Mike's Mostly Tech blog

Super Windows remote support tools

When doing tech support I often find it is nearly impossible to figure out what people are trying to explain is ‘happening’ with their system and what real problems they are actually having.
Trying to solve technical problems over the phone or via a back and forth chat or email is like trying to give a haircut over the phone. To properly diagnose and resolve an issue I have to be ‘there’ sitting in front of and interacting with their system to actually solve the problem.
Here are some of the solutions I use.

I am a huge fan of LogMeIn for users that I frequently need to access their systems.
[Read family and close friends.]
I have a few paid pro accounts for my personal and business use and lots of free ones (under family and friends email/login credentials) for continuing ongoing occasional support. I can’t say enough about the quality of the LogMeIn service. It is superb. It lets me access my PCs and Macs anywhere – even from my phone!
Becuase of the Mac support from the same interface I find this tool to be the best I’ve used.
It has proved worth the subscription cost hundreds of times over.

For others that I won’t need always on or ongoing access I use TeamViewer. For ‘one off’ logins it is simple fast and easy.
I simply have the end users download the TeamViewerQS component and I can access their systems quickly.

Another method is to have the user use one of the following tools and ‘show me’ what they are talking about and what exactly they are doing by providing me with a ‘recorded session’ of their actions and the problems.

The newest and so far easiest to use is Windows 7’s built in tool.
Called “Problem Step Recorder”. Just type “psr” into the win 7 start menu, and you will find it. It too works very well.
PSR works like a camcorder to capture a user’s mouse movements and keystrokes into a file that can be played back later for problem analysis. This helps me to recreate or ‘see’ the problem situations.
Here is a great walk through of how to use it from the Winhelponline blog

But what can people who run XP or Vista do? There’s no built-in feature to do the PSR work, but there is a free download available on TechNet that does the same thing. It’s called “Screenrecorder” and is a very easy-to-use screen-to-video capture program, developed on top of Windows Media Encoder, that lets you easily capture what is going on to a small video file, which you can then send via e-mail to the appropriate person.
The TechNet description is here.
The actual download is here.
And finally I just learned of a new application that may do the same thing as the PSR and Screenrecorder but is even simpler to use. It’s called “Show Me Whats Wrong”.
Sounds really cool and I am sure to try it soon. Have a look.
Video demonstration is here.
And the site is here.

Windows 7 ‘God Mode’

This is a really cool hack.
It seems to work in all versions of Windows 7.

“GodMode” feature lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

To enter “GodMode,” one need only create a new folder (anywhere, but desktop makes most sense) and then rename the folder to the following [for assured results copy this – from the ‘G’ to the last’}’ ]:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder’s icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. It is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.

This also works in Windows Vista 32bit too but not Vista 64bit.

How to create a bootable upgrade or installation USB thumb drive to install Windows 7

Before you begin, you will require the following:

USB Flash Drive (4GB minimum)
Windows 7 ISO Image file (or DVD as explained in how to create ISO section)
Reading all of my notes completely as things change if you are doing an upgrade vs. new installation. (see the upgrade section for important info.)
You must be careful when using any tool that formats drives – you could toast your current operating system if you are not careful!! I take no responsibility for your lack of attention to detail or inability to read and FOLLOW ALL of these instructions!

The VERY easy ways first!
Method one:
Use the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool!
You will need and ISO image of Windows 7.
Installation:
To install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool:
1. Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool installation file.
2. When you are prompted to, either save the file to disk or run it, choose Run.
3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You’ll have the option to specify where to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool and whether to create shortcuts on your Start Menu or Windows Desktop.
[You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool on.]
Launch the tool, navigate to your ISO file (usually purchased directly through Microsoft store or created by you – see the creating and ISO section), and walk through the wizard.
(Note you can use this tool with Windows Vista ISO too to create a Vista USB install)
That’s it.
The wizard lets you select your source ISO file (Win 7 install), it formats your USB drive/stick, and then copies all your files over and makes that USB drive/stick bootable.

Once you have created your ‘bootable USB Thumb drive you are ready to install.

To do that, reboot your computer.
Now while your system is starting up press the appropriate button (usually F1, F2, F12, ESC, Backspace, or Escape) to bring up Bios Boot Menu.
Change the startup order to boot USB by default. Once done, save changes and restart the system.
On some systems (like Dell) you can just press F12 for a ‘select boot’ option too – very easy.
The install (or upgrade to) your new operating system.

For Windows XP Users
The following applications must be installed prior to installing the tool:
* Microsoft .NET Framework v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.
* Microsoft Image Mastering API v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.

Once the USB is created, by any method describe here, search for and delete the file named ‘ei.cfg’. This is usually located in the ‘\sources\’ directory.

Doing this step is what makes the USB memory stick allow you to install any version of Windows 7 as it no longer has a default version configured.

[Warning: This procedure will allow you to install a copy of Windows 7 that you may not be licensed to have. Therefore you need to be very careful to only select a version that you have a licensed key for as you will not be able activate Windows without valid a key!]

Method Two:
This is much like method one just using an open source tool.
Use the UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) tool found here.
Insert the USB drive, run UNetbootin, and select Disk Image as ISO. Browse your local drive for Windows 7 ISO that you downloaded and click Open. Now Select Type as USB and choose the drive. Once done, it will look like a bit similar to the screenshot shown below.

Click OK and it will begin extracting all installation files to the USB drive. The whole process will take some time, so have patience.

Follow same method as above to boot to the USB drive.

How to create ISO:
If you have a CD or DVD and not an ISO you can try and create and ISO from your DVD using one of these Freeware tools:
LC ISO Creator creates ISO files from CD/DVD-ROM.
download (LCISOCreator.zip – 14 kB)
ImageBurn
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!
Get ImgBurn here

About upgrading to Windows 7:
This section was taken from here.

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 prompt 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 registry trick to upgrade some corporate Netbooks that came with Windows 7 Starter to Volume Licensed versions of Window 7 Enterprise.

Method Three – the hard(er) way:

Creating bootable Windows 7 USB install using Vista and Windows 7 installation DVD:
Step 1. Insert the Windows 7 DVD into your computer and the USB memory stick into your computer
Step 2. Open a “Command Prompt” and run “DISKPART”.

This will launch the diskpart utility in a separate window and perform a UAC prompt (allow access)
Step 3. Type “LIST DISK” and take note what the disk number is of the USB memory stick. This will be the same size as the USB memory stick (eg. 3824 MB = 4 GB).

Step 4. Then type “SELECT DISK X” where X is the disk number of the USB memory stick.
Step 5. Type “CLEAN”. Warning – This will wipe all data from the USB memory stick.

Step 6. Type “CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY”

Step 7. Type “SELECT PARTITION 1”

Step 8. Type “ACTIVE”

Step 9. Type “FORMAT FS=FAT32” (and wait about 5 minutes depending on the size and speed of the USB memory stick)

Step 10. Type “ASSIGN”.

You will notice the auto play window now appears. Take note of the drive letter (e.g. F:\ ) and close this window.

Step 11. Type “EXIT”
Step 12. Back at the command prompt type “xcopy d:*.* /s/e/f F:” where D: is the drive letter of you DVD and F: is the drive letter of your USB Memory stick.

Don’t worry if it takes a long time to copy boot.wim and install.wim as these are the two largest files on the DVD.

Step 13. Once the xcopy is finished run “del F:\sources\ei.cfg” from the command prompt and you Windows 7 Bootable USB memory stick is ready to go. Doing this step is what makes the USB memory stick allow you to install any version of Windows 7 as it no longer has a default version configured.

You can now either boot from the USB memory stick or just run setup.exe from the drive to start the install process. Either way you will now prompted for the version of Windows 7 you want to install.

Recovery from dead HDD

As you can tell from many of my posts I am a fanatic about the importance of backups.
Yet very often many people don’t follow best practices and proceedures for data back up and security.
And there are times when items have not been able to have been backed up in a normal back up cycle or are not synchronized either. Such as laptops of executives that have been on hecktic travel schedules.
I recently had the horrible issue of having one of my executives have his laptop hard drive die while still loaded with data that is/was needed for an upcoming regulatory inspection and audits!
You know when you here that ‘clicking’ and ‘clunking’ you are most likely SOL.
So I remembered, going back about a decade ago, I once used a technique to recover data from an old Novell server that ran a COLD storage array for a large souther California municipality. There was no software available to ‘re-install’ on a new machine (manufacturer long gone) and the needed COLD indexes were on the server drives anyways.
That technique was – Freezing the Hard Drive.
I have used it many times since for years.
I figured I could try that and hope for the best.
It may not always work but if the drive is truly toast it is well worth the shot. Unless you are someone who can shell out thousands upon thousands of dollars for a clean room recovery and reconstuction you may be able to recover data otherwise considered history with this very simple technique.

Many times drives fail because of overheating which can distort the metal. By freezing the drive, you can re-align the read head because the metal shrinks just enough to put it back on track.

Most modern drives use liquid bearings, and lowering the temperature makes these bearings work differently. Also, if there is an electrical fault due to a cracked solder trace, lowering the temperature re-connects the two sides of the crack.

What I did is remove the HDD from the laptop, rap it up in paper towels, throw a buch of those little silica packing packs and put it in a zip lock freezer bag after sucking out as much air as I could.
Then I left it overnight at our office in the deep freezer.
The next day, after having completely loaded up the laptop with a new HDD with an OS, and all our apps, I was ready to give it a try.
I popped out the new HDD from the laptop.
Removed the ‘frozen’ hdd from the bag and packing and put it in the laptop.
I then booted to a recovery;/rescue USB stick [more on those another time].
The first attempt I still had no recognized HDD 0. 🙁
But I restarted again, and BAM!
The drive was recognized and accessible – not even ‘clicking’!
I quickly opend up an ‘Explorer’ from the ‘MiniXP’ session and was able to copy ALL of the data we needed on to the Flash drive. I even got all the favorites/bookmarks, profile settings and other miscellaneous documents from the drive too!
Just after finishing up copying all that, the drive again began to chunk and click. But I still got all our stuff – Yeay!
Another way to do this would have been to use an external ‘cage’ for the drive. And I have done that in the past too. What ever works.
Well just thought I’d pass that on.
By the way, this technique works for Mac’s too! I recoverd an old drive from one my G3’s long enough to get some old Illustrator and PS files I really needed.
After my recent experience I looked around the web and found I am not alone in my experiences. Many others have had success too.
This guy has a good walk through here.
If you search there are sure to be many more.
Good luck and please back up your stuff.

Back ups and System restores

Folks, please back up your data.
Once again I have been involved with a system meltdown where there was NO valid back up available.
I was able to salvage some data only after many, many hours and lots of aggravation.
Please don’t let this happen to you.
If people would create, and more importantly follow an effective back up strategy, they (and I) would live a much less stressful life.
There’s one simple rule about backups that everybody needs to fully understand:
Your files should exist in at least Two places, or it’s no longer a backup! Too often people delete files from their primary PC, assuming they are backed up or worse have their back ups located on the same hard drive on the same PC. A different partition of the same physical drive does NOT count. When hard drives fail they usually take the whole drive down including all partitions.
You data must exist in TWO, separate places at once or it is not a back up.
The simplest way is to purchase an external drive that you back up your data to by creating (and appending) disk images (see below for more) on a regular basis. I believe the most effective backups are Images(Clones).

Large external drives are very inexpensive these days. You can pick up a 1TB drive for around $100 or less just about anywhere.
But remember when backing up your data that you can’t delete it from your main system once it’s been backed up to an external drive. By doing that, you’ve left yourself with only a single copy of your important files, on an external drive that has just as much chance of dying as your internal PC hard drive.
So if you have only one external drive remember that.
Or you can go to my paranoid – but outrageously safe, route:
And use at least TWO external drives for image rotations.
I do.
I believe in the ‘grandfather/father/son’ method of backups.
[This is a method for storing previous generations of master file data that are continuously updated. The son is the current file (the one on your pc or data drive for home users), the father is a copy of the file from the previous cycle, and the grandfather is a copy of the file from the cycle before that one.]
I don’t want to be the guy who lost 25 years of family photo’s or my QuickBooks file with 15 years of business data because I didn’t want to spend a little money and time up front to be safe.

Imaging or cloning is the procedure by which you create a backup that is identical to a bootable system either to another (separate) internal or external drive. This is the ultimate backup! Should your drive fail you can just ‘pop in’ your cloned drive or ‘restore’ that clone image to a new (replacement) drive and your are up and running.
Image software makes a full, exact copy of your hard drive— a mirror image of the operating system, software, data, file organization—everything.
Good description here.
The go to software for me is Acronis or Ghost
Both have home and enterprise solutions. I have used them for many years, and continue to use both of them extensively.
For the price it is inexcusable to not have this software and use it regularly in your back up strategy.
For OS X creating an image is very simple process that can be done without any 3rd party software although I do like using SuperDuper. I have covered that in a previous article here.

Some of you may be happy just having your ‘data’ backed up to an external or online storage solution like Dropbox, Mozy, iDrive or Carbonite. There are others search ’em out.
That is fine and good for immediate back ups or access to current documents while traveling. I sometimes do this to between my image/back up schedule or when I am traveling and I know I will not be able to use a secure system.
I also use Microsoft’s SyncToy to mirror my working folders at home to one of my external drives and at work for my working documents and files. This tool has just been update to increase it’s speed and robustness, especially with network attached storage devices (NAS). You can find it here.
Well that’s all for now.
Please people save some grief and back up your data then back that up!
Peace.

More on Antivirus software

I’m really impressed with Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s very minimalist but it gets the job done. It’s very fast to scan your computer and it isn’t constantly bugging you to ‘renew your subcription’.
Microsoft Security Essentials is the newest addition to Microsoft’s computer protection software. It replaces the Windows Live OneCare subscription service and Windows Defender by providing more comprehensive coverage than either of the two originally provided. Microsoft Security Essentials is free for all Windows users and provides protection against a variety of threats including viruses, malware, adware, and spyware.

Although I still use Symantec Corporate (and other Anti-Spyware solutions – me paranoid) on most of my machines I have been using this on Windows 7 and think it is a GREAT free alternitive to the expensive ‘bloatware’ AV solutions out there now. The only ‘caveat’, if you can call it that, is your system must pass ‘Microsoft Genuine Validation’. I hope all your machines do already, they should. But there is always that chance your operating system was not properly licensed by your OEM or you license key was mistakenly blacklisted.

You can get it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/default.aspx

Be safe out here.

Freeing youself from Cable

Many have heard of people ‘ditching’ their cable company and instead watching TV on or from the internet, but few have learned how to do it. It is one of those things that seems only geeks and techies would or could really do.
But that is simply not the case.
With some of the many freeware applications and generously provided how to guides available, anyone can do this.
Here is one of my favorite ways:
TED (Torrent Episode Downloader) is a free tool that can find episodes of almost any TV show for downloading using a torrent client. It’s database of torrent sources is updated periodically to include new shows, and the program allows users to search for and add any shows that are not listed.

This is an extremely useful and impressive tool that can make the process of finding and downloading your favorite shows very easy; TED brings an easy to use iTunes-store like interface to the world of torrent TV shows.
This program is particularly suited for average users who (a) do not want to wade through torrent search sites and get bombarded with dubious ads and popups, (b) do not have the time or inclination to be searching for torrent sources needed for downloading, and (c) would like a reliable and easy way to find just the episodes that they want to watch.
Here is a good demonstration video.

The home page for TED is here.

Documents

Actual download:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ted/files/ted/0.971/tedv0971.exe/download

Once again the Adam at Lifehacker has done a fantastic job of creating a simple walk through of the application.
You can check that out here:

If you don’t know what a Torrent is or anything about using BitTorrents then check out this Lifehackers Beginers Guide to BitTorrent. It is a GREAT introduction to understanding what a torrent :

For my windows machines I use uTorrent

On the Mac’s I use Transmission

Note:
Some of you may have to configure your router (firewall) to allow the torrent client to receive information through your router – called port forwarding.
I will not go into great length on how to do that right now. You should be able to find all the information you need here at PortForward.comf
Good luck and have fun!

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.

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 Docs Exporting

As most of you know I am a huge fan of Google web apps – Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs.
By being available nearly everywhere (with Internet connection that is) they greatly enhance productivity.
Google docs is a great tool for putting up reference information such as technical walk throughs, How-To’s, and documents and forms that are needed all the time from different locaitons and the like.
Because my natural paranoia though, I don’t put up sensitive information into Google Docs. And I download my Gmail a few times a week to Outlook. Google (and all ‘cloud services’ – MSN, Yahoo etc.) go offline or are sometimes not available, and as I have written before, the security risk of the cloud is still very real.

If you have lot’s of documents in Google Docs and you would like to export them Google has made that MUCH easier now.
Now you can export all your documents, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs from Google Docs in a siungle ZIP archive.
Perfect for making sure your documents are available whether or not Google is available.
Check out this walk through.
Google Batch Export