Archive for 'Web Dev/Tech'
Microsoft update problems; Yay for my backup plans!
Posted on August 2, 2010, under Web Dev/Tech.
Microsoft released a critical security patch (MS10-046) that hosed my Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit machine. After the patch installed, I click the button to reboot, but it never finished. It froze on the screen that said, "Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer." Even the little spinner had froze. I finally powered down the machine, but I couldn’t get Windows to boot even in Safe Mode.
I did have a plan though. I booted up my Windows 7 emergency System Repair Disc, and attempted to go back to a previous System Restore Point. Every time I tried though, I received a failure error of 0×80070057. (*Spoiler Alert* After I restored my computer, I realized I had turned off Systems Restore for all my drives. Sheesh, not sure why I did that. Probably to save disk space. Lesson learned.)
That left me with one option to get Windows back up and running without too much pain. In the menu of the System Repair Disk, I selected System Image Recovery, since I had scheduled weekly full backups of my system. (You do too, right?)
After successfully running the system image restoration process, a few of my files were now a week or so out of date. When I logged in, up popped my Carbonite client. It had recognized that my system had just gone through a recovery, and gave me options on restoring my files that were either out of date or missing. I selected the files to restore, and now my system is back up and running! Sweet!
The change I will be making to my backup strategy is enabling System Restore Points on my C: drive.
Summary:
- Create a Windows System Repair Disc
- Enable System Restore Points on the System drive (C:)
- Schedule weekly System Image backups
- Purchase a Carbonite subscription, and use the recommended backup settings
- Be a little skeptical of emergency patches
Free FamilyShield filtering from OpenDNS
Posted on July 11, 2010, under Security, Web Dev/Tech.
I have been using the OpenDNS domain filtering in my house for over a year, and have been very happy with the service. They have made it even easier to use for households looking to protect kids, by rolling out FamilyShield filtering. Without even needing to sign up for an account, you can use their service for free to block the following categories of web sites:
- Pornography
- Phishing
- Malware
- Proxy and anonymizer (for the “street smart” kiddos)
You can easily set up the service by following the walk-through instructions on configuring your router or computer’s DNS servers.
Web Browsers – Trackable without cookies
Posted on May 18, 2010, under Security, Web Dev/Tech.
Interesting proof of concept by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to show how the fingerprint of your web browser makes you trackable, even without the use of cookies:
VMware Player – Now creates 64-bit VMs!
Posted on January 25, 2010, under General, SharePoint, Web Dev/Tech.
At home, I recently moved from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. On my Vista setup, I had VirtualPC installed to set up my own labs, installing servers and learning more about various server applications.
I was disappointed to see VirtualPC is no longer supported for Home versions of Windows. I was also disappointed to see the free VMware Server equivalent of VirtualPC had disappeared.
However, I just discovered the free VMware Player now not only runs VMs, as it always has, but also allows you to create them! You can also create and run 64-bit guest VM’s if you have the appropriate hardware, which I do. VirtualPC can’t do that. Sweet!
Update: A co-worker (thanks Shane!) mentioned to me the free VMware Server is still available. I’m going to try out Player, hoping it is more light-weight, and see how it goes first.
Nintex Workflow – “Run If” is King
Posted on November 17, 2009, under SharePoint, Web Dev/Tech.
If you run into logic nesting issues using Nintex Workflow, remember that “Run If” is better than “Set a Condition”.
Windows 7 – Homegroups
Posted on October 25, 2009, under Web Dev/Tech.
Finally! Easy home networking. I bought a Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack (3 licenses), set up a Homegroup to share files and a printer, and I’m loving it. Super easy.
Presidential control of the private Internet
Posted on August 28, 2009, under General, Security, Web Dev/Tech.
Bill would give president emergency control of Internet | Politics and Law – CNET News.
“Translation: If your company is deemed “critical,” a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.”
Yikes.
UBCD for Windows
Posted on May 31, 2009, under Web Dev/Tech.
We went out to see some family this weekend, and they were having some issues with their WinXP computer. I was thinking about taking a Linux Live CD, but ended up giving the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows a try. It is pretty slick. You have to have your own copy of the Windows XP install files to create the boot disk ISO, but after that you can configure all types of software to be included on the CD image. Worth checking out as a handy tool to have lying around.
Delicious Toolbar hangs IE8
Posted on April 27, 2009, under Web Dev/Tech.
Update 9/5/2009: The newest version of the IE Toolbar released recently works now. WOOHOO!
I’m running into a problem with the Delicious Toolbar 1.12.273.0 causing IE8 to hang on Windows XP SP3. It is super annoying, as I would like to use the Favorite Tags functionality on this machine.
worksforme – On Vista
I have the Delicious Toolbar running with IE8 on Vista with no problems. However for some reason the other computer I use running WinXP is choking on the Delicious addon.
Issue
After I install the Delicious Toolbar, I can open IE8 for one session. After closing the browser, the IE window disappears like everything is normal. When I try to open IE again, the chrome starts to load, but the window hangs. My home page doesn’t open, and the IE functions are frozen.
Behind the scenes, there are two iexplorer.exe processes, and one DeliciousManager.exe process still running. IE8 becomes responsive again once I kill the DeliciousManager.exe process in the Task Manager. Once I kill the DeliciousManager.exe process, the iexplorer.exe processes are freed up and end normally. Then I can start a new web browser session, until I run into the issue again when I close IE.
Attempt 1 – Disable potential conflicts
I tried disabling all other IE addons, setting exclusions in antivirus for real-time scans on the Delicious Toolbar data directories, and disabling the firewall. The DeliciousManager.exe task would still hang IE8.
Any Ideas?
Does anyone out there have any other ideas? If I find a solution, I will post a follow-up here.
Chinese Ghostnet
Posted on March 31, 2009, under Current Events, Web Dev/Tech.
Everyone in normal IT is focused on Conficker right now, but the news on a Chinese Ghostnet is pretty fascinating:
…is controlled by computers almost exclusively located in China and has infected 1295 computer in 103 countries in the last two years…
They report that, not only can the espionage software monitor email and documents on infected computers, it can also control a PC remotely, switching on any cameras or microphones attached to it, to carry out surveillance of its surroundings.
Creepy.
