Exchange 2016 CU6

If your activesync is breaking then install Exchange 2016 CU6

It also does need a schema update despite what they say so if you don't have perms you'll get the error about mailbox not isntalled, schema is not up to date, account not a member of org admins.

Blah blah blah.. Sloppy..

The mysterious case of the missing VSS System Writer - fixed..

I am taking the time to blog this as after extensive googling for solutions, none of them worked and was nothing else for it but to troubleshoot till I finally got to the answer.. Read on Macduff..

So we had a Windows 2008 server (not R2) which upon running "vssadmin list writers" simply did not show the System Writer.. The backup team were complaining and needed it fixed.. Obviously 1st port of call was to research online and we tried all of that.. We re-registered the VSS writers, we reset the permissions as per here

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/f4c7fb5b-162a-4c75-994c-b75fbd1dece7/vss-system-writer-is-missing

We also looked at removing the number of temp files in the asp temp directories which was also identified as an issue.. None of this worked.. Stubborn mule that it was.

So at this point, we really had exhausted every online solution available and none worked.

The application event log was continuing to Event ID 8193

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine CreateVssExamineWriterMetadata.  hr = 0x80042311.

 

Operation:

   Writer Exposing its Metadata

 

Context:

   Execution Context: Requestor

   Writer Instance ID: {83225E56-CD56-4FF3-93B6-E54CE9D3F44A}

   Writer Class Id: {E8132975-6F93-4464-A53E-1050253AE220}

   Writer Name: System Writer

 

And Event ID 8228

Fail to parse XML file.

Reason An invalid character was found in text content.

 

Line 0x00000174

Position 0x00000013

Errorcode 0xc00ce508

So as calling Microsoft was not an option, we installed the VSS SDK kit which has some excellent troubleshooting tools and creates some very handy dumps of the VSS service when it makes its calls.

So with diagnostics enabled, and logging in place, I again ran the fabled 'vssadmin list writers'...

Once the dump was complete, I was able to see this nugget in the log.

[0074504171,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] EXIT  {CVssSafeCriticalSection::Init}: hr: 0x00000000

[0074504171,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] ENTER {CVssExamineWriterMetadata::LoadDocument}:

[0074504203,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] ENTER {CXMLDocument::LoadFromXML}:

[0074504203,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] ENTER {CXMLDocument::Initialize}:

[0074504203,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] EXIT  {CXMLDocument::Initialize}: hr: 0x00000000

[0074504312,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] backupext\vsxml\vs_xml.cxx(0815): CXMLDocument::LoadFromXML: XML parse fails, error code 0xc00ce508, line 372 char 19, reason: An invalid character was found in text content.

 

[0074504312,0x001248:0x0f30:0x1818a12e] backupext\vsxml\vs_xml.cxx(0817): CXMLDocument::LoadFromXML: XML parse fails, Problem text: ilespec="mfcom.exe" filespecBackupType="3855"/>

Tucked away in the registry was an invalid path to a service which had been uninstalled at some point but never fully flushed from the registry..

Check out that illegal path filename.. :-(

As the path was invalid anyway, I removed the offending service entry from the registry, and lo and behold, the VSS System Writer sprang into life, appearing back as it should be.

So top tips learnt, use the VSS SDK kit to get diagnostics asap and the solution will hopefully reveal itself a lot quicker than it did to me.. Glad to say got there in the end though :-)

I've stuffed my ankle and am out for 4 weeks.. nightmare.

Windows Live Messenger 14.0 crashes during Launch

Think this is worth highlighting as I was suffering from this big time but it's all fixed in this post from Microsoft.

http://windowslivehelp.com/solution.aspx?solutionid=17e5dddf-4156-4725-a1a5-f3a10a76e12f

S.

windows 7 msn messenger Error 81000306

Lovely windows 7, after the bloat of Vista. All working fine except for MSN Messenger. Could not sign in for the life of me.. All I got was

Error 81000306

No errors reported in the troubleshooter.

I finally found a nugget in google.

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Run that in an elevated CMD box and voila, MSN Messenger works..

Must be a combination of my hardware as I cannot see Jo Public having to do that to log into MSN Messenger.

As a courtest CMD comment, to return to normal it is

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Legato Networker and the c:\temp saga

We came across a strange issue recently with Legato Networker where if you initiated a backup from the Legato server itself, version 7.3 SP4, then it would back everything up except c:\temp

When we looked from the client end (, and tried a restore, we could see c:\temp but the restore contents was empty. No directives in place and no nsr.dir exclusions in place.

Went through google but nothing obvious came to light. was not a DFS mount point, NTFS security was fine, and strangely enough when we initiated a backup from the client side, then c:\temp was backed up....

After some hours searching, we applied some lateral thinking and checking several other boxes on differnet backup servers.

All the same, c:\temp was always empty.....

At which point we got EMC on the phone, the transcript is below.. All I can say is don't keep anything in c:\temp and expect to be able to restore it ! It's a known bug with no fix...

I hope google may catalogue this post so other users may find it easier to diagnose this use quicker than we did !

S.

Details
System: "Welcome to the EMC Customer Support Center."
System: "We will be with you in just a moment."
Session Started
us@us.com: "folder excluded from backups"
System: "The Service Request number for your inquiry is 3254xxx."
EMC :"Thank you for contacting EMC Customer Service. My name is "
us@us.com: "Hi "
EMC :"Hi"
us@us.com: "just a quick question about a backup of a windows client"
EMC :"sure"
us@us.com: "I can see our backups are miising c:\temp"
EMC :"ok"
us@us.com: "this appears to be intentional as all the clients are the same"
EMC :"what is the saveset mentioned"
us@us.com: "this is not done by a directive or a nsr.dir exclusion list"
us@us.com: "saveset is C:\"
EMC :"ok"
us@us.com: "client is set for filesystems = all"
EMC :"have you enabled any directive to skip"
us@us.com: "no the orginal directive was set so skip *.dbf"
EMC :"ok"
us@us.com: "I have now set an empty directive so nothing should be excluded"
EMC :"yes"
us@us.com: "but C:\temp is still missed"
us@us.com: "what causes this?"
EMC :"ok"
us@us.com: "can it be turned off>"
EMC :"one moment"
us@us.com: "thanks"
EMC :"have you tried by giving saveset C:\temp"
us@us.com: "yes, this was what i was doing in testing"
EMC :"or just open networker user"
EMC :"and than click on backup it will list all files and folders"
EMC :"whether temp folder is visible there"
EMC :"if it is not visible it will not backup"
us@us.com: "that is the really strange thing. a client initiated backup will work okay. but when you do a server initiated backup it fails AND it removes the CFI for the earlier backup"
EMC :"ok"
EMC :"normally it will skip temp folder"
us@us.com: "yes"
EMC :"have you tried client initiated backup"
EMC :"and it has backup temp folder"
us@us.com: "yes"
EMC :"ok"
us@us.com: "see comment at 14:28:08"
EMC :"when you initiate backup from server that will not take tmep folder it will skip"
us@us.com: "that's right"
EMC :"its know issue"
us@us.com: "okay"
us@us.com: "so is it missed because there is a problem, or because EMC want it to work that way??"
us@us.com: "is there a fix?"
EMC :"there is no fix for this as of now"
us@us.com: "okay. at least I know my config is good."
us@us.com: "thanks for your help"
us@us.com: "have a good day"
EMC :"yes its good"
EMC :"welcome"
EMC :"Thanks again for contacting EMC Support."
us@us.com: "thank you"
us@us.com: "bye"
Session Ended

6 LED Webcam drivers ... Finally !!

Ah the 6 LED Webcam that I bought off ebay.. fantastic 1.3 M and really good but of course, I lost the driver CD within minutes and when I rebuilt my PC, Vista detected it as totally the wrong thing and I was left without a webcam.

With no identifying marks, I was lucky with google's help to discuver this fantastic link... It has the links tot the required drivers :-) YEE HAAH.. Downloaded, installed and ready to go .. 

I posted the links here as well

http://www.azzx.org/drivers/vimicro-usb-webcam-driver/

http://www.azzx.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/vimicro-pc-camera-301x.zip

Vista : Enough is enough..

Right, For the Love of God.. Can I do anything without being told I need permission to do it..

Vista is being blow away and XP being put back on.

Microsoft, I F*cking hate you releasing this OS.. Just bite the bullet, admit it's a big a disaster as Windows ME and refund everyone who bought this pile of poo.

Egypt

I am off to Egypt on Sunday...

Adieu..

VISTA...Could you get any worse ?

Let me just say that I am an MCP in Exchange 2003, I am employed by a very well know 2 letter burger sauce company as a 3rd line level engineer, and I've a good knowledge of Microsoft OS systems and not just some plank.

F*ck me, could things get any worse.. can I delete something from c:\program files ? Can I fick ?

Find was SO nice in XP, easy and simple.. For the love of god, what is Vista's effort about ? It relies on indexing for speed, and winges when something isn't.. I really don't mind waiting a bit longer to get the results i want, not an avalanche of false positives from like temp files. outlook sessions, network drives.. i want to look on the C drive for a file called vistaispony.txt, any easy way to do that ? is there furk ~? more to the point, can i save a text file called vistaispony.txt in any remotely useful location, can I fonk ?

I cannot stand Vista.. I hate it so much I am going to write another blog soon on which feature annoys me more.. will be pushed to beat the pony search function though.

i copyright the use of the vowel U in any 4 letter work with the other letters FCK that descibe MS products :-) Yeah, do I fick ;-)

S.

How much do I still hate Vista...

It's not grown on me in the slightest.

My latest pet hate to add to the endless amount. Try to recursively delete a directory with the GUI.

So you select your directory, right click Delete and get this

You click continue... You get the next permissions box where you click continue

Then without fail, it comes back to Access Denied.. And the process repeats.

I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT STAND VISTA... It's the worst operating system I have ever used bar Windows ME of course...

I can't be the only one who finds it impossible to delete stuff without having to resort to what I tend to now which is fall back to a CMD box and use del /r /s... 

Oh and let us not mention trying to copy something from a network drive to like c:\program files\.. .Oh no.. you can drag to about 1 or 2 places and then you have to move it from there.

Oh XP.. I love you...

S.

SD-270EKB2 Region Code Unlock

OK, I managed to finally find the right page for unlocking a SD-270EKB2 DVD player.. It's so simple... This is not before I'd burnt a CD with supposed upgraded firmware, tried some various combinations all to no avail.

The route is simply this :

The Hack Procedure:
- Power On
- Open Tray
- Press 9879 0 (0 stands for Multiregion, you may press buttons 1 to 6 to choose a specific region)
- A Message appears stating that "The Reg.No was changed to: [insert whatever region (0-6) you selected here]"

Uninstall Symantec Antivirus 10.x Corporate

Sorry, this is just really useful.. Lines and lines of instructions from symantec however, change one registry key and you can uninstall without the password.

NICE..

Originally Symantec gave me the opportunity to uninstall it but it required a password which I didn't know. The default password was symantec but it would not work. There is a way to remove the password so that you can uninstall Symantec but you need to do some registry editing.

The path is HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\INTEL\LANDesk\VirusProtect6\CurrentVersion\AdministratorOnly\Security

Double click in the right pane on UseVPUninstallPassword and change the value from 1 to 0. You will now be able to unistall Symantec without having to enter a password.

Thanks to GINKY4 who first highlighted this.

My World book software rather intrusive..

I bought, dare I say it from TV advertising but the need for more srdf backup, a pc world 1 GB My world SAN disk and am very happy with it I have to say. Even on ebay, price was about the same,.

What I am peeved with is it is coupled with s/w foooling you into registering and spending... Fuck Off..

It annoys me as much as the PC World Tech Guys, who although are just doing their job, are worse than a double glazing caller.

IMG00231.JPG-live.messenger Infection

Have you had a message via MSN :

tell me is this really you ? http://photogallery.gigacities.net/viewimage.php?

It's a virus which seems to be not detected and spreading very rapidly.. anyway to remove it.

close down messenger to stop any more distributions... Then


Go to start --> run -->
regedit
press return
navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Look for either an entry that has a data value of 'msn.com'

delete that entry.

reboot laptop /pc

once back in windows

go to start --> run
cmd
press return
cd \windows
attrib -r -h -s msn.com
del msn.com

exit

GONE

Nero Support is Crap...

I actually bought Nero 8 but it won't work with my PC.. I eventually got a rather generic reply back to the tune of :

Dear Mr. Bennett,

thank you for your e-mail.

We were able to reproduce the problem and it will be fixed with one of our future updates of Nero 8. The message in the event history log does not have any effect on the functionality of your Nero software. Please be patient a little while until this update is available and kindly excuse any inconvenience.

The Power Calibration Error has nothing to do with this.

Power Calibration is controlled by the recorder. Before any write operation, all recorders must do a 15 step power test to determine the optimum power for writing to the CD; this is called "Optimum Power Calibration"(OPC). And during the write, it continues to do this test to get the best write throughout the whole CD; this is called "Running Optimum Power Calibration" (ROPC). This whole process is controlled by the recorder, though initiated by programs such as Nero. There is an area on the inner part of the CD for the test and test data info to be stored. You can use this area up to 999 times.
So, when you receive the "Power Calibration Error" or "Power Calibration Area full" error message, then the cause will be either poor media, poor Power, or a defective Recorder.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

1)
Update the firmware of your recorder drive:
Please contact the manufacturer of the recorder in order to get the latest firmware for your recorder.
An old firmware can cause compatibility problems as well as burn failures.
Firmware upgrades for your recorder are provided only by the Manufacturer of your recorder. All firmware upgrades and support for upgrading your recorder’s firmware must be provided by either the recorder manufacturer or the OEM you purchased your recorder bundle from. We can not assist you in this, sorry.
Legal disclaimer:
"Nero AG is not liable for firmware updates as these updates are not offered by Nero AG. All updates are performed at one’s own risk. Nero AG will not be liable for the legality of the firmware."

2)
Try another brand of recordables:
Try recordables from different manufacturers, such as TDK, Verbatim, Imation, Yamaha, HP,...
Also contact the manufacturer of your recorder drive and ask for tested and recommended recordables for your recorder drive.

3)
Check power connector:
Also try different power connectors, and for recorders, do not share power with other devices. It needs its own power connector. If this occurs with an external recorder drive, the power source in the chassis should be checked. Take the recorder out of the external chassis, and connect it internal, as a test.

4)
Try different configurations:
Take the CD-/DVD-ROM to the Primary IDE bus as Slave, and have only the recorder connected to the Secondary IDE bus as Master.

5)
Send the recorder in for service:
The optical head of the recorder may have to be cleaned or serviced. Other possible causes are open coils and/or blown diodes/resistors. The only solution here is to send the recorder to the manufacturer for inspection.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Peuker
Nero Support

Yeah right -- Stroke My P...

Enterprise Vault PST Log file Parser

OK, I could not find anything that would check through a EVPM.exe log file and produce a report that lists success / failures of a scripted ingestion of PSTS. So this snippet, basic that it is, does just that.. Lists the PST and whether it was ingested ok.. Doesn't get any more simple than that.



' Processes the _imp.ini file for results
' S.B. Temp Workaround
' 21st November 2007

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
source="log.txt"
noofargs=Wscript.Arguments.Count
if noofargs>0 Then
source = Wscript.Arguments(0)
end if
Set f = fso.OpenTextFile(source, 1, True)
Do While not f.AtEndofStream

decodeline=f.ReadLine
if instr(decodeline,"Processing PST")<>0 Then
decodeline=trim(decodeline)
dec=split(decodeline,":")
decoded=trim(dec(3))
for inl=0 to 18
ignore=f.readline
next
result=f.readline
if instr(result,"success")<>0 Then
result = "Success"
else
result = "Failed"
end if
wscript.echo decoded & " : " & result
end if
loop

BBC - In the Night Garden

In The Night Garden.. I have to confess my 20 month son is transfixed by this every night. He cries when it finishes every night.

But what on earth is it all about ? The weirdest collection of creatures and names all piled together into one program ?

Why it works I have no idea but my son loves it, my friends children love it, there's no other program on TV like it.

PSP Video output to your Monitor (RemoteJoy)

This is very cool I have to say.

http://www.psp-hacks.com/2007/05/17/remotejoy-psp-video-out-via-usb/

And as proof of concept, I have got it working absolutely fine as you can see with a video from my PSP being shown ful screen on my monitor at work. :

Vista is Pony...

I confess I actually paid for Windows Vista Ultimate but am beginning to wish I hadn't..

It's all very well making it look nice but it keeps crashing and I really don't have that much installed on it.

My main grip is Frontpage 2003 which will crash at the same point every time.

Windows is looking for a solution to the problem. yeah right... Never comes up with anything and the problems remain.

The incessant security dialogues that pop up are beyond a joke, you can crash it every time when trying to manipulate big files.. try writing a 2GB file to a live filesystem DVD over a wireless network.. Just sits there for ever getting itself into a twist.

Steer clear.. My own fault for jumping on the wagon too soon... maybe when SP1 arrives, it''ll be better.

S.