Peter Bromberg's UnBlog

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes Who shall keep watch over the guardians? Some may  think I write about this subject ( example ) too often, but frankly, I don't think I write about it often enough: Your server (or workstation) machine is important. Having it not boot up properly or operate normally  can often mean serious loss of income. That's real hard-earned dollars that you CANNOT GET BACK.  So why is it that so many Admins don't have a reliable backup and recovery strategy? Maybe we just think "it can't happen to me". Or maybe we're just plain stubborn and dumb! The single most important ingredient of a recovery strategy is the ability to restore a known good Registry.  Registry corruption often occurs when the machine is shutting down as OS changes are being written to the Registry. It can also occur if there is a network (TCP)  glitch or a power glitch. The bottom line is this: NOBODY IS IMMUNE TO REGISTRY CORRUPTION!  NOBODY! R...

If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?   - Steven Wright This is kind of an interesting little exercise that came from our eggheadcafe.com forums and I thought I’d write it up for posterity: User has some sort of logging program (not a service) that depends on SQL Server being up and running in order to do it’s work. Problem is, the little proggie is starting to work before the SQL Server service does on bootup. So the user is asking how you can delay the start of the proggie. Being my helpful self, I advised him to write a .NET console app, have the app sleep the main thread for the specified time, and then use Process.Start to execute the real program. User responds that he doesn’t know what Sleep means; if only there was a way to do this with a batch file. Well, not to be daunted, I went out and did a bit of research. Turns out that there isn’t any native DOS command to “sleep” a batch file. The only way you could do it is to use something from one of the Window...

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this. --  - Bertrand Russell Vista's DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is designed to prevent unauthorized or dangerous code from executing on your system. However, sometimes legitimate programs such as Windows Media Player or even Windows Explorer may trigger DEP actions, whether legitimate or not. One example is when you have files in the Recycle Bin and you attempt to open Recycle Bin and choose "Empty the Recycle Bin". Data Execution Prevention jumps up with that ugly "Windows Explorer has stopped working" dialog.      Here's a fix that works for me: Open Control Panel, and go to  "SYSTEM". On the left side click "Advanced system settings".  Click the "Advanced" tab and under Performance, click Settings.  Now click on the "Data Execution Prevention" tab. Check the "Turn on DEP for all programs...

Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.    -- Friedrich von Schiller I don't know about you, but in our " Things I hate most about Windows Vista " poll, one of the most frequently ticked topics was "Folders that refuse to remember the view settings you've set".  If you set a Details View with "All Items" on a folder and then drop a couple of jpegs in there, Vista tries to "help you" by changing the view. Well, I don't WANT Vista to help me! I don't want Documents, I don't want Pictures and Videos, and I don't like Green Eggs and Ham! (In the forums they are calling it "VisDUH"). Here's a fix from the TechNet forums , converted into a batch file:   setlocal set BASE_KEY=HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell :: Delete cached folder views reg delete "%BASE_KEY%\Bags" /f reg delete "%BASE_KEY%\BagMRU" /f :: Set default folder template reg add...

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.   - Marshall McLuhan Jeesh! After months of having Windows Update not working because I volunteered to be a Beta Tester for Service Pack 1, I got an email from the MotherShip yesterday congratulating me for my participation, with links to the RTM real deal. You have to be very careful with this because on Microsoft Connect there are a whole bunch of links and what you want is the file that looks like this: 6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Client_en-us-FRMCFRE_EN_DVD.iso make sure the .18000. build number is in there - that's the RTM. In FTM, you should see: "Windows Vista SP1 Client for X86 and X64 English and German" So I burned the sucker to a DVD and ran the Setup.exe off of it from within Windows Vista. Batman! The Upgrade option was enabled! Holy Jamoca, could this be the start of something good? You cannot "undo" an RC Vista Service Pack whose "View Available Updates" entry is gone by trying t...

The gods too are fond of a joke. - Aristotle Recently I upgraded XP Pro to Windows Vista Ultimate. It wasn't until sometime later that I found I had lost my DVD drive. The driver appeared in Device Manager but it had that familiar yellow exclamation mark indicating a problem loading the driver. After a bit of searching, I discovered that the culprit was Roxio CD/DVD software (e.g., "DLACDBHM.SYS" et. al.) which is not Vista - compatible, and thus blocks correct loading of the built in Vista CD/DVD drivers. The FIX: First step, in C:\Windows\System32 you need to find the DLA folder and delete it. That's their "Stuff". If you want to get sophisticated, you can search the registry for all keys that point to any of these .sys drivers and remove the entries. Next, run this Registry Fix script courtesy of Doug Knox: 'Restore CD-Roms and DVD's to Explorer 'xp_cd_dvd_fix.vbs '© Doug Knox - rev 04/14/2002 'Downloaded from www.dougknox.com 'ba...

The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it. - PB Medawar Hans Passant, an MVP and moderator of one of the MSDN Forums, found some interesting items: The .NET 3.0 version of the framework as installed on Vista is not the same as the one installed on XP SP2. On Vista, the setup utility overwrites all the V2.0 assemblies and upgrades them from version 2.0.50727.42 to 2.0.50727.312. There are some differences between the 42 and the 312 revisions of mscorlib.dll and System.dll. There are indeed a few places where 312 explicitly checks for Vista . There are several places where a SecurityPermission attribute is changed from InheritanceDemand to LinkDemand. And what looks like bug fixes in PerformanceCounter, FileWebRequest, RuntimeMethodInfo and UdpClient. Hans says that WaitHandle is the most visible class with new exceptions being thrown. There's also a potentially breaking change in HttpServerUtility that was discovered by Juan Llibr...

OK, it's Microsoft Windows Update "Fun Time" again! KB929729 Security Update for .NET 1.1 shows up in Windows Update and guess what? It never goes away. It's like it's going to be there wanting to get reinstalled like FOREVER. The 1.1 service pack was an optional update that many users did not install, so the latest security update is doomed to fail. The security update did not search for the right version prior to installation so either you got a installation failure message or it "updated sucessfully" only to reappear as a needed update a few minutes later. If you are unfortunate enough to have .Net Framework version 2 or 3 without updating your service pack for version 1 your headaches just got worse, because the official "FIX" for this involves uninstalling ALL versions of .NET Framework and is quite painful. Fortunately for many the shorter "Fix" I detail here should work. NOTE: This is for Windows VISTA ONLY. 1) Instead of using...

There's stuff out now that apparently has punched MS's Hotbutton enough times so that they are releasing the fixes now -- before Service Pack 1 comes out. We got some real chemistry here -- I felt it! The info and download page for this is here . This isn't a very long list of "Fixes", but the ones I list here (assuming they work!) will make me feel better: When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... say what? After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen. After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address. Poor memory management performance occurs. You gotta just love that last one "Poor memory management performance occurs" - man if that isn't the biggest catch-all for whatever Vista ailment you've got! Did you know that over 50% of Windows Vista...

Windows Update is great -- when it works. There have been a few slip-ups in recent months, and this is another one. What I got is basically the update failed to install. So, I resorted to installing the list of updates one - by - one. All worked except KB935807. FInally I downloaded the .msu from TechNet and installed it by double clicking on the file out of Windows Explorer. That worked, except for one thing - Windows Update keeps showing up in the Notification area, reporting that I need to install - you guessed it - KB935807! There's some "stuff" appearing on the web about this, lots of people are getting it, it's a patch for the firewall, which service I keep disabled since my wireless router -- like most routers -- already has one built in. (Yikes - how many firewalls do we need, folks -- really?). So far, this is the only "Fix" I've seen. I want to caution that I have not used this, nor do I know if it even works: Follow the instructions below 1. O...

"No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -- Nietzsche And so continues my never-ending love/hate saga with Windows Vista: You try to open Internet options From the IE Tools menu, or from the Control Panel Internet Options applet. In IE, you get a dialog box "this operation has been canceled due to restrictions ...". In Control Panel, it just silently fails. Yeesh, methinks - more Vista BS! Well this just cropped up on my Vista box (or at least I just noticed it). So after not directly finding anything with a few well-placed searches (which right there indicates it's probably a fairly new issue), I decided to start undoing some of Microsoft's little "hotfixes". The latest crop were all installed on June 13, 2007 and the ones I removed include these KB numbers: 929123 931213 933566 905866 936825 I'm sorry I cannot be more specific, but I'm not gonna reboot after every single one. I uninstall four to six at a time a...

One of the biggest impediments to successful software development is communications, and the biggest part of that, in my opinion, is the ability to listen effectively . I write this not only as an instructional piece, but to remind myself that I too suffer from Listening Dysfunction (LD). I am glad to say that I'm getting better at it all the time, but sometimes I just can't seem to keep it up (the listening, that is). Your doctor generally cannot prescribe some "blue pill" for this, however - you have to fix it yourself. Have you ever been in a situation where you are conveying a concept or explaining something, and the other person constantly interrupts or "talks over" you? They're not listening. They are involved in some other agenda. Perhaps they hear what you are saying, but the comprehension is not there. Or, have you ever sent an email to somebody with several points in it, but you get a response that only addresses one point? The respondent didn...

Here is an interesting experience. I don't know how this happened, but either through my careless deletion of an errant Registry key, or some other demon in the OS, I lost the COM+ subsystem when I rebooted Vista. This means you get errors like "Not enough storage space" and so on. Windows Restore is grayed-out, and all kinds of other goodness. Not only that, but the system won't recognize the Windows Vista DVD in the drive since it now thinks it's a blank CD. DOH! Unlike with previous OS versions, you cannot repair Windows Vista from the Boot CD unless there is either a System Restore point or you've backed up the system to another drive or other acceptable media. Since I had no backup and could not see "System Restore" I was sunk, right? That would leave only the option of a fresh install which would rename my old Windows folder to windows.old or something like that. Then, if I wanted my software, I'd have to boot into another OS (I've got ...

This came from one of my favorites in the C# newsgroup, Willy DeNoyette. I'll simply post the questions and answers directly, since there is no need to modify it except for some formatting and cleanup: Q) I need to restart the "Windows Audio Service" (audiosrv) via C#. I'm using the ServiceController Class to do this. It is no problem under XP and no problem under vista if UAC is disabled. But with enabled UAC i'm getting a "access refused" exception. I also tried to do it via console with "net start ..." but the same error appears. Three questions: 1. Is it possible to restart the "windows audio service" if UAC is enabled ? A) Yes when running as full "Administrator". That is start the console (cmd interpreter) by right clicking "Run as Administrator". 2. Why does the exception occur? If I do some other stuff, e.g. starting regedit via Process.Start() the user gets asked if he really wants that. I would expect the...

Lots of people (me included) have been complaining that Flash (such as for viewing videos on Youtube.com) doesn't work. You go and install Flash again (as prompted) and when you go back to view the video it's like you haven't done anything -- no Flash. Here's the fix: Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash Then right-click over both 'Flash9b.ocx' and 'FlashUtil9b.exe', and choose Properties. In Properties choose the "Security" tab. Click on the "Everyone" account (or add it if it isn't there), and the button called "Edit" and then check the box called "Full Control", click "Apply" and do the same with your own Windows local account name. Once you have done this for both files, run the FlashUtil9b.exe and it should install and update and tell you to restart. Do so and you should now find that YouTube and other sites that use Flash now work.

One of the so-called "nice" new features of Windows Vista is the "rebuilt" defrag engine. Problem is, I don't like it. Why? I like to SEE what's being defragged, and I like to SEE a visual representation of what my filesystem looks like. The main reason for this is that I can choose different defrag methods (such as with O&O Defrag) and get better file ordering. Also, when I get to see what's happening, it helps me to identify files I know I don't need and I can delete them, and do a follow-up defrag. Unfortunately, O&O doesn't have anything out for Vista yet (yes I know you can Orca the MSI, but I ain't doing that!). Diskeeper isn't ready for Vista either. Frankly, I don't know what these people have been doing all this time. They knew Windows Vista was coming out, the defrag API has been readily available to them to get their products ready. What, were they waiting for Godot ? At any rate, Raxco, which makes PerfectDisk, has...

"Linux sucks twice as fast and 10 times more reliably, and since you have the source, it's your fault." -- from Google Codebase Search I have Vista Ultimate running on two PC's now, my notebook, and my "Main machine" where it resides on one hard drive, dual booting with Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition on the other drive. I'm getting to like Vista so much that I've even changed the Outlook default .Pst file to the one from the x64 OS so that I'll have the same Outlook data whether I boot into Vista or Windows Server. At this point, I have everything pretty much set up the way I want, and I've gotten past a few of Vista's quirks with security and such to the point where I feel happy with the OS. There are some plus items I've noticed about Vista, and also a few minuses: Plus: 1) It boots FAST. Much faster than Windows Server. 2) You can put it to Sleep (like "Hibernate"). Your Computer's power light g...

Vista RTM is out for MSDN subscribers, so I figured it would be as good a time as any this morning to install it on my second drive (the one where I had an x64 version of Windows XP that I hardly ever use.) So I booted off the DVD and asked Vista to install itself "new" (not an upgrade) on this drive. I've already had some experience with this in the betas and I figured it would be cleared up by RTM, but no joy. About 85% through the expanding files phase you get a dialog that says "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration." and that's the end of that. Now there have been a number of so-called "Fixes" for this that involve a missing registry key, that go something like the following: "This bug happens when partition manager is missing as upper filter for disk. The following steps will fix this: 1. Open HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} using regedit. 2. Confirm that Upper...

Today Microsoft released what is expected to be the final build of Windows Vista to leave Redmond before the final RTM code. 5744, like its predecessor, is built on the final RTM source code branch. My only issue with RC1 (x64) was that it couldn't perform an upgrade over a pre-existing Windows XP x64 edition. That meant I'd have to spend hours reinstalling various pieces of software, a luxury of time that I can't afford right now. I installed the 32 bit version on a separate partition on my plain vanilla Gateway AMD Turion notebook, but it would not recognize the sound card, so I gave up. The main issue with this stuff, at least from the 64-bit standpoint, is driver compatibility. The same thing happened with Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP x64 - the manufacturers were slow to arrive at first base with their 64-bit drivers. We will see how it goes this time, eh?