windows 2008 R2 shows inaccessible boot device 0x0000007B because system reserved partition is using C drive letter

Problem: While starting, Windows 2008 R2 shows a blue screen and the inaccessible boot device message or the error 0x0000007B in a BSOD.

Resolution: for any reason Windows marked the System Reserved partition as active and assigned a letter. Because of that, Windows is trying to boot from the incorrect partition and the BSOD message is shown. To solve this:

1. boot from the Windows DVD, select the language of the keyboard in the first screen and then choose the repair Windows installation from the lower left side of the screen.
2. It doesn’t matter if the setup program detects your windows installation in the wrong letter. Select it and then choose the command prompt tool from the recovery options available
3. In the command prompt type:

• diskpart
• list disk. (make note of the OS disk, for example 0)
• select disk 0
• list vol (shows the volumes in the disk). You should see there that SYSTEM RESERVED is assigned the C letter and your Windows partition other (for example D as the example below:

  

Volume      Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        

----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------

Volume 0     F                       DVD-ROM     

Volume 1     D   System Rese  NTFS   Partition     

Volume 2     C                NTFS   Partition    

• select volume 1
• remove letter=d
•  exit

Using diskpart make sure the C partition is marked as active.

After rebooting, boot again from the DVD, choose repair installation and notice that the setup program now detects your windows installation with the letter C.

You can then run from a command prompt Bootrec /rebuildbcd to rebuild the bcd store and then you can access the startup repair option by running “x:\sources\recovery\StartRep.exe”.

Finally, in the next boot it is possible that a new BSOD is shown. In my particular case, after reboot from that BSOD Windows show me the menu with the recovery options shown when you press F8; choosing Last Good Known configuration finally started the server.

Understanding file transfer rates in a network

Have you ever wanted to know the reason you only get less than 100 Mbps rates when copying files between computers in a network that uses Gigabit equipment? Check the following link http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gigabit-ethernet-bandwidth,review-31611.html  for a good explanation about this. Summary:

1) Gigabit is not the same as Gigabyte. There is no a Gigabyte network but only Gigabit ones. Gigabit is only 125 Mbps.

2) Hard Disk speed has a lot to say in the copying process.

FlashPlayer content blinks in the upper left corner of Internet Explorer 9

Refer to this Adobe Blog for solutions. In my particular case, upgrading the Intel HD video drivers from Intel website solved the problem.

http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/05/reported-issues-with-flash-player-10-3-and-internet-explorer-9.html

How to move a Oracle Datafile to another partition

1) Query and write down the current location of the datafiles from the V$DATAFILE view: SELECT name FROM v$datafile;

2) Connect to SQL Plus as sysdba

3) Run the following commands from SQL Plus:

* SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE

* HOST MOVE <<original location file>> <<new location file>>

* STARTUP MOUNT

* ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE <<original file location obtained from step 1>> - (press enter after the dash)
> TO <<new file location>>; (the semicolon is important)

* ALTER DATABASE OPEN;
4) Repeat the initial query so you can verify that the the datafile has been renamed in the data dictionary

Note: file locations must be between apostrophes '...............'

How do I shrink the sharepoint databases log file?

The following article worked for me with SQL Server 2008 R2

http://shareyourpoint.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/how-to-manage-large-sharepoint-configuration-database-logfile/

There are other articles with SQL commands that only work in previous versions of SQL Server. Truncate_Only has been deprecated by MS.

User logon to Windows using always a temporary profile

Problem: When a user logon to Windows 7 or Windows 2008, it always get a temporary profile. Removing the user folder under c:\users and rebooting the machine does not solve the problem.

Resolution:

0) Logon with an administrator account and backup the whole content of the folder c:\users\myuser where "myuser" is the username of the user who reported the problem.

1) Find the SSID of the user with problem. Open regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrentVersion\ProfileList

Click on any of the key on the left and check out the right pane for the ProfileImagePath value. Now you should find something like this: c:\users\myuser, where "myuser" is the name of the account associated with the SID you selected in the left pane.

2) Probably you will find that above or below the SSID you found in step 1, there is a folder with the same SSID but with a .bak extension. Delete both folders (the one with the .bak extension and the other that does not have it).

3) Logoff from the administrative account and logon again with the credentials of the user having the problem. This will create a new empty and healthy profile for the user. Check at the registry path above that no .bak folder was created for that user. Logoff.

4) Logon with an administrator account and restore the backup you made at step 1 to the folder c:\users\myuser where "myuser" is the username of the user who reported the problem. Logoff and ask your user to try again.

Note: I have seen this problem in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 but probably could occur in old versions of Windows. Just take into account that the location of profiles in Windows XP and older  is c:\documents and settings.

How to rotate a text in Word

I was trying to rotate a text inside a cell in a table so the text looks like being seen in a mirror. The easiest way I found was to use a Word Art form inserted in the cell and modify its properties. For more information about how to insert Word Art forms and modify its properties, check this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312802

How to split a PDF file by bookmarks and use them as names for the resulting files

There is a wonderful tool to split PDF files. Its name is PDF Sam and it can be downloaded from this link: http://www.pdfsam.org/?page_id=32. And yes, it is free!. It runs on Windows /Mac and needs java.

One of the most interesting features is its ability to split the files by bookmarks and use the bookmarks as names for the resulting files. However, this feature is not so obvious to configure in the application and this can lead to the wrong idea that the tool cannot do such task.

In order to configure PDF Sam to do what I mention above, you need to type [BOOKMARK_NAME] near to the Output Options section at the main screen. Take a look to the image below to see where you can find the settings I am talking about.

There are another options you can use for Output Options and the list are available at the following link: http://www.pdfsam.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=HowTo:ConsoleComplexPrefixConfigure.

Enjoy.

How to query active directory from SQL Server

There are two ways to query Active Directory from SQL Server. The easiest way for me is using OPENROWSET as explained below:

1) you need to run the following SQL sentences just one time

USE [master]
GO
sp_configure 'show advanced options',1
GO
reconfigure with override
GO
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries',1
GO
reconfigure with override
GO

2) After running the senteces above, execute a query like the one below:

SELECT  * from OPENROWSET
('AdsDsoObject' ,
'User ID=domain\user;Password=myuserpassword;ADSI Flag=0x11;Page Size=10000',
'SELECT sn,givenName,mail FROM ''LDAP://OU=myOU,DC=myDomain,DC=com'' where ObjectClass=''User'''

)

wheremail is not null and
givenname is not null and
sn is not null and
order by mail

Take into account that:

• domain\user is an account that can read the Active Directory and mypassword is the password for that account
• ADSI Flag=0x11 is some type of authentication flag for ADSI (I really don´t know what flag can be)
• The second SELECT sentence is the one you use to specify what domain and OU is you quering from. Inside this SELECT you can specify the type of object you need, for example, an User or a Computer. The objectclass="User" part of the inner select do that trick.
• In all the sentence we never use quotation marks (") to enclose the text. The simbols are more like apostrophes.
• You can include a WHERE clause at the end of the outer select but only to filter the results provided by the inner one
• You can find a list of LDAP atributes in the following link: http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/Logon/LDAP_attributes_active_directory.htm

Offline files service error: The system cannot find the path

Problem: we need to enable offline files in a windows 2008 r2 workstation. Starting the Offline files service only shows the error "The system cannot find the path".

Solution: the procedure to enable offline files in windows 2008 is documented in the following link http://www.win2008workstation.com/win2008/enable-offline-files-feature. Just in case the URL is broken anytime in the future, I am copying the most important part below:

Prerequisite: You must have the Desktop Experience feature installed.

1. Download and install the appropriate version of Windows Mobile Device Center from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx. This doesn’t have to do with any Windows Mobile device, but it is needed to get the Sync Center option in the Control Panel.

2. In the Start menu click Control Panel.

- If you use the Modern View, click the Network and Internet section and click Enable offline Files.

- If you use the Classic View, doubleclick the Offline Files icon.

In the Offline Files window click Enable Offline Files to start using offline files.

3. Close the Enable Offline Files window by clicking OK and choose Yes when asked if you want to restart your Computer.

4. After the restart go to the networking folder you want to make offline available, right click on it and select Always Available Offline. A local copy will now be made.

Preem Palver´s note: after installing the 64 bit version of the Mobile Device Center, I got a message saying that there was an error installing the driver. However after rebooting the machine it worked fine.

Enabling Easy Print Printer Redirection in Windows 2008

In order to enable Easy Print based printer redirection in Windows 2008 the following requirements are needed:

On the (Terminal) server-side, Windows Server 2008 needs to be installed.  No additional drivers need to be installed; no additional configuration needs to take place.  The Terminal Services Easy Print driver is enabled by default.

On the client-side, to use the Terminal Services Easy Print driver, clients must be running Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.1 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) must be installed. on the RDC configuration, put a check mark on the Printers option under "Local Resources" tab.

If you want to have more control over what type of printers you can redirect, the following registry configuration must be implemented:

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR (if there is not such key, create the needed structure by yourself). Add a DWORD value FilterQueueType with any of the following decimal values:

FilterQueueType = 1           All ports that begin with LPT
FilterQueueType = 2           All ports that begin with COM
FilterQueueType = 3           All ports that begin with LPT or COM
FilterQueueType = 4           All ports that begin with USB
FilterQueueType = 5           All ports that begin with LPT or USB
FilterQueueType = 6           All ports that begin with COM or USB
FilterQueueType = 7           All ports that begin with LPT, COM, or USB
FilterQueueType = FFFFFFFF    All ports

Close the registry and reboot the client machine.

Error al cargar el formulario en el software Formularios DIMM del SRI

Problema: Al usar el software ¨Formularios DIMM¨del Servicio de Rentas Internas del Ecuador (SRI), se muestra el mensaje el siguiente mensaje de error al cargar la ventana de formularios: ¨Error al cargar el formulario¨.

Solución: El problema se da porque no está instalado en el sistema operativo la fuente Arial Narrow (archivo arialn.ttf). Esa fuente no está instalada por defecto (al menos en Windows XP). Aplicaciones como Microsoft Office la instalan o hay enlaces en el Internet que ofrecen descargarla. No se si hay temas de licenciamiento involucrados pero, al menos para la solución técnica del problema, copiar la fuente de un equipo que si la tenga instalada a otro, resuelve el mensaje de error específico.

Información extra para Windows Vista / 7: Windows Vista y Windows 7 usan el control de cuentas de usuario para evitar cambios dañinos en el sistema. Esto implica que a pesar de ser parte del grupo de administradores locales, no se permiten ciertos cambios en partes críticas del sistema, como el registro. Las aplicaciones modernas deberían solicitar elevación de privilegios para proceder pero la del SRI obviamente no lo hace. Para asegurar que el instalador de la aplicación registre todos sus componentes correctamente en el registro (por ejemplo controles OCX) se debe ejecutar el instalador setup.exe como administrador. Para esto, hacemos clic con el botón derecho sobre setup.exe y luego escogemos "Ejecutar como Administrador" desde las opciones del menú desplegable. Si ya existe la instalación, el escoger reparar de las opciones que muestra el instalador debe ser suficiente para volver a registrar los componentes faltantes.

Luego de iniciar por primera vez, el software del SRI, en monitores grandes, dice que el tamaño de la letra es pequeño. Es solo una devertencia y se la puede obviar. Sin embargo, en caso de problemas con tipos de letras se puede éscoger la opción de compatibilidad siguiente en el acceso directo al software del SRI Deshabilitar el ajuste de escala de la pantalla si se usa la configuración elevada de ppp `.



Más información sobre las opciones de compatibilidad en versiones nuevas está en este enlace http://windows.microsoft.com/es-ES/windows-vista/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows. Se muestra información de Vista pero en Windows 7 es casi lo mismo.

Marzo 31, 2012


Un análisis de qué hace el programa al abrirse usando la herramienta Process Monitor muestra que el programa necesita la versión 4 del analizador de XML de Microsoft puesto que hace llamadas a la librería msxml4.dll. La versión en español puede descargarse acá: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/es-es/details.aspx?familyid=7f6c0cb4-7a5e-4790-a7cf-9e139e6819c0

Interesantemente también se muestra que usa DLLs antiguas de Visual Basic 6 como VB6ES.dll, msvbvm50.dll o similares lo que me hace seguir pensando que en el SRI siguen usando esta venerable herramienta de desarrollo para este programa y por ahí puede estar parte de sus problemas.

Para las personas técnicas o aquellos que les gusta investigar un poco más de lo normal (o como diría un conocido ufólogo "No me crean, investiguen"), pueden descargar Process Monitor desde este enlace y ver por ustedes mismo lo que hace el programa del SRI

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

Antes de abrir el programa del SRI vayan al menú Filter y escojan Filter ... Luego configuren para que el process Name sea DIMM.exe como se muestra abajo.

Windows desktop shortcuts opened with the same application

Problem: All shortcuts in the Windows Desktop shows the same icon and Windows try to open them with the same application (for example Adobe Reader, a picture manipulation software and so on). This is not a problem for a whole computer but only for a particular user profile

Resolution: In the faulty user profile go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.lnk

The folder OpenwithProgids should only have the default  - REG_SZ - (value not set) and lnkfile  - REG_NONE - (zero-length binary value) values listed. If you have other values, delete them, close the registry editor, logoff from the current windows session and logon again.

Login to Skype 5 opens multiple tabs (pop-ups) in Internet Explorer

Problem: after login to Skype 5, multiple IE tabs are opened trying to connect to a Facebook URL

Solution: disable Facebook integration in skype 5. The easy way is to click on the "Don´t show facebook on skype" link located on the Facbook tab. However, if like us, you have blocked access to facebook from inside the Company network, the facebook tab won´t never show that link.

So the manual procedure is as follows:

1)      End any network connection from the computer with the problem. This will prevent the tabs being displayed.

 2)      If opened, log-out from Skype

3)       Go to the folder %AppData%\Skype using Windows Explorer

 4)      Search for a folder with the same name of the username used with skype

5)      Using Notepad or any other plain text editor, open the file config.xml and search for the line <FlamingoDisconnected>0</FlamingoDisconnected>.

6)      Change the 0 to 1

7)      Save and close the file and login again to Skype. Tabs should not open.



If you cannot find the FlamingoDisconnected text in the config.xml file you can add it under the <General></General> section.  I have found that the FlamingoDisconnected text is only added to the xml file if  the content of the Facebook tab is displayed at least once in Skype.

Replacing Blank Cells with any character in Excel 2007/2010

1) On the Home tab, select the Find and Select dropdown menu  which is located on the Editing Group of icons
2) Select Go to Specials ... and select the Blanks radio button and then click OK. All the cells with no data are selected and showed with a fill color. Do not click on any part of the open Excel workbook.
3) Type any character that you want to replace the blanks with. You can include the format for the cell, for example, aligment. Do not press any key yet.
4) Press Ctrl+Enter. This will copy the character you enter in step 3 to all selected cells including the format you selected on step 2.

How to backup and restore SQL 2005 logins

I found a really useful article about how to backup and restore SQL 2005 logins in the following URL:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/howdoi/?p=140. Because it is a great information, I prefer not to only post the URL for anybody reference but include in my blog a PDF file containing the whole article. If the original link is broken, I can still access the content.

Te file can be downloaded here: Backup-Restore SQL 2005 Logins

Errors 2275 and 1632 when you try to install software in Windows 7

When you try to install MSI based software in Windows 7, you receive an error message with codes 2275 and 1632. Both codes are related to the fact the %windir%\Installer folder cannot be created or read even if you are running the installer as an administrator. As a workaround, you can manually create the Installer folder and that solves the problem.