.BadImageFormatException: Could not load file or assembly 'BasicFrame.WebControls.BasicDatePicker' or one of its dependencies.

Likely cause:

dasBlog ships with the x86 assembly, and you're running x64 IIS with 64-bit worker processes.

Solution:

Replace the BasicDatePicker DLL in the /bin folder with the one from this archive.

http://www.basicdatepicker.com/download/BasicDatePicker_x64.zip via http://www.basicdatepicker.com/

Further reading:

Scott Hanselman has a nice, much more detailed writeup about this, which details a lot more information about IIS 7.0 and dasBlog.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/32bitnessAnd64bitnessAndMigratingDasBlogOnIIS7AndASPNETUnderVista64.aspx

I'm still on IIS 6.0 - waiting for my Seagate ES.2 drives before putting the 2008 November CTP into production...

 

Event Log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DCOM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 10016
User:  NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Description:
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{3D42CCB1-4665-4620-92A3-478F47389230}
 to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20).  This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server General
Event ID: 7888
User:  N/A
Description:
A runtime exception was detected. Details follow.
Message: Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {3D42CCB1-4665-4620-92A3-478F47389230} failed due to the following error: 80070005.

Techinal Details:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {3D42CCB1-4665-4620-92A3-478F47389230} failed due to the following error: 80070005.
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchApi.RunOnServer[T](CodeToRun`1 remoteCode, CodeToRun`1 localCode, Boolean useCurrentSecurityContext, Int32 versionIn)
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchApi..ctor(WellKnownSearchCatalogs catalog, SearchSharedApplication application)
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchSharedApplication.get_SearchApi()
   at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.SRPSite.IsImportInProgress(String contentSourceName)

 

 

Generic solution:

1. Open regedit
2. Search for the GUID; should be in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CSLID
3. Note the key name, and the AppID
4. Admin Tools, Component Services, Computers, My Computer, DCOM Config
5. Locate the AppID, set appropriate permissions, for the referenced account.

If you are getting this exact error message:

You should have Sharepoint installed, with the Search Engine on this machine.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3D42CCB1-4665-4620-92A3-478F47389230} in the registry is called "Osearch" with Application ID {58F1D482-A132-4297-9B8A-F8E4E600CDF6}.

1. Admin Tools, Component Services, Computers, My Computer, DCOM Config
2. Find OSearch in the list, right click, Properties, and on the Security tab, grant the Network Service account launch/activation permission.  "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Search" should be able to launch now.

You will also likely get the message for GUID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}, which corresponds to the IIS WAMREG admin Service. Grant the referenced account the requested access as well here, obviously.

 

 

 

Use a Different Wallpaper on Each Desktop in Vista or XP

DisplayFusion - http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

 

Place a fully functional Microsoft Outlook Calendar on your Desktop

OutlookDesktop - http://www.michaelscrivo.com/projects/outlookdesktop/

 

Create a taskBar for the extended monitors and add additional functionality to Windows with multimonitor support

Oscar's Multi-Monitor TaskBar - http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

 

Media Control Plugin for Windows Vista Media Center

Switching embedded audio and subtitles streams while playing a video: works with AVI, OGM, MKV
Switching between external subtitle files (.SRT, .SUB)
Switching between FFDShow presets (audio & video)
Setting and loading bookmarks inside a video with visualization of the pictures of the saved bookmarks
Real fastforward (and rewind) exactly like in the TV module (with 3 different speeds)
Switching and setting post-processing filters in FFDShow (video filters only)
Separate application to assign keyboard/remote control shortcuts to the commands and the MCML pages of the pluginFull remote control support (6 buttons are mapped by default, but this can be changed)
Default mapping (works in full screen while watching a video, except the blue button that is always caught) : 
   Fast forward / rewind buttons 
   Blue button : loads the startup page of the plugin 
   Red button : switches audio stream 
   Green button : switches subtitle stream 
   Yellow button : switches subtitle file
Live post-processing for Live/Recorded TV, as well as DVDs
Multiple FFDShow instances support
Removes black borders of videos automatically
Direct commands : set some parameters without entering the Media Control interface

http://damienbt.free.fr/

 

Abstract:

Adobe Master Suite CS3 is bloatware, works poorly, and is rather painful to use.

Method:

I installed Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3, and Acrobat 8 on a Dell Optiplex 745 tower with a Core 2 Duo E6300, 2 GB RAM, 74 GB Raptor SATA disk.  Windows Vista Ultimate x64.  nVidia 8500GT/512 MB.

Results:

Disk space required: 2.5 GB.  Computer rebooted twice.  Acrobat refused to start immediately after install.

Additional metrics may be collected at a future time.

Discussion:

Acrobat is difficult to use.  Photoshop takes forever to start.  A free PDF viewer from Foxit Software loads in a fraction of the time, and opens PDFs far better than a really expensive product.  Office 2007 is able to save directly to PDF.

Paint.NET satisfies my basic image editing needs.

Why do I need this bloated suite of applications that runs slowly, has a poor user interface, and is constantly being patched and requires more maintenance time than Sun Java?

Conclusion:

I wouldn't pay for this.  I won't even use it unless I had no choice.  I'd rather spend my money elsewhere if I ever needed to edit PDF documents via Foxit's PDF Editor.  This is a farce.

Followup:

Seems I had a visitor who felt the need to insult this "review".  Except, it's not a review.  It's a comment on the bloated nature of the software.

The "professional" solution falls down in very simple tasks.  Not all users need a full PDF editor and creator.  Not all users need a professional graphics tool.  Basic tasks like opening a PDF document are extremely painful (slow).

I'm not the only one:

• Dreamweaver MX 2004 (version when still owned by macromedia) - 127megs
  Dreamweaver 8 (pretty sure still own by macromedia at this release) - 180megs
  Adobe Dreamweaver CS 3 - 1.7 GIGABYTES. (Thats JUST dreamweaver, not PS or anything else...)
  via http://forum.ourdarkskies.com/index.php?showtopic=17757
• C|net says, "we recommend not treading lightly, but instead spending a lot of time playing around with your single-serving Adobe app to make sure you're not better served by a freeware analogue." via http://www.cnet.com.au/software/imaging/0,239035345,339280543,00.htm
• Adobe recognizes the bloat.  And they want to change and fix it.
  http://www.cnet.com.au/software/imaging/0,239035345,339283589,00.htm

I have never discouraged the use of Adobe Photoshop for a professional graphic designer, nor would I necessarily recommend Foxit for creating "complex PDF files".  But, as I wrote, for some "basic image editing needs", Paint.NET is more than sufficient.  For the average web surfer, the ability to open a PDF when they click on a link is all that is necessary.  How many typical users simply want to export documents to PDF format (where Office 2007's built in functionality is more than sufficient)?  How often do these users make "complex PDF documents"?

You be the judge.

 

Background:

Full sized Dell Optiplex 745 tower.  Shipped with 1 HDD, and I installed another myself.  The drive I installed appears to be intermittently failing - doesn't appear in BIOS, and therefore disappears from Logical Disk Manager, My Computer, etc.  The HDD light stays on while the drive is not functional.

Cause and Resolution:

Since I didn't have a right-angled adapter on my SATA cable, I used a regular cable.  It didn't work so hot after about 8-12 mos of being crushed at a strange angle.

Can't say I'm surprised.

Bought a SATA cable with a right angled plug for $2.87 from DirectCanada via http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=1440142479C.  The cable is only 18" so it just reaches from the SATA plug.  I'd suggest something slightly longer if you're doing it, but this cable works fine.  Fits snugly, but not too much slack left in the cable.  Certainly not dangerous; you can easily swap some cables between devices around so that it works.

 

"Unrecognized file type" or "Error opening file" or "Error parsing file contents" are all errors we typically encounter, when we provide incorrect input files to applications.

I did that today, when burning a CD image file.  Here's what I got:

I had given it the ISO file; it wanted the MDS.  Instead of spewing the usual error message, I found this to be much more effective, helpful, and pleasant to use.

 

Today Microsoft is eager to announce availability of the Go Live release of Microsoft FastCGI Extension for IIS 5.1/6.0 (FastCGI Extension) as a free download. The Go Live release is the last step in the Microsoft beta process and represents the highest level of quality and reliability. For the first time, customers have a license that permits them to deploy the FastCGI Extension on their production Internet Information Services 6.0 (IIS 6) Web servers.

Download FastCGI Extension for IIS6.0 and IIS5.1 - http://www.iis.net/go/1521

What is it?

With Microsoft’s implementation of the FastCGI open standard, IT Professionals will be able to host PHP applications on Windows Server® 2003 and IIS 6 with increased reliability, scalability, and security. Customers also know that they will be able to count on Microsoft to stand by and service the Microsoft FastCGI Extension. By supporting the open standard, Microsoft has made it possible for PHP and other CGI compliant languages to be hosted efficiently and effectively on Windows Server 2003 and IIS. With the addition of FastCGI, IIS reliably and performantly hosts ASP.NET; classic ASP and PHP Web applications, making it easy for IT Professionals to standardize on IIS and Windows Server as their Web platform of choice.”

Where can I run it?

This FastCGI Extension release is supported on IIS 6 on Windows Server 2003 for a fully scalable production environment and on IIS 5.1 on Windows XP in order to support developers who build their Web applications on Windows client machines. This provides developers easy access to build and deploy a broader range of Web applications on the Microsoft platform. To further facilitate application support, the IIS product group is working with the community to test and optimize popular PHP applications on this platform.

What about support for Server 2008 / IIS 7.0?

Looking ahead, betas of Windows Server 2008, already include the FastCGI Extension as a completely integrated feature of Internet Information Services IIS 7.0 (IIS7). The new modular architecture introduced in IIS 7 will provide additional functionality to PHP applications by enabling them to take advantage of new managed code services.

 

I started the install of Vista SP1 Beta at 9:40pm this evening on my ThinkPad T60p. It finished installing at 10:22pm.  My laptop HDD was quite warm by the end of the install; it had been cranking along for quite some time.

I also grabbed the September QFE testing packages: Windows6.0-KB941649, Windows6.0-KB941651, and Windows6.0-KB941229.

My thoughts?

• I can burn a recovery CD/DVD now... yay?
• All the IBM OEM utilities appear to continue to function.  I'm running Windows Ultimate x86 (July, 2007) from the Lenovo pre-install.  I had removed a bunch of the junk in the preload using the Base Software Administrator.
• Outlook 2007, Remote Desktop client, MSN Live Messenger, Skype all seem to work.  XviD video files are playing fine, VLC works fine.
• My laptop recovers from hibernation faster - there's less HDD cranking... this is PROBABLY a result of the correction of the ReadyBoost bug that caused the entire cache to be flushed after a resume from hibernation.
• Browsing a network share of pictures, and video files loaded faster.  Thumbnails are being cached/read more intelligently.
• Moving files on the local computer is much, much faster.  It used to sit and crank while it "counted" files and "thought" about the process.
• SSTP!  I'm going to set this up in the next few days, time permitting...

I finished downloading the RC0 bits for x86 and x64 a few minutes ago.  I'll have to burn the stuff to disk sometime tomorrow before I can play.

• Hypervisor in x64 bits - I'm going to put this on a Core 2 6300 machine with 3 GB of RAM sometime this coming weekend - and see how it goes. =)

 

Problem:

ISA Server 2006 EE on Windows 2003 R2 server stops routing traffic.

Event Log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: ADAM [ISASTGCTRL] General
Event Category: Internal Processing
Event ID: 2537
Date:  9/22/2007
Time:  10:22:29 PM
User:  NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON
Description:
The directory server has failed to create the ADAM serviceConnectionPoint object in the Active Directory. This operation will be retried.
 
Additional Data
SCP object DN:
CN={GUID removed},CN=SERVERNAME,OU=SomeOUName,DC=domain,DC=name,DC=com
Error value:
5 Access is denied.
Server error:
00000005: SecErr: DSID-03151E04, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0
 
Internal ID:
3390387
ADAM service account:
NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
 
User Action
If ADAM is running under a local service account, it will be unable to update the data in the Active Directory. Consider changing the ADAM service account to either NetworkService or a domain account.
 
If ADAM is running under a domain user account, make sure this account has sufficient rights to create the serviceConnectionPoint object.
 
ServiceConnectionPoint object publication can be disabled for this instance by setting msDS-DisableForInstances attribute on the SCP publication configuration object.

Solution:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/isa/2004/plan/ts_css.mspx says:
Verify that required Service Principle Names (SPNs) are properly registered. SPNs get created when ADAM service starts, and are created as an attribute on the User account running the ADAM service. For instructions see Administering ADAM service principal names topic in ADAM.chm help file located in %windir%\help folder on the Configuration Storage server computer.

In order to do this, go into %Program Files%\Microsoft ISA Server\ADAMData and look for a .bat file that is named the same as your domain.  Run it as a domain and schema/enterprise administrator.

Alternatively, fire up ISA 2006 set up (you don't have ISA running on a DC, right?) and repair the install.

Reboot the server.

 

Summary:

Windows Update gives error 0x8020000E.  Usually happens after a partition has been changed, resized, cloned, etc.  To resolve the problem, flush the Software Update Distribution folder by renaming %SYSTEMROOT%\SoftwareDistribution with the "Windows Update" service stopped.

Resolution:

The technical solution:

1. Start an elevated command prompt
2. cd %systemroot%
3. net stop wuauserv
4. ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
5. net start wuauserv
6. Close command prompt

The GUI solution:

1. Control Panel, Services (launch with admin rights)
2. Find the Windows Update service, and stop it.
3. Open Explorer to C:\Windows (Or wherever you installed Windows)
4. Find and rename the SoftwareDistribution folder to something else, like "SoftwareDistribution.old"
5. Start the Windows Update service again.

 

First published: June 10th 2007
Updated: September 11th 2007

Good Vista gadgets are currently difficult/impossible to locate.  The rather poor documentation, coupled with poor examples and a lack of a development environment (ever try debugging a gadget?) means that well designed gadgets with good HCI principles are few and far between.

 

Building background services that deliver core functionality but work well with other services can be challenging. This topic includes best practices and case studies for creating high performance background services that run on Windows Vista.

Describes the considerations necessary to build a good background service, the options available to create background processes that don’t overuse system resources, and the techniques used by Windows Search to achieve good citizenship while still delivering its core functionality.

This topic is written specifically for Windows Vista, but information on writing background services is generally applicable to other releases of Windows as well, including, but not limited to, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f8e87c7d-9404-4914-92ae-dde09389a64e&displaylang=en&tm

 

I received some nice spam from Bell.ca this morning.

It was sent from an authorized host, as per the SPF records:

"v=spf1 mx ip4:198.235.69.10 ip4:198.235.69.45 ip4:198.235.69.46 ip4:206.47.0.168 ip4:206.47.0.173 ip4:206.47.0.177 ip4:207.236.237.0/25 ip4:67.70.214.43 ip4:216.18.99.22 ip4:69.156.197.234 ip4:66.241.131.163 +all"

Message headers:

Received: from TOROON12-1242491208.sdsl.bell.ca (74.14.233.72) by
 mail.justinho.com ([internal ip removed]) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 8.0.744.0; Mon,
 10 Sep 2007 10:23:43 -0400
From: enlarge laser <xkpnzyx@bell.ca>
...
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-PRD: bell.ca
Received-SPF: Pass (orinoco.jupiterstation.justinho.com: domain of
 xkpnzyx@bell.ca designates 74.14.233.72 as permitted sender)
 receiver=orinoco.jupiterstation.justinho.com; client-ip=74.14.233.72;
 helo=TOROON12-1242491208.sdsl.bell.ca;
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-PCL: 2
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-Antispam-Report: DV:3.3.5707.600;SV:3.3.5708.437;SID:SenderIDStatus
 Pass;TIME:TimeBasedFeatures
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL: 4
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SenderIdResult: PASS

Someone's machine got pwn3d and started spewing junk.  I'm guessing the overly lax SPF record is due to poor control of things... =)

 

Revisions:
Originally published December 22 2006.

Summary:
The Dell CERC SATA 1.5/6ch RAID controller is a rebranded Adaptec card, available on Dell's PowerEdge 1800+ and NAS units.  Dell sold OEM solutions with this card, coupling it with 250GB or larger drives, touting a 1TB or larger storage solution in 4U.

The problem is, the card performs horribly, compared to other competing solutions.  This card is a poor representation of what SATA is capable of doing.  Avoid this card if you can.

Dell never officially made claims about the performance of this hardware, but providing it as an option, and refusing to publish benchmarks or performance data means that a lot of people have this card in production - and hate it.

If you need a SATA hardware RAID card for a file server, web server... get a 3Ware 9650SE card.

Details:
As Dell doesn't provide a BBU option with this card, I used this with the write cache disabled.  I had 3x320GB WD RE SATA 7200RPM drives in RAID5, and 2x120 WD SATA drives in RAID 1, attached.

I got around 40 MB/sec read and ~3 MB/s write with this card, on my RAID 5 set.  This is abysmal, considering its marketed as a "hardware RAID solution".  Updated the card firmware, as well as the server BIOS.  No use.

Contacting Dell was no help.  They scolded me for using a PE1800 with SATA disks; their SCSI solution was clearly the way to go.  At a premium of $2000 or more, it ought to be...

I made some changes in the BIOS, and discovered that if I disabled the onboard CERC2S SATA, and onboard LSI SCSI controller, I was able to get much better performance - around 40 MB read/write.

Characterizing the Poor performance:
I never spent the time to run benchmarks with this card.  Although I may have a chance in the future, now that I've FINALLY been able to get this card out of service.

However, I have rebuilt the RAID5 set on this card numerous times;

3xWD3200SD (RE, 8 MB cache, 7200RPM, SATA 1.5 Gbps, no NCQ), stripe size 64 kb.  Full rebuild with NO load on the drives took 82 hours.  EIGHTY-TWO HOURS.

Frustrated with the poor performance, I then added a 4th disk, so I had 4xWD3200SD plugged into a 3Ware 9650SE card.  Same 64 kb stipe.
With load on the disks, a rebuild to 42% completion took 3.23 hours.  The full rebuild around 7.5 hours.

Comparing just rebuild times, difference is night and day.  If I ever had a drive fail on the Dell CERC, I'd likely have another drive fail before the array even finished rebuilding.

I was scolded for having purchased a CERC 1.5/6ch SATA array for such a purpose.  The ONLY specifications that Dell had published on the array that they were able to give me over the phone was, "It uses an Intel processor for hardware RAID."

Conclusion:
I have a SATA "RAID" card that performs horribly.  While this card is perhaps a nice way to add 6 SATA ports to a system, the cost ($349 with cost of system) is quite hefty.  The 3Ware 9650SE 8 port comes in a $591 retail, but the performance difference, driver support, and management utilities are lightyears ahead.

 

Summary:

I recently got hold of an HP Media Center PC - a1720n.  There is so much junk in the preload.  If I bought this, and this was my first taste of Vista, I would return it and buy a Macintosh.  No wonder people hate Vista.

Background:

This a1720n Media Center PC is running Windows Vista Home Premium (OEM).  It is a Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz with 1 GB DDR2 RAM, a 320 GB HDD, DVD-DL, Intel 945 onboard graphics, 10/100 ethernet, media card reader, 56k modem, etc.  4 SATA ports.  A decent system.

Comments:

Toolbars are coming out of the system.  I! opened! the! case! and! discovered! a! Yahoo! toolbar! in! the! CPU! cooling! fan!  Norton wants to activate a 60 day trial.  HP welcome center wants me to make a backup DVD set of my computer; I placed a blank in the drive, waited for it compile files.  The burn failed at 2% on Verbatim media when the application crashed.  I'm told to sign up for a high speed internet connection since I decided not to plug this infested machine into my LAN right away.  A pre-installed DVD MPEG2 decoder breaks the Windows built-in decoder; I can't even watch a DVD.  I don't want to Get Vonage, and I don't want to Sign Up for AOL.  Yes, I know my HP warranty is active.  No, I don't want to make a backup of my computer, and no I don't want to try 100's of games.  I don't have a printer installed... and no I don't want to buy one now.  I'm running low on disk space!  Apparently, the recovery partition (which is tiny partition) only has 14% free!  Didn't this computer come with 320 gigabytes or megabytes or whatever that stuff is called?

Icons are everywhere, flashing buttons, trial software... The desktop looks like a teenager's face with a serious acne problem.

If this is the way people - HP, in this case - sell PCs, people will continue to hate Bill Gates.  No, I don't see a sudden marketshare drop; most people have accepted that their computers will not function the way they want... and these are the people who are too lazy to do anything about it.  But for those who have had enough... they will switch to company that sells machines that work.  Out of the box.  And since this will be chalked up to Bill Gates' fault, that means that Steve has a new "convert".

The inherant problem with Windows is not the operating system itself.  With the release of Vista, it's not even the applications, viruses, or the hardware/driver problems.  It's the OEMs that are paid to install junk on the system, ruining the OOBE (out of box experience) that Microsoft worked so hard to develop.  They've stomped all over the fit and polish.

People who try other platforms aren't "converts" - they've just had enough of junk in the preload.

Conclusion:

I'm placing my Vista media in the drive now, and formatting the machine with a fresh, clean copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, using the license code on the side of the machine.

If you own this model computer, I suggest you do the same.  If you don't own a copy of the clean Vista install DVD, don't ask the people at the Genius Bar.  They won't be much help, I'm afraid.

 

I've been looking at the Lenovo X61 tablet recently.  No, it's not for me... =)  But I will get to play with it!

Reviews seem to be hard to come by; perhaps it is due to it's recent release, the huge choice between models, and the inability of the general public to publish anything.  Most of what I've found has been related to the X61 or X61s.  While the X61 tablet is based on those machines, its particular configuration that makes it a tablet PC makes it unique.

Reviews I've found:

• http://www.tabletpcreview.com/printArticle.asp?newsid=896
• http://www.studenttabletpc.com/2007/07/another_student_review_of_the_lenovo_x61_tablet_yours_trulys.html
• http://www.christopherwelle.com/2007/08/lenovo-thinkpad-x61-tablet-1-week.html (et al.)
• http://www.reviewpub.net/2007/07/thinkpad-x61-ta.html

Platform details:

• http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67438
• http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-68040

My particular hardware specifications: (via http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/quickPath.do?quickPathEntry=7767-A4U&quickPathEntry.x=11&quickPathEntry.y=9)

• X61 tablet, part 7767-A4U (it grinds my gears when people post specs without the part number when writing reviews)
• L7500(1.6GHz)
• 1GB RAM (will be upgraded!)
• 160GB 5400rpm HD
• 12.1in 1400x1050 LCD
• Intel X3100
• Intel 802.11agn
• Bluetooth and Modem
• 1Gb Ethernet
• X6 UltraBase+CDRW/DVDRW
• Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 8c Li-Ion
• Windows Vista Business (32-bit)

Once I get some time to play with one, I'll post some more details.

 

Summary:

You get a message that the Transport Service is unable to offer STARTTLS SMTP verb for "fqdn.yourdomain.com".  So tell it to use the certificate for SMTP as well.

Problem Description:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeTransport
Event Category: TransportService
Event ID: 12014
Description:
Microsoft Exchange couldn't find a certificate that contains the domain name FQDN.domain.com in the personal store on the local computer. Therefore, it is unable to offer the STARTTLS SMTP verb for any connector with a FQDN parameter of FQDN.domain.com. Verify the connector configuration and the installed certificates to make sure that there is a certificate with a domain name for every connector FQDN.

Solution:

Fire up the Exchange shell. =)

1. Identify the certificate currently installed, selecting for information we care about:
   Get-ExchangeCertificate | fl CertificateDomains, Services, thumbprint, status, isSelfSigned
   (we are looking for the FQDN certificate, that is valid, active, and presumably not self-signed.  We want the thumbprint of said certificate.  You can also use a filter of * to get all properties/attributes.  ie. Get-ExchangeCertificate | fl *)
2. Now find the thumbprint of the certificate in question and enable it for SMTP.
   Enable-ExchangeCertificate -services IIS, UM, SMTP, IMAP, POP -thumbprint XXXXXXXX

Further reading:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/07/02/445698.aspx

 

• YouTubeX let's you download and save YouTubeX videos to your computer's hard drive.
  • http://www.youtubex.com/
• Transcode your existing videofiles to the advanced Flash Video (FLV) format with this free Riva FLV Encoder.  At present you can transcode the following formats: AVI, MPEG, Quicktime, WMV.
• Supported codecs: http://www.rivavx.com/index.php?encoderhelp&L=3
• Get Riva FLV Encoder: http://www.rivavx.com/index.php?encoder&L=3
• Watch Michael Geist, Putting Canadian "Piracy" in Perspective
• http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2094/125 or
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TloG6qL3gg

 

Active Directory Explorer (AD Explorer) is an advanced Active Directory (AD) viewer and editor. You can use AD Explorer to easily navigate an AD database, define favorite locations, view object properties and attributes without having to open dialog boxes, edit permissions, view an object's schema, and execute sophisticated searches that you can save and re-execute.

AD Explorer also includes the ability to save snapshots of an AD database for off-line viewing and comparisons. When you load a saved snapshot, you can navigate and explorer it as you would a live database. If you have two snapshots of an AD database you can use AD Explorer's comparison functionality to see what objects, attributes and security permissions changed between them.

AD Explorer works on Windows 2000 and higher.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/adexplorer.mspx

 

Yep - my blog got spammed.

http://www.resquel.com/ssb/PermaLink,guid,ac6327d4-b323-4b92-9311-50f47efd137a.aspx has a nice tool to get rid of DasBlog referral spam.

Hopefully that cleans things up... but how did they do it...?  No time to waste figuring it out.

 

Problem

ActiveSync devices, and Outlook clients happily sync against an Exchange 2003 server.

Then you migrate to Exchange 2007.  "Error 0x80072f0d" starts appearing on the devices.  If you publish (via ISA) your RPC directory without HTTPS/SSL encryption, everything works fine.

No matter how you install your CA cert - it doesn't work.  Same error message.

Discussion

The reason behind this is because in Exchange 2007, the Autodiscover service – which is used to find things like free/busy, OOF, Automatic e-mail profile configuration, OAB, etc for Outlook 2007 clients – requires SSL. Therefore, the certificate used needs to have the FQDN of Autodiscover added as a Subject Alternative Name.

As you may know, when you create a certificate there's a 'common name' associated with that certificate...usually in the form of something like "mail.domain.com."

The Subject Alternative Name field is used to add additional DNS names to the certificate. So if it doesn't have an SAN for autodiscover.domain.com it means that it won't validate requests to the Autodiscover service. If you would be using Outlook 2007 clients connecting remotely using RPC/HTTPS and purchasing a 3rd party certificate then you will need to contact your certificate vendor for a certificate that includes the Subject Alternative Name. Instructions for generating a certificate request that can be sent to a 3rd party or Microsoft CA - which includes the SAN for autodiscover is documented as below.

Please note that  the new certificate from your 3rd party Certificate vendor  or Internal CA  should contain the “Subject Alternative Name” (SAN) with the below DNS values.
 
The entries that the “SAN” should contain are as below:
 
DNS Name = Internet Published OWA URL
DNS Name = CAS machine NETBIOS name
DNS Name = CAS machine Full Computer  Name
DNS Name = Internal Domain Name (FQDN )
DNS Name = autodiscover.<InternalDomainName>
DNS Name = autodiscover.<ExternalDomainName>

Please note the first DNS name should always be the Internet Published OWA URL. The order of the other DNS name don’t matter.

 

Summary

An error occurs while migrating mail from mailboxes on a legacy Exchange 2003 server, when moving to an Exchange 2007 mailbox server.

Error
The mailbox has been moved, but an unexpected error occurred while trying to apply policies or clean source mailbox: An Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found.

An Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found.

A dump is being generated.

Solution

• Start Microsoft Exchange System Attendant
• If the service repeatedly bombs out, verify functionality of your DCs - and the global catalogs
• Run "netdom query fsmo" (from Support Tools)
• Next, run "dcdiag /s:SERVER /v" where SERVER is each of the servers handling roles above, and all of your DCs.
• Run "netdiag" on each of your DCs as necessary to verify that the NICs are functional.  Ensure the NICs are configured to register themselves in the DNS.

 

 

Background

While installing first Exchange 2007 server in an Exchange 2003 domain, setup fails during /PREPAREAD

Error Message

Preparing Exchange Setup
No server roles will be installed

Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check
    Organization Checks              ......................... COMPLETED
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
    Organization Preparation         ......................... FAILED

The object 'CN=All Groups,CN=All Address Lists,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=<name>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<name>,DC=<name>,DC=<ending>' already exists.

This can also happen to "All Contacts" and "All Users", and is likely inherited from an Exchange 5.5/2000/2003 upgrade.

Solution

1. Access ADSIEdit (available via Support Tools on Server CD, \SUPPORT)
2. Open Configuration, Configuration Folder, Services, Microsoft Exchange
3. Open Domain folder (ie. "Company Name")
4. Address List Container, All Address Lists
5. Right click on each of All Contacts, All Groups, All Users and choose Properties.
6. Locate the property, "purportedSearch", of type "Unicode String" and verify their contents as follows:
   All Contacts
   Replace (& (| (mail=*) (proxyAddresses=*) (textEncodedORAddress=*)) (| (& (objectCategory=person) (objectClass=contact)) ))
   with (& (mailnickname=*) (| (objectCategory=group) ))
   All Groups
   Replace (& (| (mail=*) (proxyAddresses=*) (textEncodedORAddress=*)) (| (objectCategory=group) ))
   with (& (mailnickname=*) (| (objectCategory=group) ))
   All Users
   Replace (& (| (mail=*) (proxyAddresses=*) (textEncodedORAddress=*)) (| (& (objectCategory=person) (objectClass=user)) ))
   with (& (mailnickname=*) (| (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!(homeMDB=*))(!(msExchHomeServerName=*)))(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(homeMDB=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*))) ))
   
   Be careful with wraparound.
   Update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936907/en-us may have more information that you may find useful!
7. Re-attempt setup /prepareAD

 

 

 

 

Background

A ADC was previously used in a domain to migrate from Exchange 5.5.  The server was formatted/lost without removal of the ADC, leaving ghosted AD entries in the metabase.

Error message

     One or more Active Directory Connectors have been found. Please remove all Active Directory Connectors before installing Exchange 2007.

Solution

1. ADC was installed and uninstalled from Exchange 2003 media.  \ADC\i386.
2. Replicate all DC connections in Sites and Services.
3. Next, access ADSIEdit - install from \SUPPORT on Server 2003 disk if necessary.
4. Open the Configuration container, the the Configuration folder, CN=Services.
5. Open the Microsoft Exchange folder, and the Active Directory Connections folder.
6. Only the default ADC policy should exist - DELETE any references to Exchange 5.5 in a secondary connector.
7. The image below shows a fully functional configuration, with the EXCH/5.5 connection removed.
8. Replicate all the AD connections via Sites and Services before reattempting installation.

 

If, during installation, you are not connected to the Internet, use this checklist to ensure you have the necessary prerequisites installed prior to installing Exchange Server 2007. These checks are done automatically when connected to the Internet during installation. By completing this checklist, your system will be better prepared to deploy Exchange Server 2007.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2007/deploy/prereqs.mspx?wt.svl=preparing

 

 

Problem

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MSDTC
Event Category: SVC
Event ID: 53258
Date:  06/07/2007
Time:  12:08:38 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: <name>
Description:
MS DTC could not correctly process a DC Promotion/Demotion event. MS DTC will continue to function and will use the existing security settings. Error Specifics: d:\nt\com\complus\dtc\dtc\adme\uiname.cpp:9351, Pid: 1524
No Callstack,
 CmdLine: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msdtc.exe

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 05 00 07 80               ...€ 

Solution

• Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools.
• Open Component Services.
• Open the Console Root, then Component Services.
• Computers, My Computer.
• Right click, Properties
• MSDTC tab, click "Security Configuration" at the bottom under "Transaction Configuration"
• On the dialog box that opens, click "OK" - with no changes.
• Restart MS DTC (Right click on My Computer in the tree view.)

 

Abstract

Windows 2003 Volume Shadow Services (VSS) scheduled snapshots/backups do not run.
To resolve the problem, delete the file located in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\S-1-5-18\" then recreate all scheduled tasks.

Problem

Windows 2003 Volume Shadow Shadow Services schedules snapshots based on user schedules.  This functionality does not appear to work on some machines.  Even when VSS is disabled and re-enabled, snapshots do not occur at scheduled times.

Solution

Delete the file located in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\S-1-5-18\" then recreate all scheduled tasks.

Discussion

After a machine is promoted to a domain controller, or joined to a domain, these scheduled tasks do not appear to run due to permission problems.  Deleting this file will nuke all scheduled tasks - and everything will have to be rescheduled.  Ensure also that the Task Scheduler service and the Volume Shadow Services are running correctly.

Bibliography

See also http://www.aniltj.com/blog/2005/12/18/SBS2003BackupsNotRunningKeysetDoesNotExistError.aspx

 

Summary:

With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free!

Link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7aad7e6a-931e-438a-950c-5e9ea66322d4&displaylang=en

 

Chris Bowen, a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft has compiled a list of Silverlight 1.0 & 1.1 games that are currently available, each (but one) with source:

• "Dr. Popper" [source] - Burst the matching bubbles, the more, the better.
• "Digger" [source] - Sort of Dig-Dug meets Montezuma's Revenge.
• "Zero Gravity" [no source available yet] - An addictive and well-made game!  A nice example of the possibilities of the platform.
• "Chess" [source] - Your basic chess, but shows how Silverlight 1.1 with .NET fares against a JavaScript-based AI.
• "Sprawl" [source] - A good demonstration of potential with Silverlight 1.0.
• "Destroy All Invaders" [source] - A cool mashup with Virtual Earth where you fly over the oblique angle view of a location of your choice while shooting UFOs.
• "Silverlight Rocks!" [source] - A shoot the asteroids game.

If you're interested in learning more about game development with Silverlight, Bill Reiss has been working on a great series of tutorial posts on his Silverlight Games 101 blog.  Start reading from the bottom first, where he start with a basic game canvas, then adds sprites, a game loop, keyboard input, etc.

 

Problem summary:

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005's UI sucks.  Cut the sketch.  Cut the dirty web application.  Use VMRCplus.

Recommended Solution:

Use VMRCplus.

What does VMRCplus offer, you ask?

• Direct control of local or remote instances of the Virtual Server service. IIS and IE browser are no longer required!
• Tabbed interface to quickly jump between Virtual Server hosts and guest VMRC sessions. 
• Reusable saved states: this feature allows users to preserve a particular saved state and return to that state at any time. 
• Multiple guest selection supported for startup/shutdown/save/display. 
• Browse button navigation for media, hard disk images, ISO images, .VMC files, etc. 
• Drag and Drop support for .VMC files, ISO's images, VHD and VFD files. 
• Resizable desktop support for guests running Virtual Machine Additions (maximize VMRC window supported). 
• Limited cut and paste of text from host to guest (only). 
• A built-in utility to take JPG screenshots of running guests. Useful when filing bugs. 
• Built-in error notification with Virtual Server event log viewer. 
• A Virtual Networks Manager and Virtual Disks Manager that cover all features. 
• Keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl-S to save state a guest).
• Create multiple guests at once.
• Create guest from parent (or multiple guests)!
• Automatic reconnect to a designated Virtual Server host.
• Toolbars in both Guest and Console Manager for quick access.
• Unlimited number of guests.
• Maximum of 32 Virtual Server hosts.
• Sorting on columns of guests so you can sort based on status and multi-select.
• Automatic detection of Virtual Machine Additions and notification.
• Detection of Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1.

Download source:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=80ADC08C-BFC6-4C3A-B4F1-772F550AE791&displaylang=en

via http://www.techlog.org/archive/2007/06/28/manage_your_virtual_server_mac#body

 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e4f8c697-3a33-445e-a7c2-a2df53c40f85&DisplayLang=en

 

Summary:

When running an Intel Viiv chipset without Windows Media Center edition, an unknown device with PnP ID "ACPI\AWY0001\2&DABA3FF&0" is shown as an unknown device.

This is the Intel Quick Resume Technology - either disable it in the BIOS, or install the driver.

Recommendation:

Disable it in the BIOS if possible.

Solutions:

Intel Quick Resume Technology - QRTD
To disable Intel QRTD the BIOS, complete the following steps:

In the BIOS, select Power.
Select Intel QRTD.
Select disable.
Select Exit and save.

Note: Intel QRTD is needed for Intel® Viiv™ Technology? brand verification and future updates.
http://www.intel.com/support/desktopplatforms/viiv/sb/cs-022023.htm

Driver: http://www.intel.com/support/desktopplatforms/viiv/sb/CS-021769.htm
Download: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2223

Update: 07/02/2008

Because Intel decided to remove all the links, here are the direct download links: (I believe newer versions work on XP as well.)

Version 1.53 WinXP http://downloadmirror.intel.com/12514/a08/ivt153_setup_multi.exe
Version 1.6 http://downloadmirror.intel.com/12564/a08/ivt1602_setup_multi.exe
Version 1.71 Upgrade http://downloadmirror.intel.com/13949/a08/ivt171_setup_multi_upgrade.exe

You may also try: http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/docexpress.asp?st=pn&param=1014151

 

Mail PassView is a small password-recovery tool that reveals the passwords and other account details for the following email clients:

Outlook Express
Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only)
Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003/2007 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts)
Windows Mail
IncrediMail
Eudora
Netscape 6.x/7.x
Mozilla Thunderbird
Group Mail Free
Yahoo! Mail - If the password is saved in Yahoo! Messenger application.
Hotmail/MSN mail - If the password is saved in MSN Messenger application.
Gmail - If the password is saved by Gmail Notifier application, Google Desktop, or by Google Talk.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mailpv.html

 

Here's some marketing information about the T61 and X61 line.

Looks like the 4:3 screen aspect ratio is being phased out.  Argh.

 

lenovoT61X611.pdf (2.44 MB)
 

Summary

Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet cafe, a library, or even in your home, Windows SteadyState helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them.

Shared computers are commonly found in schools, Internet and gaming cafés, libraries, and community centers. It is increasingly common for owners, teachers, or non-technical personnel to manage shared computers in addition to their many other responsibilities.

Managing shared computers can be difficult, technically challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. And what’s more, without system restrictions and protections, users can inadvertently change the desktop appearance, reconfigure system settings, and introduce unwanted software, viruses, and other harmful programs. Repairing damaged shared computers can require significant time and effort.

User privacy is also an issue for shared computer environments. Shared computers often use shared user accounts that make Internet history, saved documents, and cached Web pages available to subsequent users.

Windows SteadyState provides a more effective way to help defend shared computers from changes by untrusted users and unwanted software installations. It can also help safeguard system resources.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d077a52d-93e9-4b02-bd95-9d770ccdb431&displaylang=en&tm

 

SoftGrid Sequencer (4.1.1.303)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/6/c/06cf3aac-347e-4e42-9355-fcfcec3c7f43/SoftGrid_sequencer_setup_4.1.1.303.exe

SoftGrid Server (4.1.1.302)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/f/c/afc8cf1f-d271-426e-923a-b04a34674c3c/SoftGrid_server_setup_4.1.1.302.exe

SoftGrid for Terminal Services (4.1.1.302)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/0/1/f01b4fcd-8778-4e49-b56c-7ae6ab72f6ff/SoftGrid_ts_setup_4.1.1.302.exe

SoftGrid for Windows Desktops (4.1.1.302)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/8/5b87fbe8-5973-4a57-9b04-44e2f3d80be4/SoftGrid_wd_setup_4.1.1.302.exe

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938497/en-us

 

Problem

A bug exists in Exchange 2007 when a message with 'inline' attachments is delivered. This bug causes Outlook 2003 to not display the message attachments correctly.

Source

http://knicksmith.blogspot.com/2007/03/exchange-2007-and-outlook-2003-where.html

Workarounds

One of the following:

• Open the message and save the attachments: This one is a little counter-intuitive. Even though Outlook 2003 doesn’t display the attachments, it can still access them. By selecting the ‘Save Attachments’ option from the ‘File’ menu will allow you view and save the attachments.
• Forward the message: This gives you 2 options. 1) Forwarding the message to yourself will display the correct attachment information in the new message. 2) When composing the forwarded message you will see the attachments.
• Flag the message: ‘Flagging’ the message will cause Outlook 2003 to write information about the message to the Exchange database. This process will cause Outlook 2003 to set the appropriate information so that it displays attachments correctly.
• Upgrade to Outlook 2007
• Have the sender send 'real attachments': Since the problem only exists with 'inline' attachments the sender can change their mail client to send ‘real attachments’ and avoid future problems sending attachments to your organization. **Note: Mozilla mail clients send ‘inline’ attachments by default when composing HTML email. Instructions for changing this behavior can be found here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Send_attachments_as_real_attachments .
  

 

/owa /exchange and other virtual directories in Exchange 2007: The key difference between CAS and FE is that CAS contains the business logic and renders the OWA UI. This presented us with a challenge: how do we allow Exchange 2007 CAS servers to coexist with Exchange 2007 Mailbox and Exchange 2003/2000 Mailbox servers? The solution depends on how the server is configured.

Continued: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/02/07/434523.aspx

 

Summary

 

Summary

As part of the Software Assurance package, the Softricity SoftGrid Virtual Application Server causes error "410038-0FA0EA12-00006002" when the management console is launched on the same machine.

Background

This package is part of the Software Assurance download.

Problem

After installation, launching the MMC snap-in causes the following message:

"The SoftGrid Client could not connect to localhost.  An unexpected error was encountered.  Please report the following error code to your system administrator.  Error code: 410038-0FA0EA12-00006002"

Solution

Not applicable.  Unresolved.

Discussion

Event viewer reports, "sftcmc.dll, 4.1.0.56, sftcmc.dll, 4.1.0.56, 0000b1a3" as part of the problem.
This was installed on a Windows 2003 R2 server.  ASP.net v2.0 and IIS were installed prior to the installation of SoftGrid Server.
The SoftGrid Client does not run on the localhost and is unable to connect to the server.
All services are started and working according to the Service Manager and the Event Viewer.

 

Summary

Running IBM/Lenovo System Update on a ThinkPad on any OS other than XP and Vista results in an error message similar to "An error occurred while gathering user information."  This can be resolved if compatibility mode is enabled - so that the system reports it is running Windows XP.

Background

Running Windows 2003 R2 server on a ThinkPad is not a System Updated supported scenario.  The OS being reported to System Update is not handled properly, and this error message is displayed.

"An error occurred while gathering user information"

Problem

A dialog box saying, "An error occurred while gathering user information" is displayed when System Update is launched and starts searching for updates.  Failures usually occur between 6-10% in the progress indicator.

Solution

Right click on the shortcut that launches System Update, Properties, and Compatibility tab.  Run System update in compatibility mode for Windows XP.

Discussion

This was a scenario that was resolved while running Windows 2003 R2 Server w/SP2 on a ThinkPad T40.
System Update 3.00.0028 build date 2007-02-12.
This is not likely to resolve these issues for users already running Windows XP or 2000 or Vista; the OS version string being reported is not likely to be the cause of this error message.

 

Executive summary:  It works now - Version 4.41 (build 7RCN26WW) properly manages network connections in Windows Vista.  I recommend it.

Background: Windows Vista, along with most OSes have a poor/incomplete facility to manage network connections, especially on laptops.  When multiple WLAN profiles are necessary, additional software, such as Access Connections helps to manage the switch between networks, allowing users to save "profiles" which can be applied automatically once a certain network is detected in range.

Problem: Don't you hate having to jump through hoops to static your IP on one network, and have to jump back to DHCP on another?  Don't understand what a dynamic IP is?  Just want your computer to work when you connect to a new network?

Recommendation: Try it if you have a ThinkPad running Windows XP or Vista.  Set your network profiles up.  You'll wonder how you survived without it.

Discussion: Designed to completely eliminate the need to 'fuss' with settings upon changing locations, Access Connections brilliantly offers to change every relevent setting upon the application of a network profile.  It will change your proxy settings, automatically open a VPN tunnel, and run scripts/programs upon the detection and application of a network profile.  It handles dial-up profiles, home page settings, wireless encryption keys such as WPA2, as well as changing your default printer.

Program is available via System Update or here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-67283.html.  Click here to download the Deployment Guide. Click here to download the Administrator Profile Deployment Feature tool. Click here to download the Access Connections client configuration policy plug-in for Active Directory.

 

Answer: Blu-Ray.

Details:

So here's the thing. We've gotten a few e-mails over the last couple days - okay, a lot more than a few - about Harry Knowles over at Ain't it Cool News going on the record saying that he's chosen HD-DVD and why, and how all his director friends tell him HD-DVD is the way to go, and how he "might be wrong" but has a knack for picking winning formats so there you go. Yeah. Well... look, we love Harry and the guys over at AICN. We love 'em a bunch. But flat out, we think Harry is wrong on this one. And since somebody needs to say it, we may as well step up to the plate.

It's funny, Doogan e-mailed yesterday about this: "I love the statement that his deciding factor was the reverse compatibility of HD-DVD. This is why people are afraid. Because people in power, who don't know s--t and shouldn't be talking s--t ARE talking. Harry should remove this post because it's flat out wrong." Todd... God bless him. All things considered, passion may have gotten the best of him there for a moment. But I understand his point. Like I said, Headgeek knows his movies and he is big-time plugged into the theatrical side of the business. He's entitled to his opinion, and I respect him for speaking his mind. But when it comes to the home video side, Harry's maybe a little out of his element. He seems to be rather new to the whole high-def disc thing. And unfortunately, he's got many of his facts wrong.

For the record, Harry says: "The kicker is... that it can play the 9000 or so DVDs I already have, as well as the HD DVDs. That Backwards compatibility feels right."

Well... a LOT of things feel right, and we agree, backwards compatibility is one of them. But Blu-ray is backwards compatible too. It is fully 100% capable of playing all your DVDs. Worth noting.

Later in the discussion thread, Harry claims: "Porn is HD DVD - it will win. I have faith in Porn."

Not to sully the good reputation of the porn biz, but this argument is so six months ago. As we've said before, porn will not decide this format war. Yes, porn decided the VHS/Betamax format war... because at the time, the only way to watch adult films was to visit a seedy movie theater on the wrong side of town or to spool up a Super-8 or 16mm film. So when porn on videotape became available (largely on VHS) that you could watch in the privacy of your own home, people went nuts for it. Unfortunately for Harry's argument, not only are there literally hundreds of thousands of $10 adult DVDs available, free porn is EVERYWHERE on the Net. And that's what companies like Vivid see as the future - downloading high-def porn to your PC. Read my lips: Skin flicks WILL NOT decide this format war.

Later, Harry adds more: "and right now... there's something along the lines of 545 titles on HD DVD and only 62 for Blue Ray. That's nearly getting close to 10 to 1 in terms of selection."

Here's a MAJOR fact check: According to Ralph Tribbey's excellent and highly accurate DVD Release Report, here's the official U.S. title tally as of 5/23 for each format: HD-DVD - 201 titles released, plus 57 more announced. Blu-ray - 237 titles released with 40 more announced.

Maybe Harry meant adult titles? Yeah, not so much. Adult DVD Empire shows all of 9 actual HD-DVD adult titles available at the moment.

How are all those high-def titles selling? Let's see what Nielsen VideoScan says (click here and look at page one of this digital edition of Home Media): As of 5/20, Blu-ray leads HD-DVD in overall software sales, 57% to 43% since both formats launched. The more recent trends are more lopsided: Blu-ray is outselling HD-DVD 67% to 33% year-to-date for 2007. That's a 2 to 1 margin, DESPITE the fact that HD-DVD claims to have sold many more actual stand-alone players than Blu-ray Disc.

How about the most recent sales numbers? Okay... let's consider 5/22, when Disney debuted both Pirates of the Caribbean films on Blu-ray against Warner's dual Matrix box sets on HD-DVD. According to Home Media: "The two “Pirates” films sold a combined total of nearly 47,000 units, while the higher-priced “Matrix” sets sold about 13,900 units." So more people purchased BOTH Pirates BDs than purchased any Matrix box set - even the cheaper one. Warner's recent The Departed provides another case in point. By their own admission, the studio sold 58,300 copies on Blu-ray and just 35,300 on HD-DVD.

As for Harry's later comment in the Talk Back about "a lot of Reg DVDs are beginning to master in higher resolutions..."

Here's the thing... the Hollywood studios have been mastering their films in high-def for DVD release for YEARS now. Plus, lots of cheap standard DVD players already upconvert 480p DVDs to 1080 resolution via HDMI. Not just HD-DVD players. And yes, Blu-ray players do this too. It's pretty a common feature these days.

Look... like I said, we love Harry. But we think he's wrong on this one. It seems his DVD player broke, and when he saw that Toshiba had slashed their HD-DVD player prices to $299, he couldn't resist. For that, we can't blame him. But we CANNOT join him in recommending the HD-DVD format to ANYONE, no matter how cheap.

We've been involved with the home video industry for ten years now. Way back in 1997, when most people didn't even know what DVD was, we were telling people it was going to be the biggest thing since the CD. We were having conversations with the Hollywood studios that first year, where even the most senior studio executives were telling us we were crazy to think DVD was ever going to be anything more than a niche format. But we were right then. We gave the world it's first look at Circuit City's Divx format, and then said it was going to fail. We were right about that too. We were right about the need for the studios to support DVD's anamorphic widescreen capability, to ensure the highest video quality possible at the time, and we lobbied them hard to do so. Here at The Bits, we interact on a daily basis with studio personnel at all levels, with authoring/technical staffers, with DVD producers, with filmmakers and with hardware manufacturers. So we're pretty good at having our finger on the pulse of the home video industry, and knowing what the trends are. And anyone who has read The Bits since we started will know that, over the years, we've been right about a LOT more things than we've been wrong.

And all of that experience tells us this: HD-DVD is not going to win this format war. In fact, one of two things is possible right now: Either Blu-ray will win, or neither format will win. But the best HD-DVD can hope for is to just keep hanging in the game as long as possible.

Our readers trust us to give it to them straight, and to help guide them through the confusing home video landscape in such a way that they don't end up wasting their money. HD-DVD is a great format technically, but its business model is an utter and complete disaster from which it will not recover.

Meanwhile, Blu-ray is just as good technically and quality-wise, it has the support of EVERY HOLLYWOOD STUDIO BUT UNIVERSAL, it has the support of the MAJORITY OF HARDWARE MANUFACTURERS, and nearly the ENTIRE computer industry. There are lots of great titles coming out, many more titles are on the way, there are more models of stand-alone players available and they're getting cheaper all the time. Blu-ray Disc is by FAR the smarter choice. If you want spend the safe money, there's your best bet.

We've been following this stupid, cursed high-def format war since the beginning, and it's driving us crazy. But we'll admit that maybe one good thing HAS come of it: HD-DVD cutting their prices so quickly has forced Blu-ray to do the same. But that's a double-edged sword.

Let's get back to that business model problem I mentioned a moment ago. It should come as a surprise to no one that Toshiba has been losing money on their HD-DVD players (as is typical for hardware of any new format in the first few years - BD manufacturers deal with this as well). But in the last couple of weeks, the company has been slashing prices dramatically and offering $100 rebates, effectively bringing the cost of the HD-A2 to $299. That seems like a great deal, and Harry certainly jumped on it. Hell, we wouldn't be surprised to see Toshiba slash down to $199 or even less by the holidays at this rate. But it means that Toshiba is losing even MORE money on HD-DVD hardware than they were before, which can't have a positive impact on their overall business. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call this a fire sale, but it sure smacks of desperation on Toshiba's part. But there's another, bigger problem with this as well. What other major HD-DVD manufacturer wants to compete with that?

The HD-DVD camp has long touted cheaper players as its big trump card, even going so far as to promote future super-cheap, off-brand models at CES this past January. But all this does is basically ensure that FEW OTHER MAJOR MANUFACTURERS WILL JOIN THE HD-DVD CAMP. Where's the business incentive to do so? If you can't make a profit, there's no point. Sure, LG and Samsung are making pricey combo players available that will play both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, but that's only because they know that a small enthusiast market will be willing to pay $1200+ for one. Neither has announced cheaper HD-DVD-only players to compete with Toshiba's and we think they're unlikely to do so. RCA has dabbled in the format with one model, the price of which has been slashed to move at $299 (down from around $500). Meridian revealed at CES that they may release one in the fall (likely be a pricier high-end model, targeted towards audio/video enthusiasts). But that's hardly a landslide of hardware support.

When you look at the facts and trends, it seem to us here at The Bits that the ONLY thing the HD-DVD camp has to crow about right now is that they're the cheaper option. If that's all you have going for you, cheaper might win you a battle or two, but without more studio and industry support, it's never going to win you the war.

Meanwhile, on the Blu-ray side, Stan Glasgow (the president of Sony Electronics) has made recent press statements to the effect that the company's Blu-ray players could drop to as low as $299 by the holidays this year (click here). Other BD manufacturers (including Pioneer, Panasonic, Philips and Samsung) will have cheaper players available by the end of the year as well, some of them in the $399 price range. But again, here's the difference: They'll play Blu-ray movies from EVERY HOLLYWOOD STUDIO BUT UNIVERSAL and yes... all your standard DVDs too.

Let's look at the studio support side. HD-DVD has just one major exclusive studio supporter: Universal. Blu-ray has FIVE: Disney, Fox, MGM, Lionsgate and Sony. Which group do you think is more likely to go format neutral first? For better or worse, one of the reasons some of these studios sided with Blu-ray exclusively is because that format offers them an additional layer of content protection: BD+ (the details of which Sony is soon to finalize according to this story at Audioholics). By the way, that Audioholics story hints that Fox has a particular interest in BD+ protection for its high-def titles, which could be why they've delayed all those Fox and MGM catalog Blu-ray titles they talked about at CES. With AACS already smarting from a series of cracks, hacks and work-arounds that have exposed existing high-def titles (including The Matrix) to copying, does anyone really think those studios are going to start releasing their titles on HD-DVD format, especially when Blu-ray is already dominating software sales? Again, there's no incentive whatsoever.

Speaking of Sony... you know it's funny. Based on the e-mails we get here at The Bits, it seems like hatred of Sony is one of the biggest reasons those who side with HD-DVD give for doing so. "What about that whole root kit fiasco? Sony sucks! They're all about greed! F--- Sony!!"

Well... this might surprise some people, but this format war is about NOTHING but greed, as we've been saying for years now. But there's plenty of greed to go around, believe me. So what about the CD root kit thing? Yeah, that was stupid. Sony should have gotten spanked for that, and it seems to us that did. But people tend to forget one thing about Sony. Back when it was time to negotiate the details of the DVD format between all the industry players, there were also two competing candidate formats. But Philips and Sony caved and abandoned their MultiMedia Compact Disc, and agreed to go along with Toshiba's SuperDensity Disc. The result was DVD - a single unified format from which we've all benefitted. What was the result of that? Toshiba made millions off the patients for the DVD disc structure, which Sony lost out on. At an industry conference last year, Warren Lieberfarb revealed during a panel that, right after standard DVD launched, Sony approached him about the need to start working on the high-def version, but the HD-DVD Group felt it was too early and wasn't interested. So Sony started working on their own high-def format. It's hard for us to fault Sony for not wanting to lose out on such massive royalty profits a second time. Certainly, Toshiba had no interest in sharing some of those royalty fees during the attempts to negotiate a single high-def standard. In any case, as a longtime manufacturer of video equipment, at least Sony has a legitimate reason to be in the game.

What we've found most puzzling about this format war, is why Microsoft - a company that makes neither movies and TV shows or home theater hardware, is arguably the single biggest corporate supporter of the HD-DVD format outside of Toshiba and Universal. And though no one will say it on the record (though many industry insiders admit, off the record, that they believe it), we'd be surprised if Microsoft wasn't subsidizing both Toshiba's hardware losses and Universal's exclusive commitment to HD-DVD in some way. That's just our gut feeling. We can't prove it. But even Warner, which has a significant financial stake in the disc structure patients for DVD (and thus HD-DVD) has opted to support both high-def formats. Meanwhile, Microsoft has an office of "HD-DVD Evangelism" in house.

So why would Microsoft do this? The are three reasons why it makes good business sense for the company. First, having HD-DVD playback capability on their Xbox 360 (via the add-on drive) is a smart strategic move to counter-balance Sony's having Blu-ray playback capability built into their PS3 system. Second, HD-DVD uses Microsoft's VC-1 video compression codec almost exclusively. For a variety of reasons - not the least of which is that it's a great codec - this has encouraged a number of Blu-ray Disc studios to adopt VC-1 as well, so more and more Blu-ray releases utilize it too. This again benefits Microsoft. But more importantly, Microsoft's real long-term goal is to dominate the content downloading arena - particularly the downloading of entertainment content to devices in living rooms. That's what many industry observers, including many in Hollywood, see as the ultimate future of the home video industry. Selling lots of Xbox 360s and having everyone adopt the VC-1 codec (not to mention their iHD interactivity spec) both work to further Microsoft's goals in this area by helping to drive the growth of Xbox Live. According to the company's own recent press releases, Xbox Live is already "the number one online distributor of television and feature film content in the living room where it's most easy for consumers to access." In addition, "the service has quickly become the number two online distributor of television and feature film content, second to iTunes." Finally, Xbox Live is currently "the ONLY online distributor of major feature films and television programming in high definition (HD) resolution."

Microsoft doesn't give a rip about HD-DVD, or movies on disc at all for that matter, except to the extent that backing HD-DVD for a while now both undermines Sony's efforts and leverages Microsoft's success in achieving their ultimate goal of dominating the future of online distribution of digital entertainment. That's how we see it.

So how do we foresee this format war playing out? Our prediction is that by this time next year, Universal will have gone format neutral, agreeing to support Blu-ray Disc in addition to HD-DVD. It could happen at CES in January 2008, it could even happen sooner. When that happens, and we do believe it's a matter of when and not if, this format war will effectively be over. Which matters not to Microsoft, because VC-1, the 360 and Xbox Live will do just fine either way. If Blu-ray begins to dominate this thing, Microsoft will simply announce a Blu-ray add-on drive for the 360 and continue on their merry way.

That doesn't mean that HD-DVD is going to die or disappear. We'd bet that most, if not all, of the studios that currently support HD-DVD will continue to do so, at least for a while. And I'll remind you (though I know many HD-DVD fans will continue to claim otherwise) that none of what we've said is intended to disparage the HD-DVD format itself. It's a great high-def format, capable of excellent video and sound quality and extras. We enjoy HD-DVD ourselves, and we'll continue to do so. But HD-DVD is just not going to win this format war. We just don't see any circumstance in which HD-DVD can best Blu-ray and dominate the HD disc market and, believe me, we agonize over this stuff every day.

The bottom line remains the same: Any way we slice it, when we look at ALL the facts, we think Blu-ray Disc remains the best bet in this format war, and the safer bet for consumers. That's just the way we see it.

We simply CANNOT and WILL NOT recommend to our readers that they adopt a format that only has the full support of just a HANDFUL of major hardware manufacturers and ONLY A HANDFUL of the Hollywood studios - no matter how cheap the price - when a format of EQUAL quality and FAR GREATER studio and manufacturer support exists.

Unlike those who hate Microsoft or hate Sony, our position isn't personal or emotional. Unlike those who work for HD-DVD and Blu-ray connected companies, we are not getting paid for our opinions or to generate media spin. Our opinions as expressed here are simply our own logical, common sense conclusions, based on our own research and experience. (For the record, regarding our advertising: We generally accept advertising from all interested parties within certain guidelines of good taste, and our advertising arrangements have NEVER and WILL NEVER influence our editorial opinions.)

We'll continue to enjoy HD-DVD discs and review them too, for those who may be interested. But if you want our opinion as to which HD format you should buy, unless circumstances change DRAMATICALLY, in all good conscience we simply can't recommend HD-DVD.

Simply put: If you're ready to get into high-def discs... we say Go Blu.

So yes... Blu-ray Disc is now officially the high-def format of choice for The Digital Bits. In the same way that we recommended everyone chose anamorphic widescreen DVDs over the alternative, we think you'll come to appreciate this advice in the months and years ahead as well.

To those of you who happen to disagree with us, favoring HD-DVD instead, more power to you and we respect your decision. We raise our glasses to you. (Skol, friends!)

It would be nice to think that we could just stay neutral in this thing, as some would rather we do indefinitely, but we just care too much about our readers, and about all the great things that have come about as a result of having a single, unified video disc standard for the last decade: DVD. But when the industry decided to spit in the face of that success, stubbornly taking opposing sides when it came time to launch high-def movies on disc (and to both HD camps, shame on all of you for it), they basically forced everyone else who really cares about this stuff to choose sides as well. We've tried to sit on the sidelines as long as we could, offering our carefully and logically reasoned opinions and advice whenever we felt it necessary or appropriate. But this stupid war has just dragged on too damn long. We're getting way too many frustrated e-mails from confused readers, who want to make the upgrade to high-def but are afraid to spend their hard-earned money on the wrong format. So it's time we made our choice, and we've decided to line-up with the overwhelming majority of studios and manufacturers behind Blu-ray.

It's a tough call for us, having to take sides. But it's time. Sometimes you just have to have the strength of your convictions and the balls to stand by them... and so we do and have.

Bill Hunt, Editor
(along with Todd and Adam and all the rest)
The Digital Bits
billhunt@thedigitalbits.com

 

Dell's support site is available at: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen (or just http://support.dell.com will do.)

---

A visit to Dell's support site reveals the following title:

The driver download process is as follows:

1. Click Drivers and Downloads
2. Enter service tag of system
3. Select OS, set various 'category filters'
4. Download your driver

The problems start at step 2.  Until very recently, Dell thought it would be amusing to hide the Dell Service Tag sticker on the back of the system.  It's also available on the front top or side of the machine on a sticker the size of a postage stamp.  The font used on this service tag ensures that anyone a day over 40 is unable to read it properly.  0 and O can be confused (if you don't know any better) and I and 1 can also be confused.  I know they don't use BOTH of these letters, but the people reading them don't; they assume its one and the website promptly spits an error, or returns a system they don't own.

Now that you've managed to return the 5-6 cryptic letters by stretching rather uncomfortably to the back, you click "OK" and are ready to start downloading drivers.  Only at this point, you're informed that you have a "Dell Inspiron 4000 Series" or "Dell Optiplex 745" or some such nonsense.  (I've blocked out my service tag here.)

"Use the category filters above to narrow your results" it instructs.  But I've already selected the appropriate information.  It's already filtered.  Why do I still have 50 items to choose from?  A scroll down the page reveals:

(This is just an example: There are LOTS of firmware upgrades for an Optiplex 745, apparantly.)

You see, when I ordered this system, I ordered an NEC-6550A slim 8x DVD+/-RW drive, and a Philips DROM6316 HH SATA DVDROM, and a Philips SCB5265 slim 24x combo drive, and a Philips SDR089 slim 8x DVD, and a Philips SDVD-8820 Slim 8x DVD+/-RW, and...  When you ordered YOUR system, you probably ordered an nVidia GeForce 6000 series, an ATI x1300, AND an Intel GMA graphics accelerator.  Modem?  You have 6 modems in your computer, you see.  All 6 Broadcom reference chipsets.  You have both an Intel NIC and a Broadcom gigabit NIC.

So here's the question: The website provides a link to view "original system configuration" (as shipped) - so why isn't the list of drivers available automatically sorted, based on the factory configuration of the system?

The problems continue.  I don't like using my browser's download facility; I prefer wget (Win32 style, naturally).  See that link on the right? "Download now"?
Here's a sample URL it returns: http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/downloads/en/downloads_splash?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~mode=popup&file=104072

That spits an HTTP 500 - Internal Server error when loaded without context.  Why not just link me to the FTP?  Why must you redirect me?

Did you know: The problem with this site is the lack of education for the user.  You see, this page is "too complicated" because users "aren't properly educated."  So let's put a help video on the side:

Couple this with some nice Javascript popup windows, some ugly Flash videos with examples on how to change your OS, and you've clearly solved the problem of poor functionality in your code.  Educate users to deal with your bad UIs.  Click here: http://i.dell.com/images/global/support/flash/tutorial/driver_and_download/final_tutorial.htm  I particularly like how the aspect ratio is maintained in the screenshots, maximizing readability.

This support site isn't so hot.

 

Future versions of Windows will have to be "fundamentally different" in order to take advantage of multicore processors, according to Ty Carlson of Microsoft.

"You're going to see in excess of 8, 16, 64 and beyond processors on your client computer," said Carlson, director of technical strategy at Microsoft, during a panel discussion at the Future in Review conference. Windows Vista, on the other hand, is "designed to run on 1, 2, maybe 4 processors," he said, referring to the fact that quad-core processors are now available from Intel and are on the way from Advanced Micro Devices.

The problem, as has been noted on many occasions, is that loads of PC applications were programmed with serial processing in mind, meaning that the performance of those applications increased as a chip's clock speed increased. That's not how it works anymore. The chip industy has decided that multiple cores are the best way to keep increasing performance, and that means applications now have to be designed with parallel processing in mind.

"In 10 to 15 years' time we're going to have incredible computing power. The challenge will be bringing that ecosystem up that knows how to write programs," Carlson said. Windows Vista is designed to take advantage of multiple processing threads, but not 16 threads. And application developers are even further behind in making the transition to the multicore world.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9722524-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

"The software has to also start following Moore's law," Intel fellow Shekhar Borkar said, referring to the notion that chips offer roughly double the performance every 18 months to two years. "Software has to double the amount of parallelism that it can support every two years."

"We do now face the challenge of figuring out how to move, I'll say, the whole programming ecosystem of personal computing up to a new level where they can reliably construct large-scale applications that are distributed, highly concurrent, and able to utilize all this computing power," Mundie said in an interview there. "That is probably the single most disruptive thing that we will have done in the last 20 or 30 years."

http://news.com.com/Intel+Software+needs+to+heed++Moores+Law/2100-1012_3-6186765.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

 

Memory Ranks - Intel E7320/E7520 Chipset-based Servers

The new servers utilizing Intel's E7320/E7520 chipset (code-named "Lindenhurst") support PC2100, PC2700, and PC2-3200 memory. Memory Ranks limitations apply only to PC2700 and PC2-3200.

Q: How do Intel Lindenhurst servers limit ranks?

The number of ranks is important based upon the server's memory speed:

• If PC2100 memory is used, the number of ranks is not critical and either single- or dual-rank memory module pairs can be used.
• If PC2700 or PC2-3200 memory is used, there is a maximum of 8 ranks per server. For example, if two pairs of dual-rank memory modules are inserted into the memory sockets, that would add up to 8 ranks (4 modules x 2-ranks each = 8 ranks); in this case, empty sockets cannot be used for upgrading memory.

Possible DIMM Configurations, PC2700 (Max 8 ranks)

Total Ranks	DIMM 1 Pair	DIMM 2 Pair	DIMM 3 Pair	DIMM 4 Pair
2	Single Rank Single Rank
4	Dual Rank Dual Rank
4	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
6	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
8 (MAX)	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Must Be Empty Must Be Empty	Must Be Empty Must Be Empty
6	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
8 (MAX)	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
8 (MAX)	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Must Be Empty Must Be Empty

Possible DIMM Configurations, PC2-3200 (Max 8 ranks)
 

Total Ranks	DIMM 1 Pair	DIMM 2 Pair	DIMM 3 Pair	DIMM 4 Pair
2	Single Rank Single Rank
4	Dual Rank Dual Rank
4	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
6	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
8 (MAX)	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Must Be Empty Must Be Empty	Must Be Empty Must Be Empty
6	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank
8 (MAX)	Dual Rank Dual Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Must Be Empty Must Be Empty
8 (MAX)	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank	Single Rank Single Rank

 

Lindenhurst.Server.Memory.pdf (283.42 KB)
 

It is not uncommon to experience the occasional slow down of a SQL Server database. A poorly designed database or a system that is improperly configured for the workload are but several of many possible causes of this type of performance problem. Administrators need to proactively prevent or minimize problems and, when they occur, diagnose the cause and take corrective actions to fix the problem. This paper provides step-by-step guidelines for diagnosing and troubleshooting common performance problems by using publicly available tools such as SQL Server Profiler, System Monitor, and the new Dynamic Management Views in SQL Server 2005.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/tsprfprb.mspx

More:

Sql 2005 Dynamic Memory Managment with AWE enabled
http://blogs.msdn.com/chadboyd/archive/2007/03/08/sql-2005-dynamic-memory-managment-with-awe-enabled.aspx

Reporting Services Trace Logs
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms156500.aspx

Report and Snapshot Size Limits
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms156002.aspx

Monitoring Report Execution Performance with Execution Logs
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964131.aspx

How to diagnose issues when running reports in the report server?
http://blogs.msdn.com/lukaszp/archive/2007/01/31/how-to-diagnose-issues-when-running-reports-in-the-report-server.aspx

 

Source: Walter Eikenboom

While testing and playing around with SCOM 2007 for a few weeks in my test environment my c:\ drive was filling up. Normally there would be a lot of service packs, install and update files on the drive but this time it was clean.

After some searching i found a logfile directory of 2GB in the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.2\Reporting Services\Logfiles" so there was my problem. From the " SQL Server Management studio" there was no possibility to change the location so i had to change de location of the logfiles the following way:
In Notepad, open the ReportingServicesService.exe.config file that is located in the following folder:

Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\Reporting Services\ReportServer\Bin
add the following code to the <RStrace> section: 
   <add name="FileName" value="ReportServer_" /> 
   <add name="Directory" value="YourPath" />
In Notepad, open the Web.config file that is located in the following folder: 
   Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\Reporting Services\ReportServer 
   Add the code that is listed in step 2 to the Web.config file. 
   In Notepad, open the Web.config file that is located in the following folder: 
   Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\Reporting Services\ReportManager 
   Add the code that is listed in step 2 to the Web.config file. 
   Set the same permissions on the new logfile folder as there where on the old logfile folder and restart the ReportServer Windows Service. After moving the old logfiles to the new location the drive space problem was solved.

 

Error message:

The following unexpected error occurred:
Unable to install Windows Installer MSI file

Workaround:

You will need access to the SQL Server 2005 SP1 package.  First, copy/paste the following script into notepad and save it as "RepairSP1Source.js".

if( WScript.Arguments.Length < 1 )

{

    WScript.Echo( "Usage: RepairSP1Source.js \"<path to extracted SP1 files>\"" );

    WScript.Quit( 1 );

}

 

var filesystem = new ActiveXObject( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );

var newSource = WScript.Arguments( 0 );

 

if( !filesystem.FolderExists( newSource ) )

{

    WScript.Echo( "The path to the extracted SP1 package does not exist.  Please correct the path and run the tool again." );

    WScript.Quit( 1 );

}

 

var installer = WScript.CreateObject( "WindowsInstaller.Installer" );

 

// Look for MSPs at the extracted location

EnumerateMSPs( newSource );

 

function EnumerateMSPs( extractedSp1PatchPath )

{

    var folder = filesystem.GetFolder( extractedSp1PatchPath );

    var fileEnum = new Enumerator( folder.Files );

    for( ; !fileEnum.atEnd(); fileEnum.moveNext() )

    {

        var nextFile = fileEnum.item();

       

        if( filesystem.GetExtensionName( nextFile.Name ) == "msp" )

        {

            WScript.Echo( "Found patch located at: " + nextFile.Path );

            var extractedSp1PatchSummaryInfo = installer.SummaryInformation( nextFile.Path );

            // Retrieve the PatchCode from the SummaryInformation

            var extractedSp1PatchCode = new String( extractedSp1PatchSummaryInfo.Property( 9 ) ).substring( 0, 38 );

 

            // Look to see if we need to repair the cached MSP for this Patch

            RepairCachedMSP( extractedSp1PatchCode, nextFile.Path );

            WScript.Echo();

        }

    }

 

    // Now look in subfolders for MSPs

    var folderEnum = new Enumerator( folder.SubFolders );

 

    for( ; !folderEnum.atEnd(); folderEnum.moveNext() )

    {

        var nextFolder = folderEnum.item();

       

        EnumerateMSPs( nextFolder.Path );

    }

}

 

function RepairCachedMSP( extractedSp1PatchCode, extractedSp1PatchPath )

{

    var sp1Patch = null;

    var cachedSp1PatchFileName = null;

 

    WScript.Echo( "Attempting to repair the local cache for PatchCode \"" + extractedSp1PatchCode + "\"" );

 

    // Enumerate all products installed on the machine to see if any have been patched by

    // this MSP

    var products = installer.ProductsEx( "", "", 4 );

 

    // Look for the first product that is patched with this MSP.

    for( var x = 0; (sp1Patch == null) && (x < products.Count); x++ )

    {

        var nextProduct = products.Item( x );

        var nextProductPatches = installer.PatchesEx( nextProduct.ProductCode, "", 4, 1 );

       

        for( var y = 0; (sp1Patch == null) && (y < nextProductPatches.Count); y++ )

        {

            var nextProductPatch = nextProductPatches.Item( y );

            var nextPatchURL = nextProductPatch.PatchProperty( "MoreInfoURL" );

            var nextPatchURLString = new String( nextPatchURL );

           

            // See if this patch is SP1 and if it matches the PatchCode of what the user

            // extracted to the hard drive.

            if( ( nextPatchURLString.indexOf( "kbid=913090" ) != -1 )

                    && ( extractedSp1PatchCode == nextProductPatch.PatchCode ) )

            {

                cachedSp1PatchFileName = nextProductPatch.PatchProperty( "LocalPackage" );

 

                // Only re-cache if the MSP is missing

                if( !filesystem.FileExists( cachedSp1PatchFileName ) )

                {

                    sp1Patch = nextProductPatch;

                }

            }

        }

    }

 

    if( !cachedSp1PatchFileName )

    {

        WScript.Echo( "No action can be taken as the patch has not been applied on the local machine." );

    }

    else

    {

        if( sp1Patch == null )

        {

            WScript.Echo( "No action will be taken since the provided SP1 patch appears to exist locally." );

        }

        else

        {

            var extractedSp1Patch = filesystem.GetFile( extractedSp1PatchPath );

 

            WScript.Echo( "Re-caching patch for the product code \"" + sp1Patch.ProductCode

                + "\" and patch \"" + sp1Patch.PatchCode + "\" to \"" + cachedSp1PatchFileName + "\"" );

            extractedSp1Patch.Copy( cachedSp1PatchFileName );

 

            var updatedSp1Patch = filesystem.GetFile( cachedSp1PatchFileName );

            var currentAttributes = updatedSp1Patch.Attributes;

           

            // If the file isn't read-only mark it as such.

            if( ( currentAttributes & 1 ) == 0 )

            {

                updatedSp1Patch.Attributes = (currentAttributes | 1 );

            }

        }

    }

 

}

 

The SP1 package when run with the "/X" switch will popup a dialog that allows you to extract out the files to a location on your local disk.  You are going to need to run this and save off the SP1 files to a path on your machine.  Once you do that, you run the script above and pass to it the path of where the files were extracted.  Then you should be able to apply SP2.  The steps will look like this:

1. SQLServer2005SP1-KB913090-x86-ENU.exe /X
2. cscript RepairSP1Source.js "<path to SP1 files>"
3. Run SP2 again

RepairSP1source.txt (4.74 KB)

Source: http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=1249824&siteid=1&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=5

 

Windows Memory Diagnostic

The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.

To run Windows Memory Diagnostic, you must reboot your computer with the disk or CD-ROM on which you installed Windows Memory Diagnostic in the drive. After the reboot, Windows Memory Diagnostic will load and its interface will appear. After loading, the first test pass will begin, using the default standard test suite, and continue until complete, unless Windows Memory Diagnostic is either paused or exited. Once the first test pass is complete, Windows Memory Diagnostic will begin a second test pass using the same settings as before. Windows Memory Diagnostic will continue to run test passes until you exit.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

 

Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration makes visible only those files or folders that the user has the rights to access. When Access-based Enumeration is enabled, Windows will not display files or folders that the user does not have the rights to access. This download provides a GUI and a CLI that enables this feature.

Version: 1.0.424.5
Date Published: 4/8/2005

There are three Windows Installer packages. One each for x86, amd64 (also for x64) and ia64 machines. The msi packages can be used on any SKUs for each of these architectures. Download the msi and run it on the server and the GUI and CLI for Access Based Enumeration will be installed on the server. A white paper describing the feature and the GUI and CLI will also be installed on the server.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04a563d9-78d9-4342-a485-b030ac442084&DisplayLang=en

 

Microsoft SharedView (Codename "Tahiti") is a fast and easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ddbf048d-db67-4c56-9335-6964e15975d2&DisplayLang=en

 

The Best Tool Ever:  The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products from your computer. Before you continue, make sure that you have the installation CDs or downloaded installation files for any Norton products that you want to reinstall. Also, if you use ACT! or WinFAX, back up those databases and uninstall those products.

Which prompts the question: Why would you want to reinstall a Norton product?

2000/XP/Vista: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe
ME/9x: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool_9x.exe
via http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

 

After installing Update Retriever for System Update, and then downloading update packages, my xSeries 226 server stopped shutting down properly.  A restart operation via the OS fails and the system hangs.

After grabbing updates, the system tries to install the Lenovo SMBIOS device using the drivers it just obtained.  Don't let it.  I went into Device Manager and found a SMBIOS device that had installed itself, using Lenovo drivers.  I removed the device, rescanned, and found no such device anymore.

I'm running Windows 2003 x64 Server with SP2 installed.

The system reboots properly now.  Strange...

 

I recently purchased a Creative Zen Vision W.

Usage

• To watch media while travelling.  Yes, I usually use my laptop for this, but this specialized device allows a simplified experience, a nice interface, and a perfect size, allowing me to watch movies/videos even in cramped spaces.  The laptop may not have room to open up, and causes too many hassles.
• MP3 capability, recording, FM radio.  Not necessarily available in a laptop. =)

Initial comments

I never thought I'd consider a Creative device.  Just never seemed good enough - always missing some critical features that I wanted in products.  This one looks good on paper, and handles well.  UI isn't awkward at all, surprisingly.

Build quality

• I'm impressed.  Seems solid, with a decent Hitachi harddrive in it.  Should be reliable, certainly if compared to Toshiba drives.
• Nice LCD - nice viewing angle.
• Buttons seem flimsy, but I'm used to a ThinkPad.  These buttons won't fall apart - they just don't have the travel I'm used to.  (Keep in mind, I use an IBM Model M keyboard.)
• Speakers – nice volume.  Could be louder... but headphones are going to be used anyway. =)

Advertised capabilities

• 4.3″ WQVGA high-resolution LCD screen - View 480 x 272 resolution in a wide aspect screen at up to 262,144 colors or output video and photos to an external display at a maximum of 720×480.
• Holds up to 240 hours of movies - ZEN support formats such as AVI, DivX 4 & 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG
• Store up to tens of thousands of photos - Complete with a thumbnail gallery and zoom capabilities.
• Up to 15,000 songs - With 5-band EQ or 8 preset EQ settings and 96dB signal-to-noise ratio.
• TV output - Connect the ZEN to a projector or TV with the bundled AV cable for everyone to see.
• FM radio - Listen to more music with the integrated FM radio with 32 station presets.
• Personal organizer - Syncs your contacts, calendar, and tasks with Microsoft Outlook.
• Voice recorder - Record meetings, lectures, even voice memos.
• Long lasting battery - Enjoy up to 13 hours of music, or 4.5 hours of movies.
• Offload digital photos - Transfer pictures from your camera to ZEN without a computer
• Audio Playback Format: MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible
• Photo Format: JPEG, *GIF, *TIFF and *BMP *To be transcoded
• Video Playback Format: MPEG1/2/4-SP, XviD, DivX™ 4 and 5, AVI, MJPEG and WMV9
• Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20kHz
• Audio Output: 3.5mm stereo mini-jack
• Audio/Video Output: Composite TV, stereo audio out
• 5.27" 2.95" 1.04" (60GB)
• 10.48 oz (60GB)
• Up to 13 hours of continuous audio playback.  Up to 4.5 hours of continuous video playback

Comments

• USB interface is nice and fast.
• The headphones act as antenna for the radio.  Cool.
• It remembers where movies are stopped - even if you play multiple movies.  Can't seem to find the "return to beginning option" - so you just hit rewind.
• Fast forward, etc works really nicely.  Much better than what an iPod offers.
• A really nice UI.  Clear status indicators on screen, and I always know where I am.  Excellent HCI principles being followed, with easy navigation through long lists of movies sequentially and also alphabetically.  I find the iPod's limited interface somewhat restricting sometimes; the additional buttons here are quite welcome.  I quite like it.
• Usability: I have yet to open the manual.  Enough said.
• Customizability:  Menu customizations are possible - very cool.
• Unicode characters work - Chinese titles are properly displayed.
• Fast OS - bootup is noticeable, but once started, device is quite responsive.
• Outlook syncing, microphone record.  Microphone is decent; the IBM ThinkPad's is better.  I haven't tried synching yet... but it doesn't seem very useful.  Maybe the contacts =)
• FM radio - relatively easy to switch frequencies.
• Battery life test - I haven't done any tests yet.
• I've charged the battery, removed it, and just run off utility power with power adapter.  Kinda wish there was cover that could cover the back with the battery removed.
• Where’s the kickstand?  Will have to prop this thing up somehow...
• Mentioned this earlier - Navigation buttons seem flimsy; they won’t break, just not the same kind of travel as with ThinkPad buttons, etc.
• Excellent screen - nice brightness, and nice viewing angle.
• Fingerprint issue on screen – unavoidable
• This model has a 60 GB drive – lots of space.
• Compact Flash I/II slot - use it to copy pictures onto the device.  Nice to offload pictures off your camera.
• Sync directly in Vista and XP.  Just drag files over.  No dirty software; Vista has drivers.  Just encode, and drag 'em over in Explorer; the device mounts as a drive with all folders fully visible.
• Compatibility
  • Documentaries played instantly, most downloaded with MP3 audio played instantly
  • No AC3 support.  Argh.  I've had to re-encode stuff - just the AC3 audio though.
  • DivX and XviD works well, as far as I've seen...
• Encoding
  • AVIs
    • Virtual Dub to convert existing AVI DIVX/XVID AC3 to just MP3
    • Ripped to WAV, and reprocess to LAME ACM MP3 with video direct stream copy
  • DVDs
    • Slysoft AnyDVD HD 6.1.3.6 to remove CSS/Macrovision on DVDs
    • Xilisoft DVD Ripper Platinum to reencode VOBs into XviD movie
• Nice zoom features on screen/display. Works nicely to fit video on the widescreen.
• Hitachi 60 GB drive
  • The drive, made by Hitachi, is a 3.3 v, 1.8″ Travelstar C4K60 Slim.  Should be reliable.
• Hardware details
  • http://onemansblog.com/2007/01/08/creative-zen-vision-w-teardown/
  • Screen shield - http://www.shieldzone.com/custom-orders/
    • Creative Zen Vision W 60 GB
    • (Wide screen)
    • 9.7cm wide
    • 5.5cm tall
    • http://onemansblog.com/2006/12/26/creative-zen-vision-w-review-60-gb-personal-media-player
    • http://onemansblog.com/2007/01/08/creative-zen-vision-w-teardown/
• E-Book reading - http://www.epizenter.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?6792

I didn't like

• The price.  It is expensive.  You get what you pay for though.  It's not just a portable harddrive.  Time was put into designing the interface.  And it plays videos quite nicely.
• The navigation buttons; I miss my ThinkPad's UltraNav buttons.  These buttons have no travel.
• The fact that there is only 1 headphone jack.  I wish there were two headphone jacks built-in for sharing, or at least that it shipped with a splitter.
• The screen coating.  Ship the things with a protective covering!
• The lack of a stand. How do I prop it up?  How about a battery cover when you choose to play with just AC power with no battery installed?
• The lack of AC3 decoding of video.  Most AVI clips are encoded with AC3 audio.  This is a minor issue.
• Lack of audio file support: MP3s work fine.  These don't seem to work: M4A, OGG, APE, and FLAC.  Damn.

Final word

I like it.  A lot.  If you need to watch movies or listen to music, this is actually a very decent machine.  It's just the right size.  The UI is excellent - very good status indicators, and decent navigation buttons.  Easy transfer of files - open standards with no DRM.  You handle your own content on this device - and there are options to download DRM protected content.  Support for a wide variety of codecs (video).  Plug and mount.  Copy over and go.  Clean, and super fast USB 2.0 interface.

I'd recommend it - if your usage requirements are met.  It's a perfect size.

Give it a try. =)  Money is no object, right?  C$431.99 from Canada Computers.

 

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 was released earlier today.

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e4a868d7-a820-46a0-b4db-ed6aa4a336d9&DisplayLang=en
More info: http://blogs.technet.com/upstate-ny-technology/archive/2007/04/30/microsoft-windows-server-update-services-wsus-3-0-has-been-released.aspx

I've begun migration of my WSUS v2.0 SP1 to v3.0.  Pushed it out to the top level server - no problems so far.  I'll post more updates once the entire distribution network is done.

 

Exchange Server 2007's Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) feature provides a way to set-up geographically-dispersed clusters to protect against data center failure (aka "site failure"). Though the documentation provides plenty of detail on how to set up CCR clusters in a single data center - where both cluster nodes and the computer hosting the File Share Witness are in the same data center - the documentation on how to set this up across data centers has been skimpy, or even non-existent.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/04/25/438185.aspx

See also:

http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2007/04/ccr-over-wan-failover-and-fsw-questions.html
http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2007/02/exchange-server-2003-sp1-bag-of-goodies.html

 

URL: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932818

Microsoft has released the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista. This update contains several improvements, and it resolves several issues. This cumulative update is intended for computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate.

x86: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AE86D8C1-4015-4B43-ABB6-123E6E539248

x64: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8E75B530-2086-4A70-AB91-47DDB8B49AE7

 

I played with the Yod'm 3D utility a few weeks back.  Wasn't too impressed; caused some strange behaviours, didn't install well, and was quite slow.

Switcher is really cool though.  Offering the same thing as Window's Flip3D, but now with Exposé-like layouts.  Hitting PgDown/PgUp switches between the "dock" layout and Exposé layout.

I recommend you give it a try.

 

The anti-spam agents in Exchange Server 2007 log their actions in agent logs. By default, agent logs reside in \Exchange Server\TransportRoles\Logs\AgentLog. Each agent log is 10 Mb in size. The size of the directory is capped at 250 Mb, the age of a log to 30 days. (Logs are flushed when they "age" up to 30 days or if the directory size reaches 250 Mb - whichever happens first).

There's only one configuration option for the agent log - that to enable or disable it. This is done by editing the EdgeTransport.exe.config file, located in \Exchange Server\Bin folder on Edge and Hub Transport servers. To disable agent logging, insert the following string under in the config file:

<add key="AgentLogEnabled" value="FALSE"> </add>

You can parse the agent log using the Get-AgentLog command from the shell. By default, this parses the agent log residing in the default location. If you've copied a bunch of agent logs at an alternate location, you can specify the alternate location using the following syntax - in this example the agent logs have been copied to Z:\Antispam Agent Logs directory:

Get-AgentLog -location "Z:\AntiSpam Agent Logs"

Here's what an entry in the agent log looks like - note the different fields and their values:

Timestamp : 4/16/2007 12:39:49 AM
SessionId : 08C948C83FB951AC
IPAddress : 72.46.133.113
MessageId :
P1FromAddress : ret@noncornelan.com
P2FromAddresses : {}
Recipients : {foo@yourdomain.com}
Agent : Connection Filtering Agent
Event : OnRcptCommand
Action : RejectCommand
SmtpResponse : 550 5.7.1 Recipient not authorized, your IP has been found on a block list
Reason : BlockListProvider
ReasonData : Spamhaus SBL-XBL
Diagnostics :

As you can see, the logs provide adequate information for reporting on anti-spam activity, as well as for troubleshooting anti-spam issues like the the instance where a user comes in complaining a message from an internet sender hasn't been received.

Getting to know the agent logs will make troubleshooting such issues much easier.

By default, the Get-Agent log returns all the entries in the agent logs. It can be constrained to a particular date and time - the recommended way to perform most agent log searches, unless you want to immerse yourself in 30 days (or 250 Mb) of anti-spam goodness! This is done using the -StartDate and -EndDate parameters:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/16/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007"

You can also constrain it further by adding time of the day:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/17/2007 8:00 AM" -EndDate "4/17/2007 2:00 PM"

Though the Get-AgentLog command only takes these 3 parameters - location, StartDate, and EndDate, you can further filter the logs using most of its logged fields.

To filter the log to show messages to a particular recipient:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/16/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007" | where {$_.recipients -like "foo@yourdomain.com"}

To search for messages from a particular sender:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/16/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007" | where {$_.P1FromAddress -like "aqe@easymoney2u.com" -or $_.P2FromAddresses -like "aqe@easymoney2u.com"}

To filter by the anti-spam agent that acted on a message, e.g. Connection Filtering Agent:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/15/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007" | where {$_.Agent -eq "Connection Filtering Agent"}

Similarly, you can filter by other agents that write to the agent logs: 1) Content Filter Agent 2) SenderID agent 3) Sender Filter agent 4) Recipient Filter agent and 5) Edge Rules agent.

To filter agent logs by the sending host's IP address, use the following command:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/15/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007" | where {$_.IPAddress -eq "72.46.133.113"}

The reason field in each log entry specifies the reason supplied by the anti-spam agent that takes the action. For instance, as seen in the agent log entry shown earlier in this article, the agent that acted on the message is the Connection Filtering Agent, the reason is BlockListProvider (i.e. "RBL" or "Real-time Block List"). The ReasonData field actually gives you the name of the IP Block List Provider, as configured in Exchange. In the above agent log entry, it is "Spamhaus SBL-XBL". To constrain the search for messages blocked by IP Block List Providers:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/15/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007" | where {$_.Reason -eq "BlockListProvider"}

You can also look for messages blocked by a particular IP Block List Povider:

Get-AgentLog -StartDate "4/15/2007" -EndDate "4/17/2007" | where {$_.ReasonData -eq "Spamhaus SBL-XBL"}

As shown in the above examples, you can use the Get-AgentLog command and pipe the data to filter it based on the fields logged. You can get more details about agent logs - including the fields logged, from the Managing Agent Logging section in Exchange Server 2007 documentation.

Source: http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2007/04/managing-and-filtering-anti-spam-agent.html

 

Managing
SPSFAQ0603157 - Should I have more or less Site Collections in SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603158 - How do I add support for crawling PDFs in SharePoint Server?
SPSFAQ0603159 - How should I set up administrative or service accounts for SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603160 - What are the Microsoft Application Templates for SharePoint and how can I use them?

Downloads
SPSFAQ090365 - What is a good starting point for planning my SharePoint architecture?

Links
SPSFAQ0803164 - How do I get started with editing the CSS in SharePoint Server 2007?
SPSFAQ0603161 - Where can I start online administrator training for SharePoint Server 2007?

Source: http://www.spsfaq.com/2007/04/some-essential-faqs-for-admins-of-moss.htm

 

Update for Outlook 2007 (KB933493)

This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature. The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c262bcfd-1e09-49b6-9003-c4c47539df66&DisplayLang=en

 

Now you've done it.  Logged in as administrator to browse the web and download illegal content off the internet.  Now you have this pesky ? in your tray, asking you to buy this software to remove spyware.

I recently had to fiddle with this stuff... and I found http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/resources/link244.html worked well for me.  roguescanfix_setup.exe can be downloaded at the bottom of this post as well.

Enjoy.

roguescanfix_setup.exe (886.55 KB)
 

Error message:

System error 1058 has occurred.
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

To re-enable service:

sc config servicename start= {boot|system|auto|demand|disabled} - note the presence of the space!

Example:

sc config beep start= demand (where beep is the name of the service.)

More:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/03928250-2796-4253-8fb1-b25329ddf35f1033.mspx?mfr=true

 

Ever came across a declaration like int * (* (*fp1) (int) ) [10]; or something similar that you couldn't fathom? This article will teach you to interpret such complex C/C++ declarations, including the use of typedef, const, and function pointers.

http://www.codeproject.com/cpp/complex_declarations.asp?print=true

complex_declarations.pdf (172.03 KB)
 

Summary

I'll look at changes in the areas of processes and threads, and in I/O. Future installments will cover memory management, startup and shutdown, reliability and recovery, and security.
The scope of this article comprises changes to the Windows Vista™ kernel only, specifically Ntoskrnl.exe and its closely associated components. Please remember that there are many other significant changes in Windows Vista that fall outside the kernel proper and therefore won't be covered. This includes improvements to the shell (such as integrated desktop search), networking (like the new IPv6 stack and two-way firewall), and the next-generation graphics model (such as Aero™ Glass, Windows® Presentation Foundation, the Desktop Window Manager, and the new graphics driver model). Also not covered are the new Windows User-Mode and Kernel-Mode Driver Frameworks (UMDF and KMDF) since these are back-level installable on earlier versions of Windows

3 Parts
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/02/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?pf=true
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/03/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?pf=true
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/04/VistaKernel/Default.aspx?pf=true

 

Microsoft security strategy director Jeff Jones this week published a report comparing the security vulnerability profile for various high-profile operating systems in the 90 days of their existence. Surprisingly, Vista came out in front: Vista had 5 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, one of them fixed, and one pending with a High severity rating. By comparison, XP had a total of 17 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, 8 of which were rated High, when it shipped in 2001. The surprises, however, come when you compare the non-Microsoft competition. Mac OS X 10.4, a darling of the press, actually suffered from 20 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, 8 of which were rated High. Worse, OS X 10.4 still suffered from 17 publicly disclosed but unpatched vulnerabilities at the end of those 90 days. "The data doesn't support [Apple's] marketing," Jones writes. Linux fared even worse: Ubuntu 6.06 suffered from a whopping 71 vulnerabilities in its first 90 days, 27 of those rated High. And there were at least 29 unpatched vulnerabilities in that OS after the 90 day period ended. And so on. You can read the entire report (PDF), and look forward, as I am, to Jones' 6-month and 1-year updates.

Report: http://www.csoonline.com/pdf/Vista_Vuln_Report.pdf (or below)
Source: http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/95554/95554.html?Ad=1
Local cache: Vista_Vuln_Report.pdf (385.96 KB)

 

A cheap desktop printer that prints 60 full-color pages per minute? That's among the remarkable claims being made for a new printing technology, dubbed 'MemJet', from one of the world's most mysterious inventors - a man who holds over 1400 patents but hasn't granted an interview in 15 years.

http://texyt.com/silverbrook+memjet+printer+inkjet+canon+epson+hp+mems+iprint+lyra
http://texyt.com/silverbrook+memjet+printer+inkjet+mems+lyra+canon+epson+hp+kodak
http://texyt.com/silverbrook+memjet+technology+available+desktop+photo+wideformat+hp+edgeline+comparison

 

As you all know, I've always been a fan of Promise FastTrak controllers.  Their high-end cards are absolutely excellent, and well worth the money.  These cards always get excellent reviews online.

Here's an old SX-6000, being kept safely in my house.  It will be worth millions someday when the world realises the quality and engineering that goes into these cards.  I shall E-Bay it off and retire.

SIX IDE channels - good for TWELVE IDE drives.  An advanced PCI-33 MHz interface ensures that all 12 of these disks get optimal bandwidth, delivered by the onboard ASIC chip, as well as the 64 MB of PC-100 RAM (as you can see in this picture.)

I sincerely hope quality motherboard manufacturers like PC-Chips start to OEM Promise RAID chipsets with their boards in the near future.

Right.  Now, back to the midterms.

 

The sidebar takes up valuable screen space when it is set to be always on top.

Going into the tray and finding the icon is so much work.

There's a keyboard shortcut to access the sidebar in Vista: Windows key + Spacebar will quickly cause the Vista sidebar to popup, on top of other windows.

 

Oops.  You deleted your Recycle Bin by accident, in Vista RTM.

What do you do, you ask?

1. Right click on the desktop then click Personalize
2. On the left side of the screen/pane, click Change Desktop Icons
3. Check the box next to Recycle Bin.

 

Error Messages

• An error occurred accessing the website application data folder...
• Could not connect to Virtual Server. Access was denied.  You can specify an alternate Virtual Server below...
• Please install IIS-Metabase (IIS6 Management compatibility) prior to installing this software

Working Procedure

• Download the installation file from Microsoft.  Extract contents of EXE file.
• Configure IIS

start /w pkgmgr /l:log.etw /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-HttpRedirect;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ASP;IIS-CGI;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-ServerSideIncludes;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ODBCLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-URLAuthorization;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-IPSecurity;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;IIS-ManagementService;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;IIS-LegacyScripts;IIS-LegacySnapIn;IIS-FTPPublishingService;IIS-FTPServer;IIS-FTPManagement;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

• Enable Windows Authentication in IIS MMC

• Install Virtual Server.
• Start Internet Explorer as an account with Administrative privileges and launch the website.

Better solution

Use VMWare Server

 

I've begun Windows 2003 Server SP2 deployment.

Here are the direct links, and more information:

• x86
  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/f/1/5f104409-2736-48ef-82e1-692ec3da020b/WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe
• x64
  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/c/5/3c5c6364-27d3-4e18-bd04-244d0ec09dd4/WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KB914961-SP2-x64-ENU.exe
• Support tools x86
  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/e/4/6e481b67-54af-4340-a534-25de4229cfc6/support.cab
  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/e/4/6e481b67-54af-4340-a534-25de4229cfc6/suptools.msi
• System Prep
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=93f20bb1-97aa-4356-8b43-9584b7e72556&DisplayLang=en
• More information
• http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=914961
• Points of interest
• I've deployed on all my DCs running Windows 2003 SP1 or Windows 2003 R2 SP1 without problems (Enterprise and Standard)
• A 2003 R2 SPS2007 server on 2003R2 SP1 EE
• Exchange x64 2007 EE server on 2003R2 SP1 EE - this box's IS failed to start automatically on reboot - this is something I need to check up on at next reboot.
• ISA 2006 EE on 2003R2 SP1 EE
• File servers with Adaptec 2410 SATA, 1210SA, and 3Ware 9550 SATA controllers.  Dell PERCs seem fine as well.
• All NICs seem fine - no network issues.

 

Background:

Exchange 2007 complains that your outbound and inbound emails are too large.  As you send them, you're told that you should "make the message smaller" by "removing attachments".  By default, the limit is set at 10 MB.

#550 5.3.4 ROUTING.SizeLimit; message size exceeds fixed maximum size for route ##

Solution:
Fire up the Exchange console and get a listing of your connectors with their current size limits:
get-receiveconnector | select identity,maxmessagesize

Then change the limit:
set-receiveconnector "Connector Name" -maxmessagesize 30MB

All Edge-Sync Servers will need to download their configuration again from the DCs.  Run this on all EdgeSync bridgeheads:
start-edgesynchronization

Update:

As mentioned, you may also have issues with the transport limit.

get-transportconfig | fl *

If the limit is set to "unlimited", you will need to explicitly put a limit in:
set-transportconfig -MaxRecieveSize 30MB

More information:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb310771.aspx

 

Migrated from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007. I have a mix of clients in Outlook 2003 and 2007 - and I'm not convinced anyone is running the update tool.

1. Granted my Administrator account Send-As access:
   Get-mailboxserver EXCHANGE | add-adpermission –user Administrator -accessrights GenericRead, GenericWrite -extendedrights Send-As, Receive-As, ms-Exch-Store-Admin
   (Where EXCHANGE == Exchange server name, Administrator == user to grant access to.)
2. Dismount and mount mailbox store (during maintenance, of course.)
3. I notified all users to patch their systems  (OS and Outlook patches).  Print paper copies of calendar items.  Deploy patches as necessary.
1. OS patches http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931836/en-us
2. Office patches.
4. Make sure server OS patches are installed.
5. Find a machine with Outlook 2003/2007 on it, NOT the Exchange server.
   1. Download TZMove http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?amp;displaylang=en&familyid=E343A233-B9C8-4652-9DD8-AE0F1AF62568&displaylang=en
   2. Download the Exchange Calendar Update Tool (just a wrapper) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?amp;amp;displaylang=en&familyid=a9336886-4b28-4010-9416-36d38429438d&displaylang=en
6. Run MsExTmzCfg.exe, answer questions, which will generate a BAT file for you.
7. Run the BAT file to update all appointments on servers.  If you get errors, check the INI file to make sure the /O= line is updated with the appropriate server path in the AD.

As an aside, if you're on Exchange 2003 SP2, you'll need to patch your Exchange server as well in step 4: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=926666

 

In 1989, Karlheinz Brandenburg, an audio engineer and mathematician working for a research institute Germany's Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, was one of five men named on a German patent for a technology that could encode and play music in digital form.

In that same year, Brandenburg did related technology research with new colleagues at Bell Labs, then a unit of the former AT&T Corp., where he spent about a year before returning to his native soil.

Yesterday, lawyers for the French telecom-equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent won a $1.52 billion award by convincing a federal jury in San Diego that Microsoft Corp. violated Alcatel's patents covering digital music.

Here's the twist: the two patents mentioned above are not the same one. Alcatel-Lucent acquired the latter because it owns the rights to a lot of former Bell Labs intellectual property, while Microsoft -- like Apple Inc. and dozens of other U.S. technology companies -- licenses the former patent from Fraunhofer.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsofts-latest-nasty-legal-surprise/story.aspx?guid=%7b4582533B-CFB6-4D10-9D09-A77AE583D6C0%7d&dist=MostReadHome&print=true&dist=printTop

 

I set up an Exchange 2007 Edge Transport server recently, and when I tried to put my volume license key into the Edge Transport server, I was told that I had "attempted to perform an unauthorized operation."

This edge transport server sits behind my ISA server; inbound mail goes to it, then heads to my Exchange 2007 Hub Transport server for routing.  It has 1 internal NIC.

• Remote Registry service was enabled, and it was enabled on all GCs/PDCs/DCs
• TCP/IP was bound to all NICs (this one only had 1 NIC)
• I tried logging in as local admin and domain/enterprise admin

What worked?

Went into Active Directory Users and Computers on my GC.  Found the OU "Microsoft Exchange Security Groups" and the "Exchange Servers" security group therein.  I added the new Edge Transport server to this security group (since it wasn't a member!) and then restarted my Edge Transport server.

Key accepted.

 

I recently updated my Media Center to Vista; my GeForce 4 was replaced with a GeForce FX5200.

I kept getting a flickering screen when using the Microsoft drivers; it wasn't handling TV output properly.

I went to nVidia's site to get the (bad!) drivers... and I have my AGP nVidia GeForce FX5200 running ForceWare 97.46.  I selected (manually, using Have Disk) to use this driver instead of the OOBE drivers that ship with Vista.

Now to fire up Media Center...

Update: It works.  GeForce FX5200 on ForceWare 97.46 (which are supposedly for GeForce 6/7 and FX6000+) is WORKING for Vista Media Center, and Aero.  DVD playback and TV live playback is fully functional.  I don't play games on this thing... so... =) I'm not going to bother testing it.

 

The ThinkPad system powers off immediately when docked to a ThinkPad Advanced Dock, ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock, or Essential Port Replicator. This could occur if the ThinkPad system is warm-docked (ThinkPad system is in a suspended state) or hot-docked (ThinkPad system is in a powered-on state).

Lenovo has determined that the reason for the system powering off is due to an electrostatic discharge between the system and the docking station or port replicator. We have developed a field kit that consists of two conductive rubber caps. These caps, when correctly applied to the dock, provide a safe path for the electrostatic discharge.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67382

 

January 31 2007

It's done.  The laptop has been ordered.

IBM/Lenovo T60p ThinkPad T60p 2007-8JU (Experience Index 4.3)

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 at 2.33GHz (Score 5.2)
• 1x1GB DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 RAM (Score 4.5)
• 100 GB SATA @ 7200 RPM (8 MB cache, 4.2ms latency, 11ms seek) (Score 5.1)
• 24X DVD Recordable (8X DVD+R)
• ATI FireGL V5250, GDDR3 256 MB PCIe (Graphics 4.3, Gaming 4.6)
• 56K V92 modem
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCIe
• Bluetooth
• 3 USB ports, docking, external display, headphone, microphone, RJ11, RJ45
• UltraNav + Eraserhead
• 31.75mm x 335.28mm x 238.76mm
• Windows Vista Enterprise x86

February 17 2007

• Will get RAM upgrade to 2x1GB in a week or so
• Latest drivers/utilities updated via System Update

 

This is the Microsoft Mobile update to address DST related issues in 2007.

Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time (PocketPC)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=70&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d1a74d009-4e90-438d-883d-638e0bfd993a%26DisplayLang%3den

Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time (Desktop Tool)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=71&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3dc1b38b19-20cc-4b4a-90c7-8cb318fded57%26DisplayLang%3den

Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time (Smartphone)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=72&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d7074664e-827c-477c-a59f-a6103aaba3b1%26DisplayLang%3den

 

Microsoft Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 is part of Microsoft Windows Volume Activation 2.0. It allows enterprise users to host Key Management Service on Windows Server 2003 to enable activation of Windows Vista using Key Management Service (KMS) Key.

Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 is a set of technical and policy related solution provided by Microsoft’s Software Protection Platform (SPP) that gives Microsoft customers a more secure and easy to deploy solution to protect and manage their volume license keys. Microsoft Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 is part of Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 allows enterprise customers manage the activation of their Windows machines using Key Management Service (KMS) Key.

Enterprise customers who license Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn” server under volume license program get two keys namely a Multiple Activation Key (MAK) and a Key Management Service (KMS) Key.

KMS based activation allows enterprise customers to host a local service within their environment to enable activation of machines running Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Enterprise editions within their environment instead of any activation against Microsoft. Machines that have been activated through KMS will be required to reactivate by connecting to the KMS host at least once every 6 months.

Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 enables deployment of Windows Vista using current and released server operating system. It uses the Windows Vista KMS key provided through Microsoft’s Volume Licensing System portals (MVLS, eOpen). The KMS host can be activated using either online or offline methods. It uses the same interfaces and tools as KMS on Windows Vista including:
• Software Licensing API, WMI interfaces, error codes, logging events
• SLMGR.VBS and KMS Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager
x86
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=67&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d81d1cb89-13bd-4250-b624-2f8c57a1ae7b%26DisplayLang%3den

x64
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=68&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d03fe69b2-6244-471c-80d2-b4171fb1d7a5%26DisplayLang%3den

 

http://www.windowsitpro.com/mobile/pda/Article.cfm?ArticleID=95011&News=1
DailyTech has confirmed a new workaround proposed by Paul Thurrott (via Microsoft internal documents).

This workaround allows users to perform a “clean install.” The process is a bit tedious, but is not hard at all to complete. Users have to perform these simple steps to perform a clean install of Vista without a previous version of Windows installed with an upgrade DVD:

1. Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD and start the setup program.
2. When prompted to enter your product key, DO NOT enter it. Click "Next" and proceed with setup. This will install Windows Vista as a 30-day trial.
3. When prompted, select the edition of Vista which you have purchased and continue with setup.
4. Once setup has been completed and you have been brought to the desktop for the first time, run the install program from within Windows Vista.
5. This time, type in your product key when prompted.
6. When asked whether to perform an Upgrade or Custom (advanced) install, choose Custom (advanced) to perform a clean install of Vista. Yes, this means that you will have to install Vista for a second time.
7. Once setup has completed for the second time, you should be able to activate Windows Vista normally. You can also delete the Windows.old directory which contains information from the first Vista install.

 

Vista product edition	Compare with...	x64 version?	Type	Retail price	Upgrade price
Windows Vista Starter	XP Starter Edition	No	Select countries only, with new PC purchase	n/a	n/a
Windows Home Basic	XP Home Edition	Yes	Retail	$199	$99.95
Windows Home Basic N	XP Home Edition	Yes	Retail, EU only	$199	$99.95
Windows Vista Home Premium	XP Media Center Edition	Yes	Retail	$239	$159
Windows Vista Business	XP Professional Edition	Yes	Retail	$299	$199
Windows Vista Business N	XP Professional Edition	Yes	Retail	$299	$199
Windows Vista Enterprise	XP Professional Edition	Yes	Volume-license only	n/a	n/a
Windows Vista Ultimate	n/a	Yes	Retail	$399	$259

User interface features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows Vista Basic UI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Aero UI ("Glass")		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Flip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Flip 3D		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live Taskbar Thumbnails		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Instant search	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live content organization in Explorer windows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Security features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
User Account Control (UAC)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Security Center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Defender	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Firewall	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Phishing Filter (IE7 and Windows Mail)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Update (can access Microsoft Update)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Parental Controls	Yes	Yes			Yes

Performance features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows ReadyDrive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows ReadyBoost	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
64-bit processor support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum RAM (32-bit version)	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB
Maximum RAM (64-bit version)	8 GB	16 GB	128+ GB	128+ GB	128+ GB
Physical processor support	1	2	2	2	2
Processor core support	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited

Reliability features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Real-time backup and recovery	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scheduled backup		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows ShadowCopy			Yes	Yes	Yes
System image backup and recovery			Yes	Yes	Yes
Encrypting File System (EFS)			Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows BitLocker Full Drive Encryption				Yes	Yes
Windows SuperFetch	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Automatic hard disk defragmentation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Internet features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Internet Explorer 7	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RSS support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Mail	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Bundled applications

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows Calendar	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Contacts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Sidebar	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Games Explorer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Premium games		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Digital media features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows Photo Gallery	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Themed photo slide shows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Media Player 11	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Media Center		Yes			Yes
Windows Media Center HDTV and CableCard support		Yes			Yes
Xbox 360 Media Center Extender compatibility		Yes			Yes
Windows Movie Maker		Yes			Yes
Windows Movie Maker HD format support		Yes			Yes
Windows DVD Maker		Yes			Yes

Networking features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Network and Sharing Center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Improved wireless networking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Improved power management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number of supported simultaneous peer network connections	5	10	10	10	10
Windows Meeting Space	View only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Improved file and folder sharing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network Projector support		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Presentation Settings		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Remote Desktop	Client only	Client only	Yes	Yes	Yes
Join domain (Windows Server/SBS)			Yes	Yes	Yes
Offline files and folder support			Yes	Yes	Yes
IIS Web Server			Yes	Yes	Yes

Mobility features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows Mobility Center	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sync Center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tablet PC functionality		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Touch screen support		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows SideShow (auxiliary display support)		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Other Windows Vista features

 

	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows Anytime Upgade	Yes (to Home Premium or Ultimate)	Yes (to Ultimate)	Yes (to Ultimate)
Windows Ultimate Extras					Yes
Speech recognition suport	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Accessibility Settings and Ease of Access Center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Welcome Center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XPS document support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Fax and Scan			Yes	Yes	Yes