Get out of my head and onto my blog

Hide administrator account from Welcome screen

2011-08-23T21:38:00.003+01:00

Setting up a new laptop (Win 7 Professional), and i enable the administrator account so i can access the PC's from the server, but it started showing on the Welcome screen as a user, which i didn't want.

Found this http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-create-hidden-user-account-hide-user-account-from-welcome-screen-in-windows/

Run Registry Editor (RegEdit.exe).
Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

Note: If SpecialAccounts and UserList is not found, create new sub-key and name them accordingly.
Select UserList, and in the right pane, right click on any blank space, and point to New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name the new DWORD registry value name as the exact same name that match the name of the user account to be hidden.
For example, if the user ID of the user account is John, the name the registry value as John.
Double click on DWORD registry value, and set the value data to 0 in oder to hide the account from Welcome Screen.
Tip: To display the user account on Welcome Screen again so that it’s visible again, delete the registry entry, or set the value data to 1.
Exit Registry Editor.
Log off or restart computer to make the change effective.

Ripping DVD's on Ubuntu

2011-08-20T10:39:00.002+01:00

Just bought a Netgear ReadyNAS 2110 to store our documents and media, so have been trying to find a way to rip DVD's to it so we can stream DVD's to our BD player (DLNA enabled).

Tried and failed to use the standard DVD rippers in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) - they installed ok, but couldn't seem to rip; kept erroring.

Found this website http://xboxmediaserver.com/2010/06/04/dvd-rip-on-ubuntu-10-04/ - didn't realise DVD playback was disabled default!

Ran the following commands from terminal:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Then fired up dvd::rip again, and it worked first time - now just need to copy it to the NAS and test from the BD player.

Adobe Reader X extract msi

2011-06-28T11:28:00.003+01:00

Trying to extract the msi for Adobe Reader X so i can deploy it over a network - old methods i used to use for 8 didn't work.

Searched and found this answer.

Basically, need to download the offline installer from Adobe, open a command line and enter:

AdbeRdr1010_en_US.exe -nos_o"" -nos_n
(don't put a trailing \ at the end of the file path)

Don't hit cancel yet! Make a copy of the files in that location, then you can select cancel on the install - it will then automatically delete the folder it just created, with all the files in.

Been a bit crap...

2011-06-03T18:09:00.002+01:00

At updating my blog, but have now moved it to my domain, and now aiming to start updating it again with my IT findings.

Have also read about clickochet on Cringely's website and was interested in how it worked, so have added their ads on my blogger page.

go.google.com and anti virus pages blocked

2008-10-02T22:23:00.000+01:00

Had a look at a PC that was not updating AVG free, or letting you get to any anti-virus or anti-spyware websites.

Manually downloaded and updated AVG and Spybot - Spybot found fraud.pchealth and a couple of other gremlins, but AVG would still not update.
When I googled something and clicked on the link, a new tab opened in Firefox and it went to another search page - the links appeared to be going via go.google.com
Checked hosts files, tcp/ip settings, proxy settings, dns settings. Ran Hijackthis and Spybot again, but still nothing, but still problems with browser forwards, and AVG failing to complete a scan as the services would stop then restart when a scan was initiated.
Finally googled go.google.com and found a link on the techguy.org website:
http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/746850-go-google-redirect-virus.html

Followed these instructions
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix
which then ran, found some rootkits, rebooted, and continued scanning and then removed the rest of the virus - tdssserver from memory (i'll get a copy of the fix log)

Rebooted and then downloaded malwarebytes.org and ran that - left the user with orders to run superantispyware and AVG after malwarebytes had finished running; AVG found a trojan within a couple of minutes and deleted it.

Also found another way to fix it:
http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?comments_parentId=150152&forumId=1

2008-07-16T21:08:00.005+01:00

Had a call to look at someone's PC - the BBC iPlayer wouldn't work, neither would internet banking, and McAfee Security Centre was blank when it loaded up.

I ran IE7 as administrator (Vista Home Basic) and it worked fine - tried this with McAfee as well and that also worked, so i thought it may have been a permissions issue.
Turned down IE7 security settings, but still nothing, so started Googling it...

Found this link on the McAfee site:

http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107121&lc=1033

And tried this part of it:

Click Start and select Search.
In the Search box, type CMD and click OK.
In the Search results window, right-click CMD and select Run as Administrator.
In the command prompt, type REGSVR32 JSCRIPT.DLL and press ENTER.
After the confirmation message is displayed, type REGSVR32 VBSCRIPT.DLL and press ENTER.

It then says to uninstall and reinstall McAfee, but i tried it straight away and it worked for everything without any reinstalling needed.
Rebooted just to make sure it still worked and all ok.

Not sure what caused it - whether a Java install got corrupted or something, but all sorted now.

2007-11-26T21:35:00.000Z

Removing Dell's wallpaper on a new server.

Just installed a new server, and was getting fed up with the age it took for RDP to load up when i was accessing it from elsewhere.

Finally got round to Googling it and found the following site explaining how to get rid of it - ah faster loading times!

http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com/2007/06/05/hack-removing-the-annoying-dell-wallpaper-in-rdp/

2007-11-03T14:58:00.000Z

Had to replace a router at a small company i looked after, so had a look around for a router with VPN capabilities.
Settled on a Linksys AG241 in the end, being reasonably priced, and a Linksys which i'm used to working with.
Set the router up ok, but seemed to have trouble getting the VPN working so i could connect via my laptop. Googled for ipsec vpn clients, and tried a few out, but none seemed to work.
Read a review for SSH Sentinel and managed to download the last free version (1.4) and got it working once, but then it just threw all my network connections out, so had to uninstall it.
Recently found a guide on getting the VPN working with another Linksys router, so followed the instructions (details are very similar on the VPN pages) and it has worked first time.
Instructions here: http://www.homenethelp.com/vpn/router-linksys.asp

Router is now working exactly as i need it - with the VPN connection i can now use Ultr@Vnc to connect to any of the PC's at the company to provide remote support without having VPN in via the server (which died last week anyway)

2007-10-13T22:17:00.000+01:00

Been having problems where i'm currently working getting a remote site to connect properly to a server with remote desktop.

Every other time the PC's logged on, it wouldn't connect the terminal services sessions, so the local drives and printer were not available from the rdp session (which the site needed).

Googled it but didn't find much to try and resolve the issue - made sure the printers were added on the server; the users profile allowed them the correct permissions; even changed the registry entries for rdp on the users PC.

Double checked the connection via my server at home and it worked fine everytime i logged on, so pointed to an issue on the server - that's when i saw that the PC's had over 1000 rdp connections which kept increasing everytime we logged on.

Rebooted the server and voila - rdp was working correctly - suppose we could have restarted the services, but no-one else was using the server, so a quick and dirty reboot seemed the order of the day.

2007-05-07T21:09:00.000+01:00

Cannot Locate Recurrence Information for this Appointment Outlook 2007

Kept getting an error for an old recurring reminder on Outlook 2007
Googled it but error only seems to come up for old Outlook 98 or 2003.
Even tried MS, but following their instructions, i still couldn't delete the corrupt reminder.
Wouldn't let me right click on the line to bring any options up.
Also tried /cleanreminders (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296192)
but that still didn't work.
In a last attempt, i tried just hitting the delete button on the corrupt line and it only bloody deleted it!
Shut down Outlook and restarted - no error messages any more. Sweet.

Virgin Central not working with red button

2007-04-22T20:26:00.001+01:00

Been having problems with the red button not working on Virgin Central (ch 119 & 120).

Spoke to tech support (after 15 mins on hold) to find that going to BBC1 and pressing the red button then makes 119 & 120 work again.

Been ok for a few days, but went again earlier - had to goto 119 after BBC1 as it didn't like going to 120 first for some reason.

Oh well - sorted for the short term anyway.

Val Doonican Rocks

2007-04-22T19:45:00.001+01:00

Sorry but isn't that an oxymoron?
Unless he was on a chair of course....

Test blog

2007-04-22T12:13:00.001+01:00

From new mobile!

2007-01-11T21:04:00.000Z

Bloody wireless....

Got a call to install a wireless network for a customer - they had a Compaq V6000 laptop, Netgear DG834N router and HP C6180 All-in-one printer.
Router was up and running really quickly - connected the printer to it wirelessly, but then tried connecting the laptop to the wireless network. It would connect at 54 Mbps then after a few minutes drop to 1 Mbps - it said it was connected but it wasn't really.

Upgraded the firmware on the laptop (Broadcom onboard wireless) and the router, but still the same issue - random connects and disconnects.

Tried dropping the speed from 270 Mbps to 54 Mbps with no joy. Then dropped the encryption from WPA2 (AES) + WPA (TKIP) and kept gradually raising the encryption until it stopped working.

Looks like the problem in the end was the speed was too high for the onboard wireless and the encryption was too high also (V6000 only has an expresscard slot, so not much chance of getting a wireless card for it in the near future).

Encryption settings were left at WPA2 (AES) and the wireless worked fine - got 54Mbps signal all around the house.

HP software that comes with the printer is so bloated though - 300 Mb download and installs to 800 Mb!!! Doesn't even work properly as you are supposed to be able to push a scan straight to a PC over the network - managed to get it to work once; just bombed out all the other times, but the customer was happy to leave it, as long as the laptop could print to the printer that was fine.

2006-11-19T12:53:00.000Z

Orange Livebox - check WEP/WPA 1st

Setup an Orange Livebox for a client - was actually quite impressed with the turn-around from Orange for setting the broadband up (ordered 6 days previous, and it was already live when i started setting the Livebox up).
Wired connection worked straight away, but trying to get the wireless side was not as straight forward as i thought it was going to be....
Wireless signal picked up, entered the encryption key as provided on the bottom of the box, and it jus sat there 'Acquiring network address' and 'Waiting for the network to be ready' (and yes i had pressed the '1' button on the back!)
Went into the web setup for the router (admin, admin) and copied and pasted the WEP code straight into the wireless connection properties - still no joy. The MAC address for the laptop was showing as a wireless device, but it just wasn't getting an IP address from the Livebox.
To cut a long story short, i thought it may have been a problem with the Livebox, as the '1' button didn't flash as it described in the manual, so i called Orange support.
After trying many things on the phone (much of the time being about 3 steps ahead of the helpdesk) it seems that the problem was with the wireless encryption being used - the Livebox was set to use WEP and WPA encryption; i changed this to WPA only, and the laptop connected straight away.
If only Orange had suggested this first, would have saved on a 30 minute phone call (and me faffing around for way longer than i was supposed to be there)