Geoff's Knowledgebase

I am a full-time network and systems manager. I am noting things on this blog so I don't forget the crazy solutions to problems that I find.

[mykb]

Reset DRM for Windows Media Center Recording

I have recently purchased a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime and had trouble setting it up in Windows Media Center. It kept telling me that the tuners had no signal and wouldn't add them to Media Center. It turns out that the DRM components for Windows needed to be re-initialized as this was an OEM install of Windows 7. Here's what I did:

1.Uninstall PlayReady 2.Remove Windows Media Center and reboot. 3.Delete c:\programdata\microsoft\eHome and c:\programdata\microsoft\Playready folders. 4.Install and run the ResetDRM.exe tool from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976590. This said it had to run in Windows 7 compatibility mode, which I did. 5.Reinstall Windows Media Center. 6.Re-run Windows Media Center Setup 7.Run the PlayReady install from inside Media Center. This was finally successful. 8.Run the Digital Cable Advisor. 9.Setup the TV tuner in Windows Media center. It immediately found all three tuners and now works beautifully.

[mykb]

Outlook client configuration to connect via RPC

When configuring Outlook clients to connect over RPC over HTTP, the Outlook client is constantly prompting for credentials. We configured to use NTLM authentication. Adding this registry entry stopped the prompt: [HKEY_Local_machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA DWORD (32 bit): Imcompatibilitylevel Value: 2

[mykb]

VMware Command Line

VMware Command Line Restart the HostD Agent service mgmt-vmware stop service mgmt-vmware start service-mgmt-vmware restart Rescan the iSCSI bus esxcfg-rescan vmhba33 List virtual machines vmware-cmd -l Get the state of a vm vmware-cmd getstate vmware-cmd stop vmware-cmd stop hard Examine disk stats. Press 'd' for disk stats. Press 'v' for virtual machine stats. Press 'q' to quit. esxtop c-CPU d-Disk adapter m-Memory u-disk device i-interrupt v-disk VM Can move mouse with arrows, pressing à to expand a group Press [ENTER] to refresh

[mykb]

Upgrade Domain Controllers to Server 2003 If you try to upgrade the domain controllers directly, you will get this error: Setup was unable to check your active directory upgrade preparation state. To successfully upgrade your domain controller, please make sure you run adprep/forestprep on forest schema master domain controller and adprep.exe /domainprep on domain infrastructure master domain controller prior to upgrading this machine. Press OK to exit setup. 1. Uninstall the Windows 2000 Administration Tools 2. Uninstall VMWare tools 3. Drop to a command prompt so you can see the results of the ADPREP commands. 4. Run ADPREP.exe /forestprep a. Press C [ENTER] to continue after the SP1 warning. 5. run adprep.exe /domainprep 6. Install Windows Server 2003. 7. Change the virtual machine type to Windows Server 2003 8. boot, allow install to complete 9. install SP2 10. re-install the VMWare tools.

[mykb]

Setup a Lightroom Publish service for iPad photo galleries

I use the hard drive publish service to create galleries for my iPad. I setup iTunes to sync photos from a particular folder, and then setup Lightroom to publish to that folder. Each time I want to create a new gallery for my iPad, I just create a new published folder and drop the photos into that folder. Then I publish the photos. The publish feature allows me to update photos in collections easily, as well as setup specific sizes for export to my iPad.

I have also used published smart collections for my portfolio images. When I tag a photo with a particular gallery keyword, it gets added to the collection. I then just publish the photos in the service and I've got them on my ipad. It works really well!

Setup a hard drive publish service

Open the Library module

Go to the Publish Services.

Press the + to and choose Go to publishing manager.

Click Add

Choose Hard drive as the service type. Name the publish service iPad Photos

Choose to export your photos to a specific location. Make note of this location and instruct iTunes to use the same location for synchronizing photos. Do not choose to put in a subfolder.

Choose the format as JPEG, Color space as sRGB, and set your quality in the File Settings section.

Choose to resize your photos to fit the iPad in the image resizing section. I have chosen Width & Height of 1500x1500. This will give black bars if your photo doesn't match the aspect ratio of the iPad. You can also choose Dimensions and set a dimension. The output photo will be cropped to fill the screen. I have an iPad 2 and wanted to be able to zoom a bit, so I chose dimensions larger than the iPad.

Set the other options as needed -- sharpening, metadata, and watermarking.

Click Save.

Back at the Library module you should now find your new publish service. Create a gallery.

Right click the service and choose Create Published Folder.

Name the folder the name you want to appear in your iPad Photos app.

Drop files from the photo browser into this new collection.

Right click the collection and choose Publish Now.

Repeat these 4 steps anytime you want to create a new gallery on your iPad.

All you need to do now is to sync the photos on your ipad using iTunes.

[mykb]

Mail-Enable an Exchange Server Public Folder

Prerequisites

This works with Exchange Server 2000 and 2003. 2000 will require a hotfix from Microsoft. 2003 requires service pack 1. See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817809 for more information. Once service pack 1 or the hotfix have been installed, create the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\<servername>\Public-<GUID> Value name: Incoming defaults to IPM.Note Value type: DWORD Value data: 1

Then restart the MS Exchange Information Store service.

Procedures

1. Create the public folder in Outlook    a. Expand Public Folders    b. Expand All Public Folders    c. Right-click and choose New Folder   d. Give the folder a name   e. Make sure that the Folder Contains is set to Mail and Post Items   f. Click OK

2. Assign an email address to the folder   a. On the Exchange server, open the Exchange System Manager    b. Navigate to \Administrative Groups\\Folders\Public Folders   c. Navigate to the new folder in the left-hand navigation column   d. Right-click on this new folder   e. Choose All Tasks and then Mail Enable from the popup menu.

3. Validate the email address   a. You will have to wait for Exchange to create the email address. If you get the error "The mail proxy for this folder can not be found. This may be due to replication delays. The mail enabled pages will not be shown.", then wait for a while and come back.   b. Still in the Exchange System Manger, right-click on this new folder   c. Choose Properties   d. Open the Email Addresses tab   e. Add any additional email addresses here.   f. Open the Exchange Advanced tab   g. Clear the checkbox for Hide from Exchange Address Lists

4. Assign permissions to the public folder   a. Open the Permissions tab   b. Click Client Permissions   c. Set appropriate permissions for the users to open, delete, etc. messages

At this point, you can test the email address by sending a mail message to the mailbox. When you open the message, it should appear as an email and not as a post.

[mykb]

Reset the XP Offline Files Database

Description

Sometimes the offline files cache database becomes corrupted. This is evident when there are errors synchronizing the data. Windows stores offline files in the C:\WINDOWS\CSC folder, but you should always use the management tool to delete files, rather than delete them directly from there. Microsoft warns if you remove files from the CSC folder that database corruption will ensue. Follow these undocumented steps to reset the offline folders cache:

Steps

Open My Computer

Choose Tools and then Folder Options from the menu bars.

Open the Offline Files tab

Hold down the [CTRL] and [SHIFT] buttons and press the Delete Files button. This will warn you that this operation will reset the database. Choose yes twice to restart the computer and reset the corrupt offline files database.

How This Works

Microsoft has hidden this reset functionality within these property sheets. Holding [CTRL] and [SHIFT] while pressing the “Delete Files” button activates the more powerful "reset database" function, rather than delete individual files.

[mykb]

Active Directory domains need a reliable time source to keep the clocks in the domain synchronized. Normally this FSMO role is assigned to the first domain controller in an active directory domain. The time server can be configured using NTP to get time from an external source (such as a government agency or college/university). Here's how to do it using Windows. Steps 1. Determine which computer has the FSMO role for the PDC Emulator . From the Microsoft MSDN site: For their part, the domain's DCs synchronize their time to one particular DC in the domain that uses the Flexible Single-Master Operation (FSMO, aka Operations Master) PDC emulator role. By default, the PDC emulator FSMO is the first DC that you install in a domain. But what does each domain's PDC emulator FSMO synchronize its time with? It synchronizes with the PDC emulator FSMO of the first domain that you created in the forest (i.e., the DC that acts as a PDC emulator FSMO in the forest root domain). That forest root machine thus acts as the master clock and calendar for your entire Active Directory (AD) forest. (For those who are wondering, yes, that master timekeeper does understand time zones.) . Open Active Directory Users and Computers . Right click on the domain and choose Operations Masters . Open the PDC tab and note which computer is acting as the PDC Emulator. This will be the time server for the domain. 2. On the time server, open a command prompt 3. Ping the time server to make sure the host is reachable 4. Set the source to use by entering the following command: . net time /setsntp:server1.domain.com,server.domain2.com,server.domain3.com 5. Stop the time service: . net stop w32time 6. Force the server to synchronize the time with the server: . w32tm /resync (on Windows 2000, use w32tm -v and then kill the program after it has run) 7. Start the time service after the time has been synchronized. . net start w32time If everything sychronizes properly, you will see the following message: Sending resync command to local computer... The command completed successfully. I tried use us.pool.ntp.org and was able to successfully synchronize time. Find a reliable time server close to your location at the NTP website <> .

[mykb]

Disable Browsing Remote Scheduled Tasks

Windows Explorer automatically connects to machines on the network when browsing to look for printers and scheduled tasks. If you never need to view scheduled tasks in this manner, you can speed up Explorer by removing this from the browsed namespace. This tip comes from a new book called Hacking Windows XP, which looks very good. 1. Open up the Registry Editor by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run. Then type regedit in the text box and click the OK button. 2. Once the Registry Editor has loaded, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key. 3. Next, expand Software and then Microsoft. 4. Locate Windows and expand that as well. 5. You will want to be editing the main system files, so expand CurrentVersion. 6. Because this feature is a feature of the Windows component known as Explorer, expand the Explorer key. 7. Next, you will want to modify the remote computer settings, so expand the RemoteComputer key and then expand the NameSpace key to show all of the features that are enabled when you browse to a remote computer. 8. In the NameSpace folder you will find two entries. One is "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}" which tells Explorer to show printers shared on the remote machine. The other, "{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}," tells Explorer to show remote scheduled tasks. This is the one that you should delete. This can be done by right-clicking the name of the key and selecting Delete. Tip: If you have no use for viewing remote shared printers and are really only interested in shared files, consider deleting the printers key, "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}", as well. This will also boost your browsing speed. Once you have deleted the key, you just need to restart and the changes will be in effect. Now your network computer browsing will be without needless delays.

[mykb]

Send email using the SMTP protocol and TELNET

Description

It's often useful to connect directly to an SMTP server to send a mail message. When you've directly connected, you can see the error messages that a server may issue. One really useful test is the open-relay - the ability for a mail server to relay mail messages for any domain from any domain. These servers are often discovered and used for sending spam, and if your mail server becomes the target of a spam campaign, you will likely be black-listed. It would be better to test your mail server now rather than deal with the repercussions of the black-list later.

Steps

Drop to a CMD prompt

Open a telnet session to the mail server. telnet mymailserver.mydomain.com 25

Issue commands to generate a mail message. You may not be able to see the commands you type, but you will see the response from the webserver. Identify the sending domain: helo yahoo.com Identify the sender: mail from: [email protected] Identify the recipient: rcpt to: [email protected]

At this point, the mail server will either respond back saying the recipient was ok, or that relaying is not permitted. If you can continue, then Issue the "start of message" command: data Type the contents of your message: SUBJECT: Here's the subject line Here are the contents of the message. Continue to type until you are satisfied with the message. Terminate the mail message with a period on a line by itself: .

How it Works We can connect directly to the SMTP port of any mail server and issue valid SMTP protocol commands. In this case we are issuing the commands to generate a mail message. Try to substitute the "MAIL FROM" and "RCPT TO" email addresses with various addresses to simulate what a spammer might attempt against your mail server. Sometimes they will attempt to connect to a mail gateway from the outside, using a sender from the inside to try to trick the mail server into allowing relaying. Test every scenario you can think of.

[mykb]

Disable inactive users in Windows Server 2003

Disable Inactive Users in Windows Server 2003

Acknowledgement

This script was given to me by an administrator that I have been working with to disable inactive users. The script I suggested he try was very complicated and involved a lot of Visual Basic code. The solution he found was simple and elegant. Thank you!

Description

Security guidelines such as Visa's CISP mandate that inactive users are deactivated if they are not used in a defined period of time. Microsoft hasn't provided an easy way to audit and disable these Active Directory accounts until version 2003. In this version, they have included several "DS" tools which can perform active directory functions from the command line.

Steps

1. Create a new text document

o Right click on the desktop

o Choose New and then Text Document

o Name the file Disable Inactive Users – 90 Days.cmd

2. Edit this document and type the following code:

@echo off

dsquery user -inactive 12 | dsmod user -disabled yes

3. Save the file

4. Run the file on a Windows Server 2003 computer with Domain Administrator privileges.

How This Works

In this script, we use the dsquery tool to show users, who have been inactive for 12 weeks. Then (with the pipe) we feed the output of the dsquery tool to the dsmod tool and instruct it to disable the user. Running this tool periodically (scheduled task) is a great way to disable inactive users.

Also, Microsoft has a Windows Scripting solution to the problem which also required Windows 2003. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=3118449

[mykb]

I ran into a situation last weekend where I needed to repeat some keyboard and mouse actions several hundred times. I remember the old Windows 3.1 macro recorder and figured someone had to have taken that to the next level. I found WinParrot.

This super cool software let me record mouse clicks and automate a process that would have taken many hours. I was able to speed up playback so that the computer moved the pace very quickly--much faster than if I were moving the mouse myself!

If you are looking to automate a process in Windows you might try WinParrot.

[mykb]

Audio device was disconnected error with Windows Media Player

I have this really annoying problem with Windows 7 on several of my computers. I can be in Windows Media Center listening to music or a TV show, when the media will suddenly stop and a message shows on the screen:

"An audio device was disconnected or reconfigured. Verify that the audio device is connected, and then try to play the item again."

Attempting to restart the media player and resuming playback fixes the issue, but sometimes it happens right away again. VERY annoying. I've tried to even replace a computer to get rid of the problem, only to find that the new computer ALSO had the same problem.

Here's what I think the problem is:

New audio cards have a jack detection feature to understand when speakers or headphones are plugged in, and Windows 7 understand this feature.

I am using a special Ground Loop Isolator cable to connect my PVR computer to my stereo system to try to eliminate any hum.

Occassionally, the audio card believes that something has been plugged into or removed from the audio port of the computer, even though nothing has changed.

Since the error message shows up sporadically I cannot say for sure that I have solved the problem. I will say that I haven't seen the error pop up again after making this registry change:

Open Regedit

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}000\GlobalSettings

Change the value for keyEnableDynamicDevicesto 0.

Restart the computer for good measure.

I hope this fixes the problem! My family gets really annoyed when we are trying to watch a movie and playback keeps crapping out with this error.

[mykb]

Exchange Server shows offline in Outlook

Description

Once in a while a user reports to me that the Exchange server shows offline, even while they are on the network and can ping the server by IP and by name. Usually this happens when the user hibernates their laptop with Outlook open, moves to a conference room on Wireless, and then tries to go back to their desk.

The server connections are never properly closed, and the user eventually exceeds the number of allowed connections to the Exchange server.

Solution

Have the user close out of Outlook properly before disconnecting from the network. Otherwise:

Have the user exit Outlook.

Determine the user’s IP address.

Open the Exchange System manager on the Exchange Server.

Drill down to Administrative Groups, <Domain>, Servers, <Mailbox Server Name>, <Storage Group>, and find the mailbox store with the user’s mailbox. Open the Logons folder to confirm the user has an excessive number of connections to the server. I see normal at 4-8 connections.

Download and install the TCPView Sysinternals utility.

Open TCPView. Sort by Remote Address. If you only see remote names, open Options and uncheck Resolve Addresses.

Highlight all the connections and choose Close Connection.

Refresh the view in the Exchange System Manager to confirm that the sessions have been closed.

Have the user reconnect.

[mykb]

Determine path consuming disk space in Linux

I run an Untangle server at home to connect my home network to the Internet. This fantastic appliance controls the firewall, blocks unwanted intrusions, provides VPN, and does a host of other very useful things.

As a Linux-based appliance many things are locked down to prevent the user from changing too much. One problem I ran into was the application had somehow filled up the hard disk, but I had no idea how to determine where the space was.

Turns out there is a command in Linux for doing just that.

du –max-depth=1 / -h

(there are 2 dashes before the max-depth command). This command shows all the directory paths and shows the hard disk space consumed under each. Incredibly useful! I determined that my problem was the PostGreSQL database and was able to correct the issue. 

[mykb]

Excel 2010 PowerPivot Add-in VertiPaq Engine Failure

We are using Excel 2010 and using the “excel”lent PowerPivot add-in. Sometimes the add-in fails with a message:

[PowerPivot for Excel]

Unable to load the VertiPaq engine.

[ Details » ] [ OK ]

The only way we’ve been to resolve the error has been to uninstall the add-in and reinstall.

Un-install the PowerPivot add-in

Rename the folder c:\Program files (x86)\Microsoft Analysis Services

Reboot the box

Re-install the PowerPivot Add-in

[mykb]

Change Citrix Drive C: back to M:

We have our Citrix server set to boot from the M: drive. Sometimes when doing system maintenance, the drive is changed back to C:. This happens when the signature of the disk changes, like when I used the procedures in this post to align the partition of the virtual machine.

When this happens, Windows tries to load critical DLL files from the M: drive that doesn't exist on boot. I get an error that Windows will shutdown because the ctxgina.dll can't load from the M: drive.

To correct the problem:

I use a rescue CD that I created by using the excellent BartPE utility. Boot to BartPE.

Click Run and enter regedit.exe to run the Registry Editor program.

Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive. This hive is the registry for BartPE.

Click File adn then Load Hive to load a registry file from disk.

Select the c:\winnt\system32\config or c:\windows\system32\config directory.

Open the file named SYSTEM

Give the hive a name. I used "CitrixSystemHive"

Open this new hive and open the MountedDevices key.

Locate \DosDevices\C: and rename to \DosDevices\M:. If there is already an M:, then rename that to a different drive letter first.

Unload the hive file by clicking File and then Unload Hive. Choose Yes to confirm.

Shut down, remove the BartPE disk, and reboot.