PowerShell Resources

Since its release waaay back in November of 2006, PowerShell usefulness has continued to grow.

With all the different modules, capabilities and properties, it's hard to keep up with the language. Luckily there are numerous resources available to us.

Since I often use my own blog as a resource, here's a list of sites to keep me and you successful and informed.

Microsoft PowerShell - From the "mothership"

Idera Community - Nice group, lots of info

PowerShell Scripts Blog - A few hundred scripts to choose from

Get-PowerShell - A little crusty, but over one hundred examples

A Taste of PowerShell - Quite crusty, but lots of useful examples

Also don't forget Spiceworks and Experts Exchange for tutorials and problem solving.

How Good is Your Password?

This is a question that people rarely ask themselves. I know numerous people who've had mail and video game accounts hacked due to weak passwords. I'm a big fan of using passphrases and special characters whenever possible. It irks me to no end that some of my financial institution's websites don't allow special characters and even limit the password to eight digits (seriously it's 2012).

Steve Gibson, a long time security hawk and software developer, has a great website for checking out how your password will do against a brute-force attack. However, it won't tell you if it's easy to guess (like your dog's name that's all over FaceBook) or is an easily cracked dictionary word (note: stay away from words found in the dictionary).

Try your password/passphrase out here: Haystack

Setting Google Chrome as your Default Mail Client

Want Google Chrome to handle all of your mail links or perhaps calendar requests? Or stop Chrome from taking those requests?

Go to the Settings subpage for the handlers: chrome://chrome/settings/handlers

More info can be found here.

Fedora 17 Now Available

Hot off the presses, the Fedora Project released their latest operation system, Fedora 17.

I'm downloading my copy right now, you can too.

Dell Server Parts

Recently a customer's Dell PowerEdge T105 blew out its power supply. Too bad the three-year warranty ended just four months ago.

What to do? Call Dell with credit card in hand...and proceed with being transferred all over because you're out of warranty. Normally I'm very happy with Dell support, but I guess you're treated well when you are still in warranty.

Where else can you go when you need parts and they've stopped making them or cost too much from Dell? You can go with eBay and take your chances, or go to either Server Supply or Velocity Tech Solutions. You can even get real warranties on the parts.

Free Microsoft Software Trials

Big project coming up, polishing the resume or just curious? Microsoft's TechNet Evaluation Center is there to help.

The trial periods may vary a bit, but even 60 days of testing and mucking about should do the trick.

Want unlimited trial software? Subscribe to TechNet and no matter what the level you choose, it's an amazing array of operating systems and applications that never expire; worth every penny.

Windows 3-Tier Certificate Authority

Many months ago I was tasked with implementing a 3-tier Certificate Authority for a large Windows domain environment. Unfortunately there is surprisingly little information for the nitty-gritty questions one may have. The Microsoft Press book Windows Server® 2008 PKI and Certificate Security proved quite useful, but at times lacking. (This book seems to have been discontinued, thus outrageous pricing; add a comment if you want a link to the eBook.) The Corelan Team site added more insight and was quite useful as well.

Here is the document I created detailing our setup and configuration process (using generic server names and Contoso as the company). Please review the entire document first, should use it for reference. Please note: this document is unsupported and is meant only as a guide.

Should you post questions here, I will do my best to answer them or help point you in the correct direction. This project took place almost a year ago and I'm no longer on site to examine the configuration, so please understand if I may not be able to shed light into the darkest corners of CA voodoo.

Ps. Thanks to SL @ TM for his time and trust with this project.

AD Recycle Bin Tool

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.

Update: Unfortunately the original site and tools are gone, but the author was kind enough to share it with me. Here's the app, at least until I'm told not to share it online.

Jetable E-mail Addresses

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!

Microsoft Case Studies

Need that extra push to get a budget approved. Perhaps you need ammo to bring into fruition (or shoot down) the latest whim of those in executive row. Microsoft Case Studies may have your answer.

Divided by Industry, Business Need, IT Issue, etc., with searchable fields as expected, there is a good amount of video and downloadable content to help make or break a case.

Microsoft Learning Snacks

You may have guessed it already, but they're bite-sized videos for learning quite a few of Microsoft's products.

Click here for a full list of what's available, all that is required is Silverlight for viewing.

I'm currently watching the eleven videos for Windows 7, part of my studies for an upcoming certification exam, and they've been pretty good so far. And of course, they're free :)

Say Ninite

(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 :)

Google Website Backup

Google offers a lot of things, and I mean a lot, but this isn't really one of them. And yet, in a fashion they do.

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 :)

What kind of file is that?

Many of us have experienced the annoyance of receiving a file that we don't have the appropriate software to view or in a format we do not know or recognize, e.g., "What is a .xxe file and how do I open it?"

(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.

Right-Click, Registry Access Denied

Yesterday I had an odd issue with a Windows laptop. Every time the user would right-click on a file or folder, an error message would pop-up saying "Registry Access Denied", after acknowledging the message, the context menu would appear and function normally.

I did numerous searches, examined permissions, removed/added the user from groups, nothing worked. Then it hit me, it was the context menu that was having an issue, perhaps I should take a look at all the items that are listed in the registry to see how they matched the right-click menu after it appeared.

Doing yet another search, Online Tech Tips had info on editing the right-click menu. Following the registry path mentioned: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ I was able to see that there was an entry for a zip program that wasn't appearing on the context menu. After backing up the registry, I removed that entry and viola, no more error. Simpler than I thought...

Gmail Unleashed

Great googly moogly! After five years Gmail (and Apps) is no longer in beta. And instead of yelling it from the rooftops (since many businesses won't rely on beta products) they are just mumbling it quietly.

I guess Google doesn't need the business since they are pretty much just printing money at this point.

Windows 7 Beta to RC Upgrade

Thanks to the MakeTechEasier blog for this tip which saves a full reinstall when upgrading from Windows 7 Beta to the latest RC. This is unsupported by Microsoft, but since it is a release candidate I think you can fudge on the need fom a fresh install. I've already installed quite a bit of software on the beta version and don't intend to relive that experience until Windows 7 is officially released.

In a nutshell the process to follow is to copy the full Windows 7 RC disk to the local system disk, edit the cversion.ini file in the Sources folder: the second line for the minimum client build number needs to be changed to the beta currently installed, in my case it was 7068. Go back to the disk's root directory and launch Setup and follow the usual prompts to upgrade.

Now back to testing and exploring Windows 7; there's a lot of good stuff so far...

Xmarks the spot (for bookmarks)

Formerly known as Foxmarks, Xmarks is a great tool that synchronizes your Favorites/Bookmarks (depending on the browser you use).

Just install the small app on each of the computers you wish to keep synchronized and it does the rest. I really wish I would've found this earlier; years of copying and sorting on numerous computers left my bookmarks a mess.

After one long flight to Chicago I cleaned up most of the redundant and disorganised mess. Once I got back online, Xmarks replicated the changes to its online database and updated my two other computers within minutes of bringing them online.

And did I mention it's free for Windows, Mac and Linux?

SaaS and Cloud Computing

I happened upon an interesting article by my favorite tech curmudgeon, John C. Dvorak, in PC Magazine. In the July 2008 issue (yes, I'm still way behind on my magazines), he puts together a list of good reasons why "the future" of computing, namely SaaS and Cloud Computing is just another way to make even more money and can actually be problematic for companies. I've always felt that small companies can benefit greatly from hosted services and cloud applications, but larger companies need to tread lightly when making the ROI comparisons and need to understand the inherent issues having data and servers off-site, managed entirely by a 3rd party. Previously I couldn't fully articulate all of my concerns, but Dvorak does a brilliant job of bringing them to light. Below is his list, from Ode to Shrink Wrap, with some of my own comments.

1. The Network Sucks - Unless bandwidth is good and no one is running BitTorrent or the like problems will ensure. (VoIP anyone?)

2. There's No Protection from Government Spooks - The government can get access to all of your data anytime. Do they even need a search warrant anymore?

3. Industrial Espionage is Easy - Depending on the vendor it may or may not be "easy", but how many public companies and public institutions have been hacked in the last few years?

4. It's Too Expensive - It'll start cheap or free, but goes up from there. Anyone that has witnessed an SAP implementation knows this well.

5. It's Not Mechanisable - People like shrink-wrap, cool graphics and shiny boxes. I suppose the electronics store could have a card to take to the register similar to buying Sudafed.

6. Users Have No Sense of Ownership - People like having things, like books, boxes, disks, etc. It's just not the same printing a receipt from a website.

7. When Online Software Companies Go Under, So Does Your Software - And you are left with a unusable backup of your data; maybe thousands can be spent getting it converted. Where did the data go the XDrive.com was storing. I had data there, albeit just to test the service, and received no notice when they closed down.

8. Users Are Subservient to Terms-of-Service Agreements - Imagine getting shutout because you violated line 2419 of the service agreement, will you still be in business by the time it gets sorted out. What if a new uglier agreement comes along?

9. Users Have No Control Over Versioning - You get upgrades whether you like them or not. If they break your application or the way you use it, where are you in the support queue? I'm sure they'll treat a small company the same as a multi-million dollar customer...

10. Potential for Gouging - Sort along the lines of number 4, but if they have you over a barrel and you don't have the resources to switch to a new provider (or worse they are the only one who offers the service) then start coughing up more money.

Again, I don't think SaaS and Cloud Computing is inherently bad, but it is something that needs strong consideration before putting all the company eggs in someone elses basket.

Dell now posting Outlet deals on Twitter

Thanks to G4TV for this nugget:

Dell is now offering Outlet deals via Twitter. You can follow here: http://twitter.com/DellOutlet

Update: Check out who the Dell Outlet is following, there are more deals to be tweeted.