How to create an unattended file for Windows 7

First thing you need to do is download the deployment kit.

It can be downloaded here.

After installing it you need to insert the Windows 7 CD/media.  This can be done with any operating system but you need to have the media for each specific OS.

Open the CD and inside the Sources directory there will be a file called Install.wim.  Copy that to a location that you will remember.

Open Windows System Image Manager

Then select File -> Select Windows Image -> Navigate to where you saved the Install.wim -> click Select.

It will say that you don't have a catalog.  That's fine, just click Yes and it'll create one for you.

After it completes, select File -> New Answer File.

Now we are ready to start building the Answer file.




Source:  Link Link Link

How to fix "Can't verify who created this file error." when using redirecting folders

I've looked in to how to apply this with Group Policy but for some reason it just ignores the setting.  It seems to have to be done using a registry key.  Here is how I did it.  If there is a better way, please comment in the section below.

First open internet explorer and go in to the internet settings -> security -> local intranet -> sites.  From there enter the server name that you are trying to access that the data is stored on.  Click Ok until your back to the internet explorer window.

Now Open Group Policy Management, create or open a GPO and navigate to User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Registry

Right click in the space to the right.  Select New Registry Item.  It should be set to update and HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

Now select the ... and your going to navigate to the spot to select what you just entered in to Internet Settings.

It should be like: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap\EscDomains\xxxxxx

xxxx will be what ever you entered. Check the value in the bottom window and your window should now say:

Value Name = 1
Value Type = REG_SZ
Value data = (hostname or value you entered)

Save and close.  On host, open a command prompt and do gpupdate /force, log out login and it should be fixed.

Internet Explorer https loads Page cannot be displayed on certain pages.

I had an issue where internet explorer wouldn't load certain https sites.  Some worked and some didn't.  I even checked the Local Security Policy for System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing setting.  It was set to disabled.  It was suggested that I check the registry key to see if it was still set.  It was set to 1 and not 0 meaning it was active.  Here is what you can do to fix this.

Type regedit -> Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\ -> Locate the setting called FIPSAlgorithmPolicy and see if the value in the () is a 0 or a 1

If it is a (1) double click it and change it to 0.  Click ok and now reboot.  Once back into Windows, if it is still not working reset the zones settings to default and also do a full reset on internet explorer. It is under the advance settings.  You will need to reboot one more time.  At this point IE was back working as it should.

OS: Windows 7

Source:  Link Link

Send to Mail Recipient not showing up when right clicking a file

It worked just fine but was not associated with anything.  After trying to set defaults, this is where things went bad.  I did figure out at least how to bring it back to a working.

Other posts I've read talked about grabbing it from the default profile and copying it over but it still never changed.  To get to the sendto folder click start and in the search box type shell:sendto.

Other posts talked about deleting it and creating your own through note pad by type Mail and saving it as Mail Recipient.MAPIMail.  I tried that also and that didn't work.  No matter what, it looked like something wasn't linked.

I then found this page -> Link which has all the default reg keys.  I downloaded and installed the mapimail reg key.  My icon though still was white file that didn't look right.  I then deleted the extension .MAPIMail. Nothing happened.  I then typed mapimail all lower case and hit enter and the icon switched back to an email looking icon.

Now to set this program to use this feature, go to Start -> type in the search box: Default Programs -> Click it.  Now select Set your default programs.  Select your email program and look for the MAPI section and make sure it is checked.  Click Save and now it should be working again.

I did find one problem.  If you are using AOL Desktop 9.7 there isn't a MAPI box to check.  AOL support on their site says their should be but there still isn't.  I found this page here -> Link that tells you to do the following:

1. Click the "Settings" button on the toolbar
2. Click the "A-Z" tab
3. Click the "AOL as Default" link
4. Click OK

After doing that, clicking the Mail Recipient context menu would open in AOL.

Sysprep does not remove product key

So I was given a disk by our purchasing group, Windows 7 install disk.  After installing it, I realized that the key was baked in some how. No big deal.  Well when it came to sysprep time, it was a big deal.

Here is the problem.  When trying to sysprep in general, not yet using an unattend file, it never asked for a product key.  I needed it to ask for one because I had some individual keys I had to manually enter.

Here is what I figured out.

First run the command -> slmgr.vbs /dlv

This will give you information about the way it's licensed.

Mine said Microsoft Windows 7 VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel.  That was odd.  It should say Microsoft Windows 7 Professional.

I then thought this might work. If you were to update it with a product key that is on the computer, it might get rid of the KMS configuration and reset it back to a standard client.

So I did -> cscript slmgr.vbs /ipk <insert product key here> (one time it worked with cscript the other it didn't)

I then reran slmgr.vbs /dlv and now it says Microsoft Windows 7 Professional.

Now it was time to try just sysprep, no unattend file.

I ran c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep /generalize /oobe

It rebooted and went through the sysprep process.  And voila! it now prompted me to enter my key!

Source:  Link

My computer boots and Windows Boot Manager asks to select an operating system

After installing Windows 7, I started to get this....

To fix this, boot into windows and Click the start button -> Right click Computer and select Properties.

Select Advanced System Settings.  Look for the part that says Startup and Recovery.  Click Settings.  You will see a check box that says Time to Display list of operating systems.  You want to uncheck that and make sure the box above it says Windows 7.  Click Ok twice and reboot.

How to open eps files with GIMP in Windows 7

Navigate to http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/files/GPL%20Ghostscript/ and select the newest version.  Inside that folder choose the correct file.

Install it after it downloads.

Click start -> right click My Computer -> Select Properties -> Select Advanced System Settings

From there click Environment Variables

Under the System Variables, Click New

Enter the following

For Variable: GS_PROG
Value:  C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.07\bin\gswin32c.exe

*Double check the location is correct before creating the variable

Open GIMP and open the EPS file.

How to get OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion running in ESXi 5

First you need to obtain the vmdk files from the Soul Dev Team.

They are located here - > Link

Once you download everything you need, you will need to copy the unlocker files to the ESXi box.

Navigate to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Retail VMware Image\VMware Unlocker - Mac OS X Guest\VMware 8.x Series\VMware ESXi Unlocker

You need to copy the Unlocker.ESXi and the install.sh.

If you don't already have SSH enabled here is how you do it -> Link

Next SCP the files (replace x.x.x.x with your IP)

If you are using OS X
scp -v Unlocker.ESXi root@x.x.x.x:/tmp
scp -v install.sh root@x.x.x.x:/tmp

If you are using Windows I suggest you use putty(Link)
C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY>pscp.exe "Unlocker.ESXi" root@x.x.x.x:/tmp

Now SSH to the ESXi box.

Type: cd /tmp -> Enter

Type chmod 777 * -> Enter

Type ./install.sh -> Enter

Reboot

Run VMware converter (Link)

Boot up the vm and go through the installer

You need to remove the network adapter and add another one.  This time it will pull a dhcp address.

You need to install the update fixer and then apply the latest patches.  Now at this point vmware tools will install correctly.

Sources: Link

How to upload a file using PuTTY/SSH (actually SCP) on Windows 7

Go download pscp.exe or if you want the full installer putty-0.62-installer.exe.

Next you need to open a command prompt

Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY

Then type C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY>pscp.exe "c:\temp\abc.zip" user1@x.x.x.x:/home/user1

Hit Enter, and you will be prompted for your username

user1@x.x.x.x's password:

And there you go!  File uploaded!

Source:  Link

OS: Windows 7
Destination: Fedora 14

How to revmove the process "svchost.exe*32" description "winrscmde"

It seems to go by a few different names also.

Rootkit Zero Access Or Bootkit.Boot.Pihar.c

I've looked through several other solutions but the tool that I found that actually removes it was TDSSKiller.

It came up as Bootkit.Boot.Pihar.c.  I scanned the hard drive and then allowed it to reboot the computer.  When the computer booted, it popped up with a window asking to run a file.  Make sure the file says its from Kaspersky.  We don't want to reinstall something we just removed.

Run a Malwarebytes scan to confirm that it is truly removed.  You will notice its not showing up any more in the task manager.  Remember to see it in task manager you need to click "Show all processes".

Some of the other sites I've read say that Combofix also removes it. Combofix blue screened the PC was working on.

I rebooted and it looks like the process is removed but its still there.  Malwarebytes still finds it.  Combofix ran through completely after rerunning it.  Combofix killed my internet connection.  It will connect to the wireless, but an IP can not be obtained.  Will keep updating as I'm finding new info out.

As always all of this is "Use at your own risk".  Always remember to back up your data.

OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM) Find Unmanaged Computers Client Install Fails on Windows 7

Symantec's reason why it fails:

When you logon to the A machine as administrator the SEPM runs using the local sysytem account. In the Windows Server 2008 r2 if you try to deloy any SEP package using local system account from SEPM ,it will not have the access to Remote registry of the client and you will get "Access denied" which can be seen in the logs. Therefore running the SEPM using the Administrator Credentials for SEPM services manualy will give access to the remote registry of the client.

How to fix this:

Click Start -> Run -> Type services.msc -> Scroll down to Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager ->
Double click the service -> Click the Log-on tab - > Select This account fill out your information.

Click Ok and restart the service.  This should now work on the machines it was failing on.

Source:  Link  Link

How to install telnet Windows 7 & Server 2008

The quickest way is:

Click the start button -> type cmd -> Hit enter -> type [pkgmgr /iu:"TelnetClient"] (minus the brackets) -> once you have a command prompt, its done.

You may have to close the command windows before it knows what telnet is.

Other ways to do this can be found at the link below.

Source:  Link

Where do I set the default home page in group policy?

Since I can never remember where this is located, I thought I would post it.

User Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Internet Explorer Maintenance > URLs > Important URL


Source: Link

OS X 10.7.2 trash won't empty

I had an external drive connected and deleted some of the files.  I disconnected it without emptying the trash.  I just realized that I never emptied the trash.  Now when I try to delete, finder either locks up or if I run "rm -rf /Volumes/External/.Trash" it says directory not empty.  No matter what I tried, it won't delete.

How I ended up deleting it was:

I plugged it into a Windows 7 machine and the folder (.Trash) was right there in the root of the drive.

Right Click -> Delete

GONE!

How to Configure a Fully Syncing Gmail Setup Thunderbird (Email, Contacts, Calendar)

First download Thunderbird -> Link

Install

Configure Gmail (Link)

Download Google Contacts -> Google Contacts

Click Tools -> Add-ons -> Click the "stary" thing beside the search box -> Click Install Add-on From File

Go Back in to the Add-ons and select Exetensions -> Select Options under Google Contacts

• Under General, Change Address Book backups to 1
• Under Advance, Change the working directory to somewhere in My Documents
• If your under Vista or Windows 7 there should be a Contacts folder in the user profile
• If your under XP, I would just create a new folder in My Documents
• Under Mapping, beside your account, select the drop down box and select  my contacts

Open your address book and right click the tool bar and click customize

Drag the reload icon up to the tool bar and select done, click reload

You should now see a folder called Google-xxxxxx

Copy any local Contacts to that folder by dragging and dropping to it

• If you are doing this on a second computer, you may end up with duplicates.  At some point, login to www.gmail.com and go to contacts.  Once in contacts select More-> Find & Merge Duplicates

Last thing is to make the Gmail the default option when creating a new contact

Close the Address book and go back to Thunderbird

Click Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General -> Config Editor, Click that you'll be careful.

In the search box type ldap_2.servers

• What we are looking for are the .position -> type ldap_2.servers.*.position
• If you want to see all of the contact settings type  ldap_2.servers.
• Locate ldap_2.servers.history.position -> Double Click -> change value to 3
• Locate ldap_2.servers.pab.position -> Double Click -> change value to 2
• If this doesn't work, look through the whole list and see if there are other contact folders
• The values have to be greater than 3 and can't be duplicated

**This looks like it works in version 3, but not in 7.  I have not found a solution yet.

Source: Link

This was done on two computers, one with Windows 7 and one with Windows XP.

I will add the calendar part in the future.

How to Move your iTunes Library

This should work if you want to run it from an external hard drive or just to move it from an old computer to a new computer.

***THIS IS FROM CURRENT WORKING COMPUTER***

Open iTunes Preferences:
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.

Select "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" and click Ok

So what iTunes does is copy any files you copied in to iTunes that aren't stored in the default iTunes directory.

Default iTunes locations:

Mac OS X: /Users/username/Music
Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents\My Music\
Windows Vista or Windows 7: \Users\%username%\My Music\

At this point copy the files to an external drive.  If they were already stored on an external drive, you don't have to do anything.  Also at this point you can map a drive to the other computer and copy it directly to the new computer's hard drive.

Copy the music from the external to the local hard drive if that is your choice.

***THIS IS ON THE NEW COMPUTER***

Open your iTunes Preferences again:
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.

Click Advanced and  click change.  Now navigate to where your music will be located. Click ok

*** THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT *** Make sure iTunes is closed....

Next, open iTunes while holding down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows).

This will pop up a window that will ask you to choose your library.  You will be most likely looking for a file called "iTunes Library.itl". At this point everything should be there that you had in your previous library.

Source: Link, Link

User login always creates a temp profile when logging into Windows 7

Renamed the user profile and the user then always logs in with a temporary profile.  This is how to fix that:

Open Registry and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Highlight each item until you notice your username under profileimagepath C:\users\jsmith

Delete that and reboot.  User login now creates a new profile.

OS: Windows 7
Source: Link

Using Excel with Dual Monitors Windows XP, Windows 7 and Office 2010

I have dual monitors and a lot of times I want an excel file on each monitor.  Typically that can't happen because they are both contained inside of excel.  Here is how you can have it open two instances of excel.  Make sure Excel is closed.

Open Windows Explorer...  At the top select Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types

Scroll down to the excel file types.  The two types you'll need to change are xls and xlsx.

You will want to highlight that extention and click advance -> Select Open -> Click Edit

In the "Application used to perform action:" Box scroll to the end of the box and add "%1". You need the quotes.  Uncheck DDE and click ok.  Click ok and do the same for xls or xlsx.  Now open two excel docs and they will be in two instances!

Source: Link

UPDATED:

For Windows 7 and Office 2010:

NOTE:  ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE MAKING CHANGES.  I am not responsible if you screw up your computer changing these settings.

Click the Windows Start button/orb -> Type Regedit

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command

Double click the (Default) key and it should say: 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde

Change to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde "%1"

Click Ok

Rename command to command2

Repeat the following for Excel.Sheet.12

Full credit goes to this guy for figuring it out since the previous way was not possible any more.  Link

Migrating Mas90 from version 4.20 to 4.40

First off, I am not responsible if this messes your data up.  This worked for us and may or may not work for you.  Use are your own risk.

Current version we had installed was Mas90 4.20 and we needed to move that to a new computer.  We had an update that wasn't installed yet.


First thing, Navigate to where mas90 is installed.  Our was installed in c:\Program Files\Sage Software\Mas90\Version4\Mas90\...

Copy the Mas90 folder to another location because that is what we will need to do the migration.

If  you haven't installed it yet, install 4.40.

Once it is installed open it and look at the left hand window pane under the Tasks Tab.  Click Modules -> Library Master -> Utilities -> Parallel Migration

The Parallel Migration Wizard will load and ask you to click ok to close Mas90.  Click ok.  Click Browse and select the Mas90 folder we copied earlier.  Click Ok and Click Next. 

Click Yes so you can migrate any companies that already exist in the new installation.  Most likely this shouldn't be the case.  You should have zero companies if it is a fresh install.  Click Next.  At this point select all the companies you want to migrate.  Click Next.  Verify everything looks right and click next.  The wizard will now migrate all the companies you selected.  Click Finish when you are done.

Open up Mas90 and select your company.  All the companies you migrated should be located in there. 

The next step is to convert the companies from version 4.20 to 4.40.  In the left hand window pane, under the tasks tab, select Modules -> Library Master -> Main-> Company Maintenance.  Type the company code and hit enter.  It should show all the data associated with it below.  Now click the convert button.  A warning will then let you know that "Data entry files may be cleared.  Back up your data before converting".  Make sure you have a copy of that original mas90 folder .

Now we didn't try this but there is a box that will convert ALL companies.  If you have more than one, that should save you time.  Like I said we didn't use it so I don't know for sure.  Click Proceed. Click Ok when its done.

If it worked correctly you will now see the the Activated Modules Data Level will say 4.40.  Your Company was successfully migrated.

Note:  We originally tried to load 4.20 on Windows 7 and it required Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC).  I was unsuccessful to get 4.20 to work.  Maybe I missed something but I just wanted to make the note that 4.20 was originally running on Windows XP and were unsuccessful on getting it working on Windows 7.  4.40 installed smoothly on Windows 7 without any problems.

Here is a good website about Mas90 Link

Error 1303. Setup cannot access the folder C:\...\1033

"Error 1303.  Setup cannot access the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Folders\1033.  Verify that the folder exists in your system and that you have sufficient permissions to update it."

The first solution was to try and change permissions on the 1033 folder.  That was unsuccessful and gave an "Access Denied".  But I was able to get a solution that worked.

OS: Windows 7
Problem: Office 2010

Solution:  I was logged in as a user that was added to the local Administrators group, but that wasn't good enough.  You must enable the local administrator account and turn off UAC.  To turn off UAC -> Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Security -> User Accounts -> Change User Account Control Settings -> Drag the bar to the bottom and then select ok.  You will then be required to reboot for it to apply. Link

To enable the administrator account -> Click Start Or Use My Computer Desktop Icon -> Right click My Computer -> Manage -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> Right Click Administrator -> Uncheck "Account is Disabled"

From there... Navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Folders\1033.  Right click the folder and select Properties. Select the Security Tab and click Advanced.  Click the Owner tab, enter your username in their to take ownership of the folder.  Click apply and you should now be able to access the folder.