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Why use file integrity MD5 checksum?
Jun 28th
Last night I copied my Windows Server 2008 R2 server image to a central site. The copy of 3 GB took almost 5 hours over the network. I exported my Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine as OVF template. Due the image size of the virtual machine I used 7z tool to slit the image into 50MB files. I copied the directory to the storage server and started the extraction!
7-Zip: Data error in file.vmdk. File is broken
The export stopped at 23%. When looking at the file structure all files were 50MB and I could not find any which was less than that. So I had two choices now. a) start copy again or b)run a file integrity MD5 checksum on my source directory which contained all the files and than run that against the destination.
I decided to go for the B option and looked for a good MD5 checksum tool. On exactfile.com I found a small console utility named exf.exe and than I created a digest file against my source folder.
The exf.exe –md5sum took couple of minutes to generate the file. I than copied exf.exe and my exactfile.md5 to the destination folder.
After running exf.exe –c extractfile.md5 the MD5 checksum failed on file number 16. When looking at the file it has the same size 512000KB as any other files.
I copied file 016 again over the network and start the extract process all over again. I spent like 15 minutes to find a solution and copy only 50MB file to solve this whole problem.
Software Deployment: The easiest way to get apps with Ninite
Oct 27th
If you are upgrading to Windows 7 from XP you will need to do a clean install, and installing your favorite apps again is time consuming and annoying. Now you can install your favorite applications while waiting they are installed for you. How many times did you go to all the websites, download, installed and configured them over and over again.
With Ninite things have become smarter and more efficient.
Ninite runs on Windows XP/Vista/7 and works in the background 100% hands-free. We install apps with default settings and say "no" to browser toolbars and other junk. All we do is install the latest versions of the apps you choose. Not even Ninite is installed.
Just pick your favorite apps and download the installer. In minutes the tools are installed for you and you can focus on more important things.
Click here to run and install application by yourself as never before.
Tools: ImgBurn without Admin Permissions
Jun 9th
Recently ImgBurn was scripted to be deployed on to enterprise managed clients. Non of those clients have users as local administrators. With Nero you could install NeroRights to provide such privileges but with ImgBurn this is not possible. To solve this problem small GPO change locally or GPO in the domains can be done.
CreateFile Failed! – Device \\.\CdRom0 (D:\)
Reason: Access is denied.
Errors were encountered when trying to access a drive
This drive will not be visable in the program
You need Administrative privileges to use SPTI
Start gpedit.msc as administrator , Local Policies, Security Options and configure “Devices:Restrict CD-ROM access to locally logged on user only” to Enabled. Log in as user
ImgBurn found 1 drive now without local administrative permissions on Windows XP Sp3.
Tools: BGInfo silent run and no license agreement
Jan 13th
BGInfo is very useful when managing dozen of Windows Servers in physical and virtual environments. I even managed to get this tool deployed to all client computers at work. It has a huge value for support personal.
Since SysInternals has been taken over by Microsoft it now shows a “License Agreement” windows. Sure this is not a problem on the servers; but for client computers we don’t want to bug users with these windows.
What should users do? 
We have two flavors to solve this:
- Create a reg file and import the key below
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sysinternals\BGInfo]
"EulaAccepted"=dword:00000001 - I prefer the command line below in a cmd cript which is storen All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder
C:\WINDOWS\Bginfo.exe almatis.bgi /timer:0 /silent /NOLICPROMPT
/NOCICPROMPT option will skip the license window. Imagine having 1000+ users clicking on the window.
Tools: ImgBurn on Windows Server 2008
Oct 30th
ImgBurn is a free tool that enables you to burn CD/DVD images with ease. All the latest drives are supported (including booktype / bitsetting on many of the major ones). Advanced functionality can be found in the ImgBurn context menus.
ImgBurn supports a wide range of image file formats – including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.
ImgBurn supports all the Windows OS’s – Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 2008 (including all the 64-bit versions). If you use Wine, it should also run on Linux and other x86-based Unixes.
If you never heard of this tool than now you should download and install it . I am using this tool to burn cd-roms from my Windows Server 2008 Hyver-V whitebox and it works smoothly. Beside all burning features one other which comes handy is to grab a folder and create a ISO file; than mount the ISO file with Hyper-V or ESX virtual machines. I used this feature many times when working in the test and production environments.
Click here to download the ImgBurn tool.
Tools: visionapp Remote Desktop 2008 Express (vRD 2008)
Oct 27th
vRD 2008 is a tool for the management of remote Windows computers via RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). vRD is ideal for administrators who need to maintain simultaneous connections to multiple servers. Connection-specific settings and login credentials can be organized in folders and subfolders for quick access.
visionapp Remote Desktop 2008 is currently one of the most popular products in the market of RDP tools. visionapp Remote Desktop 2008 Express (vRD 2008 Express) offers a multiple number of enhancements and new features compared to the freeware version vRD 1.5, such as the extended support of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (incl. 64-Bit), an overview on all logged in users and connection history.
Limitations of vRD 2008 Express:
- up to 15 objects
- 5 credentials storable
- no Database-Modus available
- duration is valid until 3-31-2009
With some enhancements and limitations the tool is still out there for public. I used the freeware versions before and still like the Office interface. Good opportunity to check the tool yourself before buying it. Looking into the future plans of mRemote and vRD I think I will buy the license somewhere next year .
Please register and download the tool from here if you want to test it.
Don’t worry the limitations is working after you start creating the 16th connection:
