Windows Vista

Changing the RDP port on Windows Server 2008

I have always been able to change the port number with Windows Server 2003/XP/Vista by editing the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber

With Server 2008 however this does not seem to work. Does anyone know what else you need to do to make this work? See below!

On Server 2008, in addition to changing the registry key above, you also need to create a new Inbound TCP rule in your windows firewall to allow connections on your new port.  You can then disable the existing remote desktop inbound rule (which is hardcoded to port 3389)

For home systems, i usually disable the firewall anyways, but this may apply for Windows 7 installations as well.

-NS

Sysinternals Updates

There have been a lot of updates since i last blogged about this awesome set of tools, among those are updates to ProcDump, Autoruns, and PsLogList. The full details are here.

Another thing to mention is that Mark and David released the 5th Edition of their book, titled, “Windows Internals 5th Edition” You can check out the details herealso. Here is a small insert from their site.

Delve inside Windows architecture and internals:

• Understand how the core system and management mechanisms work—from the object manager to services to the registry
• Explore internal system data structures using tools like the kernel debugger
• Grasp the scheduler’s priority and CPU placement algorithms
• Go inside the Windows security model to see how it authorizes access to data
• Understand how Windows manages physical and virtual memory
• Tour the Windows networking stack from top to bottom— including APIs, protocol drivers, and network adapter drivers
• Troubleshoot file-system access problems and system boot problems
• Learn how to analyze crashes

Windows 7 Release Date

Microsoft announced that it will launch Windows 7, on Oct. 22.

Aside from the obvious desktop deployments, Windows 7 will also be ported onto netbooks.  Microsoft reall needs Windows 7 to be a hit, and be on as many PC’s as possible. I for one love Windows 7, I have it running at home flawlessly. My favorite feature is the rotating wallpapers

Windows 7 will also work much better in the enterprise because of its rumoured backwards compatibility, for applications, with Windows XP Applications.

Get a more complete story here

NS

Windows Server 2003 Performance Advisor and Data Collector Sets

As I am sure some people know about this installable gem, I am also sure that not everyone does. Its called “Windows Server 2003 Performance Advisor” Here is an insert from Microsoft’s website…

“Microsoft ® Windows Server ™ 2003 Performance Advisor is the latest version of Server Performance Advisor, which is a simple but robust tool that helps you diagnose the root causes of performance problems in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 deployment. Server Performance Advisor collects performance data and generates comprehensive diagnostic reports that give you the data to easily analyze problems and develop corrective actions

Microsoft ® Windows Server ™ 2003 Performance Advisor provides several specialized reports, including a System Overview (focusing on CPU usage, Memory usage, busy files, busy TCP clients, top CPU consumers) and reports for server roles such as Active Directory, Internet Information System (IIS), DNS, Terminal Services, SQL, print spooler, and others.”

This application was deemed so useful that it was built into Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, it can be found by going to the control panel, then clicking on “Administrative Tools”, “Reliability and Performance Monitor”, then “Data Collector Sets”. You can then create a new “Data Collector Set” using templates under “User Defined” If you would like to see how they are configured and work, check out Petri’s article “Performance Monitoring the Easy Way”.

The link to download Performance Advisor is here. Also I am providing a link to Perti’s site that explains how to use the app, click here. Is it x64 compatible you say? My answer is yes.

Let me know if you found this blog useful!

NS

Vista “User Profile Service” Error

You come into work one day, place your laptop into the docking station, power it up, log in, and you get this message,

” “The User Profile Service” service failed the logon User Profile Cannot be loaded “

It then logs in but not your profile, what happened to all the icons, your settings you wonder. Well fear not there is an easy fix, if your comfortable with the registry that is!

The fix can be found on www.Vistax64.com specifically this forum post.

My fix involved option #1. There were 2 SID Identifiers located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList One of them had a bak extension on it. You could tell it was the identifier for the right profile because you could see the pathing to the missing profile, as below…

Just follow the instructions in that link, double check software apps that they still function, ie Outlook will need to be reconfigured, and you should be fine.

Any Questions, let me know!

NS

Windows Search Service and Server 2008

I just recently took Vista Business 32Bit off my laptop and installed Server 2008 Standard 32bit. I am quite amazed at how much faster it is, I guess mainly because Vista is slightly bloated with Multimedia features not applicable too Windows Server 2008… anyways to get to my point of this particular blog. Installed Office 2007 Enterprise Edition and when I went to search it said that the Windows Search Service is not enabled, click here to fix, it then mentions that the service is not started. Well here is how you start this service in Windows Server 2008

1) Start Server Manager

2) Click on Roles in the left navigation pane

3) Select Add Role in the Roles Summary pane to the right

4) Select the File Services role and click Next

5) Select the Windows Search role service as displayed below…

Click Next then finish the wizard and now you should have the Windows Search service up and running.

Restart outlook and you can now quick search. It may take a bit of time to index you message store, depending on how much email you have… I have a lot!

Cheer,

NS

How to remove Windows Antispyware 2009 Malware

Windows Antispyware 2009, you’ve got to love their”  creativity on this one. This is one of the more prevalent spyware packages out there, the infect over 20 points of the system, ie registry, file system, drivers, startup, you name it its infected it. It even stops you from running autoruns and process explorer. I have removed this manually before, but it takes a long time…. I have found one utility that makes the world a better place, at least your infected PC 

Handbrake 0.9.3

Handbrake is an application that converts almost any source(just recently) to any other source, it is multiplatform and multithreaded. It is available for Windows, MacOS X, and Linus.

Inputs included are

- any DVD Source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (you have to decrypt your original movies first using 3rd party software)

Outputs supported are

- File Format: MP4, MKV, AVI, or OGM

- Video: MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora

- Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 (supports multiple audio tracks)

I’ll provide a couple links to some of the more relevant info required to get started. The Handbrake Guide, and the Windows Walkthrough.

Happy Encoding!

NS

NVIDIA Ion Platform means HD for Notebooks

They call it a Pico-ATX which measure in at a whopping 10 cm x 7.2 cm!

The reference motherboard is very simple; you’ve got an Intel Atom CPU and a GeForce 9400M next to each other, a single SATA connector and a DDR3 SO-DIMM slot on the other side of the board. And this little thing is powerful enough to play HD video (8 - 25Mbps H.264) the CPU has been measured at 27% utilization while doing so. Ion also has full support for 8-channel LPCM over HDMI.

Built into the board is USB 2.0 ports, a dual-link DVI connector, an HDMI Connector, a SATA 3G connector, and a DDR3 SO-DIMM connection.

Nvidia also says that a GeForce 9400 paired with the Atom Processor will net 10 times the graphics and video transcoding, Fulll HD Video Decode and Display, and is half the size but same battery life. The reference board is Vista Premium and Windows 7 Ready.

For more interesting details check this out.

“MSTSC /console” Where did you go?

I just noticed this in the last few days, I guess its because of the fact that I waited so long to update to SP1, but it seems that with Vista Service Pack 1, Windows XP SP3, and Server 2008 the /console switch is no longer available…

Running mstsc /? will give you the following screen

As you can see the “/console” switch is gone, and I am running Vista Ultimate SP1. The only way to connect to the console now and ONLY on systems NOT running Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 or Windows Server 2008 or later installed is to use the “/admin” switch.

Anyways, check this out for more info.