I maintain an IBM/Lenovo T4x deployment DVD that contains all the baseline drivers necessary to get a ThinkPad installed.  You blast away the system, and this DVD allows you to be up and running (and ready to work, play, etc...) in about 1.5 hours.  This includes automated deployments of Office, CD/DVD burning tools, media codecs, drivers, all the latest ThinkVantage software and drivers, and all that stuff that usually takes a week or two to get done after a format.  A baseline install takes ~ 45 minutes to complete - and all the additional ThinkVantage tools, and all the essential productivity applications are installed in a fraction of the time it would take to do this by hand.

It has just been updated to support the T60 product line, and all drivers/software have been completely refreshed.

Each build takes about an hour to compile and test.  I have gone thru this painful process about 20 times in the past few days (About 20 botched installs, and 8 coasters later, I think I'm semi-happy with this beta.)  Build 100 (which I finished this morning) was the result of intense testing, that has taken place the last two days.  This is a major update release to previous builds since ALL drivers and installed software have been updated.  Full regression testing has been completed on a T40 2373-72U, 92U, a 2668 model, and a 2007 model.  This DVD therefore supports T40/p, T41/p, T42/p, T43/p, and T60/p under all hardware configurations, from my testing.  Additional tweaking will be necessary on p platforms since ISV video drivers are not included.

This product will be exiting the beta stage in the next 4-5 days once I'm happy that all bugs/annoyances have been eliminated.

• Supports Intel matrix AHCI SATA drivers included on most new Intel Centrino-based chipsets.  Does not require 'compatibility' mode in BIOS for re-installation of a system as the IASTOR device is recognized natively via slipstreamed drivers.
• Windows XP w/SP2 High Definition Audio support (1.0a)
• All ThinkVantage software and drivers updated - will minimize internet traffic for updates inherent to installs using older builds.
• All software packages updated.  (Adobe, ProShow, Ahead Nero, PowerDVD, et al.)
• sudowin included to comply with best-practices operation under restricted user account.  Permits Vista/UNIX/OS X style process/thread privilege on-demand escalation.
• This is likely the last, and FINAL major update release for Windows XP Professional on this hardware platform.  (An early alpha release of this deployment DVD has also just been completed for Windows Vista 5456.5 (beta 2 update,) which will represent the next major release.)
• Windows XP updates have NOT been included past Service Pack 2 in this build.  Patches will likely be included once an Upgrade Rollup pack is released, once XP enters extended support phase, in a future DVD release.  For now, corporate deployments via RIS/this media can be adequately supported by SUS/WSUS servers, which can mitigate patch deployment traffic.
• Toshiba Tecra/Satellite Pro models are supported - baseline drivers are included for most models.
• This disc provides an EXCELLENT baseline for RIS deployments to modern hardware due to the modular nature of the scripts, and the plethora of drivers included.

This DVD is now under limited release to IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad owners, that know me personally... a legal Windows XP Pro license, along with licenses for all of this software is absolutely essential to remain compliant.  I maintain volume license agreements for included applications - so you must chip in the license pool if you want a copy of the DVD.

Hint: Not all people reading this blog entry can get a copy.  I do this for fun, and I reserve the right to release this deployment media on an EXTREMELY limited scale.

 

A lot of stuff seems to work better now.  I've bugged a few things... but I think I can almost start using this without getting seriously frustrated and annoyed.

I did a parallel install to my XP Pro; since Vista always renames drives letters (making iself the C partition,) my "Previous version of Windows" no longer boots.  I just did a "bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=e:\" to make my old OS boot again.

 

Problem
Executing bcdedit gives, "The boot configuration data store could not be opened.  Access is denied."

Solution
In Start Menu, right click on Command Window, run as Administrator, before attempting this command.

 

http://blogs.technet.com/server_core/rss.xml via http://blogs.technet.com/server_core/default.aspx

Server Core is a minimal server installation option for Windows Server "Longhorn". It runs a subset of the server roles included in Longhorn Server, specifically it supports the following:

• DHCP server
• File Server
• DNS server
• Active Directory

Server Core also includes the following optional features:

• Failover Cluster
• Network Load Balancing
• Multipath IO
• Removable Storage
• Bitlocker Drive Encryption
• Subsystem for UNIX-based applications
• Backup 

Server Core is all about letting an administrator run the above roles with less installed, running, and needing to be managed on a server. For example, there is no GUI shell on Server Core, the local interface for managing the server is the command prompt. You can use MMC snap-ins to remotely manage a Server Core installation. All of this provides the following benefits:

• Reduced maintance
• Reduced attack surface area
• Reduced management
• Less disk space required to install
  

 

The value for the “Amount of disk space to use for temporary offline files” option reverts after you make it larger than 2 GB in Windows XP and in Windows 2000 Professional

via KB904676

CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the client-side cache for temporarily-cached files is limited to 2 GB. This limitation exists because the signed 32-bit integer internally stores the cache size value.

Temporary caching occurs when a client accesses a share that is marked for automatic caching. These files are cached on use. However, the client-side cache may temporarily remove these files if there is not sufficient space in the cache.

This limitation does not apply to manually-cached files. Manual caching occurs when you right-click a file or folder in Windows Explorer, and then you click Make Available Offline

 

superuser do for Windows

Using a Limited account during your everyday work protects you from malicious software infection and
accidental misconfiguration. But installing software or changing some system settings can be difficult
in a low privileged environment.

 The sudoWn project can execute individual programs (or even a whole Windows shell) with temporary
Administrator privileges under your user profile. This means you can use a low privileged environment and
elevate your rights transitionally for software installation or systemwide configuration comfortably

http://sudown.mine.nu/

 

Problem

A user reported that her Inbox was now in her Deleted Items.  A fully patched Windows XP SP2 client running Outlook 2003 SP2 with latest patches, connected to an Exchange 2003 SP2 box with latest patches.  I took a screenshot.  (Removed personal information, of course...)

Symptoms

The user reported seeing two Inboxes in her system.  The user then deleted one "copy" of her Inbox, and at next start up... the Inbox materialized ONLY in her Deleted items, with no way to move it out.  I was shown this, and while I don't have a screenshot, I can confirm that this does happen.

One copy of the Inbox seemed to be ghosted - showing items from "Last Week", etc... and new content only arrived at the newer/more recent looking Inbox.

As you can see, new mail continues to arrive there! Directly into Deleted Items.  Nice way to keep Exchange storage space usage at a minimum, assuming my "Empty Deleted Items at Exit" were checked off =).

Workaround

I did some searching, and got two sites:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2533733.php
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/outlook-users/message/31989?threaded=1&var=1&p=5

I might consider investigating further, but due to the nature of the problem, I'm going manually dump the data out into a PST file, nuke the Exchange mailbox and recreate.  It's a faster "solution"/workaround to the problem.

 

The Offline Files (CSC or Client Side Caching) cache and database has a built-in capability to restart if its contents are suspected of being corrupted. If corruption is suspected, the Synchronization Wizard may return the following error message:
Unable to merge offline changes on \\server_name\share_name. The parameter is incorrect.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;230738

Method 1
The Offline Files cache is a folder structure located in the %SystemRoot%\CSC folder, which is hidden by default. The CSC folder, and any files and subfolders it contains, should not be modified directly; doing so can result in data loss and a complete breakdown of Offline Files functionality.

If you suspect corruption in the database, then the files should be deleted using the Offline Files viewer. After the files are deleted out of the Offline Files viewer, a synchronization of files may then be forced using Synchronization Manager. If the cache still does not appear to function correctly, an Offline Files reset can be performed using the following procedure: 1. In Folder Options, on the Offline Files tab, press CTRL+SHIFT, and then click Delete Files. The following message appears:
The Offline Files cache on the local computer will be re-initialized. Any changes that have not been synchronized with computers on the network will be lost. Any files or folders made available offline will no longer be available offline. A computer restart is required.

Do you wish to re-initialize the cache?
 
2. Click Yes two times to restart the computer.

Method 2
If you cannot access the Offline Files tab, use this method to reinitialize the Offline Files (CSC) cache on the system by modifying the registry. Use this method also to reinitialize the offline files database/client-side cache on multiple systems. Add the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache
Key Name: FormatDatabase
Key Type: DWORD
Key Value: 1
Note The actual value of the registry key is ignored. This registry change requires a restart. When the computer is restarting, the shell will reinitialize the CSC cache and then delete the registry key if the registry entry exists.

Warning All cache files are deleted and unsynchronized data is lost.

 

If you foolishly ignore warnings that Daemon-Tools v3.47 does not work properly under Vista Beta 2 (any versions after v3.33 do not work) and your system is caught in an infinite loop, like mine was... (on reboot with last known good config, et al. the system would install drivers for a PnP BIOS extension before bluescreening...)

And last known good configuration does not work... and safe mode is useless (as these D-Tools drivers still load!).  (These bombed out during text bootup, with a BSOD STOP error that I stupidly didn't write down.)

And, if you have a secondary OS installed (I'm running Windows 2003 Server R2)...

I tried deleting the D-Tools drivers.  I got STOP 0xc00000f errors.

So here's what I did to get my 5384 booted again:

• Boot into your secondary OS
• Change into Vista's %systemroot%\system32
• Take ownership of drivers folder
• Edit NTFS permissions to give you modify access to this drivers folder
• Locate the problematic drivers; should be D347PRT.sys (change filename as necessary, for d347bus.sys, et al.) and a SPTD*.sys file(s).  Copy an innocuous driver like wd.sys, REPLACING all of these filenames.
• Restart the system and enjoy. (It was necessary for me to go thru this process several times, isolating specific files.)
• I also removed Daemon-Tools via Programs in Control Panel for a good measure.

Use this as a last resort prior to having to reinstall after a botched 'core' driver install that Daemon-Tools claims itself to be.

Nice hack, or what? =)

 

Originally published October 31st 2005

Affected applications

Microsoft Office 2003 with Outlook 2003 and Word 2003 (clean install or upgrade)

Error message

Microsoft Word is set to be your e-mail editor.  However, Word is unavailable, not installed, or is not the same version as Outlook.  The Outlook e-mail editor will be used instead.  An OLE registration error has occurred.  The program is not correctly installed.  Run setup again for the program.

Symptoms

This error message may only appear when you attempt to forward an email from within Outlook.  Reinstallation does not help (via Add/Remote Programs), neither does "Detect and repair" options in Outlook and/or Word.

Solution

regsvr32 %WINDIR%\system32\ole32.dll

 

This solution comes from: http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1225579&page=1

Windows XP with SP2.  IBM T43, actually.  The problem materialized after I did a driver update (ThinkVantage Software Installer) and rebooted the system.  Running F-Secure Client Security 6.01.

Error 720: A connection to the remote computer could not be established.  You might need to change the network settings for this connection.  (See screenshot below.)

I had confirmed that PPTP was properly selected as VPN type (VPNing into ISA 2004 with latest service pack via RRAS).

1. As per 810979, navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
2. Do a backup of the key and all children, then find the WAN Miniport (IP) and delete the key.  I ended up flushing out all other protocols listed here as well.  (ie. Deleting all the keys).
3. Now, journey into Device Manager, and select Show All Hidden Devices.
4. Under Network Adapters, nuke all the WAN Miniports.
5. I removed my network adapters (wired and wireless) for a good measure.
6. Restart the system
7. Fire up notepad and open c:\windows\inf\netrasa.
8. Comment out (shove semicolons in front of) the lines starting from "Excludefromselect=\" and ending with "MS_NdisWanNbfIn,MS_NdisWanNbfOut" under the [ControlFlags] section.  This allows the WAN Miniports to be reinstalled manually.
9. Now, reinstall the WAN Miniports.  Go into Add New Hardware in Control Panel.  Choose a specific hardware device, Network Adapters, and select Microsoft as the manufacturer.  Find all the WAN Miniports (PPPoE, PPTP, IP, et al... whatever you removed previously) and add them one at a time.
10. Next, reset the TCP/IP stack as per 299357.  I did "netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt"  I stumbled on some other VB apps, but they didn't seem as trustworthy =).
11. Enjoy the VPN.

 

 

 

I was asked the following question recently:  What are the minimum permissions necessary I need to grant a user in order for that user to be able to access the data in another user’s mailbox?

Automatically I referenced following article 821897 that states Send As and Receive As permissions are necessary.  What we came to find out was that the Receive As permission was the only permission necessary to access information in the mailbox and the Send As permission was only needed to add data into the mailbox and not simply access the information. 

After some research I have the answer to the question:

There are two methods to grant permission for a user to access another user’s mailbox through Outlook by selecting File -> Open -> Other User’s Folder.  If it is a custom application that is accessing the mailbox using WebDav or CDO code yet another set of permissions are needed. 

Source: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/01/25/418099.aspx