Browse by Tags

All Tags » IT (RSS)
Sun, Aug 31 2008 17:21

Zune Error

Apparently the error below from Zune is indicative of some sort of problem with your DRM data. The redirect is to KB 929642 which of course doesn't list the error message, but it was a useful clue. --------------------------- Zune ---------------...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under:
Mon, Aug 25 2008 10:34

Word Tip - The Draft View Gutter

Since I've been living in Microsoft Word lately, I figured why not take some time for a couple more handy Word tricks. This one is about getting a gutter to show up in Draft view so you can see what styles have been applied to text. If you've...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Mon, Aug 25 2008 10:12

Word Tip - Outline View and Document Map

Another handy Word tip today is using Outline view to work with big documents. If you've got a sizeable document, chances are your document is also structured hierarchically. By this I mean that you are probably using multiple levels of Heading styles...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Tue, Aug 5 2008 22:44

MSDTC Exits on PDCe Transfer

One of my colleagues reported an issue at a customer this past weekend where every time he transferred FSMO roles, MOM would report that the MS DTC (distribution transaction coordinator) service had terminated unexpectedly on all the domain controllers...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Sat, Aug 2 2008 15:20

Formulas in Word

I discovered this afternoon that you can insert simple formulas in Microsoft Word tables, at least in Word 2007. This is really pretty helpful when you just need to do something simple like sum a column or row and don't want to build the table in...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under:
Sat, Jul 12 2008 17:02

Authoritative Restores

So I'm working on a project which involves some documentation around disaster recovery and I flagged a word in the text for the technical reviewers to suggest a better word (BCD40). The feedback I got really made me laugh: Share this post: email it...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Fri, Jul 11 2008 2:32

Update on the MCSE Upgrade

I was complaining (more or less) several weeks ago about the amount of work it was going to take to upgrade my MCSE to the latest version. The good news is I went and did the Windows end of things and now I'm apparently an "MCITP: Enterprise...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: , , ,
Fri, Jul 11 2008 2:14

Running with a Third Screen on my Desk

Scott's post prompted this post as I've found that unlike Scott, my recent upgrade to a third screen is really helpful. I run with two PCs under my desk. One PC is a simple Dell tower with 4GB of RAM, a dual core chip in it and a couple of SATA...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Thu, Jul 10 2008 17:14

Unblocking Windows Update

If you've ever gotten the error below when you go to Windows Update on a machine or Windows Update is completely missing from the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, it's fortunately an easy registry change to temporarily back out. Network policy...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under:
Wed, Jun 4 2008 22:28

At TechEd Next Week

I'll be down in Orlando at TechEd IT Pro next week. I'm working a booth of some fashion in the Technical Learning Center most of the week I'm told, so feel free to drop in and say hello if you're in town as well. Share this post: email...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: , , ,
Thu, May 29 2008 23:19

Updated Error Code Lookup Tool

The Microsoft error code lookup tool (which no Windows admin should be without) got updated today: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=be596899-7bb8-4208-b7fc-09e02a13696c&displaylang=en&tm . While it says it's for Exchange...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: , , ,
Thu, May 29 2008 16:24

Getting Total Installed Memory with WMI

Getting the amount of memory installed in a machine with WMI is a bit confusing particuarly if you only read the docs partially. I was initially using Win32_ComputerSystem::TotalPhysicalMemory, but the documentation warns "Be aware that, under some...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Mon, May 19 2008 22:43

Impromptu Hard Drive Refresh - Thanks Acronis

I fix other people's computers and IT problems all day, so the last thing I really feel like doing is fixing my own computer problems at home. My personal workstation decided to blue screen earlier in the evening which was nice. It was one of those...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: , ,
Sat, May 17 2008 13:50

Group Policy Editor Shortcuts

I came across these shortcuts today for navigating the group policy editor and thought they'd be worth sharing. They're holdovers from Windows Explorer that also work in the GPO editor. If you press * while targeting a folder in the console, the...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Fri, May 9 2008 22:17

Getting Rid of Apple Software Update

I had to load Quicktime on my PC for one reason or another in the past few months. It's not generally a package I load, but, apparently I needed it for some reason. I of course did the extra legwork to find the Quicktime installer that didn't...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under:
Fri, Apr 11 2008 0:34

Windows 2003 Forest Functional Level

Thought I'd post an informational post for folks who are moving an AD forest to Windows 2003 forest functional level (aka FFL2) as I realized today this piece of information might not be quite as well known as I might have thought. As an FYI, this...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Wed, Apr 2 2008 0:38

Upgrading my MCSE

So I have an MCSE: Messaging 2003. Took something like 7 or 8 tests to get that way back when and it's still good. Being the good consultant that I am I decided I'd figure out what I need to do to get whatever the new equivelants are on Windows...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: , , ,
Thu, Mar 27 2008 0:03

Forcing a Blue Screen via iLO

Sometimes one of the most useful resources at your disposal when troubleshooting a hang or other issues is the memory dump file Windows will write out during a blue screen. If a system is hung and you are not able to get to it locally, pressing Ctrl+ScrollLock...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under:
Sat, Mar 22 2008 23:37

Loading VMWare 6 Tools on 2008 Server Core

Normally in VMWare when you go "VM>Install VMWare Tools..." with a Windows guest, autorun kicks right in and the installer launches. On server core this isn't the case. You need to launch the MSI by hand. To do this, swich to your CD...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
Sat, Mar 22 2008 22:43

How to Sysprep in Windows 2008

I thought I'd document how to setup the new sysprep process equivalent on Windows 2008 since the old setupmgr file for making sysprep.inf's doesn't exist anymore (and neither does sysprep.inf). The first step is acquiring the Windows Automated...
Posted by Brian Desmond's Blog
Filed under: ,
More Posts Next page »