Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Enable new metro boot loader when dual booting with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7

When I configured a dual boot system with Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, I was given the old school black and white boot loader menu. This does the job but I really liked the new metro boot loader menu. So, to enable it back, I executed the following steps:

  • Open cmd
  • Type in 'bcdedit /set {default] bootmenupolicy standard'
  • Insert the Windows 8 cd and boot into advanced options
  • Open cmd and identify which drive letter partition your Win 8 OS lives (I could tell easily due to certain applications installed in Prog Files)
  • Type in the following command 'bcdboot E:\windows" ('E was where my Win 8 OS was, D was my Win 7)
  • Reboot and your done!

Done! If you want the old school, replace the word 'standard' with 'legacy' and if your system does not change the boot loader, redo the Windows 8 boot cd process and use the Win 7 drive letter.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Screen frozen on "Starting Windows" when building Server 2008 on Server 2012 Hyper-V

Symptom:

When trying to build a Windows Server 2008 (R2 in my case) on Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V, the VM would not get past the 'Starting Windows' screen.

Fix:

Recreate the VM in Hyper-V and ensure 'Gen 1' is selected ('Gen 2' will only work for Server 2012 +)

Monday, December 9, 2013

Server 2012 R2 update hanging on 'Getting devices ready 13%' on HP Microserver N40L

This is a simple one. Turns out you need to update the BIOS on the HP N40L. If you want, you can disable the NIC and continue with the install, however, it kills all your settings and was (yes, I did this) annoying to reconfigure.

Jump on the HP site (http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/psi/swdHome/?lang=en&cc=au&sp4ts.oid=5153252), select Server 2012 R2, download and run the BIOS exe (you'll need a spare usb thumb drive through out this process). Once the program has formatted and installed the files on the thumb drive, place it in your N40L, reboot and it should automatically execute. Unplug the thumb drive and update to Server 2012 R2!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Creating a Windows 8.1 To Go USB installation in 5 steps!

This guide will assist you in creating a portable OS (Windows 8 To Go) on a USB thumb drive/device.


NOTE: This guide assumes you have an understanding of basic IT terminology such as USB, NTFS, SSD, ISO, etc.

Stuff you need:

  1. 16G (or higher) USB storage device. This can be an USB thumb drive or an USB 2.0 (or higher) external hard drive with say a SSD drive like mine :) (MUCH quicker than the thumb drive!).
  2. Windows 7 PC (Laptop is fine). You can use Windows 8 too (can mount ISO's without third party software).
  3. The 'install.wim' file from the Windows 8 DVD or ISO. If you only have the ISO, make sure you have a tool such as UltraISO or WinISO. These tools will allow you to mount the Windows 8 ISO file to copy the 'install.wim' file (located under \sources folder) locally to your Windows 7 PC (e.g. C:\Temp\install.wim).
  4. The 'ImageX.exe' executable file from Windows 7 Automated Installation Kit. The only file you need from the Windows 7 AIK is 'imagex.exe', so if you can find this alone somewhere else, go ahead and just download that particular file. To minimise confusion, place imagex.exe with the 'install.wim' file.
  5. Check that your BIOS is configured to boot off USB devices or has the capability during POST to select what device to boot from.

The Process:

  1. Insert your USB device and format the drive using NTFS file format. Under Computer Management>Disk Management, check that your USB device is set to active, contains one primary partition and has a letter assigned to it (lets just say its F: for this tutorial). Alternatively you can run the following diskpart commands (type the following in a command prompt:    Diskpart
    List disk
    Select disk n
    (where n is the number that was given for your stick in List disk)
    Clean
    Create partition primary
    Format fs=ntfs quick
    Assign
    Active
    Exit 
  2. Insert DVD or mount the Windows 8 DVD/ISO. Copy install.wim to a temporary location on your PC (e.g. C:\Temp\install.wim)
  3. Launch cmd.exe (using administrative privileges) and change to the directory that 'imagex.exe' and 'install.wim' are located.
  4. Type in the following (without quotation marks) 'imagex.exe /apply install.wim 1 f:\'
    Depending on your hardware, this can take anywhere from 10mins to 60mins.
  5. Once the wim file has successfully deployed, run the following (again, without quotation marks) 'bcdboot.exe f:\windows /s f: /f all'
    This will create a boot files on your USB.
  6. Reboot your PC and enjoy!

I've tested Windows 8 To Go on a Dell E4310 and the latest (currently November 2012) Apple MacBook Air (13 inch) without any issues. Both laptops work very smoothly, albeit, this is probably due to the 64Gb Kingston SSD I have in my USB 2.0 Vantec HD caddie.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Can view 'media' tab in WordPress - receive 'Fatal error: Unknown: Cannot use output buffering in output buffering display handlers in Unknown on line 0'.

I've just installed SSL cert on a WordPress site and had to modify some files + install a few plugins to get rid of those nasty 'insecure content' errors when hitting the site via SSL. Anyway, when clicking on the 'media' tab within the WordPress admin menu I received 'Fatal error: Unknown: Cannot use output buffering in output buffering display handlers in Unknown on line 0'. The culprit was 'WordPress HTTPS' plugin. Disabled that puppy and it was all good. I also noticed that the 'WordPress HTTPS' plugin seems to slow the site down a little bit, so use with caution!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

SharePoint 2013 Aussie Webcast!

My good mate Jeremy Taylor is hosting a webcast on the 8th August on SharePoint 2013!!!

The webcast originally had a limitation of 25 members however due to popular demand (25 people signed up within 48 hours), Jeremy changed webcast providers and now the limit is 100.

Get on it if you haven't already!!!

http://www.jeremytaylor.net/2012/07/25/sharepoint-webcast-update/

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Moving iTunes iPhone 3g 3gs 4 4s backup to network drive and off your boot drive

To move your iTunes iPhone backup from your boot drive to a network share (e.g. on your home NAS) you need to do to have the following:

  • Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (comes with Windows 7 and Vista)
  • mklink (comes with Windows 7 and Vista)
  • NAS that has iSCSI services (e.g. QNAP TS-239 Pro II)
  • iTunes with a recent backup of your iPhone
With the tools and software above follow the steps below:

  • Double check that you have an existing backup under 'Edit>Preferences>Devices' in iTunes
  • Close iTunes and unplug your iPhone from the computer
  • Launch into the admin page of your NAS and enable a iSCSI Target Service. You will also need to create a iSCSI Target and a mapped LUN. If you are not comfortable with this you will need to google for instructions on the internet as configuration will vary from model to model.

NOTE: Make sure you make the mapped LUN slightly bigger than your iPhone capacity (e.g. 17gb for a 16gb iPhone, 33Gb for a 32gb iPhone, etc. Make sure to enable Thin Provisioning if your NAS supports it as this will save space on your NAS - P.S. Most good QNAPs do)

  • On the workstation with iTunes, click START and type iSCSI Initiator ('iSCSI Initiator' should appear in the search results). Click on 'iSCSI Initiator'.
  • Click Yes to run this service automatically
  • In the Target field type in the IP address of your NAS that is hosting the iSCSI Target Service and click 'Quick Connect'
  • Your iSCSI service should appear. Click 'Done'
  • Click OK
  • Click START and type Computer Management ('Computer Management' should appear in the search results). Click 'Computer Management'
  • Under Storage click 'Disk Management'
  • If you only have one hard drive, the iSCSI drive should appear as DISK 1. If you have multiple hard drives then the iSCSI drive will most likely be the last one on the list. Click on the iSCSI drive and create a 'Simple Volume' (name the volume and format using NTFS with the quick format feature). Once the drive has formatted it should be accessible through the normal windows explorer. Change the drive letter of this volume to wha ever you want (I choose i:)
  • Locate the folder with your iTunes backup. This will likely be

"C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\"

  • Go back to the 'MobileSync' folder and CUT and PASTE the 'Backup' folder to the iSCSI location (e.g. cut the 'Backup' folder from "C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync" and paste to i:\). This will take a while to copy.
  • Open a command prompt and type in 'CD\' and press enter. This will bring you to the root if your C: drive. Type in the the following command to make a symbolic link:

C:\>mklink /J "C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\"
 "I:\Backup\"

  • If successful you will see the following output:

Junction created for C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Ba
ckup\ <<===>> I:\Backup\
  • Now open iTunes and click 'Edit>Preferences>Devices' and you should see your latest backup/s!



Sunday, August 21, 2011

Receive permission error when applying Drupal (Zen) template

I installed Drupal today and tried to apply the popular 'Zen' template through my web host provider and received a permission denied issue when uncompressing the theme. To fix this I visited the administration page and clicked Configuration>File System (under Media) and changed the default 'Temporary directory' from '/TMP' to 'files/TMP'. Once I applied this change I was able to successfully apply the Zen Drupal template!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

SharePoint 2010 appication pools in a stopped or shutdown state after rebooting the server

After rebooting your SharePoint 2010 farm you noticed that all (or some) application pools are in a stopped state! This will more likely occur if you have a AD Domain Policy applied to your SharePoint servers. If you do have a Active Directory Domain Policy applied to your SharePoint 2010 servers, ensure the Application Pool user account  (normally a AD user account) has “Log on as batch job” and "Log on as service” rights in the policy. The best way to do this without editing the policy it self each time a new web application is created, is to create a AD Security Group and assign the application pool user accounts as members. This way you only need to specify the AD Security Group in the domain policy!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Object cache options in site settings page not appearing in some templates in SharePoint 2010

----------
Problem
----------
Unable to config/view object cache options in site settings page for site templates other than 'publishing ones'


----------
Solution
----------
Visit the web application (root site collection)
1.       Click Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Site collection features, activate 'SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure' feature.
2.       Click Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Manage site features, activate 'SharePoint Server Publishing' feature.
3.       Boom! Cache options are now visible in site settings page.

Opening files within SharePoint 2010 do not open correctly. Fix this by changing the 'Browser File Handling' from 'Strict' to 'Permissive' using Powershell

Create a PS1 file with the code below (Change the $url value to the URL of your web app)

#####################################################################
$url = "http://webappname"
Get-SPWebApplication $url | ForEach-Object {$_.BrowserFileHandling = “permissive”; $_.update()}
#####################################################################

This will update the web application Browser File Handling from 'Strict' to 'Permissive'

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Configuring Drupal on a QNAP NAS (TS-239 Pro II) using GUIs only!

Below are instructions in configuring Drupal on the TS-239 Pro II NAS without using the Linux command line.

* Enable the web server role and ensured it configured to run on TCP 80
* Launch QNAP admin page and configure MySQL to listen on TCP/3306
* Reset the "root" password for MySQL on the same page by clicking on the "Reset Root Password" button
* Open the QPKG menu and click on "Get QPKG". This should open a new window with a list of packages you can download for your QNAP NAS. If you are unable to find the "Get QPKG" button you can download phpMyAdmin with the link below - "http://gator368.hostgator.com/~qnap/Storage/QPKG/phpMyAdmin_3.2.0.zip".
* Extract the phpMyAdmin zip file to your workstation. You should now have a .qpkg file.
* Go back to the QNAP admin page and visit the QPKG menu. Click on the Installation tab.
* Click "Browse" and select the .qpkg file. Click OK and "Install". This will install phpMyAdmin.
* After installation click a phpMyAdmin icon should appear under the QPKG menu. Click on this and the link to launch the phpMyAdmin webpage.
* Log in using the root account (password is the one you reset eariler)
* On the main menu you should be able to create a mysql database. Create one called "drupal"
* Once database has been created click on "Privileges" and create a new user called "drupaluser"
* Visit www.drupal.org and download the .tar.gz file
* Launch the QNAP web file manager
* Upload the .tar.gz file to the "Web" folder
* Extract the .tar file to the "Web" folder
* Extract the drupal folder within the .tar file into the "Web" folder. Note: The QNAP NAS web file manager has the ability to extract .tar and .gz files.
* Rename the drupal folder so it doesn't have the version numbers
* Delete .tar and .tar.gz files (Clean up)
* Visit the website by hitting the IP address and drupal folder (i.e. http://192.168.1.100/drupal
* Click on "Install Drupal in English"
* You most likely recieve an error regarding default.setting.php file. Follow the instructions on the screen using the QNAP web file manager and click continue. NOTE: There is a button below to try again.
* Type in the name of the database, newly created user and password (i.e. drupal, drupaluser, password) and click continue. This will start populating tables inside the drupal database.
* Again, following the directions on the drupal configuration page such as removing write access to default.settings.php and settings.php (444 - Clean up), Site info, admin details and server settings. Click "Save and Continue".
* DONE! Now visit your site by visting "http://IPAddressoftheNAS/drupal".

To customise your solution, visit www.drupal.org for themes, modules and funky ideas.

Chewy

Monday, March 29, 2010

Receive event ID 8214 "A request was made for a URL, http://srv1.domain:58000, which has not been configured in the following alternate access mapping

Symptom

Receive the following in th event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category: Topology
Event ID: 8214
Date: 20/11/2009
Time: 3:53:03 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SERVER1
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 8214 ) in Source ( Windows SharePoint Services 3 ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: A request was made for a URL, http://server1.domain.local:58000, which has not been configured in Alternate Access Mappings. Some links may point to the Alternate Access URL for the default zone, http://server1:58000. Review the Alternate Access mappings for this Web application at http://server1:58000/_admin/AlternateUrlCollections.aspx and consider adding http://server1.domain.local:58000 as a Public Alternate Access URL if it will be used frequently. Help on this error: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=114854.

Resolution

- Launch Central Administration site and go to “Operations”

- Click on “Alternate Access Mappings”

- Click “Edit Public URLS” and select the Web Application that is giving you grieve

- Enter in the FQDN of the URL (e.g. http://server1.domain.local:58000) under the “Intranet” field (make sure you leave the default value). Click Save

- Run an IISreset

Receive "Provisioning GUID" already exists under the parent Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService named "".

Sympton
Receive the following:
An object of the type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplicationProvisioningJobDefinition named "Provisioning GUID" already exists under the parent Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService named "". Rename your object or delete the existing object.

Resolution

Launch the Central Admin > Operations > Timer Job Definitions and locate the “Provisioning web application” job. Open and the job and delete it from the queue. Run stsadm –o execsvcadmjobs to force the timer jobs run.

Receive "Error List does not exist" when visiting a Sharepoint site

Symptom
"Error

List does not exist

The page you selected contains a list that does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetListsWithCallback(String bstrUrl, Guid foreignWebId, String bstrListInternalName, Int32 dwBaseType, Int32 dwBaseTypeAlt, Int32 dwServerTemplate, UInt32 dwGetListFlags, UInt32 dwListFilterFlags, Boolean bPrefetchMetaData, Boolean bSecurityTrimmed, Boolean bGetSecurityData, ISP2DSafeArrayWriter p2DWriter, Int32& plRecycleBinCount)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.GetListsWithCallback(String bstrUrl, Guid foreignWebId, String bstrListInternalName, Int32 dwBaseType, Int32 dwBaseTypeAlt, Int32 dwServerTemplate, UInt32 dwGetListFlags, UInt32 dwListFilterFlags, Boolean bPrefetchMetaData, Boolean bSecurityTrimmed, Boolean bGetSecurityData, ISP2DSafeArrayWriter p2DWriter, Int32& plRecycleBinCount)"


Resolution

The root site collection is locked or set to “read only”. Log into the Central Administration site and unlock the site collection (Central Admin>Application Management> Under SharePoint Site Management > Site collection quotas and locks> Select the web app in question and select “Not Locked”. Click OK). Alternatively you can run the following “stsadm –o setsitelock –url http://nameofwebapp –lock none”

Using SQL scripts to query Sharepoint Content databases

For reference:

– Query to get all the top level site collections
SELECT SiteId AS SiteGuid, Id AS WebGuid, FullUrl AS Url, Title, Author, TimeCreated
FROM dbo.Webs
WHERE (ParentWebId IS NULL)

– Query to get all the child sites in a site collection
SELECT SiteId AS SiteGuid, Id AS WebGuid, FullUrl AS Url, Title, Author, TimeCreated
FROM dbo.Webs
WHERE (NOT (ParentWebId IS NULL))

– Query to get all the SharePoint groups in a site collection
SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Groups.ID AS Expr1,
dbo.Groups.Title AS Expr2, dbo.Groups.Description
FROM dbo.Groups INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Groups.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId

– Query to get all the users in a site collection
SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID,
dbo.UserInfo.tp_DomainGroup, dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteAdmin, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Email
FROM dbo.UserInfo INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteID = dbo.Webs.SiteId

– Query to get all the members of the SharePoint Groups
SELECT dbo.Groups.ID, dbo.Groups.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login
FROM dbo.GroupMembership INNER JOIN
dbo.Groups ON dbo.GroupMembership.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId INNER JOIN
dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.GroupMembership.MemberId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID

– Query to get all the sites where a specific feature is activated
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id AS WebGuid, dbo.Webs.Title AS WebTitle, dbo.Webs.FullUrl AS WebUrl, dbo.Features.FeatureId,
dbo.Features.TimeActivated
FROM dbo.Features INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Features.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Features.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id
WHERE (dbo.Features.FeatureId = '00BFEA71-D1CE-42de-9C63-A44004CE0104')

– Query to get all the users assigned to roles
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle,
dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login
FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOIN
dbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND
dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN
dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID

– Query to get all the SharePoint groups assigned to roles
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle,
dbo.Groups.Title AS GroupName
FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOIN
dbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND
dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN
dbo.Groups ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId AND
dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.Groups.ID

Error event ID 6482 is logging every minute on your Sharepoint Servers

Symptom

Error event ID 6482 is logging every minute on your Sharepoint Servers.

"Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server Shared Services
Event ID: 6482
Date: DD/MM/YYYY
Time: hh:mm:ss
User: N/A
Computer: Server Name
Description:
Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (GUID).
Reason: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.
Technical Support Details: etc etc"

Resolution

- Stop the Office SharePoint Services Search service (net stop osearch)
- Download and install the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools.

On each server in the farm that has Office SharePoint 2007 installed, follow these steps:
- Launch a cmd prompt
- Drill to C:\Program Files\IIS Resources\SelfSSL)
- Type selfssl /s:951338967 /v:1000, and then press ENTER.

Notes
For 64 bit, 951338967 is the default ID of the Office Server Web Services certificate.
For 32 bit, 1720207907 is the default ID of the Office Server Web Services certificate. You can check the ID of Office Server Web Services from IIS.
1000 is the number of days that the certification will be valid.
You need to execute the selfssl command on each MOSS Server in the farm which is running a "Office Server Web Services" site.

- Start the Office SharePoint Services Search service (net start osearch)
- Download and install the following update to the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and apply 959209 update

Recevie "The Project Application Service doesn't exist or is stopped." when access Shared Services that has Project Server 2007 installed.

Symptom

Receive the following erro when administering MOSS Shared Services:

"The Project Application Service doesn't exist or is stopped. Start the Project Application Service."

Resolution

Ensure all Sharepoint server has the Project Server 2007 binaries installed.

and ensure Project Server is running on at least on server (stsadm command is "stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype "Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration.ProjectApplicationService, Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Administration, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71E9BCE111E9429C" -servicename ProjectApplicationService"")

Outlook 2003 not displaying inserted pictures when viewing emails.

Symptom

Outlook 2003 not displaying inserted pictures when viewing emails. This happens with some images and not others.

Resolution

Delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder registry key.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

SMS log location (WinPE 2.0)

During the WinPE build stage you can find hit "F8" (providing you have enabled command prompt support on the boot wim file) to launch a command prompt. From the command prompt visit x:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSlog and launch the SMSTS.log with notepad (notepad.exe smsts.log).

Hint, use SMStrace to read the log. Its your best friend!