System

Three less known features of Windows Vista’s Windows Explorer

David Vidmar — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:25:40 GMT

#1 Open Command Window Here

Sure, you had this in XP too, but only if installed Open Command Prompt Here (a.k.a. CmdHere) power toy.

It’s built into Windows Vista , so all you have to do is hold down SHIFT, right click on folder and select Open Command Window Here. Works on Desktop too!

#2 Copy Path

Another feature that you COULD have in Windows XP if you installed extra utility like Ninotech Path Copy. In Vista you us similar trick as in #1, so you hold down SHIFT, right click file, folder or selection of files and folders and then click Copy as Path.

This will file names and paths of al selected items on clipboard for easy pasting in documents, emails and stuff.

#3 Fast renaming of multiple files

There might be some tool to get this feature in previous versions of Windows, but I don’t know any.

If you are in the middle of file or folder rename, you can simply press TAB key to jump to next file. The long way is pressing enter, then down/up and F2 again. So two keystrokes saved!

Note #1: feature when pressing F2 or issuing a rename command only selects filename and not file extension is easily discovered, so that’s why it’s not #4 in this list.

Note #2: if you do serious renaming you definitely need of of many file rename utilities to help you with your job. I totally agree that mentioned feature alone is not good enough.

My Dell laptop is running loud, fan is almost always on full speed

David Vidmar — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:11:10 GMT

Lately my Dell Latitude D820 has been running very hot and loud. I tried to help it cool with various desk and lap positions, but things went from bad to worse. Google search confirmed my suspicion that dust has killed it’s cooling capabilities.

I could take it to repairs, but that’s no fun. And since times at Vidmar family are very stressful, what better way to take mind off troubles that some“screwdriver fun!?

First, I ran I8kfan GUI, a free tool to monitor temperature and change fan speed of Dell laptops. My CPU was hot, and speeding or slowing down didn’t do nothing to the temperature. Another proof, that dust is was in the way.

Getting to the fan is not easy, as one has to:

unscrew every screw you find on the bottom and back of the laptop,
remove battery,
remove keyboard,
remove hinge,
remove display.

Luckily Dell provides instructions, so it’s not that hard as it seems. Instructions also tell that you should also remove hard drive, wireless card and RAM, but it’s not true.

After opening my laptop, this is what I found.

This is how it will look after you take your laptop apart (glasses optional).

After cleaning laptop is running 15-20°C cooler than before.

One more piece of advice before doing what I just did – there are three kinds of screws. Black, fat and short for hard drive, silver for display and black and longer for everything else. Keep that in mind when putting machine back together.

GetSysinternals 1.3

David Vidmar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:36:29 GMT

I just published version 1.3 of GetSysinternals script to CodePlex.

Download:

GetSysinternals 1.3

Changes:

New tools:

Free DNS Report alternatives

David Vidmar — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:11:11 GMT

Everyone that runs a web server or even a site needs to run a DNS check from time to time. For a long time I have been a happy user of a site DNSstuff.com. But couple of months ago they started charging for their main check called DNSReport.

For few queries a month I'm not willing to subscribe for $80 a year, and I'm certainly not alone.

Finally I have done some research and tried to find alternatives. Here are the results with ratings, where 10/10 is what DNSReport gave us.

CheckDNS.net - 7/10 - Sample

Clear design, errors and warning are nicely visible. Quite fast too. Too bad it check for only basic stuff.

ZoneCheck - 6/10

AJAXy. Only reports error and/or warning. Had a batch mode for multiple domains and desktop program which I don't want to even try. DNS test should be available anywhere anytime.

intoDNS - 8/10 - Sample

Simple, powerful, web2.0-ish. Results are almost identical to DNSReport, it's just that the explanations are not that concise. For example, it says my SOA REFRESH is not ok, but I don't get any recommendations on how to fix it.

Network Tools - 5/10

Only stand alone tools, not DNSReport- like check. Trace and ping are nice though.

pingability - 7/10 - Sample

Solid report, too bad it is terribly hard to read.

iptools.com - 4/10

Similar to Network tools, it only has standalone tools, but no big all-round DNS test. Boring.

DomainTools - 2/10 - Sample

Too simple. Only lists DNS entries.

Free DNS Report - 8/10 (scam?) - Sample

The report looks remarkably similar to that of the original, but the site looks terribly like a scam. I'm kind of scared to enter my domain name in there. If this is real test, please pimp it up a bit!

you get signal - not rated

Doesn't really belong on the list, but it is a nice tool anyway. I use it for port forwarding tests and reverse IP domain check.

My pick is intoDNS. If I need a second opinion, I'll go for CheckDNS.net or pingability. For port scanning and trace router I like you get signal the best.

Technorati tags: dnsreport, dnsstuff, dns, tcp, ip, free

My Windows Home Server configuration and experience so far

David Vidmar — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:41:31 GMT

I'm a big fan of Windows Home Server I have run it since beta. I finally finished building and tweaking my configuration and it's time to blog it.

Why?

Why would I need WHS? I already had Windows Server 2003 machine in the basement that served as a "always-on" download machine and storage of movies, music, photos and other stuff that doesn't fit or belong on a laptop, so why bother with Windows Home Server?

Features that sold WHS:

Dynamic disk management - add and remove drives easily and don't bother with leftover space on each drive - with WHS space on all drives is continuous,
Easy data duplication over drives which is way simpler to do that real RAID - I lost one year of data because of disk failure, I'm don't want to experience that again. I had RAID configurations that were too small but too hard to expand. Not anymore with WHS.
Automatic backups of all machines in our home.

Windows Home Server Software

There is a lot of talk about Windows Home Server on the web, but people almost exclusively run it on HP MediaSmart Home Server. Since I really don't need another machine and HP in my country doesn't even sale them, I bought an OEM version of Windows Home Server and build a server from old machines lying around our home.

Buying software was not easy. None of the MS Partners I talked too would sell me one without hardware (for now WHS only comes as OEM version!), even that some sales guy at Microsoft I talked to said they could.

I was in dead end so I bought it from eBay.de and paid ~130 EUR for German version. I downloaded English .ISO from Pirate Bay and used serial from my original German version and it works just fine.

Server Hardware

I took apart couple of old machines, bought 2 new drives, stirred and shook and this is what I run at the moment. It looks and runs pretty good and so far 100% stable:

AMD Athlon 2000+ processor,
768 MB of RAM,
a bunch (~2 TB) of disks:
- 2 x new 500 GB Western Digital
- 2 x old 200 GB Western Digital (joined in RAID0 on FastTrack TX2000 controller)
- 2 x old 120 GB Western Digital (joined in RAID0 on FastTrack TX2000 controller)
- 1 x old 80 GB Western Digital,
- for good measure I also added external 300 GB Western Digital disk that serves as a "off-server" backup.
2 fans for extra cooling of the drives (not really needed, since it will run in the basement where is quite cold all the time).

Add-Ins

To help me figure out the best disk arrangement I installed two WHS plugins - WHS Disk Management, Duplication Info.

Disk Management lets you create a cute diagram of your server's disks as you can see on a picture above. Duplication info add-in isn't very pretty or fun, it just shows on which disk you file physically is.

These are so far the only add-ins I run. I tried several other, but nothing that I would really need or like. Not even uTorrent add-in. If I need access to uTorrent I simply open remote desktop connection and do what needs to be done.

Other Software

This is where the fun starts. WHS is a regular Windows Server 2003 machine so you can slap just about any software on it that runs on Windows. Here is a list of what I run.

uTorrent

uTorrent takes care of my P2P, podcast and other downloads. Bad news is that uTorrent kind of breaks Drive Extender from time to time. It writes to disk to fast and shadow copy service can't follow.

The trick is to have a separate drive that is not controlled by WHS and let uTorrent use that as a download location. That's why I have that extra 80 GB drive that is "not added" in first screenshot.

SyncBack Freeware

SyncBack backs up most important data to external USB drive. That drive will end up away from server for extra protection and I'll SyncBack-it manually.

I also sync some of my data on server with work machine. It works alright and quite fast over Hamachi VPN.

Hamachi

I joined home server, my laptop and work machine in VPN. I can access all my data easily and fast from work. I have tried more than a dozen solutions for WAN sharing, but Hamachi wins easily.

FolderShare

For data that I need synced all the time (shared documents, portable tools,..) I have been using FolderShare for couple of years now. It's fantastic and it just works.

I can't run it in console session, it complains that it can't create mutex (There was an error starting FolderShare (CreateMutex failed).). It runs ok in any remote session which is fine with me.

TrueCrypt

External drive is encrypted with TrueCrypt. I can grab it and run with my photos, music and so on. If I manage to loose the drive, my private data is safe from strangers.

Remote Access

It's just Windows Server 2003 so you can configure your router to allow RD and connect to it from anywhere. I do that all the time. It's fast and easy with mRemote.

WHS also has it's own remote access feature which I don't need/use at all. I host some simple web pages on IIS on separate Web Site (different host header or port).

Result

I love my new server. It hums in the basement and it just works.

Wife likes is too (that's always a good sign, right?!), she feels safe with automatic backups and can easily access photos, video and music.

WHS is a great idea and I'm sure that it will be expanded and improved over time. For example, there is Ubuntu Home Server is in the making. That will push M'softies hard for their money. So we, consumers, win!

Future?

I would like a DVD / DivX player with USB + Ethernet connection that would know how to browse share photo, video and music collection. It has to be cheap, not ugly and silent. I haven't found anything like that yet. Any suggestions? Xbox360 came closest but WAF is super low at the moment.

One day I'll slap Filezilla FTP Server on there for easy file exchange with friends and such.

The word on the street is, that major update to WHS is in the making that will make it even better. Fine with me.

Technorati tags: whs, windows home server, home server, uTorrent, TrueCrypt, Hamachi, FolderShare

Tomato Firmware with new favico

David Vidmar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:49:19 GMT

This is too good to wait for Sunday's post.

New version of tomato firmware came out today and it includes couple of bits of my work. I have contributed a new favico to replace the ugly old one!

Technorati tags: favico, tomato, firmware

Find great jobs and hire the best talent

David Vidmar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:44:39 GMT

Users that actually visit vidmar.net site have probably noticed there has been job board embedded in this site. At first I tested the field with my own version of it, but that was later replace with a professional service Hidden network by Alex Papadimoulis, legendary MVP for MS Paint and author of The Daily WTF.

I believe this service on my blog will be of use for both job seekers and employers!

If you are looking for a new challenge, just browse jobs and subscribe to the feed. Just don't forget to report back when you get that dream job, ok?

If you are employer, you can post your jobs for free (international) or with a huge discount using these codes:

100OFF0712 - $100 discount ($199 for first listing)
200OFF0712 - $200 discount ($99 for first listing)
299OFF0712 - $299 discount (free first listing)
INTLFREE7 - free international (non US/CA) listings

When you apply, please enter my referral number 1159. Thank you!

Take a look at some others blogs that are part of Hidden Network:

Technorati tags: job, job ads, employment

To continue, you must first add this website to your trusted sites in Internet Explorer

David Vidmar — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 20:56:08 GMT

I'm not a sysadmin. I know about Windows as much as it is useful for any developer or a geek, but not more.

So whenever I install Windows Server 2003 lately and apply all recommended and options updates I got stuck after installing IE7. If you know what I'm doing wrong, please let me know!

When trying to do more updating I get this error:

[Error number: 0x8DDD0001]
To continue, you must first add this website to your trusted sites in Internet Explorer.

All listed sites are already in trusted sites list and adding them isn't really a solution.

I found two ways around this annoyance:

1) Go to Internet Explorer 7, open Tools menu, click on Windows Update.

Windows update will open from http://www.update.microsoft.com while clicking Windows/Microsoft Update in start menu opens http://update.microsoft.com.

2) Add http://update.microsoft.com to trusted sites lists. It looks like *.update.microsoft.com isn't catching this.

PS: Did you notice a typo on error page?

Technorati tags: windows, server, error, update, windows update, ie7

Tomato firmware for Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS

David Vidmar — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:43:01 GMT

If you own a Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS router you are probably aware that there are few alternative firmware's out there that squeeze more out of hardware that original hardware. Especially if you are doing some P2Ping, since default Linksys's settings are sub-optimal.

I have been running DD-WRT for a while know and it treated me nice. But after yesterday's IM chat with a friend I decided it's time to try something new.

Tomato is a small and simple replacement firmware by Jonathan Zarate, who has also developed another well know firmware HyperWRT +Tofu.

What is special with Tomato:

simple, efficient and modern Ajax enabled UI
build in traffic monitor with really nice SVG graphs
excellent preset QoS that actually works and also has graphing abilities which help a lot when "debugging" QoS
pre-configured with high connection limits for for P2P

This alone is compelling enough and since development of DD-WRT has somehow slowed I decided to switch. So far things look very good, but I have only run Tomato for a day.

When doing a firmware upgrade, be sure to follow instructions and read read-me files.

My two hints:

Check that you want reset your router settings after upgrade. Do this if you upgrade from DD-WRT. If you fail to, check Tomato's read-me for 3 possible solutions if you get stuck.
Although official site say there is little documentation, there is a nice Wikibook about Tomato firmware with tons of hints and suggestions.

Some screenshots:

Windows Home Server

David Vidmar — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:34:42 GMT

In this post I will not go on and on about the features of new Windows Home Server. There are plenty of documents and articles about that all over the net. And WHS dedicated blogs are popping up all over the place.

I'll just tell you, that I installed Release Candidate in virtual machine when writing an article about it and I loved it. I have an old machine in the basement running Windows 2003 that takes care of my shared data and stuff like uTorrent. But having a fully automated backups and pluggable platform makes me drool. The only bad thing I can say about WHS is that it's not available yet!

It's good to see that in the future cool products will not just come from Google and Apple. Microsoft has still some juice - at least two very cool and sexy products are on the way to customers from Microsoft - Surface and Windows Home Server.