Turn off Auto-Restart on Windows 10 in AD Environment

To configure a single machine locally:

Local Group Policy Editor -> Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

Double click No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations.  Change setting to enabled.  Click ok.  Close Local Group Policy Editor.

Downloading Dell Customized VMware ESXi 6.0 ISO

Dell Customizes VMware ESXi images with the latest drivers supporting Dell peripherals. In addition to the drivers Dell’s technical support information is updated via OEM customization process.  To navigate directly to the source install and updates, follow these instructions:

https://dell.com/support -> Browse for a Product -> Select Servers, Storage & Networking -> PowerEdge -> Select Support Platform (See Dell VMware ESXi 6.0 blog for supported platforms) -> Drivers & Downloads -> click Change OS & select VMware ESXi 6.0 -> Expand Enterprise Solutions

Original source: Kiran Poluri from Dell Hypervisor Engineering team

Selecting and displaying duplicates in a MySQL DB:

SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE column IN (
 SELECT column
 FROM table
 GROUP BY column
 HAVING (COUNT(column) > 1)
)

Improve VMware Converter Performance for Conversions

1. Open the converter-worker.xml configuration file. It is located in "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone" folder for Windows Vista or newer or in "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone" for older Windows versions.
2. Set the key Config/nfc/useSsl to false and save the configuration file.
3. Restart "VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Worker" service.

i.e. it should look like:

    
...
    
       120000
       false
...

From: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/333786

Installing OSX Drivers for a Konica Minolta Bizhub C452

Download OSX Drivers:

• OS X 10.5 (and everything before it)
• OS X 10.6
• OS X 10.7
• All Drivers

Unzip Archive
Install Driver
Set Up Basic Printer Settings

• Go to the Apple Menu and choose System Preferences
• Click on the Print & Fax preference icon near the end of the second row
• Click on the lock at the bottom and supply your admin login and password to unlock the preferences
• Click on the + icon below the printer list to add a printer
• In the Add Printer window do the following:
  • Click on the IP tab at the top
  • Protocol: Line Printer Daemon - LPD
  • Address: Put in the full DNS name of the printer (listed below in Setting the Printer Hardware Options)
  • Queue: Leave this blank
  • Name: Put in whatever makes sense to you
  • Location: Put in the room number of the printer (which is in the DNS name below)
  • Print Using: change this to Select Printer Software:
    • Choose KONICA MINOLTA C452 PS from the list and then click on the OK button
  • Click on the Add button

Configure Driver Settings

• Go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences
• Click on Print & Fax
• Double-click on the printer in the list
• In the resulting window, click on the Printer Setup icon at the top right
• In the resulting window, click on the Driver tab at the top
• Set the Function Version, Paper Source Unit, Finisher and Punch Unit, using the info below for each printer:

• Function Version: 3
• Paper Source Unit:  LU-204
• Finisher: FS-S27 + JS-603
• Punch Unit: PK-517 (2/3-Hole)
• Check: Hard Disk
• Uncheck: Secure Print Only

Reference: https://computing.si.umich.edu/confluence/display/SIC/BizHub+C452+Installation+on+Mac+OS+X

Adobe Acrobat X Pro (10) won't start or launch - Windows

1. Make sure you are connected to the internet.
2. Launch a regular  CS6 product other than Acrobat or Flash Builder (for example: Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro, InDesign, Flash Professional, Illustrator, Dreamweaver.)
3. Click on Help->Deactivate .
4. Deactivate the application. Quit application.
5. Launch a regular  CS6 product other than Acrobat or Flash Builder (for example: Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro, InDesign, Flash Professional, Illustrator, Dreamweaver.)
6. Accept Eula.
7. Register trial by signing in. Let the app launch.
8. Quit and relaunch the app. Wait for UI to come.
9. Click on License This Software button on the UI.
10. Click on Sign in .
11. Serial number screen will come
12. Enter the serial number in the serial number screen and click Next.
13. Quit app and relaunch the app while connected on the internet .

After this if you launch Acrobat it will launch and run forever without trouble. In case you still face a problem, try relaunching the other CS6 app once more and then launch Acrobat. 

Originally from: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4491141 

ICMP Ping Blocked on Windows 2008 Server

On some default installs of Windows 2008 Server, ICMP [ping] is blocked by the Windows Firewall.

To enable ICMP traffic:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule name="File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)" new enable=yes

To disable ICMP traffic:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule name="File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)" new enable=no

MySQL Remote Connection Error on Windows 2008 r2

By default, Windows 2008 r2 blocks incoming connections on port 3306.  To get around this problem, do the following:

• In MySQL, allow access for user@host (root@% for root access from anywhere)
• As administrator run the command: 
• c:/> netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="MySQL Server" action=allow protocol=TCP dir=in localport=3306 

Now you should be able to connect remotely to your MySQL server on Windows 2008 r2

Easy Rotator JQuery Slider Builder

http://www.dwuser.com/easyrotator/

Overcoming the 2TB partition size limit in Windows 7

I recently acquired some Hitachi Deskstar 4TB hard drives that I wanted to use in a desktop system that would be running Win 7, however the motherboard did not support UEFI which means I could not boot from a GPT formatted partition (which would support partitions greater than 2TB).  Through some research and a lot of bashing my head on my desk, I cooked up this solution.

What you'll need:

• o Drive larger than 2TB
• o Acronis True Image 2012 Home Boot Disk (You're resourceful, go find it)
• o Seagate Discwizard (download) *coveat - you must have a spare Seagate or Maxtor drive
• o MiniTool Partiton Wizard (home version and boot disk are free) - OR - Parted Magic (open source)

Steps:

1. Install Win 7 on disc, allow setup to do its thing - OR - clone existing drive to >2TB disk
2. Inside windows, install Seagate Discwizard *-You will need to physically connect to mobo or via usb adapter a Seagate or Maxtor drive for install to work
3. Boot machine using Acronis boot disk
4. Choose Tools and then select Extended Capacity Manager - follow prompts to extend capacity of system disc
5. Now reboot into Windows
6. Run Seagate Discwizard making sure a Seagate or Maxtor drive are connected to your machine
7. Choose Add New Disc and locate the partition you just created.  In the Model Number column, you will see the model number of the drive preceded by AVD. 
8. Click next -> Initialize disc in MBR layout -> Click next -> Double click gray status bar of unallocated drive -> Choose formatting options you desire (default settings are fine if you want to use the entire drive) - Click accept -> Click next -> Click proceed and let it do its thing

When Discwizard is done, your OS should recognize there is a new disc present and autorun it.  You can verify you've done everything right by looking at your disc layout in windows Disk Management.  You might see there is some extra space left over as unallocated space.  You can then use the partition tool of your choice to expand either the system partition or the newly created partition to use up this extra space.  Be aware, windows backup in Win 7 will not allow you to backup discs larger than 2TB - so if you're planning to use it for backups, don't expand your system disc past an acceptable limit.  I used MiniTool to accomplish this as it can do it from within Windows and did not require booting the machine off a boot disc, which is what Parted Magic does. 

If you've gotten this far and you're not quite sure what I'm saying, check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the videos listed in one of Seagate's Forums.  In this example, they use Discwizard for everything, but unless you're working with a Seagate drive as the >2TB drive, some of the steps won't work, ie: Discwizard won't allow you to extend the capacity of a non-seagate/maxtor drive, even if you have one attached to the system.  I've used this method on two separate machines now, one a fresh Win 7 install and the other a cloned drive from a smaller hard drive.  In both instances, I have had complete success with zero data loss.

MySQL Workbench: Copy Table Structure and Data

Right mouse click the table you want to copy and choose, "Send to SQL Editor -> Create Statement"
Select all and execute the statement (lightening bolt icon)
In SQL statement, change table name
Then execute the statement:

INSERT INTO `table2` SELECT * FROM `table1`

Installing Coldfusion 10 on Windows 2008

When installing CF10 on 2008, you may receive on error message telling you that ASP.NET, ISAPI Extensions and ISAPI Filters needed to be installed.  Despite having these roles installed, the CF10 installer may still tell you they are not.  The little bit of information this error message leaves out is that CGI needs to be installed as well.  Once you have ASP.NET, ISAPI Extensions, ISAPI Filters AND CGI installed, the error message should go away.

Firefox 4 does not prompt to save tabs on exit

The solution that worked for me was to set the configuration flag in about:config to:

• > browser.showQuitWarning to true

There are several popular solutions to this issue that did not work for me. Some that I came across while researching this issue:

• > browser.tabs.warnOnClose , see http://kb.mozillazine.org/About%3Aconfig_entries
• > browser.warnOnQuit , see http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.warnOnQuit
• > browser.warnOnRestart , see http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.warnOnRestart

Coldfusion Dynamic File Path Code

There are plenty of sites out there with this exact code and I use it in almost every site I've written, but I'll remember where it is if I post it here.

#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath())#
#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath())#somedir\somedir2\

Watch your slashes for different OS's.

Prevent Cisco AnyConnect client from starting at boot in Windows 7

A recent upgrade to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client causes the anyconnect client to load at windows startup. This is a pain in the ass since I'm not always going to connect to my VPN when I start windows. Thanks for taking the MS approach on this one Cisco. Thanks also for not providing a simple way to turn this off via the UI. To prevent this client from loading at boot:

start -> type: msconfig.exe
click the tab "startup"
uncheck "Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client"
click "ok"
click "exit without restart"

Windows 7: Cannot boot from CD - Code error: 5

UPDATE: I've used this method to create a new bootable DVD:  http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/code5-error.html

The method detailed below works only about 20% of the time and it's a hassle to find a floppy (or even a floppy drive sometimes).

Symptom: When attempting to boot older hardware with the Windows 7 install DVD, you receive the error message "Cannot boot from CD - Code error: 5"

Problem: The Windows 7 install DVD has multiple file systems not supported by some older BIOS software. To read more about the differences, please read: AlfaMikeDelta's posts.

Solution 1: Upgrade your BIOS to a version that supports booting UDF file systems.

Solution 2: Use a linux boot manager to help emulate the missing BIOS instructions. I used the Gujin boot disk and followed the directions from AlfaMikeDelta's above post:

- Download latest version of Gujin from sourceforge
- Use your favourite decompressing software to unGzip/unTar
- Inside the uncompressed folder, you will find a file named "full.img.gz", unGzip this file too.
- Now you will have a file named "floppy.144", this is the floppy image.
- Download a "Floppy Image Writer", for exmple RawWrite (or WinImage).
- Grab a floppy and write the file "floppy.144" to it.
- Put the Windows 7 DVD in the drive.
- Boot your PC with the floppy, it will show a screen searching for boot records in your computer, follow the instructions about the video resolution.
- Once you are inside the GUI, there will be a list of supported booteable media, press the "F" key corresponding to the one that reads "no emul" or "no emulation" (it should be your DVD)
- Pay attention to the message "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" and do so when it appears.

Installation should continue as planned from there.

Chrome OS - Saving items to the Download directory

For those of you lucky enough to be part of the cr-48 pilot program, you may have run into an issue with figuring out how to save items from a cloud-app to your Downloads directory. I ran into this problem when trying to email a friend via gmail something I'd created in Aviary. If you're not familiar with the Chrome OS filesystem or filesystems in general, it's easy to get confused.

The Problem: Attempting to attach a file to an email in Gmail/Apps Email via Chrome OS, Gmail only allows the user the option to attach files from the "Downloads" directory. Unless you've save a file in this directory, you cannot send it as an attachment in Gmail on your Chrome OS enabled device.

The Reason: Application developers who have created browser/cloud based applications have done so assuming users would be using their apps on traditional operating systems where the user has full access to the filesystem. For this reason, when prompting the user to save something, it brings up a file browser that dumps users into some "default" file path. In the case of Aviary, it dumps the user into /. In an effort to make things "easier" for users, Google has decided that if users are going to send files to people, they will either exist in the cloud (and have the option of being sent to users from the cloud based app) or the user will have downloaded the files to the only place native ChromeOS apps have access to, the "downloads" directory. Now to be fair, some of this is speculation on my part, so feel free to weigh-in with your own opinions (even though they're wrong!). And to be fair to Aviary, they allow everything you produce in their apps to be shared via public urls.

The Solution: When prompted with a save file dialog or a browse dialog, navigate to - /home/chronos/user/Downloads/ - and save your files there. From this spot, users will be able to access files via the "Downloads" shortcut (control+o) or from within Gmail when attempting to attach files.

Clear Print Queue in Windows 7/Vista

If you have a long list of hung print jobs in Windows 7 or Vista, you can clear the print queue easily by using these steps.

1. Click Start.

2. Type Command.

3. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

4. Type net stop spooler then press Enter.

5. Type del %systemroot%\System32\spool\printers\* /Q then press Enter.

6. Type net start spooler then press Enter.

The print queue on your Windows 7/Vista system should now be cleared. Type exit and press Enter to exit the command window.

From: http://www.technipages.com/windows-7vista-clear-print-queue.html

Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin stalls when loading PDF

Issue:

When using Adobe Reader web browser plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome or other browser to load a PDF document hosted under IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.5 web server, the PDF document does not load properly or the browser appears to be hanging while loading the document. The browser may stall or display the error message, "a file i/o error has occurred." This behavior is not consistent; other PDF documents serve with no problems.

Note: This issue occurs because IIS 7.5 web server coalesces merged byte-range requests into a single byte-range request. The response generated for such requests is not handled correctly by the Adobe Reader web browser plug-in.

The same issue exists in the Firefox web browser. Firefox is designed to detangle the response and send it to the Adobe Firefox plug-in (which is different from the one in Internet Explorer), but it drops the response as well, resulting in the same behaviors.

The Adobe Reader Safari plug-in shares the same issue.

Solution:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/807/cpsid_80780.html

Unable to telnet to remote mail servers on port 25 SMTP

Issue: unable to telnet to port 25 (SMTP) of remote mail servers from windows based machines.

Solution: Your antivirus program may be blocking SMTP connections.

In my case, Avast 5.x blocks all outbound SMTP, IMAP, POP and NNTP connections by default. It's supposed to prompt you when it detects an unsecured connection, but I suppose that's only from actual mail clients, not from the CLI.

Avast specific solution:
1) Open Avast Control Panel
2) Click on Mail Shield
3) Click Expert Settings
4) Click on SSL accounts
5) Add the host name/ip, protocol, port and type of security your connection will use
6) OK your way out of there

If all else fails, turn off Avast/AV completely and test your connection.

This worked for me on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.