justin ho

The command-line Runas utility is handy for launching programs under different accounts, but it’s not convenient if you’re a heavy Explorer user. ShellRunas provides functionality similar to that of Runas to launch programs as a different user via a convenient shell context-menu entry.

ShellRunas works on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

Using ShellRunas
Usage: shellrunas [/reg | [/quietreg ] | /regnetonly [/quiet] | unreg | [/netonly] <program> <arguments>

/reg Registers ShellRunas shell context-menu entry
/regnetonly Registers Shell /netonly context-menu entry
 Note: a command prompt will flash when the program starts
/unreg Unregisters ShellRunas shell context-menu  entry
/quiet Register or unregisters ShellRunas shell context-menu entry without result dialog
/netonly Use if specified credentials are for remote access only
<program> Runs program with specified credentials and parameters

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Shellrunas.zip
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc300361.aspx

Error:

(While extending an IIS site with FrontPage Server Extensions): "An internal error occurred processing the quota information."

Solution:

• Confirm application pool (usually MSSharePointAppPool) is started/functional, and that it is running under the Local System identity.
• Sysinternals' Process Monitor may also help identify which files are causing problems - check permissions on roles.ini, and other files located in Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Web Server Extensions\50.
• Stop using Frontpage extensions. =)

Where Lenovo has made improvements is with the Intel processors. The ThinkPad X301 offers a pair of not-yet-released Intel ultra-low volt processors that the PC vendor lists as the U9300, which has a clock speed of 1.2GHz, and the U9400, which as a clock speed of 1.4GHz. The two chips have 6MB of L2 cache and a 1066MHz front side bus.

In addition to the new processors, the Lenovo X301 will support DDR3 (double data rate 3) memory, which consumes less power and is faster than standard DDR2 memory

The other significant improvement to the ThinkPad X301 is its data storage capacity. While the original X300 offered a 64GB SSD, the X301 offers a choice of either an 80GB or 128 GB SSD.

Other improvements include DisplayPort and VGA video ports to support multiple displays. The X300 and X301 offer the option of a ultra-thin optical DVD burner that measures 7 millimeters.

The Lenovo X301 is available Aug. 26 for a starting price of $2,599. The 128GB SSD option will be available in September.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X301-Updates-Companys-Notebook-Line

We are going to start looking forward towards the “Windows 7” project. We know there are tons of questions about the specifics of the project and strong desire to know what’s in store for the next major release of Windows. Believe us, we are just as excited to start talking about the release. Over the past 18 months since Windows Vista’s broad availability, the team has been hard at work creating the next Windows product.

The audience of enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows represent the folks we are dedicating this blog to. With this blog we’re opening up a two-way discussion about how we are making Windows 7. Windows has all the challenges of every large scale software project—picking features, designing them, developing them, and delivering them with high quality. Windows has an added challenge of doing so for an extraordinarily diverse set of customers. As a team and as individuals on the team we continue to be humbled by this responsibility.

...

In leading up to this blog we have seen a lot of discussion in blogs about what Microsoft might be trying to accomplish by maintaining a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7 (some might say that this is a significant understatement). We, as a team, definitely learned some lessons about “disclosure” and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid. Our intent with Windows 7 and the pre-release communication is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about when we do talk. Again, top of mind for us is the responsibility we feel to make sure we are not stressing priorities, churning resource allocations, or causing strategic confusion among the tens of thousands of partners and customers who care deeply and have much invested in the evolution of Windows.

Related to disclosure is the idea of how we make sure not to set expectations around the release that end up disappointing you—features that don’t make it, claims that don’t stick, or support we don’t provide. Starting from the first days of developing Windows 7, we have committed as a team to “promise and deliver”. That’s our goal—share with you what we’re going to get done, why we’re doing it, and deliver it with high quality and on time.

From: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/default.aspx

IIS 7.0 FTP Error message while attempting SSL authentication:

[R] 220 Microsoft FTP Service
[R] AUTH SSL
[R] 534-Local policy on server does not allow TLS secure connections.
[R]  Win32 error:   Access is denied.
[R]  Error details: SSL certificate was not configured.
[R] 534 End
[R] Failed SSL/TLS negotiation, disconnected
[R] Connection failed (Connection lost)

Solution: Set a server-level SSL certificate, not just at the site level.

From: http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2008/08/14/microsoft-officelabs-releases-pptplex.aspx

Taking inspiration from the Plex technology used in the Bill Gates’s TouchWall demonstration at the CEO Summit, OfficeLabs have created a prototype that allows people to have similar zooming capabilities using Office PowerPoint 2007. With pptPlex you can show slides on a zoomable canvas moving around the canvas to show groups of slides, individual slides, or zoom in to display a particular section of a slide.

An Overview of pptPlex

Download: http://msofficelb.vo.llnwd.net/o25/4fcaa65e-086d-4d49-a292-a5e764667263/1.1.0.0/pptPlex.msi

Today Verdiem announced Edison, a free energy monitoring application that allows eco-conscious consumers to actively control their PC’s energy consumption – and their household’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.  Microsoft and Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) are supporting Edison as an easy way for consumers to become active to reach the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s goal of reducing global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons by 2010. Verdiem and Microsoft are both members of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses and conservation organizations committed to reducing the power consumption of PCs and servers.

Verdiem is challenging PC consumers to download 10 million copies of Edison (approximately 1 percent of the global PC population) in the next year. Made for the Windows operating system, Edison enhances existing PC power settings and provides a consumer-friendly interface that is easy to set up and manage.

EDISON Features

Edison offers a simple solution for the individual PC user. The software features include:

• Scheduling – allows users to identify work and non-work schedules to optimize power schemes based on when the PC is in use or on standby.
• Settings – provides several options of desired power savings and settings. Simply choose the most appropriate and it applies 24x7x365.
• Estimated Savings Reports – offers information that correlates PC power settings to money, kWh and CO2 savings.
• Intuitive User Interface – easy to use sliding bars help consumers choose settings and instantly see the power and monetary savings. Clearly marked tabs help users navigate through the interface.

Help reduce your household’s greenhouse gas emissions and download Edison free today! 

I happily installed this application, then went to activate it and was greeted by this form.  Seems Canada is not important enough to be in the list of countries!

This script scans IIS logs and sends email with attempts/failures/successes given a date/logfile.

Outlook Web Access (OWA) accesses are stored in the IIS Log Files.  Using LogParser 2.1 and blat, this (hacked) script takes 1 parameter - the date in mmddyy that you wish to analyze and opens the corresponding logfile in the IIS log directory.  It will auto sort/group the results by result code (200 success, errors, etc.), and return the IP address, username and client string of the attempt(s).  These results are emailed to you in HTML format.

http://justinho.com/files/uploads/OWALogParser.rar

Open up OWA.cmd in notepad – should be pretty explanatory.  Will open SMTP port 25 and email to address specified.

More:

• http://rideagainstthemachine.blogspot.com/2008/02/using-microsoft-log-parser-to-search.html?showComment=1208528280000
• http://www.robvanderwoude.com/datetiment.html
• http://www.huweb.hu/maques/realdate.htm
• http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/03/03/421149.aspx
• http://www.larkware.com/Articles/LogParser2.0Help.html

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 Update 1 is offered in two versions to support Solution Accelerator component installation on x64 or x86 hosts. Select the version that corresponds with your host hardware type. Both versions of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit support deployment of x86 and x64 Windows operating systems.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008 Update 1 unifies the tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment into a common deployment console and collection of guidance. The fourth generation deployment accelerator adds integration with recently released Microsoft deployment technologies to create a single path for image creation and automated installation. MDT’s tools and end-to-end guidance reduce deployment time, standardize desktop and server images, limit service disruptions, reduce post-deployment help desk costs, and improve security and ongoing configuration management.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit technologies eliminate interaction time required to install desktop and server operating systems. Interaction at the targeted computer may take a few moments using the Lite Touch Installation (LTI) method or it can be completely automated using Zero Touch Installation (ZTI). Zero Touch Installation utilizes Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 or Systems Management Server 2003 with the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack. Lite Touch Installation can be used when software distribution tools are not in place.
Microsoft Deployment Tookit 2008 Update 1 also uses Configuration Manager 2007’s stand-alone media-initiated operating system deployment feature. This release offers project management guidance for all deployment roles and separates technical documentation for the products and technologies to facilitate automation tasks.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3bd8561f-77ac-4400-a0c1-fe871c461a89&displaylang=en

July 29, 2008 — Microsoft is incubating a componentized non-Windows operating system known as Midori, which is being architected from the ground up to tackle challenges that Redmond has determined cannot be met by simply evolving its existing technology.

SD Times has viewed internal Microsoft documents that outline Midori’s proposed design, which is Internet-centric and predicated on the prevalence of connected systems.

Midori is an offshoot of Microsoft Research’s Singularity operating system, the tools and libraries of which are completely managed code. Midori is designed to run directly on native hardware (x86, x64 and ARM), be hosted on the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor, or even be hosted by a Windows process.

According to published reports, Eric Rudder, senior vice president for technical strategy at Microsoft and an alumnus of Bill Gates' technical staff, is heading up the effort. Rudder served as senior vice president of Microsoft’s Servers and Tools group until 2005. A Microsoft spokesperson refused comment.
“That sounds possible—I’ve heard rumors to the effect that he [Rudder] had an OS project in place,” said Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft. He noted that it is quite possible that the project is just exploratory, but conceivably a step above what Microsoft Research does.

One of Microsoft’s goals is to provide options for Midori applications to co-exist with and interoperate with existing Windows applications, as well as to provide a migration path.

Building Midori from the ground up to be connected underscores how much computing has changed since Microsoft’s engineers first designed Windows; there was no Internet as we understand it today, the PC was the user’s sole device and concurrency was a research topic.

Today, users move across multiple devices, consume and share resources remotely, and the applications that they use are a composite of local and remote components and services. To that end, Midori will focus on concurrency, both for distributed applications and local ones.

According to the documentation, Midori will be built with an asynchronous-only architecture that is built for task concurrency and parallel use of local and distributed resources, with a distributed component-based and data-driven application model, and dynamic management of power and other resources.

Continued: Read

PDF: http://justinho.com/files/uploads/Midori%20-%20Microsofts%20Plans%20for%20Post%20Windows%20OS.pdf