Everyday Nerd » Windows

Uninstall IE 9 Beta on Windows 7

Nerd — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:18:42 +0000

So you have a Internet Explroer 9 Beta that you would like to roll back on Windows 7 (IE 9 Beta is considered a update not a program).

Press Win+R (the run and paste in the following:
C:\Windows\explorer.exe shell:::{d450a8a1-9568-45c7-9c0e-b4f9fb4537bd}
then press Enter.
wait for the Uninstall an update screen to load completely
scroll through the list until you find Windows Internet Explorer 9
click once to highlight IE9, then click the Uninstall button (or right-click and uninstall)
confirm that you want to uninstall (click yes)

That’s it!

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate

Nerd — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:10:49 +0000

It’s here!!! For all you chomping at the bit to get SP1, Microsoft has released the Release Candidate, so the final version should be out soon. For you early adopters, here’s the link.

Cisco VPN Finally Supports x64!

Nerd — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:44:57 +0000

For those of you that telecommute, or ever work remotely, you probably use Cisco’s VPN software. Up until now, it was only supported on 32 bit OS’s, leaving anyone that wanted to run 64 bit out in the cold, or forcing them to dual boot, or other nasty hacks… FINALLY, Cisco has released a 64 bit version of their VPN client that works on Windows 7 x64!

For some dumb reason, it’s not publicly available on Cisco’s website, so do a quick Google search for “vpnclient-winx64-msi-5.0.07.0290-k9.exe” and you will see multiple sites to grab the file.

Think I’m going to re-load my laptop tonight to 64!

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 coming soon – Be Ready!

Nerd — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:14:36 +0000

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 will be released soon, and I wanted to make sure that you are ready for it!

Before installing, here are some things you can do:

Uninstall your AntiVirus program (i.e. Microsoft’s Security Essentials & Forefront Client Security)
Foreign Language Support: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) only supports German, Spanish, French, English, & Japanese version of Windows 7
Ensure you have enough disk space! – (32-bit (x86-based) = 600 MB — 64-bit (x64-based) = 900 MB of free space)

You can also run the Windows 7 System Update Readiness Tool: 32-bit & 64-bit

Want to win a free copy of Windows 7?

Nerd — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0000

“Share your story” with The Windows Club and you could win a copy of Windows 7! It has to be a real story about the moment you liked Windows 7 most, or when it made your day…

[Share your story]

How-To log off a user from remote computer

Nerd — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:33:47 +0000

If you work in IT, I’m sure you’ve run across a time that you needed to log off a user from a remote computers – even if it’s yourself (especially when it’s time to change your password). Personally, I have to change my network password every 30 days, and there are times that I may be logged into any of 150 computers. I try to remember to use the log off button, but sometimes, I have idle sessions on computers.

This being said, I needed a way to log off any session I was logged into, in a list of computers I knew I might be logged into. My first thought was to use PSLOGGEDON.exe (from Sysinternals) which is a fantastic tool, but I don’t want to search the entire domain, plus I might be logged in to multiple domains.

So, I found a nice little utility built right into windows – quser.exe

Quser.exe can be used to show what user is logged in to a remote computer, as well as the localhost. Use quser.exe /SERVER:servername to query a remote system.

If you want to specify just one user account instead of finding all users logged in, user this syntax: quser.exe user6 /SERVER:servername

Now to log off this user, or session, you can use another built-in utility in Windows – Logoff.exe

Logoff.exe can either log off a session ID, or SessionName remotely – not by username (username works locally though). The syntax is similar to quser.exe:

LOGOFF [sessionname | sessionid] [/SERVER:servername]

So to log off user6 from the example above, I can use either the session name (rdp-rcp#443 – or I can use the ID – 2 – I’ll go with the ID

logoff 2 /SERVER:server1

That was easy! Now, to check to see if I’m logged any of the 150 servers I manage, I create a quick bat file using excel (more on that here) and now I can run it at any time, and see what remote systems I’m logged into, and log my session off if needed.

This is a really simple way to do this, but if you have another way to do it, please post below! I’d love to see how you handle this problem!

Windows 7 Super Admin folder

Nerd — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:29:32 +0000

Windows 7 is great, but if you’re a control freak like me, you want to be able to change all your settings easily, and preferably, all in one place. Well, the developers at Microsoft heard your cries of woe, and have enabled a super folder.

Create a new folder (can be located anywhere, like on the Desktop), with the following name: SuperFolder.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once you hit enter, it will look like this:

Opening this folder, you will see all the Admin goodness – 277 administrative tasks, all in one place!

This has been a much needed feature for Windows. My only wish is that it was easier to create the super folder – for instance if I were to work on someone else’s machine, I’m not going to remember what that long string of numbers and letters are – would be nice to remember a word, or sentence to call the folder… oh well, at least we got it!

One more tip, I added this SuperFolder to my Favorites, so it’s accessible from any open explorer window! (Just drag the folder onto the Favorites star, and it will add it to the favorite list!)

Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Disk

Nerd — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:25:27 +0000

Seems that you can perform a clean install of Windows 7 – with an upgrade disk (read much cheaper here).

Normally, if you install with an upgrade disk, you cannot activate windows. The work around is to perform a clean install, ensure that there are no pending Windows Updates waiting to install (orange shield on restart icon), and make the following registry change:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0".

Open Regedit (Start, Type in Regedit and press enter)

Click “Yes” on the User Access Control

Navigate Regedit to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Right click on the MediaBootInstall key and choose Modify. Change the “1” to a “0”

Restart the computer, and you should be able to activate your “Clean” install of Windows 7!

New Microsoft tool to install Windows from USB

Nerd — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:04:37 +0000

Now, easier than before, Microsoft has released a handy utility to turn an ISO image of Windows 7 into a bootable DVD or Flash drive!

Select the ISO file for Windows 7

Choose USB or DVD

That’s it!

It doesn’t get much easier than this! I will say, that I have first knowledge that installing Windows 7 with a USB device is MUCH faster than with DVD. From start to finish, USB only took about 20 minutes… DVD took close to 30-40 minutes.

[ Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool ]

Windows 7 is out!

Nerd — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:42:00 +0000

With the biggest and best launch to date, Microsoft has launched, in my opinion, the best operating system to come out from Redmond Washington. Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Get your credit card out, and download it today!

Order your Windows 7 today
Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
Windows 7 Professional Upgrade
Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade

Protect your PC – Disable AutoPlay

Nerd — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:27:49 +0000

Windows 7 disables the AutoPlay feature which has been abused by malware (like Conficker). Now, Microsoft provides this same functionality for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

Download Disable AutoPlay for Windows

Easily connect to 2nd monitor or projector with Windows 7

Nerd — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:34:00 +0000

Every laptop user has been there… at the start of a meeting, plugging in the projector, trying to get what you have on your screen to show up on the projector, pushing Fn+F8, opps, that just put you in sleep mode… argh!

Windows 7 makes it really easy for you. Just press the Windows Key + P

Just select the configuration that you want to use! Easy huh?

Install Windows 7 from USB Disk

Nerd — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I told you before about a utility that will create a bootable USB windows installer, but for all us command line junkies, this is just drop dead easy…

Get a spare 4GB USB 2.0 thumbdrive, reformatted it as FAT32, and simply copy the contents of the Windows 7 ISO image to the memory stick using xcopy e:\ f:\ /e /f (where e: was the DVD drive and f: was the removable drive location).

Done. Boot to USB, and you will install Windows 7 faster than you EVER would with DVD.

Windows 7 Slow Remote Desktop (RDP) fix

Nerd — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:27:36 +0000

As with Windows Vista, I ran across a random issue when using Remote Desktop, or RDP. Sometimes, my mouse clicks were delayed by several seconds in the RDP session, and other times, it was OK. I remembered finding this with Vista, and the fix for Vista works in Windows 7 as well.

Open a command prompt windows as an Administrator, and run this command:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

If you need to turn autotuninglevel back on, just run this to re-enable it:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

This is an immediate fix – no reboot required, just re-connect to any open RDP sessions.

Run Windows 7 without activating for 120 days

Nerd — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:13:45 +0000

With just a simple command line, you can run Windows 7 for 120 days past the initial 30 days activation time limit -that’s 4 months before you have to put in your key! Just drop to the command line, and … Continue reading → Related posts:

Disable Group Policy Service on Windows Vista/7

Nerd — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

As an administrator, I like to have FULL control of the computer that I use everyday. Most companies deploy group policies that will set defaults to your computer, and not allow you to change those settings. This will require that you are an administrator of the computer that you are using.

Open Regedit, and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\gpsrv. Right click on the gpsrv key, and select Permissions. Go to Advanced, and the Owner Tab. Change owner to your account, and click OK. Next, select Administrators, and check the Full Control box.

Click OK to close the permissions window, and look on the right hand section of Regedit. Look for this start key. Double click the Start DWORD, and change the value to 4 – this disables the service.

Reboot, and you will not get any group policies assigned to your computer. Note, that every time you log in, you will get a message, warning you that Windows cannot connect to the Group Policy service. Just click the X, and ignore.

It is best to do this before you have joined your computer to the domain. Do it with a local account that has administrative rights, reboot, then join the domain. This will ensure that you do not get any policies applied to your machine.

Windows 7 – Enable $admin share

Nerd — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:28:50 +0000

So I‘ve been running Windows 7 RTM for a while now, and really liking it. There are a few “gotcha’s”, and the $admin share is one of them. Out of the box, Windows 7 (and Windows Vista) disabled File and Printer sharing, as well as the $admin share. Normally, in the home environment, the $admin share is not needed, but in the corporate world, it’s used quite regularly, especially with tools like psexec, IntelliAdmin tools, and certain software deployments.

This is how to enable the $admin share in Windows 7:

First, Folder and Printer Sharing must be enabled. Open the Control Panel, and select Network and Internet. Then click on Network and Sharing Center.

Look to the left side of the Network and Sharing Center, and click on Change advanced sharing settings.

In the new window, you can change each network’s sharing settings (Home, Public, and Work/Domain). Expand the profile you want to modify, and click on “File and Printer Sharing”

Save your changes.

Next (I know, I wish it was just that easy…) you have to add a registry key. Open Regedit, navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System – create a new DWORD:

LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy with the Value of 1

Reboot. You can now access the $admin share remotely.

Free Windows 7 for IT Pro’s

Nerd — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:02:33 +0000

Microsoft will be providing Free "Deep Dive" Training for IT Professionals & Developers (along with a Free Copy of Windows 7!).

"DEEP DRIVE" CURRICULUM:

TRAINING FOR I.T. PROFESSIONALS:

Introducing Windows 7 and the Windows Optimized Desktop — Today’s knowledge workers expect to be able to access data and applications from anywhere and from a wide array of PCs. This challenges IT Professionals, who are responsible for protecting sensitive data and reducing costs. The Windows Optimized Desktop – Windows 7 Enterprise and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack – can help relieve this tension between end users and IT Professionals by providing the tools to balance the needs of both groups. This session will provide an overview of the Windows Optimized Desktop and the key features that help:

Make people productive anywhere
Manage risksthrough enhanced security and control
Reduce costs by streamlining PC management

Make People Productive Anywhere with Windows 7 and the Windows Optimized Desktop — This session will show how users can be more productive -wherever they are – using Windows 7 and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP). In this session we will first discuss the challenges in making information and applications easily available and how Windows 7 and MDOP address the needs of IT Professionals. We will then address three key features that help make people productive anywhere:

How DirectAccess enables seamless access to corporate networks, network infrastructure requirements, and setup and management of remote clients using Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2
Benefits of BranchCache that increase network responsiveness and reduce network bandwidth consumption
Access to applications seamlessly and intuitively through virtualization technologies, including App-V and MED-V

Manage Risks through Enhanced Security and Control with Windows 7 and the Windows Optimized Desktop — Windows 7 provides IT with the security and control it needs to protect the business. In this session, we will explore Windows 7 core platform security improvements, protecting desktop users, and data protection. You will come away with an understanding of how Windows 7:

Provides the appropriate security controls to protect desktop users via Account Control, AppLocker, and Internet Explorer 8
Extends BitLocker to help protect data stored on portable media with BitLocker To Go so that only authorized users can read the data even if the media is lost, stolen, or misused

Streamlining Deployment of Windows 7 — The effectiveness of IT services hinges upon the ability to efficiently manage and implement new technologies. This session will show how IT Professionals can be more productive deploying Windows 7. First, we will review new deployment tools and enhancements to quickly migrate or provision PCs, including Windows Deployment Services (WDS), Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), and User State Migration Tool. We will then discuss and demonstrate how these tools can help IT Professionals streamline the deployment and management of Windows 7 PCs.

TRAINING FOR IT DEVELOPERS:

Optimizing Your Application For Windows 7 — When running your application on Windows 7, do you feel it performs at its best? Do you want your application to shine on Windows 7 and give your users the comfort that comes with Windows 7 Taskbar and Libraries? This session can show you how to give your applications new functionality with very few code changes.

Creating New And Exciting Users Experiences – Part 1 — Do you want to differentiate yourself from the competition? Do you want to be able to say, "Hi, my app brings extra value on Windows 7." Then these sessions are for you! In the first of this two part series, you’ll learn about these features and more:

Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform to optimize your mobile user’s experiences
Windows Touch at your fingertips

Creating New And Exciting Users Experiences – Part 2 — Do you want to differentiate yourself from the competition? Do you want to be able to say, "Hi, my app brings extra value on Windows 7." Then these sessions are for you! In the second of this two part series, you’ll learn about these features and more:

Windows 7 Ribbon
The new Windows 7 Graphics Stack

FREE TRAINING LOCATIONS:

Atlanta – Sep. 28
Baltimore – Nov. 9
Boston – Oct. 5
Chicago – Oct. 20
Cleveland – Oct. 12
Dallas – Nov. 4
Denver – Sep. 24
Detroit – Oct. 7
Houston – Nov. 9
Kansas City – Nov. 4
Los Angeles – Oct. 28
Miami – Sep. 24
Minneapolis – Sep. 24
New York City – Oct. 20
Orange County – Oct. 26
Philadelphia – Sep. 28
Phoenix – Sep. 28
Pittsburgh – Sep. 30
Portland – Oct. 14
San Diego – Oct. 26
San Francisco – Oct. 20
San Jose – Oct. 5
Seattle – Oct. 12
St. Louis – Nov. 9
Washington – Nov. 4

[Sign-up Here for Free Windows 7 Training & Software]

Change Windows 7 Logon Screen

Nerd — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:18:38 +0000

There are two ways to change the Windows 7 logon screen (is it me, or does it look like Twitter designed it?): The hard way, and the easy way. I’m going to show you the easy way.

The Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7 provides an easy way to customize the logon screen background with just a few clicks. Simply download the free application, run it and click Change Logon Screen.

The application will prompt for the location of the new background image and then install the new screen behind the scenes. Tweaks.com Logon Changer will even provide a preview of your new background on a logon screen.

If you want the default Windows 7 logon screen back just click Revert to Default Logon Screen and the application will automatically uninstall any customized screens.

Multi-Thread Robocopy – Update

Nerd — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:34:09 +0000

OK, I know I already went on and on about this, but this just blew my mind! My boss just loaded Windows 7, and was copying his old data from an external USB drive to his new computer – 128GB worth of data. He used the /MT:128 (the maximum number of threads) and here are his results:

            Total    Copied   Skipped Mismatch    FAILED    Extras
Dirs :     14346       615     13731         0         0       545
Files :    148533      2201    146332         0         0      1244
Bytes : 128.888 g   9.813 g 119.075 g         0         0   2.407 g
Times :   7:13:01   0:07:08                       0:00:00   0:00:05

Speed : 102739780 Bytes/sec.
Speed : 5878.817 MegaBytes/min.

Ended : Tue Aug 11 11:27:34 2009

Yeah, you read that right… 5.8GB/Min, copied 128GB in 7 minutes!!!

Windows 7: Robocopy is Multi Threaded!

Nerd — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:05:32 +0000

OK, so not everyone uses Robocopy on a regular basis, but I sure do! I am super excited about Windows 7′s version of Robocopy. Robocopy was created by Mark Russinovich, and was included in a whole suite of free windows tools called Sysinternal Tools. Well, Mark works for Microsoft now, and has continued his development of his tools, including robocopy. Basically, robocopy is a command line tool that copies/moves files from one location to another. While this seems to be a common task (copy/cut/paste) for most users, sometimes administrators need to tweak the copy process.

Robocopy has a plethora of options for administrators to use, some used more often than others, but all prove priceless at one time or another. To list all the options for robocopy, just use the /? switch to list all available switches.

OK, on to Multi-threaded file copy! Up until now, robocopy copied one file at a time. Most of the time, that was OK, but it would be really nice to do it faster. Windows 7 version of robocopy includes the /MT switch. The default is 8, so if you use the switch, it will copy 8 files at a time. I did a few tests, and here are my results:

I copied a folder from my hard drive to a mapped drive on a server, over a Gigabit network. The folder was 35MB, and had 1140 files it it.

Without /MT switch: (robocopy Source Destination/E)

Directories: 166

Files: 1140

Size: 35.71MB

Time: 03:55

With /MT:8 switch: (robocopy Source Destination/E /MT:

Directories: 166
Files: 1140
Size: 35.71MB
Time: 52 seconds

Needless to say, using the multi-thread switch with robocopy is much faster! Unfortunately, the Windows 7 Version of robocopy does NOT work on any previous version of windows. Bummer! Anyway, Win7 is a great OS so far, so this is just another added bonus of buying that upgrade!

No to All File Copy Trick

Nerd — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:33:23 +0000

We’ve all done it… Copy some files from one folder to another, only to find that there is already a file with that name in it. Then you get the infamous dialog box:

If you want to replace them all, great – just click “Yes to All” – but what if you want to select no? Click no, then click no, then click no… for every file, you have to click no… Can make for a really long process. Now now! Just hold down Shift when you click No and voila! Instant No to All!

Easy way create Windows 7 Bootable USB drive

Nerd — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:40:35 +0000

Windows Desktop Experience MVP, Vishal Gupta, has released "A Bootable USB" application to automatically create a bootable USB drive to install Windows 7 on your computer without an optical drive. (via TechNet)

Download "A Bootable USB"

Update – do the same thing, without extra software, just using command line

Windows 7 has been released to Manufacturing!

Nerd — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:38:28 +0000

Ok folks, If you went out and grabbed Windows 7 RC1, you pretty much have the real deal! Only minor items have been changed in the final product.

It’s official. Windows 7 has released to manufacturing. http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-22Windows7RTMPR.mspx

When will be able to get your hands on it http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/21/when-will-you-get-windows-7-rtm.aspx

Hang on to your seats folks, it’s going to be in your hands really soon!

Windows 7 to be “Generally available” on October 22, 2009

Nerd — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:18:48 +0000

According to the Windows Blog, Windows 7 is going to be “generally available” on October 22, 2009. Of course you might be able to snag up a copy of it sooner, especially with a MSDN subscription, or if you attend a launch event (I’m assuming they are going to give away a copy at the launch events – they have in the past) No word on pricing yet.

Of course, the Release Candidate is already out there, if you want to start getting your hands dirty!