Things I've Learned About I.T.: Windows 7

On XP and Server 2003 it was only a few clicks, Start > Network Connections, to get at the config screens for IP/DNS/DHCP etc.

In Windows 7 its hidden a million layers down behind all kind of user friendly fluff.

Luckily you can simply type this into the search box (the Windows 7 version of the Run box...):

ncpa.cpl

Much better!

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Windows 7 RDP Slow

If your RDP connections in Windows 7 are slow, over a VPN or whatever then go:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

From an administrator command shell on the machine initiating the RDP connection.

Sunday, 29 August 2010

Remote Desktop Keyboard Shortcuts

Handy: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/04/remote-desktop-tips-and-tricks.html

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

Repeated Sharepoint Credentials Box when opening Office Doc in IE on Windows 7.

We have a Sharepoint server at work used to share documents via WebDav. It is authenticated via the Active Directory, using the current logged on user credentials. It has always been the case, on IE on XP that you needed to carry out the following steps to access files without seeing an annoying credentials box:

1. Add the Sharepoint host to Trusted Sites in IE.
2.a. From the security tab, select "custom level" for Trusted Sites.
2.b. Scroll to bottom of options and select "Automatic Logon with current username and password".

However since moving to W7, this continues to work but I keep getting prompted for my credentials after opening an Office Document. This is annoying as repeatedly typing the correct password has no effect, and only by clicking "cancel" does the document download.

Seem this is a bug, due to the fact that:

1. We don't have a proxy, i.e. MS ISA Server.
2. We are using a fully qualified domain name.

Don't think I understand how MS missed this state of affairs as valid use case / test case, but anyhow.

There is hotfix for Vista to fix this, however the patch does not work on Window 7. However following the manual steps in the article below fixed the problem and worked for me (editing the registry):

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=943280

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

VMware vSphere Client on Windows 7

Frustratingly there is an issue here. After installing the client, and trying to connect, this message is shown:

“Error parsing the server “server name” “clients.xml” file.”

http://www.techhead.co.uk/running-vmware-vsphere-client-on-windows-7

The above blog post worked for me. Irritated I had to though.

Monday, 26 October 2009

Active Directory for Windows 7

The remote management tools, what in XP was the Administrative Tools Pack, i.e. the AD Users and Group manager, DHCP, DNS, etc ... are available for Windows 7 but its a bit more tricky.

1. Download from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en

2. Install as normal.

3. Go Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on or Off

4. Go to "Remote Administration Tools" and turn on any features you need.

5. Start the appropriate snap-ins from Start > Administrative Tools

Rotating Flikr Wallpaper and Screensaver with Windows 7

This isn't very enterprise IT, but its a neat way of varying my desktop wallpaper and screensaver dynamically with Windows 7.

Setup or use current Flikr account to upload pictures to.
Via account section, create a free API key: http://www.flickr.com/services/api/keys
Download Slikr Screensaver: http://code.google.com/p/slickr-dotnet/downloads/list
On the 64 bit version of Windows 7 I had to uncheck "Open GL Check" within Slikr properties (via screensaver properties).
Then put the API key into Slikr and sync it up with your user account.
Then as a wallpapers, select %userprofile%\pictures\slikr\user\youruser

The upshot is any pictures you add to your Flikr will automatically join the group of pictures on your screensaver, and by extension your wallpapers.

If you access privileged data or systems from the user account you set this up on, check "On resume, prompt for login".

Migrating / Move Lotus Notes from one PC to another.

First a digression: Notes is the singularly worst piece of widely adopted enterprise software I know of.

The key is the data folder. Each user has a Notes Data folder which contains their settings. On the old PC, which was XP and had migrated from 6.5 -> 7 -> 8 -> 8.5 this was at:

c:\program files\notes\lotus\data.

I installed Notes 8.5 on the new machine and copied the data to:

%userprofile%\appdata\local\lotus\notes\data

Selecting to overwrite or replace all conflicts. I then started Notes, cancelled a few meaningless wizards and messages (one about "Internet Mail", one about "IM" and a "Cannot create folder").

However after 15 mins of Notes "churning", I can see my inbox, and I'm migrated.

Saturday, 24 October 2009

Disable Driver Signature Enforcement - Cisco PI21AG

I've got a Cisco PI21AG WiFi PCI NIC card for my media box PC. Cisco don't supply a driver for the 64bit Windows 7 in the final release version. However there was a Microsoft driver in the W7 beta which worked perfectly (but taken out in RC and RTM versions of W7). After installing the release version of W7-64 I just installed the driver that had come with the Beta.

Problem is the "driver signature enforcement" is invalid so the driver won't load. Although this can be disabled by pressing F8 each time the PC boots and selecting the "disable enforcement" option, this is tedious so I Googled and tried this:

Run command prompt as administrator.
bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

This did NOT WORK. Apparently it does work on some versions of Vista, but who cares Vista is a waste of time.

Seemed dodgy, but I then tried this:

http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=dseo

Basically its a case of switching the OS to a driver developer "test mode" and then applying a sort of "self signing" to the driver in question. So by going into Device Manager and selecting the device, properties, driver tab, driver details - I can see it is athrx.sys which is not signed.

So using the app I applied both these steps and rebooted. Worked great - No more F8 and I can keep using my expensive bulletproof Cisco Wifi NIC on the Media Box PC.

Saturday, 17 October 2009

Useful Windows freeware utilities

In my optimistic migration to Windows 7, I am reloading my laptop from scratch. Here is a list of useful free utilities I installed.

* Notepad++

* gVim

* Paint.NET

* 7-Zip

* Stickies

* ProcExp (minimized on startup)

* KillNotes / KillDomino

* MagicISO

* Putty

* imgBurn

Friday, 16 October 2009

Windows 7 Application Settings Access Denied

Microsoft have moved some standard system folders round in Windows 7. "To keep us on our toes" :P

'Documents and Settings' has become 'Users' and 'Application Data' has become 'Appdata', among others.

For backward compatibility they have symbolic links setup. Being Microsoft they need to pretend they invented them (1983) and called them "Junctions". I'm sure there is some subtlety.

In any case if you try and hit them in Explorer you get "Access Denied". Microsoft excel at meaningful messages. I would expect hitting this folder in Explorer is pretty common as Application Data is a hidden folder in XP.

So, if you are like me looking for:

%USERDATA%\Application Data\Folder\

You need:

%USERDATA%\AppData\Roaming\Folder

No idea why the Roaming is necessary. However this does the trick. On 32 bit.