The other steveb - Steve Banks' Blog on SBS, EBS, and other Small Business Technology Topics : Vista

Curious how to disable IPv6?

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:03:00 GMT

This will work on Vista & Windows 2008 boxes and disable IPv6 if you need to (as in System Center Essentials!). Change the registry entry and restart the machine to apply to the local machine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponents = 255

Lost TS/RDP after running updates?

steveb — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:40:00 GMT

After experiencing Terminal Services intermittently hanging after applying Microsoft Updates I've come across one way that gets the server back up and responsive most of the time and a backup plan for when it still doesn't.

First, to cover yourself, it is a good idea to run a system state backup at minimum of the server before applying updates in case you need to get yourself out of a challenge resulting from the update. Then what I've started doing (wasn't an original idea, got it from others in the community) is creating a restart.bat file that consists of shutdown -r -f and a hard return to bounce the server. I then create a one time scheduled task and set it for about 30 minutes out from when I figure the updates should have been applied and the server restarted and back online. Most of the time a restart will "jump start" the Terminal Services and get them running if they hang. If I don't have to use it, I go into Scheduled Tasks and set the time back a day to disable it until next time. The other trick I ran across was the result of a desperate attempt to get a box back online one night as I was applying updates from my Vista Tablet PC. I've since tried this from XP Pro and it does not work, so seems to be a Vista only trick.

If TS/RDP hangs on the server, as Microsoft is beginning to admit is a problem finally, attempt to VPN from your Vista computer to the remote network using the remote domain's administrator account (I've only tried this with Windows PPTP so no idea about IPSec or edge VPN devices such as SonicWALLs but I'm guessing it would fail since the reason this is working has to be because Vista is authenticating as the remote administrative account). Once you have established the Windows PPTP VPN from your Vista box, open a command prompt by selecting off of your start menu, "right clicking" and running as administrator. Once inside the command window, type shutdown -i and drop in the name or IP address of the remote server you are wanting to get back your Terminal Services from and do a restart in the graphical interface. I have had this work all but once or twice (hence the new addition of the scheduled task restart batch file). When the server comes back online TS is normally responsive and you can head off to bed versus getting in the car and taking off to a client site in the middle of the night!

Steve

Microsoft releases the Malware Removal Starter Kit

steveb — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:39:00 GMT

This is from an email I received this week from Mark Clagett over at Microsoft. Running into an issue today where I sent it to an end user so figured I would post it here as well. Thanks Mark for sending out the notice! - Steve ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I thought you’d be interested in this new Solution Accelerator from Microsoft – it’s called the Malware Removal Starter Kit. It’s a free download from TechNet, and provides you with excellent guidance and tools to help you restore PCs infected with malware. Here’s a quick overview of what the kit can do for your organization. Suggest you take a look!

PCs Infected with Malware? Every day, adversaries attempt to invade your networks and infect your systems with viruses, spyware, and other malware. In other cases, employees can open the door to malware by visiting infected Web sites, opening the wrong e-mail attachments, or running macros that contain viruses.As an IT professional focused on security, you know the risks first hand. You’ve installed antivirus software and you keep your protection updated. Sometimes, though, attacks are successful, and computers get infected. And once they are inside the organization, malware outbreaks can spread with alarming speed, compromising or destroying mission-critical data or personal information. Restore Infected PCs with the Malware Removal Starter Kit!When you discover PCs that have been infected with malware and your current antivirus tools can’t solve the problem, where do you turn next? Is there a way to restore infected PCs without completely rebuilding them from scratch? The Malware Removal Starter Kit, the newest Solution Accelerator from Microsoft, provides free, tested guidance to help you combat malware attacks and restore infected systems—so users can safely get back to work. The kit shows you how to use the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) to discover malware by performing a thorough offline scan of your computers, uncovering malware that may be hiding in the operating system. And once malware is located and identified, it can be quickly removed from infected PCs with a number of free anti-malware tools, like the Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft.The Malware Removal Starter Kit answers questions like:

· What are the keys to a reliable, effective response plan to remedy malware outbreaks?

· How do I build a bootable CD that lets me perform offline virus scans?

· How can I discover and remove viruses and other malware hiding in the operating system?

· How does the Malware Removal Starter Kit augment Microsoft’s anti-malware strategy?

Key Benefits

The Malware Removal Starter Kit is:

· Effective: Helps you to uncover malware that’s difficult to expose.

· Flexible: Lets you use best approach for the specific problem you’re facing.

· Reliable: Provides guidance thoroughly tested by Microsoft security experts.

· Simple: Offers a solution that is easy to configure and use.

· Free: The Malware Removal Starter Kit is a free download from TechNet. Download the free Malware Removal Starter Kit

Accessing the kit is easy, and it’s free! Click here to learn more or to download the kit.

Verizon XV6600WOC Firmware update does not work with Windows Vista - use XP

steveb — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:21:00 GMT

At least for now, for those who may be thinking of trying it, do not use Vista to do firmware revs to your Audiovox / UTStarcom devices.

The update from Verizon and UTStarcom for the XV6600WOC (http://www.utstar.com/pcd/downloads/HA_VZW_207_112_01167_A12.exe) will run in XP SP2 compatibility mode as administrator but in my experience with it today I only got as far as wiping the old firmware off the device. At that point the Windows Mobile Device Center did not complete the process. In my case I ran the cradle over to my XP Pro desktop, installed ActiveSync 4.2 and was good to go on that system. The installer for the firmware picked up where the initial run on Vista failed. Now I'm back over at the Tablet PC where I normally sync the device to get everything back on the 6600. So if you want to run Vista at this time, make sure you keep another box around with XP or Win 2000 on it for times like this.

Steve

When updating to Vista, here's a time saving tip.

steveb — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:22:00 GMT

Okay, hopefully you will learn from my mistake. Thought I would install Windows Vista Ultimate on my HP TC4400 again now that I have RTM bits. My RC1 upgrade was less than desirable back in September but I have been hearing of great results of running the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard from and then doing a clean build of Vista so I thought why not? Besides I am presenting on this in Vancouver at the VanSBS User Group so I figured I better get up to speed on it! ;-)

Well please learn from my mistake. I'm not going to cancel the wizard now because it has been hummin' along here for a few hours now as I have been working on other things at the office, but I noticed that the wizard is ”saving" my “My Documents” folder to the share on the server I have selected for the transfer. Not a bad thing except that the My Documents folder is already redirected to my company's SBS Server so I am in essence copying over files that I already have on the server to begin with and wasting time on the Windows Easy Transfer wizard to boot. So if you are doing a Vista install and you have My Documents redirect enabled you may as well use it and save the bandwidth and time in moving those files unnecessarily.

I'll be adding more to my Vista with SBS experiences as I progress. May keep some of it quite until after the Vancouver, BC presentation so I have material for the presentation. :-)

Steve

Here's an update after watching it all night. You really do not want to include those offline folders in your WET settings! You are unable to edit on the other side when loading back into Vista and even worse, the Windows Easy Transfer will attempt to load those files back in over the network to the share location. I've been sitting here watching it attempt to load an archive PST back into a directory in my user share on the SBS box for the last few hours and finally realized what was staring me in the face the whole time. Now I've cancelled it and am waiting to see how long it takes for it to exit. Fortunately I have a Storage Craft ShadowProtect backup image on another drive that I'll be able to load and pull what I need off of back over to the Tablet (mainly my music and items that were on the desktop). The rest of my files were in those offline folders and SharePoint which I synch with Colligo Networks' product. So as I was saying earlier, exclude your offline folders from your Windows Easy Transfer Wizard!

Steve