Archive for October, 2009
EncodeHD:Easily convert your media files for popular devices. (Windows)
Oct 26th
A friend of mine was going on a trip and asked me if he could borrow my dusty PSP. I said sure thing. I got it and a 8GB Memory Stick for him along with my car charger and speakers. I handed him the package and he looked at me like a deer caught in headlights and said:
“What you don’t have any videos for me to watch? I have about an hour and a half to kill each way hook me up!
I did have a crap load of new video files but nothing that was converted to play on the PSP. Yeah that sucks. But I remembered a little application I had seen that would allow my friend to convert these videos himself – and easily.
This application is so simple anyone can use it that can click a mouse!
I burned the video files for him and a little program called EncodeHD. I downloaded the 5.5MB Zip file, Extracted and ran the EncodeHD.exe file.. He was almost ready to rock and roll.
I decided to show him how to use the application before he left and took screenshots of my actions for everyone to follow along. Before we get started I should tell you guys how it works. This awesomely easy front end launched these 3 great tools without you having to know how they work:
With that said let’s see how she works!
The application is totally portable so there is no installation necessary. After launching the exe you will see a window like the one below. Select what type of device you have and want to convert your media for.
Drag and drop your media files into the window below like so:
If your computer can play it – EncodeHD can convert it! The advanced options are pretty simple but this is also where you can find the log file – if something goes wrong.
Check the box to specify an output folder if you do not want to write it to your source folder. You can select your PSP drive if it is connected to write the videos directly to your device so you do not have to copy them later. In this instance I am writing to a folder called EncodeHD on my D:\ drive.
Then simply hit start and you are on your way!
It seemed to take about half as long as the video to convert. So for example a hour episode of something took about 26 minutes to convert. Mileage will vary depending on your hardware!
EncodeHD will batch run each file and when it is complete you can happily watch your media anywhere you want it!
How do you convert your media? Do you have something that is even easier than this? We would love to hear about it in the comments!
Mysterious Server 2003 disk space consumption
Oct 25th
So the System drive of my (primary) domain controller has been running low on disk space (it’s a 20GB partition running with about 4GB or so free). This has been a nagging issue that I’ve had off and on for a while now, and I haven’t really had the time to delve into it.
I decided to start my investigation by running WinDirStat and looking for any oddly large files. The largest portion of the System disk is consumed by the Program Files directory (no big surprise there), and aside from a couple slightly disturbing large files from my backup software there is only one group of large files on the drive – hovering in at about 12GB for the 8 or so files. And they all have the same path and are similarly named: C:\System Volume Information\{914b4760-84b2-11dd-bca9-000e0cb2b564}{3808876b-c176-4e28-b7ae-04046e6cc752}
Hmmm, interesting. A quick Google search turns up some results linking this directory (more specifically files with CSLID names in this directory) to two things: System Restore points, and virus files.
Well I’m pretty sure it’s not virus files (no other odd behavior or weird network activity), and if I’m not mistaken to enable System Restore on WS2003 you have to manually copy over some files from an XP CD (which is a pretty cool hack, but not something I’ve done on any corporate network I’ve ever worked on).
At this point I start hearing dramatic music in the back of my mind, I’ve got a bonafied mystery! Or at least initial facts would indicate so.
Well a bit more in depth investigation turns up what some of you already knew at this point, the culprit is VSS. But I never configured VSS! (queue swelling of dramatic music in the background)
Ok so this is something of a mystery after all. So I go digging around in the event logs for the last 3 years looking for the initial VSS snapshot message. It sounds like a lot of work, but Microsoft Log Parser actually makes things like this pretty trivial.
Turns out that the VSS snapshots started on the same day that I installed our current Backup software (Yosemite Backup 8.5 sp2) which cooincidentally has the ability to make use of VSS snapshots!
Now this is not a huge issue, as VSS will delete old snapshots when space is needed, however I tend to take exception to software doing things like this without my permission.
Well luckily for me, I used to be a manager at the company that makes our backup software, so I fire up my trusty IM client, and start poking at the engineering department.
Twenty minutes later I have my trusty pipe and smoking jacket firmly in place, as I am feeling quite like Sherlock Holmes. It seems that in fact it was the backup software which enabled VSS for all volumes on my server, and (because it uses the defaults when enabling VSS) had set VSS to not limit the space consumed by snapshots!
A simple trip into Disk Management, and a quick change to the drive’s Property page, and VSS is now limited to 4GB for the system partition (which is far more than I’ll ever need). Interestingly enough had I disabled the VSS service on this machine before installing the backup software, it would not have enabled VSS. I’ve asked that they include a note about VSS being automatically configured to the Yosemite Backup installer (it may exist now, I’m not sure as I haven’t actually read any of the installer screens in years), but who knows when that will make it into the software.
As a side note, I’ve spoken to the Tech Support Manager at Yosemite Technologies (they make Yosemite Backup), and they are currently writing a knowledge base article about this, and how to change the VSS settings from the defaults that Yosemite Backup enables.
Update your WordPress Blogs Today! You have been warned!
Oct 23rd
We should all take what happened to AskTheAdmin.com as a warning and keep our blogs updated. So when you log into your Wp-Admin console today and see this message:
Make sure you actually do the update! I always he who laughs last has a backup but the admin that does not update his application will be hacked. Not exactly poetic but VERY VERY TRUE!
And if you do not know what I am talking about see this post here on how it happened and this post here on how to fix it!
_TheCarefulAdmiN_
Admins Arsenal: DBAN
Oct 23rd
Ever buy a used Hard Drive on Ebay or Craigslist? Ever look to see if there was any data on it? I have, and let me tell you, it is downright scary what people will leave on HDD’s when they sell them as used. I recently purchased 12 used 250 GB SATA HDD’s from Ebay for a NAS project I was working on, and of those 12, 9 of them had not been so much as formatted.
Of those 9, all but one had data that would have been usable for identity theft: files with credit card information, copies of bills, saved email that had account information, not to mention the astounding number of ummm, not safe for work pictures taken by (or of) the former owners. In all cases I could have contacted the former owner, as on all 9 drives I found current addresses and phone numbers for the former owners.
This is 2009, I would have thought that by now better than 25% of people selling used hard drives would know better.
As an IT Professional, I get used computers all the time (for some reason everyone I work with thinks I need every used machine I can get my hands on, especially if it has a “Designed for Windows 95!” sticker on it!). The ratio of these HDD’s that I get with data still on them is more like 95%. It’s easy to format a HDD, until you get one that just won’t format. Mostly the ones I’ve seen this on were disks that I installed an obscure linux distro on, and then for whatever reason decided to install Windows on. The Microsoft format tools are not always capable of handling partitions like this, which is where DBAN comes in.
Darik’s Boot And Nuke (or DBAN) is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.
One of the really great things about DBAN is that it can run from a floppy, or be burned to a bootable CD, which means it can be used on almost any computer. Better than that, DBAN has many options for how it wipes the disk, ranging from the single pass “autonuke”, to the 35 pass random data Gutmann method, and of course DBAN also offers users a method for definable number of passes.
In short, DBAN excels at destroying all data on a Hard Disk. You can find more information on DBAN here.
Group Policy: Desktop Lockdown Part 1
Oct 22nd
I get a lot of questions about how to “lock down” workstations.
So, in the next series of tips, I’m going to give you some little strategic “base hits” for doing that.
Indeed, there’s s not a “magic bullet” toward true desktop lockdown. And, well, I also know SOME people tend to go “overboard” once they start tasting the sweet, sweet taste of “users not bothering them anymore.”
But, let’s (collectively) try not to go bananas as we implement some of these strategies. (What? People dealing with ‘Policy Control’ can sometimes go bananas once they start locking things down? Never!)
The Tip: Replacing your shell
So, in this first tip, I want to share a neat secret. Did you know you can “replace the shell” ? It’s true. You don’t NEED to use Explorer as your shell. How about “Calc” ?
Yep.. Login, and… Calc. Or Solitaire. Or, DogFoodMaker. That’s it. The only app running. Nothing else.
It’s possible.
Step 1: Choosing your shell
The policy is found under:
User | Policies | Administrative Templates | System | Custom User Interface
Enter in “c:\windows\system32\calc.exe” to try.
(I’m using hard coded paths, but you might want to use variables.)
Step 1A: A more useful shell
A more useful thing to do would be Internet Explorer, say, for cafeteria, library machines, and others.
Try entering in this (using quotes)
“C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe”
Step 2: Locking down your desktop a little bit
We want to make it so users cannot use task manager, or lock out the machine. Thankfully those options are located under:
User | Policies | Administrative Templates | System | CTL+ALT+DEL Options
You might also want to Turn off Windows hotkeys:
User | Administrative Templates | Windows Comp | Windows Explorer | ?Turn off Windows+X hotkeys?
Step 3: Lock down IE to your liking
There are a zillion options here. But some of my top favorites are
User | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Internet Exp. | Browser Menus |
“File Menu: Disable open menu option”
and
“File menu: Disable closing the browser and Explorer windows”
Other areas to explore and control are the: Toolbars and Internet Control Panel sections.
Now, you’ve quickly taken a machine, and made it “IE only” and “pretty well locked down.”
It’s not perfect. Users could still get to, say, the command prompt by typing in
“c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe” into the browser window.
But you’re almost home now, and that’s a pretty good start. Do you have group policy tips, tricks and how to’s to share? Well then hit up the comments and make yourself heard!
Written by Jeremy Moskowitz of GPanswers.com
Create hotkeys on your Windows Machine with Keyboard Tweaker.
Oct 22nd
We have all see those expensive keyboards with keys on them that launch your email, favorite websites, applications and can even tweak volume controls. Now we aren’t going to run out and drop some duckets on a new keyboard to get some hotkeys… But what if I told you that you can duplicate that functionality and designate keys that are not frequently used on your machine as hotkeys for specific actions?
Sounds awesome right? And it is! Let’s take a look at Keyboard Tweaker from Buturga Alex.
I started by downloading the 732kb zip file containing the installer. I know everything has been portable lately but this needs to be installed. We can see that the install will only use 1.5 mb of space on your hard drive and it’s memory footprint is also very small. But we will take a look at that in a little bit.
Once the install is complete you can check a check box to have it launched automatically or load it up from your start menu. Once it is launched you will see this screen and a new System Tray icon.
That is the system tray icon it looks like a cross between a bowling ball and a smiley face. When the bowling ball starts winking at you – it will become apparent that it is a smiley face! Right clicking on the icon will give you two options to either show or exit the application.
Once you have the console open you can start tweaking your keyboard. I first tried to modify some of the commands the author included. The first example is Control + Shift + E – this will open and email message in your default email client to the recipient in the hotkey. I changed his address to mine by highlighting the line and modifying it below:
Now when I hit Control + Shift + E – it does this:
Cool so you can test your shortcut by hitting the test button and you apply the changes by hitting the APLLY button. Now what I really wanted to do was to use my function keys as hotkeys. Let’s see how that worked out.
I went back to my console and scrolled down until I found Volume Up. I then modified it to just use F2 like this:
Hitting Test or F2 after clicking APLLY now not only brings up my volume but it also shows it on screen like so:
The possibilities are endless! You can have your machine doing anything at a push of a button. And if you write scripts, batch files or AutoIT scripts – this can launch those as well.
We would love to hear what you are using this or another hot key application for. Put us on in the comments!
