Posted Saturday, 29 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
Sometimes, little things can improve productivity. Those things that let you save a little bit of time here and there, a few minutes every day.
Do you remember the Microsoft Office Manager?
That little window that would float around on the screen or that could be left on one of its edges.
Unfortunately, after Microsoft Office 2003 came out, that tool was no longer available.
And yet, it only took one click to launch Word, or even better, to access your scheduling program or an e-mail in Outlook.
The idea was obviously interesting because it can now be found implemented in OpenOffice.org.
Compared to the Microsoft Office Manager, the OpenOffice.org tool
may be accessed through a scroll-down menu, but can not be placed on the
Desktop. And as for launching a program, it only takes a right click on an icon
in the system tray, and then a click on the name of the chosen application.
This feature corresponds more or less to the use of a shortcut installed through
the “Add to Start Menu” function in Windows. To launch a Microsoft Office Suite
program associated with this type of shortcut, you just need to click on the
Start button, and then click on the shortcut.
In both cases, the result is altogether less efficient than what Microsoft
Office Manager used to do.
A short question: “How many clicks do you need to make to write a new e-mail?”
Posted Thursday, 27 September 2007 by Michael Khanin The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Exchange Management Shell Help file helps you use cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell to perform day-to-day administration of Exchange 2007. You can view help in the Exchange Management Shell by using the Get-Help cmdlet. This Help file applies to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) version of Exchange Server 2007
Posted Tuesday, 25 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
Windows Server 2008 RC0 can now be downloaded from the TechNet BetaCentral web site. From here, you enter your Windows Live ID and pick the edition of Windows Server 2008 RC0 you want to test - Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard, Web Edition, or Itanium. A brief comparison between the Windows Server 2008 editions can be found here.
Once you select the edition you want to test, you will get a product key and a link to download the ISO file that you can burin onto a DVD and install on your test machine. You can also take the ISO file of the x86 version and using Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 to test in a virtual environment.
Check out additional technical resources at the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library on TechNet. These will help you get up to speed on Windows Server 2008 a lot quicker.
Posted Tuesday, 25 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
As you may know, BitLocker Drive Encryption only encrypts the C:\ drive. If you have additional drives in your PC, or use an external USB hard drive with your notebook, you can't encrypt that drive with BDE. Officially that is :)
While Vista SP1 will bring support for encrypting the other volumes in your system you can do it today using the command line tool manage-bde.wsf. Now before we get started I must inform you that this is in now way supported by Microsoft. I've tried it, it worked for me, but I highly recommend taking a backup of the data before proceeding!
With that out of the way launch the Command Prompt as Administrator and run the following command to encrypt additional drives:
In this example X: is the drive you wish to recover and Y: is the drive the recovery key will be saved to. Remember to backup the recovery key and store it in a secure location. You can store this key on the C: drive (which is encrypted) and it will make things easier when you need to unlock the drive.
Once that is complete you will need to run a command to "unlock" the drive in order to access the data. With the drive plugged in run the following command:
Posted Sunday, 23 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
PiriformCCleaner v2.00.500 - is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)
CCleaner v2.00.500Final - Starts on Vista with Admin permissions where available.
- Fixed bug in registry cleaner with extended characters.
- Improved global exception handling and reporting.
- Fixed missing translated strings.
- Fixed minor bug in Antivir cleaning.
- Updated translations.
- Minor tweaks and fixes.
Posted Thursday, 20 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
If you need create a schedule jobs on any remote computer or server you can use an AddTaskAppRuns.bat and run it from the command line (On central server) by using PSEXEC.EXE. In my example, AddTaskAppRuns.bat contain:
The following command schedules a script, AppRuns.bat, to run every 1 minutes. Because the command does not include a starting date or time, the task starts 1 minutes after the command completes, and runs every 1 minutes thereafter whenever the system is running. Notice that the AppRuns.bat script source file is located on drive C:\ in directory Updates (C:\Updates\ ) on the remote computer or servers where should run a schedule jobs.
Posted Thursday, 20 September 2007 by Michael Khanin The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Web site has been updated with new pages, datasheets, white papers, and webcasts for the following technologies: Manageability, Performance and Scale, Reporting Services, and Spatial Data.
Posted Thursday, 20 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
Download FI.zip, an alternative to the DIR command, which provides file age and size filtering, security, device, alternate data streams, and file link information.
When you type fi /?, you receive:
Version 0.13, Copyright (C)2002, Frank P. Westlake.
Prints a list of files.
FI [options] file[s] [[options] file[s] [. . .]]
file[s] May include wild cards. Use the current directory indicator (.) to
refer to a directory, ex: FI C:\temp\.
Options, must precede 'file[s]':
/A Attribute filter, Prints only the files with specified attributes.
Ex: /A+SH-R (prints only the files with S and H but without R)
/B Prints only the file name.
/C Format numbers with a separator (default). Use /-C to disable.
/D Print information on the device, for example: /D C: or \\.\
/G[A|C|W]"<"|"="|">"value[/divisor]
Filters files by age in days. If '/divisor' is given, the day value
is divided by that value (i.e. /24 for hours, /1440 for minutes).
A=last access, C=creation, W=last write. Default is W.
/H Include alternate data stream names. Printed as 'file:stream'.
/L Include link index and the number of links as first two columns.
/Q Include owner in brief listing or SIDs in verbose listing.
/S Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.
/T[A|C|W][G]
Print the time stamp of the file (default). Use /-T to disable. If
'G' is included print age instead of time.
A=last access, C=creation, W=last write. Default is W.
Examples: /TC /TCG /-T
/V Print detailed information for each file.
/X Use short file names.
/Z["<"|"="|">"value]
Filters files by size (default). Use /-Z to disable printing of
file size.
The hyphen may be used to reverse the effect of an option.
Comparison operators must be quoted somehow: /z"="0 "/z=0" /"z=0"
Swirches may be predefined in an environment variable with the name of this
program, for example 'SET FI.EXE=/LHQ-C'. The program name may vary.
Codes displayed with trustee rights [T:RWXDPO:PDF+]:
T=Either "Allows" or "Denies" the displayed permissions.
R=Read, W=Write, X=Execute, D=Delete, P=Permissions write, O=Owner write.
P=Primary object, D=Directories inherit, F=Files inherit, +=Propagated
Examples:
FI C:\WINNT\.
FI "/g>7" /ash-r C:\WINNT\*.exe
FI "/z=0" C:\WINNT\*.exe
Scripting Example
If you wanted to delete all the files in the C:\Logs directory whose last write date is greater than 7 days:
for /f "Tokens=*" %%f in ('fi /A-d /b /gw">"7 C:\Logs\*.*') do del /q "%%f"
Posted Tuesday, 18 September 2007 by Michael Khanin The Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Help can help you in the day-to-day administration of Exchange. Use this information to guide you through Exchange Server 2007 SP1 features, tasks, and administration procedures.
Posted Tuesday, 18 September 2007 by Michael Khanin
After you install a Microsoft Office 2003 service pack 3, you are prompted unexpectedly to restart the computer. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 905726 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905726/) You are unexpectedly prompted to restart the computer after you install an Office service pack or an Office update After you install Office 2003 SP3, an add-in, ActiveX control, or COM add-in may not work as expected in an Office 2003 program. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938814 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938814/) The functionality of an add-in, an ActiveX control, or a COM add-in is reduced, or the functionality is blocked after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 After you install Office 2003 SP3, you may receive an error message when you try to create a new MAPI form in Outlook 2003. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938816 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938816/) Error message when you try to create a new MAPI form in Outlook 2003: "contact the administrator" After you install Office 2003 SP3, attachments that contain the .gadget extension cannot be opened in Outlook 2003. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938811 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938811/) Attachments that contain the .gadget extension cannot be opened in Outlook 2003 after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 After you install Office 2003 SP3, the Fast Saves feature does not work as expected in Word 2003. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938808 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938808/) The Fast Saves feature in Word 2003 no longer functions after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 After you install Office 2003 SP3, the Microsoft Office Document Imaging program may not work as expected. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938813 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938813/) You may experience issues when you run the Microsoft Office Document Imaging program after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 After you install Office 2003 SP3, you may receive an error message when you try to open or to save a file. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 941636 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941636/) You receive an error message when you try to open a file or to save a file after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 After you install Office 2003 SP3, you cannot open some Microsoft Excel workbooks that contain Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938806 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938806/) You cannot open Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook files that contain Visual Basic for Applications macros in Excel 2003 after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3 After you install Office 2003 SP3, the version number of Office is no longer saved in the properties of the document as expected. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938807 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938807/) Office files that are saved in certain formats no longer contain the version number of Office after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
Posted Sunday, 16 September 2007 by Michael Khanin Innotek has released a significant update to VirtualBox.
innotek VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.
Posted Sunday, 16 September 2007 by Michael Khanin Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 is a comprehensive solution optimized for the management of Microsoft Windows Server operating systems running in the virtualized data center. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) enables easy and fast consolidation of physical machines onto virtual machine infrastructure and rapid provisioning of virtual workloads. VMM enables increased physical server utilization, centralized management of virtual machine infrastructure, and rapid provisioning of new virtual machines by the administrator and certified end users. When used together with the rest of the System Center family of products. VMM provides the best solution for leveraging existing IT administrative skills and processes for managing the virtual and physical environment.
Posted Saturday, 15 September 2007 by Michael Khanin These step-by-step guides help IT Professionals learn about and evaluate Windows Server 2008.
These documents are downloadable versions of guides found in the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library. (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=86808)
Posted Saturday, 15 September 2007 by Michael Khanin This document describes new features and technologies, which were not available in Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), that will help to increase the security of computers running Windows Server 2008, increase productivity, and reduce administrative overhead.
These topics apply to the next release of Windows Server 2008, based on the functionality expected to be included in the Beta releases in 2007. They do not describe all of the changes that are included in Windows Server 2008. Instead, they highlight changes that will potentially have the greatest impact on your use of Windows Server 2008 and provide references to additional information.
