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I just had an issue where I was trying to install PowerDVD 5.1 onto a Dell laptop with a fresh Windows XP install. The PowerDVD software was on Dell branded media and I had reinstalled the laptop using a non OEM Dell branded version of Windows XP Professional. It seems that there is a check during the installation process of PowerDVD to verify that the software is indeed being reinstalled back onto a Dell branded computer. As I hadn’t used the original reinstallation CD that came with the laptop I had half guessed that PowerDVD was going to complain.

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Posted by James Clements to Software, XP | add a comment

I have 6 Adtran Netvanta 1524st switches on which I wanted to disable STP (spanning tree protocol). After checking the switches through their web interface and using SSH to check the Adtran Operating System (AOS) command line help I was unable to spot any obvious method of disabling it.

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Posted by James Clements to Hardware | add a comment

Here is a registry key I run from a startup script to disable the option that allows users to invoke a “Log on using dial-up connection”. Having had experience of working in a school I know how kids will use any excuse to distract them from logging onto a computer and starting the lesson!

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Posted by James Clements to Registry, Scripting | add a comment

Here is another quick KiXtart script I wrote to backup a Microsoft SQL database on a server. I personally run it locally on the server that contains the database I want to backup using a scheduled task. It connects to the MSSQL database using the OSQL command line utility which it runs through a shell.

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Posted by James Clements to MSSql, Scripting | add a comment

Here’s a quick script written using KiXtart to retrieve information for a user (object) in Active Directory. Once enumerated, object information is stored in variables to be used later.

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Posted by James Clements to Scripting | add a comment

I have installed Microsoft Exchange quite a few times as a syadmin and since the release of Vista one thing I seem to forget is to address the issue of Vista clients using Internet Explorer 7 that send email through Outlook Web Access.

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Posted by James Clements to Exchange, Vista | add a comment

Pre Microsoft office 2003 SP3, when creating a new MAPI email account in outlook 2003 the default setting was to “Use Cached Exchange Mode”. I have noticed that after installing SP3 the default seems to now be disabled when creating an email account.

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Posted by James Clements to Registry | add a comment

I use VMWare ESX 3.5 and Virtual Center 2.5 since implementing it at my current workplace. Like many sysadmins I regularly keep on top of patching. I manually patch my ESX hosts when I see fit after pulling updates through Virtual Center. Subsequently, I recently applied the latest update (3.5 u2 or update 2) to all ESX hosts. As a frequent reader of The Register I was later surprised to learn of a bug where people had encountered issues when booting or vmotioning virtual machines on or after 12th August 2008.

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Posted by James Clements to VMWare | 1 comment | show comment » | « hide comment

I was recently asked to investigate a problem with a server and the lack of space on a partition. After a quick look using Treesize I noticed a suspicious folder being used by an application for logging purposes.

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Posted by James Clements to Server 2003 | 1 comment | show comment » | « hide comment

I have a server located in a data centre miles away from where I work. It currently runs Windows 2000 Server. Every now and then when I try to connect to the server I get the following message about the number of Remote Desktop connections being exceeded:

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Posted by James Clements to Software | 2 comments | show comments » | « hide comments