How to run PHP pages on IIS 7.5 or Windows 7

This guide has been updated and rewritten as the easiest way to successfully Configure IIS 7.5 to work with FastCGI and PHP on Windows 7 is to use

Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 from http://www.microsoft.com/web/Downloads/platform.aspx

Why?

The installer does all the hard work

No more downloading PHP then configuring the php.ini file

No more going into your Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and adding a Handler Mapping FastCGI Module

No more going into your System Properties and setting up your Environmental Variables

No more spending endless hours surfing around looking for solutions that help you get it all working (it rarely happens first time)

Forward mail from rediff mail to other email address - Rediff Bug

If you want to forward all your emails from your Rediffmail account to any other email account, simply follow the steps below:

Go to the classic version of your Rediffmail account. This is important else you will get an error

You have not specified any email address to which you would like your emails forwarded

Disable or Stop Auto CHKDSK During Windows Startup

One of Windows annoying so called “feature” is CHKDSK being automatically being run whenever you don’t shut down your computer properly. You get the blue colored screen that says “Checking file system on C: The type of the file system

Excel 2007 slow to open files

I think I am one of thousand people who upgrade MS Office to be MS Office 2007 and got pain for MS Excel to slow open file. It takes more than 1 minute. although there are no any add-in was installed and my file is very small in KBs.

HENCE, MY SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM IS JUST INSTALL AN ADD-IN OF EXCEL 2007. You did not need to install all add-ins. Just install only one add-in and see the effect.

Viewing the disk space usage (size) of all the tables in a SQL Server 2005/2008 database

I spent a couple of hours searching for a script that returns the size of all the tables in a database. Most of the ones that you find use sp_msforeachtable but that is just for one table and you then need to use temporary tables to hold the values.

This article on the Database Journal by Ananth Kumar (AKA MAK) had this handy script that simply works by copy-pasting it as is. Read the linked article for details on viewing the size by schema.

How to Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 7

Hibernate feature allows operating system to save and write the running state and contents of RAM as a file or partition to non-volatile storage such as a hard disk, before powering off the computer. Hibernation allows system to quickly restart and restore to original state when hibernation was invoked, instead of having to close down and start up all the running programs again.

In Windows 7, hibernate option should be enabled and turned on by default, However, if you can’t find Hibernate option in the Start menu power button, the steps to enable Hibernate in Windows 7 is easy, and is the same with Windows Vista.
How to Turn On and Enable Hibernate in Windows 7

Make your own VGA cord of CAT5 cable!

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As most of you know, getting a descent length of VGA monitor cable is a costly thing. With this instructable I'll show you how to make a 15m long VGA cable, out of plain ol' CAT5 network cable.

How to Re-brand Your Zimbra

Zimbra Collaboration Suite is an enterprise-class open source email, calendar and collaboration server. With the most innovative web application available today, Zimbra boosts the productivity of users on any desktop and dramatically reduces TCO compared to legacy platform vendors.
Other key advantages include advanced compatibility with existing desktop email clients, over-the-air sync to smart phones (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry) as well as better server scalability and more efficient administration.
This is an article that  that I have written to highlight some of the areas which one can customize to give the server a better look and feel. Note that you should apply this in compliance with the Zimbra license depending on the version your are using.


a.) To change the favicon:
The favicon is usually located in /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/zimbra/img/logo. You will need to overwrite this with your own icon! Simple!

How to configure Windows 7 to connect it to an iSCSI SAN.

First off, if you are looking for information on how to create your own FREE iSCSI SAN or to connect other operating systems to an iSCSI SAN, checkout the following articles:
Note:
This article assumes that you have already have an iSCSI SAN up and running. Besides that, I assume that you (or your SAN Admin) have already created an iSCSI share on that SAN and that the iSCSI volume has not yet been formatted with any OS /Operating system.
So, you have Windows 7 up and running but what do you do if you want to connect it to either the free SAN IiSCSI or OpenFiler from the instructions above. You could even just want to connect it to an existing iSCSI SAN and your storage admin has already created out a LUN for you.
Now that we have some background, let us configure Windows 7 to connect to an iSCSI SAN…

Configuring iSCSI in Windows 7

To get started, you need to run the iSCSI Initiator that is installed by default in Windows 7. You can access it in a couple of different ways.
One option is to access it through the Windows 7 Control Panel. Once inside control panel, on the address bar navigation, click on All Control Panel Items, then Administrative Tools, as seen in Figure 1.

List of Windows and DOS Command Prompt Environment Variables

Windows and DOS (Command Prompt) have several environment variables which provides a set of dynamic values that points to important system locations or settings. Environment variables provided a way for running programs and batch command script to access the true discrete values, system paths or user management settings for configuration and processing purposes, avoiding the use of hard-coded values which may fail on some systems due to great variety of system configuration.

Tip: Batch file (.bat or .cmd) also uses environment variables to store temporary values for reference later in the script, and also to communicate data and preferences to child processes.
The table lists the common built-in environment variables in Windows operating system, together with their brief explanations and default values. All environment variables is not case-sensitive.

Windows XP: How to load and save sound schemes?

Windows XP store its sound scheme in the registry, under

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\APPEVENTS\SCHEMES\APPS

XP also stores her original .wav files for its sounds under C:\Windows\Media (assuming C is your root drive).

Thus, if you want to export this sound scheme for others, I recommend you follow these steps :

1. Put all your sounds in a single folder, e.g C:\OS_SOUNDS
2. Use Windows XP Control Panel > Sound and Audio Properties > Sound to configure Windows to use the sounds in C:\OS_SOUNDS
3. Export the registry key for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\APPEVENTS\SCHEMES\APPS

At this time, if you copy your C:\OS_SOUNDS to another computer (also under the same C:), and import the registry key you have just exported out, your sound scheme will be able to be transferred.

 

IIS6 : The current identity (NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE) does not have write access

The current identity (NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE) does not have write access to 'c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50215\Temporary ASP.NET Files'.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: The current identity (NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE) does not have write access to 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50215\Temporary ASP.NET Files'.

Transfer your PuTTY settings between computers

PuTTY is tops on the short list of applications I install first on any Windows machine. Over the years I've used PuTTY, I've installed it on a huge number of computers but I've always had one complaint; There isn't a configuration file I can backup or move to a new machine.

Getting all the little comfort settings correct for each SSH connection can be a pain. The third time you set emulation, keys, encryption type, etc. for each machine you regularly access, you lose patience. The fifth time you find yourself re-entering settings you might do what I did, find a better way.

Moving PuTTy settings between computers is an easy task once you know what's involved. We'll find the registry keys where PuTTy stores its configuration information and export them to a file. We'll then use that file we've made to import our configuration on the target machine.

Useful Shortcuts For Windows

RUN command shortcuts
I know there are a lot of people who love using the run prompt or the command prompt rather than using the mmc control, so here are some quick tips that you can use. Enjoy!

Symantec Backup Exec Migrate Data and catalogs to a fresh server or upgrade version of server

This week our backup server had to be replaced. We currently run Backup Exec 11d on Server 2003.  We are in the process of upgrading our servers to server 2008. At this point since there we are two versions behind would it be recommended to just wipe the server and start from scratch with 2008 and BE 2010 or upgrade BE 11d to 2010 and then upgrade to server 2008.

So there will be two options

In place upgrade:
1  : Upgrade BE11d to 12.5 and then to BE2010
2  : Upgrade W2003 to W2008

New Server upgrade: (With Same Name)
1  : On W2003 Server upgrade BE11d to 12.5 and to 2010
2  : On W2008 install BE2010 and migrate BE Databases from W2003 to W2008.

7-Zipping multiple folders to separate/individual zip/archive files

The problem was I had several folders I wanted to zip into individual 7z archives.  7-zip lacks a ‘Add to “*.7z”‘ explorer context for multiple selected files or folders (even though it does include a ‘Extract to “*\”‘).  Nor does this option appear within the application itself or via the command-line.  I seem to recall this feature being available in the Explorer contexts for some ZIP program I once used (I think it was TUGzip), but I wanted to choose quite aggressive compression settings for the archives and I didn’t think this would be achievable except via the command-line.

So using a bit of Google skills I discovered the ‘for… in… do’ batch command.  Which is quite powerful and I’m sure will come in handy again now that I know about it. Coupled with the 7-zip manual I arrived at a batch file with this line in it:

For 7z archive files

for /d %%X in (*) do "c:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a "%%X.7z" "%%X\" -mx=9 -ms=on -md=26 -mfb=256

Configuring Cisco Router as a DHCP server

If you want to configure Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) on PC clients, you currently have multiple options to choose for your DHCP server. One of the more common ways to accomplish this is by using a Windows or Linux server. However, most home networks get DHCP from their DSL or cable router.

Many administrators forget or don't even realize that DHCP is also available on Cisco IOS routers and switches. Keep in mind that DHCP is only available on newer IOS-based switches.

Create Bootable USB Pen Drive for Windows 7

Installing Windows from a USB flash drive has several advantages : First of all, the overall speed of the installation process will increase significantly, carrying a USB stick is much more convenient than a DVD, and finally it becomes possible to install the OS even on those systems that do not have a DVD drive, such as a netbook.

 

In this post, I will show you how to load the Windows installation on to your USB flash drive and make it bootable just like the DVD.

IE9 Printing Problems - Text is garbled when trying to print

Problem with printing some content from Internt Explorer in Adobe 9 Pro. The text is garbled.

Running Windows 7.  Printing an HTML page (not an Adobe Reader view) to the Adobe PDF "printer" (Distiller in Adobe 9 Pro) from IE9 Beta (and now IE9 RC) garbles the text. IE8 and other browsers do not exhibit this behavior. IE9 prints without this behavior to XPS and other printers (PostScript not tested).  Selecting the garbled text in the PDF and then copying and pasting into Notepad produces the same content as seen in the browser, hence a font-substitution issue.

Beat Downadup/Conficker like a Pro

Since there are many websites talked for days about Conficker/Downadup. Today, I have something different especially for system admins.
I've been busy for the last three days, building defense lines around critical servers for one of my customers. The source of infection was due to one lazy user, who has no antivirus installed on his laptop. And it didn't take a long time to start spreading and attacking other systems in the network. We have responded fast, otherwise, we would spend the rest of the day, counting how many critical systems are down.

Windows XP SP3 Setup Error: Access is Denied, Installation did not Complete.

As we all know Microsoft has released the final version of Windows XP SP3 to public and its available via Automatic Updates, Windows Updates and Downloads Center.

Windows XP SP3 RTM Available on Windows Update, Automatic Update and Download Center

You can download the SP3 from the Microsoft website.

A few people are facing a problem while installing SP3. Whenever they try to install it, Windows shows following error message:

Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied.

Programming with MSMQ: and it's installation issues.

MSMQ has already been there for while. Actually it has been here at least 5-6 years (that is only the time I am familiar with it).
The Idea of it is pretty simple:

1. You have an application with some logic.
2. Part of this logic is to perform asynchronous calls to some other application logic.
3. You do not wish that it will affect your performance.
4. The order of handling those calls has to preserve - the FIFO method.

Disassemble a Gateway 610 Media PC (Elonex Exentia)

I was looking to 'fix' my Gateway 610 it stopped booting, or mearly started to freeze up 5 minutes or 40 minutes after boot, mid-video playback. I assumed a background task, or maybe a virus. Soon the reboots messed the boot drive, and sometimes it wouldn't recognise the drive. 

http://www.laptops-we-r.com/610%20MEDIA%20CENTER%20OPENING%20REPAIR.htm