The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Windows Vista’ Category

Most common error codes during Windows/Microsoft Update

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/25

Finally I found a good list of error codes that you might encounter when doing Windows/Microsoft Updates.

The page is for Windows XP SP3, but the error codes occur in many other update situations as well.

Error code that appears in the WindowsUpdate.log file Error Code description (as it may appear in the Svcpack.log file) Knowledge Base article that describes potential resolutions
0x8007F0F4 STATUS_PREREQUISITE_FAILED 949388
0x80246007 SUS_E_DM_NOTDOWNLOADED 949386
0x8007F003 STATUS_NOT_ENOUGH_SPACE 949385
0x80070005 ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED 949377
0x800706BE RPC_S_CALL_FAILED 950718
0x8007F02B STATUS_NOT_ENOUGH_WITH_UNINST 949375
0x87FF0004 Error_Too_Many_Open_Files 950718
0x8007054F Error_Internal_Error 949384
0x8007001F ERROR_GEN_FAILURE 950718
0x8007F070 STATUS_SETUP_ERROR 950718
0x8007F205 STR_UPDATE_ALREADY_RUNNING 949381
0x8007F004 STATUS_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVS 951244
0x80070001 ERROR_INVALID_FUNCTION 950718
0x80070002 ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND 950718
0x8007F0CC STATUS_KERNEL_NONSTD 327101
0x87FF054F n/a 950718
0x87FF36B7 n/a 950718

Oh and this didn’t solve my problem:

  • REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL
  • REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
  • REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
  • REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
  • REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
  • REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
  • REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL
  • REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL

–jeroen

via:

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

How to make a disallowed-by-default Software Restriction Policy

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/22

Locking down your Windows system even further than the standard restricted user: How to make a disallowed-by-default Software Restriction Policy.

–jeroen

Posted in Power User, Security, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 1 Comment »

How to Set the /3GB Startup Switch in Windows

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/08

Hardly needed any more, but since we are migrating some systems away from Windows Server 2003 x86 but before that need to resolve some capacity issues (and need to get PAE working): How to Set the /3GB Startup Switch in Windows.

–jeroen

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Disabling the Microsoft Security Essentials service by commandline: MsMpSvc

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/01

There are (rare and offline) occasions where you want to want to stop/start the service that provides Microsoft Security Essentials.

A few notes first:

  • Only do this when you are off-line
  • Be sure to enable the Microsoft Security Essentials by starting its service as soon as possible
  • You need to be Admin (and on Vista and up with UAC using elevated security)

This is how: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

START: Start a program, **even if it is not on the PATH** ideal to start various versions of apps from DOS

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/29

A while ago, I had to adapt a DOS app that used one specific version of Excel to do some batch processing so it would support multiple versions of Excel on multiple versions of Windows.

One of the big drawbacks of DOS applications is that the command lines you can use are even shorter than Windows applications, which depending you how you call an application are:

This is how the DOS app written in Clipper (those were the days, it was even linked with Blinker :) started Excel:

c:\progra~1\micros~2\office11\excel.exe parameters
01234567890123456789012345678901234567890
          1         2         3         4

The above depends on 8.3 short file names that in turn depend on the order in which similar named files and directories have been created.

The trick around this, and around different locations/versions of an application, is to use START to find the right version of Excel.

The reason it works is because in addition to PATH, it checks the App Paths portions in the registry in this order to find an executable: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Encoding, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Unicode, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

AkelPad Editor: tiny, and functional. Too bad it steals the Alt-letter keyboard shortcuts

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/25

Just found out about the AkelPad Editor.

It is tiny, has a lot of functionality.

Too bad that Alt+V does not go to the View menu, but is bound to a kind-of-past functionality.

Similar for other Alt+letter combinations in their keyboard shortcuts.

They should have used Ctrl+Alt+letter combinations for it.

So I continue my search for a good, tiny, syntax highlighting and multi-encoding capable NotePad alternative.

–jeroen

Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

in light of the zero-day Java exploits: JRE removal/install tool JavaRa from SingularLabs

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/17

Even though the JavaRa tool is Windows-only, it is a tremendous help scraping old vulnerable versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from your systems and keeping only the fixed versions.

Regular JRE installs from Oracle/Sun will keep the old-and-vulnerable JRE versions.

(note that it seems the recent JRE update did not actually fix the vulnerability, just the exploit, and that a new Java vulnerability might already be exploited. Be sure to keep a watch upcoming Java updates for these).

JavaRa

JavaRa is an effective way to deploy, update and remove the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Its most significant feature is the JRE Removal tool; which forcibly deletes files, directories and registry keys associated with the JRE. This can assist in repairing or removing Java when other methods fail.

JavaRa 2.1 (released 20130116) Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Development, Java, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Getting localized translations of built-in Windows account names

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/12/31

A lot of scripts you find on the internet have hardcoded Windows account names or groups, for instance BUILTIN\Administrators

Those don’t work on many localized Windows versions, as part of the account names have been translated as well. Not only Administrators is translated, but BUILTIN can be translated too. Basically, expect everything in Windows to be translated as part of the localization process.

Some people keep translations lists, but that is not the real solution.

The real solution is that each such group, account or other identifier stems from a SID or Security ID.
Many of those SIDs are the same on any machine, or structured the same within a domain.
Microsoft has a list of these called Well-known security identifiers in Windows operating systems.

That list isn’t in a format most Windows tools use it, so I generated the list below that is more suitable.

The list below is based on a Windows 7 machine. Other versions or editions give slightly different results, but it is a good start.

At the bottom is the batch file that I used to generate this table. That file is adapted from the Microsoft list above.

The batch file depends on a few tools and tricks: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 1 Comment »

SQL Server FineBuild

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/12/21

Interesting; is on my research list to see if the installation process gets easier and more standardized.

SQL Server FineBuild Introduction

FineBuild provides 1-click install and best-practice configuration of SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2005.

–jeroen

via: SQL Server FineBuild.

Posted in Database Development, Development, Power User, Reporting Services, SQL Server, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

batch file example: Redirect stderr and stdout through pipe

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/12/19

I knew that 2>&1 was needed to redirect both stderr and stdout, but for piping, it cannot be at the end of the line. This works in the categories shown at the bottom of the post.

Rob van der Woude again to the rescue in redirection:

(4) Redirecting both standard output and standard error to the same file or device is done by adding 2>&1 to the command line. This will only work in OS/2 and NT, not in MS-DOS.
Where you put 2>&1 is rather critical. It will only do what it is supposed to do when placed at the end of the command line (as Jennie Walker pointed out to me) or right before the next pipe ( | ).

Example: batch file that checks if a few NarrowCast machines are indeed on-line and logged on with the right user.

It uses PsLoggedOn to verify who is logged on, and Explorer to show a hidden share.

The pipe is needed to verify there is indeed a domain user logged on.

@echo off
  for %%m in (Machine1 Machine2 Machine3) do call :show %%m
  goto :pause

:show
  echo %1
  %~dp0PsLoggedOn -L \\%1 2>&1 | find /I "MYDOMAIN\"
  start explorer /e,\\%1\NarrowCast$
  goto :end

:pause
  pause
:end

–jeroen

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 4 Comments »