A New Client Desktop Platform For Us

As mentioned previously we were looking for a power brick that will work with the Intel Desktop Board DQ77KB Slim Mini-ITX. We received _a lot_ of feedback on that quest and came to the following:

• Mini-Box.com: 19v/8.4A 160 Watt AC-DC Power Adapter
• 

We had a few of these adapters shipped to us by Mini-Box.com and are getting ready to plug everything in but hit a bit of a snag in that the Intel Active Thermal Solution HTS 1155LP was not available for ship at the same time as the rest of the components.

Note the size of the DQ77KB box next to the 80GB Intel 320 Series SSD OEM box and the i5-3470S sitting on top of it.

The Lian-Li PC-Q05 is a gorgeous case:

It has a power button around the corner from the two status LEDs on the right front bezel. It is lit while the system is powered on along with the power status LED on the front. The other is for the hard drive.

Size wise the PC-Q05 is a lot slimmer than the standard Mini-ITX cases we have been using though it is a bit wider to accommodate the low profile heat sink.

We believe this unit will be a good seller for us as it can be tucked away virtually anywhere or sit out on a desk as above or on its side depending on the user's needs.

For professional services firms the PC-Q05 will fit right in especially where technology needs to be minimalist such as in dentist offices or reception/office administration areas.

Now on to the stress testing!

• Passmark: BurnInTest Professional

Thank you to all that contributed to our finding the adapter! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Attack Surface Analyzer 1.0 Released

Need to know what kind of impact installing a Line of Business (LoB) application has on a server?

Run the Attack Surface Analyzer prior to installing that application to get a baseline.

• Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle: Attack Surface Analyzer 1.0 Released

After installing that LoB run the Analyzer again and compare against the baseline.

In some cases, be prepared to be surprised at the changes the LoB install made.

This is definitely one to keep on the Technician's Thumb Drive (blog category).

Hat Tip: Susan Bradley

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Windows 8 and Server 2012 SHA-1/MD5 Results and HASH Utility

We have fresh downloads of the RTM bits from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Center using the default Download Manager.

For some reason the Web site does not have any notes as far as checksum is concerned.

• Windows Server 2012 Standard/Datacenter
• SHA-1: 063BC26ED45C50D3745CCAD52DD7B3F3CE13F36D
• MD5: FF95A8C5207C880B099B7F34DBA941B6
• Windows 8 Enterprise x64
• SHA-1: 4EADFE83E736621234C63E8465986F0AF6AA3C82
• MD5: 27AA354B8088527FFCD32007B51B25BF
• Windows 8 RTM x64
• SHA-1: 1CE53AD5F60419CF04A715CF3233F247E48BEEC4
• MD5: 0E8F2199FAE18FE510C23426E68F675A

Note that we used the following:

• MD5 SHA1 Verifier by Keylack

Please use the Direct Download Link tucked under the big green button:

Also, when installing the utility make sure to uncheck the third party software (in this case Snap.do) tucked into the Terms And Conditions.

As always, YMMV. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Active Directory Replication Status Tool

The Active Directory Replication Status Tool is definitely one that should be installed on all management (RSAT) machines that domain administrators use. It _requires_ .NET 4.0 and .NET 3.5.1 so may not be practical on domain DCs depending on security configurations for them.

• Ask the Directory Services Team: AD Replication Status Tool is Live
• TechNet: Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS) Resources Page (en-us)
• Microsoft Downloads: Active Directory Replication Status Tool

This tool along with the required .NET installer files are definitely required on the Technician's Thumb Drive (Blog Category - check it out as there are lot's of goodies in there).

Hat Tip: Susan Bradley

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Quick Software Installed Poll to Text Command

Hat Tip: Fellow MVP David Nickason

Here is a command to run in an elevated command prompt to get a comprehensive list of installed software products on a machine:

• wmic /output:WMIInstall.txt product get name,version

Here is a sample output from our Windows 8 client:

Name                                                              Version        
Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee                                      4.0.7577.4098  
Microsoft Application Error Reporting                             12.0.6015.5000 
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010                           14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office OneNote MUI (English) 2010                       14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office InfoPath MUI (English) 2010                      14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Access MUI (English) 2010                        14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Shared Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2010         14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Excel MUI (English) 2010                         14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Shared 64-bit Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2010  14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Access Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2010         14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office PowerPoint MUI (English) 2010                    14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Publisher MUI (English) 2010                     14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Outlook MUI (English) 2010                       14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Office 64-bit Components 2010                    14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Shared 64-bit MUI (English) 2010                 14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Groove MUI (English) 2010                        14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Word MUI (English) 2010                          14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Proofing (English) 2010                          14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Shared MUI (English) 2010                        14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Proof (English) 2010                             14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Proof (Spanish) 2010                             14.0.6029.1000 
Microsoft Office Proof (French) 2010                              14.0.6029.1000 
Windows Live Essentials                                           15.4.3502.0922 
Windows Live Writer                                               15.4.3502.0922 
Zune Language Pack (NLD)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Intel(R) Processor ID Utility                                     4.50.0000      
Zune Language Pack (PTG)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (PLK)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (FRA)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (KOR)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client                                       2.5.2014       
Windows Live SOXE Definitions                                     15.4.3502.0922 
Windows Live Communications Platform                              15.4.3502.0922 
Zune Language Pack (FIN)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Windows Live UX Platform Language Pack                            15.4.3508.1109 
LogMeIn Rescue Technician Console                                 7.0.1148       
Java(TM) 6 Update 33                                              6.0.330        
Java(TM) 6 Update 31 (64-bit)                                     6.0.310        
Java(TM) 7 Update 5 (64-bit)                                      7.0.50         
Windows Live Writer                                               15.4.3502.0922 
Zune Language Pack (RUS)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (HUN)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (NOR)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Windows Live PIMT Platform                                        15.4.3508.1109 
D3DX10                                                            15.4.2368.0902 
Zune Language Pack (DAN)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (PTB)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (CHT)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (CHS)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (ELL)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (JPN)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (IND)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Microsoft IntelliPoint 8.2                                        8.20.468.0     
MSVCRT                                                            15.4.2862.0708 
Zune Language Pack (DEU)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (ITA)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (CSY)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (MSL)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune                                                              04.08.2345.00  
Windows Live Language Selector                                    15.4.3555.0308 
Microsoft IntelliType Pro 8.2                                     8.20.469.0     
Windows Mobile Device Updater Component                           04.08.2345.00  
Windows Live Writer                                               15.4.3502.0922 
Microsoft Silverlight                                             5.1.10411.0    
Zune Language Pack (SVE)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Zune Language Pack (ESP)                                          04.08.2345.00  
Windows Live UX Platform                                          15.4.3502.0922 
Windows Live Writer Resources                                     15.4.3502.0922 
Windows Live Installer                                            15.4.3502.0922 
Windows Live SOXE                                                 15.4.3502.0922 
Java Auto Updater                                                 2.0.7.1        

This is one to get familiar with!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Utility Feebie: ExFolders for Exchange 2010 SP1+

When there is a need to work with Public Folders in Exchange 2010 the ExFolders utility is the best.

We can manage all aspects of Public Folders _and_ recover deleted items!

• The Exchange Team Blog: Exchange, meet ExFolders

Please take a careful read of the blog post and the instructions on running the utility.

It just works.

Thanks to the Exchange team for this! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Product Review: ATEN USB-to-Serial Converter

We have a number of components going into our now Microsoft Private Cloud lab platform that we have either had in the shop or brought in for this effort.

_All_ of them have a serial port on them for console access to the firmware/software/OS on them.

With the Toshiba Tecra S10 having taken on different duties and thus no longer available 100% of the time, it has a built-in RS-232 port, we looked around for a suitable USB to Serial RS-232 adapter.

Up to this point none of the units we brought in before worked well at all.

After polling a number of folks both locally and via e-mail lists the unit that came out high on the suggested list was the ATEN UC232A.

• ATEN UC232A USB-to-Serial Converter

So far we have done the following with the above:

• Troubleshoot and fix the APC AP9630 Management Card: Error: The application was not able to load. (Previous blog post)
• Required a few days of being connected and used to log onto the APC’s console.
• Not a hiccup even after using TELNET or SSH to log onto the management unit.
• Configure the Promise VTrak E610sD units.
• Watch them boot and log onto the CLI to configure IP and logon.
• Configure the Intel Modular Server
• Work with updating firmware and wiping the CMM to start fresh.
• CMM and IMS Boot monitoring.

The ATEN is a _must have_ for any technician’s laptop bag.

This is especially true for us since the new Toshiba Portégé Ultrabooks do not have any serial connectors at all.

For the terminal connection we use the free Tera Term emulation software.

• Tera Term (Current Windows Version 4.74)
• Product is a free download.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Toshiba Finger Print Utility Error: Duplicate Records Already Exist

During a reload of the Windows 7 OS on the Toshiba Portege Z830 the Finger Print Utility kept throwing an error when we tried to set up the finger print log on.

Finger Print Utility: Error: Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist.

Well, that’s almost impossible unless there was something written to the BIOS/TPM set up.

Suggestions to use the Toshiba Security Assist utility failed.

The process to reset things turned out to be quite easy:

1. Start the enrollment process.
2. Cancel it.
3. In the Utility Export to file.
1. Set a password and file path.
4. Import from that file.
5. Run the Enrollment process again.

If there is a hiccup saving the new fingerprints make sure to elevate by clicking the Run As Administrator button on the bottom of the utility window.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Symantec EndPoint Protection CleanWipe Tool: Stuck at Gathering Required Information

We were working with a particularly problematic Symantec EndPoint Protection endpoint that always caused the user’s account to lock out when they came back into the office with their laptop.

The lockout would happen only after they had plugged into another network to gain access to the Internet. With the v11.x client we removed the Administrator Scan in the SEP Console on the management server and the problem went away.

But, once we replaced the backend and the client on this machine the lockout behaviour came back. Removing the Administrator Scan from the management console did not remove the lockout behaviour in this version as it had for v11.x.

So, we opened a case with Symantec and obtained a copy of the CleanWipe utility.

Once we ran the utility we said Yes to all of the options and then waited, and waited, and waited. The last warning indicated 30 minutes or more to run the registry clean-up be we were not getting anywhere after 2 hours.

In the end we needed to use Task Manager to kill ccSvcHst.exe process and then rename it in Windows Explorer as in the snip above. The CleanWipe process continued on from there by requesting a restart.

The whole process took 3 reboots to complete.

Once done we were able to install the SEP v12.x client.

Now, hopefully whatever was causing the lockout problem will be gone.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

HP LaserJet Error: P1600 USB EWS Device Driver causes printer to disappear after reboot?

We had a real struggle getting an HP LaserJet P1606dn working with a client’s Toshiba Tecra S11 rebuilt with Windows 7 Enterprise x64 and printing via RDP.

No matter how many times we re-worked the driver with the updated versions we ended up with the “Windows Remote Desktop Easy Print” driver that essentially broke remote printing.

By the time we managed to get things working by editing the local security policy on the machine to disable RD Easy Print to get remote printing working the printer would disappear after a shutdown or reboot.

No matter what we tried we could not get the printer to show up after a reboot. That was _extremely_ frustrating for the user.

After walking through a number of troubleshooting steps we discovered the following in Device Manager after enabling hidden devices:

• P1600 USB EWS Device Driver

A search on the above turned up results indicating that “EWS” was a Web service built into the printer to allow for management. Now, why the printer would drop out because that particular driver did not get loaded was beyond us.

So, we ran the gamut troubleshooting the problem including downloading the newest available FULL driver version with no success.

We called one of our local partners that does HP warranty work and talked to an expert technician. They pointed us to the following:

• HP driver utility: ntScrubber.exe

Note the location of the utility. The downloaded FULL driver from HP’s site also contained it.

So, we ran it in an elevated state:

And:

The utility created a complete log file of all steps taken to remove the HP LaserJet P1606dn’s drivers. Every folder, file, and registry location touched was found in the file.

After the system rebooted we used the newest version of the FULL driver set to install the printer via USB connection.

We rebooted as a just-in-case measure then checked Print Management where we found the driver version was indeed the most up to date one:

We rebooted a number of times to test and see whether the printer would disappear again.

Neither the printer nor the P1600 USB EWS Device Driver disappeared:

We then used our MiFi cell connection to remote into the affected desktop and test RDP printing for the HP LaserJet P1606dn. We had a second printer connected to the laptop being used to test the setup. RDP print redirection worked like a charm.

Had we known about the ntScrubber utility we would have used it to wipe and reload the HP drivers _a lot_ sooner than we did.

Making hidden devices show up in Device Manager methodology:

• MPECS Inc. Blog: SBS & ShadowProtect - Some Hardware Independent Restore considerations

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

How to Rip Out .NET Framework In One Easy Step

Use Aaron Stebner’s tool:

• Aaron Stebner’s WebLog: Automated cleanup tool to remove the .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5

Once .NET is completely removed re-install in the following order:

1. .NET v1.1
2. .NET v1.1 SP1
3. .NET v3.5 SP1
4. .NET v4

The download can be had from here:

• Aaron Stebner’s WebLog: .NET Framework Cleanup Tool User's Guide

This is a very dangerous tool to use and should only be used when there are no other options!

This is definitely a tool to keep on the Technician’s Thumb Drive!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Hyper-V Host in Workgroup and Management Client in Domain Error after Password Change: You do not have the required permission to complete this task . . .

The password for the domain account just rotated at one of our client sites where we have the beginnings of a two node cluster (1 node and 1 Promise VTrak).

After changing the password for the account on the node and then for the domain account we logged off the management machine. Once we logged back in we saw:

• Hyper-V Manager: Virtual Machines
• You do not have the required permission to complete this task. Contact the administrator of the authorization policy for the computer “HV_Node”

We used John Howard’s HVRemote utility to configure the node which is currently in a workgroup and the management Windows 7 desktop VM that is a member of the SBS 2011 DC running as a guest on the node.

To start with, we ran the following command on the Windows 7 desktop:

• cmdkey /add:HV_Node /user:HV_Node\FirstLast /pass
• Enter the password for 'HV_Node\FirstLast' to connect to 'HV_Node':
• CMDKEY: Credential added successfully.

We then opened the MMC that we created using the domain user’s credentials that was synchronized with the node and we saw the following in the Hyper-V Management node:

We were then good to go and manage the node and its features along with the VMs on it.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP USB Flash Drive Must Have Drivers & Utilities

There are a number of different little utilities that we drop into the _Drivers folder on the USB flash drives we use to load the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 OS with. We also put these utilities on our Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 USB flash drives for standalone Hyper-V deployments.

• ServerNameJoin.bat
• NOTE: We drop all Server Core and Hyper-V servers into their own OU where we have all aspects of UAC disabled. Core management does _not_ work with UAC enabled.
• Change OU structure to match your own.
• Pause is there to allow us to see if the process succeeded or failed.
• MYSERVERNAME: Must be the name of the Hyper-V server.
• MYDOMAIN: Must be the name of the domain.
• DomainAdmin: Must be the name of an admin account with permissions to join the domain.
• netdom join MYSERVERNAME /Domain:MYDOMAIN.local /OU:OU=SBSServers-ServerCore,OU=Computers,OU=MyBusiness,DC=MYDOMAIN,DC=local /userd:DomainAdmin /passwordd:*
• pause
• John Howard’s HVRemote utility
• This utility makes configuring the host for domain/domain, domain/workgroup, and the other iterations a breeze.
• Chris Eck’s VHDTool utility
• We use this utility to create fixed VHDs on _new_ LUNs/LDs or ones that have been properly initialized.
• It is fast and easy.
• NOTE: The size format is in bytes so add those zeroes!
• Intel’s most recent PROSet driver and command line utility.
• Intel Download Center: Intel Server Adapters search results.
• We use the prosetcl.exe utility to configure our adapter teaming and VLAN setup for each team.
• Appropriate drivers
• Intel AXXSASIOMOD (LSI) Driver
• LSI 3442 x64 Driver
• Intel RAID driver

With the above on our flash drive we are able to jump right into configuring the Hyper-V node for clustering or standalone VM guest delivery.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Utility: Convert Outlook NK2 File to Stream_Autocomplete*.dat File

This little gem came via fellow MVP Robert Pearman:

• Microsoft Office Forum: How to import/export .NK2 to Stream_Autocomplete*.dat file for outlook 2010

Quote:

Note: Please ensure Outlook 2010 is closed.

1. Download NK2Edit from http://www.nirsoft.net
   • Please Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.
2. Open the old Nk2 file (associating the file with NK2 does not work with version v1.12
3. Click Save As, Change the Save as type to "Outlook 2010 AutoComplete .dat file".
4. Navigate to the following directory in the address bar within the Save As Window. %AppData%\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache
5. Save over the current Stream_Autocomplete file.
• Note: To avoid unexpected problems, you can first back up the Stream_Autocomplete*.dat file to other place.
6. Test the AutoComplete feature.

Best Regards,

Sally Tang

Our previous post on this topic:

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Outlook 2010 – “My Address Book Is Gone” Importing The NK2 File

We mention this second option to the original process because the import process did not always work with us subsequently being stuck for a method to bring in those addresses.

It is surprising to see just how many folks use that list as their address book with their actual Contacts list being relatively empty!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Our Data Mule System Gets A Transplant

We have a system sitting at the end of the shop that is used for making ShadowProtect images of _all_ systems we will be working on, data recovery on dead drives, and for secure wiping hard disks.

The motherboard, power supply, and hard drive are custom mounted to the inside of an old Compaq desktop PC cover leaving SATA connectors and PCI/PCI-E connectors quickly accessible depending on the job at hand.

We swapped out the Intel Desktop Board DQ965GF with Core 2 Duo E6600 series CPU for an Intel Desktop Board DQ67SW with a Core i5-2500K CPU that we purchased as part of the Intel Virtual Channel Conference a while back.

To get the necessary speeds for the drives with the old setup we would power down and plug the SATA cables directly into the drives to be serviced and power up again.

Now, we can drop a drive into one of the above NexStar Hard Drive Docks that utilizes a USB 3.0 interface (NST-D300S3) giving us the ability to work on two drives at USB 3.0 speeds simultaneously. We will pick up a couple of dual drive docking bays at a later date if the need requires.

For now, we also have the eSATA ports that we can plug a couple of BlackX eSATA drive docks (ST0005U) into to give us two more hot swappable and fast connections for drive work.

We store images on the local hard disk that are password protected, but we will be taking the extra step to BitLocker the drive since this board comes with a compatible TPM.

System Configuration

• Intel Desktop Board DQ67SW.
• Intel Core i5-2500K CPU.
• 4GB Kingston Value Ram (2x 2GB).
• 500GB Seagate SATA drive.
• 750 Watt Enermax PSU.

Utilities

• GetDataBack by Runtime Software
• Data recovery tools so good if they don’t work that drive is probably going to Recovery.
• StorageCraft ShadowProtect IT Edition
• ShadowProtect licensed so that we can back up _everything_ we work on in the shop and on-site.
• Heidi Computers – Eraser
• By far the best DoD multi-pass capable drive wipe.
• Microsoft SysInternals Utilities
• All of the good stuff.
• Malwarebytes
• Microsoft Security Essentials

We have an account that is set up as a Standard User on that machine. The account runs under very restricted domain access so as to prevent any possible overspill from bad stuff on drives hooked up to it.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

A Mobile App That _Rocks_ !

And in a sense, quite literally.

One of the recent subject lines that caught my interest was a “Favourite Mobile Apps” conversation between some fellow MVPs.

One of the apps that was mentioned across all platforms is called Shazam.

Essentially, when one hears a song that they want to find the title and artist for they start the app, tap the Listen button, and hopefully the app comes back with the title, artist, and album.

It’s great for those moments where one is in the elevator and hears Henry Mancini’s Baby Elephant Walk or Pink Panther for the first time! ;)

On another note …

It may not be your cup of tea, but I grew up grooving to these beats among others! :D

• Bing Search: Baby Elephant Walk

• Bing Search: Mancini Pink Panther

Just in case, the original Pink Panther movie (Wikipedia entry) was and is absolutely hilarious!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Partition Recovery Tool – Active@ Partition Recovery

This little tool may come in handy for those times when a partition just mysteriously disappears after a server or workstation reboot.

• Active@ Partition Recovery

Cost wise it is very reasonable for us to use here in the shop for any hard drive boot record work.

Hat Tip: Boon Tee

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Remote Desktop Connection Manager – Multiple RDP Sessions Managed Easily

This is a pretty kewl utility:

We can set up all of the servers and desktops that we manage on a regular basis in the Connection Manager and have quick and easy access to them.

• Microsoft Download: Remote Desktop Connection Manager

The RDCM can store credentials as well so we will only allow that to happen on workstations or laptops that are BitLocker enabled.

Hat Tip: Jason Miller

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Camtasia Video Rendering On Intel Core i7-875K

This is what a one hour video being rendered to Web MP4 video looks like on our new Core i7-875K based system:

In the above screenshot the Camtasia process is running at 64% across all cores four cores plus HyperThreading.

The above CPU usage shows that Camtasia is quite capable of utilizing all of the cores and threads the Core i7-875K has to offer to run its rendering process.

Note that Intel TurboBoost shows that currently the CPU is running at 3.2GHz to try and keep up with everything.

Meanwhile, the system is still quite usable.

Start time for the process was 16:15Hrs (4:15PM) and is about half done. So, it looks as though the entire 1 hour video that was captured at about 1400x900 will take about 30 minutes to render.

Here we are a while later with the finished product being rendered at about 16:42Hrs.

The original Camtasia capture was just shy of 1 GB in size and resides on our storage server. So, the above rendering was being done by processing the original on the network with the finished product being dropped into a local temp folder on this machine.

If we have time, we may run the render again with the project source files on the local machine to see how much of a difference there is. The storage subsystem is using the on board Intel software RAID controller to run a RAID 0 stripe across to 80 GB X25-M Intel SSDs.

For folks that make a living where CPU intensive tasks are part of the process, the Core i7-875K may make a great compromise instead of an Intel Core i7 Extreme series CPU setup especially for those just starting out.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Bootable USB: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

In a conversation about creating a bootable USB flash drive the following tool was mentioned:

• Microsoft Store: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Once we download and install the tool we are good to go.

When we run the tool we must choose our source ISO.

After choosing our Windows 7 Enterprise x64 ISO file in the step above we can choose our destination:

We will use the 8 GB OCZ Rally2 Turbo USB flash drive that we used for yesterday’s post on creating a bootable USB flash drive.

Once we click the Begin copying button the following happens:

• The USB flash drive gets formatted.

• It then copies the OS contents onto the drive.

 

Once the process has completed our 8 GB USB flash drive looks like this in our Windows 7 Disk Management console:

It is formatted NTFS and set to Active so it is indeed good to go!

Hat Tip: Les Connor SBS MVP (Bing Search)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer