One of the questions that is frequently asked in a large organization is, “Who uses computer XYZ123?”. Many tools will report the current user, but the current user may or may not be the the person who usually works on a given computer. The current user for the computer you are logged on logged onto to fix is probably…
Author: Alan
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Why I am not monetizing my blog
I am still resisting the call from my friends to monetize my blog. This means that there is no advertising here, now or later. I see this primarily as an ethical issue. You, as taxpayers, have already paid for this work. I, as a federal employee, have already been compensated for the work.
Uninstall All But the Most Recent Version of Java
UninstallJava.vbs creates a list of programs with “Java” in the name. It then uninstalls all but the most recent version. You can run it locally or against a remote computer. Update 1/18/14: This has been updated to manage post XP OS, where InstallDate2 from Win32_Product is empty. If you look at the code, I now read the…
Finding Name Resolution Problems
Name resolution problems are a plague for system administrators. If you think you are working on ComputerA but instead are working on ComputerB much gnashing of teeth may result. In our environment we have NetBIOS and FQDNs to resolve. The correct name, of course, is the one in the registry. NameResolution.wsf checks the registry, FQDN and…
Can’t find %HOMESHARE%\Favorites\.
I tried to update Adobe Reader using my domain based admin account for elevation, and got this installer error “Can’t Find %HOMESHARE%\Favorites\.” To fix it I opened RegEdit, navigated to HKCU\Environment, and added a new expandable string value named HOMESHARE, and pointed it to the proper location.
Scriptomatic on Windows 7 Solved
I have been writing HTA files for a years as a way to improve the appearance of some of my scripts. MSDN has a good article from May of 2011 about the power and utility of HTA files. After moving to Windows 7 x64, I was disappointed to find that one of my favorite HTA…
Floppy Drive Settings for Virtual PC
Earlier I wrote about using WinImage to preserve floppy disk data. In my continuing adventure with Windows 7 x64, I found that DOS programs will not run under x64. What DOS program do I like to use? The WordPerfect Editor from the WordPefect Shell. (Curious? You can get it here). Why? Because it allows you…
RunAs context menu item for scripts and HTAs
I have consolidated a couple of registry files that enable a RunAs context menu item for VbScript, JScript, and HTA files. Scripts_HTA_Runas_reg.txt
Fixing Windows Update problems on multiple computers
I have my WSUS Repair HTA for working on single systems, but how about multiple computers? For that I run WindowsUpdateFix.cmd. You can execute this many ways. I use SCCM or PSExec.
Upgrading to Windows 7
We have been slow at work in our adoption of Windows 7. I use my laptop as my primary workstation, and I had “cheated” when I upgraded from XP to Vista and then Window 7 32 bit. My new OS was to be Windows 7 64 bit, and there is no upgrade path. Before I kicked…