MMC Snap-in error in SQL 2000

Problem:
I get an error from SQL 2000 Enterprise Manager's MMC Console when I right-click on database properties for any database shown in the Enterprise Manager list, and Enterprise Manager freezes requiring me to close it and re-launch it.

Possible reason:
Only one SQL DMO dll can exist on the server and it has been replaced by the new SQL2005 version.

Solution:
Re-register sqldmo.dll fom the SQL Server 2000 directory.

regsvr32 "c:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\sqldmo.dll"

Login Scripts, Mapping drives and VISTA

Problem:

By default Group policy service executes scripts in an elevated mode. There are some scripts like 'Map network drives' that would need to be run in UAPmode. In order to launch such scripts in a UAP context from an elevated process, you can leverage the Task scheduler API.

The logon script uses the Net use command to map network drives.It works fine for standard users, but not to domain admin users.

Additional information can be obtained from the section "Group Policy Scripts can fail due to User Account Control" from the link in part 1 of the solution.

Solution:

1. Get launchApp.wsf from the MS documentation http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/5ae8da2a-878e-48db-a3c1-4be6ac7cf7631033.mspx?mfr=true
2. Created Vista_Check.vbs that isset as the login script in Group Policy.
3. When I cut and pasted launchApp.wsf the formatting put an extra carriage return in part of the script that I had to remove.
   
   Call rootFolder.RegisterTaskDefinition( _strTaskName, taskDefinition, FlagTaskCreate, _,, LogonTypeInteractive)

You didn't have to change anything in the actual login.vbs

Vista_Check.vbs==============

Dim isVista
Dim wshShell
Set wshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
GetOS
If isVista = True Then
runLaunchApp
Else
runLoginNormal
End If

Sub runLaunchApp
wshShell.Run "cscript \\\launchapp.wsf \\\login.vbs"
End Sub
Sub runLoginNormal
wshShell.Run \\\login.vbs
End Sub

Sub GetOS
strComputer = "." Set objWMIService =GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer &"\root\cimv2")
Set colOSes = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * fromWin32_OperatingSystem")
For Each objOS in colOSes
osCaption = objOS.Caption
If instr(osCaption, "Vista") Then
isVista = True
End If
Next
End Sub

link: http://www.developersdex.com/asp/message.asp?p=593&r=5431945&page=2

Microsoft Intellipoint Mouse and TAB Instant Viewer

Something to note is that although the default setting for the middle-click within the Intellipoint software is to open the Instant Viewer, you can still retain the middle-click behavior for Internet Explorer to open a new tab when clicking on a link:

1. Open the Microsoft Mouse software and check the box labeled "Enable program-specific settings" on the first tab - this enables the settings button
2. Click on settings, click on add and select iexplore.exe
3. Change the "Wheel button" setting to Middle-click instead of Instant Viewer
4. Hit OK and then OK again.

Now when you use IE you can use the Middle-click option on a link to launch a new tab.

However, this will negate the ability to use the Instant Viewer with the middle-click as program-specific settings will override the general settings.

OneNote Web Exporter

Plug-in to export your OneNote 2007 notebooks as an interactive web site.

http://www.codeplex.com/ONWebber

Publishing in ISA 2006

Just some basic requirements:

1. The request must be for the exact name included on the Public Name tab. For example, if the users wants to go to www.msfirewall.org, the name on the Public Name tab must be http://www.msfirewall.org/
2. The certificate must have the same common/subject name as the name on the Public Name tab. So, if the users are going to http://www.msfirewall.org, then the common/subject name on the Web site certificate bound to the Web listener must be http://www.msfirewall.org/
3. The name used in the To tab must match the name on the Web site certificate bound to the actual Web site on the Internal network. So, if the name on the certificate is www.msfirewall.org, then I must enter www.msfirewall.org on the To tab.
4. The ISA firewall must be able to resolve the name on the To tab to the actual IP address of the site on the Internal network. So, if I had www.msfirewall.org on the To tab, then the ISA firewall must be able to resolve www.msfirewall.org to the actual IP address of the site on the Internal network (you can use DNS or HOSTS file entries for this)
5. Make sure you forward the original host header if you're not using the same name from end to end (like you can with a properly configured split DNS or with a HOSTS file)
6. The Web site is setup with a Default Gateway.
7. ISA server is set so that the Web site is included in a Upstream proxy bypass rule, so that the ISA server accesses the Web site from the internal network. (If upstream proxy is used.)

Pasted from
http://forums.isaserver.org/m_230059800/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#230059811

Stop Browser Caching Using Meta Tags

To stop browsers from storing a version of your web page in its cache, use the meta tag, Pragma:No-Cache, that is,

<meta http-equiv="PRAGMA" content="NO-CACHE">

This meta tag needs to be included between the head tags of your html page.

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="PRAGMA" content="NO-CACHE">
</head>
<body>

Unfortunately, the Pragma:No-Cache meta tag does not work all the time. Work arounds are needed for Internet Explorer because of the way it handles caching.

Work Around for Internet Explorer

For Internet Explorer 5, you would need to add an additional Expire:-1 meta tag, that is, <meta http-equiv=”EXPIRES” content="-1"> along with the Pragma:No-Cache meta tag. Both meta tags need to be included at the top and bottom of the page as with the work around for Internet Explorer.

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="PRAGMA" content="NO-CACHE">
<meta http-equiv="EXPIRES" content="-1">
</head>
<body>

AND

</body>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="PRAGMA" content="NO-CACHE">
<meta http-equiv="EXPIRES" content="-1">
</head>
</html>

Link:
Display HTML tags in blog

How to configure Internet Explorer to open Office documents in the appropriate Office program instead of in Internet Explorer

In Windows XP

To configure Internet Explorer to open Office files in the appropriate Office program by using the Folder Options tool:

1. Open My Computer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. Click the File Types tab.
4. In the Registered file types list, click the specific Office document type (for example, Microsoft Excel Worksheet), and then click Advanced (or Restore).
5. In the Edit File Type dialog box, click to clear the Browse in same window check box.
6. Click OK.

Additional information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/162059

AMD PCnet network card drivers for VMware

Additional drivers are required when using Windows Deployment Services to deploy Windows Vista, while using VMware Workstation.

Two locations for AMD PCnet drivers:

• VMware NIC driver. The easiest way is to start up a VMware session and choose the “Install VMware Tools” option. Don’t worry if you already have them installed—all this does is mount a VMware Tools installation CD (which may autorun to perform an installation, for which you may just press “exit”). In the CD that appears in your VMware session, go to: E:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\win2k\ and copy these files to your host system. Now we can use the peimg utility to mount the driver.
• http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_6629_2452%5E2454%5E2486,00.html
  Use the Windows XP signed.
  

Update the WDS boot image to include the new third-party network driver

To do this, follow these steps:

Note: The following procedure assumes that the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) is installed on the WDS server.

1. On the WDS server, click Start, click Run, type wdsmgmt.msc, and then press OK.
2. Under your WDS server, double-click Boot images.
3. Right-click the boot image that you want, and then click Disable.
4. Right-click the same boot image, click Properties, and then click General.
5. Note the name and location of the boot image that is displayed in the File name box.
6. From the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt, type the following:
   C:\program files\windows aik\tools\petools\copype.cmd x86 e:\windowspe-x86
   Note: Keep this command prompt window open for the next step.
   Imagex /info Drive:\remoteinstall\boot\x86\images\boot.wim
   Notes:
   Drive:\remoteinstall represents the path at which the Remoteinstall folder is installed.
   Boot.wim is the name of the boot image.
7. Note the boot index number of the bootable image that is displayed. To identify the boot index number, locate the line that contains "boot index: X."
   
   Note: X is the boot index number. The number indicates that image number X is marked as bootable and that the image is to be updated. The second image is the default image that you would typically modify. However, always verify which image is marked as bootable.
8. At a command prompt, type the following:
   Imagex /mountrw Drive:\remoteinstall\boot\x86\images\boot.wim 2 mount peimg /inf=driver.inf mount\Windows
   imagex /unmount /commit mount
   Notes:
   Drive:\remoteinstall represents the path at which the Remoteinstall folder is installed.
   Driver.inf is the name of the third-party driver.
   The Imagex /mountrw command mounts the specified image, with read/write permissions, to the specified directory.
9. Enable the boot image on the WDS server. To do this, follow these steps:

• On the WDS server, click Start, click Run, type wdsmgmt.msc, and then click OK
• Under WDS server, double-click Boot images.
• Right-click the boot image that you want, and then click Enable.
  
  Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923834

VMware Workstation 6 - PXE boots slow

Problem:
I'm trying to use Microsoft's WDS to do PXE boots.
But it's taking literally 20 minutes to download the 167MB boot file.

HOST: Windows XP or Vista / Vmware 6.0
Guests: Windows 2003 / Vista and "pxe boot client / no operating system"

Fix:
Close VMware before making changes to the .vmx file.
Setting ethernet0.virtualDev = "vlance" in the .vmx file will switch to the AMD PCnet 32 from the e1000

Dcdiag - checking DNS

Dcdiag.exe is a command-line tool that most administrators know about. It's great for troubleshooting various domain and domain controller (DC) issues, and in Service Pack 1 for Win2003, it has picked up some new capabilities.

Run Dcdiag /TEST:DNS to test the health of AD's DNS infrastructure. By default, this tests both basic DNS functionality, forwarders or root hints, delegation, dynamic updates, record registration, external name resolution, and Internet host resolution (it checks for http://www.microsoft.com/ by default). This is a great one-command test to see how your entire DNS infrastructure is working.

A second is Dcdiag /TEST:CheckSecurityError, which looks for basic security problems.
As always, you can run Dcdiag right on a domain controller or from your client workstation (although you'll need to specify a server or naming context so that Dcdiag knows what to test; use the /s: argument to specify a DC server name).

Tool Location
The Dcdiag command-line tool is included when you install Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from the product CD. For more information about how to install Windows Support Tools, see Install Windows Support Tools (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62270

To install Windows Support Tools

1. Insert the Windows CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Click No if you are prompted to reinstall Windows.
3. When the Welcome screen appears, click Perform additional tasks, and then click Browse this CD.
4. Go to the \Support\Tools folder.
   For complete setup information, refer to the Readme.htm file available in this folder.
5. Double-click suptools.msi.
6. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

Vista Updates

Windows Vista suffers from several issues with ReadyBoost, copying/moving large files, resuming from sleep/hibernate and Blu-ray playback on numerous systems.

Microsoft solved a number of these problems through 938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack and 938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack.

In Internet Explorer 6 or 7, how do I remove a stored password?

Internet Explorer 7

To remove a stored password or other stored information in Internet Explorer 7, follow these steps:

1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options.
2. On the General tab, under Browsing history, click the Delete... button. You now have several options:

• To delete temporary Internet files (copies of web pages, images, and media that are saved for faster viewing), click the Delete files... button.
• To delete cookies, click the Delete cookies... button.
• To delete the history (the lists of web sites you have visited), click the Delete history... button.
• To delete form data (saved information that you have typed into forms), click the Delete forms... button.
• To delete passwords, click the Delete passwords... button.
• To delete all of the above, click the Delete all... button.
• Click OK twice.
  

Internet Explorer 6

To remove a stored password or stored form data in Internet Explorer 6, follow the instructions below:

1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options... .
2. Click the Content tab, and then click the AutoComplete... button.
3. To remove stored passwords, click Clear Passwords.
   To clear stored data that you have entered into forms, click Clear Forms.
4. Click OK.

Link: Additional Information on Managing a Web Browsers Cache

You don't have any posts marked with this label - Blogger

I had the problem with Blogger Labels reporting 1 post but when I selected the Label I was faced with the following message - "You don't have any posts marked with this label"

I have just managed to remove both lables that were having the problem (could have been lucky):

1. Create a new test post with only a title, no main content and do not add any Labels'.
2. In the Post list put a tick in the box to select the newly created test post.
3. In the Label Actions drop down box select the miss-reporting Label (Repeat for other Labels).
4. When the Labels have been added click on the Delete button to delete the test post Confirm deletion on the next page.
5. Back on the post list page put a tick in the box to select the recently deleted post which has been moved to Drafts and click on the Delete button.
6. Click Delete it to confirm the deletion. - (If you were lucky it will have deleted the miss-reporting labels.)
   

Multiple computer names using one IP Address in DNS

If you have multiple computer names using the same IP address 2003 DNS

1. Configure DHCP to do all the DNS registrations for DHCP clients and to remove DNS registrations when the lease expires.
   - Always dynamically update DNS A and PTR records
   - Discard A and PTR records when lease is deleted
2. Configure DHCP with a dedicated user account with a non-expiring password. (Advanced tab of the server property sheet.It can also to enable Windows 2000 option 002 (Release IP lease on shutdown)
3. You may have to manually clear the DNS registrations before the DHCP server can update records because the record is owned by the client instead of the DHCP server.

The problem occurs when a dynamic client, such as a laptop, that registers its own record, is disconnected from the network without releasing its IP address and therefore is not deregistering its record. Since it owns the record no other computer can update the record.

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/816592

Groupwise Web mail client and Vista

Special Notice For Windows Vista Users

Please note if you are accessing GroupWise WebAccess from Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista (in that combination, IE7+Windows XP is OK), you need to disable TLS1.0, otherwise you won't be able to log in.

To do this, open IE7 on Vista, select the "Tools" menu, select "Internet Options", click the "Advanced" tab on the far right, scroll down the options and just up from the bottom DESELECT the option "Use TLS 1.0".

Removing stubborn uninstall programs

1. If there's been any manual hacking of files and/or registry, use System Restore to get things back to how they were before it started.
2. Download safemsi.exe from here. The utility lets Windows Installer be invoked in Safe Mode.
3. It might be necessary to start the Operating System in Safe mode.
   Boot into Safe Mode by pressing F8 before the Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 boot screen starts.
4. Run safemsi.exe.
5. Remove the offending application as normal using Control Panel.

Link: http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=9233

Windows SharePoint Services 3

Useful Links:

• The official blog of the SharePoint Product Group
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technical Library
• Upgrading from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Beta 2 Technical Refresh to Release Version
• Nic Watters Sharepoint Services v3 (When running)

Editing Group Policy settings fails

If when editing Group Policy Object settings, you notice the settings are reverting to the previous settings - this could be because the policy is set as Read Only.

This can occur when importing group Policies from a CD Rom using Group Policy Management Console. This is because the Group Policy Object held on the CD Rom is only in Read Only format.

How to remove Read Only access to a Group Policy object

• In Group Policy Management Console, select the Group Policy Object, then on the right hand pane, select the Details tab and make a note of the Unique ID:
• In Windows Explorer browse to the domain Policies folder (i.e. c:\windows\sysvol\sysvol\FQDM\Policies)
• Right Click the Unique ID Folder then select Properties
• In the Attributes section of the General tab, remove the tick from Read Only, then click Ok
• Ensure Apply changes to this folder, subfolder and files is selected, then click Ok.

Note: The correct Read Only settings are reapplied.

MS Excel - deleting blank rows

This technique will allow you to delete all rows that have blank cells in a particular column.

1. First, before you make any drastic changes to any workbook always make sure you have a backup copy or a recently saved copy in case you need to restore the original data .
2. Now, select the cells in one column from the top of your list to the bottom.
3. Make sure that all the blank cells in this selected range are the rows you want to delete.
4. Select Edit, Goto (or press F5).
5. Click the Special button.
6. Click the Blanks option and click OK. This will select all blank cells in the range you had previously selected.
7. Now choose Edit, Delete, select the Entire Row option and click OK.

If you work with large lists of data in Excel, this tip will save you a lot of time.

Link: http://www.theexceladdict.com/tutorials.htm