Various cool software and more

Check if a specific KB update is installed in Windows

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With Windows XP/2003 and earlier you could often just look in C:\windows for installed patches there would be a KBxxxxxxx folder, however life moved on..

Today I had the need to see if a patch was installed and I found this quite useful;
http://serverfault.com/questions/263847/how-can-i-query-my-system-via-command-line-to-see-if-a-kb-patch-is-installed

I ended up using the command;

wmic qfe | find "KB2744129"

You ofcause exchange the KB number with the one you are looking for..

This worked like a charm for me πŸ™‚Β  tnx Jscott.

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Forefront Endpoint Protection – fustrations

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2013-06-28_14h08_52I just updated our “Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection” client software, this in turn caused several of my scripts to stop working πŸ™

Digging led to the discovery that the PATH has changed :-/ omg why change that…

Namely I ran two commands weekly on all our servers;

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\Antimalware\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate -MMPC"
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\Antimalware\MpCmdRun.exe" -scan -scantype 2"

The first foreces Forefront to update it’s definitions straight from the Internet repository, and the second forces a full scan.

but the “Antimalware” part of Forefront (or at least MpCmdRun.exe) seem to have moved from;

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\Antimalware” to “”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client”

But why πŸ™Β  – anyhow, if you update your Forefront Endpoint Protection be sure to check any manual scripts you have running.

 

Downloading the updates manually;

You can still download the update file manually (80mb aprox), it’s the same file as for Endpoint Protection –Β  get them here;
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/definitions/howtomse.aspx
or try this undocumented one (direct download link); http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121721

 

 

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Livemaps for SCOM

If you use Microsoft SCOM for system management in your company then this is worth a look, Live maps from SAVision – it’s cool yet slightly expensive..

What it will can do is to allow you to create simple visual representations (Dashboards) of your system, you can even “publish” these dashboards as webpages and “drill-down” into these.

Not only does it allow to represent servers, routers and other equipment but it allow you to group different servers, services, equipment etc. into one (Dynamic objects) – eg. your CRM system may rely on some SQL databases and perhaps an active internet connection – in one icon you can represent the status of your CRM based upon internet being available, SQL running, Server Running etc. etc. Clever…

http://www.savision.com/products/live-maps-system-center

But as I mentioned it’s not the cheapest solution πŸ™Β  a starter package with 25 dashboards/views should set you back $7000 I have heard – I also heard that a demo version with 5 views should be available upon request – but this is all hearsay so do check yourself.

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WordPress Security -> Wordfence

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WordFence

You are likely familiar with WordPress, if not well – interesting πŸ˜‰Β  anyhow, you may also have heard about the recent attacks on wordpress blogs by a worm like virus/malware?Β  Attacks on WordPress installations is not something new, it has always been there as it’s such a popular platform however time has revealed some not so smart features with wordpress security, one thing is that you can try to log in as many times as you like without any action being taken – hence there is nothing to stop a brute force attack on your wordpress installation’s login!?

Well Wordfence to the rescue, a simple plugin you install on your wordpress installation that all of a sudden offers you a ton of cool security features, I will just mention a few here – for the complete listing visit their website..

Features;

  • Login limiter – limit how many incorrect passwords/usernames are accepted
  • Site and theme scanner – scan your wordpress blog for changes
  • Block unwanted IP’s from accessing your site
  • Manage crawlers (search engine index bots)
  • and many many many more cool features

You can define what the reaction to different attacks, eg. block IP/Lock account for xx min/throttle traffic.

Wordfence1

Now a thing like that must cost a fortune you say!?Β  well no, there is a TOTALLY FREE version with basic functionality (enough for most I would say) and the deluxe version which cost a bit.

Now after adding this you should also add Two Factor Authentication, eg using “WordPress Google Authenticator Plugin” – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-authenticator/screenshots/ Or one of the other TwoFactor authentication solutions out there.

So, what are you waiting for πŸ™‚ protect your WordPress blog now πŸ™‚

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WSUS on a stick – Windows Update Downloaded

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In the good old days you could install SUS on your “home” server and have your own Windows update repository, however after WSUS version “whatnot” the requirements for WSUS has by far outgrown what I wish to allocate on my home/test rig..Β  Hell I only have 3 machines and a few servers anyhow….

Never the less, when installing new test VM’s etc it would be nice to avoid all the patching since SP1 :-/ well, now you can πŸ™‚

 

Martin over at Ghacks.net has reviewed an excellent utility that will do JUST that πŸ™‚

http://www.ghacks.net/2013/01/03/windows-offline-update-8-0-released/

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/02/25/wsus-windows-offline-update-updated/

 

Further uses is as he describe that you can download all patches for an OS (pt. Win 7 = 1.8GB since SP1) and put it on a stick so you can patch your friends and family’s machines with minimal Internet impact.

For now I have installed the thing and tried downloading patches for Windows 7, it seemed to work flawlessly – but I will try to do some install testing and see how this works out.Β  Looks solid enough though.

Project web site;

http://www.wsusoffline.net/

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Altaro’s big Christmas Backup giveaway

If you are working as a sysadmin and are working with Hyper-V you may be eligible for the Altaro’s great Christmas giveaway of 50 free licenses for Altaro’s Oops!Backup.
http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/50-free-pc-backup-licenses-for-all-hyper-v-admins/
All you need to do is to fill out the form (name, email and a screenshot of your Hyper-V manager), you sadly need to use a “company” email but other than that it worked without a glitch and I got my 50 licenses within 1 hour.

Oops!Backup is a basic though fairly full featured backup software solution, it’s aim seem to be end users so it’s very simple to use and setup, but with a bit of tweaking you can configure it somewhat for advanced use also.

I’ll see about creating a small walk through video if I can get myself into gear 😐

A few screenshots;

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SCCM Deployment – updates hang/stall

An odd SCCM bug, some of our DP (Distribution Points) recently stopped working, the Task Sequence would hang during the “Installing Updates” step and would never finish..Β  Now the updates (files/packages) were all there and refreshing them did nothing to resolve the issue – at the end one of our external consultants pointed me to a hotfix kb2509007 which quickly resolved the issue (thanks to Thomas Marchussen, Edgmo).

Deployment would just get stuck here and never finish.

Odd and annoying problem which caused a lot of wasted time πŸ™ – however the patch once applied and replicated worked like a charm.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2509007

Keywords; Sccm 2007, Updates, Stuck, Hung, Installing, Windows, Microsoft

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Search and you shall find – Windows 7 search improved 10 fold

When I first installed Windows Vista I was annoyed with the changes to the search ability of Windows, this experience did not improve under Windows 7 quite to the opposite actually..Β  The thing is, if you allow indexing of your drives searching is bearable – however if you like me have several terrabytes of data then Windows will never stop indexing, and the constant ‘ticking’ of the harddrive was driving me insane.

For a long time I decided to just live the very basic search ability in Windows 7/vista, it is quite possible to search for filenames and extentions – however the other day I really needed the ability to search for files containing a special text string – something that is impossible if you have turned indexing off (as far as I have been able to figure out).Β  So after googling the subject I found several different utilities that could remedy this, however most at a price of around $25, now normally I don’t mind paying for something useful however as I use this quite seldom I decided to keep googling πŸ™‚

And I am pleased to announce that not only did I find something free it is awesome πŸ˜€

Your search ends here;Β  http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/search_my_files.html


This utility is just brilliant and offers you tons of different search options..

tags; Windows, Search, Within, Text, Content

Curse Microsoft for their stupid changes to the basic Windows Search.

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Time registration / Time management / Time tracking with Grindstone

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Do you for some reason need to keep track of your time?

Let’s say you work in a helpdesk and need to keep track of what you spend your time on, or perhaps you are an independent consultant and need to register when you use time on clients.Β  There is a lot of reasons why you may need this.

Anyway here is a very cool free utility to assist you in doing just this, it is very easy and intuitive to use and implement.

Watch and learn πŸ™‚

Software can be downloaded here;
http://www.epiforge.com/Grindstone/


 

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HP Softpaq driver utility

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If you have the need to download HP drivers, especially for more than one model or for both 32/64 bit then this utility is something for you.

This utility allow you to download drivers for any number of models at the same time without needing to visit the HP web-site which can be a bit of a hassle if you need to visit each model page.

Links;
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=4138087&prodNameId=4137878&swEnvOID=4060&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ob-97225-1

Or
http://www.google.com/search?q=SoftPaq+site%3Ahp.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t

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