Sys Admin Tales » Utilities

Freeware Utilities

Tom Thrush — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:29:03 +0000

I’m always looking for more utilities to add to my arsenal for scripting, automating and generally freeing up time for other tasks, like sipping a fresh coffee ;^)

Over the past few months I’ve been pointed to, or found, four more sites chock full of tasty utilities.

AnalogX has a varied collection covering network, system, programming, even audio utilities.
joeware has a whole pile of free tools, many related to Active Directory, account management and networking.
NirSoft has an impressive array of tools for forensics, networking, systems, passwords and a whole lot more. They also have a blog so you can keep posted on updates and additions.
Optimum X has a decent list of network, software and login utilities. Although some are a bit long in the tooth (one is from 9/98), there’s still some gold here.

These should keep you busy for at least a few minutes. And as always they’re my favorite price, free.

Surveying a Linux System, Part 3 – Usage

Tom Thrush — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:23:26 +0000

This is the last in my Linux survey trifecta, examining current usage, plus a bit of troubleshooting.

As with both the hardware and software posts, you may need to run some of these as root and your mileage may vary, since not all distros are alike.

Show a list of recent logins
# last

Process list (check out additional switches)
# ps -A

Current performance and PIDs (you can use kill to end a runaway process)
# top

Current memory usage
# free

Disk usage (shows directories by size, based on your current location, usually best to start from root /)
# du -sh *

Network status (lots of switches to drill down with)
# netstat -a

Time since last reboot
# uptime

I’ll add to these lists as I come across more useful commands. Thanks to O’Reilly for the command directory.

Software in my Binder

Tom Thrush — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:19:40 +0000

Earlier this year I covered what items I carry in my backpack, this time it’s about what software I carry in my soft-sided TechNet folder. Of course there’s the usual operating system and application disks, but there are a number of rescue and utility disks as well…

Operating Systems and Applications

Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2 (32 & 64-bit versions)
Office 2003, 2007 & 2010 (all 32-bit)
CentOS 6.2 (64-bit)
Fedora 16 (64-bit)
Ubuntu 11.10 (64-bit)
Knoppix – Live Linux boot disk
VMware ESXi 5.0 (64-bit)
DVD with Windows and Office Service Packs

Rescue and Utilities

Acronis True Image & Disk Director - Disk imaging and partition management
SpinRite - Attempts to fix hard drive issues
Darik’s Boot and Nuke - Securely wipe hard drives
Ghost - Disk imaging
WinPE - Windows Preinstallation Environment

Anything you like or recommend (preferably free)?

Symantec AntiVirus Runtime Error!

Tom Thrush — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:34:16 +0000

Earlier this year, a customer kept getting this error when rebooting:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime Error!

Program: C\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus\Rtvscan.exe

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.

Please contact the application’s support team for more information.

Luckily the fix isn’t too painful…

Go to a command prompt and run wbemtest
• Click Connect (upper-right)
• Replace root\default (or root\cimv2) with root\securitycenter and click Connect.
• You will be returned to the original screen, now click the Enum Classes… button, leave the Superclass Info box empty and click OK.
• In the Query Results screen, click AntivirusProduct and select Delete.
• Close the Query windows and Exit wbemtest.
• Now either repair or re-install Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition.

SQL Server Management Studio Express

Tom Thrush — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:42:35 +0000

Who doesn’t love free? I certainly do. Microsoft has offered a great free version of its flagship database software, MS SQL, for quite some time now. And up until a few years ago it didn’t have a GUI front-end, but Microsoft fixed that with the release of SQL Server Management Studio Express.

Now out of the box, it typically doesn’t connect, i.e. to a WSUS or WSS Embedded, Compact or Windows Internal database. For security purposes they disable the Named Pipes protocol in MS SQL and for unknown reasons the Management Studio has difficulty connecting to the SQL instance on the local server, i.e. localhost.

To get going with the SQL Management Studio, the Named Pipes protocol needs to be enabled. Go to Start > Programs > MS SQL > Config Tools > SQL Config Mgr, then under SQL Server Network Configuration > Protocols for MSQLSERVER, double-click Named Pipes, set Enabled to Yes. Then the MS SQL Service must be restarted.

When you fire up the SQL Management Studio, use \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query in the Server Name field, choose your Authentication and click Connect.

Free is good again.

AD Recycle Bin Tool

Tom Thrush — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:53:20 +0000

Last year Windows IT Pro magazine highlighted ADRecycleBin from Overall Solutions. It’s an excellent free utility to bring back deleted items (or reanimate for earlier Active Directory installations than 2008 R2).

It’s a very nice alternative to the built-in feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 and is a drastic improvement over item recovery in earlier versions of Active Directory with a great GUI interface.

They have a couple of other interesting products in Maven, ResetPass and Action Engine, not everything is free, but it’s close.

Sysinternals

Tom Thrush — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:24:42 +0000

If you’re in IT working with Windows and haven’t heard of Sysinternals, you may want to check to see if you’ve been living under a rock.

Sysinternals started as the community or free arm of Winternals, the money making portion of the company. Microsoft purchased Winternals back in 2006 for its IP and brain-trust. Mark Russinovich has been the most active of the original staff, appearing at numerous conferences, blogging and evangelising the Microsoft operating systems.

The Sysinternals site has numerous, extremely useful troubleshooting and informational utilities; so much so I could devote this blog to their tools for the next year or three. Since access to the site is free, as are the downloads, help files and instructions, I’ll just highlight a few things here…

Utilities:
Autoruns – Displays list of applications, drivers loaded and much more, that start at boot time. Includes locations of registry and file locations. Great for hunting malware.
Process Explorer – Displays all running processes and subprocesses, plus open handles, threads, paths, a veritable cornucopia of information. Task manager wishes it was this great.
Process Monitor – Allows you to monitor file system, registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.
TCPView – Get detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including source and destination.

The Learning Resources are also impressive, with great videos and articles .

And as I mentioned, this is all free.

Jetable E-mail Addresses

Tom Thrush — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:31:17 +0000

I’m not sure if there’s another industry out there that requires the sheer amount of access-based content that the IT industry does. What I mean by access-based content is information that requires a a login, signup or tithe (in the form of your e-mail address) for entrance to, or downloads of, eBooks, white-papers, files, blogs, forums, webcasts, trial applications, etc.

Many of the sites that require some sort of access, I will never visit again. So why give access to any of my mailboxes for a possible endless stream of unread mail? And why chance winding up on a spam list or having my address sold to “industry partners”?

This is where Jetable comes in. You can create a disposal e-mail address that will expire in one hour to one month, your choice. Jetable’s service creates a time-limited e-mail forward to a real address. Just put in your real e-mail address, choose a Life Span based on how long you need (I usually choose one day) and click Create…

They support ten languages and have a Firefox plug-in (if you’re into that sort of thing). Oh yeah, it’s free.

Say Ninite

Tom Thrush — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:29:35 +0000

(Re)building systems can be quite a drag, especially once you get to the part when it’s time for downloading all the 3rd party software. This would include: Flash, Java, Firefox, Skype, etc., etc.

Enter Ninite, an amazing, time saving, utility website. It works as advertised, allowing you to choose your choice of applications, whereupon it generates a custom installer that with one-click, installs everything you wanted, without toolbars and crapware that would normally be installed by default.

There’s also a corporate option for using with scripts or automated deployments. This is definitely a time saver and worth a look. Did I mention it’s free :)

Microsoft offers Security Essentials to (very) Small Businesses

Tom Thrush — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:45:00 +0000

Since Microsoft announced its own anti-malware product, Microsoft Security Essenstials, back in late 2008, the product has been steadily getting better. When asked what I use for anti-virus, I always answer MSE or AVG Free.

Both cost my favorite price, free, and are well regarded in the security community.

The big news of course, is that MSE is now free to small businesses with 10 or less PCs. I’ve actually been recommending it to smaller businesses for a while and now they’ll be in compliance. (Now if only it was okay for servers…)