zaterdag 15 december 2007

Wordpress editing opties

Basic Post Editing

WordPress has two post editing modes, basic and advanced. Typically, this basic mode is the default for writing new posts, but that can be changed with the When starting a post option in the Administration > Options > Writing SubPanel.

Title
Fairly Self explanatory. Enter the Title of your post here. It can contain most any character you can think of.
Categories
Categories are used to organize your posts. You'll likely want to creat several, descriptive categories for your (and your readers') covenience. To make a post a member of a category, simply click in a checkbox beside the desired category. Can a post belong to more than one category? Absolutely! Click as many as you deem appropriate.
Quicktags
Use quicktags to help you quickly and easily format some text in your post. Simply click-drag to hilight the text you want to format, and click the str button to make that text bold (str for strong). Check the end of this section for a detailed explanation of the Quicktags and their functions. (NOTE: Quicktags are disabled in Safari browser on MacOS X due to compatibility issues, at least as of WP 1.5.2.)
Post
This big empty box is where you'll type in the actual text of your post and use the quicktags.
Trackback a URI
A list of URIs to which you want to send a trackback from this post. Trackbacks let other blogs know you've referenced one of their articles. A URI is a fancy name for the location of a website like http://codex.wordpress.org/. Enter multiple URIs by separating them with spaces.
Save as Draft
A draft is an incomplete post. Maybe you've written up some information, but are not yet ready to unleash it to the world at large. Use this button to save what you have written but prevent the post from being displayed. WordPress reminds you on the Administration > Dashboard Panel and on this Write Post page when you have drafts to complete.
Save as Private
Private posts are completed posts that are never intended for public consumption. Only you (and anyone with direct MySQL database access) will be able to read the post.
Publish
Makes the post visible on your Blog. Use this button once you've typed in your story, and you are satisfied that everything is as you want it.
Advanced Editing
This button allows you to change a few advanced options for your post. See below.
WordPress Bookmarklet
The Press It bookmarklet is a convenient link you can put in your browser's bookmark list. When you click that bookmark while browsing a website, you'll open a new browser window with which you can creat a new post about the website you were viewing.

[edit]

Quicktags
  • b - <strong></strong> HTML tag for strong emphasis of text (i.e. bold).
  • i - <em></em> HTML tag for emphasis of text (i.e. italicize).
  • b-quote - <blockquote></blockquote> HTML tag to distinguish quoted or cited text.
  • del - <del></del> HTML tag to label text considered deleted from a post. Most browsers display as striked through text. (Assigns datetime attribute with offset from GMT (UTC))
  • link - <a href="http://example.com"></a> HTML tag to create a hyperlink.
  • ins - <ins></ins> HTML tag to label text considered inserted into a post. Most browsers display as underlined text. (Assigns datetime attribute with offset from GMT (UTC))
  • ul - <ul></ul> HTML tag will insert an unordered list, or wrap the selected text in same. An unordered list will typically be a bulleted list of items.
  • ol - <ol></ol> HTML tag will insert a numbered list, or wrap the selected text in same. Each item in an ordered list are typically numbered.
  • li - <li></li> HTML tag will insert or make the selected text a list item. Used in conjunction with the ul or ol tag.
  • code - <code></code> HTML tag for preformatted styling of text. Generally sets text in a monospaced font, such as Courier.
  • more - <!--more--> WordPress tag that breaks a post into "teaser" and content sections. Type a few paragraphs, insert this tag, then compose the rest of your post. On your blog's home page you'll see only those first paragraphs with a hyperlink ((more...)), which when followed displays the rest of the post's content.
  • page - <!--nextpage--> WordPress tag similar to the more tag, except it can be used any number of times in a post, and each insert will "break" and paginate the post at that location. Hyperlinks to the paginated sections of the post are then generated in combination with the wp_link_pages() or link_pages() template tag.
  • lookup - Opens a JavaScript dialogue box that prompts for a word to search for through the online dictionary at answers.com. You can use this to check spelling on individual words.
  • Close Tags - Closes any open HTML tags left open--but pay attention to the closing tags. WordPress is not a mind reader (!), so make sure the tags enclose what you want, and in the proper way.

Workflow Note - With Quicktag buttons that insert HTML tags, you can for example click i to insert the opening <em> tag, type the text to be enclosed, and click /i or Close Tags to insert the closing tag. However, you can eliminate the need for this 'close' step by changing your workflow a bit: type your text, select the portion to be emphasized (that is, italicized), then click i and your highlighted text will be wrapped in the opening and closing tags.

The Quicktag buttons also have the accesskey JavaScript attribute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_keys) set, so you may be able to use a keyboard equivalent (e.g., Alt-b for bold) to "press" the button, depending on your browser.

On Windows, IE and Firefox prior to 2.0b2 use Alt to activate accesskeys, while Firefox 2.0b2 uses Alt-Shift (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?s=317e98cf7bbe4c2c9867159f32d6093f&p=1202830&postcount=13). On Mac OS X, Firefox uses Ctrl.

[edit]

Advanced Post Editing

The Advanced Options

Enlarge

The Advanced Options

The advanced options give you control over some nice, but infrequently used features. Not so infrequent that you won't use them, though, so you should know what they do and where they are. Click on the thumbnail to open a larger view of the image.

IMPORTANT NOTE. The Advanced Editing existed only in earlier WP versions. Since WP 1.5 and newer there is only one editing subpanel!

[edit]

Discussion Options and Password Protection

The following options are available in advanced mode and are displayed near the top of the page.

Allow Comments
If unchecked, no one can post comments to this particular post. You can set the default behavior for this in the Administration > Options > Discussion SubPanel.
Allow Pings
If unchecked, no one can post pingbacks or trackbacks to this particular post. You can set the default behavior for this in the Administration > Options > Discussion SubPanel.
Post Password
You can password protect this individual post by entering a password here.
Excerpt
Enter a condensed description of your post. This summary will be used to describe your post in RSS feeds and is typically used when displaying search results or your posts.

[edit]

Preview

Previewing your work:

Save and continue editing
This button, located next to the Publish button in advanced mode, saves the post and displays the post in the Post Preview section at the bottom of the page. You can then see what the post will look like and continue editing.

[edit]

Change the Defaults and Delete

The following extra options are available in advanced mode and are displayed near the bottom of the page.

Post Status
These radio buttons allow you to manually select the status of the post: Published (viewable by everyone), Draft (and incomplete post - viewable to anyone with greater user level), Private (viewable only to you).
Post Slug
The post slug is a few words that describe the post. WordPress automatically generates a post slug from the title of a post, but you can manually edit it here. Post slugs can be used in your permalinks. See Using Permalinks.
Post Author
With this drop down box you can change the author of the post to be any user with user level equal to or less than your.
Edit Time
You can change the time and date associated with the post. If you do this, make sure you have the Edit Timestamp checkbox checked.
Delete
The button you use to delete posts. You'll get a warning asking you to make sure you really want to delete it. Posts cannot be undeleted.
Custom Fields
Custom fields for a post, in conjunction with extra code in your template files or plugins, can modify the way a post is displayed. Custom fields are primarily used by plugins, but you can manually edit that information here. See Using Custom Fields

zondag 25 november 2007

De ultieme opendir tool

 

Ik begin toch maar weer over Google, want je kunt er echt toffe dingen mee doen. Zo kun je een opdracht ingeven die zoekt naar open dirretjes van bijvoorbeeld MP3-tjes. De zoekstring die je moet invoeren, heeft de volgende format: ?intitle:index.of? mp3. Dit levert ongeveer 160.000 openstaande directories op die als foldernaam 'MP3' hebben...

Verander in die string de term 'MP3' in 'louske' of zo en wie weet wat je zult vinden :p Je kunt, met een ander type string, trouwens ook zoeken naar niet-beveiligde persoonlijke webcams...

Een andere tool die wellicht handig is voor bij het bekijken van open dirretjes is StripDir. Bij het bekijken van een ftp-directory in je reguliere browser, zie je alleen maar de links naar afzonderlijke plaatjes. Maar met deze tool worden die links meteen omgezet in de afbeeldingen zelf! Erg handig! Scheelt je veel tijd en het ziet er allemaal wat beter uit :)

vrijdag 2 november 2007

Will Google replace Microsoft Exchange?


October 25, 2007
I know everyone seems to think that Google is going to start eating into Microsoft Office, but I think it's going to be consuming the sales of Microsoft's flagship communications product first: Microsoft Exchange.
Google recently released IMAP support for GMail which allows users to keep their mail clients and mobile devices in sync with the GMail servers much the same way Exchange server does with the MAPI protocol. Today GMail is no match for Exchange, but by adding IMAP support they are one step closer to a full Exchange server replacement.
With Microsoft Exchange Server business users can keep their mailbox, contacts and calendars in sync between multiple computers running Outlook as well as mobile devices that support Exchange Active Sync (or EAS). In addition the EAS clients get access to push e-mail meaning that as soon as the message hits the Exchange server and is processed, it will be pushed to the users mobile device for delivery rather than scanning for messages every 15 minutes (for example). All of these Exchange server features are great and valuable in a business setting, but many of these features are not supported on non-Outlook mail clients and mobile devices that don't have EAS support are out of luck. In addition, Exchange is scary expensive when compared to other servers such as Merak or Communigate Pro.
IMAP is the first step in replacing Exchange server and Google probably knows this. Part of the IMAP protocol is something called IMAP Idle which keeps a server connection open allowing for push e-mail to devices that support it. IMAP Idle is the next step in the path for Google to replace Exchange. The iPhone supports push e-mail to/from Yahoo! e-mail via IMAP Idle but for some reason ignores IMAP Idle on other servers that support it such as Merak, Communigate or even Exchange. Other mobile applications such as FlexMail and ChatterEmail support IMAP Idle for Windows Mobile and Palm devices. Desktop clients such as Thunderbird and the new version of Mail.app found in Leopard will also include IMAP Idle support. With these IMAP Idle clients on mobile devices and computers we're able to get instant e-mail notification the moment the message hits the server, much the same way you do with Exchange and Outlook but at a fraction of the price or in the case of GMail, for free! That is, for free once GMail supports IMAP Idle.
We've tackled push e-mail support, but what about calendar and contacts? There's an open standard that's called SyncML which should take care of this nicely. SyncML allows the two-way synchronization of calendar, contact and task data from a handheld and computer or possibly from an online service provider such as Google. Many Symbian devices already support SyncML and rumor is that Palm will be dropping hotsync in favor of SyncML in their next OS due out the 12th of never (I saw this rumor on Engadget in 2005 so, uh, yeah). There are Windows Mobile add-ons that should also support SyncML. It would be possible to add a contact to a SyncML enabled handset and that contact would auto-sync back to Google which would also auto-sync back to the desktop app. SyncML also has a bunch of other features to facilitate backup options and syncing of other media objects which would in theory allow this service to end up being more powerful than what Exchange offers today.
At this stage Google only needs to implement IMAP Idle and SyncML to replace a very large portion of what Exchange offers. Some of the very few things that would not be supported are Active Directory synchronization which in a pure web world won't matter too much (all that login info could be done using a Google login) and multiple colors for messages (MAPI supports many different color flags and IMAP only supports flag on or off but no color). The biggest hurdle has already been achieved, now it's up to Google to keep it going. With Google Apps for business this becomes a much more powerful solution that's remote, offers almost all of the same functionality as Exchange, requires little to no IT staff to maintain it and since it's based on open standards has the ability to run on just about any device, oh yeah and a business can control the user accounts too (as opposed to the free version).
There's one final step that's missing which I have yet to figure out. I read over on WMExperts that Microsoft is releasing their Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 (yes, that's the actual title) which will allow provisioning of mobile devices remotely much like a Blackberry. I'm not sure I see Google trying to tackle this beast. Will Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 be the saving grace for Microsoft Exchange Server, or will the tie between the two products be too weak and we'll end up with Google Apps controlled by Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008? Even so, if Google did support IMAP Idle and SyncML would you or your company ever consider breaking from an Exchange environment?

woensdag 19 september 2007

Robocopy Syntax

Robocopy (Robust File Copy) is a command-line file copying tool in Windows Vista. Although Robocopy is available for free with the download Windows Resource Kit since Windows NT 4.0, it has never been an official feature of the operating system until the arrival of Vista. Unlike other built-in file copying commands such as Copy and XCopy, Robocopy is designed for reliable copy or mirroring of entire folders of any size, and in the copying process, ensure that all NTFS ACLS, attributes, owner information, alternate data streams, auditing information, timestamps and properties are copied except security information unless explicitly requested with /COPYALL switch. And best of all, Robocopy works over network connections that are subject to disruption or outages with resume copying feature, and has progress indicator on the command line that is useful when copying large files.

Robocopy Syntax
ROBOCOPY source destination [file [file]…] [options]
where source is Source Directory (drive:\path or \\server\share\path), destination is Destination Directory (drive:\path or \\server\share\path) and file is File(s) to copy where names or wildcards can be specified and default is “*.*” (all files).

Robocopy Options and Switches

Copy options :
/S :: copy Subdirectories, but not empty ones.
/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.
/LEV:n :: only copy the top n LEVels of the source directory tree.

/Z :: copy files in restartable mode.
/B :: copy files in Backup mode.
/ZB :: use restartable mode; if access denied use Backup mode.
/EFSRAW :: copy all encrypted files in EFS RAW mode.

/COPY:copyflag[s] :: what to COPY for files (default is /COPY:DAT).
(copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
(S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).

/DCOPY:T :: COPY Directory Timestamps.

/SEC :: copy files with SECurity (equivalent to /COPY:DATS).
/COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info (equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU).
/NOCOPY :: COPY NO file info (useful with /PURGE).

/SECFIX :: FIX file SECurity on all files, even skipped files.
/TIMFIX :: FIX file TIMes on all files, even skipped files.

/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.
/MIR :: MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).

/MOV :: MOVe files (delete from source after copying).
/MOVE :: MOVE files AND dirs (delete from source after copying).

/A+:[RASHCNET] :: add the given Attributes to copied files.
/A-:[RASHCNET] :: remove the given Attributes from copied files.

/CREATE :: CREATE directory tree and zero-length files only.
/FAT :: create destination files using 8.3 FAT file names only.
/256 :: turn off very long path (> 256 characters) support.

/MON:n :: MONitor source; run again when more than n changes seen.
/MOT:m :: MOnitor source; run again in m minutes Time, if changed.
/RH:hhmm-hhmm :: Run Hours - times when new copies may be started.
/PF :: check run hours on a Per File (not per pass) basis.
/IPG:n :: Inter-Packet Gap (ms), to free bandwidth on slow lines.

File Selection Options :
/A :: copy only files with the Archive attribute set.
/M :: copy only files with the Archive attribute and reset it.
/IA:[RASHCNETO] :: Include only files with any of the given Attributes set.
/XA:[RASHCNETO] :: eXclude files with any of the given Attributes set.
/XF file [file]… :: eXclude Files matching given names/paths/wildcards.
/XD dirs [dirs]… :: eXclude Directories matching given names/paths.
/XC :: eXclude Changed files.
/XN :: eXclude Newer files.
/XO :: eXclude Older files.
/XX :: eXclude eXtra files and directories.
/XL :: eXclude Lonely files and directories.
/IS :: Include Same files.
/IT :: Include Tweaked files.
/MAX:n :: MAXimum file size - exclude files bigger than n bytes.
/MIN:n :: MINimum file size - exclude files smaller than n bytes.
/MAXAGE:n :: MAXimum file AGE - exclude files older than n days/date.
/MINAGE:n :: MINimum file AGE - exclude files newer than n days/date.
/MAXLAD:n :: MAXimum Last Access Date - exclude files unused since n.
/MINLAD:n :: MINimum Last Access Date - exclude files used since n.
(If n < 1900 then n = n days, else n = YYYYMMDD date).
/XJ :: eXclude Junction points. (normally included by default).
/FFT :: assume FAT File Times (2-second granularity).
/DST :: compensate for one-hour DST time differences.
/XJD :: eXclude Junction points for Directories.
/XJF :: eXclude Junction points for Files.

Retry Options :
/R:n :: number of Retries on failed copies: default 1 million.
/W:n :: Wait time between retries: default is 30 seconds.
/REG :: Save /R:n and /W:n in the Registry as default settings.
/TBD :: wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67).

Logging Options :
/L :: List only - don’t copy, timestamp or delete any files.
/X :: report all eXtra files, not just those selected.
/V :: produce Verbose output, showing skipped files.
/TS :: include source file Time Stamps in the output.
/FP :: include Full Pathname of files in the output.
/BYTES :: Print sizes as bytes.
/NS :: No Size - don’t log file sizes.
/NC :: No Class - don’t log file classes.
/NFL :: No File List - don’t log file names.
/NDL :: No Directory List - don’t log directory names.
/NP :: No Progress - don’t display % copied.
/ETA :: show Estimated Time of Arrival of copied files.
/LOG:file :: output status to LOG file (overwrite existing log).
/LOG+:file :: output status to LOG file (append to existing log).
/UNILOG:file :: output status to LOG file as UNICODE (overwrite existing log).
/UNILOG+:file :: output status to LOG file as UNICODE (append to existing log).
/TEE :: output to console window, as well as the log file.
/NJH :: No Job Header.
/NJS :: No Job Summary.
/UNICODE :: output status as UNICODE.

Job Options :
/JOB:jobname :: take parameters from the named JOB file.
/SAVE:jobname :: SAVE parameters to the named job file
/QUIT :: QUIT after processing command line (to view parameters).
/NOSD :: NO Source Directory is specified.
/NODD :: NO Destination Directory is specified.
/IF :: Include the following Files.

Robocopy Examples
To use Robocopy is simple, just like how you would use Copy and Xcopy commands. For example, to copy entire folder of C:\Users to C:\UserBackup, simply type:
Robocopy C:\Users C:\UserBackup

donderdag 6 september 2007

ESX voor Thuis

Tijdens de migratie cursus zijn we op een volgend theoretisch model gekomen, dat op iedere grotere machine moet kunnen draaien, zelfs op IDE of SATA disken:

Installeer ESX3 op de machine. Wijs alle extra dataruimte toe aan de service-console in een extra partitie (zoals /vmimages op ESX2 gebruikelijk is). Installeer en configureer de NFS server in de service-console. Hierbij moet je er op letten dat ook NFS over TCP werkt (standaard is alleen NFS over UDP). Exporteer de extra disk ruimte.

Nu kan je ESX opstarten maar die ziet in het geheel geen dataruimte. Nog niets aan de hand. Onder netwerking moet je er voor zorgen dat de vmkernel en de service-console op de zelfde virutele switch zitten. Bijvoorbeeld door extra nics of door ze gewoon bij elkaar op de switch te zetten. Als ze elkaar maar intern zien, anders gaat al het nfs verkeer 2 keer over de fysieke netwerk kaarten.

Laatste stap: gebruik de nfs-storage op de service-consol in de vmkernel en bouw hier je gasten op.

Suc6

PS1: Als je al een nfs-server hebt draaien, kan je die natuurlijk ook gebruiken. Omdat de vmkernel alleen nfs over tcp spreekt, moet je nfs-server dat beantwoorden.
PS2: In het bovenstaande kan je NFS vervangen door iSCSI door een software-iSCSI server in de service-console te installeren maar dat heeft veel meer voeten in de aarde. De service-console is gebaseerd op RH EL3 dus gebruik bij voorkeur sources die daarop zijn voorbereidt.
_________________
Pas op voor applicatie beheerders met schroevendraaiers...

dinsdag 24 juli 2007

Error message when you run the Active Directory Installation Wizard: "The version of the Active Directory schema of the source forest is not compatible with the version of Active Directory on this computer"


Error message when you run the Active Directory Installation Wizard: "The version of the Active Directory schema of the source forest is not compatible with the version of Active Directory on this computer".


SYMPTOMS




When you try to run the Active Directory Installation Wizard on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 server, the wizard does not finish, and you may receive the following error message:
The Active Directory Installation Wizard cannot continue because the forest is not prepared for installing Windows Server 2003. Use the Adprep command-line tool to prepare both the forest and the domain. For more information about using the Adprep, see Active Directory Help.

The version of the Active Directory schema of the source forest is not compatible with the version of Active Directory on this computer.


CAUSE




This issue may occur when Active Directory has not been updated with the Windows Server 2003 R2 schema extensions..


RESOLUTION




To resolve this issue, run the adprep.exe /forestprep command from the Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disk 2 on the schema master. To do this, insert the Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disk 2, and then type the following command:
Drive:\CMPNENTS\R2\ADPREP\adprep.exe /forestprep


MORE INFORMATION




The correct version of the ADPrep.exe tool for Windows Server 2003 R2 is 5.2.3790.2075.

You can verify the operating system support level of the schema by looking at the value of the Schema Version registry subkey on a domain controller. You can find this subkey in the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters
You can also verify the operating system support level of the schema by using the Adsiedit.exe utility or the Ldp.exe utility to view the objectVersion attribute in the properties of the cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=<domain> partition. The value of the Schema Version registry subkey and the objectVersion attribute are in decimal.

System Schema Version ObjectVersion values and corresponding operating system support level










13=Microsoft Windows 2000
30=Original release version of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
31=Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2


Windows Server 2003 R2 installation disks



Windows Server 2003 R2 comes on two installation disks. Installation disk 1 contains a slip-streamed version of Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1). Installation disk 2 contains the Windows Server 2003 R2 files. If the computer has Windows Server 2003 SP1 installed, you may only have to run installation disk 2 to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 R2.

Installation disk 2 is specific to the edition of Windows Server 2003. For example, you must use a Windows Server 2003 R2, Standard Edition installation disk to upgrade a Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition-based computer. Installation disk 2 contains installation files for the x86-based version and the x64-based version of Windows Server 2003 R2.

The Adsiedit.exe utility and the Ldp.exe utility are included with Windows Server 2003 R2 support tools. To install support tools, run Suptools.msi from the \Support\Tools folder on installation disk 1.

vrijdag 20 juli 2007

Preventing MAC Bridging on a Windows XP Host

VMware Workstation

Details
I get an error message that says a network adapter cannot be part of the Windows Network Bridge, because it may be incompatible with my local network. Why do I see this message? Do I need to make any changes to my configuration?

Solution
VMware products do not allow the Windows XP MAC Bridging feature to bridge a virtual machine's virtual network adapters to physical network adapters on the host machine. This is done to prevent the VMware DHCP Service from leaking DHCP traffic onto the physical network.
If you need to use MAC bridging with one or more virtual network adapters, you can override the MAC bridging prevention mechanism by creating an option in your Windows XP host registry called AllowBindingToMACBridge and setting it to 1.
  • To set this option, do the following.
    Open the registry on your Windows XP host.Choose Start > Run > regedit.
    Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class and look for the key {4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}.
    Make sure it is the right key by selecting it and verifying that (Default) has the value Network adapters.
    Under {4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}, there are subkeys 0000, 0001, 0002 and so forth. Select each subkey until you find the one that corresponds to the VMnet adapter in question. The correct key has the DriverDesc with value VMware Virtual Ethernet Adapter ?.
    Add a DWORD value called AllowBindingToMACBridge, and set it to 1.
    Right-click the subkey, then choose New > DWORD Value.
    Type AllowBindingToMACBridge and press Enter.
    Right-click the new option and select Modify.
    In the Value date entry field, type 1.
    Close the registry.

Note: If you see more than one subkey that looks like the correct VMnet adapter, VMware suggests you add the AllowBindingToMACBridge DWORD to each subkey.
Overriding the MAC bridging prevention mechanism may cause DHCP traffic to leak onto your physical network.

Note: Do not confuse MAC bridging with the bridged networking used for virtual machines

woensdag 13 juni 2007

Who's logged on?

How to tell who's currently logged on to an Active Directory domain.


A frequently asked question concerning Active Directory-based networks is, How can I tell who is currently logged on to my network? Unfortunately Active Directory itself has no built-in functionality to determine this, but there's a free tool from Microsoft that can help in this regard. The tool is called LimitLogon.exe and its main purpose is to limit the number of concurrent user logins to a domain, but it can also be used to keep track of all logins in a domain.


LimitLogon is an unsupported tool and can be downloaded here from Microsoft. There's also a FAQ on Bink.nu that explains how the tool is used. As usual, use unsupported tools with caution and try them out in a test environment first before using them on your production network.

dinsdag 12 juni 2007

OneNote rocks

Ok I'm prepared for this post to be construed as definitive proof that
I am part of The Borg, but in the spirit of sharing useful tips a la LifeHacker
and a desire to GTD, I thought I'd pimp two Microsoft products that I've only
recently started using: OneNote and Groove.
I'll start with OneNote, since
that's the one I'm liking most and which has swayed me away from scribbling my
thoughts on wiki pages and text files, and more importantly convinced me to do
away with a paper notebook altogether.
Essentially, you get an on-screen
representation of a paper notebook, with coloured tabs for organising by subject
on top, and tabs for individual pages down the right hand side. You can click to
type anywhere on the "page". If you have a tablet PC, you can handwrite on the
page. Microsoft gives me a tablet, but I much prefer just to type. Of course,
you can freely drag and drop your blocks of text anywhere on the page. I'm
liking the freeform nature of it, and you get access to all the usual fancy
formatting like bold, italics, colours, fonts. You can insert links to files and
pictures by dragging and dropping. You can insert hyperlinks to web pages, other
pages within your notebook, even other paragraphs within pages of your notebook.
If you are taking notes about a meeting, you can insert the meeting details from
your Outlook calendar.
But the fancy content is not the killer feature
(although they are sufficiently rich and easy to use that I don't secretly pine
for wiki markup like I used to). What's killer are the sharing capabilities;
specifically in three areas:
Between computers: I take my laptop to meetings,
but it's obviously much more comfortable typing on my desktop (where I have a
lot more screen real estate not to mention an ultra-comfy keyboard). So I keep
copies of OneNote open on my desktop and laptop, set my notebook to be shared
between computers, and it automatically keeps in sync between the two in
near-real-time.
Between colleagues: instead of a wiki page, we can share a
notebook that's stored on a SharePoint site. We can work on the notebook
offline, and when we're online it periodically syncs to the server, marking who
made what changes as we go.
Live sharing: in a meeting, if we want to
collaborate on note-taking, one of us just has to mark their notebook for live
sharing, then sends each of us (e.g. via IM or e-mail) their IP and some
password they make up. We connect to their machine and voila! real-time
collaborative editing of the full-featured notebook!
I'm sure there are other
tools out there that do similar things like note-taking (Google Notebook), or
realtime collaborative editing (SubEthaEdit), but I was impressed that one
cohesive package Just Worked. To me, it's a prime example of where Microsoft
should be focusing its energies: rich desktop applications that are no longer
tied to one machine -- it is now a relatively painless experience to share
information between people in different places, or among people at the same
time, or with machines in different locations. It's this kind of freedom that,
once you get used to it, you cannot imagine ever having lived without.
Which
brings me to Groove, with which I have much less experience and take advantage
of far fewer of its features. In fact, I use just one: folder synchronisation.
This is an area in which I'm sure there are plenty of competitors also, but in
this case I use it simply to keep my Projects folder in sync between my laptop
and desktop, so the fact that I stored a set of slides, or some screenshots, or
some design spec on one machine means I will always be able to access it from
the other. Why is it better than other similar products? Don't know. I just know
it works and I haven't had to invest much brainpower to get it to work.
End
of infomercial. But seriously, give OneNote a try. I dismissed it once as
overkill, but now I believe this is a product that deserves its
"wow".
Update: discovered another nifty feature -- Insert Printout; e.g. I
can drag and drop a mail item from Outlook, and I have the option of inserting a
link to the item, a copy or a printout. The latter sends the item to a printer
driver so you get a virtual printout embedded in your doc onto which you can add
notes etc. No details on how OneNote does this in its help file, but it's
probably XPS format.

vrijdag 11 mei 2007

WDS Rocks! The COMPLETE guide to using WDS to deploy XP images

Friday, March 23, 2007
WDS Rocks! The COMPLETE guide to using WDS to deploy XP images
Those of you who work as a network administrator and have to deal with either the addition of multiple computers to a network or constant reformatting are surely familiar with RIS, or Remote Installation Services. RIS is a great way to easily deploy images across a network, and best of all it's a free program included with Windows Server! However, I have experienced great pains in the past dealing with troublesome network drivers (Damn Intel Pro 100VE!) which will prevent you from successfully deploying your image. In order to add the appropriate network driver to your image you had to create the dreaded \$oem$\$1\Drivers\Nic series of folders that RIS could recognize and then modify the .sif file. Of course, this is easier said than done, and not all network drivers worked will with RIS. Well, for me those days are gone, now that windows has released WDS or Windows Deployment Services. WDS is the new, updated version of RIS that was designed for Vista deployment from the upcoming Longhorn Server which is to be released later this year. WDS is included in the newly released Windows 2003 SP2, or it can be downloaded independently from Microsoft. Not planning on running Vista in your organization? No problem, WDS works great with XP Pro as well! WDS uses a new format for images called a WIM, which when used with Vista is hardware independent. That's right, from now on as far as Vista is concerned you do not have to worry about hardware abstraction layers anymore! You can also service the image offline, including adding and deleting optional components, updates, and drivers, without fundamentally creating a new image. In the following steps I will describe how to use WDS to deploy XP Pro images across your network from a Windows 2003 server:

> Download the Microsoft Vista AIK or Automated Installation Kit here
> Burn the Image to disc or mount with Daemon tools which can be found here
> Right click and Explore the AIK Disc
> Open the WDS folder and install the appropriate WDS version: 64 bit or x86 then reboot the server
> Double click the WinPE Zip file and extract both files: F1_WinPE and F3_WinPE
The files you have extracted in the last step are WinPE bootable operating systems, which will be used to capture the sysprepped image and upload it to the server. To deploy the images you will PXE boot into these PE os environments to install the sysprepped image on a bare metal computer.
> Start WDS and follow the configuration steps listed below:

1. On the Start menu, click Administrative Tools, and then click Windows Deployment Services
2. In the left pane of the Windows Deployment Services MMC snap-in, expand the server list.

3. Click the server that you want to manage..

4. If the server is not in the servers list, right-click the Servers node to add a server.

5. In the Add Server(s) dialog box, click Another computer, and then browse to select the computer to manage.

6. In the Add Server Warning dialog box, click Yes to add the server.

7. Right-click the server that you want to manage, and click Configure Server to start the Windows Deployment Services Configuration Wizard.

8. At the Welcome page, click Next.

9. At the Remote Installation Folder Location page, click Next to accept the default location (C:\RemoteInstall).

10.If the Microsoft DHCP service is on the server that is being configured as a Windows Deployment Services server, set DHCP Option 60 to PXEClient and set Windows Deployment Services to Do not listen on Port 67.

11. On the PXE Server Initial Settings page, click Respond to all (known and unknown) client computers.

12. Click Finish

> Now in the WDS MMC right click the "Boot Images" folder and select "Add Boot Image"
> Browse to the location you saved the WinPE we extracted earlier: F1_WinPE and F3_WinPE
> Select to add both images and once finished restart WDS and a few boot images will now appear in the "Boot Images" folder, but the one we will concentrate on is the "Windows Vista PE" image.
> Right click the "Windows Vista PE" image and select "Create Capture Boot Image" This is the PE environment we will use to move our sysprep image from the workstation to the server.
> Name the capture image and select a place to save it and click Next
> Now right click the "Boot Images" folder and select to add another boot image
> Navigate to the location you just saved you capture image and import it to WDS
> You will now see your capture image in the "Boot Images" folder, and this means we are now ready to get our workstation ready to be sysprepped!
> Install Windows XP Pro on the workstation along with whatever software you would like on the image to be deployed such as Office 2003, Acrobat etc.
> Create a folder in the root of the C: drive called sysprep
> Put the Windows XP Cd in the drive and navigate to the Support folder
> Extract "Deploy" to the sysprep folder on the root of C; that you just made
> Go to the sysprep folder and double click "setupmgr.exe" to create the answer file needed for an automatic installation on Windows.
> In the setup manager fill in whatever info you would like such as registration key, default settings etc. This will automatically place the unattended answer file in the appropriate place for Windows to retrieve the information during install.
> Go to the sysprep folder on the root of C: and double click the sysprep executable
> IMPORTANT: In order to properly image your computer to the WDS server you must remove ALL sid information, so tick the box "Use Mini Setup" and click the "RESEAL" button
> Sysprep now does it's thing and shuts the computer down. Assuming your workstation to be imaged is configured to PXE boot restart and press F12 and select Network Boot (If not go into the BIOS and configure the workstation to PXE boot prior to this step)
> The workstation will now get a DHCP address from the WDS server and a text-based selection screen will pop up.
> Select the capture image you created earlier
> You are now booted into a Vista PE environment. Follow the steps to image the appropriate volume and choose a location to save the image on the WDS server.
> Grab a coffee and wait for the image to be moved to the server
> We have now successfully imaged an XP workstation and saved it on the WDS server as a WIM image format!
> On the WDS server right click "Install Images" and select to add an install image
> Browse to the location you saved the sysprepped image we just uploaded to the server and select it.
> The XP Pro image is now located in the "Install Images" folder
> Now go to a bare metal PC with the same HAL as the image machine (HAL independence is only a feature of Vista images) and PXE boot
> Now select the "Microsoft Windows Vista PE", NOT the capture image! We do not want to capture an image in this step, we want to install one!
> A Vista PE install environment opens and you can now select the XP Pro image to install


And that's it! Since we are using a Vista PE 2.0 environment that has all modern network drivers slipstreamed we no longer have to worry about adding the drivers just to install the image. What's more, you may have noticed a "Add Drivers" link in the PE environment install page, which can be used to automatically add drivers to the install image by CD or USB key! No more modifying .sif files, no more driver directories on the flat RIS image!

Posted by Jonathan E. Smith at 9:04 AM

donderdag 10 mei 2007

Device Manager Does Not Display Devices Not Currently Present

Article ID:241257
Last Review:March 1, 2007

Device Manager displays only non-Plug and Play devices, drivers, and printers when you click the Show hidden devices command on the View menu to enable it. Devices that are installed but are not currently connected to the computer (such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device or "ghosted" devices) are not displayed in Device Manager, even when you use the Show hidden devices command.


WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior and display phantom devices when you use the Show hidden devices command:
1.
Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
2.
At the command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1cd\%SystemRoot%\System32start devmgmt.mscwhere %SystemRoot% is the folder in which Windows 2000 is installed.
3.
Troubleshoot the devices and drivers in Device Manager, as required.NOTE: You must first select show hidden devices on the Device Manager View menu before you can see devices that are no longer present in the system.
4.
When you are done troubleshooting, quit Device Manager, and then close the Command Prompt window. Closing the window clears the variable you set in step 2 and prevents ghosted devices from being displayed when you use the Show hidden devices command.NOTE: When you quit Device Manager and close the Command Prompt window, the set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 variable is turned off so you cannot see the phantom devices. An alternative approach, for developers or power users who need this feature enabled constantly, is to set this environment variable globally. To do so, perform the following steps:
1.
Right-click My Computer.
2.
Click Properties.
3.
Click the Advanced tab.
4.
Click the Environment Variables tab.
5.
Set the variables in the System Variables box.NOTE: You should use this method only for troubleshooting or development purposes, to prevent users from accidentally uninstalling a required device that is not currently present (such as a USB device or docking station that is not currently connected to a laptop computer).


STATUS
This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

In Device Manager, there are two types of hidden devices in addition to the typical devices that are displayed:

Typical hidden devices, which are not displayed (non-Plug and Play drivers, printers, and so on).

Phantom devices, which are not currently connected to the computer. NOTE: The method outlined in the "Workaround" section should be used only by Support Professionals to troubleshoot customer-related issues with devices and installed drivers.

vrijdag 27 april 2007

EXCHANGE 2007 SERVER ROLE REVIEW

By William Lefkovics


If you have explored Exchange 2007 deployment or administration at all, you will have noticed many distinct differences from its predecessors. One of the more fundamental changes going from Exchange Server 2000/2003 to 2007 is the segregation of functionality into separate 'server roles'. The components of Exchange communication have been broken down to five distinct roles:

• Client Access

• Mailbox

• Hub Transport

• Unified Messaging

• Edge Transport

Where these somewhat modular roles are deployed provide some flexibility for different Exchange topologies.


Client Access


The Client Access role replaces the concept of the Front End server from Exchange 2000/2003, though it can be installed on a non-clustered mailbox server or on a separate server that is well connected to the mailbox server to offload processing formerly held by the backend. In every Active Directory Site where there is an Exchange 2007 mailbox server, there must be an Exchange Server with the Client Access role installed. Its primary role is to provide non-MAPI connectivity to Exchange data. This includes Exchange web access called Outlook Web Access (OWA), internet standard client access protocols POP3 and IMAP4, as well as Microsoft's mobile access protocol Activesync. The Client Access role requires the World Wide Web service on the server and it hosts the new Autodiscover Service and Exchange Web Services.


Mailbox Role


When Exchange 2007 has the Mailbox role installed, it can host Exchange mailbox databases and if enabled, public folders. This is where storage and other hardware capacity considerations are most important. Backup and recovery considerations enter into storage determination as well, with local (LCR) and cluster continuous replication (CCR) options now available. Small, single server deployments would have the mailbox role installed with the other roles with the exception of Edge Transport. This role also requires Network COM+, Internet Information Services (IIS), and the World Wide Web service to be installed on the server.


Hub Transport


Every message needs to travel through an Exchange 2007 server running the Hub Transport role. Even if the Hub Transport role is installed on a mailbox server, messages sent to a mailbox on that server from a source also originating on that server must go through a hub transport. It is this requirement that opens up the possibilities for the Hub Transport role to provide some security and compliance controls for both internal and external e-mail communication with the organization. The Hub Transport role maintains a set of Message Transport Rules that can be applied to messages as they pass through the hub. These rules, bearing a passive similarity to Outlook rules on the client, can provide security and compliance by validating message content against certain requisite parameters. It can also limit messaging communication between members of specific groups in the company as a form of ethical wall.


The Hub Transport role is especially vital in larger Exchange topologies where specific message routing needs to be controlled, integrated in heterogeneous environments or where site connectivity issues exist. This role incorporates the bridgehead functionality known from previous versions.


Unified Messaging


The Unified Messaging role expands mailbox access beyond e-mail clients to include voice and fax. Exchange mailboxes provide a central repository for managing inbound faxes and voice mail messages through an AutoAttendant feature. In addition, mailbox content is accessible by voice as well. Of course, this functionality requires an appropriate IP-PBX or VoIP gateway installed and configured to work with Exchange 2007. The configuration components of Unified Messaging are stored as Active Directory objects, including the AutoAttendant controls and IP Gateway information.


A great part of the modular roles Microsoft has chosen to provide is that the roles can be added or removed at a later date. I am finding most Exchange 2007 deployments are not using the Unified Messaging role yet, but have chosen typical installations of the product and are investigating the benefits and value of this new functionality for their organization.


Edge Transport


The Edge Transport role is the most independent of the five server roles. As the name implies, it is intended for the perimeter of the network providing SMTP relay (or SmartHost) and message hygiene functionality for your Exchange organization. It can not be installed with any of the other Exchange server roles. The Edge has a set of transport rules similar to the Hub Transport rule set, but focused more to external communication. It performs various filtering for message hygiene, including connection filtering, recipient filtering, sender filtering, SenderID validation (SPF), and content filtering (formerly the Intelligent Message Filter - IMF). These steps help prevent unwanted content from reaching the mailbox stores or provide some level of message assessment for the benefit of e-mail clients.


Some of the information Edge needs for its functionality comes from Active Directory. To prevent perimeter access to Active Directory, Exchange uses a new function called EdgeSync on a Hub Transport server to perform a periodic, one-way directory synchronization of a subset of directory information to a local, specialized version of ADAM on subscribed Edge Transport servers. This information is referenced by the Edge Transport server to perform its security and message hygiene functions.


Summary


The granularity of these roles adds to the flexibility and design preparation of your Exchange organization. A typical, small business installation might maintain the Mailbox, Client Access, and Hub Transport roles on a single Exchange 2007 Server as shown in Figure 1. They may also opt for an Exchange 2007 Edge Transport server on the network perimeter as well. Larger companies may benefit from separating the various server roles to meet their network requirements and to maximize performance of their Exchange organization.


Figure 1: http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2007/Figure1_E2K7_Apr262007.PNG


-- William Lefkovics

woensdag 25 april 2007

Hiren's BootCD From USB Flash Drive (Pen Drive) - www.hiren.info


Hiren's BootCD From USB Flash Drive (USB Pen Drive)

Step 1

Put the BootCD 8 or newer in CD Drive

OR

If you want to extract boot files from iso then Download extract-boot-files.zip

Extract and open readme for more instruction. and skip to step 4

Step 2

Start Mini Windows 98

Step 3

Copy Files From A:\ (Floppy Drive) using Explorer to C:\USB and Restart Computer to normal Windows

OR

Note: if you can not see your hard drive from mini windows 98 then you will need a blank floppy disk.

click Start > Turn Off > Exit to Dos and type COPY A:\*.* B:\

Now remove floppy and Restart Computer to your normal Windows and insert your floppy disk

and copy all files from floppy disk to C:\USB

Step 4

Download USB Disk Storage Format


(34KB)


Note: USB Disk Storage Format works on xp, for windows 98 Go to My computer and

Right click on the USB Drive and click on format. You will need a USB Flash Drive 128MB or more


Step 5

Copy All Files From C:\USB to Your USB Flash Drive

Please note: Do not overwrite IO.SYS when it prompts

Delete JO.SYS from USB Drive (NOT IO.SYS)

Step 6

Copy \BOOTCD folder to Your USB Drive

Step 7

Test Your USB Drive

Make sure you set your computer to boot from USB Flash Drive

To Enter the BIOS press the "Del" button on your keyboard. Alternatives are "F1", "F2", "Insert", and "F10". Some PC's BIOS might even require a different key to be pressed. Commonly a PC will show a message like "Press [Del] to enter Setup" to indicate that you need to press the "Del" key. Some AMI BIOS require you to enable the option "USB Keyboard Legacy support"!

For AMI BIOS:

  • Go to "Feature Setup". "Enable" these options: "USB Function Support",

    "USB Function For DOS" and "ThumbDrive for DOS". Go to "Advanced Setup".

    Set the "1st Boot Device" to "USB RMD-FDD".

    Reboot the PC and it now should boot from the Usb Stick.

  • Go to "USB Mass Storage Device Configuration". Select "Emulation Type"

    and set it to "Harddisk". Go to the "Boot Menu" and set the "1st boot device" to "USB-Stick". Exit the BIOS, saving the changes.

    you can try "Emulation Type" to "Floppy" or "Forced FDD".

For PHOENIX/AWARD BIOS:

  • Go to "Advanced BIOS Features". Go to the "1st Boot device" and set it to "USB-ZIP".


If you are having problem while it creates Ram Drive then you may want to edit and delete all the /numhandles=128 from config.sys

Some users reported that it works fine on smaller (128MB) Usb Drives but not on 512MB or larger (cursor blinking at the top left corner)

More Success Reports:

Extract this files in C:\USB before you use usb_format.exe (Step 4)

If you have any other problem with Creating BootCD on USB Memory Stick

Contact me (Please include error messeges).



Ingevoegd vanuit <http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk>

zaterdag 14 april 2007

WindowsVista ReadyBoost

De meeste mensen zijn tegenwoordig in het bezit van een USB stick, de een nog groter dan de ander. Met de gedachte van de systeemeisen van Windows Vista in het achterhoofd hebben we een geweldige nieuwe feature in Windows Vista gestopt: Windows ReadyBoost.

Windows ReadyBoost geeft Windows Vista de mogelijkheid om de opslagcapaciteiten van een USB stick te gebruiken als extra geheugen voor de machine. Ik zal het laten zien aan de hand van wat screenshots;

Op het moment dat je een USB stick in de machine doet (in mijn geval een van 512MB) dan krijg je een dialoog die je zult herkennen van Windows XP. Een overzicht van zgn. AutoPlay acties, als je goed kijkt en je USB stick ondersteund dit, dan zie je onderaan ook de optie “Speed up my system” (1e plaatje) - da’s nou Windows ReadyBoost.

http://vistablog.members.winisp.net/pictures/060706_1224_Windows%20Rea1.png

Als je deze optie selecteert kun je vervolgens aangeven hoe je dit wilt gaan instellen, je kunt nl. de Windows ReadyBoost functionaliteit ook combineren met de normale opslag mogelijkheden van je USB stick. Dus stel je hebt een USB stick van 512MB in mijn geval, dan kan ik 256MB extra geheugen toekennen aan ReadyBoost en de andere 256MB gebruiken voor opslag. (figuur 2)

http://vistablog.members.winisp.net/pictures/060706_1224_Windows%20Rea2.png

Zoals je ziet staat op dit moment de slider helemaal links, 256MB is het minimum wat ik kan instellen. Het is op dit moment ook het minimum wat Windows ReadyBoost accepteert. Waarschijnlijk zal vanaf RC1 deze slider nog lager kunnen.

Om even wat verder op de eisen in te gaan van Windows ReadyBoost voor USB sticks, het moet USB 2.0 zijn, het device moet een snelheid van 2,5MB/s voor 4KB random reads en 1.75MB/s voor 512KB random writes over het hele device aankunnen. Naast USB 2.0 zullen straks ook CF en SD kaarten worden ondersteund, maar die had ik helaas niet bij de hand op dit moment.

Al met al een van de mooiste nieuwe onderdelen van Windows Vista als je ‘t mij vraagt…

 

vrijdag 6 april 2007

FW: Maak uw eigen Vista Demo Readiness Toolkit (DRT)!

 

Nu geef ik al meer als een jaar Vista presentaties en demostraties en een vraag die me regelmatig wordt gesteld is:  "Hoe kan ik aan die demo set voor Vista komen?"

Intern gebruiken wij hiervoor al geuime tijd de Demo Readiness Toolkit (DRT) maar die was natuurlijk alleen voor INTERN gebruik. Voor Microsoft Partners bestaat er sinds enige tijd de mogelijkheid om een Partner DRT te bestellen op de volgende site: http://microsoft.mrmpslc.com/WindowsVistaPartner/secure/drt/

Maar wat als je geen Microsoft Partner bent maar wel leuke demo's wilt geven of gewoon lekker wilt stoeien met het demo script om kennis op te doen?

Hier is de oplossing, Bouw gewoon je eigen DRT kit! Deze link staat dan wel op de partner site maar je hoeft je nergens te registreren om de demo content te downloaden en je eigen ultieme vista demo omgeving te maken! COOL!


View article...

donderdag 29 maart 2007

How to run Vista legally without activation ... for at least a year

March 15, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Windows Vista can be run for at least a year without being activated, a serious end run around one of Microsoft Corp.'s key antipiracy measures, Windows expert Brian Livingston said today.

Livingston, who publishes the Windows Secrets newsletter, said that a single change to Vista's registry lets users put off the operating system's product activation requirement an additional eight times beyond the three disclosed last month. With more research, said Livingston, it may even be possible to find a way to postpone activation indefinitely.

"The [activation] demands that Vista puts on corporate buyers is much more than on XP," said Livingston. "Vista developers have [apparently] programmed in back doors to get around time restrictions for Vista activation."

Microsoft promptly labeled the registry change a "hack," a loaded word that is usually synonymous with "illegal."

"Recently it has been reported that an activation hack for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system has been identified," said David Lazar, the director of the company's Genuine Windows program, in an e-mail. "Although these reports are purely speculative at the moment, we are actively monitoring attempts to steal Microsoft intellectual property."

"This is not a hack," Livingston shot back when Lazar's e-mail was read to him. "This is a documented feature of the operating system." To back up his view, Livingston pointed out links to online support documents where Microsoft spells out the pertinent registry key. Nor is it speculative; Livingston demonstrated the procedure live via a Web conference session today and claimed "we have run this dozens of times."

Livingston last month revealed that a one-line command lets users postpone Vista activation up to three times. Combined with Vista's initial 30-day grace period, that meant users could run Vista for as long as 120 days before they had to activate the OS. At the time, Microsoft seemed unconcerned with the disclosure and flatly stated that using it would not violate the Vista End User License Agreement (EULA).

"The feature that I'm revealing today shows that Microsoft has built into Vista a function that allows anyone to extend the operating system's activation deadline not just three times, but many times," Livingston said.


Microsoft documented the key on its support site in a description of what it calls "SkipRearm". In it, Microsoft explains that "rearming a computer restores the Windows system to the original licensing state. All licensing and registry data related to activation is either removed or reset. Any grace period timers are reset as well."

By changing the SkipRearm key's value from the default "0" to "1," said Livingston, the earlier-revealed "slmgr -rearm" command can be used over and over.

In tests with several editions of Vista purchased at different times, Livingston found that copies of Vista Ultimate and Vista Home Premium obtained at the end of January would accept the SkipRearm change only eight times. Together with the three postponements made possible with slmgr -rearm and the opening 30-day grace period, that would give users nearly a year (360 days) of activation-free use. A copy of Vista Home Basic bought March 14, however, ignored the SkipRearm registry change.

"Microsoft has slipstreamed something into Home Basic and Home Premium," Livingston said. "But from my reading of the support documents, Microsoft needs to keep this feature in its business editions, Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. It seems that Microsoft is sympathetic to enterprises' difficulty in rolling out Vista within the activation deadlines."

Lazar did not answer several questions e-mailed to him today, including one that asked why Microsoft had included the SkipRearm feature in the first place. However, he indicated that the feature could be blocked if Microsoft desired. "It is important to note that these hacks are, at best, temporary. Microsoft has systems in place to detect and block piracy."

"This is somewhat of a threat to Microsoft," Livingston said. "But the extent to what it can retroactively patch, I don't know. Maybe they will want to change this. But that would only call more attention to activation and perhaps reveal the mechanism Vista is using to count SkipRearm."

Livingston has not been able to find where Vista stores the SkipRearm count; conceivably, that count is what restricts its use to a maximum of eight. If someone was to find the count location, however, and manage to change that as well as the SkipRearm registry key, users might be able to postpone activation forever, said Livingston.


"The problem I see with this is that unscrupulous system builders will use it [to install counterfeit copies of Vista], but that Vista will start demanding activation a year or more out, when the guy is long gone with your money," said Livingston. "And then the activation key wouldn't work because he would have used it on hundreds or even thousands of systems and Microsoft would have blocked it."

Microsoft introduced product activation in 2001's Office XP and also used it in that year's Windows XP. Activation was toughened up for Vista, however. After the grace period, nonactivated PCs running Vista drop into what Microsoft calls "reduced functionality" mode. In reduced mode, users can only browse the Web with Internet Explorer, and then only for an hour before being forced to again log on.

Livingston's work-around, however, may do away with activation altogether. "[Activation] has become so convoluted, the way Microsoft has implemented it, that it's more of an irritation to legitimate users than a worthwhile antipiracy measure," Livingston concluded.

Naturally, Microsoft's Lazar sees it differently. "The new antipiracy technologies in Windows Vista are designed to protect customers and prevent the software from working correctly when it is not genuine and properly licensed," he said. "Systems utilizing these hacks will not provide the benefits of genuine Windows, nor will they work as expected."

woensdag 28 maart 2007

In Windows Vista, You cannot access any resources on a Remote VPN after you switch a net

Verschillen VMWare Server vs Workstation


Even snel gegoogled naar de verschillen:


 VMware Workstations offers the following (this list is not necessarily complete):
* Multiple snapshots
* Cloning
* Teams + PVNs
* Movie recording

VMware Server provides:
* Remote administration capabilities (via UI consoles and a web interface)
* The ability to run VMs as services after the host powers on


_____________


Correct, though there are other differences.

VMware Server does not support multiple snapshots, cloning, teams, or movie capture. These are things that Workstation handles but Server does not.

It's really a matter of what you want to do. Server is useful if you want to host services (a server VM of some kind containing, say, a web server, database, etc.), leave them headless, and connect to them remotely.

If you just want to run a Windows VM or Linux VM on your desktop or laptop for development purposes, playing a game, using Office, etc., then Workstation would suffice. Certainly if you're using a Windows VM and want to ensure that you have a mostly crash-free, virus-free, spyware-free environment, multiple snapshots would be beneficial, as you could take a snapshot after installing each program you want to try and always jump back if something gets screwed up.

2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

dinsdag 27 maart 2007

IE7 in IE6 mode gebruiken


User Agent String Utility version 2 


Brief Description


A utility that opens an Internet Explorer 7.0 window that is configured


to report its identity to websites as being Internet Explorer 6.0.


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9517db9c-3c0d-47fe-bd04-fad82a9aac9f&displaylang=en#QuickInfoContainer


vrijdag 23 maart 2007

A tool to migrate anti-spam settings from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007

 

All those Exchange administrators who wondered how they will migrate their huge list of allow/deny addresses, block list providers and blocked senders and domains - now you have a reason to smile. Exchange team has just released a tool that allows you to migrate anti-spam settings from Exchange 2003 environment to Exchange 2007 in a two step fashion.

System requirements:

This tool can be run on

  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows Server 2000

Prerequisites:

  1. .NET Framework 1.1 or higher
  2. The account under which this tool is run needs to have read rights to AD configuration container and read access to MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml. It can be run on all Exchange 2003 environments

Commonly seen error:

Make sure that account under which the tool is run has read access to MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml. Otherwise you will see the following error:

ERROR: Access to the path "D:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\MSCFV2\MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml" is denied.

After you met the above, you should do this:

  1. Download and install the tool on your Exchange 2003 system from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=805EAF35-EBB3-43D4-83E4-A4CCC7D88C10&displaylang=en
  2. Go to the folder where the files have been placed as part of the install; by default this will be under C:\Program Files\Exchange2007AntiSpamMigration\Exchange2007AntiSpamMigration.exe
  3. Run the tool which outputs a Power Shell script "MigratedSettings.ps1" by default
  4. Run the Power Shell script produced in step 1 on your Exchange 2007 Edge/Hub Transport roles and you are done

The tool (Exchange2007AntiSpamMigration.exe) reads anti-spam related settings from Active Directory, converts them to equivalent Exchange 2007 tasks and writes them to a Power Shell script. Please read the document that accompanies the tool to know which settings are migrated. It's usage is as follows

Exchange2007AntiSpamMigration [/f:<full path to custom words file>] [/o:<outputfile name>] [/?]

/f: Optional full path to MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml file. If not specified, custom words or phrases are not migrated.

/o: Optional output file name. If not specified, output is written to MigratedSettings.ps1 in current directory.

/? Displays usage

One thing to note is that for certain settings, there is no direct one to one mapping from 2003 to 2007. In that case, the tool emits a warning or tries to keep the migration as close as possible to the original settings (Example : Administrators cannot assign specific weights to custom words and phrases in 2007, but in 2003 they could. So, when migrating if a custom word has positive weight, it is converted to Influence of "BadWord" and if it has a negative weight, it is converted to Influence of "GoodWord")

In order to run this tool, you will need .NET Framework 1.1 or higher. The account under which it is run needs to have read permissions to AD configuration container and to the MSExchange.UCEContentFilter.xml file.

- Bhavin Shah

maandag 12 maart 2007

VirtualBox

InnoTek VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction; see "InnoTek" for more about our company.

Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows and Linux 32-bit hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.

VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while InnoTek ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.

On this site, you can find sources, binaries, documentation and other resources for VirtualBox. If you are interested in VirtualBox (both as a user, or possibly as a contributor), this website is for you.

Understanding the Linux File System

Once you have migrated from Windows to Linux you may notice that the file system is not what your accustomed to. Of the first things the average user needs to understand is the inner workings of the root file system and Linux core directory structure. To help you understand this structure, we have listed each directory explaining what it is commonly used for.

bin - contains the vital tools necessary to diagnose, repair and or get the system running

boot - houses the boot loader programs and configuration files

cdrom - shortcut to the CD/DVD drive

devbootstrap - contains files generated during the install of Ubuntu

dev - contains virtual files representing the hardware on your system

etc - central location for configuration files

home - where each users personal directory and files are located

initrd.img - symbolic link to ramdisk used to boot Linux

lib - shared system files

lost+found - where salvaged files get saved upon improper shutdown

media - directories that represent storage devices are found here

mnt - temporarily mounted external filesystems are located here

opt - optional additional software that is not a vital part of the system

proc - contains data about your system and current status

root - root users directory

sbin - administration programs are stored here

srv - network server configuration files go here

sys - Sysfs mount point used by the Linux kernel to administer your system hardware

tmp - temporary files are stored here

usr - shared files and data go here

var - constantly changing data is placed here

vmlinuz - symbolic link to the kernel file used at boot

USB Ubuntu 6.10


USB XUbuntu 6.10 This tutorial enables a user to install, boot and run Ubuntu from a USB flash thumb drive. By utilizing multiple partitions, the user can save changes and settings back to the flash thumb drive. Ubuntu is based on Debian Linux and is one of the more user friendly and stable releases. Ubuntu’s slogan is (it should “Just Work”, TM)

USB XUbuntu 6.10 Linux Screenshot:

Kubuntu Screenshot


Basic essentials:

  • 1GB or larger USB flash drive
  • Bootable Ubuntu Live CD
  • USBubuntu.zip

Warning: DO NOT run makeboot.exe from your local hard drive!! It is intended to be run from your USB device. This tutorial requires you to reformat and partition your USB device. Please backup any information that may be on your USB device before proceeding.

The tutorial:

  1. Download the Ubuntu 6.10 ISO and burn it to CD
  2. Download the USBubuntu.zip
  3. Insert the XUbuntu Live CD and reboot your computer (boot from XUbuntu)
  4. Insert a 1GB or larger USB flash drive
  5. Open a terminal window and type sudo su
  6. Now type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions (note which device is your flash drive typically /dev/sda)
    • type umount /dev/sda1 (replacing sda1 with your flash drive partition)
    • type fdisk /dev/sda (again replacing sda with your device)
    • type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
    • type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat step 3)
    • type n to make a new partition
    • type p for primary partition
      • type 1 to make this the first partition
      • hit enter to use the default 1st cylinder
      • type +700M to set the partition size
      • type a to make this partition active
      • type 1 to select partition 1
      • type t to change the partition filesystem
      • type 6 to select the fat16 file system
    • type n to make another new partition
      • type p for primary partition
      • type 2 to make this the second partition
      • hit enter to use the default cylinder
      • hit enter again to use the default last cylinder
      • type w to write the new partition table
  7. Type umount /dev/sda1 (replacing with your partition) to unmount the partition
  8. Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n USB /dev/sda1 to format the first partition (replace sda1 with your partiton)
    • “Alternately you can try mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sda1 (doesn’t always work)”
  9. Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sda2 to format the second partition (replace sda2 if necessary)
  10. Reboot your computer (boot back into Windows)”make sure to remove the XUbuntu CD”
  11. Extract the contents of the USBubuntu.zip to your “flash drive”.
  12. Browse to your “flash drive” and click the Makeboot.exe
  13. follow the on screen instructions.
  14. Reboot your computer and set your system BIOS to boot from USB-HDD or USB-ZIP. Also set the boot priority if necessary.

Ubuntu is notoriously much slower to boot than other linux versions. Once Ubuntu is up and running, it is stable and snappy.

Please note: This tutorial has been tested to work from a Windows XP computer. The .Net framework is required in order to run the Makeboot.exe application. You can download .Net framework Here