Mike's Mostly Tech blog

Microsoft Technet Deal

For those of you in the development of, sale of, or support of computers and systems you should already have a Microsoft Tech Net subscription.
With the Tech Net Plus subscription you have access to download over 70 full unrestricted titles (many with multiple license keys and permited activations!!) of Microsoft software and training titles, ranging from Windows 7 to Office 2007 and many server versions. Simply burn the images (.iso) to CD of DVD.
I believe it is the most valuable subscription available for staying current on applications and operating systems.
If you don’t currently have a subscription now is the time to get it.
Microsoft is being very generous and providing a 28% discount till the end of the year.
The regular subscription is $349.00.
With the coupon it comes out to like $252.00.
A VERY low price to pay for all the software most of you will ever need for a long while.
I have been a subscriber for over a decade believe I get WAY more than my moneys worth. I am able to have access to new and current software as soon as it is available and usually LONG before the general public has access. For example via TechNet I have been using Windows 7 in one form or another for over a year. [The cost of Windows 2008 Server R2 is $3,999.00 alone!]

You can find the information here:
http://www.microsoft.com/click/technetplus/

Just use the coupon code: TNWIN7L

Description of Subscription Software Benefits:

TechNet Plus Direct

All Online Access

Access to all TechNet Plus resources via the members-only TechNet Plus benefits portal for an individual user. Does not include DVD shipments.

• Full-version evaluation software without time limits

• Beta software releases

• Technical Information Library

• Professional Support Incidents

• Managed newsgroups

• Online concierge Chat

• Technical training resources and Microsoft E-Learning Courses

Servers & Operating Systems 2007 Microsoft Office System Microsoft Dynamics

• Windows Server 2008

• Windows Server 2003 R2

• Compute Cluster

• Windows SharePoint Services

• SQL Server

• Application Platform Servers

BizTalk Server, Commerce Server, Host Integration Server, Connected Services Framework, Customer Care Framework

• Business Productivity Servers

Content Management Server, Exchange Server, Office Live Communications Server, Office Forms Server, Office Groove Server, Office PerformancePoint Server, Speech Server, Sharepoint Server, Windows Sharepoint Services

• IT Operations Servers

Identity Integration Server, Microsoft System Center, Microsoft Operations Manager, Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner, Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, Systems Management Server, ISA Server

• Windows 7

Ultimate/Enterprise/Professional/Home Premium/Home Basic/Starter

• Windows Vista

Ultimate/Enterprise/Business/Vista Home Basic/Home Premium

• Windows XP

XP Home/Media Center/Professional/Tablet PC Edition

• Office

Ultimate/Enterprise/Professional Plus/Professional 2007 [2]

• Office Desktop Applications

Office Word, Office Excel, Office PowerPoint, Office Outlook & Business Contact Manager, Office Access, Office Publisher, Office InfoPath, Office OneNote, Office Communicator, Office Groove, Office SharePoint Designer, Office Visio, Office Project Standard, Office Accounting, Office Business Scorecard Manager, Office FrontPage, Office Project Professional, Office Project Server, Office Project Portfolio Server

• Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, SL, Microsoft Forecaster & Microsoft FRx

• Dynamics CRM, Point of Sale, Microsoft Small Business Accounting & Financing

Upgrade Windows 7 from Release Candidate or RTM version

Many of you have been running Windows 7 since the first Beta and moved onto the public Release Candidate. They were offered to the general public as a free ‘beta’ or taste test of the new OS.
Windows 7 is, in my opinion, a huge step up from Vista in virtually every area.

But as you know – or should know, The RC expires in March of 2010! By that time you will have had to have installed the retail version or you will be warned by the machine shutting off every two hours. When the free Release Candidate begins to expire you can’t even do an upgrade install of Windows 7, you will have to either re-install Windows Vista first, or buy a standalone version of Windows 7!

So let’s get with the upgrading.
First let me point out that a ‘fresh/clean’ install is almost always the best way to go. However there are times when an upgrade makes a lot of sense. Such as when you had to ‘tweak’ a special driver, or have massive amounts of applications installed and uniquely configured, or simply just have everything ‘just the way you want it’.

A note on Windows 7 pricing:
The Windows 7 Family Pack, consists of 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade media Setup discs and a single product key which can be used to activate three copies of the OS on three different PCs! The Family Pack costs $150, or just $30 more than a single copy of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade. It’s kind of a no-brainer to me.

OK on to the upgrade process:

Copy of all of the files from the retail disc to a folder on your hard drive I called it “Win7Upgrade”
Navigate to and then open the “sources” directory in that folder, and look for a file called “cversion.ini”.
Right-click and choose ‘open with’ and choose ‘Notepad’. You may also launch Notepad and choose File>Open and select that file.
Change the number 7233 to read 7000 (you’re telling it the minimum version that’s allowed to upgrade). Save it.

Right, now you’re almost there.
One more thing you may have to do.

When doing an upgrade MS limits you to what ‘type or flavor’ of the OS you can upgrade to.
Example; Vista Home Premium can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 RC(and therefore ‘Ultimate’) can only go to Windows 7 Ultimate etc.
BUT HERE IS THE GREAT PART!
That is not entirely true!
You can upgrade to a different version with a simple registry adjustment.

Open a command promt on your Vista or (Windows 7 Release Candidate) machine and type in:

Regedit

Navigate to HKLM(HKEY_Local_Machine)Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion

Change EditionID on the reg key from “Ultimate” to “[youreditionhere]”
and
Change ProductName on the reg key from Windows 7 Ultimate to “Windows 7 [youreditionhere]”
(minus the quotes of course)

Example:

EdittionID Professional

ProductName Windows 7 Professional

Close the registry editor, restart and do your install.
I have used this trick to upgrade some of our corporate Netbooks that came with Windows 7 Starter to our Volume License version of Window 7 Enterprise.

Remember you will have to have a valid install key/license for what ever version you install AND you will have to activate it. You won’t be able to use the same key on a bunch of machines.
That’s it.

Maximum PC has an article that details some of the steps above in a little more detail. Before you try any of these tricks you should check out this article too.

They also have a fantastically easy to walkthrough of how to boot and install from a USB.

Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows has a great article on how to do a Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media

Well that’s all.
Hope you find this information usefull.
Here is some great stuff on utilizing many of the features in Windows 7. I have also put a ‘short-cut’ image that can be printed out too.

Happy computing
Peace

Google Wave

I have been messing with Wave for a short time now and I can tell you it is ‘neat’, and powerful, but fairly hard for the average joe to understand. I think the potential is huge; if I can just figure out how I will actually use it. 🙂

Google Wave was designed by software engineers to solve a problem that didn’t really exist till they created it. A lot like Twitter. And most of you know how I feel about that. This guy has good rundown of the idiocy of Twitter. But I digress..

Google Wave looks to be a great help to people who regularly and continually need to collaborate in a ‘live’ environment. Like software engineers! Go figure.
It combines a live very powerful Wiki, email and documents in one single point in ‘real time’. For people in businesses that require lots of quick correspondance to work on and complete projects this could be a big help. Likewise for social groups (PTA, Boy Scouts, Soccer Club, Business Alliance etc.) to keep events organized this may prove very powerful.

I like the ability to ‘drag and drop’ files right into a wave.

Here is Google’s best description I’ve seen to date.

LifeHacker has a good post about how people are actually using it in various scenarios here.

It has been hyped to no end by Google and the media. Check it out for your self. You may find a good use for it you may not, who knows.

You may get an invite soon if you are reading this; I ‘nominated’ a lot of my contact list. 🙂

Anyways have fun all.
Peace.

Latest Virtual Machine tools and tips

As some of you know I have been using VMware for years to create and manage virtual machines. It is one of the best ways I know to evaluate operating systems and configurations with out messing up a ‘live’ system. Using VMware (and the VMWare converter) I can also convert Acronis images to Virtual machines, enabling me to test service pack updates and application upgrades. I even have several OS X VM’s I use too. Look here and here.

I also use Virtual Server 2005R2 on my server/home workdation (for XP it’s called MS virtual PC 2005) and now Hyper V for 2008 server. Using MS Virtual server I have been able to download and evaluate various full blown MS products extremely easily by just downloading a pre-made VHDs from MS and adding them to the virtual server. Things like, Win2008R2, Exchange 2007 and 2010, SQL2008 and many more operating systems applications and configurations.

There is now an updated tool available from Sysinternals (who where swallowed up by MS) to actually create complete VHD’s (virtual hard drives) from your existing running systems!
These can be used as backups, for fail over safety, or testing purposes too. The vhd’s can be added to Virtual server, Virtual PC and Hyper V VERY easily. And they will not require another activation as is nearly always necessary when using VMware.

Here is very good article from LifeHacker with a quick rundown of it:
http://lifehacker.com/5377399/disk2vhd-turns-your-pc-into-a-virtual-machine

This article prompted me to revisit this, so I decided to see how well it would work with my office machine, which I just happened to have sitting on my desk here at home.
I downloaded and copied the new Disk2vhd app to the laptop, ran the application to create the vhd and saved the vhd to a share on my home server. After the vhd was created I launched the MS Virtual Server Administration console on my server (a localmachine website), ‘created’ a new vm and added the vhd, set up the network options and started it.
And bam, it works like a champ! I was even able to connect from the VM to my office via VPN and run my ‘Cisco SoftPhone’!

Now, if you have no desire to try this just take off now, sorry for wasting your time.
But for any of you fellow techies that want to learn or experience something new, here is more info.
Latest version of Disk2vhd:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

MS VirtualPC 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/virtual-pc-2007.aspx

or:Virtual Server 2005 R2:Info:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/

More info:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualserver/default.aspx

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID;=bc49c7c8-4840-4e67-8dc4-1e6e218acce4

Or if you are already using Windows 2008 Server you can use Hyper V:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/default.aspx

As always if you do not understand something, take the time to read about it and learn it. If you still don’t get it, read some more. Maybe a lot more. If you try something and is doesn’t work. Try this http://www.google.com/ and type in your question. But don’t type it to me 🙂

Other notes:If you don’t have a modern machine with modern processor (Intel core2duo, Athlon multi-core or better) and plenty of RAM, don’t even think about trying to create a virtual machines. It will be slower than a 1995 Packard Bell.

Peace

All kinds of Windows 7 info

I really like the new Microsoft operating system Windows 7.
I think it will have a huge impact on usability and security for all who upgrade.
It should also make it easier, from my standpoint, to administer and manage.
I expect many fewer calls for support.
A basic tour of Win 7 from Microsoft:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/tour

Below are some links that I highly recommend you check out.
There are so many great features with Win 7 that make the Operating System so much easier to use than Vista and more secure that XP.
The interface alone has all kinds of features – like the ‘dock’ and previews that make for a much more useful interface.
Behind the scenes there is of course all the stability improvements too.
Things like networking that just works, disk burning built in and faster application performance.
Take some time and really check out these articles and mess with the functions they talk about and you will be amazed!
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/the-geek-blog/what-you-should-expect-from-the-windows-7-beta/

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx
http://chris.pirillo.com/the-top-windows-7-tips-and-tricks-list/

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/14/windows-7-tips-and-tricks

http://www.softsailor.com/news/887-70-useful-windows-7-tips-tricks.html

For those with Vista and/or Windows 7 here is a very nice freeware utility.
Just be careful of what you tweak you could hose your system!
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui-for-windows-7-vista

Some great Windows ‘hot keys’:

Exernal Media Player

I was recently looking for another way to view my saved movie files.
I have loads of movies saved on one of my PC’s that I actually used as a TV and work machine for many years.
They are actaully high quality mpegs from a high-quality TV card in my PC.
I have since copied most of them off to a seperate hard drive and converted most of them to DVD via DVD Flick
You can of course go full out and for a few hundred bucks make a great home DVR out of an old PC with little work. Especially if it has Windows XP Media Center or Vista with Media Center.
Or you can follow this guys great tutorial here:
Free TiVo/DVR out of old PC
But back to the story.
I had this drive sitting around with all these movies on it. 500GB Seagate SATA loaded with mpeg’s and AVI’s and thought it would be cool to just ‘hook it up’ to the tv and watch the movies and shows.
So I happened on this really cool device.
The SATA HDD Multi-media player adapter allows you to connect any 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA Harddisk to your computer via USB. It a powerful tool for data transfer, backup and cloning.
The kicker:
It functions as a Multi-Media player as well. You can play the media files via SATA HDD, SD(HC) card or external USB storage on TV without using a computer!
I can now take my external drive anywhere and share my stuff.
I ordered this thing from these guys http://usb.brando.com.hk/ on the 24th of June and it was delivered – all the way from Hong Kong – by the 1st of July!
I plugged in my external USB drive to the device and then plugged in the AV cables to TV and with very little setup (adjusting for NTSC Video and TV playback in the setup menu of the device) my stuff played awesomely!
Just thought I’d share a cool technology device that is very inexpensive, easy to use and seems to work great too.

Peace.

Let’s Kill Some Spyware!!

I recently had to help some people remove some serious spyware/malware/virii.
No normally if I can’t ‘kill’ the bad stuff fairly quickly. I will simply get the persons ‘data’ – documents, pics, music etc. – off the machine and then delete the partitions. wipe the drives, re-format and re-install the operatiing system clean.
But sometimes in a business situation this is not always possible.
Or sometimes all the needed applications are not available for ‘re-install’
For this you must try and ‘save’ your system without the ‘nuclear option’.
So here is one of the best methods I use on a ‘running’ active system.
Read all the instructions and download ALL of the suggested applications from a ‘non-infected’ machine 1st.
Then place them on a portable drive – usb or a directory on the infected system [c:\killmalwareapps or something]
Ok let’s start.
1st on the infected machine delete the ‘hosts’ and ‘lmhost’ files.
They will be located in the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc folder.
[Possibly c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc]
First try an online scan from Trend Micro.
To do this safely – using an ‘external non-infected browser’ you need to run ‘Firefox portable’ off USB drive.
This will allow a ‘clean run’ of a browser for a live malware/spyware scan:
How To:
The article here:
http://firefox-fangirl.livejournal.com/1977.html
explains how to download the latest portable Firefox builds and how to correctly install it as a ‘portable app’ on a separate folder or usb drive. I ‘install’ it to a directory called ‘portablefirefox’ and then I copy that to my USB drive.

Then go to Trend Micro USING THE PORTABLE FIREFOX and run their housecall application and run a scan:
http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/
Make sure you do NOT use any browser installed on the infected system!!!
Use the ‘Firefox Portable’ application to get to the web.

Other tools to have on hand (on your usb drive) before starting.
From Sysinterals
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

Get the following apps. Download on clean system and transfer to usb.
Autoruns – Finds all the crap actually loading at startup.
You will finds all kinds of ‘crap’ that shouldn’t be there.
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Autoruns.zip
Extract and run this to show EVERYTHING that is loaded at start up.
This includes applications, scripts, drivers, active X controls, dll’s and more.

Process Explorer
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip
This helps find unwanted running strigs and helps in there termination.
Run the application to see every currently running process/application on your system.

You will often need some or all of the following applications to ‘kill’ bad processes.
That is, malicious programs that are running ‘un-authorized’ processes.

unlocker
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

wholockme
http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/

file assassin
http://www.malwarebytes.org/fileassassin.php

A great spyware finder:

spybot s&d;
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
I install this as my online scan is running (if possible).
Don’t confuse this application with other that are trading on the ‘Spybot’ name and are in and of themselves ACTUALLY spyware. The one and only original FREEWARE application is here.
http://www.spybotupdates.biz/files/spybotsd162.exe

Remember to have all these files already downloaded and copied to your portable drive.

And to assist in cleaning our all ‘temp’ type files:
CCleaner
Especially usefull if there is an ‘unseen’ internet app (ie or firefox) downloading malware in the background continually
I will run this over and over while running spybot scans.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/download/d1565b7fb77b48a3692a199d871845fd/

Anyhow this is just a quick but I think fairly thorough way of cleaning an infected system if you don’t have a ‘Live’ type of utility or rescue disk available such as UBCD (ultimate boot cd), Hiren’s, or a custom Bart PE disk.