Tired of waiting for Microsoft's Consumer Extended Security Updates?

I've been promising customers that the option to take up the “Consumer ESU” is coming soooon.. but I've only seen it pop up once If you'd rather pay - here is where you do to get it https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n87tz9kbj74

How to format a USB drive to EXT4 - so that it reliably writes more than once from a Readynas 

Get these tools:
to create an ext4 partition
http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Home-Edition
(freeware)
to be able to read it on Windows
http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/extfs-windows.html
(requires registration)
Paragon can be loaded just as required (don't integrate unless needed.
No reboot was required to install these two and use them on Win7 Pro :)

(or use http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/
or
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/files/latest/download
neither of which I have tried)

Outlook 2003 cannot open this email

This generic error has a host of possible causes and therefore suggested solutions.. the most tempting of which was to go "Open Source" ;) removing Add-ons, safe mode, repair install had no effect.
I even tried changing the default viewing and composing fonts. Desparate, eh?

However the fix was simply taming that terrible excuse for a program that is Macafee. Still, the customer has just made the mistake of shelling out online for it, so no chance of demanding a refund...

THE SOLUTION:
I disabled the parental control and safe surf components leaving the main antivirus bit running, and voila, I could once again see the body of emails without having to first reply in plain text! Grrr (Not sure which of the two components was the culprit, but I would suggest the surf part.. due to the attempt at web'ing everything back in 2003.) How well did that work out?!

Dreaded Office XP 1706 error - The SOLUTION

You will have found this post searching for Office XP or version 2002 and the error 1706 which pops up every time you load Word or Excel. It prompts for the installation files, in my case PRO.MSI, and gives no clue as to whether these are expected on a fileserver, a CD or some local path.
No doubt you will have somehow located an old copy of an Office XP pro cd, resourceful IT guru that you are, but despite pointing the dialog to all the possible folders on the cd, it refuses to find or open the files it needs.
Next, you make sure it's patched up to date [how much longer will patches be available for these old versions?]
Then you tried a Repair install - rather than an un- and reinstall...
All that accomplished for me was to loose the profile in the accompanying Outlook 2003 installation, meaning the I had to fix the nickname file (more on this below).
Oh, and of course you tried running the app in safe mode, and the repairs etc as admin?
You even got desperate and tried the reg file fix Tip 171 (from memory).. here http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
But this alas made no difference either.

THE SOLUTION:
Copy the PRO.MSI file onto the hard disk somewhere and point to it there instead of on the cd. I chose the same folder as the Office exes were located, not sure if that made a difference, but seemed to work for me.
This got me past the now well-known first hurdle locating the file, but two new dialogs popped up prompting me to install some ttfs, (I forget which as I was certain I was not getting any further), yet I just chose "Ignore" to these two, and, Voila, the error did not reoccur!

Regarding the Outlook Profile issue, it seems that a repair install of Office 2002 affects Outlook 2003 by renaming the profile from Outlook to Copy of Outlook.
The most marked effect of this is that the autosuggest feature (when typing an email address) is reset to empty - ie no entries in it at all
Needless to say, this can result in very grumpy customers if they rely on it heavily. (Especially where the addresses are a combination of those in the Contacts folder address book, and the Windows address book, heaven knows why that particular mess never got sorted out over the many version of Outlook even to parent day!?)

THE SOUTION: rename the .NK2 file to match the changed profile name, in my case "Copy of Outlook.NK2". Fixed!

A user on Kelly's corner reports the following fix:
What did work:
Make the limited user an Admin gp member
Open Word, respond do the installer prompt
Remove Admin gp membership from the limited user acct
No more install prompt

Problem scenario:
Win XP Pro, SP1
Standalone computer (no domain involved)
Office 2000 SP3
Admin gp member did initial install of Office, SP1a, SP3

Create a limited user acct
Reboot, logon as that user
Open Word
Error 1706 dialog displays

Windows Home Server

Having a computer server at home seems like something restricted to a home business or hardcore geek. Well not anymore. Windows home server delivers management, sharing and protection of our increasingly multimedia digital lives. It's a centralized place to store and share files on your home network. Manage digitally recorded TV episodes, downloaded movies and music content and stream these to other computers or provide access to them over the internet. Automatically back up all your computers at home. Log in to the server from anywhere on the internet. There are a large number of free extensions that can provide all sorts of useful services.

MediaSmart Servers when not in use go into standby mode and use as little as 1-3 watts and at a size smaller than a shoe box this is difinately a cool unobtrusive addition to any home multimedia entertainment setup.

I set up the system at home more out curiosity rather than to use a particular feature but quickly found it useful for a number of applications I hadn't considered. One extension I tried was called FirePlay and allowed me to stream my music to any computer. At a friends house talking about a particular song, a couple of clicks and it was playing on his laptop. Managing backups has always been a hassle but the home server made it easy.

This product has been out for a number of years but is only now becoming useful as our lives and entertainment are more and more being stored as digital files.



HP LX197 Mediasmart Server RRP $816.00

How to use Remote Access to read Email

https://your private ipaddress here/remote

type in the numbers (as in this fictitious example)
https://203.24.156.143/remote
(see the image below for the real numbers to use)
Save this as a shortcut or bookmark


Using Internet Explorer you will see

[caption id="attachment_176" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="choose to continue to this website"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_179" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="login with your SBS username and password


With Firefox it will look like this"][/caption]





[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Once you type in the URL as shown you should get this prompt"]

[caption id="attachment_180" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Click on \"I understand the Risks\" and choose ADD EXCEPTION"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_181" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Choose to permanently get and store the certificate (so you won\'thave to do it every time) With either browser it will be similar from now on"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_183" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Once logged in choose to read your email as if at work"][/caption]


[caption id="attachment_184" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Almost as good as being there :)"][/caption]

SATA drives - what you need to know on older systems

Modern motherboard cater well for SATA as do recent iterations of various operating systems, but older pcs can be a challenge.

It's good to understand the basics.

Drivers for the SATA type drive must be loaded in addition to the standard set provided by XP install disks.. see for example this good post on how to chkdsk a troublesome sata drive: http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/windows-xp-support/99602/Running-CHKDSK-on-a-SATA-Harddrive.

The other little conundrum is when a cloning an IDE to a new bigger better faster SATA drive, all goes well until the system is rebooted. Assuming you remember to set the bios boot options to chose the sata disk, then you'd think all would be well.
But if you leave the old ide source disk connected, then Windows in its wisdom enumerates the original partitions drive on the old drive from C, resulting in the new operating system on the sata drive with a drive letter other then C - sometimes way down the alphabet (if there are partitions more or usb media card readers) .

I don't know about you, but I found it unnerving to have windows on the J drive!

Granted it may actually work, but why mess with things you don't gotta mess with? (Especially on a customer's system where you cannot possibly test all the programs)?!

The trick is to UNplug the old ide drive the first time you boot the system after cloning. AND you need to delete the partitions or format the old drive as well before plugging it back in.

Reading here shows others have found this out too: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Misc/Q_21664352.html?sfQueryTermInfo=1+10+30+drive+id+letter+sata+xp
Summary after cloning, remove the source disk, or else windows will see two identical volume identifiers and assume something is wrong..
So the moral of the story is: (a) clone the drive; (b) switch the drives or remove the source; and (c) THEN reboot. Delete the partition on the source using another PC (or with the destination disk removed). Then put the source back and the now clean original disk which will come up missing but can be added in again using the disk manager. This works even from IDE to SATA (where you want to put the old small IDE disk back in as a backup drive and use the new, fast SATA to boot and work from most of the time).

Another example
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Misc/Q_21281623.html?sfQueryTermInfo=1+10+30+drive+id+letter+sata+xp

Oh, and one other useful post I found summarises as:

once WinXP has rebooted in after a fresh install of the operating system get your motherboard cd driver disk and install the winxp Sata/ Raid drivers before you install sp2 or anything else.

Windows 7 needs more than 40GB on C

Just an FIY (or should that read Just a FYI (?)

Being too clever by half, I partitioned a 160GB drive into a 40GB C drive so that I could have two more 60GB partitions.

Long story short  - this is NOT enough space for Win7 Pro. (Not sure what all is taken up by all those giga flops!??!)

The good news is that there is an easy fix.

Disks can be resized, but using Windows 7's disk manager, only onto contiguous space (free space adjacent to the partition you want to change).

To resize non contiguous partions, I found a neat little gui that allow you to move (by sliding) any drive in the way across to the right a bit. A reboot and not-too-long nervous wait completed the process.

Found here: http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-67251-how-to-merge-windows-partition-to-increase-c

and the program is  Easeus Partition Master Home Edition here (http://download.cnet.com)

Hallelujah - all praise be to win7 (and free apps that really work)

VPN - it can't be THAT hard (- can it?)

The VPN solution sounds perfect.. "just set up a tunnel through the public network for your private use..."

However, one can do a LOT of reading around a subject without getting to the nitty gritty of what to do.

This is one of those rare occasions, however, when I found a how-to summary that succinctly described what to do, without too much technical detail, but with enough of what you need to know to get it working.

Rather than rewrite Larry's words, I will quote his post in full here

http://forums.techarena.in/small-business-server/955926.htm

Oh - and to answer the question of browsing - simply map a drive on the client machine to \\ip.address.of.server\share using the domain authentication.

Easy.

24-04-2008

Larry Struckmeyer Posts: n/a

Re: VPN Connects but unable to browse Network HELP!! Hi: In general, I recommend RWW over VPN for connecting remotely. If you have a particular issue that requires a VPN connection, I would appreciate if you would share. To use VPN with your SBS you must first run the CEICW and permit that service to be used. Then run the RRAS wizard to setup the WAN ports. These are the second and third wizards on the To Do List in Server Management. You must have a router/firewall that has port 1723 forwarded to your SBS and that allows GRE 47 to pass. Some older devices do not allow this. And theother hardware related issue is that the SBS ip ranges and the remote ip range must be different. That is, if SBS is 192.168.16.x internal, and 192.168.100.x external, the remote cannot have the same numbers in the first three octets. Are there any specific errors in your event logs, or specific messages that occur And as always, I recommend the SBS BPA. Run that and do what it recommends. http://www.sbsbpa.com/ -- Larry Please post the resolution to your issue so that all can benefit.

NTFS, FAT FAT32 and large harddrives.

PROBLEM: connect a USB drive to a device that prefers FAT32 or FAT (and not NTFS).
Sub-PROBLEM: Windows cannot go bigger than 32GB using FAT32.
The possible solutions are copiously stated here: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/, but I foundthe command line provided by http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm absolutley instantaneous.
Had I a Paypal account I would even have donated :)

Here's how easy it was.

Download and unzip

C:\>cd fat32f

C:\fat32f>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 5F1F-5DF5

 Directory of C:\fat32f

06/01/2010  09:15 p.m.    <DIR>          .
06/01/2010  09:15 p.m.    <DIR>          ..
02/03/2009  11:47 p.m.            49,233 fat32format.exe
 1 File(s)         49,233 bytes
 2 Dir(s)  21,392,437,248 bytes free

C:\fat32f>fat32format g:
Warning ALL data on drive 'g' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Size : 40GB 78170242 sectors
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
Volume ID is 1ce9:3957
32 Reserved Sectors, 9540 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
1221111 Total clusters
1221110 Free Clusters
Formatting drive g:...
Clearing out 19176 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
Wrote 9818112 bytes in 0.49 seconds, 18.94 Megabytes/sec
Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
Done
C:\fat32f>