mike says things sometimes

Must remember to check this out at some point in the future:

Microsoft TechNet: Scriptomatic Tool

In case you hadn’t noticed (Or like me aren’t using Vista and don’t really care yet) the windows 2k3 admin pack doesn’t work with Vista.  That’s because MS fails at registering DLL’s.

Thankfully, one poor soul at MS helpfully solved the issue, and MS has given us a fairly simple fix:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930056

Relevant portion below as MS likes to move their KB articles around over time:

To resolve this issue, register the Windows Server 2003 management tools on a domain user account. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Log on to Windows Vista as a user who has local administrator permissions.
2.	Create the RegisterAdminPak.cmd script. To do this, follow these steps: a. Start Notepad, and then open a blank document. b. Paste the following code to the document in Notepad: @echo off REM RegisterAdminPak.cmd REM (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. set filelist=adprop.dll azroles.dll azroleui.dll ccfg95.dll set filelist=%filelist% certadm.dll certmmc.dll certpdef.dll certtmpl.dll set filelist=%filelist% certxds.dll cladmwiz.dll clcfgsrv.dll clnetrex.dll set filelist=%filelist% cluadmex.dll cluadmmc.dll cmproxy.dll cmroute.dll set filelist=%filelist% cmutoa.dll cnet16.dll debugex.dll dfscore.dll set filelist=%filelist% dfsgui.dll dhcpsnap.dll dnsmgr.dll domadmin.dll set filelist=%filelist% dsadmin.dll dsuiwiz.dll imadmui.dll lrwizdll.dll set filelist=%filelist% mprsnap.dll msclus.dll mstsmhst.dll mstsmmc.dll set filelist=%filelist% nntpadm.dll nntpapi.dll nntpsnap.dll ntdsbsrv.dll set filelist=%filelist% ntfrsapi.dll rasuser.dll rigpsnap.dll rsadmin.dll set filelist=%filelist% rscommon.dll rsconn.dll rsengps.dll rsjob.dll set filelist=%filelist% rsservps.dll rsshell.dll rssubps.dll rtrfiltr.dll set filelist=%filelist% schmmgmt.dll tapisnap.dll tsuserex.dll vsstskex.dll set filelist=%filelist% w95inf16.dll w95inf32.dll winsevnt.dll winsmon.dll set filelist=%filelist% winsrpc.dll winssnap.dll ws03res.dll for %%i in (%filelist%) do ( echo Registering %%i ... regsvr32 /s %%i ) echo. Echo Command Completed c. On the File menu, click Save. d. In the Save as type box, click All Files, type C:\Users\UserAccountName\RegisterAdminPak.cmd in the File name box, and then click Save. Notes UserAccountName represents the folder name of the user who is currently logged in. You must run this script in Windows Vista only.
3.	Run RegisterAdminPak.cmd from an elevated command prompt. To do this, follow these steps: a. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. b. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER. Note If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, type cd %systemroot%\syswow64 before you run the following command. C:\Users\UserAccountName\RegisterAdminPak.cmd

As I’m working to consolidate the neat tips I find for a future wiki at work, here’s another neat one:

There is a feature in Windows XP and Vista that not many people know which can save you endless hours and it’s called pushd.

From the command-line if you type:

pushd \\someserver\someshare\somedirectory

Then Windows will automatically map a temporary drive to \\someserver\someshare, change to that drive, then change directory to somedirectory.

When you’re finished you can then type:

popd

Then Windows will change back to your original working directory and remove the mapped drive.

Here is an example:

C:\Temp\> pushd \\someserver\someshare\somedirectory
X:\somedirectory\> del somefile.txt
X:\somedirectory\> popd
C:\Temp\ >

Found at:

http://blog.bartholomew.id.au/2007/12/19/adhoc-mapping-of-network-drives

So I just logged on to one of our severs to do windows updates, and I found an issue.  Turns out Shadow Copies hadn’t run since the end of January when we first set it up.  Massive Fail.

Thankfully, Google saved me many hours and much vodka.

TIP:

If Shadow Copies should “Could Not Start” for it’s status in scheduled tasks, delete the following file:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\S-1-5-18\d42cc0c3858a58db2db37658219e6400_xxx

Then delete the task for shadow copies in scheduled tasks.  Once done, go back to your drive and re-enable shadow copies and you should be good to go.

so I have had this stupid IBM x345 series on my desk for like, a year.  It started having all kinds of battery problems, so I swapped the BIOS battery, and it was STILL giving me battery problems, conflicting bios/firmware/device driver issues without even having an OS, and generally being a bitch.

I finally decided that this thing needed to be dealt with today, and that the fight would likely be EPIC.  So i pulled the card with the trouble battery, took some pictures and sent it around for lulz and to attempt to identify it.  I still don’t know what it does, but when I put it back in it worked, so wtf ever.

SO i tried to run ServeRAID, and it was giving me a fit about bios/firmware/drv not being the same version.  Since I already had the error, I went ahead downloaded the latest bios/firmware update for the card (7.12.something).  Then I finally found some boot floppys, and I went to boot from them and discovered the floppy is full of fail.  Wouldn’t read or boot from it at all.

SO with the magic of Nero, I made some cd’s and tricked the bitch into thinking they were floppy’s, and got it updated.  Then after much digging and pulling of hair, I found the drivers for windows setup to load, and it actually worked.

Now that it’s all installed, I’ve discovered that windows update is the slowest website ever created in the history of man.  I’ve almost completely installed Win2k3 on another server while this stupid thing scans for updates.

God I hate you microsoft.

We are the keyboard cowboy…, originally uploaded by ABLE-X.

They needed a pic for work for this silly newsletter profile of the IT
department. So I sent in this pic for it. I also show one of our trade
secrets on how we solve problems…

So yeah, I take back any nice things I said about this program.  I spent a LONG time getting some HD torrents downloaded.  Upon a reboot, it permanently deleted half of them.  Absolutely no trace of them anywhere, so now my ratio’s are all fucked, and I have nothing to show for it, and I have to redownload them all again.

FUCK YOU MIRO.  FUCK YOU RIGHT HERE, BIG TIME.

Well, it appears that even CES can’t escape the Woo hawkers that pervade modern society.  On display yesterday was the “The Rhythm Touch”..which purported to cure any number of ills from migraines to back pain to Fibromyalgia.  All using “Low Frequency Acu-Therapy”…whatever THAT is.

Of course the best part was the guy screaming in the booth “STOP! I’m ALIVE!”

That’s always a good endorsement

First of 2 leftover bits from CES Yesterday. First off, we have here a giant statue of Bumble Bee the Autobot. If you don’t know who that is, you need to revisit brush up on your nerd-cred.

Workin hard, originally uploaded by ABLE-X.

CES is winding down, and we’re working hard