Tools :: IntelliAdmin - Remote Administration For Windows

Turn windows 7 into a wireless access point

Posted by Steve Wiseman on February 26, 2010 with 2 Comments

For years now I have been able to share my Verizon wireless connection with friends and family using my Apple running OSX. Linux can do this too.

It has not been possible with Windows until now. Microsoft has added some features to 7 that allow a wireless card to be put into promiscuous mode and turned into a true wireless AP.

From my testing I can see that it does not work for all wireless cards. I would imagine the driver and hardware needs to support it. You will have to experiment and see if it works for you.

There are two ways to do this. First, you can go the easy route and use a free tool called Connectify. It makes this process very simple.

Just visit http://www.connectify.me/ and download the latest version of their software.

Once you install it, you can pick the wireless card you are going to use, the SSID, and the password:

Connectify Screen Shot

Hit the “Start hotspot” button and you are ready to go. Best of all this software is free….this is right from their website:

Connectify Free

The alternative to using Connectify is to make some calls to netsh from the command line. Open a command line as an administrator (Right click and pick ‘run as administrator’).

Type this:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=[ssid] key=[key]

Replace the [ssid] with the ssid of your choice, and [key] with the WPA2 key that you want to use.

Next you will need to turn on internet connection sharing. You will need to go to the properties of the network card that is providing internet access. This is kind of buried in Windows 7, so I will walk you through.

First go to the control panel, and click on “Network and Internet”:

Network and Internet

When the next window shows, click on “Network and Sharing Center”:

Network and Sharing Center

A new window will show. Look to the left, and click on the text that says “Change Adapter Settings”:

Change Adapter Settings

Now you can simply right click and go to the properties of the network card that provides internet access:

Network Properties

Go to the sharing tab and enable internet connecting sharing:

Click OK, and now you are set. You can start using your Windows 7 machine as an access point

Just one detail for both methods – you are forced to use WPA2 encryption for the connection, so you may have trouble with older devices, and operating systems that do not support it.

Filed Under: Tips, Tools, Utility, Windows 7

Get to the recycle bin – even when it is hidden

Posted by Steve Wiseman on February 12, 2010 with 2 Comments

Now this is a cool little time saver tip. Unfortunately this only works in XP, and 2000.

Lets say you got lots of windows open, and you have a file or folder you want to quickly get to the recycle bin

Just drag your file or folder to an empty spot on the task bar (Don’t let go!)

Task Bar Recycle

And bam! All your windows will minimize

Now you can easily reach the recycle bin only using your mouse.

Filed Under: Tools, Windows 2000, Windows XP

Find Drivers for an Unknown Device

Posted by Steve Wiseman on January 13, 2010 with 3 Comments

The worst thing about a format and reload is that sometimes, it is impossible to find all of your drivers.

Usually I have lost the driver disks. If it is a “White Box Special” that I built from NewEgg…well I will have no idea what components I put into it.

I have found an excellent solution – a free tool called “Unknown Devices”

Zip on over to Halfdone Development and download a free copy. Don’t let the old build date fool you – the program still works quite well…even on Windows 7 and Vista systems.

When you download it, make sure you extract the exe *and* the zip file…and they remain in the same folder. I made a mistake of thinking the zip file was not necessary. It contains all of the driver lookup information.

A good example is a white box that I built a year or two ago. I formatted it, and could not even remember who made the motheboard.

A peek at the device manager shows the unknown devices:

Easily found by this cool little utility. Run it, and bam – it shows me a list:

After that, I was able to right click on them and do a search on google. Within 30 minutes I was able to get all of my drivers downloaded and installed.

Give it a spin, it will save you a ton of time when trying to find the drivers after a rebuild – and it beats tearing the machine open to read model numbers.

Filed Under: Drivers, Tools, Utility

Get notified when a service fails

Posted by Steve Wiseman on January 5, 2010 with 0 Comments

No matter what company I have worked for, there is always a Windows service that crashes once in a while – like clock work.

The problem: The service that crashes is important, does real time processing, and must always be active.

I came up with a quick and easy way of getting notified when your favorite service crashes.

First, you will need a copy of the free tool called blat. You can get a copy of it here:

Blat command line emailer

Download it, and copy it to a place on the server that is easy for your batch files to find.

Next, we will need to set up a batch file that will create and send out our email with blat. For my example, I am going to get a notification each time the print spooler crashes (Because of a buggy print driver)…so I want my email to tell me that the print spooler crashed.

Here is what the batch file would look like:
blat -subject "Spooler Crashed again" -body "Go fix the printer...the spooler crashed again!" -to support@intelliadmin.com -from alert@intelliadmin.com

This email will have a subject of “Spooler Crashed again” and a body of “Go fix the printer…the spooler crashed again!”. Some of you wise guys may be saying, “just set that service to restart, and you don’t even have to touch it!”

Unfortunately when the spooler crashes, a helper process is still stuck in the background…and it will crash the spooler until you kill it.

Save the batch file in a place you can easily find it. I am going to call mine “scnotify.bat”. Run it from the command line once and make sure it is working properly.

Now, go into the service list (Click start then run, and type services.msc..and hit OK). Find your ‘problem’ service, and right click on it – go to properties.

Service List

A window will show. Move over to the recovery tab, and select the drop down for the first failure. Pick the “run a program” option:

Service Properties

Once you do that, the options for the application will become enabled. Select your batch file that you created before:

Select Application

That is all there is to it. Now when that critical service crashes, you will know right away.

Original article from www.networksteve.com

Filed Under: BAT Files, Command Line, Tools, Utility

Remote Control 4.3 Released

Posted by Joel Sundquist on December 16, 2009 with 6 Comments

We have just released a new version of Remote Control 4.

This release fixes one bug that we found:

-The automatic install from older XP machines, and 2000 machines to newer Vista and Windows 7 could not complete (fixed)

In addition we added a new feature that allows you to override the default settings used when the server is pushed out automatically:

Remote Control 4.3 options

I know that some of you have your own in-house intranet websites that launch the remote control client. We have added these three command line options to support the new install settings:

InstallServerTrayIcon – Indicates the default setting of the server tray icon when the client installs the server software (TRUE/FALSE)

InstallShowUninstall - Indicates that when installing the server, show an entry in add/remove programs if set to true. (TRUE/FALSE)

InstallShowConfigureButton – Indicates that when installing the server, the configure button should be displayed if set to true. (TRUE/FALSE)

If you are a current customer, you can simply go into your old order confirmation email and download again

If you want to play around with a trial version, you can get it from here:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/setupex.exe

Filed Under: Remote Control, Tools, Utility

Troubleshoot Windows 7 with the “Problem Steps Recorder”

Posted by Steve Wiseman on December 9, 2009 with 2 Comments

While digging around, I found this very cool utility included with Windows 7. It is called “Problem Steps Recorder”.

The program allows you to record a set of actions, and then save it as a zip file, and allow someone else to see what you did.

This is perfect when trying to troubleshoot an issue, but you don’t have the ability to use remote control, or have access to the computer.

If you want someone to record their steps, you have them simply type the letters ‘psr’ in the start menu search:

Problem Steps Recorder Launch

See the psr.exe at the top, run that, and you can start recording. Make sure you right click and run it as administrator if you have any applications you want to show that also run as administrator

Problem Steps Recorder As Admin

Once you are ready to start recording your steps, hit the record button

Problem Steps Recorder Start

In my little test, I launched the Remote Desktop Client, and tried to connect to a problem server. When I had the error I even wrote a little note.

When I was finished, I stopped the recorder, and it saved the entire session as a zip file

It is pretty good at keeping that file small. The file could be emailed, and opened. Inside the zip is a ‘mht’ file that can be viewed with Internet Explorer.

You can see with my test record below, it shows screen shots for each click, and descriptions:

Even better, it provides a text description below all of the shots, with any notes that were added during the record.

Here is an excerpt of mine:
... Problem Step 7: User Comment: "See - this is where I cannot connect!" Program: UI Elements: ...

In short, it is an awesome little utility built into Windows 7. It can save you tons of time when trying to diagnose something from far away, and the person using it does not even need to know how to take a screen shot.

Original Article from www.networksteve.com

Filed Under: Tools, Windows, Windows 7

An easy move from XP to Windows 7

Posted by Steve Wiseman on November 27, 2009 with 1 Comments

I was contacted a few weeks back by Laplink. They gave me a free license of their PC Mover to try out.

Usually, I throw these requests away, but I have used various utilities from Laplink since the early 90s (Anyone remember those Laplink cables!?), and I really like this company. Still…it is a risk sending me something, since if I think it is crap I will say so (Especially since they sell remote control products that compete with ours!).

Essentially the software allows you to move your applications, settings, and user accounts from one computer to another. The cool part is you can move your XP system to your brand spanking new Windows 7 machine.

I did not have the time to try it out when they sent me the license, so I fired off an email to my friend Brett, and told him to report back.

He told me: “Works great, but it did have trouble moving my printers and secured content”

This is totally expected. It can move your apps and settings from XP to Windows 7, but it is not magic. If you have apps or drivers that are not Windows 7 compatible, it is still not going to work when you make the move. In addition, copy protected movies, music and files are going to stop working too. With applications like iTunes, you can easily fix this by re-authorizing the content for the new machine.

I wanted to do a writeup to talk about what Brett found, so I needed to do my own test and take some screen shots at the same time. Laplink was kind enough to give me an additional license to test.

This week is Thanksgiving here in the states, it was a perfect time to move my Dad’s computer from XP, to his new Windows 7 laptop.

Overall, the process is very simple. You first start with the new computer. It takes a snapshot to figure out what it does not need to move

PC Mover Start

It will scan through your registry, and create a snapshot file to be read by the old computer.

On the old computer, you can decide what user accounts to move to the new machine

PC Mover Users

And the applications you want to transfer

PC Mover Applications

It has quite a few options for the way you move the settings:

PC Mover Types

In my case, I just used the storage option, since I had a large external hard drive connected to the PC.

It spent 20 or 30 minutes doing its business, and completed with a moving van file.

I brought the file over to the new machine, and about 30 minutes later it had all the settings and applications moved over.

Now again, it was not perfect. But this is really a compatibility issue with drivers and applications. I still had to go out and find the proper printer drivers. I suggest you uncheck any printer support applications when you make your transfer….those act real funky when the driver is missing.

All in all it saved me a ton of time, I was able to transfer a boat load of apps, without the pain of re-installing. After a few tweaks to the printer drivers, and removing a few old programs that no longer worked – the machine was working great.

Take a look at it at http://www.laplink.com/pcmover

Filed Under: Tools, Utility

Tweak your IE 7 and IE 8 Settings

Posted by Steve Wiseman on November 25, 2009 with 2 Comments

Quite some time ago we released a little utility that allows you to tweak settings in IE 7.

It is called The IE 7 Tweak Utility.

I just got a message from a reader today:

“Steve, I really like your IE tweak utility. Any way you can update it to work with IE 8?”

Sure no problem. The updated version will now work with IE 7 and IE 8:

IE78 Tweak Utility

What does it do? Well it allows you to change 3 settings that are really annoying, and are only available through registry changes:

-Menu bar (Hide or Show)

-Search Bar (Hide or Show)

-Command Bar (Hide or Show)

Get your free copy from here:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/IE7TweakUtility.exe

As always – no spyware, or adward – only freeware goodness

Filed Under: IE, IE 7, IE 8, Tools, Utility

Set a local account’s password – remotely

Posted by Steve Wiseman on November 24, 2009 with 2 Comments

In Network Administrator 3.0, we have a feature that allows you to update the local administrator password – remotely.

This is helpful if you have lots of machines with the same local admin password and need to change it.

Set Local Admin Password

Recently we have had a few emails complaining that it would not set the password. After digging deeper we realized that in all of these cases, the local administrator user name was not ‘administrator’

So, we now have an updated version that will allow you to pick the username, and the password of the local account you would like to update:

Set Local Admin Password

Get your updated version from here:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/NetworkAdministrator.exe

Filed Under: Network Administrator, Tools, Utility

Send email from the command line

Posted by Steve Wiseman on November 17, 2009 with 1 Comments

Two weeks ago, I wrote about backing up a remote windows machine using Remote Desktop.

One thing lacking from this solution is email notification. How do we know if the backup job started? Or finished?

There is a free and open source tool that can be used to solve this problem, it is called blat. It consists of an executable, and a DLL.

You can find it at http://www.blat.net/

Send Mail Command Line

Download it, and extract the files to a place where your scripts run. In my case, I put it in c:\backups

To start, you will need an SMTP server that you have access to. That is probably the most difficult part of getting it to work – which means it is very easy to use.

If I just want to send a simple email that tells me a batch script has started, I could call it like this:

blat.exe -f batch@intelliadmin.com -to support@intelliadmin.com -server 192.168.1.1 -subject "Batch file started" -body "The very important batch script has started"

You have five required options to get your email to send:
-f [FROM] (This is the email address that the message will come from) -to [TO] (This is the email address the message will be sent to) -subject [SUBJECT] (Subject of the email. Uses quotes if you have spaces) -body [BODY] (Body of email. Use quotes if you have spaces) -server [SERVER] (IP Address or host name of the server)

That is for a simple message. Blat is filled with powerful options. For example, I could run a robocopy in my script, and redirect the output to a text file like this:

robocopy c:\backup \\server\c\backup >> output.txt

Then, when I send my notification I could attach the output text file to my email like this:

blat.exe -f batch@intelliadmin.com -to support@intelliadmin.com -server 192.168.1.1 -subject "Batch file started" -body "The very important batch script has completed" -attach c:\backup\output.txt

Once the command runs, the output will show up as an attachment in my inbox:

Send email cmd prompt

Like I said, it is loaded with options. Check it out, and when you do just type blat.exe -help to get the entire list of command line parameters.

Original Article from www.networksteve.com

Filed Under: BAT Files, Tools, Utility

Archive for Tools

Turn windows 7 into a wireless access point

Get to the recycle bin – even when it is hidden

Find Drivers for an Unknown Device

Get notified when a service fails

Remote Control 4.3 Released

Troubleshoot Windows 7 with the “Problem Steps Recorder”

An easy move from XP to Windows 7

Tweak your IE 7 and IE 8 Settings

Set a local account’s password – remotely

Send email from the command line

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