Busy Saving The World - John Delizo's Tech Blog

Remote Assistance in Windows 7 and XP with a dear friend :)

John D. Delizo — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:43:00 GMT

Last night, a very dear friend of mine needed help in her PC. I can’t just run off in the middle of the night to go there and fix a simple thingy so we decided to have a REMOTE ASSISTANCE session.

First what is Remote assistance, copy-pasting this line from this Microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/remoteassist/intro.mspx : Remote Assistance provides a way for you to get the help you need when you run into problems with your computer. If you're an experienced user, you can even be the one to use Remote Assistance to directly help your friends and family members.

This was available waaaay back XP days! I was just kinda surprised that some has not heard of this yet. Plus this is really simple with a few steps and youre on your way. In remote assistance there are two actors, one is the helper (the expert.. TADAHHHH) and the one that you are helping. You may also send an invitation to help or invite a person to help.

Some screenshots are here: http://johndelizo.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5686721B6E7BA618!4421.entry

Checking connectivity using PortQueryUI

John D. Delizo — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:25:00 GMT

Have you tried PortQuery? A command line tool for checking if a given port of a computer / server is open or shall we say “Listening”. Some of PortQuery links are found over here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b310099 and also on TechNet and if you look closely there are some samples also here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776894(WS.10).aspx

But that’s not entirely what this blog post is all about :D I was using PortQuery in a number of instance now and to my amazement, there is this little tool called PortQueryUI, Yes folks PortQuery with UI and not run from the CMD!. (And it runs without problems with my Windows7 workstation).

You can read more from here: Checking connectivity using PortQueryUI

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7

John D. Delizo — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:37:00 GMT

Back with Windows Vista I have been a really big fan of this free tool - RSAT or the Remote Server Administration Tool, now that everyone has migrated to Windows 7 (finally!) its time to get some tools back to a newly installed machine. One of the tools i need is the RSAT and fortunately enough there is an update / installer for Windows 7 machines. You can download the update directly from the download center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en

Find the whole story (and some screenshots) here: http://johndelizo.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5686721B6E7BA618!4053.entry

Windows 7: Run as a different user

John D. Delizo — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:35:00 GMT

Today I had to use different accounts to do sorts of things (on my visual studio :P – and for some reasons, I don’t want to switch user) and I did remember that since XP, there is this cool cmd tool called runas : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490994.aspx. I tried it and it still works over Windows7, but to my amazement, this has been extended into a hidden context menu! Just shift + Right Click a new set of context menu will be added to the usual ones.

My particular interest is the Run as different user, which enables me to do what runas cmd tool do. Upon invoking the menu, this will open a login dialog box like this where you an enter the user that you want to use and as well as the password.

This run as in the context menu is very convenient, but if you need more control and more switches, i would still recommend the runas cmd tool which as a number of very useful switches.

Ok john, back to work now.

Deploying SQL 2008 Express with Advanced Services SP1 on Windows Server 2008 R2

John D. Delizo — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:17:00 GMT

I can’t seem install MS SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services natively on a Windows Server 2008 R2. Why use it? Primary its free like the SQL Express and it has advanced features like of the full SQL Server 2008 as described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365248.aspx

Cant install, mainly because as of this moment I have not found a downloadable copy of the MS SQL 2008 Express with Advanced Services SP1 from the Microsoft Download site. To install SQL 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2, it must be already on SP1. I think that the only way I can install this is to do a slipstreamed copy.

Slipstream is a way of infusing the installer and its update so that the installer may already have the update in it upon install. This is very handy for mass deployment and for situations like this where it is required to have an SP1 copy to install. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_(computing)

For the detailed how to go to this link that also has screenshots and explanations on the steps done:

Deploying SQL 2008 Express with Advanced Services SP1 on Windows Server 2008 R2

Here is the short story of the list of things and commands that we did:

Download the FF and copy to C:\ directory for easy access.

SQL 2008 Express with Advanced Services http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B5D1B8C3-FDA5-4508-B0D0-1311D670E336&displaylang=en

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19&displaylang=en

Extract and merge the Installer with SP1 (with command prompt)

en_sql_server_2008_express_with_advanced_services_x64.exe /x:c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1

SQLServer2008SP1-KB968369-x64-ENU.exe /x:c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\PCU

“robocopy c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\PCU c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1 Setup.exe”

“robocopy c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\PCU c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1 Setup.rll”

“robocopy c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\PCU\x64 c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\x64 /XF Microsoft.SQL.Chainer.PacakgeData.dll”

Create DefaultSetup.ini file at c:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\x64.

; SQLSERVER2008 Configuration File

[SQLSERVER2008]

PCUSOURCE=”C:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\PCU”

Run Setup.exe from C:\SQLServer2008_FullSP1\

That’s it!

Connecting to multiple remote desktops from a single console

John D. Delizo — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:20:00 GMT

For a couple of times now I have seen a number of people doing remote desktops and they tend to navigate from one remote desktop window to another. Switching back and forth in a couple of windows sometimes is unproductive to some, and for me it just leaves clutter on my desktop.

I just want to share a tool called Remote Desktops that allows you to connect to multiple remote desktops from a single MMC console.

In here are more screenshots and some features that i liked : Connecting to multiple remote desktops from a single console

Backing up Windows Server 2008 DNS Zone Files

John D. Delizo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:17:00 GMT

This will be quick and sweet. Last night someone asked me to turn re-use an old server from having a catalog installed to just hosting primary DNS zones. So before I make this Active directory integrated DNS server to just a primary or do anything worthwhile I wanted to backup the zones. Well how?

First stop the DNS service by doing this command at the cmd prompt “net stop "DNS Server"

Next, just create a separate copy of the “%WinDir%\System32\dns” in my case C:\Windows\System32\dns directory that contains flat files (text files) of your zones. There are also some samples inside this directory, not required to be included.

Lastly is start the DNS service again by doing “net start "DNS Server"

To restore it just stop the DNS service, copy your backup back to the above directory then start the DNS service again and the zones are restored :D

I found my first hint on how to do this here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392269(WS.10).aspx

Well, that’s it! Back to my deadlines, cheers!

PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V at codeplex

John D. Delizo — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:35:53 GMT

PowerShell management Library for Hyper-V
A project to provide a PowerShell management library for Hyper-V
It does pretty much what it says. Note that a lot of the information available from Hyper-V is only available if Powershell is running with Elevated privilege
At present there are 80 functions in the library, some of these are worker functions which are not expected to be called directly, the others are listed below.

Download it here: http://pshyperv.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=21642

Security Audit Events for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (Excel Download)

John D. Delizo — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:20:00 GMT

I was helping a friend over some events of their company’s Windows Servers, upon searching the event ID’s we saw this from Keith Combs blog: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3a15b562-4650-4298-9745-d9b261f35814

Cannot connect to a virtual machine on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-v if the VMMS certificate has expired

John D. Delizo — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:15:00 GMT

If you have a problem connecting to a Hyper-V VM with error: Cannot connect to the virtual machine because the authentication certificate is expired or invalid or when you try to start a VM and an error that YourVMNAme failed to initialize with an Unspecified Error “0x80004005”. This is because the Hyper-V Management Service certificate has expired.

This is very fixable by just applying an update: KB967902 for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition. So if you have your WSUS administration or its a standalone server, better apply this hotfix to prevent what happened to me or to fix this issue.

More info is available where I found the fix here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967902 or download the hotfix directly here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=289c831c-9142-4c00-bacd-6c1924ff0ecc

Microsoft Security Essentials code name ‘Morro’ Beta

John D. Delizo — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:14:00 GMT

Morro has just been released as a new product called Microsoft Security Essentials. Currently on its beta version, this FREE antivirus and anti spyware software runs on XP, Vista and Windows 7! Did I just mentioned that it is a free product that you can download and install on your PC’s? But as of now there is only a limited number of downloads for its beta version is available (75,00) and its only allowed for US, Israel, Brazil and China only. So hurry and get your copy at http://microsoft.com/security_essentials or at https://connect.microsoft.com/securityessentials.

Checkout some screenshots on installation and other Morro interfaces and features here: http://johndelizo.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5686721B6E7BA618!2101.entry

Really worth checking this new cool free antivirus, again heres the link: http://microsoft.com/security_essentials

Windows Vista SP2 Service Pack Clean-up tool

John D. Delizo — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:36:50 GMT

Its a big update yes, raw file says its 577.4 Mb on five languages. If you want to reclaim some disk space after applying the SP2 you can run this update cleanup tool that is included on the SP2 install - compcln.exe

Windows Component Clean Tool (Compcln.exe) can be used to remove the files that are archived after Windows Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2008 SP2 is applied. It also removes the files that were archived after Windows Vista SP1 was applied, if they are found on the system. Running this tool is optional.

NOTE AGAIN: You cannot uninstall Windows Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2008 SP2 after you run this tool on an image.

Here is a complete post with screenshots of Windows Vista SP2 Service Pack Clean-up tool

More info are available on the Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Deployment Guide at TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335037(WS.10).aspx

What's new with Windows Vista SP2

John D. Delizo — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:10:25 GMT

Its here, have you installed your Service Pack 2? I rebooted this morning after last Friday night's WSUS update push.

The SP2 has just been released for Windows Vista, Microsoft's main line of operating system. This service pack has been defined by the Microsoft as:

"A service pack is a Windows update that combines new security and performance updates with previously released updates. Installing a service pack helps make sure you've got all the updates your PC needs to help make it more reliable, run more smoothly, and even more enjoyable to use. Think of it as a free all-in-one tune up for your PC."

So what is included on this Service Pack?

Hardware ecosystem support and enhancements

SP2 adds support for the 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) from VIA Technologies, which adds the ID and vendor strings for the new VIA 64-bit CPU.
SP2 integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology.
SP2 improves performance for Wi-Fi connections after resuming from sleep mode.
SP2 includes updates to the RSS feeds sidebar for improved performance and responsiveness.
SP2 includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media.

Operating system experience updates

SP2 includes Windows Search 4.0, which builds on Microsoft’s search technology with improved indexing and search relevance. It also helps find and preview documents, e-mail (including signed e-mail messages), music files, photos, and other items on the computer. The search engine in Windows Search 4.0 is a Microsoft Windows® service that is also used by programs such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 and Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007. Autotuning Diagnostics in SP2 now interprets current network conditions when implementing Windows scaling. This feature includes full netsh support.
SP2 improves Windows Media Center (WMC) in the area of content protection for TV.
SP2 removes the limit of 10 half open outbound TCP connections. By default, SP2 has no limit on the number of half open outbound TCP connections.

SP2 also includes a Service Pack Clean-up tool (Compcln.exe) which helps recover the hard disk space by permanently deleting previous versions of files (RTM and SP1) that are being serviced by SP2. The Service Pack Clean up tool can also be run offline while creating slipstream images to reduce the size of the image.

Checkout Windows Vista SP2 at TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335036(WS.10).aspx

Deploying the Vista SP2 Using Windows Server Update Services

John D. Delizo — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:02:14 GMT

If you are deploying in a controlled environment like me, you may want to do it via Windows Server Update Services. Downloading the 577.4 MB is not practical, specially if you share your Internet connection, right? If you still don't have WSUS, do checkout my previous post on how to deploy updates using the Windows Server Update Services.

The complete post is at my live spaces here: Deploying the Vista SP2 Using Windows Server Update Services

Understanding Performance and Reliability Monitoring

John D. Delizo — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:05:00 GMT

Performance and Reliability monitor (PerfMon) is a very powerful new tool that has been shipped with Windows Server 2008 that can collect data about everything and anything on your windows system.

Lets explore this part of the Windows Server 2008 that has been less noticed and less used, do check my posts here: http://johndelizo.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5686721B6E7BA618!1555.entry. Also check out PerfMon at TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755081.aspx