Thursday, December 15, 2011

How to start gmail without the chat feature


How to start gmail without the chat feature

How to start gmail without chat...

https://mail.google.com/?chat=0

with chat...

https://mail.google.com/?chat=1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


To disable gmail chat via the url, use

https://mail.google.com?chat=off 



Sunday, December 11, 2011

Can you shrink the sparse disk image of a Mac OS X guest OS in VMWare Fusion?

http://superuser.com/questions/325233/can-you-shrink-the-sparse-disk-image-of-a-mac-os-x-guest-os-in-vmware-fusion

In short: Erase free space on the guest OS’s disk from within the guest OS using Disk Utility, then shrink the guest OS’s disk from the host OS using vmware-vdiskmanager at the command line. In long: In the guest OS: Open Disk Utility. Select the guest OS’s partition. Go to the “Erase” tab. Click on the “Erase Free Space” button. Make sure “Zero Out Deleted Files” is selected, and erase the free space. Once it’s finished, close Disk Utility, and shut down the guest OS. In the host OS: Open Terminal, and type /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-vdiskmanager -k, followed by a space, and then the path to your guest OS’s virtual disk file. Hit return. The guest OS’s virtual disk file is found within its virtual machine file. E.g. if your virtual machine file is at /Users/you/VM, the path to its virtual disk is /Users/you/VM.vmwarevm/VM.vmdk.

Mac OS X Physical to Virtual (Mac OS X P2V)

How I can migrate physical Mac OS Server to virtual machine?

How I can migrate physical Mac OS Server to virtual machine? Article ID: 5403 Last Review: Jul, 29 2011 Views: APPLIES TO: Parallels Server 4.0 for Mac Parallels Server 3.0 for Mac Resolution To migrate physical machine running Mac OS X 10.x Server follow these steps: 1. Attach a USB external drive with size equivalent or more than your Mac Server hard drive. 2. Boot your physical Server from the Mac OS X installation CD. 3. When Install Mac OS X Server window appears go to Utilities menu and choose Disk Utility. 4. In Disk Utility choose your Mac server hard drive (not Macintosh HD). 5. Go to File -> New -> Disk Image from disk0xxx. 5. Under Save As specify the name for the image file. Under Where choose the external hard drive. 6. Then click Save and wait till the image is created. 7. Connect with Parallels Management Console to your Parallels Server for Mac where the resulting virtual machine should be stored. 8. In Parallels management Console (PMC) create a new Mac OS X Server virtual machine using the Mac OS X installation CD/DVD 9. After the new virtual machine is fully created attach the external hard drive with the image file to the Mac OS X virtual machine and copy that image file to the virtual machine hard drive. 10. Shut down the virtual machine and go to the Configuration menu (in PMC) -> Hardware .Click on + button and create the second Hard drive. 11. Start the virtual machine, open Disk Utility. Go to Restore tab. Under Source browse for the Mac OS X Image file (it is stored on the main hard drive). From the left column choose the second (newly created) Macintosh HD and drag and drop it into the Destination field. 12. Go to Images menu (on top of the mac screen) and choose Scan image for Restore. Wait till it is scanned. 13. Now click on the Restore button. wait till the image is restored to the chosen drive. 14. After restoring is complete please shut down the virtual machine. Go to Configuration menu -> Hardware and use - button to delete the first hard drive. 15. Start your virtual machine and check if physical Mac machine was deployed correctly.


Thursday, December 8, 2011

How to completely remove Office for Mac 2011 / Remove Office for Mac 2011

How to completely remove Office for Mac 2011

Remove Office for Mac 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2398768

http://mac2.microsoft.com/help/office/14/en-us/admin/item/5d6c825e-5322-4328-b04f-86e106cc4b52?category=1dbf952e-1f61-47f6-85fa-196a22eaf824



Apple Technical White Paper: Best Practices for Deploying & Managing Mac Computers with OS X Lion


Apple Technical White Paper

Best Practices for Deploying & Managing Mac Computers with OS X Lion




Retrieving Hardware Specific Lion Builds Often when new Mac models are released there is a period between hardware release and an OS X Lion update to include support for the new hardware. If you need to create deployment images for the hardware in the meantime you can download them. Perform the following steps on the Mac for which you need the image. 1. Boot from Lion Recovery by holding down Command-R at power on. 2. Plug in an external hard disk. 3. From the Lion Recovery tools window select Reinstall OS X Lion. 4. In the installer, target your external disk. The download will begin automatically. Apple Technical White Paper Lion Deployment Best Practices 5 5. When the installer asks to restart, simply shut down the Mac. 6. Locate the folder named “Mac OS X Install Data” on your external disk. Inside that folder you’ll find an ESDInstall.dmg file that is appropriate for that Mac. After you’ve downloaded the hardware-specific disk image you can use it with System Image Utility or other popular imaging tools.

Google Data Liberation Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Data_Liberation_Front

http://www.dataliberation.org/

http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/


Sunday, November 27, 2011

Uninstallers (removal tools) for common antivirus software

http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146


Uninstallers (removal tools) for common antivirus software

KB Solution ID: SOLN146|Last Revised: November 01, 2011
Running two antivirus products on the same computer can degrade performance and cause system instability. It is important that any previously installed antivirus software is uninstalled from your system before installing your ESET security product. Typical uninstallation* using the Windows removal tool (Add/Remove Programs) is often insufficient.
  1. Click the link associated with the antivirus software currently installed on your system and follow the prompts or instructions on the website.
  2. After uninstallation is complete, you will need to restart your computer. You may then proceed with installing your ESET security product.
Avasthttp://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear.exe
AVGhttp://www.avg.com/us-en/utilities
Avirahttp://www.avira.com/en/support-for-free-knowledgebase-detail/kbid/88
BitDefenderhttp://kb.bitdefender.com/site/article/333/
BullGuardhttp://www.bullguard.com/support/product-guides/bullguard-internet-security-guides/uninstall.aspx
CA Antivirushttp://homeofficekb.ca.com/CIDocument.asp?KDId=3125&Preview=0&Return=0&GUID=DF325E0AA0AB4264AF47E4BEA49F571B
Comodo Internet Securityhttps://support.comodo.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=298
CounterSpyhttp://support.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/2VIPRE_Enterprise/3.1/Console/Uninstall%2f%2fReinstall
Cyber Defender Early Detection Centerhttp://cyberdefender.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/207
Dr. Webhttps://support.drweb.com/support_wizard/?lng=en (Only registered Dr. Web users can access support content)
eScanhttp://www.microworldsystems.com/download/tools/esremove.exe
ESET http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN2788
FRISK F-PROT Antivirus for Windowshttp://www.f-prot.com/support/windows/fpwin_faq/25.html
F-Securehttp://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/support/article/kba/2109/k/uninstall+f+secure/p/1
G Datahttps://www.gdatasoftware.co.uk/?eID=PushFile&dl=f4b2f2fd23%3AAFEIBgU%3D
Kasperskyhttp://support.kasperskyamericas.com/knowledge-base-article/1464
Kingsofthttp://www.kingsoftsupport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=59&sid=9e4c506ea22db37a60ab1b7364544d6a
K7 Total Securityhttp://www.k7computing.com/en/tools/K7RT.exe
LavaSofthttp://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=28
McAfeehttp://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe
Norman Virus Control/Norman Security Suitehttp://www.norman.com/support/support_issue_archive/67798/en
Norton (Symantec )ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe
Pandahttp://www.pandasecurity.com/resources/sop/UNINSTALLER_08.exe
Pareto Logichttp://techsupport.paretologic.com/plsupport/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=555
Sophoshttp://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/11019.html
Trend Microhttp://esupport.trendmicro.com/1/How-do-I-remove-old-or-new-versions-of-Trend-Micro-products-in-my-comp.aspx
Vipre (Sunbelt Software)http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/support/VPE/AgentRemoval3.1.exe
Webroothttp://support.webroot.com/cgi-bin/webroot.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1761
Windows Live OneCarehttp://download.microsoft.com/download/4/c/b/4cb845e7-1076-437b-852a-7842a8ab13c8/OneCareCleanUp.exe
Windows Security Essentialshttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/2435760
Zone Alarmhttp://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/support/download/clean.exe
*ESET does not take responsibility for any damages or loss of data caused by or during the uninstallation of any antivirus software.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Extend or Resize Boot Camp Partition

http://guides.macrumors.com/Extend/Resize_Boot_Camp_Partition

Paragon CampTune Paragon CampTune is a commercial product that is designed expressly for this task. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/camptune/ It consists of a downloadable ISO that needs to be burned to a disc and booted from in order to resize the partitions. During testing it was available free, but now costs US$19.95. MR user Rodus reports that it damaged their OS X partiton and a reinstall was required, so heed the warning and have a backup. [edit] GParted Live GParted Live is similar to CampTune as it is also distributed as a bootable image that needs to be copied to a CD/DVD or USB flash drive. As free and open source software, distributed under the GPL, it will always be available free. Since it has more functions than CampTune, it may be harder for folks who are not as experienced with partitioning hard drives. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ [edit] iPartition Coriolis Systems' iPartition is a £29.95 ($44.95 US) utility that runs in Mac OS X and allows resizing of all of the relevant partition formats, including HFS+, FAT32, and NTFS. It provides a Mac-oriented user interface that may be easier to manage than some of the free utilities. As it is not capable of resizing the boot disk, it requires a bootable external disk or a boot DVD. (A tool to create a boot DVD is included.) [edit] Paragon Partition Manager From the makes of CampTune is a commercial tool that is similar in functionality to GParted Live, but has a more polished/friendly user interface than GParted Live. Previously only the US$79.95 Professional version supported all the features required for this, but as of version 11 the US$39.95 Personal version has also been reported to work. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-personal/ [edit] Winclone/Disk Utility Winclone is a free tool for creating and restoring backup images of your Windows partition. One of its key features is that it can restore to a larger partition than the one the image was created from. NOTE: Winclone has been discontinued, but for now remains available and capable of completing these tasks (including creating and restoring Windows 7 images). Winclone updated to support Lion Winclone updates and download Disk Utility can resize HFS+ (Mac OS) partitions, but is currently incapable of resizing NTFS partitions, so you could use it to reduce the size of the HFS+ partition and create a new larger placeholder MS-DOS (FAT) partition The full process would be: Backup Windows partition with Winclone. (if the new Windows partition is smaller than the old one make sure you set the preferences in Winclone to save the image as an uncompressed dmg) Resize Mac OS (HFS+) partition Delete old Windows partition Create new Windows partition as MS-DOS (FAT) in free space after Mac OS partition. (If the new Windows partition is smaller than the old one an additional step is required: shrink the filesystem on the image by selecting Tools->Shrink Windows (NTFS) Filesystem) Restore Winclone partition over new Windows partition An alternate Winclone based process is described in the External Guides section [edit] Native OS utilities MR user Kazyua reports that you can use the disk management utilities provided with the current operating systems if you want to do it manually. Windows 7 and OS X both have partition resizing functions built in. In OS X, open Disk Utility and manually shrink the mac HFS+ partition by dragging the lower right corner. Then in windows go to the start menu and type "disk management" into the search box then hit enter. You should get an overview of the drives you have and the individual partitions. Right-clicking on the partition gives an "Extend Volume" option. The Windows NTFS volume should then be extended into the free space you created with Disk Utility. This method has not worked for other users, so try at your own risk. [edit] Resizing under VMWare Fusion If you are looking to allocate more space to Windows under VMWare please refer to the following thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=828182 [edit] External Guides http://dustyreagan.com/how-to-increase-or-decrease-your-boot-camp-partition/

Sunday, October 2, 2011

SamsungDive

http://www.samsungdive.com/

Since a smart mobile contains a lot of data including personal information, your personal information may be compromised if you lose it. The SamsungDive service enables you to minimize the possibility of your personal information becoming public using the remote locking and remote wipe-out functions when you lose your mobile. In addition, you can find the location of your lost mobile using the Find My Mobile function. You can use the SamsungDive service as follows.

http://v2.samsungdive.com/help/guideRemoteControls.do 

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7; marketed as OS X Lion)

Installing Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) as a virtual machine in Fusion 4
(http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2005334)

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848

http://www.macworld.com/article/161087/2011/07/install_lion_over_leopard.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/161069/2011/07/make_a_bootable_lion_installer.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/161203/2011/07/should_you_clean_install_lion.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/161064/2011/07/installing_lion_complete_guide.html

BaseSystem.dmg

"Install Mac OS X Lion.app" 

InstallESD.dmg

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from-a-usb-flash-drive/

http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/02/re-download-mac-os-x-lion-from-app-store/

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1829265#1829265

How to create Lion Virtual Machine using Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac

"it's much easier to simply drag the App Store downloaded "Install Mac OS X Lion.app" or InstallESD.dmg to the New Virtual Machine Wizard -- if you have either of those, it is entirely unnecessary to use a USB drive. (And, incidentally, I still seem to be able to re-download Lion from the App Store only by holding Option while clicking on the "Purchases" button at the top of the App Store window, from either 10.7.0 or 10.7.1. YMMV.)"

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2009990

Upgrading to Mac OS X Lion in a Virtual Machine To upgrade an existing virtual machine to Mac OS X 10.7: Obtain the Mac OS X 10.7 application from the Mac App Store, or the Mac OS X 10.7 USB media from a retail outlet. Ensure that at least 2GB of RAM is allocated to the virtual machine. Connect the Lion media to the virtual machine: If you are using the USB media, connect the USB DVD drive to the virtual machine. If you are using the Mac App Store, connect the DVD drive to the InstallESD.dmg found in Install Mac OS X Lion.app/Contents/Shared Support. Open the DVD within the virtual machine and launch Install Mac OS X Lion. Allow the Lion upgrade to proceed. When the virtual machine restarts to continue installation, wait for the Apple logo to appear before you shut down the virtual machine (by going to Virtual Machine > Shut Down > Force Shut Down). Go to Settings > General and change the virtual machine type to Mac OS X 10.7: The virtual machine can now be started and the Lion installation completes. Once the installation is complete, reinstall VMware Tools.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Tor (anonymity network) - www.torproject.org

https://www.torproject.org/

Tor (short for The Onion Router) is a system intended to enable online anonymity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_anonymity#Anonymity_on_the_Internet

https://www.torproject.org/

Tails: Live CD/USB distribution preconfigured to use Tor safely. (http://tails.boum.org/)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amnesic_Incognito_Live_System
The Amnesic Incognito Live System or Tails is a Linux distribution aimed at preserving privacy and anonymity. It is the next iteration of development on the Incognito Linux distribution. It is based on Debian, with all outgoing connections forced to go through Tor. The system is designed to be booted as a live cd or usb and no trace is left on local storage unless explicitly told to.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Convert VMDK to VHD and VHD to VMDK for free

StarWind V2V Converter

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/converter

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/customer/download/StarWindConverter.exe

Independent testing on all the major virus scanners / antivirus software tests / AMTSO

Two sets of guidelines covering principles for testing security software for performance and testing entire security suites were adopted by the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO).

http://www.amtso.org/

AV-Test.org and Virus Bulletin

Virus Bulletin, AV-Comparatives, West Coast Labs and ICSA Labs, AV-Test.org

http://www.amtso.org/members.html

Deploy a Certificate by Using the Command Prompt

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732061(WS.10).aspx

If the certificate is self-signed, and cannot be traced back to a certificate that is in your Trusted Root Certification Authorities, then you must place a copy of your certificate in that store as well.

certmgr.exe -add MyCert.cer -s -r localMachine root

Friday, May 20, 2011

Symantec System Recovery Server Edition (formerly Backup Exec System Recovery - BESR) / Symantec Recovery Disk (SRD)

Symantec Recovery Disk (SRD)

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH62273

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/resources/sites/BUSINESS/content/live/TECHNICAL_SOLUTION/62000/TECH62273/en_US/307033.pdf

The Symantec Recovery Environment can be copied to a USB thumb, USB flash or other type of USB media and booted directly from the media rather than booting from a CD. This document uses the Kingston DataTraveller DT400/8GB USB flash drive as an example.

 

Monday, May 16, 2011

takeown icacls

takeown /f C:\access_denied
icacls C:\access_denied /grant username:F

takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\*.*
cacls C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\*.* /G Username:F

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Ubuntu Linux Terminal command to Log Out

gnome-session-save --kill --gui

gnome-session-save --kill --silent

gnome-session-save --kill

Set a password during a Ubuntu LiveCD session

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Setting a Password

You can set a password during a LiveCD session by opening a terminal, and typing in:

$ sudo passwd ubuntu

http://nerdnotes.org/2006/05/can-i-ssh-into-ubuntu-live-cd/

Can I ’ssh into ubuntu live cd’ ?

Answer: Yes you can! But you first need to install the ssh daemon:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server

The server is started automatically after installing. To login remotely, you’ll need to set the password for ubuntu:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo passwd ubuntu
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

…or create another user on the system:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo adduser brammeleman
Adding user `brammeleman‘…
Adding new group `brammeleman’ (1000).
Adding new user `brammeleman‘ (1000) with group `brammeleman’.
Creating home directory `/home/brammeleman‘.
Copying files from `/etc/skel’
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for brammeleman
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []: Brammeleman
Room Number []:
Work Phone []:
Home Phone []:
Other []:
Is the information correct? [y/N] y
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

From another box, you can now login to the system running the live cd. Use the ubuntu username with the password you set or use the newly created account.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Delprof2 – User Profile Deletion Tool

http://helgeklein.com/free-tools/delprof2-user-profile-deletion-tool/

Delprof2 is the inofficial successor to Microsoft’s Delprof which does not work with operating systems newer than Windows XP.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Irreligion by country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_by_country

Irreligion (encompassing agnosticism, atheism, nontheism, ignosticism, antireligion, skepticism, freethought, antitheism, apatheism, non-believer, secular humanism, marxism, or deism) varies in the different countries around the world.

1.1 billion people (16% of the world population) are considered non-religious.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817878


Attachments remain in the Outlook Secure Temporary File folder when you exit Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2003


Saturday, March 12, 2011

Well, it's one line in PowerShell, assuming you have all 50 computers in comp.txt in current folder, one workstation per line:

Invoke-WmiMethod -ComputerName (Get-Content comp.txt) -Class Win32_Process -Name Create -ArgumentList 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled'

You may have to elevate powershell first. If your account is not admin on remote side you will probably need -Credential there as well.

I've just tested it and it worked as expected. :)


To allow the regular domain users to install the printers in Windows 7 without having admin privileges on a 2k3 domain you will need to add a couple of keys in the registry on the users workstations.

Import this in the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint]
"Restricted"=dword:00000001
"TrustedServers"=dword:00000001
"ServerList"="FullyQualifiedPrintServerName1;FullyQualifiedPrintServerName2"
"InForest"=dword:00000000
"NoWarningNoElevationOnInstall"=dword:00000001
"UpdatePromptSettings"=dword:00000002



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Title of post to be decided

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624057(WS.10).aspx

Rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry

Automates many printer configuration tasks. Printui.dll is the executable file that contains the functions used by the printer configuration dialog boxes. These functions can also be called from within a script or a command-line batch file, or they can be run interactively from the command prompt.


 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179062.aspx

Customize Outlook profiles by using an Outlook Profile (PRF) file


http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/internet/jsi-tip-5130-how-can-i-manage-internet-explorer-security-zones-via-the-registry-.aspx

How can I manage Internet Explorer Security Zones via the registry?


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Information about the User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0 update

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2023591

Upgrade and Migration / User State Migration Tool 4.0 User's Guide 
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee461274(WS.10).aspx

Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Migration using USMT for IT Professionals
(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd883247(WS.10).aspx)


This article describes the User State Migration Tool (USMT) software update. The update includes fixes and support for migration scenarios for when the source or destination computer have Microsoft Office 2010 installed. You can download the USMT 4.0 update from the Microsoft Windows Download Center.

This update is required if the source or destination computers in a USMT migration have Microsoft Office 2010 installed.

About USMT

USMT is included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK). Administrators can use USMT to migrate user data and user settings. The tool supports several operating systems, application settings, and user data migration scenarios that include the following scenarios:
Migrating operating system settings, application data, or user data from a Windows installation that is running on an older computer to a Windows installation that is running on a newer computer.
Migrating operating system settings, application data, or user data from an older Windows installation to a newer Windows installation that are running on the same computer in a "refresh" scenario.
USMT migrates user data, operating system settings, and application settings for applications such as Microsoft Office.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Customize Outlook profiles by using an Outlook Profile (PRF) file

Customize Outlook profiles by using an Outlook Profile (PRF) file

Sysprep Windows 7

Building a Standard Image of Windows 7: Step-by-Step Guide

What Is Sysprep? 

How Sysprep Works

Sysprep functions and known issues 

Manage the Activation Clock

Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine – Start to Finish V2



Creating a default windows 7 profile before imaging - outlook 2010

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/594eebea-a37a-4fd6-89ae-9eea83b7f24f

Regarding the white background, I would suggest that you create your own theme with required settings and then save the settings as a file and apply this within the sysprep xml file. This should be set in the specialize, microsoft-windows-shell-setup section.

(The below is the process I use for Outlook 2007 and haven't yet tried it with 2010, but I assume it's the same)


For Outlook, it sounds as though you might have run Outlook on the master workstation before creating your master image.

For installing and configuring Outlook I would firstly create an Outlook PRF file that configures Outlook as you require, including defining which server to use etc.

You then need to set a couple of settings within the registry of the user that will become Default User (Administrator code probably) to define which PRF file to use, and that the Outlook profile has not been configured and so needs configuring.

To do this, import the following REG file, obviously with the PRF file in c:\prf for this example. A network share would be a better option though really.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Setup]
"First-Run"=-
"ImportPRF"="C:\\PRF\\Outlook.PRF"

Creating Unattended Windows 7 Installation

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/c784a63f-a49d-4ff1-808c-6bc110e92497



Secure domain join

Secure domain join
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732280(WS.10).aspx#Image2

Automated method to change a workstations name / Workstation Name Changer / WSName.exe

Workstation Name Changer
WSName.exe
http://mystuff.clarke.co.nz/MyStuff/wsname.asp

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Dell Client Manager / Dell Management Console

Dell and Altiris (Symantec)

How to Easily Evaluate Intel vPro Technology Features on Dell Optiplex Systems



Dell Management Console, powered by Symantec

Because Dell and Symantec have released a new version of Dell Client Manager that can
coexist with the Dell Management Console, no migration utility is provided. Dell Client
Manager functionality is expected to be incorporated into future releases of the Dell
Management Console, at which time a migration tool is expected to be provided

Dell Client Manager
Dell Management Console

Are you talking about the Dell Management Console (DMC) , or the Dell Client Manager (DCM) ? ... DMC is more server centric, and DCM being more client (Optiplex) centric.

DMC will manage all "non-workstation" h/w.  To manage workstations and notebooks, you also need to install Dell Client Manager.  DCM is also on the DMC install media.  That will manage Optiplex, Precision and Latitude.  Once you install, follow the quickstart steps on the DCM portal page.  You will need to push the Altiris agent and OMCI.

http://www.dmcswat.com/

Dell Management Console, powered by Symantec


DMC for Clients = Dell Client Manager



Thursday, January 13, 2011

Vista's MBR Disk Signature

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/mbr.html

The Disk Signature and Drive Letters
Windows NT operating systems will remember the drive letters that have previously been assigned to partitions and drives. This differs from Win9x where drive letters are assigned on every bootup in a default order as the partitions and drives are discovered, which means changes to partitions or the adding of drives can cause letters to change. With NT the current hard drive partition drive letters can be maintained by linking them to a partition by using a unique number that is assigned to each partition and stored in the Windows registry. This unique partition number is generated from the disk signature of the hard drive and the partition offset. On Windows bootup the partition number is compared with the disk signature and if they match then the partition will be assigned the same drive letter that had previously been allocated to it.
If a disk signature is changed then Windows unique partition numbers become invalid. They no longer match the MBR disk signature and therefore drive letter assignments are lost. On first reboot after a signature change each partition on the affected drive will have its unique number recreated to match the new disk signature, then be reassigned a drive letter. These reassigned letters may not match the originals and so your drive letters may change. (You will also be informed that your new device/s have been installed and a reboot is required).
When you are using the Windows built-in bootmanager to dual or multiboot it is vital to maintain drive letters because Windows might not see itself as the default C: drive. If you have a Windows install that considers itself to be say the E: drive and a disk signature change causes this assignment to be lost, then during early bootup Windows will reassign drive letters in the default order, which will be the System partition as C: and the Boot partition as D:, which means later in the boot process the registry paths such as E:/Windows and E:/Documents and Settings, will be invalid. Windows 2K and XP cannot recover from such a drive letter change, but Vista seems to be a bit more adaptable and will struggle to the desktop, from where it is possible to edit the registry to restore the required drive letters, (see Drive Letter Problems). Be aware that with Vista it is possible when using the Microsoft bootmanager to have the Vista install see itself as the C: drive even when it is in fact a Boot partition to a different System partition. In this situation a drive letter re-ordering event caused by a signature change will assign the default D: letter to the Boot partition, causing the aforementioned problems.

Friday, January 7, 2011

ImgBurn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImgBurn
http://www.imgburn.com/

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

It has several 'Modes', each one for performing a different task:
Read - Read a disc to an image file
Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
Write - Write an image file to a disc
Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing

ImgBurn is a freeware program that allows the recording of many types of CD/DVD images to recordable media (.cue files are supported as of version 2.4.0.0).[3] Starting with version 2.0.0.0, ImgBurn can also burn files and data directly to CD/DVD.

ImgBurn supports a wide range of image file formats - including BIN, CCD, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

ISO images via Virtual Drives

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa948864.aspx


Using ISO Image Files

Many products are posted as ISO-9660 image files. An ISO-9660 image file is an exact representation of a CD or DVD, including the content and the logical format. The most common use of an image file is to write it to a blank CD-R or DVD-R, resulting in an identical copy of the original disc including file name and volume label information. ISO image files may also be opened and their contents copied to a local folder, much like ZIP files. ISO files may also be virtually mounted and accessed as a device. These three methods of using ISO images are described below. Note: you may have to rename the file extension from .IMG or .UDF to .ISO, depending on your software.

Writing ISO files to CD-R or DVD-R

Most CD-R/DVD-R writing software includes a feature to create a disc from an image file. Note: you must use the special "copy image to CD" or "burn image" functionality. See your software’s Help for detailed information.
Writing ISO images to CD-Rs and DVD-Rs
The Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit includes the DVDBURN.EXE command line tool.   Though it has not been tested by Microsoft, many customers also report success using ISO Recorder.
Testing CD-Rs and DVD-Rs
After a CD/DVD-R has been written, you can use the CRC tool to verify that the process was successful.
  1. The CRC305.exe tool can be downloaded from MSDN Subscriber Downloads in the Tools and Resources folder.
  2. From a command prompt, run CRC305 filename (where filename is the image file name.)
  3. Run CRC305 x: (where x is the drive letter of the drive containing the CD/DVD-R). The CRC values should match.
Alternatively, there are many freeware programs available for calculating an SHA-1 hash value that is provided on each download page on MSDN Subscriber Downloads. Use your favorite Internet search engine to look for sha1 hash to find them.
Accessing ISO images via Virtual Drives
Certain tools exist which create a virtual disc drive on your PC and mount an ISO image on that drive.  These tools typically assign a new drive letter to this drive, and the contents of the image can be accessed by opening “My Computer” and double clicking on the new drive.
Though they have not been tested nor are supported by the Subscriptions team, customers report that Daemon Tools offers such capability as well as Microsoft Virtual CD Control Tool.
Other products like IsoBuster and WinRar can access the contents of ISO images directly and verify ISO files, but also have not been tested nor are supported by the Subscriptions team.

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