Erik's Work Notes

NY Times Launches Own Version of DiggBar?

2009-07-27T15:08:00.001-07:00

So I clicked on a Digg article link for an NYT story this morning, and to my surprise I didn’t get the DiggBar at the top of the window as I’ve come to expect. In its place was the message “Welcome to TimesPeople”. It would appear that the NYT has launched its own toolbar for its TimesPeople social network. At least I don’t have two site bars at the top of my screen…

Check it out for yourself:

Digg story link I saw this morning: http://digg.com/d3yhY9

TimesPeople home: http://timespeople.nytimes.com/home

Undo SQL 2000 hardening by restoring potentially dangerous xp_* proecdures

2009-07-01T21:02:00.001-07:00

ArcServe backup uses some of these xp_* extended stored procedures to execute SQL agent backups. I can never find this quickly (took me over an hour searching the web today) so I’m re-posting this script here.

Disclaimer: Before you run either of these scripts, please know exactly what you’re doing. I’m not responsible if you use these and break your SQL server installation. Remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Use yours wisely.

Scripts after the break.

SQL Script to restore potentially dangerous stored procedures:

use master exec sp_addextendedproc xp_cmdshell,@dllname = 'xplog70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_enumgroups,@dllname = 'xplog70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_loginconfig,@dllname = 'xplog70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_enumerrorlogs,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_getfiledetails,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OACreate,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OADestroy,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OAGetErrorInfo,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OAGetProperty,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OAMethod,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OASetProperty,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc Sp_OAStop,@dllname = 'odsole70.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regaddmultistring,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regdeletekey,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regdeletevalue,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regenumvalues,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regremovemultistring,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regwrite,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_dirtree,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_regread,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll' exec sp_addextendedproc xp_fixeddrives,@dllname = 'xpstar.dll’ go

Test

And to remove them, you can execute this script.

SQL Script to remove potentially dangerous stored procedures:

use master exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_cmdshell' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_enumgroups' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_loginconfig' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_enumerrorlogs' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_getfiledetails' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OACreate' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OADestroy' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OAGetErrorInfo' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OAGetProperty' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OAMethod' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OASetProperty' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'Sp_OAStop' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_regaddmultistring' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_regdeletekey' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_regdeletevalue' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_regenumvalues' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_regremovemultistring' exec sp_dropextendedproc 'xp_regwrite' drop procedure sp_makewebtask go

Remove (Annoying) AOL Email Footer

2009-06-01T17:49:00.001-07:00

I regularly get a few calls a month about this issue, so I decided to (finally) write a post about it. If your anti-spam software or appliance is set to block ad links to doubleclick.net (as mine is), you’ve undoubtedly faced this issue as well. Some, but not all messages from aol.com mail users will be blocked. This is caused by AOL’s automatic message footer which includes ads from various online ad services, doubleclick.net being the most prevalent. This reminds me that I need to tune the filter to block the other ad agencies footer content as well.

All is not lost, there is a way for the average AOL mail user to disable the problematic message footer. Thanks to Microsoft MVP Bill Pytlovany who has provided clear and concise instructions on how to disable the message footer, which I have reproduced below based on his original post:

AOL users can click the following, remove the check box next to Show the message footer at the bottom of each email you send. and click Save.
http://controls.api-mail.aol.com/mailcontrols/app/en-US/FooterControl.html

The original post on Bill’s blog can be found here.

Weather site for HDTVs and other large format displays

2009-05-06T20:39:00.001-07:00

I needed to find a website that displayed quick weather info on a 1920x1080 display as part of a series of websites that cycle through every 30 seconds. Various IT systems status, news headlines, company facts, etcetera.

I couldn’t find something out there that I really liked, so I decided to craft my own with the help of the Yahoo! Weather RSS Feed. Although I had to get past Yahoo including some field names “yweather:condition” that don’t validate when using LINQ, I was able to coax the RSS feed to my will using plain old XML parsing into a dictionary object.

The code’s attached (documentation is little to none), and provided without warranty of any kind. YMMV. Let me know what you think.

Download

This code is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Technorati Tags: weather hdtv asp.net vb.net visualbasic aspx

How to prevent Boot Camp help from launching on first logon to Windows

2009-02-28T15:48:00.001-08:00

As part of preparing a Mac Mini/Boot Camp/Windows XP deployment, we needed to prevent the Boot Camp help from running each time a new user logged into the computer. There are two ways to do this.

Disclaimer: While I have proven that the content of this post works for me, this information is provided without warranty of any kind. And remember the standard registry editing disclaimer applies. As always, have good backups before changing system settings.

Method 1:

The first is to remove the Apple_KbdMgr entry from the HKLM\…\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key. This change will affect all users who log on.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

This method prevents the boot camp system tray (aka notification area) icon from appearing. I’m not entirely sure what else this KbdMgr.exe is doing, but I suspect is has something to do with Apple’s use of the function keys (F1-F12) for things such as screen brightness and volume control. Obviously I’ll have to spend some time researching what this app really does besides the icon and context menu.

The Boot Camp manager context menu:

You can also make this change using the msconfig utility or Sysinternals’ AutoRuns tool.

Method 2:

The second method allows you to keep the Boot Camp icon running in the system tray (aka notification area) and still prevent the help file from launching on first logon. This method involves editing the default user profile. The registry key we are going to update is:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Apple Inc.\Apple Keyboard Support

You need to add a value of type DWORD, named FirstTimeRun with a value of 0. Save the code below as DisableAppleKbdMgrFirstRun.reg and double click on it to add it to your registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Apple Inc.\Apple Keyboard Support] "FirstTimeRun"=dword:00000000

Template Testing

2009-02-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've been spending some time experimenting with the blogger template code. Let me know if I've broken anything serious.

Export Exchange query-based distribution group members to a CSV file

2008-12-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

This is a script I run internally to generate reports of query-based distribution group members as CSV files (viewable in Excel).

You'll need the free ADFIND tool from joeware for this script to run.
http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/adfind/index.htm

You'll also need to change the following line to reflect the proper LDAP base DN for your domain.

SET BASEDN="dc=domain,dc=local"

Script: Run-QBDG-Export.bat

@ECHO OFF SETLOCAL IF "%1" EQU "" ( ECHO. ECHO ERROR! ECHO Parameter required ^ ECHO. ECHO Usage: Run-QBDG-Export.bat ^ ECHO. GOTO :EOF ) REM CHANGE THIS LINE TO MATCH YOUR DOMAIN SET BASEDN="dc=domain,dc=local" SET CMDLINE=ADFIND -b %BASEDN% -f "cn=%1*" -nodn cn %CMDLINE% >%1-GETGROUPS.txt 2>NUL IF EXIST %1-GETGROUPS.txt ( FIND /I "0 Objects returned" %1-GETGROUPS.txt IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( GOTO START_SEARCH ) ELSE ( ECHO ERROR: Could not query Active Directory for groups with %1* GOTO END ) ) ELSE ( ECHO ERROR: Could not query Active Directory for groups with %1* GOTO END ) :START_SEARCH FOR /F "usebackq tokens=1*" %%A IN (`type %1-GETGROUPS.txt ^| FIND /I ">cn:"`) DO ( SET GRP_OBJ=%%B CALL :GET_MEMBERS %%B ) FOR /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%A in ("%TIME%") DO ( SET MYTIME=%%A:%%B ) GOTO END :GET_MEMBERS SET FLT_QRY_OBJ="msExchDynamicDLFilter:" SET FLT_DN_OBJ="msExchDynamicDLBaseDN:" SET FLT_QRY_CMD=ADFIND -b %BASEDN% -f "cn=%GRP_OBJ%" REM GET QUERY STRING %FLT_QRY_CMD% > %1-ADINFO.txt 2>NUL FOR /F "usebackq tokens=1*" %%A IN (`type %1-ADINFO.txt ^| FIND /I %FLT_QRY_OBJ%`) DO ( SET QRY_STR="%%B" ) REM GET QUERY BASE DN FOR /F "usebackq tokens=1*" %%A IN (`type %1-ADINFO.txt ^| FIND /I %FLT_DN_OBJ%`) DO ( SET QRY_DN="%%B" ) ECHO Running the following query: ECHO ------------------------------------------------ ECHO CN: %GRP_OBJ% ECHO DN: %QRY_DN% ECHO QS: %QRY_STR% ECHO. IF EXIST "%GRP_OBJ%.csv" ( DEL /Q "%GRP_OBJ%.csv" ) ECHO Creating export file... ADFIND -csv -b %QRY_DN% -f %QRY_STR% sn givenName mail title physicalDeliveryOfficeName employeeID -nodn >"%GRP_OBJ%.csv" 2>NUL ECHO Done. ECHO. ECHO. IF NOT EXIST "%GRP_OBJ%.csv" ( ECHO Could not create "%GRP_OBJ%.csv" ECHO. ECHO Press any key to continue or Ctrl-C to quit... PAUSE >NUL 2>NUL ) REM PAUSE GOTO :EOF :END DEL /Q %1-GETGROUPS.txt >NUL 2>NUL DEL /Q %1-BODY.TXT >NUL 2>NUL DEL /Q %1-ADINFO.txt >NUL 2>NUL ENDLOCAL

Windows Update Errors to KB Article Cross-Reference

2008-10-14T19:36:00.001-07:00

This list is hardly definitive, but imagine my surprise when I discovered this cluster of sequential knowledge base articles in the Microsoft KB. I didn't like my options for searching for them and since my colleagues witnessed a few of these error codes in the past day or so, I thought it was wise to create a quick-reference lists for myself (or anyone else who may read this). If you find one I've missed, please add a comment.

Windows Version

Error Code

KB Article

2000

Server

2003

Vista

Server

2008

0x643

KB958052

●

0x80070420

KB958054

●

0x80070422

KB958043

●

0x80070490

KB958044

●

0x80070643

KB958052

●

0x8007064C

KB958055

●

0x8007066A

KB958049

●

0x8007F0DA

KB958050

●

0x8007F0F4

KB958051

●

0x800B0001

KB958045

●

0x80200010

KB958047

●

0x8024000B

KB958040

●

0x8024002D

KB958041

●

0x80246002

KB958056

●

0x80246007

KB958042

●

0X80248007

KB958046

●

0x8024D00C

KB958053

●

0xC80001FE

KB958048

●

Install SteadyState and Enable Disk Protection in one shot!

2008-10-01T18:44:00.001-07:00

Here's the code that I used to install Windows SteadyState v2.5 and enable windows disk protection all in one shot. This took forever to figure out with myself and a colleague doing a significant amount of head scratching.

After Windows installer finishes the SteadyState install (I used a custom transform to skip the WGA validation since an unattended install would always freeze during this process), you need to run the SCTUI.EXE application located in the folder C:\Program Files\Windows SteadyState\. The catch is that if you try and run it from the same script that you ran the installer from, SCTUI will launch and immediately exit without enabling disk protection. The workaround we finally came up with was to have the installer script create a temporary user account that is a member of the local administrators group and execute SCTUI as that user. Ah, but you can't pass a password to RUNAS.EXE you say? That's where cpau from joeware comes in.

With cpau, you can specify both the user id and the password on the command line. The beauty of this is that once SCTUI has been launched you can delete the "temporary" administrator account we created earlier (the one that cpau is using to launch SCTUI) and the process will still run because of the way security contexts work in Windows (note: I have not yet tested this on Vista).

We guessed (correctly) that the SCTUI was somehow sensing that it was being launched from the same parent process as the Windows Installer instance that installed SteadyState. That's where the other benefit of cpau comes in. The process that cpau creates will be in an entire new user context and won't inherit any of the parent process' environment.

Once the installer scripts finish, the system will reboot. Once the system comes back up, you'll have to run the Windows SteadyState management tools to more fully configure Windows Disk Protection if you don't want all disk changes discarded with each boot.

Getting this all going took me 2 scripts, since I wanted to do some tidying up with the second script. Remember to watch out for line-wrap. As always, your mileage may vary, run these scripts at your own risk and always test on non-production systems and have good backups! That said, I cannot spend a significant amount of time supporting these scripts, here they are:

Script 1; GO.CMD:

@ECHO OFF ECHO Installing SteadyState Components... MSIEXEC /I SteadyState.msi /qb TRANSFORMS=SteadyState-attempt4.mst /log %TEMP%\SteadyState.Log :WDP ECHO About to enable disk protection... ECHO. ECHO Please close all running applications and save all settings. ECHO When the computer reboots after this, all changes made to the ECHO hard drive will be discarded when the computer is shutdown or ECHO restarted. ECHO. ECHO THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING! Press CTRL-C and choose Y to cancel or PAUSE NET USER WDPINSTALLER WDP@ss0123 /ADD NET LOCALGROUP ADMINISTRATORSWDPINSTALLER /ADD @START cmd /c wdpenable.bat

Script 2; WDPEnable.BAT:

@ECHO OFF REM Cleanup the SteadyState installer and any files that REM contain sensitive account information (like passwords). DEL /Q *.CMD DEL /Q *.MSI DEL /Q *.MST @cpau -uWDPINSTALLER -p WDP@ss0123 -ex "C:\Program Files\Windows SteadyState\SCTUI.exe /EnableWDPAndReboot" REM Once the process has been launched we can safely REMdelete the installer user account @NET USERWDPINSTALLER /DEL DEL /Q CPAU.EXE

If you want to know more about the transform file I used, send me an email message. I don't want to post it since I'm unsure of any potential licensing implications.

Update (3/18/2009):

Some people have asked me what I used to create the transform (MST) file. The tool I used is called ORCA, which is included in the Windows SDK Components for Windows Installer Developers, part of the Microsoft® Windows® Software Development Kit. If you’re just looking for the Windows Installer tools (which includes ORCA) and not the full SDK (which can be huge), Microsoft has also released the Windows Installer 4.5 Software Development Kit which is only 7MB.

Command Line Printer Management

2008-09-29T17:07:00.001-07:00

Some really cool stuff to manage printers via batch file.

How to add printers with no user interaction in Windows

Usage: rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry [options] [@commandfile]
/a[file] binary file name
/b[name] base printer name
/c[name] unc machine name if the action is on a remote machine
/dl delete local printer
/dn delete network printer connection
/dd delete printer driver
/e display printing preferences
/f[file] either inf file or output file
/ga add per machine printer connections (the connection will be propagated to the user upon logon)
/ge enum per machine printer connections
/gd delete per machine printer connections (the connection will be deleted upon user logon)
/h[arch] driver architecture one of the following, x86 | Itanium | x64
/ia install printer driver using inf file
/id install printer driver using add printer driver wizard
/if install printer using inf file
/ii install printer using add printer wizard with an inf file
/il install printer using add printer wizard
/in add network printer connection
/j[provider] print provider name
/k print test page to specified printer, cannot be combined with command when installing a printer
/l[path] printer driver source path
/m[model] printer driver model name
/n[name] printer name
/o display printer queue view
/p display printer properties
/q quiet mode, do not display error messages
/r[port] port name
/s display server properties
/Ss Store printer settings into a file
/Sr Restore printer settings from a file
Store or restore printer settings option flags that must be placed at the end of command:
2 PRINTER_INFO_2
7 PRINTER_INFO_7
c Color Profile
d PrinterData
s Security descriptor
g Global DevMode
m Minimal settings
u User DevMode
r Resolve name conflicts
f Force name
p Resolve port
i Driver name conflict
/u use the existing printer driver if it's already installed
/t[#] zero based index page to start on
/v[version] driver version one of the following, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition | Windows NT 4.0 | Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 | Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
/w prompt the user for a driver if specified driver is not found in the inf
/y set printer as the default
/Xg get printer settings
/Xs set printer settings
/z do not auto share this printer
/Y do not auto generate a printer name
/K changes the meaning of /v and /h to accept 0,2,3, respectively for Windows x64 and Windows IA64 | Windows NT x86 | Windows 4.0
/Z share this printer, can only be used with the /if option
/? help this message
@[file] command line argument file
/Mw[message] show a warning message before committing the command
/Mq[message] show a confirmation message before committing the command
/W[flags] specifies flags and switches for the wizards (for APW & APDW)
r make the wizards to be restart-able from the last page
/G[flags] specifies global flags and switches
w suppress setup driver warnings UI (super quiet mode)

Examples:
Run server properties:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /s /t1 /n\machine
Run printer properties:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /p /n\machineprinter
Run add printer wizard localy:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /il
Run add printer wizard on \machine:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /il /c\machine
Run queue view:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n\machineprinter
Run inf install:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "Test Printer" /f %windir%infntprint.inf /r "lpt1:" /m "AGFA-AccuSet v52.3"
Run add printer wizard using inf:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ii /f %windir%infntprint.inf
Add per machine printer connection (the connection will be propagated to the user upon logon):
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /c\machine /n\machineprinter /j"LanMan Print Services"
Delete per machine printer connection (the connection will be deleted upon user logon):
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /gd /c\machine /n\machineprinter
Enumerate per machine printer connections:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ge /c\machine
Add printer driver using inf:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ia /c\machine /m "AGFA-AccuSet v52.3" /h "x86" /v "Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003" /f %windir%infntprint.inf
Add printer driver using inf:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ia /K /c\machine /m "AGFA-AccuSet v52.3" /h "Windows NT x86" /v 3
Remove printer driver:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /dd /c\machine /m "AGFA-AccuSet v52.3" /h "x86" /v "Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003"
Remove printer driver:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /dd /K /c\machine /m "AGFA-AccuSet v52.3" /h "Windows NT x86" /v 3
Set printer as default:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n "printer"
Set printer comment:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xs /n "printer" comment "My Cool Printer"
Get printer settings:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xg /n "printer"
Get printer settings saving results in a file:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /f "results.txt" /Xg /n "printer"
Set printer settings command usage:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xs /n "printer" ?
Store all printer settings into a file:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Ss /n "printer" /a "file.dat"
Restore all printer settings from a file:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Sr /n "printer" /a "file.dat"
Store printer information on level 2 into a file :
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Ss /n "printer" /a "file.dat" 2
Restore from a file printer security descriptor:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Sr /n "printer" /a "file.dat" s
Restore from a file printer global devmode and printer data:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Sr /n "printer" /a "file.dat" g d
Restore from a file minimum settings and resolve port name:
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Sr /n "printer" /a "file.dat" m p

Run Windows 2003 Admin Tools on Vista

2008-09-10T15:28:00.001-07:00

I was getting tired of having to use remote desktop to get to the Active Directory admin tools on my old XP box or a domain controller. Then I found this:
realtime-windowsserver.com/tips_tricks

If that's down, the original link is here:
blogs.technet.com/fareedmk

w00t!

Yahoo Finance Widget Test

2008-09-10T11:00:00.001-07:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href='http://finance.yahoo.com'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Yahoo! Finance&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href='http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^IXIC'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Quote for ^IXIC&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Yes, not exactly work, but it's my blog.

WWDC 2008

2008-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'll be there! I've already arrived in San Francisco and I'm about to go down to Moscone West for check-in at the registration kiosks.

Stay up to date with whatever I post:

Photos here:
http://flickr.com/photos/epitti

Live updates during the keynote via Twitter (as long as it doesn't crash, haha)
http://twitter.com/chakote

I'll probably post here around lunchtime each day. That'll give me some time to compose my posts. And yes, I will respect the NDA.

(2008-08-13) Edit: Yeah, that didn't work out at all. No posts since.

Stop! Annoying! Windows! Beeps!

2008-05-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Open a Command Prompt.

Type: net stop beep

Press Enter

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>net stop beep
The Beep service was stopped successfully.

Standard registry editing disclaimer

2001-01-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Don't edit the registry unless you know what you're doing since you can render a Windows PC un-bootable with sufficient editing of the registry.

Here’s Microsoft’s version:

Registry Caution

Do not use a registry editor to edit the registry directly unless you have no alternative. The registry editors bypass the standard safeguards provided by administrative tools. These safeguards prevent you from entering conflicting settings or settings that are likely to degrade performance or damage your system. Editing the registry directly can have serious, unexpected consequences that can prevent the system from starting and require that you reinstall Windows 2000[/XP/Vista]. To configure or customize Windows 2000[/XP/Vista], use the programs in Microsoft Management Console or Control Panel whenever possible.

Reposted from: Windows 2000 Resource Kit Registry Disclaimer Page

Technorati Tags: registry disclaimer caution