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How to get IntelliAdmin 2006 to work with Windows XP SP2
Our remote control software, IntelliAdmin 2006, does not allow access to Windows XP machines that have been updated to SP2. This is because SP2 effectively disables file and printer sharing - a feature that IntelliAdmin uses to automatically install remote control software.
Even if you are not using our program, a modified version of this tutorial is of importance - it will allow you to get file and printer sharing back the way it used to be before you installed SP2 - without compromising security
Here is a step by step guide to get it to work with SP2:
1. Open the control panel. You will find this by clicking on start, then settings, and then control panel. Click on the icon that says "Network and Internet Connections"
2. Once you are in there. Click on the icon that says "Network Connections"
3. Now you will find your network cards listed here. You will need to right click on the card you are using to connect to your LAN. A menu will appear - click on properties.
4. Now a form will appear. Go to the advanced tab, and click on settings
5. Another window will appear. Go to the exceptions tab and make sure the file and printer sharing is checked
6. On this same window click on "Add Port"
7. A new window will open - For the name enter "IntelliAdmin", and the port put in the value "2790"
8. Click OK, and in the "Network Connections" Folder click on the tools menu, and select "Folder Options..."
9. Go to the view tab. Scroll down and make sure "Use simple file sharing" is Un Checked
10. Click OK. Sharing is now on, but if you have not set a password for your username you still will not be able to authenticate - IntelliAdmin will keep asking for username and password. Windows XP SP2 requires this for a good reason. You don't want to leave your computer wide open.
IntelliAdmin should work now. If you have any problems please email us at support@intelliadmin.com - we are always happy to help
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Saturday, January 14, 2006
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Enable file and printer sharing on XP SP2
How to enable file and printer sharing on XP SP2
If you haven't figured out by now, we sell remote control software for windows. The cool part about it is that you do not even need to go to the remote computer and install an agent to control it.
When Microsoft released Service Pack 2, we noticed more and more trial users complaining that they could not connect to their Windows XP machines. We couldn't figure it out. We had tested with XP SP2 and it worked fine for us. The trick was that Microsoft had created different settings for users that were not part of a domain.
Effectively file and printer sharing are disabled when XP SP2 comes out of the box - this broke our automatic install feature since IntelliAdmin could not connect to the $admin share.
After scouring the internet we found how to re-enable file and printer sharing for your stand alone XP SP2 machine - and it is secure.
Here are the step by step instructions for turning it back on:
1. Open the control panel. You will find this by clicking on start, then settings, and then control panel. Click on the icon that says "Network and Internet Connections"
2. Once you are in there. Click on the icon that says "Network Connections"
3. Now you will find your network cards listed here. You will need to right click on the card you want to enable file sharing. Select the properties menu
4. Go to the advanced tab, and click on settings
5. Go to the exceptions menu and make sure file and printer sharing is checked.
6. Click OK, and in the "Network Connections" Folder click on the tools menu, and select "Folder Options..."
7. Go to the view tab. Scroll down and make sure "Use simple file sharing" is unchecked.
8. Click OK. Sharing is now on, but if you have not set a password for your username you still will not be able to share - Once you do this you will now be able to share printers and files again.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Friday, January 13, 2006
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CNAME Sharing disabled in Windows 2003 SP1
For a long time now we have used DNS CNAME for our servers. CNAME stands for canonical name. It is an alias for another host name. In our case we have two servers. Their names have been changed to protect the innocent. Lets say they are called iserver1, and iserver2. We constantly replicate all of our data from iserver1 to iserver2.
We have created a CNAME and call it fileserver. This CNAME points right now to iserver1. All the users on our network share to \\fileserver\sharename. Now if something bad were to happen to iserver1 we could change the CNAME to iserver2 and within minutes we would be back and running again. This is what you would call a poor mans backup system – call it what you want, but it has saved us a tremendous amount of time on two different occasions.
Both of our servers have been humming along fine for a while now – and we decide it is finally time to upgrade 2003 to SP1. After the upgrade we could not share to \\fileserver. Now if we try to connect to the actual server name it works fine.
We suspected right away that SP1 must have some type of security enhancement that has disabled our CNAME trick. After a few hours of searching we finally found the registry key in question:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
If we create a DWORD value under this key named:
DisableStrictNameChecking
And set it to ‘1’ – our CNAME works again!
Now we thought we might be making something insecure by doing this, but Microsoft KB article 281308 seems to indicate that this is a bug.
For those of you who do not want to dive into the registry, we have written a simple app that will change this setting for you. Find it in on our downloads page
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Friday, January 13, 2006
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Two new vulnerabilities found in image preview feature of windows
Looks like it is now common knowledge that there are two more vulnerabilities in the image preview feature of windows. It was posted here way before the major press had started to cover it. Turn off the image preview feature now - until Microsoft finds a good fix for this bug
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Wednesday, January 11, 2006
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Keep XP SP2 from rebooting your machine automatically
It happens to all of us. Your working away on something really important - for me it is a few thousand lines of code. The phone rings you talk. Talk some more. Come back and - Ta Da! All your work is gone and your system is rebooted! Later you discover that it was the trusty Microsoft automatic updates.
Sure we all want to be patched to the hilt - but come on! Blow my work away to get it on there as fast as possible!
This 'feature' (Not sure I would call it that!) is easy to disable. You can create a new registry key here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
Create a new DWORD value under this key called: NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and set it to the number one. Reboot and you are ready to go.
Oh yea. For the lazy types (Thats me) we wrote a little proggy that will do it for you:
Download Here
A final note - if you are on a corporate network and a group policy is in place this will have no effect - ha - you weren't supposed to do this anyway ;()
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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Apple Unveils new intel line
Just as I predicted, Apple has unveiled their new Intel line of computers. Just one more step in the direction of their master plan. A new Intel iMac, and a new Intel based laptop that starts at just $1,999. A few more software additions and updates. A blow by blow accounting of the whole thing can be found here
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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Utility to reboot a computer remotely on your lan
Update: 1/5/2007 - We created our own remote reboot program that has more features than the one shown here. Visit our downloads page to get it
I found this free utility on the net a year or two ago. It was one of those free programs someone threw up on a bog somewhere. It allows you to pick a computer that is in your windows domain, and reboot, shutdown or logoff the user remotely.
Get it from our downloads page
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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How to WMF Hack proof your machines
It looks like moments after the fix for the WMF vulnerability was released some researches have found two more flaws that were previously unknown. They were discovered by a hacker that goes by the name cocoruder. All of these vulnerabilities surround the dll that allows users to preview images.
With this news in mind we have decided to completely disable image previews on our systems until Microsoft has this whole mess sorted out. The way to do it is very simple:
Click on start, then run, and type the following:
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
Click OK, and image previews will be disabled.
When Microsoft finally gets their act together on this issue and releases more patches you can turn it back on by doing the same, but changing the command line to:
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Monday, January 09, 2006
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How to refresh group policy on Windows 2000
I could not for the life of me remember how to refresh group policy on a windows 2000 workstation. I finally found the command line to do it. I know this will help someone out there:
Using Microsoft Windows 2000, how do I force a group policy to be applied?
When you make a change to a Group Policy Object (GPO), the change takes place on a Windows 2000 domain controller. The change then replicates to all other domain controllers in the Active Directory. All Windows 2000 computers in Active Directory check for modifications to GPOs at regular intervals. If there are changes, then they are applied during the next interval.
If you need to apply the change immediately, you can use one of the following commands to trigger the process:
* To refresh the group policy for the local computer, enter: secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy
* To refresh the group policy for the user currently logged in, enter: secedit /refreshpolicy user_policy
These commands compare the currently applied GPO to the GPO located on the domain controllers. If nothing has changed since the last time the GPO was applied, then the GPO is skipped.
To force a GPO to be reapplied, whether or not changes have been made to the GPO, use the /enforce switch: secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy /enforce Once Windows 2000 accepts the request, it will display the following message:
"Group policy propagation from the domain has been initiated for this computer. It may take a few minutes for the propagation to complete and the new policy to take effect. Please check Application Log for errors, if any."
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Monday, January 09, 2006
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Silent install of Office XP SP2
We have had this really nasty bug with Office XP. Every time a user tries to print to specific printers the whole thing locks up. We originally thought it might be the printer driver. We tried all kinds of things to get these machines to work. Only to find out it was a bug in word - one that SP2 fixes. It fixes the problem - great - but we have over 100 machines to patch!
First, we downloaded the full version of the patch from here
Next we updated the login script that all of the users have to install the patch when they login. Yes we know we could push it via Group Policy - We opted not to.
We copied to one of our servers, and put it on a public share that these users could access.
Then we updated the login scripts to call the patch:
\\server1\office2003\sp2\2003SP2.exe /q > \\server1\office2003\sp1\%computername%.log
Then we just checked the \\server1\office2003\sp1 directory for the log files created by each computer - That way we knew if it was installed without error.
That is all there is too it!
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Monday, January 09, 2006
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What will Apple reveal on Tuesday?
It is just a few more days before Mr Jobs takes the stage and reveals to the world their new products. Here are a few predictions of what they will reveal:
- New intel based laptops
- New intel based desktops
- A TiVo like device that you can purchase movies using iTunes
My other prediction is that their will be no G4 based machines revealed at this keynote - contrary to what most of the industry pundits are saying.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Sunday, January 08, 2006
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Windows File Protection - Stops Microsoft Patch!
I attempted to roll out the WMF patch for the big security hole everyone has been talking about lately. After pushing it to a few machines as a test, these users started to complain that they were getting a message about windows file protection. It looks like when you attempt to push this patch to Windows 2000 machines, the windows file protection will kick in and stop it in its tracks.
I found the registry key that lets you disable it (I would suggest only while you are deploying the patch)
Open regedit, and browse to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Find the value SFCDisable
Set it to this hex dword value to turn of windows file protection: ffffff9d
If you want to turn it back on, switch it to zero.
It takes effect almost immediately, and you can deploy the patch right after making the change with no problems.
If you don't like mucking around in the registry, I wrote a program that will do it for you.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Friday, January 06, 2006
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Clean viruses quickly
It always happens to me, and probably you too - A friend, or family member calls you over to look at their computer. Good luck for you they have no virus protection, and their computer is screaming signs that it is infected with a virus. I know there are a lot of free anti-virus solutions out there, but I always like to start with a free utility from McAfee called stinger Download this baby and let it rip. It even works on systems that are seriously in trouble because of a virus. Now I admit that it does not always clean the virus in question. But once you identify it, you can always find a free clean tool for any virus at Symantec. Just do a search in google:
If I wanted to clean the 'SoBig' virus, then just search for:
Symantec clean tool sobig
I almost always get the clean tool from Symantec on the first hit, and they usually work better than most of the antivirus products themselves, because these clean tools were specifically engineered to clean the virus.
So go forth and be the computer hero you were ment to be - and fix that system without spending a dime.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Friday, January 06, 2006
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Robocopy is an administrators best friend
I am not sure if you have heard of it. Robocopy. It is a free command line utility that has been included with the NT line of windows for some time now. I actually think all the way back to NT 4.0. It is usually in the resource kit. This tool has saved me tons of time over the years. It essentialy lets you do a file synchronization between windows PCs. Perfect for when you need to copy gigs of data over the wan, but need something that will keep retrying until the job is done.
Lets say you want to copy the contents of c:\data to a network folder e:\data, but only want to retry 5 times if the copy is failing on any individual file:
robocopy c:\data e:\data /r:5
The above will only copy the root folder, not any subdirectories. To include all subdirectories use the /s switch:
robocopy c:\data e:\data /s /r:5
Now one problem I always run into is that I will have a ton of little files that are failing for one reason or another. They are usually log files that are in use and I don't care about them. To get the wait time between failures short and sweet then use the /w option. It tells it the number of seconds to wait between failures:
robocopy c:\data e:\data /s /r:5 /w:1
Now you are scratching your head, and think to yourself: "How is this different from xcopy - other than these retry and wait functions?"
It only copies the folders and files it sees as *new*. If you copied 1.2 GB of folder c:\data, and it got cut out in the last few files - you can call up robocopy and it will only copy the files that are newer, or do not exist on the remote side.
At the end of a copy it will give you a report. It lets you know how many files and folders were copied, and how many errors.
One of these days when I am in a programming mood I might throw together a GUI for those that find the command line interface too hard to understand ;()
If you don't have the resource kit, you can download a copy of robocopy here (Note: It only works on 2000, XP, NT, 2003, and Vista systems - no 98/95/ME sorry!)
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Friday, January 06, 2006
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Microsoft Ships 'Emergency' WMF Patch
Looks like Microsoft has released their fix early. The WMF vulnerability hits really hard. It allows attackers to install maleware on your computer just by visiting a website, or viewing an email. Make sure your virus scanners are up to date, and visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com today to get the patch.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Thursday, January 05, 2006
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Microsoft has its eye on IBM
Just a few hours after I made my last post, I see this quote from good ole Bill Gates himself:
"People tend to get over-focused on one of our competitors. We've always seen that," Gates said, comparing the potential threat of Google's search capabilities to past competitors such as Internet browser Netscape and Sun Microsystems' Java programming language. "
"I'm never going to change the press's view about what the 'cool company' to write about is. That's Google, No. 1, and Apple, No. 2...."
In other words he is saying that really they have their death rays focused on IBM.
If this is true he is foolish. I think Google, and IBM are not really serious competitors of Microsoft at all (I know this is crazy talk!). In fact they help sell their products in so many ways. Would you ever think that Yahoo is going to *crush* microsoft? Why Not. What is so different about Google. Forget about the buzz, the tech talk. What is it about Google that is going to kill Microsoft? They are not going to invent an OS overnight. Would you think that someday Unisys was going to tople the Microsoft giant. Why not? - IBM competes in the same space.
I don't even own a Mac and I am not a raving Mac fan. I still believe that Apple is their main threat. Even if you or they do not know it.
I can see the future - if Apple follows their plan for World Domination (TM), they will be a serious problem for Microsoft.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Thursday, January 05, 2006
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Apple's plan for world domination (TM)
I have been an observer of the mac phenomenon for quite some time now. I think that the day Steve Jobs came back to Apple he had a plan for world domination.
Lets go back to 1996 when he joined the company. Apple is in a weakened state, most of the industry has written them off, and people are counting the days when the company will implode.
Jobs has a fire inside and desperately wants to beat Microsoft. This *must* be a major motivator for him. It was Microsoft that dethroned him originally.
He is wise, and he knows that it would be foolish to reveal to the world his plan (Think Netscape). Microsoft would take note right away, and do everything it could to crush this little company. Instead he warms up to Microsoft, and they actually prop up this nearly dead corporation.
Meanwhile, Jobs brings in his *Intel* based system and slowly Apple starts to move it to their platform. Still - Apple needs Microsoft. They need Internet Explorer, Office, and anything they can to keep selling Apple systems.
OSX is finally released. Microsoft actually produces some of the first major commercial applications for this new operating system. With the success of their software, Apple becomes stronger, and the industry outlook for the company looks better than ever.
Secretly they have been keeping OSX compiled on internal Intel systems. This is for the day when they make the big switch. A switch that I believe was planned a long time ago. They must wait until they have enough momentum that the switch will not kill the company. When the outlook is strong, and financials are good they make their move.
With big fanfare Jobs lets the public know that they will be switching to Intel. The supposed reasons are for price/performance.
A Funny thing starts to happen after this. Accessory, and third party hardware vendors start to see it as a market for their products. They start to include drivers for OSX. Video cards, mice, and many other hardware items that were previously only for windows have already started including MacOSX drivers for their products. This will only continue until almost every PC hardware product will have drivers for both operating systems.
At this stage in the plan it is necessary to keep Microsoft from thinking that Apple will directly compete with them. It is soo easy too - since Microsoft has their deathray focused on Google. Apple is working hard to make it clear that OSX will only run on their hardware.
I believe that once there is a large number of applications ported and developed for the Intel version of OSX we will see another 'Big' announcement from Apple. A partnership with Dell. Yep. That is the final step in Steve's master plan.
By this time it will be too late for Microsoft to turn back the clock. Mac OSX will take a significant chunk out of their OS space. It will be a struggle for Microsoft as well. They will want to cut all development for any Mac application they sell, but the userbase will be so large that it will hurt their biggest cash cows.
The brilliance of this plan is that it takes Microsoft's strength, and turns it against itself.
I wonder if Jobs every read the "Art of war". It sure seems like he is following its advice very closely.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Wednesday, January 04, 2006
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Programs that you cannot uninstall
Have you ever had that program that shows up in Add/Remove programs that you just can not remove?
It usually happens like this: You are cleaning up your hard drive, and you delete a few programs you no longer need.
Oops - They are still sitting in the 'Add/Remove Programs' section of windows.
This can get really annoying when you run auditing software and it tells you that these programs are still installed.
To get rid of the offending entry I wrote a little program to take care of it. Just run the program and select the entry you want to remove - and press the delete key. That's it!
Go to our downloads section to get it.
FYI:
1. You should only use this for programs that will not uninstall
2. The utility only removes the reference to the program not any of the files.
Disclaimer:
Use the program at your own risk.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Tuesday, January 03, 2006
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Dell Inkjet printers are a scam.
It always feels great to get something for free. When I ordered my last system from Dell I was so happy that they would give me a free printer along with it. I thought what a great deal I was getting.
Not until I ran out of Ink.
At the worst time *of course*.
I needed to get a report done for a meeting at work the next day. I started driving from store to store but not one carried their printer cartridges. I discovered why. They want you to get all of your printer cartridges from them. Dell has created a legal nightmare for anyone that trys to make compatible cartridges for their printers. I notice that also their prices are much higher than say an HP would be for the same amount of ink. To add a final insult it took me almost a week to get my cartridges when I ordered them from Dell.
I guess that free printer wasn't so free after all.
*Update
After searching the net for a while I found this nugget of information
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Sunday, January 01, 2006
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Shortcuts keep stealing my browser
It seems to happen to people all the time. You have an important web page open. Usually one that requires five pages of checks and buttons to get there. Suddenly you realize you want to open one of your other sites right next to it. You double click an icon on your desktop and bam it loads into the browser you are looking at! Boy that is annoying. People call me all the time with this 'bug' and cannot figure out how to fix it. It really is simple to fix
-Launch internet explorer
-Click on tools
-Then Internet Options
-Go to the very last tab (Advanced)
-Under the 'Browsing' Section you will see an option:
"Reuse windows for launching shortcuts"
Unclick this option and your problem is fixed!
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Sunday, January 01, 2006
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Windows Administration - Start of a new year
Hello. My Name is Steve Wiseman. In this blog I hope to post my experiences as a windows administrator. I will post fixes to those tough to answer problems, reviews of software, and my thoughts of what is going on in the computer industry.
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Sunday, January 01, 2006
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