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Extend Keyboard and Mouse with Synergy

by KW · Comments (0)

May 10 2013

Last August I wrote about a utility called Mouse Without Borders, developed in Microsoft’s “The Garage”, that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers. And the utility works very great.

That is, unless you also have Linux or Mac OS X computers which you also want to control with a single keyboard and mouse.

So, here comes Synergy which offers to extend your mouse and keyboard to all three environments. And did I say that it is FREE??

I decided to take it for a spin today, and I was quite surprised at how easy it was to install and run it. For this first effort, I only installed it on two Windows computers. At a later date I will post my efforts to include a Linux or Mac workstation.

My scenario: I have a Windows 7 x86 workstation with three monitors, and a Windows 2008R2 x64 server, running Hyper-V.

INSTALL/SETUP FIRST WORKSTATION

My mouse and keyboard that I wish to use is on my Win7 workstation. So I first downloaded the Windows 32-bit version of Synergy and installed it. I designate this as my Synergy “server”.

It then asks what type on encryption I wish to use. That’s a really nice feature as it does provide some protection from anyone trying to intercept your keystrokes. You have a choice of four (4) different encryption modes, or you can disable encryption. For purposes of testing, I chose to not enable encryption.

The only other step to do is to click on the Configure Server… button. You will have a screen where you can describe your setup, indicating in which direction the monitor for each of the other workstation(s) is located.

INSTALL/SETUP ON NEXT WORKSTATION

In this case, my second workstation (which Synergy refers to as a client) is running Windows Server 2008 R2 x64. I am also running Hyper-V manager on this server, so I decided to install the Synergy client to the Hyper-V parent, so I can control all of my Hyper-V guests.

So I download and install the 64 bit version of Synergy, and install it. This time, when it asks Server or Client, I’ll select “Client”. Then you need to tell the Synergy client the name of the computer that is the “Synergy “server”.

I thought I was all done, but my mouse would not move over to the monitor attached to my server. At first I thought it was a firewall issue, but turning off the firewall on the W2K8R2 server did not fix it. In fact, if you check the firewall settings, you will find that Synergy had automatically added the proper Inbound TCP and UDP rules.

I then checked Services, and discovered that the Synergy service had not yet been started.

After doing so, I immediately saw that Synergy was communicating between the two computers, and my single mouse and keyboard was now controlling both computers!

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Categories : News, Servers, Tools, Windows

Tags : Synergy, Tools

Space Monger is still alive!

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 24 2013

A good (I.T.) friend of mine reminded me of a utility from the past called SpaceMonger.

What is Space Monger? It’s a free tool that gives you a graphical picture of your entire disk, with larger files and folders easily identified. The nice thing is that Space Monger does not need to be installed. The executable can be run from a thumb drive!

Here are two screen snapshots from my drive:

You can download Space Monger from my web site. The zip file includes the free version 1.4 executable and the ReadMe file.

The trick to using it, I was told is:

Run it with elevated permission (Run as administrator)
Always open the folders, and not any applications from within it.

If you’re looking for something a bit fancier, but still free, check out WinDirStat!

Comments (0)

Categories : Tools, Windows

Tags : Tools

View Hidden Devices in Device Manager

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 20 2013

By default, Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) does not provide the option to “Show Hidden Devices”. You’ve probably know the steps to enable this option:

Open a command prompt in (Run as) administrator mode
Type the following two commands:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc
Once Device Manager starts up, you can click View –> Show Hidden Devices

But if your working on a server and need to review the full list of devices, doing the above steps is not very productive. THere’s a way to set this option permanently, entering it as a system variable. Here are the steps for Windows 2008 R2, but the same variable can be created in other versions of Windows.

Click Start
Right click on Computer, then click Properties
Click on the Advanced System Settings in the left frame
Under the Advanced tab, click on Environment Variables…
Click New
For the Variable name, type: devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
For the Variable value, type: 1
Click OK

That’s it! Here’s a screen shot of the above process:

Now, any time you access Device Manager on this server, the Show Hidden Options will be available from the View options

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Categories : Servers, Tools, Windows

Tags : Tools

Possible Gmail Interruption?

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 17 2013

This morning I my Outlook 2010 program had a pop-up windows asking my to enter my Gmail credentials:

I did, but I still was not receiving my Gmail messages. I was, however, sending and receiving email properly through Outlook 2010 for all my other email accounts. I also checked and verified that I log into Gmail’s web site properly and access my email that way.

I’ve contacted some of my peers, and they say they have received calls from some of their customers with the same issue.

So I suspect there is either a temporary outage or issue or possibly an upgrade with Gmail’s service. Not sure how widespread it is, but one person in London told me that his smartphone popped up requesting his login credentials.

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Categories : News

Tags : Gmail

Ongoing WordPress Security Attacks

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 16 2013

This is for anyone who creates or maintain WordPress sites. It comes from one of the WordPress 3rd party theme developers (iThemes) that I regularly use, and I thought I would share it. Original post dated April 15, 2013:

“Ongoing WordPress Security Attacks, The Details and Solutions:
There is a very real, very large ongoing attack against WordPress sites. It has been going on for a while now, but it severely escalated last week…”

http://ithemes.com/2013/04/15/ongoing-wordpress-attacks-details-and-solutions/

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Categories : Security, Servers, WordPress

Tags : WordPress

DISM for Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 Bit)

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 15 2013

DISM is a command-line Microsoft tool for Windows 7/8/2008/2012. DISM stands for ‘Deployment Image Servicing and Management’. If you do a search for dism.exe you will find many posts of people using it to reduce the size of their WinSxS folder, especially after installing SP1. There is a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of this tool.

The actual command to do this cleanup is: dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

So, you are sitting at the console of a Windows 2008 R2 x64 server, and you want to run this utility. Chances are, you will try to use the dism.exe that is listed inside the c:\Windows\SysWow64 folder.

However, if you do so, you may encounter the following error message: Error: 11 You cannot service a running 64-bit operating system with a 32-bit version of DISM. Please use the version of DISM that corresponds to your computer’s architecture.

In order to run this properly, you need to go directly to the native system folder to run this tool on a 64 bit system. Here are the steps:

Open command prompt window as administrator (‘Run as’).
Change directory by typing: cd \windows\system32
Run the command: dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

This will take about ten minutes to run. Please note that even after the progress bar reaches 100.0%, the tool has not finished running. Do NOT close the command prompt window until you get the message “The operation completed successfully”.

What is the result of running this tool? I ran this on a Windows 2008 R2/SBS 2011 server, and it reduced the size of the WinSxS folder from 10.8GB to 7.37GB.

Not very drastic if you ask me. Not with today’s disk sizes. However, if you are running out of disk space on your server system drive, this might buy you some needed room!

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Categories : SBS, Servers, Tools, Windows

Tags : Tools

Fix IE10 and SBS 2008 RWW error

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 08 2013

You just upgraded your workstation to Internet Explorer 10. But when you try to remote into your SBS 2008 server, you get a “VBScript: Remote Desktop Connection” error message, like this:

The detail error message reads: The wizard cannot configure Remote Desktop Connection settings. Make sure that the client version of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 6.0 or later is installed on this computer.

Solution:

The solution is so easy, you probably will miss it. After clicking OK on the error window, click on the Compatibility switch icon at the top of your IE10 window.

Your RWW login screen will refresh. Log back in and try connecting to the remote computer, and it should be working as expected.

N.B. It probably is incorrect to call this a “solution”, as it is more of a “workaround”. It’s not a bug with IE10, it’s that the decision was made that it’s acceptable to have a “workaround” rather than to fix IIS to flag compat mode from the server.

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Categories : Internet Explorer, SBS

Tags : IE10

WSUS now available for Windows Server 2012 Essentials!

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 06 2013

Finally! One of the major features, in the eyes of many I.T. professionals and consultants, missing from the Windows Server 2012 Essentials product was the ability to fully manage, approve/reject, and deploy Microsoft updates to the attached workstations in the network.

This feature, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), was a built-in server role in all of the Small Business Server (SBS) product line, as well as Windows Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter, with enhanced features.

Microsoft has now released the enhanced version of WSUS for Windows Server 2012 Essentials! It is packaged as a Microsoft hotfix.

Here are the links you need:

Coffee Coaching – HP & Microsoft blog announcement
WSUS features and requirements (KB 2762663)
WSUS 2012 Evaluation Guide

Download the Microsoft WSUS hotfix here
Instructions:

Accept terms and conditions
Click to select the desired hotfix
Enter your email address and security code
A link to the hotfix will be mailed to you
Click on the provided link in the email, and you will be asked to run or save the download.

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Categories : Essentials, News, Servers, WSUS

Tags : Essentials, WSUS

Case Study–Windows Server 2012 Essentials

by KW · Comments (0)

Apr 05 2013

My good friend and MVP buddy, Wayne Small of Australia, was the focus of a recent Microsoft case study on the features and benefits of implementing a mixed cloud/on-premise solution to customers.

The article details Wayne’s approach, using Windows Server 2012 Essentials (the follow-on product to the highly successful Small Business Server) and Office 365.

He explains how this winning combination helps to address the needs of many of his customers, and discusses the benefits of deploying Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

Congratulations, Wayne!

Comments (0)

Categories : Essentials, News, SBS, Servers, Windows

Tags : Essentials

Add KB 2775511 to WSUS

by KW · Comments (0)

Mar 14 2013

In a previous blog, I described how to locate, download and install the hotfix rollup (KB 2775511) – a rollup of 90 hotfixes that will improve performance and stability to Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1 systems.

As noted in the previous blog, this hotfix rollup is NOT automatically available via WSUS. However, it is very easy to add this rollup to WSUS for distribution to your workstations and servers.

From your server hosting WSUS, open up the WSUS Console (Start –> Administrative Tools –> Windows Server Update Services
Click to select your server from the left hand frame, and then click Import Updates… from the right hand frame
This will open up the Microsoft Update Catalog site in a new browser window. In the Search box, enter 2775511 and click the Search button
Click the Add All button, and then click View Basket
The screen refreshes, and the option “Import directly into Windows Server Update Services” is displayed and checked. Go ahead and click on the Import button. Wait until the download completes and then click Close.
The KB will appear in WSUS list of updates after the update check has run on each workstation/server, and you can approve/schedule it accordingly.
And for SBS servers, the KB update can be found in the SBS Console (Security –> Updates) for scheduling.