Ever tried Knoppix? The cd/dvd bootable version of linux..
Its fairly cool and useful if you need to mess around with linux, but don’t want to reinstall your machine with linux..
Well cd/dvd boot is all very well, but would it not be cool to do it from a USB stick instead? You could have it in your pocket ready for use anytime!?
Yeah, I think so too, so without further delay here is a link to a how to guide 🙂 Enjoy..
Have you ever tried debugging GPO’s (Group Policies), was this and that setting been ‘stamped’ onto my machine etc?
Well then you know what a drag this can be 🙁 Anyhow, here is a simple ‘trick’ to assist you in debugging.
Select run from the start-menu, type “rsop.msc” and hit enter, this is sure to make it a bit easier to find that ……. gpo setting 😀
keywords; Group Policy, gpmc
Microsoft has (some time ago actually) released a utility (or security addon if you wish) for Windows XP called Steadystate;
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
What is does is basically to add very strict control to your desktop and to allow for guest or kiosk pc’s.
Lets say you administer a library pc, and daily have to deal with users changing settings downloading strange software/malware and basically just giving you a hard time. Well with Steadystate you can inflict strict rules on what a user can and can not do, you can add time-limits for usage and finnaly (and this is the neat part) you can have the computer restore to a predefined setup at fixed intervals (or at every boot/logoff if you prefer).
In a corporate domain setup the software does not seem that interesting as many of the settings can be set via GPO’s, but for kiosk pc’s it’s neat. And as the author of a commercial predecessor I should know 😉 www.security-setup.dk did basically the same thing just not in the same dept and detail.
If you have a kiosk pc environment, hared pc’s or your kids just keep messing their installations up this may be worth a look. and the final good news, ITS FREE!!
Just spend a few hours on a simple batch job issue 🙁
I had a job.cmd file I executed, but the containing commands was not executed as Windows could not locate the filename.exe files 😐 The problem was rather simple, the current directory (%cd%) while executing the job.cmd file was “c:windowssystem32”.. doh 🙁
Anyhow, found out that there is actually a simple way around this;
@Echo off
set IDP=%~dp0
set OLDDIR=%cd%
cd /d %IDP%
filename.exe /S
cd /d %OLDDIR%
This is rather simple, IDP (%IDP%) is set to the executing batch file’s directory via the IDP=%~dp0 and finally OLDDIR contain the ‘before’ current directory. If you need to set the %cd% at the end, well no probably not (but hey I’m a nice guy 😉 )..
For further details;
http://weblogs.asp.net/whaggard/archive/2005/01/28/get-directory-path-of-an-executing-batch-file.aspx
I don’t quite know how, but this one managed to escape my attention until now (it was launched in 2006). Anyhow I just read about this while reading about the Asus Eee PC.
It would seem that there exist a reduced/limited Windows XP version for deployment to older pc’s and other equipment with reduced/outdated hardware (ram cpu etc). It should be able to run on 233mhz pc’s with as little as 64mb ram. Nice 🙂 also useful for the odd virtual PC.
It however require a SA license with Microsoft which makes the whole thing less interesting for home users. A shame as there is many old laptops lying around that would work fine for simple browsing etc.
Take a look here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fundamentals_for_Legacy_PCs
http://tonysblog.real-family.com/2006/09/windows-fundamentals-for-legacy-pcs.html
http://bink.nu/news/microsoft-windows-xp-fundamentals-for-legacy-pcs-screenshots.aspx
For those with an urge to have a peek at the Windows Vista replacement, here’s a link to some screenshots. They however look a lot like Vista so its hard to say what differences there will be in the end, also this is a very early alpha build of Windows 7 and they have a tendency to change quite a lot. But still, rumors have it that Bill Gates have mentioned 2009 as the possible release year for Windows 7.
Just a quick note on FCS (Forefront Client Security – Microsofts antivirus solution), I was in doubt if it would be a good idea to install Windows Defender as an added security to FCS, a quick Googling revealed that;
Answer found on Technet.
Client Security cannot be used to manage Windows Defender – as a matter of fact, Client Security requires that Windows Defender be removed.
Windows Defender can be managed with a Group Policy – please see the last item here: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/about/releasenotes.mspx
–Kimborly Ditto-Ehlert
for full post;
http://forums.microsoft.com/ForeFront/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1277937&SiteID=41
Well it would seem that SP3 not only contains improvements for the XP os, there are also a few annoying tweaks 😐
One is the removal of the Address toolbar in the Taskbar, it would appear that MS has been forced to remove this due to legal requirements.. I do agree that MS need to be kept on a ‘short leach’, but damn its annoying when they remove features like that.
Well never fear there are a few workarounds to try before ripping all your hair out.
1. http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2587494&SiteID=17
2. http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2614948&SiteID=17
I opt for trying the restoration of the browseui.dll file from a SP2 CD I386 directory (read 2 for more details), I have yet to try this but it seem plausible.
Another ‘feature’ is the “Mstsc” command where “/Console” has become “/Admin”, annoying like …. but better get use to it as its there to stay in both XP, Vista and 2008 (unknown if it will hit Win 2003 also at some time?).
After downgrading from Vista to XP SP3 (5503) I quickly ran into problems, Windows Update keept failing to install 5 patches, it worked to start with but after Office 2007 was added things somehow got messed up and new patches failed.
Quite annoying because Windows XP kept informing me that these updates was ready to be installed.
Anyhow, the solution was found here;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144
Solution1 worked for me..
Stop the WU service (net stop wuauserv) and then run this command (regsvr32 %windir%system32wups2.dll), restart WU service and the patches installed perfectly.
Heard about this problem before, but never experienced it before now… perhaps this 5503 build of SP3 is not as final as promised 😉 oh well, could not wait any longer, Vista was simply not good for 4 year old pc. And yes, the XP installation seem to run quite a lot faster, nice..
During one of those late nights browsing the net I stumbled across what turned out to be a time-saver in the high-roller end, what is the real interesting thing is that it is a was a total coincidence I got to think of an alternative use for a small utility aimed at a complete different audience.
If you are using MS-SCCM 2007 you know the hassle of hardware certification of new and old pc-models. If you wish to keep a tight leach on which drivers you install to the PC’s you deploy using MS-SCCM, you have to figure out which drivers are actually needed and obtain unpacked versions. Now even if this may sound like a very simple task, experience quickly makes you think twice, take a modern Laptop PC and try to see how many odd hardware devices it contains.
The process has so far been to install the PC using your installation CD, then download the drivers from the manufacture and install them and figure out which driver was related to which unknown hardware device. Then you would need to unpack the strange driver packages and figure out which files was actually required and import them to SCCM. Often you would end up with installation packages which could not easily be unpacked (if at all), and you would have to do a lot of manual labour and testing to obtain the drivers.
Well think again… and let me cut your hardware certification time to a fraction… Now you take your new laptop out of the box, start it up and let it install the preloaded OS. Then install “Driver Magician” and use the build in backup function to extract the drivers, finally import the extracted driver-directory to SCCM and you are done, the pc model can now be deployed using SCCM.
“Driver Magician” was not actually made with this in mind, it is actually what I would describe as a geek tool. It is intended for those who often install their computers and wish to minimize the time it takes to install the drivers, but believe me as a side effect it does a VERY good job of hardware certification for use with MS-SCCM.
This mean you can likely save at least 4-6 hours per pc model you need to hardware certify.
Piece of pie..
Watch a geeked YouTube intro, mind you this is not aimed at SCCM usage but more the original intend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uq6U0y25mE