I had a very interesting case recently where copied EXE files could not be deleted. They would simply remain in the folder like zombies, only to disappear a few minutes later.
Setting up Mobile Broadband (WWAN) on HP Elitebook 8560p
Configuring an HP Elitebook with integrated HS2340 mobile broadband module to use the 3G connection can be a little tricky. Here is how it works – without third-party dialer software!
Authentication Fails Trying to Send Mail via Google Apps SMTP from PHP
As you may know helgeklein.com also hosts a forum where I help people who have questions related to my software. The forum is configured to send out e-mails when new posts are added or when newly registered users need to confirm their e-mail addresses. Since I use Google Apps for helgeklein.com I configured Google’s SMTP [...]
Removing “Eject VMware Virtual disk SCSI Disk Device”
The HotPlug functionality of VMware ESX(i) 4 and 5 has the negative side effect that it is easily possible to “eject” hardware devices from inside the virtual machine, completely removing the respective device from the VM configuration. This is especially bad if it happens to the network card, and others have already described how to [...]
Solved: Disabling the BitLocker Service via GPP Fails
If you want to disable the BitLocker service via Group Policy Preferences, you will find that you cannot. The service’s startup mode stays at “manual” and the following event is logged to the application event log: Type: Warning Source: Group Policy Services Event ID: 4098 User: SYSTEM Text: … error code 0×80070005 access denied … [...]
Walkthrough: Creating a UE-V Settings Location Template
In this article I explain how to create a template for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization. For details on how UE-V works please see my earlier article Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V): Facts and Review. As a sample application I used my permission management tool SetACL Studio. Generator Installation As explained in my review, a UE-V [...]
Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V): Facts and Review
16 years after roaming profiles made their debut in Windows NT 4.0 Microsoft takes another stab at synchronizing user settings across devices – a very different one. As we will see, UE-V is radically different from roaming profiles, but so similar to some other user environment management products that it seems like a best-practices implementation.
Windows 7 Offline Files Survival Guide
Windows Offline Files have a bad reputation. Many an administrator can tell a story where Offline Files caused issues that sometimes even required a reinstallation of the affected PC. But Microsoft has gradually improved the functionality and ironed out many of the bugs. Today – in Windows 7 SP1 with all post-SP1 fixes – Offline [...]
Windows 8 Storage Spaces: Bugs and Design Flaws
When I first read about Storage Spaces in the Windows 8 blog, I was enthusiastic. Finally a replacement for the drive extender technology Microsoft let die so cruelly. Having used Storage Spaces for several weeks now, I am not so sure any more.
Dead Simple Wake-on-LAN for Your Windows Server at Home
Having a server at home is a great luxury, but having a computer running 24×7 is an extreme waste of energy. Turning it on and off manually is not very appealing, either. Luckily we have to do neither. Windows can easily be configured to put the computer into sleep mode (where modern PCs consume approx. [...]
Do Shadow Keys Still Work in Server 2008 R2?
Shadow keys have been around forever, since way before Terminal Services were renamed to Remote Desktop Services (does anybody use that name?). It seemed they would stay in the OS forever, too. Yet, when installing applications on Server 2008 R2 many people notice that the shadow key area does not get populated. Let us find [...]
Windows 8 Storage Spaces – a First(-Hand) Look at Performance
Did I mention I love the new Task Manager in Windows 8? It is brilliantly designed, conveying tons of meaningful information while looking very good. This article is not about Task Manager, though, but about Windows 8 – its Storage Spaces functionality, to be exact. But I will be using Task Manager to analyze the [...]
Building a Low Power, High Capacity Home File Server
I have wanted an energy-efficient multi-terabyte home file server for a long time, but until recently such a system was too expensive for my taste, in terms of both energy consumption and purchase price. But now with affordable 3 TB drives and low power Sandy Bridge CPUs the time has come to build the system [...]
You’ve Got a New Verisign Authenticode Certificate – Now What?
The good news first: You can get a Verisign Authenticode code signing certificate for $99 (at least for the first year). Just check out https://sysdev.microsoft.com/ for details. The bad news: Actually getting the certificate and using it is not so easy. Here are some tips.
Get Rid of Active Setup
Are you still using Active Setup to distribute per-user files or registry values? If so, stop! There are better ways to manage initial user settings.
Solved: “Other” Eating Up Gigabytes of iPad Storage
In preparation for next week’s MVP summit I wanted to fill my iPad with movies for in-flight entertainment when I noticed that a large part of my iPad’s storage capacity was taken up by stuff from some unexplained “other” category. Here is my account of what I did to get rid of it and reclaim [...]
Half a Million Downloads of SetACL
Last month SetACL reached the magic number of 500,000 downloads. That is a lot, especially for a command-line tool which is focused on a very specific aspect of system administration. It took roughly nine years to get from 0 to 500,000. During that time people from 194 different countries visited SetACL’s web site. Those are [...]
How to Troubleshoot Failed MSI Installs
I was given the Aventail VPN client software to install on a customer’s Windows 7 x64 computer. That failed miserably. Here is what I did to find the root cause of the problem.
What Remains of Magic Speed Improvements
Doesn’t every IT pro dream of finding a secret switch, a switch that increases clock speed, doubles the amount of RAM or makes the PC boot faster? Some do, and I admit I was fascinated when I heard that changing a simple boot option would significantly speed up startup time. I made some tests which [...]
How to Speed Up Your Windows 7 Boot Time by 20%
[What I wrote here is wrong. Please read this follow-up article.] Here is a very simple way to reduce the time it takes to boot Windows 7 by around 20% (the exact number depends on the hardware).
Access Based Enumeration on Windows 7
Acess Based Enumeration (ABE) is a well-hidden feature even in Windows Server, where it can be configured per share, but only in the Share and Storage Management MMC and not when right-clicking a folder in Explorer. Thanks to the shared code base ABE is available in Windows 7, too, although hidden even better. Let’s find [...]
How to Make Google Chrome Search via SSL/HTTPS by Default
A while ago I wrote about the dangers of using unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Right now I am connected to such a network and trying hard not to give away authentication cookies or passwords – information that would make it trivial even for amateurs to take over one or several of my accounts. Some of my [...]
Geek Fashion
This is what I’ll be wearing at next week’s WINone: And yes, the letters are made up of actual source code ;-)
Analysis: Require Domain Controller Authentication to Unlock Workstation
Among the many security options that are configurable via Group Policy there is a setting Interactive logon: Require Domain Controller authentication to unlock workstation. For security reasons this is often enabled. Let’s have a closer look at the implications. Those are different from what one might think because the name is a little misleading.
ShMgrate – An Analysis
ShMgrate.exe is an executable file in Windows XP and Server 2003 and one of those files that are documented nowhere. I will try to shed a little light on this tool in this article.
Permissions Windows Does Not Show You
Sometimes it is good not to know the truth, but as an administrator you better know what is going on! Most IT pros know that Explorer lies a lot (on a German system C:\Users magically becomes C:\Benutzer), but few are aware that Windows’ permission handling dialog ACL Editor also tends to “pretty up” things. Example [...]
New File System ReFS in Windows 8: Quick Facts
The introduction of a new file system is a big step even for Microsoft. According to this article in the Building Windows 8 blog ReFS will ship with the server version of Windows 8 only, but will be brought to the client at a later time, too. ReFS was built for resiliency and complements Storage [...]
Windows 7 IPv6 in Enterprise Environments
If you roll out Windows 7 in an enterprise environment you may need to decide what to do with IPv6. As you probably know, Windows 7 comes with IPv6 enabled by default. That is certainly nice, but what if your network does not “do” IPv6 yet? Should you disable IPv6 in Windows 7?
WLAN Security – Beware of (Unknown) Wi-Fi Hotspots
In its issue 1/2012 German c’t magazine published an article about security in Wi-Fi networks. The authors describe how very easy it is to gain access to other people’s accounts and passwords in a world where travelers happily connect to any wireless network they can get hold of. This is a short summary of the [...]
