Tag Archives: howto

Files to delete when imaging a system.

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Such as when you use the GHOST disk imaging product.  This is a revision of a post I wrote back in November 2009, and it’s about time to update it.

So here is the revised list I files I delete when I GHOST/image a system:

Directories to clean up:
%TEMP%
%PROGRAM FILES%\CA\eTrust\Debug

%PROGRAM FILES%\CA\SharedComponents\PPPPRealtime\Logs
%PROGRAM FILES%\CA\SharedComponents\PPPPRealtime\Logs
%PROGRAM FILES%\CA\SharedComponents\ScanEngine\Logs

%WINDIR%\CSC
%WINDIR%\PREFETCH
%WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\CCM\LOGS
%WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\DLLCACHE

Files to delete
386Spart.par
Amizvsus.pmf
Dos data.sf
Ghost.dta
Hiberfil.sys
Hibrn8.dat
Hybern8
Navsysl.dat
Navsysr.dat
Pagefile.sys
Pm_hiber.bin
Save2dsk.bin
Saveto.dsk
Spart.par
Swapper.dat
Toshiber.dat
Virtpart.dat
Win386.swp
%WINDIR%\dpinst.log
%WINDIR%\INF\SYSSETUP.PNF
%WINDIR%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\*.EVT

Other
System Restore Points.
The best, and safest way I have found to clear the System Restore cache is to
a) Turn it off, click ok on the “System Restore is going to delete it’s restore points” and then
b) Turn it back on.

How to change your Facebook profile picture

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  1. Click on your name to go to your Facebook home page
    Step 1 - Click on your name to go to your facebook homepage
     
  2. Click on Photo
    Step 2 - Click on photos
     
  3. Click on one of your photo galleries
    Step 3 - Click on one of your photo galleries
     
  4. Click on the picture that you want to make your new profile picture
    Step 4 - Click on the picture that you want to make your new profile picture
     
  5. Click on “Make Profile Picture”
    Step 5 - Make Profile Picture
     
  6. Facebook will ask you to you want to “crop” your photo.
    Drag the corners of the transparent box to “crop” the photo to how you want it to appear as your Facebook profile.
    Step 6 - Drag the corners of the transparent box
     
  7. When finished cropping your profile picture, click “Done Cropping”.
     
  8. Congratulations, you have a new Facebook Profile picture.

The "Always ask before opening this type of address" issue

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We’re rolling out a new version of Internet Explorer for a customer.  They were on IE6…

During the pilot, they reported this issue.
Attachment_Manager_Caused_Prompt

The error about is actually generated by a Windows feature called the "Attachment Manager".

"The Attachment Manager in Windows can help protect your computer from unsafe attachments that you might receive with an e-mail message and from unsafe files that you might save from the Internet."

It seems I had gotten two things wrong.

  1. failed to configure the corporate internet address as being in the "Intranet" zone.
  2. failed to configure the Attachment Manager at all.
        Low_file_types

So about that Attachment Manager.
The group policy to configure Attachment Manager can be found in System.Adm.
I created a Attachment Manager only ADM file, which you can download here.

Some reference articles:
Description of how the Attachment Manager works in Microsoft Windows
How To Configure Trusted Sites In Internet Explorer For A Group Policy
Why don’t the file timestamps on an extracted file match the ones stored in the ZIP file?

How to connect your Android Phone to a PC.

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(wrote this for a friend who has a HTC Desire HD)

  1. First connect your phone to your PC with this cable.
    The small end plugs into your phone, where you’d normally plug the charger.
    Micro USB Cable
  2. Your phone will now display an icon like the one circled in RED (top left of picture):
    USB Notification Icon
  3. Swipe from the top-down to expand the notification box:
    20110919-1830-06
    Press on the "Charge Only" and change it to Disk Drive
  4. Then click on “Done”.
    Disk drivetH
  5. Shortly afterward, you should see a new drive on your computer.
         (your photos will be in a folder called "DCIM")

Getting a list of users in an Active Directory group.

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Like the write up I did on how to get a list of users in your domain, there are several ways to do this, but the method I prefer to use is get-QADGroupMember command from the Quest Active Server Roles PowerShell module.

  1. Start the ‘ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory’ console
  2. Enter the following command string
    Get-QADGroupMember  -sizelimit 0 'MyDomain\My AD Group Name' | Select-Object sAMAccountName, DisplayName
  3. and then press Enter

SamAccountName    DisplayName
DaggF             Fred Dagg
CollinsP          Paul Collins
SprouleK          Ken Sproule
ReithP            Peter Reith
SmithC            Coach Smith
RookeM            Mike Rooke

Or if I want to dump it out to a CSV file, so I can look at it in Excel:
Get-QADGroupMember  -sizelimit 0 'MyDomain\My AD Group Name' | Select-Object sAMAccountName, DisplayName | Export-CSV 'c:\temp\My AD Group Name.csv'

To dump all the user details out, you could doing something like:
get-QADGroupMember  -sizelimit 0  -IncludeAllProperties -SerializeValues 'MyDomain\My AD Group Name' | Export-CSV 'c:\temp\My AD Group Name-ALL Details.csv'

Note(s):

  • This will ONLY get the direct members of a group.  It will not get members of a AD group that is in the AD group you are trying to list out.
  • If you are querying a different domain, you need to connect to it first.  ie. connect-QADService -service ‘MyDomain’

Getting a list of users in your AD domain.

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Update 12/2015: A Powershell version of this article is here.

There are several ways to do this, but the method I prefer to use is GET-QADUser command from the Quest Active Server Roles PowerShell module, as it will dump the information I want with a minimum of fuss.

  1. Start the ‘ActiveRoles Management Shell for Active Directory’ console
  2. Enter the following command string
    Get-QADUser -sizelimit 0 | Select-Object sAMAccountName, DisplayName
  3. and then press Enter

    SamAccountName    DisplayName
    DaggF             Fred Dagg
    CollinsP          Paul Collins
    SprouleK          Ken Sproule
    ReithP            Peter Reith
    SmithC            Coach Smith
    RookeM            Mike Rooke

Or if I want to dump it out to a CSV file, so I can look at it in Excel:
Get-QADUser -sizelimit 0 | Select-Object sAMAccountName, DisplayName | Export-CSV 'c:\temp\AllDomainUserNames.CSV'

To dump all the user details out, you could doing something like:
Get-QADUser -sizelimit 0 -IncludeAllProperties -SerializeValues | Export-CSV 'c:\temp\AllDomainUserDetails.csv'

Resetting the main account password on a Android phone (Froyo 2.2)

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Account resetI stupidly reset the password on the Gmail account I use for Android phone sync-ing.  This broke Android phone sync.  The fix I came up with:

  1. Visit https://www.google.com/accounts/UnlockCaptcha?
  2. Enter the account name and password.
  3. Enter the Captcha

Now on the phone

  1. Sync the phone
  2. Enter the Captcha if prompted
  3. Enter the account password.
  4. Fixed!

Disabling the laptop touchpad when typing.

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clickpad-pageOne of my pet peeves with using a laptop fitted with a touchpad, is that sometimes the cursor jumps around the screen and you get results like this:

is that sometimes the curjumps arounsor

 

Help is at hand.  I use a program called TouchFreeze which disables the touchpad while you type.  Works well, I’m happy with it.  You can download it here.
TouchFreeze

 

You want another choice?
TouchpadPal.  I’ve not used it, but it’s been recommended to me.
tpp

What my 3-2-1 backup looks like.

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There are people who do backups, and there are those who have not lost data yet.

I use the 3-2-1 Backup strategy, which is:

  • 3 copies of anything I want to keep
  • 2 different backup media types
  • 1 (at least) offsite storage location

In practice, it looks like this:

Wisefaq 3-2-1 Backup

Yes, it’s a bit complicated.  If could be less complicated:

  • if I used “the cloud” for my backup.
    Cost / limited bandwidth rules that out.
    (I backup 100’s of GB, so the cloud would get expensive fast).
  • if I used Windows Home Server.
    The backup software in WHS is image based.
    Image based backups would use Terabytes of space.
    To save space/cost, I’d need a file based backup.

My ideal solution?  Something like a DROBO-like device, which has built in disk encryption.

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