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Archive for April 2014

Unregister VGX.DLL for IE Zero-Day workaround

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 29 2014

Post revised 4/30/2014

Over this past weekend (April 27, 2014), there have been numerous reports of another zero-day security flaw with Internet Explorer. Some sites have gone so far as to say :”stop using Internet Explorer” completely until this flaw is fixed.

But given that the vulnerability exists in a now deprecated VML vector graphics format, there is an easy workaround solution that is recommended by Microsoft and others — simply unregister the VGX.DLL system file that is associated with this deprecated format.

To unregister VGX.DLL manually

These instructions should work for XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 computers. Before starting, you will need to know if you are running a 32-bot or a 64-bit version of Windows.

  1. Press “WIN“+R keys to display the Run window.
    “WIN” = Windows key next to the ALT key. Press the “WIN” key like a Shift key, and then press the letter “R“)
  2. Type (or copy and paste) the following command into the Window, including the double quotes:
    “%SystemRoot%\System32\regsvr32.exe” -u “%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll”
  3. Wait for a response window to appear telling you that the command was successful.
  4. If you are running a 32 bit version of windows, you are done.
  5. If you are running a 64 bit version of Windows, you need to repeat steps 1-2-3, but using the following command instead:
    “%SystemRoot%\System32\regsvr32.exe” -u “%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll”

For more information:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/2963983.aspx

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/04/27/microsoft-acknowledges-in-the-wild-internet-explorer-zero-day/

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Categories : Internet Explorer, Malware, Security, Windows
Tags : ,

Exchange 2010 Queue Viewer Error

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 21 2014

Customer is running Exchange 2010 SP3 on a Windows 2012 Server. Email is running fine. But whenever I open up Queue Viewer and try to drill down to a message detail, I get the following popup error message:

Cannot process argument transformation on parameter ‘BookmarkObject’. Cannot convert the “Microsoft.Exchange.Data.QueueViewer.PropertyBagBasedMessageInfo” value of type “Deserialized.Microsoft.Exchange.Data.QueueViewer.PrpopertyBagBasedMessageInfo” to type “Microsoft.Exchange.Data.QueueViewer.ExtensibleMessageInfo”.

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It appears that others have been encountering this same error for over a year (see this thread from Microsoft forum). The very last post in this thread offers a “resolution” to the issue, if you wish to call  it a resolution.

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In KB2931150, Microsoft says that this error is a known bug, and instead of using the Queue Viewer utility from EMC, you should use the Exchange power shell “Get-Queue” command.

So let’s open up the EMC Power Shell and try a couple of commands!

To get a list of queued messages, type get-queue and press enter.

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To get details on a particular message, first take note of a specific message identity you wish to view. Then type get-queue –identity exchangeserver\messageid | fl and press enter

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For a full list of options with the Get-Queue command, type get-help get-queue and press enter

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Open up the EMC Shell, and type “get-queue” and press Enter. A list of queued messages will display

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Categories : Exchange, Servers, Tools, Windows
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Microsoft Security Essentials Crashing on XP

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 16 2014

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is Microsoft’s free anti-virus program for personal use, and for businesses with 10 or less computers. Microsoft has indicated that is you already have MSE installed on Windows XP, then it will be supported and updated for another year, given that XP is no longer a supported platform.

To my surprise, I was at a client’s office on Wed April 16th and powered up two XP workstations. Both of them hung for the longest time right after logging in. Once they did come up, I was presented with various error messages about MSE. With no time to investigate, I went ahead and uninstalled MSE and then installed a different anti-virus program.

Today, I heard that the a bad definition file might have been the cause.

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Categories : Malware, Microsoft, Windows
Tags : , ,

IT Camp: Windows 8 in Tampa

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 11 2014

Microsoft will be hosting a Windows 8.1 IT Camp on Friday May 9, 2014 from 9am-4pm. The day long session is titled “Empowering People-Centric IT with Windows 8.1 for Professionals”. The audience for this hands-on event is geared for IT Decision Makers and IT Managers.

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This event takes place at the Microsoft Office in Tampa Florida. The address is: 5426 Bay Center Dr, Suite 700, Tampa FL 33609

Click here to register

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Categories : Conferences, News, Windows
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Windows XP End of Support coming this Tuesday

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 06 2014

In case you have missed it, Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system will not receive any new security updates beginning Tuesday April 8th.  

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Yes, this is a true statement. So, how does this impact you?

WINDOWS XP

Keep in mind that Windows XP will continue to run after Tuesday. It just means that Microsoft will not be pushing out any new security updates for the product after this date. Nor will Microsoft provide technical assistance. This could be an issue for people using Windows XP in regulated industries, such as legal, financial or medical. Microsoft, of course, is recommending that you to move to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is Microsoft’s free anti-virus software. If your XP computer has MSE installed, you may already have seen popup windows warning you support for the XP operating system is ending. These warnings may lead you to believe that MSE will stop working on April 8th and that your computer will not be protected. But that is a false assumption.

If you already have MSE installed, Microsoft will continue to upgrade anti-virus definitions for that product for another year! However, after Tuesday, if you have Windows XP, and you try to install MSE, you will be blocked from doing so.

THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE

Since Windows XP will no longer be a “supported” operating system after Tuesday, it is possible that various third party software companies may also choose sometime in the future to stop supporting or selling their product on Windows XP. If you have a specific concern about a particular product, you should contact the vendor of your software.

SHOULD I UPGRADE?

Eventually, yes.

Windows XP was released 14 years ago. A lot has changed in that time. Look at it this way: perhaps you have a 14 year old TV or car or washing machine. Not only does it still work, but you’ve grown to accept and understand it’s little quirks. It’s become familiar to you, and you would like to keep it for as long as you can.

The thought of getting a new TV or Washer or car may be frightening to you because all these new items have all sorts of fancy new features and gadgets that you’re not sure of. Moving from Windows XP to Windows 7/8 will be a similar challenge.

Yes, it is possible to install Windows 7/8 onto your current Windows XP computer, and not lose any data. However, if your XP computer is more than 3-4 years old, I would NOT recommend doing so. It’s like putting new wine into an old wine skin. That old wine skin is apt to break sooner than later!

The other issue is to determine whether the various software programs you are using on your XP workstation will run under Windows 7/8. To help you in this process, Microsoft does provide a Windows Upgrade Compatibility tool that will check all your software and hardware, and let you know which will work and which may need to be replaced or upgraded if you move to Windows 7/8.

Read more from Microsoft:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help

If you have questions, please contact me and we can determine the best solution for you.

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Categories : News, Security, Windows
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WHS 2011 and UEFI GPT Partitions

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 03 2014

Yes, this info is a year old, but I’m just getting around to having customers by Windows 8.1 computers Smile

One of my customers is using a Windows Home Server (WHS) 2011 system to backup his office computers. He just obtained a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro laptop. I install the WHS connector, and attempt to backup the laptop, and it died sitting at 1%. I rebooted both the laptop and the server, with the same result. Both systems are current on patches.

Then I discover that there is a Microsoft hotfix for the WHS server that is required to properly backup computers with UEFI/GPT disk partitions.

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There are plenty of web sites posting this information, but none fully address the process, which I will do. What the KB article does NOT tell you is that after installing the hotfix, the workstation will need to apply an update to the Launchpad before the backup will function properly.

Part 1 – from the WHS Server

  1. Login to the WHS system, and go to the Microsoft KB2781272 link and click on the button “Hotfix Download Available –>”
  2. You will be offered three versions of the hotfix. the first version listed is the most recent one.
  3. Select it, and fill in your email address. Microsoft will send you an email with a link to download the file
  4. Look for the email, download the file and move it over to a temp directory on the WHS server. I created a temp folder labeled “UEFI-Hotfix” under the Downloads folder.
  5. Double click on the file, which is a self-executing zip file, and it will expand out the contents to your temp directory. If you are not able to do so, right click on the file and look to see if the file has been “blocked”. If so click on the Block button.
  6. You will be prompted to select a folder to unzip the file. Use the “Browse” button and go to the temp folder you created.
  7. Locate the actual hotfix file (labeled Windows6.1-KB2781272-x64.msu, double click and install it.
  8. You will be prompted to reboot the server

Part 2 – from the Windows 8.1 computer

  1. From the computer in question, startup the WHS Launchpad. Note: you don’t need to sign in, just start it up.
  2. You should then see a task activity button indicating that an update to the LaunchPad is being installed.
  3. Once that is finished, you should be able to successfully create a backup.
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Categories : Backup, Servers, Tools, WHS
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