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Exchange 2010 with Avast disrupts Transport Service
edited by on June 22nd 2012, at 16:00
We updated Avast to the latest version on a client's server running SBS 2011. The update apparently included antispam. All of a sudden, the Transport service kept failing, and all messages (in both directions) landed in the Poison Queue. Restarting the Transport service did not fix the issue, and there was nothing we could do.

Googling around, we found that the trouble was indeed related with Avast. Disabling the Antispam Shield did not resolve the issue, but disabling the transport agent in Exchange, via Powershell was the fix:

disable-transportagent "avast antispam for exchange"

After disabling the agent, everything came to life again.

@ Avast: you should really start  ...
 
Slow printing in Adobe Acrobat
edited by on June 20th 2012, at 13:56
One of the more recurring issues is slow printing of PDF files in Adobe Acrobat. While Acrobat itself works smoothly, printing sometimes comes to a complete halt, taking up to 10 minutes (or even more) per page to print. The more complex the PDF document becomes, the more apparent the problem becomes.

By default, Adobe prints to your printer using PS commands, which then get converted by the printer driver to a language your printer understands (PCL, PS, HPZL, HPGL, ...). More complex PDF documents, i.e. PDF's with lots of objects, a lot of embedded fonts, damaged images, etc., generate more and more complex commands, resulting in spooler files that are a multiple of the original document,   ...
 
Install Exchange 2007 SP3 on SBS 2008
edited by on June 20th 2012, at 12:49
Unlike SP2, there's no installation tool for installing SP3 on an SBS 2008. Fortunately, the installation is pretty straight-forward. The steps to perform depend largely on whether or not your SBS 2008 server is running Forefront Security or not. If it's not, simply install SP3 like you normally would. The installation will succeed without additional tasks. If you are running Forefront Security, you will have to disable it before installing SP3, then re-enable it when installation has completed.

Download SP3: http://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=24111.

Run the software, it will extract its contents to a directory of your choosing. I recommend creating an empty directory as the  ...
 
Windows 7 drivers for Canon PIXMA iX 4000
edited by on June 14th 2012, at 17:38

I had a hard time finding the right drivers for a Canon PIXMA iX 4000 printer for Windows 7. The drivers available on the european website are old and missing 64-bit support. After googling around, I found the drivers on the asian website. Because I lost quite some time searching for them, I thought I just post the direct links here:

 
Get rid of IWantThis adware
edited by on June 14th 2012, at 11:30

A comprehensive guide on removing the I Want This adware can be found on the forums of Spybot S&D.

Direct link: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=65998.

 
Uninstall tool for Office 2003, 2007 and 2010
edited by on June 13th 2012, at 22:15

If you are unable to uninstall Office 2003, 2007 or 2010 the normal way (via Control Panel), you can try with the uninstall tools made available by Microsoft. They do a manual uninstall of all files and registry settings of the selected Office, but without losing removing personal settings.

They are available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971179.

 
Belgian Google search provider for IE
edited by on June 13th 2012, at 10:44

I found it rather difficult to find the Belgian version of the Google search provider for Internet Explorer. Here's the direct link: http://www.iegallery.com/nl-BE/Addons/Details/6218.

 
Linker error "Invalid OMF record type 0x21 (possibly COFF)" in Borland C Builder
edited by on June 11th 2012, at 17:32
When using external libraries (with .lib files) and are getting linker errors like below, you are using an imcompatible import library (.lib) file.

Invalid OMF record type 0x21 (possibly COFF)

The reason for this is that your import library file was designed for MSVC. The one uses the COFF format, which is not compatible with Borland's OMF format.

To solve this, try the following and in preferred order:

Try obtaining the Borland compatible version of the import library. While difficult, this will always work.

Use the conversion tools in Borland. Read Convert MSVC import libraries for use in Borland C Builder for more info on these tools.

Try using IMPLIB to manually rea  ...
 
Convert MSVC import libraries for use in Borland C Builder
edited by on June 11th 2012, at 17:24
By default, import libraries (.lib files) made for MSVC are not compatible with Borland C Builder and Borland Delphi. Since version 6 of Borland C++ Builder, there's a tool which can convert these files in COFF format to OMF format. The tool is called coff2omf and resides in the Bin directory of your Borland installation.

Simply run the file as follows (be sure your path etc. is correct):

coff2omf mylib.lib mylib2.lib

Then, use the mylib2.lib file you just created and add it to your project.

Notice
The coff2omf tool only works properly if the library exports plain C functions. If C++ classes or mangled function names get exported, you usually get linker errors. If this is th  ...
 
dst_lib_init: openssl failure on some Cygwin apps
edited by on June 6th 2012, at 13:51

When I was installing a fresh copy of Cygwin, I noticed that some tools didn't work as they normally would. They would bail out with an error.

C:\Windows\system32>dig
dig: dst_lib_init: openssl failure

A quick search on Google shows that there's a dependency error. While the openssl libraries are installed, the openssl package is also required. After installing that package too, it worked again.

 
Convert FAT32 to NTFS in Windows 2000 (and up)
edited by on June 4th 2012, at 12:01
Since Windows 2000, you can use the convert tool to convert FAT32 partitions to NTFS, provided that enough free space is available to perform the conversion. Any drive can be converted "live" (although the system partition requires a reboot).

To run a conversion, you'll need the drive letter and the volume label. Fetch it using Explorer or by running a command on the command line:

vol C: Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is A83C-E4E8

Next, run the conversion command. If you're converting the system partition, you will have to reboot to complete the conversion.

convert C: /FS:NTFS

This will perform the conversion. Note that it will probably take s  ...
 
Renew the SSL self-signed certificate in SBS 2008
edited by on May 24th 2012, at 16:29
Every two years, the self-signed SSL certificate expires, and has to be renewed in order to ensure your users can continue to connect to the server. This renewal is not difficult, and can be done in a few steps.

Go to the Windows SBS console, navigate to Network, then Connectivity

Click on the certificate icon, and choose view certificate properties to check the expiration dates. If it is expired, continue with the next step.

In Connectivity Tasks, choose to Set up your internet address, and follow the steps. At some point you'll need to enter your domain name (which should be set to the current). If required, adjust your prefix (by default: remote) Upon finishing the wizard, a new self-s  ...
 
Getting WWAN to work on a VAIO after upgrading to Windows 7
edited by on November 15th 2011, at 16:38
Had some trouble on a Sony VAIO VGN-Z41WD which has been upgraded to Windows 7 by performing a complete installation. After installing just about every driver and after installing the necessary components for WWAN for 3G access to the internet, the software just bails out with an error stating it can't find the device.

A closer look in device manager reveals no sighting of said adapter. At first, I thought the device to be broken until I started thinking a little further. The manual states that devices can be turned on and off via the VAIO Control Center, meaning that the device could be presented but not powered on (thus, not appearing in device manager).

Only after installing the   ...
 
vmwaretray DMP files in user profiles
edited by on November 14th 2011, at 15:29
If you're running RDS on a vSphere server with VMware Tools installed, you may have noticed the evergrowing presence of vmwaretray DMP files in the user profiles. These are crash dumps from the VMware Tray icon, which is ran during every session.

The reason for this crash dump is an error which is caused by lack of read access to a certain key in the Windows registry by your regular (domain) users.

This key is called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\VMWare. Inc.\VMWare Tools.

Set the permissions on that key to read access for the users logging on to the server, and your problem should go away.

Hint: you may also wish to remove the icon altogether. This is done by setting a certain registry va  ...
 
Remove VMware Tools icon from system tray
edited by on November 14th 2011, at 15:28

If you're running RDS on a vSphere server with VMware Tools installed, you may wish to remove/hide the system tray icon. This can be done by setting a certain registry value.

The registry value is:

  • Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools
  • Value: ShowTray

Change the value to 0 will effectively disable the icon the next time a user logs on.

 
Configure iCloud in your e-mail client
edited by on November 14th 2011, at 14:52
While unsupported, iCloud still allows access to your e-mail via IMAP, and sending via SMTP. Apple has published the necessary parameters for manually configuring your e-mail client to use the iCloud service.

Server name: imap.mail.me.com

SSL required: yes

Port: 993 (is set by default)

Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)

Password: Your iCloud password

Server name: smtp.mail.me.com

SSL required: yes

Port: 587

SMTP authentication required: Yes

Username: example@me.com (use your @me.com address from your iCloud account)

Password: Your iCloud password

SSL is required for both IMAP and SMTP. POP3 is not supported.

Source: http://support.apple.  ...
 
Moving the WSUS database (in SBS2008/2011)
edited by on November 4th 2011, at 14:06
In SBS2008 and 2011, there's a wizard allowing you to move the WSUS repository to another partition/disk. However, it does not move the state database, which, over time, can grow a bit large. Luckily, one could manually move the database by stopping WSUS, detaching the database, move the files, reattaching it, and finally, starting WSUS again.

First of, stop the required services (WSUS and IIS Admin Service)

net stop "update services"net stop w3svc

Next, detach the database:

sqlcmd -E -S np:\\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query -Q "sp_detach_db 'SUSDB'"

Move the SUSDB.mdf and SUSDB_log.ldf to their new location. Then, reattach the database:

sqlcmd -E -S np:\\.\pi  ...
 
Deleting old versions of Google Chrome
edited by on November 3rd 2011, at 14:20

Each time Google Chrome gets updated, it leaves behind the old version of Chrome. While this comes in handy when you have to downgrade, it also builds up (precious) hard disk space. You can, however, manually remove the old installation files.

Google Chrome is installed by default in your local profile folder, at:

Location
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application

In that folder you will find the main executable (don't remove that) and the different versions of Chrome.

You can simply delete the lower version numbers so that only the highest version remains. This clears out on average 80-100 MB per folder (although it could very well be much more).

 
Lock-n-Roll for Pidgin
edited by on November 3rd 2011, at 14:07

A neat plugin for Pidgin is Lock-n-Roll.

Download here: http://csammisrun.net/blog/2009/06/lock-n-roll-11/

It automatically sets your status to Away, and sets a predefined status message, upon locking your computer (or when it gets locked via screensaver).

 
Location of all user's desktop and start menu in Windows 7 / 2008R2
edited by on October 18th 2011, at 17:38

Just so you (and especially I) don't forget:

  • All user's desktop: C:\Users\Public\Desktop\
  • All user's start menu: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\
 
showing posts tagged with 'windows'
 
 
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