Veeam Error - File is locked by running session

I have recently been playing around with Veeam and trying to get replication up and going. It was working for a while on my test machine but then I ran into a problem with the error "File is locked by running session" when I kicked off the replication job.

I'm not sure what caused this but there is a Veeam KB on it here http://www.veeam.com/KB1487. It was however a bit brief and I wasn't sure how to run the commands when using SQL Express. After a bit of googling at multiple sites here is how its done...

(Note before starting make sure you dont have any backup or replication jobs running!)


1) Find the instance name of your Veeam installation (by default I believe this is just veeam but you can check it by going into services and look for the SQL Server (InstanceNameHere) service. In my case this was SQL Server (Veeam).

2) Open a command line and type sqlcmd -S localhost\veeam (replace the veeam here if your instance name is different). This will connect us to the database instance.

3) If successful you will now see a line with 1>

We still have to connect to the database so type select name from sys.database to list all the databases in this instance. My one was called VeeamBackup which I think is the default name.

4) Select the Veeam backup database by typing "select VeeamBackup" and then on line 2 type go. You should get a message saying  "Changed database context to VeeamBackup

5) Type the command from the KB article (copied below)

delete [Backup.TrackedActions.Leases]
delete [Backup.TrackedActions.LockItems]
delete [Backup.TrackedActions.Locks]

then type "go"

You should see something like 1 rows affected.

Now try and run your replication job again. It should now work and you can go and have another coffee :)

Windows Server 2012, VMWare Workstation and that flashing blue screen

Just wanted to make a quick note about installing Windows Server 2012 into VMWare workstation (I have version 8.0.3).

The initial installation went fine but when I installed VMWare Tools I ended up with a flashing blue screen for some reason. Booting into safe mode worked but removing and re-installing the tools did nothing. After dicking around in the settings of the VM for a while I discovered that if you turn on 3d graphics everything worked again.

Random, but there you go.

Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7 with SAP NetWeaver

Recently had a problem with our SAP portal where single sign on (SSO) wouldnt work with the new Windows 7 clients we were deploying. Windows Vista with IE 7 would work fine but Windows 7, which has Internet Explorer 8, wouldnt work with single sign on. After a bit of troubleshooting we were able to narrow the problem down to authentication types. This blog post here was particularly useful in helping us troubleshoot... http://blogs.technet.com/b/instan/archive/2009/10/12/changes-in-default-encryption-type-for-kerberos-pre-authentication-on-vista-and-windows-7-clients-cause-security-audit-events-675-and-680-on-windows-server-2003-dc-s.aspx Basically to fix this we had to change a group policy to get this to work. If you change the policy under local computer policy / computer configuration / windows settings / security settings / local policies / security options / network security: Configure encryption types allowed for kerberos this should fix your problem. We had to tick all of the boxes as as Windows 7 uses aes256, our domain (at 2003 level) uses rc4, and it seems that NetWeaver needs DES_CBC_CRC and _MD5 to work. Make sure you try logging off and back on as well as a full restart when testing this as that was how we found that just ticking the DES options then prevented us from logging back on after a restart.

Expanding a VirtualBox hard disk for Vista or Windows 7

Thought I would add this here for my own reference as well as others as just spent a bit of time googling around the place to figure out how to do this (I am running Windows 7 as my host system). Long story short you need to use the VBoxManage command.

1) Open a command prompt and browse to the VirtualBox directory, in my case it is C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox> but it may be different if you installed VirtualBox somewhere else.

2) Type VBoxManage.exe then add the path and file name to the hard disk file that you want to expand and then add -- (note that there are 2 dashes there) resize and then the size that you want the disk to expand to. If you dont know the path to the hard disk file open virtualbox and click on file / virtual media manager then click on the disk you wish to grow and the path will be in the details windows at the bottom.

A properly formatted command might look like this:

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe modifyhd "C:\Users\MyUser\VirutalBox Machines\Vista.vdi" --resize 20000

This would expand the hard disk of the virtual machine named Vista.vdi to 20 gigs. NB: Note the speech marks around the path to the .vdi file...you need these if there is a space in the name of the path to the file location.

3) Now boot your Vista or Windows 7 machine. Press Windows button and R to open the run command and type diskmgmt.msc This will open the disk management console. Right click on the disk you wish to grow and choose extend volume. Follow the prompts through and hey presto your disk has grown.

NB: You can extend the system volume (typically C: drive) of a Windows Vista, 7 or server 2008 machine natively but if you are trying it with XP you have to use third party tools. Hope this helps someone.

Zero Day - A Novel by Mark Russinovich

Just finished reading this book and have to say that if you are into hacker type computer novels with good story lines then you must read this book. There are plenty of reviews on Amazon so I wont go into too much detail but can say that this is right up there as one of my favourite books. General plot is terrorists trying for world domination / destruction by creating computer malware. Lots of techie goodness for those of us so inclined but not so much that it ruins the story or makes it unreadable for those of you less so. The author, Mark Russinovich is a top tech at Microsoft and comes from sysinternals fame (think procmon etc). He writes very well and this is a great effort for his first novel. If you have read other books like The Daemon and FreedomTM then you will definitely enjoy this. 2 thumbs up.

Powershell script to ping multiple machines

 

Here is a script that I wrote for work that allows me to ping all of my servers with one command from Powershell. Note that you need Powershell Version 2 installed and the script is designed to take its list of servers to ping from 3 text files that are saved in a folder called PingServers which is located on the desktop (PDCServers.txt, BDCServers.txt and RemoteSites.txt). Just put the server netbios name in the text file and the script will do the rest.

Its all pretty basic and you will probably need to alter it a bit to suit your environment but it is very useful and saves me a bit of time in doing my morning checks.

It will write in green text if a server appears to be up. It will write in red text if the server appears to be down. At the end it will give you a count of how many servers did not respond.

Simply copy the below and save it in a file called PingServers.ps1. Then to run it open up powershell, browse to the directory where you saved the script and then type ./PingServers.ps1.

 

 

Clear

$errorcount = 0

Write-Host "`n" "Pinging PDC Servers..." "`n" -Fore "White"

$PingMachines = Gc "h:\desktop\PingServers\PDCServers.txt"

ForEach($MachineName In $PingMachines)

    {
    $PingStatus = Gwmi Win32_PingStatus -Filter "Address = '$MachineName'" |
    Select-Object StatusCode
    If ($PingStatus.StatusCode -eq 0)
        {Write-Host $MachineName "appears to be up " -Fore "Green"}
    Else
        {Write-Host $MachineName "is not responding to ping requests" -Fore "Red"
        $errorcount = $errorcount + 1
        }       
    }

Write-Host "`n" "Pinging BDC Servers..." "`n" -Fore "White"

$PingMachines = Gc "h:\desktop\PingServers\BDCServers.txt"

ForEach($MachineName In $PingMachines)
    {$PingStatus = Gwmi Win32_PingStatus -Filter "Address = '$MachineName'" |
    Select-Object StatusCode
    If ($PingStatus.StatusCode -eq 0)
        {Write-Host $MachineName "appears to be up " -Fore "Green"}
    Else
        {Write-Host $MachineName "is not responding to ping requests" -Fore "Red"
        $errorcount = $errorcount + 1
        }
    }

Write-Host "`n" "Pinging Remote Sites Wlgtn and ChCh Servers..." "`n" -Fore "White"

$PingMachines = Gc "h:\desktop\PingServers\RemoteSites.txt"

ForEach($MachineName In $PingMachines)
    {$PingStatus = Gwmi Win32_PingStatus -Filter "Address = '$MachineName'" |
    Select-Object StatusCode
    If ($PingStatus.StatusCode -eq 0)
        {Write-Host $MachineName "appears to be up " -Fore "Green"}
    Else
        {Write-Host $MachineName "is not responding to ping requests" -Fore "Red"
        $errorcount = $errorcount + 1
    }
}

   
if ($errorcount -gt 0)
{
Write-Host ("`n Number of errors detected is $errorcount") -Fore "Red" "`n"
}

Battlefield Bad Company 2: Hints, tricks and tips

 

So this post is a bit off topic but I thought I would write down so tips for those who play Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I’ve been playing this game for most of the year and have multiple characters including a level 50, level 40 and a few level 20’s that I muck round with.

I will try and avoid the real basics here as there are plenty of FAQ’s round the internet and, as such, I will try and be a bit more specific.

Point 1: Lone rangers get owned. If you charge straight into the enemies base then you will get shot fast, particularly on full servers. Stick with your teammates or squaddies and your life expectancy will go up big time

Point 2: Fire and move, fire and move. If you camp in the same spot you will get spotted and killed, either by existing enemies or the one who just killed you will come back and kill you knowing exactly where you are. Kill 1 or 2 people from a spot and then move somewhere else. Sometimes I move somewhere to cover the spot that I was just in and then the person you just killed will inevitably come back for revenge and you can own them again from your new spot.

Point 3: Find a gun then stick with it: All weapons have different characteristics and will handle differently. Using one weapon till you know how often to click the mouse button and how much you can move when firing while still being accurate is an advantage. You also get a feel for how often a weapon needs to be reloaded. For example the F2000 runs out of bullets really fast so you need to be mindful of your ammunition whereas the AN94 fires much slower and doesnt need such frequent reloading.

Point 4: You gotta know the maps to be real good: People in the higher ranks will know most maps like the back of their hands. All maps have good points for advancing and defending. Hills that don’t look like they can be climbed, can infact be climbed. Using a heli to parachute onto the top of a boat can pay big dividends, especially if you can cover and mcom from there. A good tip while defending is too climb into the roof of a house, blow a hole in the wall and then jump out onto the roof facing away from the enemy. This way you can poke your head over the top of the roofline to own a few, or get them when they come past you as they have their backs to you. Be prepared to move after a few kills though as they will come looking for you.

Point 5: My own strategy: Attacking - When I feel like getting in the thick of the action I will usually play assault or recon class when attacking. For assault I use the M416 with red dot and smoke and for recon I use the VSS with Red dot and C4. The assault class is great for smoking mcoms just before you arm them or just advancing in general. If Im approaching a base and I see a few enemies close together I will quickly spot them and then let down some smoke on them. I then shoot at the arrows and even though I cant see them I can usually kill them. They of course cant see me and so usually get owned. If the mcom is in a small multiroom hut I will usually arm the mcom while smoking the room, then smoke the other room as well and go hide in that room. People usually expect you to be in the room where the mcom is and will charge blindly into the first room at which point…ownage.

With the recon class try and use your motion sensors a lot. If I can arm an mcom I will drop a bit of c4 on it at the same time and then drop a sensor at the same time as I run off to hide. Once people come to disarm you use the c4 and boom goes the enemy.

B: Defending – When defending I usually play a medic class or assault. Pushing forward to defend with your team is the best defence strategy as long as there are still a few people covering the base and any flanking attack. Having a lot of medics who can revive each other is a defence that is hard to beat unless there is a tank you can use. Furthermore if you come across a situation where you encounter multiple enemies at one time and one of them is a medic then that is the one you want to kill first if you have the option. There’s few things more demoralising then owning 1 or 2 people then getting shot by the medic and then watching him revive the 2 people you just killed.

My final tip is this….don’t use the Carl Gustav rocket launcher on infantry. All it means is that you really don’t know how to use a gun and so must gustav people so they have know chance of shooting you back. Some servers even ban people who practice this so don’t be a moron and keep your rockets for vehicles.

Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi R201 Review

 

I recently got my hands on one of these Wireless Mobile Wi-Fi units and thought I’d give a quick review of what they are like.

The unit itself is about as wide and high as a standard playing card, maybe a tiny bit bigger, while the height of the unit is about 1 centimetre.It has a micro usb slot for charging and comes with a cable that can either be plugged into your laptop to charge, or into the supplied mains adaptor.

Physical setup of the unit couldn’t be easier as you just pop the back off, slide the sim card in, click the battery into place then close it back up again. Note that there is also a space for a micro sdhc card located under the back cover as well.

Getting connected to the unit was also very easy and simply required making a note of the WPA2 key on a sticker under the back cover and then using Windows to connect to the network. The unit has a built in DHCP server handing out addresses between 192.168.0.100 – 200 while the admin interface is located on 192.168.0.1

The basic interface looks like this

Within this interface you can configure any port forwards that you want to do, change your Wi-Fi settings (SSID, password, authentication type, MAC security etc), as well as using it to send/receive SMS.

Real life usage:

I tested the unit throughout my house where the signal strength varies quite a lot. In good reception areas where I was getting a full signal strength and connecting via 3G I was getting about 3 megs download, 1 Meg upload (according to speedtest.net).

Where the signal dropped to 2 bars (but still on 3G) I was getting about 1 Meg down and just under 1 Meg up

In both cases simple web browsing was fine and caused me no problems. Any kind of gaming on this would probably be out but for normal emaily, facebooky type of stuff I don’ think you would run into any problems. YouTube clips also were fine to watch and didn’t have to stop to buffer at all.

Conclusion:

All in all this device does what it says on the box. I have only tested it with 1 device connected to the Wi-Fi so am unsure how it would fair with multiple devices running at the same time but daresay that it would be fine. Vodafone claims that up to 5 devices can be connected at once.

So for now a thumbs up. I’m taking this device away on holiday so I can setup an access point at the Bach for everyone to get internet ( as we have no landline for adsl). For the size, cost (currently $199) and ease of setup I think that this is a winner.

Home Computer Lab Part 2

 

At home I use a Cisco 877 router as my internet gateway. I have found that it is so much more reliable then any of these cheap Chinese routers that you can buy and currently has an uptime of about 6 months. I use the access control lists extensively so that it only accepts mail from my mailhost (rollernet.us), accepts any traffic from my workplaces ip address, and keeps a log of all traffic that passes, or attempts to pass, in and out. I use kiwi syslog and kiwi logviewer to keep track of these logs and usually peruse them once a week to make sure nothing strange is going on.

In the past I have used MS TMG configured as a VM which filtered all the traffic and did AV scanning e.t.c but I found that it had an adverse effect on my gaming for some reason. Technically speaking it should have been fine but for some reason it would cause me massive lag. I also used to use Untangle when I was running VMWare on my server but now I have Hyper V I find that Untangle is really unstable so I’ve gone back to not having any kind of Unified Threat Management solution. I may change it sometime so that my current ISA 2006 server is also acting as a firewall as well as an RRAS server but my main reason for having a separate software firewall is for the antivirus scanning so I don’t think I will go down this path.

I also have a Buffalo Terastation with 4 250 Gig disks configured in RAID 5 configuration. This is used mainly for backup as I find that its too slow for much else. It does have a gigabit nic but I find that the transfer speeds are just too slow…something like 5MB a sec when they really should be around 40 – 50 which is the speed I get across the rest of my network when transferring files.

Finally, I have my main server configured to shutdown every night automatically. I just have a scheduled task that runs a batch file that contains the line

shutdown –s –t 0

All my VM’s suspend themselves and happily go to sleep until 6 in the morning when the bios in the server is set to wake itself up. The VM’s are set to power on when the server powers on so everything is ready to go when I wake up while still saving power by not running all night for no reason. All my email is queued up at rollernet.us so that it doesn’t bounce overnight, and is all downloaded once communication is re-established with exchange in SBS.

All in all it’s a tidy solution that doesn’t take up loads of space, is reasonably power efficient, is quiet as there aren’t loads of pc’s doing different things and lets me try out new systems with a minimum of fuss.

In my next post Ill write a bit more about how I made a template for Windows Server 2003 R2 that I can use with Hyper V, without having to use System Centre for anything

My Home Computer Lab

 

So its been a while since I posted anything but…..yeah whatever, you get that sometimes. I thought I would write a bit about my home lab setup just in case anyone finds it useful.

My lab at home consists of 1 highish end pc that I built up to use as a server, 1 desktop that I use mostly for gaming, 3 laptops of varying configuration (xp to win 7), a Buffalo terastation, a TP Link wireless access point, a Cisco 877 router and an HP UPS.

My high end server / desktop is running an AMD x6 1055 processor with 8 gigs of RAM and 2 x 500 gig drives and 1 x 1 TB drive. Its got Windows server 2008 R2 running on it and acts mainly as my Hyper V host for my virtual servers. Virtualised I have SBS 2008, another instance of XP, Windows 7 and 4 Windows 2003 servers of varying flavour mostly used for testing.

The SBS box is my main box and takes up 5 of the 8 gigs of RAM. It has all of my files / movies / music on it and I have my own mail domain that Exchange takes care of. My Iphone syncs with it and the wifes HTC Touch Pro does as well. The actual SBS is made up of a couple of VHD’s as if I migrate I can just disconnect the VHD and then reconnect it to the new server I build, much easier then having to export the whole thing or copying gigs of data across.

I also terminate my PPTP VPN on a virtual machine (1 of the Win2k3 boxes with RRAS installed) as this way if I want to bounce the SBS box when Im not home I can still watch it go down and back up from within Hyper V. If I terminated it on the SBS box itself (which you can do) I would get kicked out everytime I restarted it which is a pain.

Thats it for now….more about the Terastation and my Cisco setup later.

Windows Live Messenger Config

Ive been using Pidgeon for a while and really like it but couldnt get it to work with my webcam so have decided to go back to messenger. After setting it up again I couldnt belive how busy and cluttered the interface looked compared to Pidgeon. Here are the steps I took to get it running in as minimalist look as I could.

1) Under Tools/Options/Layout I turned off show favourties/groups/the tab bar/the whats new list.

2) Under Sign In I unticked Open Windows Live Messenger main window when windows live messenger starts. Also unticked show windows live today after I sign in to Messenger.

3) That sorted out the cluttered interface a bit but I still had these annoying ads popping up at the bottom. A quick google came up with the solution. Edit the hosts file and add the following entries.

# Windows Live Messenger ad servers
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com
127.0.0.1 global.msads.net
127.0.0.1 rss.video.msn.com
127.0.0.1 ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1 rad.live.com

The file can be found in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc. I had to open it with notepad then save the file to the desktop as it wouldnt let me save over the original. I then deleted the original and copied the file from the desktop to the correct folder which it let me do. Hey presto, no more ads.

Network timeout when updating my IPhone

I recently purchased an iPhone despite being adamently anti Apple and I have to say that I have been won over. What a great device compared to my old HTC Touch Pro. It isnt as configurable as my old phone but the user interface of the iPhone just blows it away. Anyway there are enough iPhone reviews on the net so I wont go on about how great it is.

Anyway I noticed that Apple had released a new update for the iPhone...version 3.1.3 I think it was. Great I thought, I'll update my phone and see what happens. Problem was, when using iTunes to attempt to update it I would just keep getting a network time out error when it got about halfway through. I saw that a few people on the net were having the same problem and tried some of the suggested fixes but nothing seemed to work, for some reason it just seemed to think that my internet connection was timing out. Queue moment of genius....I setup a continuous ping to google.com and tried again. Hey presto it downloaded just fine and update went without a hitch. I guess it just needed something to make the network / internet connection look like it was alive.

Cant say that I notice to many differences with the update but it was interesting to see how the update process worked.

I also just bought the iTap remote desktop client which I will write a bit more about at a later date. So far it is looking quite handy.

More on RSAT Tools

so Ive been sick for a while and havent really posted anything lately but will hopefully be able to get back on the train again.

Still had quite a few people emailing me about the RSAT tools for Windows 7 which is strange considering that the RC is about to starting shuting down periodically (end of March sometime I think).

Anyway the tools should still be available via the link below at Rapidshare and sorry, but no I do not have the 64 bit version...only the 32 bit.

Happy trails.

Symantec Endpoint and disappearing file shares

So it seems that Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 is trying to make my life difficult again when I really would prefer that it stays simple. One of my clients called me in a panic saying that her, and everyone elses, "My Computer" screen was empty. Convinced that this could not be the case and that the description she was giving was "erroneous" I told her not to worry and that I would be there soon.

Upon arrival I had a quick look at in Windows Explorer and My Computer and sure enough everything was gone, not just network drives but C: and D: as well. Strange, very strange. Looked at a couple of other workstations and sure enough everyone was the same. Quickly logged into the server thinking the worst (SBS 2008) and everything was exactly as it should be. All the files there, all the shares there and everything accessible. Not to worry, a quick restart should fix the problem and sure enough it did.....for about a week and then it all happened again. After a bit of trouble shooting (ok, a lot) I got round to checking out the AV and after a bit of googling I found a lot of other people having the exact or very similar problem.

No problem I thought, Ill just uninstall Endpoint...but Endpoint had different ideas. I tried to uninstall it but it refused to go and I ended up with a hung server. No choice but to hard power it down. Came back up again and it was half uninstalled. Ok try and uninstall again......hmmmm server hung again so have to hard power it down....again. Start back up.....server has crapped itself and tells me it will be shutting down in 1 minute. About now I am starting to get nervous. Server comes back up and I can log in but all sorts of services are failing and error messages are showing up in the logs. I bounce it again to give it a clean shutdown and restart and it seems to work ok. Decide to try reinstalling Endpoint to see if that will let me uninstall it. Seems to install ok......restart server.....buggeration, its stuffed again.

I continue until I strike some lucky combination of uninstalled and installed state where the server seems happy to come up and everything is working. I tentatively disable the on access scan and still everything works. Hurray, I can go home about 5 hours late.

I am now trying to get my hands on the Symantec Uninstall tool that they apparently have to get rid of the "software" once and for all. I mean, how good can a piece of software be that it needs to have a special tool written just to uninstall it properly.

So, I hear Kaspersky is pretty good, maybe Ill give that I go.

RSAT Tools for Windows 7 RC and Beta

I ended up reinstalling Windows 7 RC on a different computer just because it was time for a change however when I came to install the Remote Server and Administration tools (RSAT) I couldnt find my original download. No worries I thought, Ill just download them again from Microsoft however when I downloaded them I just got an error message that says "The update is not applicable to your computer". That had me scratching my head for a while as they definitely used to work. Turns out that the latest version of the tools that Microsoft released do not seem to be compatible with either the Beta or the RC and after searching around the net for a while, nobody seems to have them.

Luckily for me I was clearing up some old files today and I found the original install package for the RSAT tools.

If you need a copy of the tools then drop me an email at geoffcashmoney at gmail dot com and I will send you the rapidshare link.

Edit: I have been overwhelmed with people looking for this file so am just going to post the RSAT tools link up and can always up them again if they disappear....seems that someone linked to me from a Microsoft forum somewhere and lots of people are looking for these.

In answer to some common questions.....no it doesnt have a virus (but would I tell you if it did and I was trying to give it to you...sheesh) and the file name is the same as described in the link i.e. Windows6.1-KB958830-x86.msu

Cheers guys and gals.

http://rapidshare.com/files/274537551/Windows6.1-KB958830-x86.msu

UPDATE: - guys, I no longer have this so please stop asking. I don't know why anyone would still need them anyway as Windows 7 has been out for ages...why would you still be trying to use a beta release candidate?

HP ML110 G3 drive sizes

I have a HP ML110 G3 server at home that came with the original 80 GB disks. I was pretty much out of space on these drives and wanted to upgrade them however the specs on the HP website were somewhat vague as to what drives I could put in. In the end I just decided to fork out and try some drives so popped down to the local pc store and picked up 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5" internal SATA 16MB Cach 7200 RPM. Im happy to report that these work fine in my server (running SBS 2008).

All I had to do was backup the server to an external hard disk using the builtin Windows backup. Take the old disks out and put the new ones in, rebuild the raid array (SATA) so my mirror was up and going and then recover the windows image via the SBS DVD. Once recovered I thought there was a problem as I could log into the server but couldnt browse any drives or open the event log, services....pretty much anything. Decided that it must be doing something with the new drives so left it alone for an hour and sure enough when I came back there was a message saying a restart was needed for the new hardware so bounced the box and everything came back up hunky dory.

All up took about 3 hours for the whole thing...have to say I was very impressed with the Windows restore which really was quite painless and easy.

Scheduled tasks could not start

I was having a problem running some scheduled tasks that I was using with SyncBack starting when scheduled. They would all run fine manually but when left to start at a scheduled time they were refusing to start. The error message I received was simple "could not start".

Turns out that there were 2 issues here. First was that I needed to put a path in the "start in" section of the properties of a scheduled task. Never had to do that before but it was definitely causing the first part of the problem.

Second issue was that I needed to alter my group policy settings so that the "log on as a batch job" permission was granted to the backup account that I was using to run the backup job (found under computer configuration\windows settings\security settings\local policies\user rights assignments\log on as a batch job. I added this in the default domain policy so that I could use the account anywhere in the domain but it wouldnt really matter where you made the change as long as the policy was applied to the OU the computer was in.

Simple really but took a fair bit of figuring out.

Roll on the weekend...

Word 2003 and Symantec Antivirus

Ive just been troubleshooting the strangest problem with Word 2003. The user was able to save files over the network to her homedrive but the process was very slow. However using Excel, powerpoint e.t.c save times were fine. Word also seemed to be crashing a lot however nothing I did seemed to fix the problem. Turned out that Symantec Antivirus 11.0.2 was causing the problem. I uninstalled it, restarted and then installed version 11.0.4 and the problem went away. You would have thought that by version 11 Symantec would have sorted these kinds of problems out. McAfee anyone?

Hypver V and APC Powerchute Business Edition 8.0.1

So Ive just discovered that Powerchute Business Edition v 8.0.1 has changed from 8.0 to not supporting Hyper V roles. That is, if you have any Server 2008 OS with Hyper V installed then this will not work. WHY APC??? Now I have to dig around and try and find an old version from somewhere.

Bah, humbug.

Periodically run outlook rules

I have a Windows Mobile 6.1 smart phone which I really like using. The thing that really bugged me though was when I would receive an email, my rules would run on the Exchange server and send my mail off into different folders. The only way that I would know that I had a new email on my phone would be if I drilled down into my different folders to check. The new email notification only appears if the email is in the inbox.

Now the main problem I had was that I would have to leave all my rules in Outlook disabled for a few days and then after that would go through and tick all the rules to run to clean up my inbox. There is no way in Outlook to enable or disable all the rules in a simple way. I have so may rules sorting my email that unticking and ticking each rule to "Run Now" just wasnt realistic. Sooooo I have written a Macro for Outlook that enables and disables rules with the push of a button. The code is at the bottom of this.

To get it working you start Outlook then go into Tools / Macro / Visual Basic Editor. Then on the toolbar just below the File Menu there should be a little drop down arrow. Click on the arrow and choose module. This will open up a new window on the right. Simply paste the code into that and then save and exit.

Now, having closed the Visual Basic window and being back in the main outlook window click on Customize, then the toolbars tab and then New and give your toolbar a name you like.

Once you have done that click back on the commands tab and choose macro. On the right you should see 2 commands. Project1.EnableRules and Project1.DisableRules. Drag each of rules onto the new toolbar that you just made (it will be floating around on your screen somewhere) and hey presto you are done.

Only thing left to do is to change your macro security so that they can run. In outlook click on Tools / Macro / Security and check warnings for all Macros. You will get a pop up each time you try and run this but just click enable macros and it will go away until the next time you close and open outlook. I wouldnt advise turning macro security all the way off.

Now whenever you want to turn all your rules on or off you just click on the respective button....easy as pie.

Here is the code you need...enjoy.

Sub DisableRules()

Dim Rules As Outlook.Rules
Dim OutlookRule As Outlook.Rule
Dim counter As Integer
On Error Resume Next

Set Rules = Application.Session.DefaultStore.GetRules

For Each OutlookRule In Rules
OutlookRule.Enabled = False
counter = counter + 1
Next

Rules.Save

Set Rules = Nothing
Set OutlookRule = Nothing

End Sub

Sub EnableRules()

Dim Rules As Outlook.Rules
Dim OutlookRule As Outlook.Rule
Dim counter As Integer
On Error Resume Next

Set Rules = Application.Session.DefaultStore.GetRules

For Each OutlookRule In Rules
OutlookRule.Enabled = True
OutlookRule.Execute ShowProgress:=True
counter = counter + 1
Next

Rules.Save

Set Rules = Nothing
Set OutlookRule = Nothing

End Sub