Adding MSC to executable extensions

http://superuser.com/questions/228680/on-windows-what-filename-extensions-denote-an-executable

After two decades, I finally got tired of it, tired of typing .MSC after "compmgmt", after "dsa", and especially after "services". I mean, "services" actually works, but bails right away, leaving you with a hope that nothing actually took place just now.

It turns out there's an environment variable called "PATHEXT" that stores all these "executable" extensions. It can be set per command window, or can be set for all future windows in the registry at
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment

Not sure if adding .MSC to the front is a good thing. Time will tell. At least "services" works like I want.

Adding a Safely Remove Hardware icon

http://www.neilturner.me.uk/2007/04/05/create_a_safely_remove_ha.html

For a legacy laptop that runs well excepting there's no Safely Remove Hardware icon in the systray for your USB drives, you can use this command to create a shortcut.

%windir%\system32\RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll

Alternately, without a shortcut you can go thru Device Manager, right-click on the device for Properties, and on the Policies tab there is an underlined link for "Safely Remove Hardware".

Just found Uwe Sieber's page with many cool notes and command line tools, including "RemoveDrive". This utility even has a switch to show the open file handles on the drive to identify which app or service is preventing removal.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbstick_e.html
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html#RemoveDrive

Creating or editing the System Properties Support Information

http://www.techiecorner.com/17/how-to-set-your-own-support-information-in-system-properties/

The information provided by the Support Information button is found in OEMINFO.INI, which is found in the sysdir, i.e. %windir%\SYSTEM on Win95-98-Me, %windir%\SYSTEM32 on NT-based and newer.

File has the following format:
[Version]
Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4
WinVer=5.00.2195
[General]
Manufacturer=Dell
Model=Inspiron 8100
SupportURL=http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/details?servicetag=BSRG111
[Support Information]
Line1=Your Dell Service Tag is BSRG111
Line2=Your Dell Express Service Code is 25683756085
Line3=Dell Ship Date was 11/28/2001
Line4=This information verified 11/11/2011.

Add Logoff to menu after removing Shutdown

http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=350
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/974/
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/973-remove-the-logoff-name-from-the-start-menu


After removing Shutdown for security, you may find there never was a Logoff on some servers. There's ways to make it appear, and there's ways to make it disappear. If using the registry, you may have to adjust both settings, and on both HKLM and HKCU sides. The GP may actually fix it easier. You may have to end explorer.exe or logoff/logon. YMVV.

GPEdit.msc
Administrative Template: System
Policy Node: USER
Policy Path: Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar

Registry
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
StartMenuLogoff(REG_DWORD) 1=hide

This Windows98SE regval might also be in effect.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
NoLogOff(REG_DWORD) 1=hide

FAT32 format more than 32GB

http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/

Need to format your 2 terabyte USB drive as FAT32? This little baby does the trick.

Fun with AD LastLogin

http://www.rlmueller.net/Last%20Logon.htm
http://joeware.net/freetools/tools/adfind/index.htm
http://joeware.net/freetools/tools/oldcmp/index.htm
Joeware has some great tools. I'd been relying on OldCmp to determine if users are still active. But sometimes the LastLoginTimeStamp is not accurate. Richard L. Mueller's page has some nifty scripts that query each of the domain controllers and glom the results for more accurate results.

Remove Shutdown on Start Menu

There's plenty of pages on removing the "Shutdown" option from the Start Menu. Many suggest a GPO involving a "Remove and prevent access to the shutdown command" setting. There are two such policies on Windows 2003, but both disable the Start Menu as well as the button on Windows Security dialog, when you press Ctrl-Alt-Del. Other web pages mention the below reghack, but in the HKCU hive. It disables the Start Menu but leaves it on the W-S dialog. If you instead set it in the HKLM hive it affects all users. The change affects after a user logoff/logon.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer]
"NoClose"=dword:00000001

Windows Server Allow DNS aliases in SMB shares

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281308

With the correct service packs and hotfixes installed, change the following registry entry and restart the Server service to affect the change.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters]
"DisableStrictNameChecking"=dword:00000001

Extending Activation deadline on Vista

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/microsoft-allows-bypass-of-vista-activation/
http://windowssecrets.com/introduction/skiprearm-doesnt-work-activation-still-broken/

2007 discussions of the "SkipRearm" regval and the admin commands "sl -xpr" and "sl -rearm".

Limiting IE cache

http://windows7themes.net/set-internet-explorer-cache-size-via-ie-registry-or-group-policy.html

Limiting IE cache in registry:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\Cache\Content\Cache Limit
CacheLimit(DWORD)=size in MB

Limiting IE cache in a GPO:

In gpedit.msc, expand User Configuration, Windows Settings.
Right-click on Internet Explorer Maintenance and select(check) Preference Mode.
Expand Internet Explorer Maintenance and click Advanced.
Double-click on Corporate Settings.
Temporary Internet Files can be capped per user and/or per machine.

MSOffice File Validation Add-In slow to open LAN-based files

http://alex-tesla.livejournal.com/15979.html
(Russian)

The new Office File Validation in MSUpdates causes grief with large LAN-based files. There's registry entries that disable the feature, or you might ask why disable when you could just uninstall it. The above page includes the below ADM file to use for a group policy.


;msoffice2003validation.adm disable MSOffice validation tool
CLASS USER
CATEGORY "Microsoft Office Validation Add-In"
CATEGORY "2003"
POLICY "Enable in Excel"
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation"
VALUENAME "EnableOnLoad"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
POLICY "Enable in PowerPoint"
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\PowerPoint\Security\FileValidation"
VALUENAME "EnableOnLoad"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
POLICY "Enable in Word"
KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Security\FileValidation"
VALUENAME "EnableOnLoad"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
END CATEGORY
END CATEGORY

Installing Chrome to save space

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=5e1c479011e250fa&hl=en
http://www.ghacks.net/2010/10/19/how-to-change-google-chromes-cache-location-and-size/

Chrome taking up a lot of space in user folders on Terminal Server.  This thread mentions a few handy clues.
1) Download Google Pack, as it installs Chrome into the ProgramFiles folder rather than each user's AppData folder.
2) Go thru each user's AppData and delete any old Chrome app version number folders.
3) Download the Chrome Installer from "http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/xxx.xxx/chrome_installer.exe" where xxx.xxx is the last two in the release number. For example, for version 13.0.782.112, you would use 782.112. You could also Google "chrome_installer.exe" and find a site with the most recent stable release. Once you have the installer, run it with the --system-level parm.
4) Modify the Chrome shortcuts and shell\open regvals to use the "--disk-cache-size=[size_in_bytes]" switch to reduce the cache, and "--disk-cache-dir=[folder_location]" to relocate on another drive if you have one.


*Update:
http://www.google.com/support/installer/bin/answer.py?answer=126299
This Google Answer has links to offline installers, including one for the whole system.
http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?system=true&standalone=1

Changing boot order in GRUB

http://www.torrent-invites.com/miscellaneous/58489-changing-grubs-boot-order.html

After installing Linux dual-boot, you still want your Windows partition to boot first? The above page details the steps well. It depends on which version of GRUB you have, v2, or v1 (legacy).

For v1, run "sudo pico /boot/grub/menu.lst" to edit the file and put the entries in the order you want. # lines are comments, and it uses the order in the file.

For v2, run "sudo pico /etc/default/grub" and change the GRUB_DEFAULT value to the menu entry number you want. Use 0-based counting for the menu entries in the file /boot/grub/grub.cfg, or try "grep 'menuentry' /boot/grub/grub.cfg", or just count on the current menu when it's booting. In v2, you also need to run "sudo update-grub" after this change.

Note: On v2, the above method is recommended. I found you could instead edit the grub.cfg file, changing the "set default=" line to the required value. However, it will be overwritten with the above-mentioned GRUB_DEFAULT value next time these processes rebuild the CFG.

When WindowsUpdate requires reboot

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/microsoft/Windows-Update/33666310/0x8ddd0007.aspx

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired

This RebootRequired key can cause Automatic Updates to not install.  It's usually indicative that you should reboot the machine.  You can manually delete it, preferably immediately before a reboot.

Files to be renamed on reboot

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298890

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations

Values in this key can prevent Automatic/Microsoft Updates from occurring.  A reboot should clear this out.  Might also be useful for deleting malware files currently in use.

DS Software - Good Things Come in Small Packages

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/

Dariusz Stanislawek is cranking out lots of small utilities.  There's file hash, task handling, encryption, and also a command-line ZIP utility.

Freeware calculator for CRC32 SHA MD5 et al

http://www.febooti.com/products/filetweak/members/hash-and-crc/

Did you ever have two large files, same name, same size, different timestamp?  This adds a Hash tab to the Windows Explorer file properties.  Supports CRC32, MD5, SHA variants, RIPEMD, WHIRLPOOL, Tiger-192.

Trouble shadowing remote RDP sessions on Server 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976110

Shadow attempts yield Error "the requested session denied remote control". This can occur when using RDC less than version 7.0 against Vista or Windows 2008. There is a hotfix, or there are workarounds on either client or server.

Server-side workaround, launch gpedit.msc, and drill down to
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Component
.. and on Windows 2008, expand
Terminal Services\Terminal Server\Remote Session Environment
... or on Windows 2008 R2, expand
Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Remote Session Environment
.. and then set the value "Set compression algorithm for RDP data".

The article says set it to "Do not use an RDP compression algorithm", but I set it to "Optimized to use less memory", and that also worked.

VPrinter prints to nowhere

http://www.mabuse.de/tech-vprinter.mhtml

I wanted to print to nowhere, to save paper on massive test jobs that nobody would review. This is an interesting, but slightly arcane solution. Also no drivers for Win2008, which is the platform I needed. Still, this falls into the classification of small, cute utilities.

In the end, I just configured a generic HP PCL6 printer and created a new local port to NUL:

VMware ESX cut and paste from guest

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026437

Cut and Paste from guest is disabled in newer versions of ESX.  You can disabled this per guest or per host.

On Guest:
Edit VM Settings
Options, Advanced, General, click the Configuration Parameters:
(Note, this is only non-grayed if the machine is turned off.)
Add Rows for "isolation.tools.copy.disable" and "isolation.tools.paste.disable", both false.

On Host:
Nano /etc/vmware/config to add the following two lines.
isolation.tools.copy.disable="FALSE"
isolation.tools.paste.disable="FALSE"

Either change takes effect after the associated VMs are rebooted.

Disabling VLC's font caching

http://superuser.com/questions/189681/can-you-disable-vlcs-font-cache

Have a machine that the VLC font cache generates each time it starts?  Some methods to try:
1) Tools, Preferences, Show Settings All, Video, Subtitles, Text Rendering Module, select "Dummy font renderer function".
2) Delete the cache file in %appdata%\vlc
3) Delete or rename vlc-cache-gen.exe in the %ProgramFiles%\VLC folder.

seeing hidden objects in Device Manager

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

1. At a command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER:
   set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
2. Type the following command a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   start devmgmt.msc
   
   

TreeComp files compare

http://lploeger.home.xs4all.nl/TreeComp.htm

TreeComp compares two directory trees, based on size/date/contents/attribute.

Stop Windows XP from searching ZIP and CAB files

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm#z

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-202
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/nofindinsidezip.htm

It can take quite a while longer if Windows includes inside compressed files while searching.  The common way to remove this capability:
regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

  regsvr32 /u cabview.dll

After each command you should see a RegSvr32 dialog box "DllUnregisterServer in (the).dll succeeded."

You will lose all  built-in Windows capabilities for ZIP and CAB files, so you may look into 7-Zip, WinZIP, or WinRAR as an alternative for working with these files.  If  you want to add one or both of these capabilities back later:
regsvr32 zipfldr.dll

  regsvr32 cabview.dll

There is another nice solution, a program called NoFindInsideZip, which appears to set the "Attributes"  registry values to zero in the following keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}\ShellFolder

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31}\ShellFolder
(Note: You may have to copy and paste these keys to see them.)

These are the same keys noted in the fix for Vista, but this program may be specific to XP.

TClock and TClockEx

http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclocklight/index.html
http://www.rcis.co.za/dale/tclockex/

These modify the clock in the Systray.  I used TClockEx for many years, especially on users' machines to warn them of low-RAM problems.  TClock Light seems somewhat cleaner, though no RAM readout.

Enabling root SSH login on an ESX host

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/8375637
...because it's disabled out of the box.


To create a user in ESX host for using a SSH client:

1. Log in to the vSphere Client as a root user.
2. Click Users & Groups.
3. Right-click on a blank area and click Add.
4. Enter a username and password. Confirm your password.
   Note: Starting in ESX 4.0, the password needs to be at least 8 characters in length.
   
5. Select Grant shell access to this user.
6. Select root group from the dropdown and click Add > OK.
   
   Note: By default it assigns to the users group and does not allow SSH access.

After you are logged in SSH session, switch to the root user with the command:
su -

Edit the configuration file for SSH with the command:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find the line that starts with PermitRootLogin and change the no to yes. You can find this line about 2 pages down from the top.

Save the file by first pressing Ctrl-O and then Enter. Exit with Ctrl-X. Restart the sshd service with the command:

service sshd restart

... or alternatively, use the command:

/etc/init.d/sshd restart

WWW ping

http://ping.eu/

Web-based tools for ping, traceroute, etc, in case you doubt your network is working.

Erasing Registry Values, Keys

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/regedit.php

As easy as using a minus in the .reg file.

Erase a value

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SomeKey\SomeOtherKey]
"RemoveThisValue"=-

Erase a key

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SomeKey\RemoveThisKey]

TrendMicro Sysclean

http://downloadcenter.trendmicro.com/index.php?regs=NABU&clk=latest&clkval=353&lang_loc=1

Apparently, you can use the stand-alone Sysclean from Trend Micro to clean an offline system.  You need to download the Enterprise CPR definitions from
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/viruspattern.asp

http://downloadcenter.trendmicro.com/index.php?clk=tab_pattern&clkval=5&regs=NABU&lang_loc=1

Add Search back to Folder-Directory Context Menu

http://www.petri.co.il/add-context-menu-search-back-to-windows-vista-sp1.htm
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/restore-the-search-item-to-the-folder-context-menu-in-windows-vista-sp1/

Ours is not to ask why.  Ours is to see and rename these "LegacyDisable" regvals.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\find

[REG_SZ:LegacyDisable]

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\find

[REG_SZ:LegacyDisable]

Setting to "0", "no", or "false" doesn't work.  Renaming or deleting works.  Takes effect immediately, even on open windows.  You may want to remove the LegacyDisable from the corresponding Drive key, et al.

From the Command Prompt:

reg delete HKLM\Software\Classes\Directory\shell\find /v LegacyDisable /f

reg delete HKLM\Software\Classes\Drive\shell\find /v LegacyDisable /f

Removing Windows Mail on Terminal Server 2008

http://jrudd.org/2010/02/windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-mail/

Looking to save some User Profile space on TS2008, this pointed in the right direction.  On my systems, Autoruns showed these settings on the Logon tab (or Everything tab), and the Description for each was "Windows Mail".

Earthquakes on Google Maps

http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/

OK, more fun than tech, but thank you for merging the USGS earthquake data with the Google Maps!

http://www.petri.co.il/download_free_reskit_tools.htm

Petri is a wealth of knowledge.  Today we're tracking down Userenv Event ID 1097, "Windows cannot find the machine account. The clocks on the client and server machines are skewed."  Also maybe related, Kerberos Event ID 5, "The kerberos client received a KRB_AP_ERR_TKT_NYV error from the server...."

Ages ago I'd seen issues in the past when the machine account fell out of sync with the domain, and this sounded similar.  Googling "command line recreate server machine account" set me in the right direction, the NLTEST looked promising, but ultimately finding the NETDOM utility with the RESET command.  Did it work?  A reboot later and the messages were gone.

I did actually download the XP version of NETDOM from the below link, but Mental Note to grab all the old versions of these Resource Kit tools.
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=49AE8576-9BB9-4126-9761-BA8011FABF38

Deleting ServicePackFiles or relocating to LAN

http://ask-leo.com/can_i_remove_the_servicepackfiles_folder_from_my_windows_folder.html

I inherited VM servers with a too small 4GB sys volume, in need of space cleared.  The ServicePackFiles is a nice 400MB target.  This page details how to relocate the files to a LAN.

Summary:
In the Registry, the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup key has regvals that can be repointed to a LAN-based folder:
SourcePath  points to D:\ or the folder above the \I386 installation dir
ServicePackSourcePath  points to the ServicePackFiles folder to be moved
ServicePackCachePath  points to the ServicePackCache folder underneath

Steve Miller's Apps

http://www.stevemiller.net/apps/

Whilst looking for a Touch command, I re-found Steve Miller's applications page.  I'd located ShareWatch in the past, quite handy on a Windows file server to tell who's connected, username, IP, and computername, and what files they have open.

Dependency Walker is also handy to tell which DLL's are required for an app.  Both apps are unzip and run.

There is a Touch command in his Console Toolbox, but I wound up using NirCmd instead.

HP server warranty check

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/weInput?cc=us&lc=en

 There's a few HP warranty check sites.  This worked for all our servers.

VMware 8375637 Enabling root SSH login on an ESX host

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=8375637
also see to enable SSH in general
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003807

Enabling root user to login via SSH.  Newer versions of ESX disable root's ability to SSH.

Key command:
nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Find PermitRootLogin and change no to yes.

VMware 1003564 Investigating disk space on an ESX or ESXi host

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003564

Tips to check where your ESX/ESXi disk space has gone.  This stemmed from not able to apply patches with Update Manager, due to lack of disk space.

Some key commands:
df -h
  shows storage devices with percent used
du -cshP /vmimages /var/core /root /var/log
  shows space used by each of these folders
find / -size +100M -exec du -h {} \; | less
  shows files larger than 100 MB
tar czvf /tmp/vmkwarning-logs.tgz /var/log/vmkwarning*
tar czvf /tmp/vmkernel-logs.tgz /var/log/vmkernel.*
tar czvf /tmp/messages-logs.tgz /var/log/messages.*
  tar commands to compress old log files