Just published out version 1.2 of uManage.  It now includes a little more automated setup process as well as the new Admin Portal which as of right now only allows the system administrator to view and change some system settings.  The next release (~ 1.5) will really have a lot of the new functionality that will start to make the product really usable in an organization for managing users.  I got a request from one of the previous releases for some screenshots.  I added more to CodePlex and will include them here as well.  If you have an Active Directory test environment the app takes less than 10 minutes to have up and running, so just give it a shot, worst comes to worse and you remove it.

Check it out now: http://umanage.codeplex.com

Check back here for more in the future!

-Brent

I recently was tasked with a simple project to export the contents of an SVN repository on a off-site server so we could backup a repository in the event the SVN Server died.  The off-site server runs Windows and I figured I could easily do this using the svn export command that you can research in the SVN Book.  The problem was finding a svn command line tool that could be run as a scheduled task.  Finding this tool was not an easy feat.  You can utilize the SVN components and executables that come with TortoiseSVN however this is not very clean for just a command line tool.  I eventually found a free download from SlikSvn that has both 32 and 64 bit components.  That fit the bill it offered a good command line interface as well as helpful help docs as well.  It offers not just the typical svn commands but can handle the more administrative commands even svnsync between two different SVN servers.  Either way a good find for anyone who needs command line access only for Windows machines.  Link is below:

SlikSvn Downloads

Enjoy!

-Brent

I previously posted how to backup the auto-complete list in Outlook by using the NickName file.  I ran into a much more common problem today where old entries in the nickname file are no longer valid and caused me to send messages to the wrong people or old addresses.  I did a quick Google search and came up with a few helpful bits of information.  The first of which is a handy utility that will let you modify the contents of the nickname file and in my case remove the old address.

1. NirSoft’s NK2View – Freeware http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/outlook_nk2_autocomplete.html.  They also have a lot of other handy little utilities for Outlook management and other systems.
2. When adding new addresses the best way to do it is actually create a contact entry in the PST file, but as many people know contact email addresses do not always appear in the drop down list.  Still best practice says to add a new contact.
3. ALWAYS backup the nickname file (read Part 1) because if the file gets corrupted your out of luck!

Good Luck!

-Brent

If you have ever been to an airport, hotel or other public place that offers Wi-Fi service you may have also noticed that some require you to pay for access and others just require you to register.  Depending on your business this can be a good thing as it provides a source for extra revenue, or maybe just more insight into your visitors and how they access the hotspot.  On the other hand it does provide a little bit more security so you don’t end up with leaches on the network.

There are many vendors of systems and access points to provide this type of service, however I stumbled across a Microsoft document that provides information to setup and configure this type of service using existing Windows based servers.  It specifically targets Windows 2003 and Windows XP, but I am sure that is an updated version for 2008 and Vista.  On the other hand it is important to note that it does not contain any information about supporting Apple or Linux based machines.  Even if this solution does not work for you it may be worth the time to read just to understand some concepts and background on how a system to handle this could be implemented.

So without further ado the document can be found here.  If you have used this system or something similar please post your experience and comment on the system as I would be curious how it worked out for you.

-Brent

As I am sure many IT Pros have done before, users have gotten new computers or been moved around, and with them their personal files move as well.  One of the most “fun” is all e-mail related content.  Outlook, the mail client for many companies, does not provide a real easy way to backup all Outlook related files.  Most recently I needed to backup a users nickname file.  If you are not familiar with this file, it is the file that populates the “To”, “CC”, “BCC” fields with commonly used addresses and people.  It is used in combination with the contacts folder to populate the drop down list.  The problem with many users is that they rely on this drop down list rather than entering a contacts information into the Contact folder, and therefore when you move the PST file you loose those entries in the drop down list.  During my research on the topic I found the following article on Experts Exchange:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Groupware/Outlook/Q_23106296.html

NOTE: You have to scroll all the way down to see the actual responses on Experts Exchange

As it turns out the nickname file “*.NK2” is found right along side the PST files.  However as some will discover it is not an easy file to find.  I recommend setting the following Folder View Options:

1. Show Hidden Files and Folders
2. Show Extensions
3. Show Hidden Operating System Files

The last item did the trick for me with Windows Vista Ultimate.  It may be different in XP, but I did not test this process with XP.  The only thing I dislike about this file, other than the fact that it is hidden and not built into the PST is that its is a binary file so there is no easy way to edit or review the contents, say delete a bad entry.  I know there are tools to remove bad entries and a Google search can reveal those.  For those of you (including me) that are upset with the contents not being integrated with the PST let me offer this one view point; In Outlook 2007 you can have multiple PST files, ideally for different email accounts, so how can Outlook figure out which nicknames to relate to which PST file?  You could argue that only store the nicknames that mail is sent to from the sending email account.  In other words, if you send a message to Bill Gates from Mail Account A then store Bill Gates in PST File A, and not PST File B.

I would be curious if anyone else has similar problems or findings with Outlook file backup and recovery.

-Brent

Using Dual Monitors is common in many work places and really can help and increase productivity.  One common example would be to have two Excel Documents open to view one document and work in the other document.  Seems simple enough, however since the beginning of time this has been no easy task with relation to Excel.  For some reason Excel simply does not allow (by default) two different Excel workbooks to be open at the same time.  They still use the same parent window.  In Windows XP a few work-a rounds were available by changing File Associations.  A simple Google search for “Excel Dual Monitors” will return lots of results.

The big problem is that with Windows Vista the File Associations tab has been removed from Windows Explorer.  So the big question now is, how do we override this limitation.  I found a great blog post that describes simple ways to accomplish the task for both Office 2003 and 2007.

http://www.lytebyte.com/2008/05/13/how-to-open-two-excel-files-side-by-side-in-separate-monitors/

I have not noticed any problems with disabling the DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) settings, however it does change some of the copy and paste functionality present in Excel.

When using Windows XP SP3 with remote desktop on a Windows Vista or Server 2008 computer that requires NLA or Network Level Authentication you might run into the following error:

"The remote computer requires Network Level Authentication, which your computer does not support. For assistance, contact your system administrator or technical support."

 The problem arises because the Security Provider in Windows XP designed to handle NLA is turned off by default. Don't ask me why. The provider is called "CredSSP" and according to Microsoft here is what it does:

"CredSSP is a new Security Service Provider (SSP) that is available in Windows XP SP3 by using the Security Service Provider Interface (SSPI). CredSSP enables a program to use client-side SSP to delegate user credentials from the client computer to the target server. (The target server is accessed by using server-side SSP). Windows XP SP3 involves only the client-side SSP implementation. The client-side SSP implementation is currently being used by Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 6.1 Terminal Services (TS). However, the client-side SSP implementation can be used by any third-party program that is willing to use the client-side SSP to interact with programs that are running server-side SSP implementations in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008."

However, the good news is Microsoft also provides a very detailed process on how to turn on CredSSP. I have provided a link to the KB article that describes how to turn on CredSSP. Follow the process under "How to Turn on CredSSP" and the message should be resolved.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951608

-Brent

I work with the SonicWall GVC tool every day to connect to remote networks securely. However, when trying to work from home where I have a 64-Bit Vista Ultimate machine life is not so good. As you will most likely find while searching the internet the official 64-Bit let alone Vista compatible release has not yet been made. They do however have the current beta client that after some testing appears to work great.

NOTE TO SELF: Enable VPN (IPSec/PPTP) Pass-through on Stupid Linksys Routers!

Below is the direct link to the SonicWall beta site where you can find the same version of the software. Let me know if your experiences differ!

http://software.sonicwall.com/BetaFirmware/GVC64_v411_b302.zip

I recently was working on a Win 2003 machine and found the CPU at 100% and horrible performance.  After quickly opening up Task Manager I discovered that the file "cidaemon.exe" was using close to 98% of the CPU.  I was concerned at first, because what Microsoft application uses the word "daemon" in it.  Microsoft speak for a daemon is a service.  Anyways, a quick search returned the following: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899869.

So no it is not spyware or a bad program, it is just a hog.  Turns out this file is present on Win 2003 and XP.  I much prefer Windows Search 4.0 and Vista.  I hardly ever see the indexer program running and if it is I can stop it easily or tell it to snooze.