To add your own custom IE Search Providers go to the following website:

http://www.ieaddons.com/en/createsearch.aspx

and add the search URL and a name followed by a click on Install Search Provider. Below you can find examples of some Search Providers.

Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=TEST&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Heise.de:

http://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/?fs=TEST&in=

Tweakers.net Pricewatch:

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/zoeken/?keyword=TEST&fuzzyterms=0&fuzzyterms=1&catID=&priceMin=0&priceMax=&land=&scoreMin=0&scoreMax=5&x=0&y=0

IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=TEST

Bing:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=TEST&form=QBLH&filt=all

Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=TEST&search_type=&aq=f

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEST

TechNet:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Search/en-US/?query=TEST&ac=8

You can add as many as you want. Essentially you just use the search engine on the site you wish to add and use TEST as search term and copy paste the resulting URL in the site above.

A while ago I filled out a survey for HP. You could either win a $5 Amazon gift certificate or a laptop.

I was hoping for the laptop but I won the $5 … yaaaay.

Apparently this code can only be used on Amazon.com and not Amazon.co.uk etc, which makes it useless to me as I live in Europe.

That’s the last time I filled in a survey for you HP, thanks for wasting my time!

Anyway here’s the code:

ZZXR-DVQ52F-QW2B

The only thing I ask of the person that finds this code and uses it, is to leave a small note in the comments on what you did with it Thanks.

I noticed a nice update to DFS after I installed Vista Service Pack 2.

In the past when you tried to copy a file bigger than the free space on the drive that hosted the DFS root, you would get a message that there is not enough free space. Now Vista checks the free space on the DFS link itself … very nice. This has been bothering me for a long time.

You also get a shortcut symbol on your DFS links.

Don’t you just hate it when all kinds of funky problems happen to users with expired passwords ? (… and they start calling)

I’ve made a little script that checks your AD for users with expired passwords and then mails a list of those users to you. You can schedule this batch file and have it in your mailbox each morning.

The recipe for this batch script:

• FindExpAcc.exe: finds expired user passwords or computer accounts in AD, available at Joeware.net
• blat.exe: command line tool to send e-mail, available at Blat.net.

You can run FindExpAcc on your entire AD or on a specific OU.

I changed the output delimiter for FindExpAcc to “;’” so we can redirect the output of the command to a csv file and then read it using the FOR /F command. The standard delimiter “,” causes problems because it’s also used in the user’s DN.

@echo off

echo Checking for expired accounts …

FindExpAcc.exe -h YOUR_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER -b "OU=Users,DC=your,DC=domain" -pwd -outdelim ; | find /I "cn=" > c:\temp\expired.csv

rem DN,cn,displayName,sAMAccountName,pwdLastSet,pwdAge,expireDays,mail

IF EXIST c:\temp\expaccnts.txt del /q c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

FOR /F "delims=; tokens=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8" %%a in (c:\temp\expired.csv) do (

      rem echo DN: %%a >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      rem echo cn: %%d >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo displayName: %%b >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo SAMAccountName: %%d >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo pwdLastSet: %%e >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo pwdAge: %%f >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo expiredDays: %%g >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo mail: %%h >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

      echo. >> c:\temp\expaccnts.txt

)

c:\executables\blat\full\blat.exe c:\temp\expaccnts.txt -subject "Expired Accounts" -server YOUR_SMTP_SERVER -f FROM_ADDRESS -to TO_ADDRESS

To avoid saving your VCB user password in plain text, in a config file or in the registry, you can use pass through authentication. (SSPI – Security Support Provider Interface)

There are 4 requirements to accomplish this:

1. you must point to a Virtual Center server (no a specific ESX host);
2. the VCB user must be known on both the virtual center server as on the VCB proxy;
3. the VCB user must be a local administrator on the VCB proxy;
4. you need VCB version 1.5 or higher.

Now to actually use SSPI, you must run VCB under the VCB user context. (eg. run as)

example using vcbVmName:

vcbVmName.exe –h yourVirtualCenter –u __sspi__ –p "" –s Any

At work we use a MGE Comet EX 11 RT UPS with a environment (tempeature/humidity) sensor attached.

Our airconditioning in the server room regularly stops working, making the temperature rise to over 41°C (105°F) … which is BAD. As a result several servers shut themselves down. Ideal server room temperature should be 20°C – 21°C.

I will show you how you can receive a notification by SMS when the temperature reaches its high treshold or when there is a utility failure.

For this we will use:

• a SNMP trap receiver, in this case Trap Receiver
• the MGE UPS Systems web based configuration page
• a SMTP to SMS gateway, in this case Gfi Faxmaker with SMS functionality.

The first thing we’ll do is configure the MGE UPS to send SNMP traps to the Trap Receiver server. This can be done using the web based management page of the UPS. Navigate and logon to your UPS using your webbrowser of choice.

Click on the Notified Applications link under Settings and click on the Add NMS button. Fill in all the fields, most importantly fill in the IP of the server on which you will install Trap Receiver and give the NMS a name.

Now click Save changes and we’re finished with configuring the UPS.

You can configure the temperature high and low values using the Environment > Status > Environment settings page if desired.

Let’s install Trap Receiver now, this is a great freeware SNMP Trap Receiving tool. Just download it, extract it and follow the steps in the setup. (Next, next, next …)

Once it is installed it will run as a service. A shortcut for the easy to use configuration tool is placed on the Desktop as well.

I will not go in to detail on how to configure it, there is a good manual with lots of screenshots available on the website.

In short what you need to configure is the necessary e-mail servers and recipients as well as the SNMP traps to watch for. Finally you need to link actions to the traps. In our case the action is to send a SMS message.

To do this, start the Trap Reciver configuration tool located on your desktop. Once its loaded click on the configure button at the bottom Then click on the Email tab followed by the Add button and fill in the correct values.

In the SMTP server field type in the IP of your Faxmaker server. In the To field type in your cellphone number followed by your GFI Faxmaker SMS domain for example  +31478548736@smsmaker.com .

Finally type a message (faxmaker ignores the subject for SMS messages). You can use variables like %SPECIFICTYPE%. For the possible variables see the manual.

We will now configure the actions to be taken when a specific SNMP trap is caught. To do this click on the Actions tab and add 2 traps.

The first trap will be for when the temperature reaches its upper limit. For this we will watch Specific Type with a value of 56. Click e-mail and configure it send to your previously added SMS number of e-mail address.

For the utility failure you should add another watch with Specific type with as value 17.

If I’m not mistaken 57 means the temperature is back within acceptable limits and 18 means the utility is restored. All traps will be send and logged so you can monitor them in the Trap Receiver main window.

For testing purposes you can send a utility failure test trap using the MGE UPS configuration website. See the notified applications screenshot above to see the button.

I did a scan using mbsacli.exe with the following option /listfile c:\mbsalist.txt.

Look at the Date Modified field for the resulting files. Isn’t that strange …

If I look at the file properties it looks good. The explorer view stays the same when I copy the files.

Click on the screenshot for full details.

Some weeks ago one of my users received the following error message on his Dell Latitude D830

Quicket – Unable to hibernate system. Failed to hibernate as this state is not presently supported. Do you want to enable hibernation now?

To fix this you need to install the following update:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909095/en-us

SYMPTOMS

You use a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, or Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. When you try to put the computer in hibernation, the computer occasionally does not hibernate. When this problem occurs, you receive an error message that is similar to the following:

Insufficient System Resources Exist to Complete the API.

When you experience this problem, the hibernate feature is not available on the computer until you restart the computer.
This problem typically occurs when the computer uses 1 gigabyte (GB) or more of RAM.

The update can be installed silently using the following command:

WindowsXP-KB909095-x86-ENU.exe /quiet /passive /norestart

For some reason my Active Directory Users and Computers MMC console refuses to start. I haven’t found the time to search for a solution to this problem yet.

That’s why I use the command line to reset domain account passwords at the moment.

Using the following command you reset user DoeJ his password to Pa$$word1!

dsquery user -samid DoeJ | dsmod user -pwd Pa$$word1!

If you use * instead of Pa$$word1!, you will be asked for a password. The new password has to adhere to the domain password policy requirements.

As you can see the command pipes the output of dsquery to dsmod.

These commands require that the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack is installed. You can find the installation file for it on any Windows Server 2003 under C:\Windows\System32\adminpak.msi

If you are logged on to a domain controller you can also use the net user command, the equivalent command in this case would be:

net user DoeJ Pa$$word1!

You can also use the net user command from your workstation:

net user DoeJ Pa$$word1! /domain

The net user command does not require that the Administration Tools Pack is installed.

More information:

dsquery on TechNet

dsmod on TechNet

net user on TechNet

UPDATE:

Previous Versions is only available in the following Vista versions:

• Business
• Enterprise
• Ultimate

If you are running any other Vista version, you just ran out of luck

source: Windows Vista Footnotes (see section D.)

A handy feature called Previous Versions, previously only available in Windows Server 2003, is now also included in Windows Vista.

Using Previous Versions it is possible to return to a previous version of a file or folder and even bring back deleted files.

In Windows Server 2003, they could only be accessed through the network, and after the Previous Versions client was installed. In Vista the Previous Versions client is already included and the Previous Versions can also be accessed locally.

In Windows Server 2003, it was a standalone feature, but in Vista it is integrated into the System Protection (System Restore) feature. The downside of this is that it is less configurable. You can for example not choose when Previous Versions should be made nor where they should be stored. What you can do, is go to the System Properties of your computer and click the “Create …” button, this creates a Previous Version.

Typically Previous Versions are created automatically once a day. This means not all changes to a file/folder are tracked. If you make several changes to a file, only the last changes since the previous Previous Version are saved in the current Previous Version. This is why it’s certainly not a versioning solution.

What I also don’t like about it is that you can only enable it on an entire volume instead of only for certain folders.

Previous Versions have already saved me hours of searching/restoring backups at my workplace. (On Windows Server 2003). ThoughI don’t tell our users about this litttle gem … If not used with care you can overwrite the current version of an entire directory structure with the click of a button.

Just like RAID5, Previous Versions give you an added layer of safety, but it is no alternative to a backup solution.

I would definately enable this feature if you haven’t done so yet. By default it is only enabled for your System volume, so if you store your documents on another volume don’t forget to enable Restore Points for that volume.

Pros:

• lifesaver;
• can be used to fill the gap between 2 backups;
• can bring back deleted files;
• works for folders and files.

Cons:

• only for an entire volume;
• hardly any configuration options.
• it does not track all changes to a file/folder.

1. How to enable Previous Versions

Go to the System Properties of your Computer and click on the System Protection tab. From this point you can enable/disable them or create one. (Only for NTFS drives)

2. How to restore Previous Versions / Recover a deleted file or folder

Right click the folder or white space inside the folder where you wish to restore a Previous Version, choose Properties and go to the Previous Versions tab.

From here you can either open the Previous Versions, copy them to a certain location or just restore them immediately.