Tag: computers

Injecting Windows Updates into install WIM files via MDT

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For a while now we’ve been deploying Windows 7 on the network using the Microsoft Deployment Toolbox, and it generally works well. However, some of the images we deploy are now about a year old, and a year is a long time in the wonderful world of Microsoft Critical And Security Updates, and so having deployed a new PC there’s still a good hour’s worth of install-reboot-install-reboot-install “fun” with the updates. I decided it was time to start rolling the …

Powershell preventing Server 2003 to 2008 upgrade

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I came to upgrade one of our servers from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 today. Unfortunately, the upgrade failed in the first stages because the compatibility checker declared Windows Powershell 1.0 incompatible with Server 2008, and told me to uninstall it before upgrading. Easier said than done, because there’s no uninstaller. Well, of course there is an uninstaller, but it’s not in Add/Remove Programs where you’d expect it. Even if you show updates. Of course, many uninstallers are kept on …

Synology DS211j Review

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Being the paranoid about backups person that I am, I’ve been looking for ages for a way of backing up my Mac to a device in my loft. For a while now I’ve been weighing up the various pros and cons of assorted NAS devices, and a month or so ago finally settled on the Synology DS211j. It came top, or near-top, in virtually every NAS review roundup I could find (at least all those in the £200-ish price range …

Network dropping out on VMWare guest

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One of our virtual servers, which runs Apache and serves up a booking database, had been having intermittent network issues. It would be working fine for a few hours, or days, and then would “drop off” the network. Rebooting the host server fixed it for a while, but then it happened again. It’s odd, as another VM running on the same VMWare (2.0.2) server was seemingly fine. Anyway, it turns out the issue is due to VMWare not liking the …

Changing the default sshd port on Snow Leopard

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Many years ago, I needed to change the port that sshd listens on on my Mac. Which I managed at the time, but I don’t remember how I did it. As is usually the case, I “hit up” Google (as the kidz are wont to say, I think) and after a bit of trawling I found the solution: Open Terminal and as edit the file /etc/services (as root) Add a line at the bottom: secret-ssh 43539/tcp # secret SSH port …

How not to apply for a job working for me

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I’ve been sifting through job applications for new IT technician this week. If you’re thinking of applying for a job in an IT technician role (or any role, in fact), please don’t follow some of my applicants by example by following these handy hints: Learn how to spell “Microsoft”. Don’t say you’re “an avid gamer” in your list of personal qualities, especially if it takes up half of your list. When you print out your application form, don’t include all …

Build a video encoder “drop box”

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Isn’t Windows Movie Maker amazing? All that video editing fun for free. Unfortunately, it only accepts a handful of file formats (on Windows XP at least), none of which are those used by most video cameras or internet video downloaders. This causes a problem in school as people need to convert the files before they can use them in Movie Maker, and that takes time, effort, and training. Yes, training. Really. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a folder …

Adding XP printer drivers to a 2008 print server

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We’re currently in the process of migrating servers from Server 2003 to Server 2008, which is proving a right old pain for various reasons. This morning’s headache was reinstalling a load of network printers on the new 2008 install that worked perfectly well on the 2003 install. 64-bit 2008, by default, only installs printers with the 64-bit 2008 and (for some printers, it seems, but not others) the 32 and 64-bit Vista/Windows 7 “User Mode” drivers. The old-style 2000/XP/2003 drivers …

Dell online sales chat

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I was trying to navigate round the Dell website today to find information on, then spec up, a particular model of PC. At every turn, on every page load, and every time I let go of the mouse for 7 seconds, this appeared: I kept clicking “No Thanks”, but a page change or reload and it was back. This annoyed me a bit. Well, a lot. So I decided to chat with them. Here’s the transcript (with the “Dell Expert”‘s …

WebMarshal “3003” errors

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If, like us, you have WebMarshal, and it’s tied to an SQL Server Express database, you may find it sometimes just… breaks. You’ll get eventlog messages like “3003:  Failed to write session to database” and “PRIMARY filegroup is full” and “Could not allocate space for object ‘dbo.DomainFileLog’”. Chances are, your database is full. The Express version of SQL Server 2005 is nice because it’s free, but it does limit database sizes to just 4GB. This may sound huge, but for …