Drive Space Mapping using SpaceMonger
July 25, 2008
Next up in the tool section, is Spacemonger, a fantastic Free tool that makes analyzing drive space a breeze. The developer of Spacemonger had the insight to know we are all visual creatures and he created this tool that would visually map a drive so as to proportion the directory size to the physical drive size. The visual representation allows the user to view at-a-glance what files/directories on a drive are consuming the most space. The visual representation is great for today’s large drives and the application is a self-contained .exe, so you can take it anywhere.
The next time you find yourself running out of space on a drive, use Spacemonger to map out where you can make some cutbacks! Here are a few screenshots:
Make sure your static IP’s don’t come with baggage!
July 23, 2008
Thinking about getting a static IP for your small business (or over-the-top home network)? Then you may first want to see if the IP’s your ISP is offering come with any baggage. I recently had the pleasure of helping one of my clients rid his shiny new IP’s of blacklists. If you are unfamiliar, a wise IT admin once said, “…blacklists make email not work”.
He was referring to the fact that once an IP has been tagged as a source of spam, your popularity on email server blacklists will soon follow. There are quite a few good (and not so good) websites that offer RBLs or Real Time Block Lists for exchange servers. You will usually see small and mid-size companies that have one or two exchange servers use these free lists. Bigger corporations and even ISPs use their own form of blacklisting, but trust me, they all work the same. If your IP is on a blacklist it makes it nearly impossible to send email to most domains these days. The only way to erase the damage from the previous owner is to beg for forgiveness.
Is my IP associated with a block list?
Here is how to check: go to this site and enter your IP address. You will be given a list of well known RBL providers and green or red light indicating your squeaky clean, or muddy past.
If all is well on this site the biggest part is over. You may still be receiving NDR’s from other domains though. You will need to deal directly with those domains to correct the problem. Usually a link to an online application for removal will be provided in the NDR. If a link is not provided you will need to contact the webmaster or IT admin on record. All domains are required to have such records, so you can check a WhoIs database.
Doing a little research before your purchase can save you a lot of time and headache later. If you do get blacklisted, follow the above steps to help yourself get back on track.
Best of the Best
July 16, 2008
IT Support Journal was showcased as one of the Best of the Best websites using the Revolution theme backbone created by Brian Gardner.
We welcome all of the visitors from the Revolution site and hope they get a good look at the site but return for the content! ;)
Big thanks to Revolution for labeling us Best of the Best, they have a fantastic product and we highly recommend it. Check out the showcase HERE.
How-to Repair a Windows Installation
July 15, 2008
Sometimes troubleshooting problems with your PC can lead you down a path of no return. For example, your Windows installation could have contracted a virus from the internet, the virus could have re-written Windows system files such as .dll’s, this type of virus could leave your system virtually inoperable.
So, how do you get all the Windows system files back to original state, without having to restore from backup? You simply use the Windows system disk and repair the OS. The Windows system disk should have shipped with your computer, and it may be labeled Windows XP Re-Installation CD.
Steps to Repair your Windows Installation:
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1. Insert your Windows system disk into your optical drive. (cd/dvd)
- To set-up Windows now press Enter
- To repair a Windows installation using recovery console, press R
- To quit set-up without repairing Windows, press F3
2. Reboot your system.
3. When the system begins to start back up, force it to boot from your optical drive. The option to select a boot device will typically flash on the screen for a few seconds before Windows starts. (i.e. Press F12 or F10 key to select boot device.)
4. Once you have selected it to boot from your optical drive, the screen will turn blue and your system will prepare itself for a windows installation.
5. The next message you will see is the “Welcome to set-up” screen that will list the following options:
6. You want to press Enter to run Windows set-up. (Do NOT press R)
7. Accept the License agreement by pressing F8.
8. The next screen will list the Windows installations currently installed on your computer, you should only have one, but if not, simply choose the one you want to repair and press R. If Repair is not one of the options, you should END the set-up process.
9. Set-up will now start copying system files to the Windows installation you chose.
10. After the file copy is done, your system will reboot and continue with the installation screen. (You do NOT have to do anything.)
11. When the installation is complete the system will reboot for the final time. You can now take the Windows installation CD out of your optical drive, and Windows will boot normally.
This process will repair a Windows installation by replacing Windows system files to there original state. This is not a “fix-all” solution and in many cases should be treated as a last resort before attempting a complete Windows re-installation. A repair can assist you by helping you bring your machine back to life after a virus or program has damaged basic Windows functions, it will not rid you of your virus problem.
Cramped C: Partition? - Move your pagefile.
July 11, 2008
Ok, so here’s the scenario, you created a partition when you installed Windows, but you made the C: (or Windows) partition too small. Now you don’t have space to temporarily download files, defragment (requires %15 free disk space), or even add additional programs. What to do? You don’t want to rebuild the machine!
Answer
Well there are a couple of things you can do. Both of which include buying an additional hard drive, if you don’t already have one.
1. Start changing your install path for new software installs to your new additional drive. (i.e. D:\Program_Files\newsoftware)
2. Move your pagefile.sys to the new drive. (This is what we will be focusing on.)
Moving your Pagefile.sys
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1. Click Start > Run Type Regedit and Press Enter
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
3. Double-Click the PagingFiles entry on the right-hand side of the screen.
4. Now enter the new path where you want the pagefile to reside. (In this case it will be located on our separate drive D:/pagefile.sys)
5. Once you have successfully edited the path, you will need to restart the computer before the changes will take effect.
6. After you have restarted you can now navigate to your old pagefile location (C:\pagefile.sys) and delete it.
Moving the pagefile is not always recommended and moving it to a separate drive is not a best practice, try to remember to give yourself enough room for the next partition you create!
Process Explorer - Windows Task Manager on Steriods
July 9, 2008
Windows Task Manager is a useful utility for troubleshooting system problems as well as monitoring overall system health and performance. However when dealing with particularly elusive issues, the statistics Task Manager shows sometimes just aren’t enough.
For instance, if you’ve looked in Task Manager before you’ve probably noticed five or six processes running simultaneously as “svchost.exe”. Because Task Manager doesn’t give you any more detailed information, it’s hard to tell what distinguishes these seemingly identical processes.
By using a freeware tool Process Explorer you can investigate each process running on your system, down to the command line that started the thread. Linux/Unix users familiar with the “lsof” command understand its usefulness for tracking down open files and troubleshooting process dead-locks. Process Explorer brings this troubleshooting technique to the Windows desktop as well.
The next time you’re wonder what xyz.exe is doing running on your computer, use Process Explorer to really find out.
SCREENSHOTS
Keep your VM’s in shape with Auto Tool updates
July 7, 2008
If you’ve used VMware software, you know the importance of installing and keeping the Tools up to date on the VM guests. VMware Tools provide VM guests OS specific drivers which can greatly increase the speed and stability of virtualized machines. Stressing the importance of these Tools is a continually ongoing battle between administrators and clients who don’t want to incur a scheduled reboot of their server when updates need to be applied.
Thanks to a new feature in VMware ESX, you can enable a setting to have the guest OS automatically upgrade its tools if needed after a reboot. Now instead of scheduling outages, the VM itself will take care of the update after a client initiates a reboot or a reboot occurs due to Windows OS patching. To enable this feature, follow the steps below.
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1) Use VMware Infrastructure Client to log into the Virtual Center that manages the desired ESX host or to the ESX host directly.
2) Under the Inventory tab, select the ESX host containing the VM you wish to enable the feature on.
3) Right click on the desired VM guest and choose “Edit Settings”.
SCREENSHOT
4) When the VM properties box pops up, select “VMware Tools” under the “Options” tab.
5) Under the Advanced options, check the box entitled “Check and upgrade Tools before each power-on”
SCREENSHOT
6) Hit Ok.
Note: This setting can only be changed through VI Client when the VM is powered off. If you need to change the setting while the VM is running, use a RCLI script or a Windows Powershell script using the VMware API plug-in.
Test Your Phishing IQ
July 7, 2008
Think you’re good at filtering bad email? Are you certain you won’t be duped into giving away valuable information?
You may want to come down from your pedestal, because spammers and phishing scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
If you are unsure of what a phishing scam is, it is basically an attempt made by a scammer to exploit human curiosity/carelessness for personal gain.
Most phishing scams require some type of “bait” (i.e. email) to lure the victim to a hostile internet site, typically acting as a legitimate site. Once there, the scam will commence by asking for personal information, usually financial in nature. It is amazing how real the bait emails appear to be and how convincing the scammers are when asking for personal information. Sharpen your skills by taking the Sonicwall Phishing IQ test. This online exam has 10 real-world examples of email phishing, after the exam you will be scored and given reasons to missed questions.
Give it a try HERE.
We at ITSupportJournal scored a 9 out of 10, which in the world of scams = a ZERO!
Let us know how you did by commenting to this post.
Opening Lotus Worksheets (.wk1) in Excel 2003 SP3
July 7, 2008
If you have recently applied the service pack 3 patch sent out by Microsoft, then you may not be able to open Lotus worksheets that were previously accessible. Service pack 3 introduced a restriction on opening these file types without creating a setting for it in the registry. If you try to open a .wk1 file extension you may have received the following error message:
You are attempting to open a file type that is blocked by your registry policy setting.
The fix for this is simple. (but shouldn’t be necessary! -Microsoft-)
1. Click Start > Run and Type Regedit > Press Enter
2. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileOpenBlock
3. If FileOpenBlock does not exists you will need to create it by highlighting the Security subkey and on the Edit menu, selecting New > Key
4. Type FileOpenBlock and Press Enter
5. Point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
6. Type the DWORD name that you want to restrict, and then press ENTER. In this case type LotusandQuattroFiles
7. Right-click the DWORD name that you typed in step 6, and then click Modify.
8. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
9. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.
By adding a DWORD value of 0 for the LotusandQuattroFiles name, you are forcing acceptance of those file types in MS Excel. If you want to restrict those file types in the future, simply change the DWORD value to 1.
The following table contains the DWORD names that an administrator can add to the registry to restrict certain file types by using the FileOpenBlock subkey. Additionally, the table contains the corresponding file types that are restricted.
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