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Archive for the ‘Tips-Tools’ Category

I have run into the issue of not being able to find the Scanpst.exe file where it should be. I even had show hidden files olders and show system files turned on. I did a search and still could not find it. This file typically would be in one of two locations:

• First: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\
• Second: C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033\

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We recently had a client that required Google Chrome for a web based app. Google Chrome is easy to download and install. Pretty straight forward and easy enough right? Wrong. Google Chrome installs in

• Win Vista/7 - C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\
• Win Xp - C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\

by default. You would think Google would install it to Program Files by default like other applications but it does not.

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Do you need to track equipment, software, and IP addresses in your IT department? These are a given. The issue is many IT budgets have been cut. Well I have had the same issue. There is a solution. If you have SharePoint 2007 you can use it to manage and track all of these things. If your company has not or does not plan to purchase SharePoint 07 dont worry. You can get Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for free and you can manage track all of the above with it.

Download Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

I have made som custom lists that I use everyday in SharePoint to help out in my IT department. I am attaching them to this post to share with others admins out there. You can off course modify these once you have them added to your own SharePoint. These lists are:

• Equipment Tracker: Use this list template for tracking equipment in an IT department.
• Software Tracker: Use this list template for tracking software in an IT department.
• IP Tracker: Use this list template for tracking IP addresses in an IT department.

Click to download my SharePoint IT Kit

These list templates are provided “As Is”. I assume no responsibility with use of them. If you find these lists helpful please sign up and leave a comment letting us know how they have helped you.

I ran across a tool Microsoft has for testing remote Exchange connectivity such as: Outlook Anywhere, ActiveSync, Autodiscover and more. Here is the URL: https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com

Recently I had a virtual machine that would not obtain an IP from DHCP. I noticed the DHCP client service was disabled in windows services. I would enable it, start it and it would start just fine. I would then reboot the VM. The DHCP client service would be disabled again. I had a feeling there was a GPO that was disabling that service. I wanted to check this without going through the domain policy, the local policy and any other group policies that could be causing this. I used a tool in windows called Group Policy Results Tool. You can use this tool to find out how Group Policy settings are affecting both the the computer and the logged-on user.

To track down the GPO setting faster this is what I did:

• Open a command prompt on the client machine
• Type: cd\ (to go to the root of C:)
• Type: gpresult /v >gposettings.txt (This gave me a verbose report of all group polocies applied on the client machine)
• Go to the C: drive and open gposettings.txt in notepad
• I did a search for DHCP in this text file

This brought me to any GPO settings that had anything to do with DHCP. This helped me identify which group policy was pushing down the setting that was disabling the DHCP client service. It was in the Default Domain Policy. This is the path to system services:  Computer configuration\Windows settings\Security settings\System services

If you have a similar issue you can use the above method and Group Policy Results Tool to track down the cause of it.

More information on using the Group Policy Results Tool:

• http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/gpresults.mspx
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321709

Have you ever had devices that where stuck on your system and you needed to remove them. For example someone removed a physical network card from the system without uninstalling it first from the OS. This can be a problem if that network card had a static IP assigned to it. Once you add a new network card using the same static IP that was assigned to the previous network card it will give you an error.

If this were to happen normally you would go to device manager and simply uninstall the device. Well what if they don’t display? That means they are hidden. It is a good thing there is a way to un-hide them so you can uninstall them.

I have created a batch file that contains this:

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Trend Micro HijackThis is a free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer. This tool can help you detect spyware and viruses. Do not use this tool alone. Use this tool along with other spyware and virus removal tools.

Download it here:Trend Micro Hijackthis tool 

So now you have generated a log file using Trend Micro HijackThis. Here is a website that you can upload the log file on to Analyze it.

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Issue:

Your computer is at a slow crawl and you are unable to do anything. This is because Comodo Antivirus is hogging CPU usage. If you look at task manager you will notice that either cpf.exe or  cmdagent.exe hog 100% CPU usage.

Fix:

1. Reboot your computer in safe mode
   To enter to the safe mode, you need to press F8 button before Windows starts booting until you see the boot menu. In the boot menu, select the safe mode.
2. Delete the file in c:\program files\comodo\comodo internet security\scanners\bases.cav
3. Copy c:\program files\comodo\comodo internet security\repair\bases.cav to c:\program files\comodo\comodo internet security\scanners folder(this action will replace the current bases.cav file with the original bases.cav file that comes with the installation).
4. Restart your computer and Update your virus database again.

Performing the 4 above steps should get your computer back to normal.

I found this fix on one of these forums posts linked here:

https://support.comodo.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1092

So I have had certain software crash under Vista or 2008 Server while other applications on the same machine work just fine. Here is one of the errors I see:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: EXECUTABLE.exe
Application Version: 1.7.1.0
Application Timestamp: 4896b682
Fault Module Name: StackHash_3884
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Offset: 002ca978
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.16.7
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 3884
Additional Information 2: b68e6d6fa0c9967afbd16b6d0b9e4ef4
Additional Information 3: 6276
Additional Information 4: a9fd8ecff73ec5510247cf946efdd405

This could be caused by copy protection. Here is how I resolved it:

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Have you ever mapped a drive and chose to have it Reconnect at logon but it did not save the credentials? This has happened to me. The end user has to call you again and again to re-enter the credentials in for them. There are two ways to fix this.

You can use “savecred“. Savecred will save the credentials permanently. The other option is to use “manage passwords” that come with XP in control panel.  Manage passwords will only save the password for the current session once the user has typed the password in after being prompted for it. Here are the work arounds:

OPTION 1: “Manage Passwords”

Map your drive:

• Go to My computer/Computer
  Click on tools then select map drive
• Type in the UNC (\\server\share) that you want to map
• Check the box that says reconnect at logon
• Then click on the connect using a different user name
• It will prompt you for the credentials. Type these in and click ok
• Now click finish and the drive will be mapped using a set of different credentials then the user you are logged in with

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