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Archive for Tools – Page 8

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:

image     image

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!

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Categories : Tools, Windows
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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:

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

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.

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

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

image

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
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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.

image

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”.

image

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.

image   image

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
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PDF FlipBook Maker

by KW · Comments (0)
Mar 03 2013

I recently had a customer who wanted to take their sales catalog (which is in PDF format) and publish it to their web site. So I checked out and tested several third party software, both free and paid, to see which would fit our need. The one I ended up using is a product called FlipBook Maker, from KVISoft.

What I liked about this product over some of the simpler, free versions is the amount of customization and control they provide, plus several different “themes”, all at a reasonably low cost.

  1. Download their 30 day trial version of FlipBook Maker and install it.
    Start the program, and select (import) your desired PDF file
  2. When importing, you can select which pages should be used, and as well as the level of page quality.
    Program will then process your PDF file to build thumbnail images and a table of content
    image
  3. You can select from 16 themes, as well as customize the layout
    image   image
  4. Once you are finished with customizing the interface, it’s time to generate the final result.

    Here’s where things get interesting. By default, it will create a folder appropriate for uploading to your web site, complete with a suitable index.html file. More importantly, this HTML version includes a generated mobile version for smart phones and tablet display. But you can also publish it in an executable (.exe) or zip (.zip) file format or as a Mac App.
    image

Interested in seeing the final result? Take a peek here.

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Categories : Tools
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Uninstall NT Backup Utility after SBS Migration

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 31 2012

When migrating from SBS 2003 to SBS 2011, I will often backup data folders on the old server with NT Backup. However, SBS 2011 does not provide the NT Backup utility natively on it. However, Microsoft does offer a “read only” version of NT Backup (KB 974674) that can be installed on SBS 2011 and used to restore .bkf backup files.

Once your migration is complete, it is critical that this NT Backup utility is uninstalled from your SBS 2011 server as it affects the regular daily backup that you will be doing with your SBS 2011 server. The issue would not become apparent until you attempt to do a bare metal restore of your SBS 2011 server. See Susan Bradley’s blog post on the subject.

What’s not addressed is how to uninstall this utility. You won’t find it in the regular Add/Remove programs section of the control panel. Nor will you find it anywhere from Start > All Programs.

Here’s how to uninstall it:

  • Click Start –> type appwiz.cpl and press Enter
    image
  • Click on View installed updates
  • Under the section Microsoft Windows, locate Update for Windows (KB974674)
  • Click to select KB 974674 and then click Uninstall
    image
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Categories : Backup, SBS, Servers, Tools
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SBS 2008 and SharePoint Log File

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 27 2012

I am still encountering SBS 2008 servers where the Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) reports that the SharePoint SQL Log File is getting too large. There is a KB article that documents a script that will truncate the log file. I’ve created a zip file with the appropriate SQL command line plus a batch file to run it (see Part 1 below).

It is also recommend that after truncating the SharePoint database log file, that you set the recovery mode to “simple” for the database log file (see Part 2 below), and then you won’t need to use this command script again!

Part 1 – Running the command script

I created a zip file that contains both the SQL command line file that the KB article describes, plus a .cmd file that you can use to run the SQL command. In addition, my .cmd file will display the size of the SharePoint database log file both before and after.

Steps:

  1. Click here to download my zip file. (be sure to rename it from logshrink.z_i_p to logshrink.zip)
  2. Create a directory C:\Scripts
  3. Extract the contents of the zip file to the C:\Scripts directory
  4. Review and edit the .cmd file to adjust the location of the SharePoint database log file. I usually move SharePoint to a D:\ (Data) drive.
  5. Create a shortcut to the logshrink.cmd file and place it on your desktop
  6. To run, right click on the shortcut and click ‘Run as administrator’
    Here is a screen shot of the results of running the script:
    image

Part 2 – Switching Recovery Mode

Steps

  1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express (using Run as Administrator)
  2. In the Connect to Server window, for the server name, enter: \\.\pipe\MSSQL&Microsoft##SSEE\sql\query
  3. Under Databases, locate SharePoint_Config_29c26fca…
  4. Right click on the above database, and click Properties
  5. Click on Options in the left frame, and in the right frame you will see that Recovery Mode is set to Full.
  6. Use the drop down option box and select Simple
  7. Click to save, and then exit SQL Server Management Studio Express
  8. Here’s a screen shot where you will change the recovery type from Full to Simple:
    image
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Categories : SBS, Sharepoint, Tools
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Blogging from Windows Phone 8

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 12 2012

I just installed the WordPress app on my new Nokia 920 phone. Let’s see how well it works!

Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone

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Categories : Phones, SBS, Tools, Windows, Wordpress
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Storagecraft offer due to Hurricane Sandy

by KW · Comments (0)
Oct 31 2012

Storagecraft is the maker of the popular backup software for servers and workstations, ShadowProtect.

Due to the events caused by Hurricane Sandy, StorageCraft is offering a free three day use of their ShadowProtect IT Edition software to people in areas affected by the storm.

Read more here:

http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/affected-by-sandy-wed-like-to-help/

Storagecraft

The IT Edition allows you to backup and restore an entire server or workstation without installing any software on the computers. I have relied on the IT Edition of ShadowProtect for years, and is one of my primary “go-to” I.T. solutions in my tool bag!

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Categories : Backup, SBS, Servers, Tools, Windows
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List of Malware Tools I use

by KW · Comments (0)
Oct 16 2012

I’m sure everyone has their own personal “go to” list. I’d be interested in what others have found to be indispensable in their arsenal of malware-fighting utilities.I’m only focusing on SOHO and very small businesses or residential workstations.

For day-to-day protection, for residential sites (family and friends),  I will suggest they install, at a minimum, these three FREE utilities:

image  image   image

For Small businesses (less than 10 workstations), I use the same three tools. MSE is now licensed for use in small businesses. MalwareBytes and CCleaner can be purchased for use in a business environment, and provide additional features over their free version counterpart.

For workstations that need further cleaning up, I will use one or more of the following tools:

image   image   image   image

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Categories : Malware, Tools, Windows
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Upgrading iTunes fails with iPod Service error

by KW · Comments (0)
Oct 08 2012

I’ve had three iPhones over the years, and somewhere along the line upgrading iTunes on my Windows PC became an event that I never looked forward to. Why? Because invariably, during the upgrade I would get an installation error of some sort. Rather that trying to figure it out, I would just uninstall iTunes completely, and reinstall it.

So, here I am ready to upgrade to iTunes 10.7 and sure enough, I click to upgrade iTunes and I encounter a “iPod Service could not be installed” warning box, with choices to Abort, Retry, Ignore.

Fixing this turns out to be fairly easy process, but not intuitive.

So let’s go step by step:

  1. These instructions are written assuming you have the ‘iPod Service could not be installed’ still on your screen.
    image
  2. Leave the warning message on display.
    You DO NOT want to click on any of the Abort, Retry or Ignore buttons.
  3. Also, if you have not done so already, please close any and all other programs that are running (email, browser, etc.)
  4. Click on Start –> Run, and type:  services.msc  and press Enter
  5. Scroll through the list of services listed, and locate the iPod Service. It should already be set to Disabled
    image
  6. Double click on the iPod Service, and then change the Startup Type from Disabled to Automatic, and then click Apply
  7. A popup window displays indicating that “The specified service has been marked for deletion”.
    image
  8. If you try to click OK, nothing happens, but that’s fine. Leave it alone, and more importantly do NOT try to manually abort the iTunes installation process.
  9. Click Start –> Restart and force your computer to reboot.
  10. Once it has rebooted, restart the iTunes installation program and click Repair.
    image
  11. The installation should finish without errors.
    image

Notes:

Standard suggestions: Always be sure to make a backup of your iTunes catalogs (just in case) before upgrading iTunes. I would also recommend rebooting your computer BEFORE downloading and installing any software.

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Categories : Phones, Tools
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