Insomniac Ramblings

Adobe Reader offline installer (.msi and .exe)

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:46:00 +0000

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader -- .msi

ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/10.x/10.1.0/ --navigate to parent to get the later versions

Shadowing a RDP session

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:53:00 +0000

In short:
1. RDP to the server (it must be on the same server afaik) with the RDP session you want to shadow
2. Open command prompt
3. Type "shadow

Reference:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320191

Tracing source of IP conflict

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:51:00 +0000

Look for event id 4199, source Tcpip

HOWTO: Locating Global Catalog (GC) Servers in Windows Domain

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:49:00 +0000

nltest /dsgetdc: /GC

or

repadmin.exe /options * and use IS_GC for current domain options

Stress Management 101

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:30:00 +0000

Time management and self management is a life-skill. The earlier one is able to understand this and adapt/adopt, the complexity of life and level of personal stress will be more manageable. Many times, people fall into the trap of being unhappy and that affects personal performance turning into a vicious-cycle.

Bug in Vista that renames user profile (user account profile) as a backup

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:56:00 +0000

Reference to thread here

This issue seems to be caused by a horrendous bug in Vista that renames your User Account Profile as a backup, and then creates a new user account with the same name but with nothing in it. Here is a possible fix for this issue, but if it doesn't work, you may have to re-image the computer.

1. Boot up in Safe Mode. To do this, hit the F8 key while the computer is booting, and then scroll down to the "Safe Mode" option and press enter. On my computer the user account icon appeared, but bigger than normal, and I clicked it and it loaded my desktop in safe mode. It came up with an error bubble saying that my user account hadn't loaded properly, but i just ignored
this.

2. Click the Start Button and in the white "Start Search" space at the
bottom type "regedit" (without the quotation marks). This will open the registry editor.

3. In the left-hand pane, navigate by clicking the little triangles next to the following folders:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
ProfileList

You should now have a list of folders all starting with S-1-5- and then a number.
(You might need to drag the divider between the 2 panes of the window across so you can read the whole folder name)
Look at the end of each name and you should see one with .bak at the end of it, and there will be another one above it with exactly the same name but without .bak at the end.
The one that's got .bak at the end is your old User Profile that Vista has now made into a backup, and the one without .bak after it is the new empty User Profile that Vista has created.
Just to check that this is the case, have a look in the right-hand pane for each of the 2 folders and look at what's written after "ProfileImagePath".
For the folder with .bak at the end it should say C:\Users\ and then your
usual User Account name, and for the one that doesn't have .bak at the end it
should say C:\Users\TEMP.

What you need to do now is to rename the folders in the left-hand pane so that the one with .bak at the end changes back to being the one containing your proper User Profile and the new one without .bak at the end becomes the
backup. Do do this follow the next step:

4. Right click on the folder with .bak at the end and then click "rename", and just change the ".bak" part to ".bk" - i.e. just remove the "a" from the middle - (this is just to allow you to change the other one to have .bak at
the end). Press enter or click on some blank part of the screen for the
change to take effect.
Then, right click the one that doesn't have .bak at the end and click
"rename". Remove the .bak from the end and press enter or click anywhere on some blank part of the screen to accept the change.
Then, right click on the one that now has .bk at the end, choose "rename" and add the "a" back into the middle, so it now has .bak at the end. Press
enter or click on blank park of screen to accept the change.
Close the regedit window.

5. Click the Start Button and then "Restart". It should work now. Fingers
crossed.

How to enable local administrator in Windows 7 using command line / scripting

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:50:00 +0000

1. Go to your Start menu and in “Accessories” list, open “Command Prompt” by right-clicking on its icon and choosing “Run as Administrator”

2. When the Command Prompt window appears, enter the command net user administrator /active:yes

3. When done, log out from your current account.

4. The Administrator account should now be present on your log in screen.

To turn the build in administrator account off, do the same except the command will be
net user administrator /active:no

Location of windows automatic backup (system restore) of user profiles

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:43:00 +0000

First you need to boot into safe mode and then have to enable the built-in Administrator account. Incase if you are not able to boot into the built-in Administrator account in safe mode then enable the Built-in Administrator account. So after successfully enabling it, follow the below method:

First click on Start menu
In the search dialog box, type regedit and press enter
In regedit, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
In the left pane, look for the S-1-5 folder (SID key) with the long number that has .bak at the end of the numbers.

The user profile service failed the logon error in Windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:39:00 +0000

This is a quick fix, delete profile and recreate. Not recommended for sites that have large number of clients as helpdesk will need to personally "touch" each instance of profile corruption.

You can quite easily fix this problem yourself, follow these steps give below:

Delete the profile by using the Computer Properties dialog box. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.
- Click Change settings.
- In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
- Under User Profiles, click Settings.
- In the User Profiles dialog box, select the profile that you want to delete, click Delete, and then click OK.
Click StartCollapse this imageExpand this image, type regedit in the Start search box, and then press ENTER.
Locate and then expand the following registry subkey:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
Right-click the SID that you want to remove, and then click Delete.
Log on to the computer and create a new profile.

Location of user profile registry hive

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:13:00 +0000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

A computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 stops responding and hangs at the "Applying User Settings" stage of the logon process

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:31:00 +0000

Catch-22!!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2379016

In the dump file, the service control manager is trying to start up the HTTP.sys while the HTTP.sys is actually waiting on the Cryptographic service. But this Cryptographic service has not started up yet. So Cryptographic service is trying to start up to handle to request from http.sys.

But as the service control manager is starting up the http.sys and can’t handle the startup request from Cryptographic service, this cause a deadlock.

Resolution

=============

So this issue can be resolved by add dependency for the http.sys to make sure this http.sys will only try to start up itself when the Cryptographic service is up.

Step as below:

1.Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP

2.On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Multi-string Value.

3.Type DependOnService, and then press ENTER.

4.Right-click DependOnService, and then click Modify.

5.In the Value data box, type CRYPTSVC, and then click OK.

6.Restart the computer.

Note: The reason why we used the last known good and the server was fine may because in the last known good, the Cryptographic service somehow started up earlier than usual. But we still need to take the action plan above since we never known if sometimes the Cryptographic service will start up later than http.sys again.

How to force certain windows services to start first (or otherwise)

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:25:00 +0000

Basically, this article will enable us to hard-code the sequence of service start-up. It will be useful in some situations.

Summary:

Locate relevant "Service" registry key
Right click -> New -> Multi-string Value
Type "DependOnService", press ENTER
In value data box, type , click OK
Restart the computer

Full gory details follow:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193888
The Registry subkeys for services are located in the following path and can control how services are loaded.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

To create a new dependency, select the subkey representing the service you want to delay, click Edit, and then click Add Value. Create a new value name "DependOnService" (without the quotation marks) with a data type of REG_MULTI_SZ, and then click OK. When the Data dialog box appears, type the name or names of the services that you prefer to start before this service with one entry for each line, and then click OK.

The name of the service you would enter in the Data dialog box is the exact name of the service as it appears in the registry under the Services key.

When the computer starts, it uses this entry to verify that the service or services listed in this value are started before attempting to start the dependent service.

In addition, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Active Directory needs to find and use the DNS Server service. The Netlogon service can be delayed to ensure that the DNS Server service is up and running for Dynamic DNS registration and query for existing Active Directory domain controllers that are in the DNS server database. Use the DependOnService in the Netlogon and add DNS to the list of LanmanWorkstation and LanmanServer. This delays Netlogon from starting until the DNS Server service on that same computer is started and ready.

Note Only delay the Netlogon service for DNS on a Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 Server when the DNS service is on the same Windows 2000 or Windows 2003-based server.

Note Entries in this field are NOT case-sensitive.

Warning Adding this entry manually may prevent the system from starting properly if you establish a "circular dependency." In its simplest form, such a problem would occur when you make two differing services dependent on one another. Neither service would be able to start as they would both require the other to be started first.

Note If you have a service that needs to start late in the boot cycle but you do not have a specific service dependency, as explained above, then choose one of the services which startup last as the data value for the value "Depends on Service". Services commonly selected are Spooler and Messenger.

Storage vMotion of a virtual vCenter (Yes, a Virtual Machine)

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:39:00 +0000

Yes, it can be done. We've done it. :-D

Also reference to post by Iwan Rahabok:
Can you storage vMotion the vCenter VM itself?

Modifying a Crucial M4 to fit in 7mm slot/bays

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Picture credits below go to this post:
Lenovo T420s with 7mm Crucial M4 Mod -- MichaelXavier.net

Top Panel removed showing spacer:

Opened up:

Put electrical insulation tape (prevent possible short circuit):

7mm Crucial M4!!:

Securely erase data on harddisks

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:31:00 +0000

http://www.dban.org/download

How to extract MAC address from DHCP reservations

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:15:00 +0000

netsh dhcp server dump >> reservationdump.txt
find “Add reservedip” reservationdump.txt >> reservations.csv

How to reset Windows XP/2000 default system security

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:57:00 +0000

I bet some of you guys have had these "power users" that absolutely screw up their own workstations so much so that you as an administrator can't control the file system nor control the machine remotely.

Well...

To restore Windows 2000/XP’s default system security you can execute following command:

secedit /configure /cfg "%systemroot%\security\templates\setup security.inf" /db waisaw.sdb /verbose

If file “%systemroot%\security\templates\setup security.inf” does not exist, retrieve it from another XP machine.

VMware/vSphere - CPU READY and CPU USAGE put simply

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:59:00 +0000

I was asked this question by my colleagues and after answering it with the official VMware explanation, they still didn't quite get it. (Yeah, actually if I look at it without the necessary background info, I'd probably not get it either...)

The following visualization helped put it simply:

CPU USAGE and CPU READY - What is it?

CPU Ready = % of time there is work to be done for VMs, but no physical CPU available to do it on (all host CPUs are busy serving other VMs). One rule of thumb that I heard is that below 5% Ready is normal; anything between 5% and 10%, best keep an eye on the VM and the host. Over 10% (for extended periods) you should be planning on taking some action.

- CPU Usage = raw, absolute amount of CPU used by corresponding VM at the given moment.

References:

http://vmfaq.com/entry/42/

The amount of time a virtual machine waits in the queue in a ready-to-run state before it can be scheduled on a CPU is known as ready time.

The higher the ready time is, the slower the virtual machine is performing. The ready time should preferably be as low as possible. Virtual machines that are allocated multiple cpus or have high timer interrupts are more frequently seen with high ready time values.

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:24:00 +0000

http://live.sysinternals.com/

The best way to disable 4300 computer accounts in Active driectory

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Reposting here for my own reference.
Original thread can be found here

Here is a VBScript program Richard Mueller wrote a few years ago to disable computer accounts from a text file. The file name and path are hard coded in the program, so the file can be anywhere. The file must be a list of computer names (NetBIOS names), one name per line:

--- Begin script ---
Option Explicit

Dim strFile, objFSO, objFile
Dim objRootDSE, strDNSDomain, objTrans, strNetBIOSDomain
Dim strComputer, strComputerDN, objComputer

' Constants for the NameTranslate object.
Const ADS_NAME_INITTYPE_GC = 3
Const ADS_NAME_TYPE_NT4 = 3
Const ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779 = 1

' Specify text file of computer NetBIOS names.
strFile = "c:\Scripts\Computers.txt"

' Open the file for read access.
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFile, 1)

' Determine DNS name of domain from RootDSE.
Set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE")
strDNSDomain = objRootDSE.Get("defaultNamingContext")

' Use the NameTranslate object to find the NetBIOS domain name from the
' DNS domain name.
Set objTrans = CreateObject("NameTranslate")
objTrans.Init ADS_NAME_INITTYPE_GC, ""
objTrans.Set ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779, strDNSDomain
strNetBIOSDomain = objTrans.Get(ADS_NAME_TYPE_NT4)
' Remove trailing backslash.
strNetBIOSDomain = Left(strNetBIOSDomain, Len(strNetBIOSDomain) - 1)

' Read lines from the file.
Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
strComputer = Trim(objFile.ReadLine)
If (strComputer <> "") Then
' Convert NetBIOS name to DN.
' NetBIOS name must have "$" appended to end.
' Trap error if computer not found.
On Error Resume Next
objTrans.Set ADS_NAME_TYPE_NT4, strNetBIOSDomain & "\" & strComputer & "$"
If (Err.Number <> 0) Then
On Error GoTo 0
Wscript.Echo "Computer not found: " & strComputer
Else
On Error GoTo 0
strComputerDN = objTrans.Get(ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779)
' Bind to the computer object.
Set objComputer = GetObject("LDAP://" & strComputerDN)
' Disable the computer.
objComputer.AccountDisabled = True
objComputer.SetInfo
End If
End If
Loop

Wscript.Echo "Done"

--- End Script ---

How to reset trust between parent and child domains

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:46:00 +0000

Try this from the parent domain:

NETDOM TRUST parentdomain.com /Domain:child.parentdomain.com /UserD:child\administrator /PasswordD:* /UserO:parent\administrator /PasswordO:* /Reset /TwoWay

VMware: Not using Fault-tolerance? Turn off FT to enable Cluster Compliance

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:11:00 +0000

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017714

To disable Fault Tolerance compliance checks:

Right-click the cluster and click Edit Settings > VMware HA > Advanced Options.
Enter das.includeFTcomplianceChecks in a blank field, and give it a value of false.

When this setting is applied, Fault Tolerance Compliance Checks are removed from the description under theProfile Compliance Tab for the cluster and is no longer a role during a Cluster Compliance check.

Note: To re-enable the checks, remove the das.includeFTcomplianceChecks option.

To remove unused plug-in from vCenter use Managed Object Reference

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Found at http://vcenterservername/mob

Logon with vSphere credentials;

Click on content, then
Extension manager
Find the plug-in which needs to be removed; for example, look for extensionList["VirtualCenter"], the parameter you need is just VirtualCenter
Click UnregisterExtension, in the VALUE field, enter the name of the plug-in you wish (in this example it's VirtualCenter
Click on Invoke Method (to remove plug-in

Upgrading from Lower version of Windows 7 to Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:59:00 +0000

This steps are for Home Premium to Enterprise. Have not had the opportunity to try from Windows Starter Edition. Will update post once that is successfully tested:-

Upgrading from Home Premium is possible, just make the following registry changes:

Under Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion modify the following keys:

EditionID from “HomePremium” to “Enterprise”.
ProductName from “Windows 7 HomePremium” to “Enterprise”.

Default Gateway disappearing after reboot

noreply@blogger.com (Kenneth Chan) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:54:00 +0000

This is an interesting problem. It's a possible bug after applying Vista SP2.

Symptoms:
Manually added Default Gateway disappears upon reboot.

Cause:
Null or empty line in registry key "DefaultGateway | REG_MULTI_SZ"

Solution:

Start Regedit
Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\
Select CLSID of network adapter (you can identify your adapter by looking at the IPAddress registry Data field).
Doubleclick "DefaultGateway" (You will see a list of all gateways that disappeared, especially if you've tried multiple gateways and rebooted a few times). Very likely the first line will be blank or empty. Remove this first empty line, click OK, exit regedit and reboot.