I was looking for a way to get a particular graphic, and came across this utility.  I thought it might be useful later.

Background

The general idea is to pull out icons that are embedded resources to DLL's or EXE's. The way it's done is with the old fashioned Win32 API's.

Icon Extractor in VB.NET - The Code Project - VB.NET

I wanted to be able to remotely connect to a server and see if it had a profile directory for a particular user.  I wrote a VBScript that will connect to a machine through WMI, find out what the ProfilesDirectory path is and then list all the folders in that directory.  It wouldn't take much to be able to output to a text file or some other format.

The next thing I will work on is to have it pull a list of machines from somewhere, go check those machines and then when it finds a particular profile on that machine to go and remove it.   You can see what I have so far:

Const HKLM = &H80000002

Dim strComputer

strComputer = "." 'This computer is the ".".  If you want another computer, replace the .
Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _
    strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
strKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\"
strValueName = "ProfilesDirectory"

oReg.GetExpandedStringValue HKLM,strKeyPath,strValueName,strValue

If strValue = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings" Then
    WScript.Echo "Default Path"
    strProfilePath = "C:\Documents and Settings"
Else
    WScript.Echo strValue
    strProfilePath = strValue
End If

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
 & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colSubfolders = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
 ("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_Directory.Name='" & strProfilePath & "'} " _
 & "WHERE AssocClass = Win32_Subdirectory " _
 & "ResultRole = PartComponent")
For Each objFolder in colSubfolders
 Wscript.Echo objFolder.Name
Next

 I came across Ben Armstrong's Blog today while doing a little searching.  He has some good stuff about Microsoft Virtual Server on there and one of the things he posted on has to do with a calculator to figure out how to configure your Virtual environment.  It doesn't take much to figure out that Data Center Edition may actually be worth paying for when you use multi-core processors and pack a lot of VMs on one host.

Windows Server Virtualization Calculator

I do not know how I missed this one, but this is a very cool tool.  The Windows Server Virtualization Calculator allows you to specify how many virtual machines you will be running, on a given set of hardware, and it will show you all of your licensing options for buying Windows Server.  This way you can quickly determine what the best option is for your environment.

Virtual PC Guy's WebLog : Windows Server Virtualization Calculator

I have been using Microsoft Virtual Server since it was first released.  I have also used Virtual PC a good bit.  (I like VPC 2007 on Vista 64bit hardware.)  I have only ever used the web interface to work with MSVS.  I just today decided to try the VMRC Client.

Overview

VMRCplus is a tool for both configuration management of Virtual Server and remote control of virtual machines. It allows for local and remote management of Virtual Server and supports simultaneous management of up to 32 Virtual Server hosts.
Remote control sessions of virtual machines are grouped in a single window using Tab pages. The interface enables sorting virtual machines based on various properties like name, status and description. Multi-select of virtual machines enable you to perform actions to change their status or open remote control sessions all at once.
VMRCplus is a Windows application and does not require IIS to manage Virtual Server.

Download details: Virtual Machine Remote Control Client Plus (VMRCplus)

I think I like it.  if nothing else for the fact that it gives you a quick rundown of the numbers, and an easy way to connect to the various machines.  I like the client console having "tabs" for each machine that you are connected to.  makes it easy to track multiple machines without having to go back to the master status page of the web interface.

I have had a few machines that occasionally have strange color combinations and you can't see the logon box to view what you are typing.  I finally put the right words in the search to come up with the answer: 

SYMPTOMS

After you press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to log on to a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer, the logon screen turns black. Although you cannot see what you are typing, you can successfully log on to the Windows Server 2003-based computer. Then, after you successfully log on, the screen becomes visible.
Note This symptom may occur on both the terminal server sessions and the local console. Additionally, this symptom occurs even if you start the computer in Safe mode.

The logon screen turns black after you press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to log on to a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer

I was trying to figure out how to get some data from an ODBC source and put it into SQL, and found a post with an interesting possible answer: 

Recently, I discovered an issue with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) regarding how the Execute SQL Task item handles returning a result set to the control flow. Lets start by demonstrating an existing issue with the Execute SQL Task using ODBC then I'll present a solution. First, create a new DSN that points to the database using the ODBC Data Sources Administrator (Control Panel | Administrator Tools | ODBC Data Sources). If you are only dealing with SQL Server you can still test this out by creating a DSN that uses the SQL Server ODBC driver.

Sql Server Integration Service (SSIS) Execute SQL Task ODBC Result Set Bug/Workaround

 I was trying to migrate a table from one database to another using a script.  It shouldn't have been too complicated.  It probably wouldn't be for someone who has done it before.  I had a problem getting some of the fields to copy over.  They all involved date/time information.  My search led me to this interesting post:

SSIS: What's the difference between DT_DATE and DT_DBTIMESTAMP

Database people don't generally like date values too much. They're too fiddly. There's god-knows-how-many ways of representing them...and don't even get me started on regional date settings!!

SSIS Junkie : SSIS: What's the difference between DT_DATE and DT_DBTIMESTAMP

So when I tried to install the update that I downloaded in my earlier post, I got the following message:

The product instance SQL Tools has had update 3054 installed. You do not need to install this update. An update equal to or greater than 3159 should be downloaded.

Isn't that special... 

Guess I need to do some more searching...

I was trying to build a tool to move some data between a TSM Database and a SQL 2005 Database.  Mostly so that I can create a few reports to impress people who don't have any idea what it is that I am reporting on. 

There are a number of issues with trying to do this, not the least of which is the fact that I have no idea what I am really doing.  The fact that I am working with a mixture of x32 and x64 operating systems and applications isn't helping.  The fact that Microsoft doesn't really like to work with ODBC drivers and Tivoli doesn't provide x64 ODBC Drivers makes it more complicated.

I did some searching and I am not the only one who has tried to use ODBC to move data around.  There is a nice blog post here:

http://blogs.simplifi.com/brucet/archive/2006/01/27/668.aspx

But when I tried that I kept getting this error:

Package Validation Error
Error at ImportTastk: The task is configured to pre-compile the script, but binary code is not found. Please visit the IDE in Script Task Editor by clicking Design Script button to cause binary code to be generated.
 (Microsoft.DataTransformationServices.VsIntegration)

I did a google on that and came up with a hotfix that is supposed to fix the issue:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8AF6C597-0F18-4E61-B3D2-AAD66CDCACF5&displaylang=en

I will be applying that and see what I get...

 I was looking for a way to get some information out of the TSM Database to use in a reporting project and came across this:

Introduction

This tutorial is intended to help with the first steps into working directly with the TSM database for the SQL illiterate administrator. We give a brief overview of the table structure and introduce some basic queries that might be helpful in the day to day administration.
Check out the Advanced Tutorial for more complex queries.

General Storage

I recently came up with an idea to use an internal blog to document stuff happening in our group at work.  (Document what you know...) 

The problem was that SharePoint Blogs by default limit you to one category per post and that just would be as helpful in my mind.  So I did a search and came up with this post on Lawrence Liu's Blog.

or maybe even what you don't know?

I recently (last night) came up with an idea on how to do a better job of sharing information with the rest of my department.  We use SharePoint for a lot of things.  It occurred to me that a Blog would be a good way of sharing information on how to fix issues, troubleshoot issues or even to say "we know there is a problem, but we haven't figured it out yet.

Well you don't really want to put that stuff out in public unless it has been cleared of information that you don't want everyone to know about.  Specifics of your organization may end up there and it would probably be a good idea to not allow that sort of information to be just randomly published.  But if it is an internal, authentication required to view, you must have a reason for being there kind of place...

So we have set up a Blog site for our group.  A colleague and I will try it and see if we can get the rest of the guys on board with it.  (That is if I can get him interested.)

I happened to read one of the many junk e-mails that I get from Microsoft (I get them on purpose) and saw this tool for posting to a blog.  I thought I would try it out.  I just downloaded and installed it, but I haven't read anything on it yet.  I thought I would go with a "trial by fire" sort of approach. 

It looks like you can do standard blog tasks with it, such as insert tables, pictures, maps, tags, or hyperlinks.  I am just going to insert a hyperlink to the download.

Click here to go to the Windows Live Writer download page.