Thursday, August 23, 2007

 I thought this was an interesting perspective on Vista.  He doesn't try to gloss over shortcoming, but he does point out that not all the pains are Microsoft's fault.  I mean really...  Do venders really think if they ignore Microsoft it will just go away?

Does Vista suck?

Though not without its warts, Microsoft's much maligned OS gets the job done for enterprise users


By Oliver Rist

August 22, 2007

Does Vista suck? | InfoWorld | Test Center | August 22, 2007 | By Oliver Rist

Thursday, August 23, 2007 3:35:07 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Friday, August 10, 2007

 A guy in my office forwarded a link to this company's website.  Very cool system.  I was one of the first people in my office to use dual monitors for my desktop PC.  I find that it greatly enhances my productivity. 

This looks like it would be great for people who do a lot of trade shows, or traveling presentations:

The CinePort Multi-Monitor Laptop External Expansion System
The CinePort is a mobile graphics card that plugs directly into your laptop's PC card port (CardBus) and allows you to add up to four additional displays to your laptop. When combined with your laptop's built-in display and built-in external monitor port, you can run up to six displays from one laptop.

CinePort Multi Monitor Laptop PCMCIA Expansion Adapter

Friday, August 10, 2007 1:29:34 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Thursday, August 02, 2007

I am responsible for keeping a number of machines (around 900 or so) up to date with all the latest Windows Updates.  Recently I noticed that a number (around 15 or so that I am sure of) weren't installing particular updates.  I have seen this in the past, but the particular updates that wouldn't apply weren't of real concern to me, so I didn't really investigate.  The latest updates were of concern though so I started looking into it.  Here are the errors that I am getting:


Description:
Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80070643: Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1.

Description:
The installation of C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\ZNWF10\VS80sp1-KB926601-X86-ENU.msp is not permitted due to an error in software restriction policy processing. The object cannot be trusted.

As you can see, this particular update is for Visual Studio Service Pack 1.  After a little digging, I found this:

http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?articleid=Q111207

It basically says that there is a problem with the way the local security policy is configured.  When I looked, it appeared that the local security Software Restrictions Policy wasn't configured.  I "added" a policy and put the dot in the "All users except local administrators".  After that the install ran fine.

Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:31:07 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I  was deleting e-mails that I don't read, but would like to when I came across this e-week article.  Wonder if he has stock in storage vendors?

Will We Run Out of Storage?

By David Morgenstern
July 28, 2007
Opinion: Is a capacity shortage looming in the near future for enterprise assets? Maybe so, depending on how one reads the storage white papers and the tea leaves.

Will We Run Out of Storage?

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 3:26:02 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Wednesday, July 25, 2007

So I was flipping through TechNet Magazine (because it is one of the many magazines that slide across my desk into the stack of "if I ever get time" stuff) and came to the last article in the issue:  "Windows Explorer Doesn't Do Text". 

The article explains the reason that you can't just select a bunch of files and past the list to a text file, and then it explains how to do it in Vista.  It is terribly complicated...  you hold the shift key and right click your selection.  Choose "Copy as Path".  Paste where appropriate.

How cool is that?

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 1:21:17 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Monday, July 23, 2007

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

Monday, July 23, 2007 1:32:01 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Tuesday, July 10, 2007

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

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 12:46:25 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Monday, July 09, 2007

 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

Monday, July 09, 2007 2:36:55 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]

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.

Monday, July 09, 2007 12:56:24 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]

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

Monday, July 09, 2007 12:37:15 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0]