I was recently tasked with upgrading a server installation of Paychex Preview software, which according to documentation cannot be done on the host server, it has to be upgraded from one of the workstations via mapped drive. It seemed simple enough, until the point of the install “wizard” where it prompts for installation directory. It listed C:\RAPID, and had a dropdown menu so I could choose one of the mapped drives; but instead of listing mapped drives it only offered the local C:\ drive. No problem, the instructions on the screen said reboot if it doesn’t list your mapped drive. Wait a few minutes for the reboot… and no good, just C:\RAPID again; time to call support.

After starting a WebEx session, so the tech could see what I was saying was true, we copied the RAPID directory from the mapped drive to C:\, then ran the Paychex Preview software upgrade on C:\RAPID. When the upgrade was complete, it was just a copy and replace over the RAPID directory on the mapped drive and the deed was done. Oh yeah, don’t forget to run WS_Setup.exe from each workstation to create appropriate shortcuts to the mapped drive.

A good friend of mine recently lost a rather good blog post due to a server issue (it was on a Linux box, so I’m not sure how that could ever happen ;^) and there wasn’t a backup.

In a moment of brilliance (or just a misfiring synapse) I suggested he do a Google search for his lost post and see if they had a cached version of it. And low and behold, they did, crisis averted. If I could come up with great ideas like this more often, having a job would be unnecessary :)

It turns out that if the Boot Booster is enabled in the BIOS, it limits the amount of usable RAM. To fix this, press F2 during boot-up, go to the Boot menu, use the arrow keys to highlight Boot Booster and press Enter to change it to Disabled. Next press F10 to save, then reboot and you are done.

Note: You may still only have 1.75 GB usable, but that can be blamed on the leeching onboard video.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Vista (I think I may be only one of eight people), but as an IT professional I should be using the latest operating system.

So I got started with swapping out the hard drive to start with a fresh install (always the best way to go), and tossed in the install DVD. The install went flawlessly and I followed with Windows Update, as one always should. Upon rebooting the system, it failed to start.

What followed was a large pain in the posterior: After attempting to do a System Restore (it failed, of course), I reinstalled. This time during Windows Update, I deselected some of the likely updates that may have caused the boot failure issue, same result. This process went on five times before I found the (in)correct update:Intel Corp – Display – Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family 16.6MB. Not surprising that it’s a video driver, since those are typically the drivers that will hose a Windows system most often (rather embarrassed it took five tries to find out the obvious). Anyway, the update was released in September, 2009 and is one version behind what is available on the Intel website.

Once I skipped the Windows Update version of the driver and installed latest display driver from Intel, I was in business, actually Windows 7 Professional (can’t MS marketing decide on a consistent nomenclature?).

Typically the simplest fix is to boot from the Vista install media and choose Repair, then System Restore. The trouble with this system was that System Restore was turned off and there weren’t any checkpoints to go back to.

Enter the endless search online. More IT troubleshooting by Bing and Google. I’m not exactly sure which search engine got me there, but one forum listed the answer (albeit two hundered or so, lines down the page).
Boot from a Vista or Windows 7 disk and choose Repair, then Recovery Console. Once you have a command line to work with, cd to C:\windows\winsxs and del pending.xml, exit to reboot again and you’ll see the “Configuring Updates…” message once more, but it will continue to the Windows login screen allowing for celebrations all around.

This was the fix that worked for me, hopefully you’ll have the same luck.

After chewing on this for quite a while, I found the issue: a checkbox on the Ports tab “SNMP Status Enabled”, which when checked (along with SNMP turned off on the print device) will result in the printer being listed as Offline. Once the box was unchecked, it was back online and the customer was back to printing once again.

I thought I was in for some laptop disassembly to remove the CMOS battery or change a jumper; perhaps even worse, to send it back to a repair depot for reset; but it was amazingly easy. 

All that had to be done was hold down the insert key while the system was booting to reset the BIOS back to default. Okay, I had to do this three times before it worked, but it worked.

Although I was relieved to be done with this in just a minute or two, making it this easy to do a reset completely invalidates the security afforded by having a BIOS password in the first place.

Anyhow, it is now happily running Fedora 11; which BTW required 515 updates for 1.6GB (and people complain about Windows updates).

Error:
Service ‘MSExchangeTransport’ failed to reach  status ‘Running’ on this server.

Apparently if you disable IPv6 on a Windows Server 2008 the error will occur. Not to be picky, but how many networks are actually using IPv6 and why is it installed by default anyway?

So re-enable it, reboot and try the install again.

(Disclaimer: Make sure you have up to date virus scan and check with the sender when receiving an unknown file. You have been warned.)

Many sites offer a list of file extensions describing the file type, but the one I like to use is Openwith.org because it also provides a link to the appropriate application for viewing or editing the file.

And in case you are curious, an XXE file is a Compressed ASCII Archive and can be opened with WinRAR.

Many times I need to change settings or install/remove software on someones PC without logging them out of the system, in which case I will go to %windir%\system32, shift+right-click CMD.exe and choose Run As…

Once I’ve opened a Command window with an account in the administrators group, I can start the Services MMC (services.msc), Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) or Computer Manager (compmgmt.msc), plus many more useful consoles from the command line. Often times I need to remove software or make a change to network settings which involves Control Panel Applets. These also can be run at the command-line (or Run… prompt if you’re already logged in as an administrator), some of my favs are listed below.

Appwiz.cpl – Add/Remove Programs (or Programs and Features in Vista or Windows 7)
Ncpa.cpl – Network Connections (for changing IPs and DNS)
Powercfg.cpl – Power Options (perhaps for turning off Standby or enabling the Performance setting)
Sysdm.cpl – System Properties (lots to find here: Remote Desktop, Pagefile, System Restore settings, etc.)
Wscui.cpl – Security Center (change Automatic Updating, the Firewall and Malware monitoring)

Want more? Check out the Wiki page.