T-Mobile’s “MobileLife” knows how to get your attention!

Alpha Antivirus, rogue

Client got tricked by Alpha Antivirus and proceeded to download and install! Lucky she stopped when it asked for credit card info.

She has McAfee properly installed and running. It was CLUELESS!
I really was not optomistic about repair.
Malwarebytes (free) did an awesome job!

Windows command prompt shortcuts

Use wildcards like C:\>”cd do*” to jump to C:\>Documents and Settings

or C:\>”cd do (and Tab Key)” to cycle through directories starting with “do”
(No quotes of course)
or even C:\>”cd (space and Tab Key)” to cycle through all directories and files

You knew the Up and Down arrow keys cycle through previous command history
but how about 
F7 to bring up a dialog of all the recent command history

Windows 7 Upgrade chart

Click image for source

Windows 7 versions chart

Click image for source

Windows 7 License Types

The table below is your starting point. The license types listed in the columns of this table are arranged in rough order of price, from least expensive to most expensive. Click image for source article.

Vista System Restore vssadmin commands

Need command prompt running with elevated privilege.

Default usage settings should be 15% Total Disk Space or 30% Available Disk Space, whichever is less. 1GB minimum.

To display current usage:
C:>\vssadmin list shadowstorage

If Maximum Shadow Copy Storage apace:UNBOUNDED
This is a bad thing. You will get Low Disk Space warnings

To set usage appropriately, consider this example:
C:>\vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=50GB

 

Scan a suspicious file

VirusTotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines.

This free service colaberates with about 40 major Anti-Malware providers to provide a really good file analyzer.

Lock down Windows with FREE Windows SteadyState

Ever wish you could undo everything? You can’t always prevent problems during a user session, but now you can undo the whole session. Learn how Windows SteadyState can return your computer and hard disk to its exact condition before the user touched it, simply by rebooting. Lock down your user interface Users sometimes go places and do things they shouldn’t on shared machines. Now you can help protect sensitive locations and restrict user access to features such as Control Panel.  See how easy it is to use Not an IT professional? That’s OK—it can be easy to manage shared computers that are hardened by Windows SteadyState for multiple users. Get SteadyState now Are you ready to download Windows SteadyState for your genuine Windows XP or Windows Vista computer? There’s no charge. Download it now, or look around and learn more.

13 IT Pros and their tools

By TechRepublic, 13 IT Pros and their tools 

#1: John Bartow, consultant

RoboForm Pro and Portable : Password manager, form filler, and password management. 

CCleaner : File system and registry cleaner.

Autoruns:  Startup process manager; shows programs configured to run during system bootup or login.

Process Explorer : Lets you see which handles and DLL processes are open.

Vipre : Antivirus, malware, and rootkit software. 

Spybot S&D : Suite of PC security products. 

SIW : Software Information for Windows; gathers and displays detailed information about system properties and settings. 

DotNet cleanup tool  (dotnetfx_cleanup_tool): Aaron Stebner’s tool Automated cleanup tool for removing the .NET Framework.

Auslogics Disk Defrag : Hard drive defragmenting software.

Auslogics Registry Defrag : Registry defragmenting software.

#2: Sterling Camden, consultant

Vim : “Powerful” text editor. 

Google Chrome : Windows browser that’s getting a lot of good reviews. 

Ruby : “One of the most popular scripting languages.”

Synergy/DE : Suite of advanced cross-platform software tools for Windows, UNIX, and OpenVMS.

PVCS Version Manager : Source control.

PuTTY : Telnet and SSH for Windows and

FileZilla : Open source FTP client and server. 

VMware : Virtualization technology products.

Visual Studio 2008 : Suite of development tool

 #3: John W. Colby, consultant

 C2DbFW3G: Custom framework for Access.

MZ-Tools : Enhanced programming tools for VB and VBA programmers. 

LogMeIn Hamachi : VPN service. 

VNC : Integrated security. 

VMware Infrastructure : Virtualization for individual machines and servers. 

Comodo Internet Security : Firewall and Antivirus suite. 

  ThreatFire : Antivirus software.

#4: Donna Cook, applications analyst

CSVed : Manipulate Excel files (.xls). “…great tool for anyone who hates Excel.”

Copernic Desktop Search : Windows Desktop Search tool. 

Irfanview : Fast graphic viewer/conversion tool for Windows.

eCleaner : Strips HTML symbols, formatting codes, and so on. 

CoreFTP : Free, user-friendly, secure FTP application for Windows.

SiSoft Sandra : Gathers information about a machine.

Lan MonitorSendToAny : Displays information about every network adapter on your computer. : Extends the Windows Send To menu to include anything on your Program

 #5: Deborah Elam, consultant

DNS source script : Creates DSNs from code. “…moving computers and new user

#6: Steve Erbach, software development

HardCopy : Screen capture utility. “…relaxed shar

Paint.NET : Image and photo editing software.

ColorPic : “Superb” pop-up color picker control

Irfanview : Fast graphic viewer for Windows.

Windows Grep : Graphical text search and rep

CPU-Z : Quickly review information about system’s devic

FireBug : Web debugging tool. “… absolutely outstanding…no

SpinRiteAutoHotKey : Data recovery.  : Automate keystrokes.”

Process Explorer : Lets you see which handles and DLL processes are open. “Excellent and detailed information…”

FileMonProcess MonitorRootkitReveale 

Belarc Advisor : Profile system

WinPatrolWin2PDF : Improve system performance.  : Install PDF fun

XML Notepad 2007 : Browse and edit XML

MZ-Tools : Enhanced more than a million driver u

Disktective : Disk-space reporting. 

KeePass : Password manager. 

ToDoList : NET-based to-do list. 

TreePad : Personal Information M

#7 Athur Fuller, business analyst

NoteTab; Award-winning text and HTML editor. “Try this and you will never again load NotePad.”

xPlorer2 : Desktop File Management

#8 Stuart McLachlan, IS 

Irfanview: Fast graphic viewer/conversion tool for Windows

Polestar Virtual Printer : Virtual PDF and image printer.

Foxit Reader : “Fast” PDF reader with “neat” capabilities. 

AutoIt : “BASIC-like” scripting language for automating W

PowerBASIC : A Windows compiler. “…small, fast, no depe

ZTree  : “The best file/directory manager out there.”

VirtualBox : Virtualization products for x86 systems. “Great for developintesting in others.”

FireFTP : FTP client plug for Firefox. 

NetSetManPro : Network settings manager. “I can go to any of my clients’ sites and hook my laptop into their network witho

#9 Kren Rosenstiel, Web dev

UltraEdit: “…an excellent all-around program

UltraCompare : Compare and merge files, directors, documents, zip archives, and so on. 

#10: Francisco Tapia, database administrator

SQL Compare : Moves SQL Server data from development to production. 

SQL Diagnostic Manager : Monitors SQL Server. 

#11 Jon Tydda, IT technician

Ad-Aware: The original anti-spyware

Spybot-S&D: Detects and removes spyware. 

ZoneAlarm: A suite of security products. 

AVG Anti-Virus : Antivirus and Internet security. 

Startup Control Panel : A simple user interfacestart your computer. 

Process Explorer : Lets you see which han

Trojan Hunter : Protects system from Trojans.

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware : Detects and removes malware “where others fail.”

#12 Dan Waters, business systems

MZ-Tools: Enhanced programming tools for VB and VBA

Find & Replace Add-in for Microsoft Access that lets you quickly rename design objects.

Access Analyzer:

#13 Drew Wutka, network administrator

Remote Administrator (radmin): “Great tool for admin

MoveWindows : Custom application that captures all of the open windows on your machine. “Handy for multiple monitor issues when an application gets lost.

10 common Cisco IOS commands

According to TechRepublic, IT Dojo video:
dir
cd:
copy
delete and rm
show flash
erase and format
more
verify
mkdir
fsck

my favs:
sh event -history
sh run
sh int

Only 3% of virus’ are now spread though ‘traditional’ methods.

‘Traditional’ is being redefined.Known by many names, Rogue Antispyware, Fake Antivirus, Malware, or Scareware… the defacto ‘traditional’ method is now the “drive-by while browsing”. I am fascinated by these. “They play on our fears!” Poisoning search results and legit sites, these things are everywhere. AND THEY WORK! $100’s of millions are being made by these pros.

Found a guy that really tracks this stuff. I don’t know anything about VIPRE he hawks, but a really complete list of Rogue Antispyware found here.

Best defense, hit the power button on site!

Clone a Hard Drive for Free

Make sure that you have a Master (C:\ in my example) and a Slave (D:\ in my example) setup on your system. The Slave (or “Target”) is where all the data on the Master is going to copy to.

First: On the Master, empty Temporary Internet Files, empty recycle bin, thorough sweep with the AV, then do the Scandisk, followed by the Defrag.

Second: Scandisk then a thorough Defrag the Target.

Third: Right-click on the Target drive and click on Format. When the box comes up, click your mouse onto the “Full” button.

Fourth: After Formatting the Target drive, run a Scandisk again and click on the button that says “Autofix Errors”.

Fifth: Initiate a the XCOPY command from a DOS prompt. Click on Start/Run, then type CMD into the Runbox and hit OK. At the DOS prompt, type the following:

XCOPY C:\*.* D: /c/h/e/k/r and then press the “Enter” button. When its all finished, pull the Master from the system, designate the Slave as the Master (jumper settings).

 

Gotta try this with Robocopy some time…

The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed

First, let me say… I get about 10 to 20 unique hits on this post every day. We are not alone! Below, I describe a fix to the relationship. But I want to know THE CAUSE of the broken relationship! If you can help, please post a comment. -Thank you

Problem: The Vista user can log onto the machine with cached credentials (NIC disconnected and WiFi off), but not when connected to the LAN. ERR, It worked for the last year, just fine. Oh well…

You may also get this error: ”The security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship.”

As the error indicates, the relationship between the client/server is broken. Let’s fix the relationship.

Kill and rejoin the Domain… (with PC rename in between)
On the DC:
Delete the offending Computer Account that resides in Active Directory.
Delete the Computer’s IP Lease(s) in DHCP
On the client (with no connection to LAN):
Log onto the local machine (not the Domain) as an Admin.
Unjoin the Domain by joining a “TEMP” workgroup. Reboot required. Log into TEMP workgroup as the Admin.
Rename the Computer. Reboot required.
Log into the Local Machine, now rejoin the Domain. Reboot required. Login into the Domain.
Test network access and life is good. The Computer exists in AD and DHCP.
Rename the Computer back to what I originally wanted. Reboot required.
Test network access and life is still good. The new Computer name is in AD and DHCP, as expected.

Come on people, this post gets tons of views. Give me some feedback!

“Greenbar” format in Excel View and Print

I want to View/Print my Excel worksheet with alternating color bars like old school, greenbar, continuous form.

Excel 2007 has a solution… In the Home ribbon, “Format as Table”.

System Volume Information filling Server 2003 drive

There is so much misinformation out there, I am compelled to comment.

A hidden “System Volume Information” folder on an Me, XP and Vista machine contains Restore Point information for the System Restore feature. IF you have a hidden “System Volume Information” folder on a Server 2003 machine, it has nothing to do with System Restore. System Restore is not supported, nor installed on Server 2003. The existence of the folder indicates you have or had Shadow Copies Enabled on the server. To mess with Shadow Copies settings, look at the Properties of the server drive in Windows Explorer and select the Shadow Copies tab. Go ahead and “Create Now”. You will see the associated data created in the hidden System Volume Information folder.

For more information on implementing Volume Shadow Copy and Previous Versions, I like the way this guy did it.

For more information on Preventing Vista System Restore from filling up your hard drive, Bill Detwiler does a nice job.

DbaMGR2k GUI admin console for MSDE 2000

Pretty cool.

DbaMgr and DbaMgr2k provide a graphic management interface for MS MSDE 1.0 and MSDE 2000 installations. It allows you to manage and administer your server, databases and database objects from a Windows interface similar to the one Microsoft Enterprise Manager provides, rather than via the standard oSql.exe command line utility: an alternative inexpensive console/management tool for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0/MSDE 1.0 and SQL Server 2000/MSDE2000 respectively, plus some other functionality.Provided with built-in English and Italian language localization, support user defined language translation.

Please go to Control Panel to install and configure system components.

Doh! I am in the wrong folder! Try the C:\SQL2KSP4\MSDE folder!

This drove me crazy. The setup.exe I wanted to launch was not in my current folder, so Windows tried to launch a setup.exe it found within a system folder.

Man caught on video, installing ’skimming device’ on ATM

You should watch this first.

Then, you can appreciate this…

remove AntivirusPro 2010

A new version of an old favorite. AntivirusPro 2010 initiated while browsing the internet is in no way legit.  Hope you didn’t give ‘em your credit card number! If so, cancel your card now!

Don’t confuse this with the real Panda Security Antivirus Pro 2010. The real antivirus has a little panda in the top left corner, and does not behave in a “sky is falling” manner.

Wow. I really like the way this guy describes the removal of Antivirus Pro 2009. That said, your first move should be Safe Mode without networking and System Restore. Then connect to the internet for AV updates and a full scan. This worked AGAIN for me!

 

Lissy’s Dell Latitude D620
Virus
System Restore
Mup
9 cell Battery $79 at discountelectronics.com
Notebook Cooler $20 at cyberguys.com