Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 Breaking Corporate Email

The Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 update was only released yesterday and is a major upgrade for that package. Most users, individual and corporate, tend to apply Office service packs right away as they aren’t released very often and are usually rock solid.

JKontherun reports already seeing in their comments that a number of corporate users are experiencing a major bug in SP2 that affects the ability to access the Global Address Book effectively rendering corporate email useless. One corporate user says the problem went away when Office 2007 SP2 was removed. I suspect we’ll see a rapid fix for this from Microsoft, I’m surprised a bug this big got through to release.

[Via Jkontherun]

huge Offtopic!! or why Pandora shocks me

Sorry for HUGE OFFTOPIC, but some things really drive me nuts !!!

Just now my Pandora web client [Internet streaming music] on my custom created station featuring mostly Hard Rock, Metal and some Alternative Rock played “I kissed a Girl” redo by band called “Attack Attack” –

WTF ??!!!!

 

What the hell pop/dance/crap track is doing there next to Metallica, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Megadeath, Korn, Marlyn Manson and Rammstein ????

Sorry, but Pandora should Double Thumbs-Down for such selections…

Bored SysAdmin’s Blog Gets Google Page rank 2 !!

Whooo !! Please everyone raise your Champaign glasses and let me toast you guys – its was your interest and active participation.

Thank you all – occasional stumblers from Google searches, people how bookmarked my pages, stumbled-upon, spread the word in countless forum posts, included links in their own blogs, post commenters etc…

Too all people who copy&paste stuff from my blog without referencing back to me – thanks, but no thanks. Please be at least courteous to reference back to source.

Google Page Rank 2 is not much, but I think its a good start. This blog has been up almost a year now, and I can’t think of better present – well except one thing:

In right corner of the page there is Donate button and you all welcome to use it to help support the cite and allow to spend more time to improve and add new content. Even as much as $5 would be a welcome addition. As donation volume will improve I’ll consider removing advertisements from site entirely.

Thanks again to everyone and I hope I’ll still have time to blog this year.

Windows 7 natively supports Dual Screen Hi-Resolution Wallpapers

I’m happy to inform you, my dear readers, that Microsoft finally implemented support for dual-screen wallpaper in Windows 7 without the use of tricks like XP’s splitting the image and using Web content controls to displace two separate images on each side.
Windows 7 makes this process a breeze – Simply pick your favorite hi-res picture (in my case 2560x1024 perfectly fit my work dual 17” LCD screens at 1280x1024 each) and select Tile in Picture Position.
That's it!
P.S:
For some great dual monitor 2560x1024 Wallpapers check links below:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~fine/Tech/desktop-images.html
http://www.prowallpapers.com/list/2560x1024/1
http://www.ewallpapers.eu/search_size/2560x1024-Dual-Monitor

Microsoft Windows XP and Network Level Authentication not supported – Real Solution [Not a way around]

Continuing series of my experiences with new Windows 7 I’d like to share solution for one more annoyance artificially created by our dear beloved Microsoft.

What is it Network Level Authentication ?

It’s a new and more secure way to establish RDP connection to remote host and which require less resources prior to completion of authentication process, thus making host more resilient to DDS attacks. Additional layers of encryption [TLS 1.0/FIPS 140-1&2] plus single-sign on  is also a nice add-on.

Rumors have been around about Windows XP Service Pack 3 will enable ability to use NLA to connect to Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2008 Server hosts , but alas the miracle didn’t happened (almost).

Why almost? Because Microsoft did include required files to support NLA or more precisely it’s core component - the new Credential Security Support Provider (CredSSP) protocol, but “forgot” to enable it by default.

Luckily they left back door open to enable CredSSP on XP SP3, but it’s a bit tricky as it involves tweaking Windows Registry.

To enable NLA in XP machines; first install Windows XP SP3, then edit the registry settings on the XP client machine to allow NLA

Steps to Configure Network Level Authentication:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. In the details pane, right-click Security Packages, and then click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type tspkg in new line. Leave any data that is specific to other SSPs, and then click OK.
5. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders
6. In the details pane, right-click SecurityProviders, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type credssp.dll . Leave any data that is specific to other SSPs, and then click OK. (add comma between last entry and credssp.dll)
8. Exit Registry Editor.
9. Restart the computer.

Now when you run remote desktop you will notice that Network Level Authentication is supported. To check this, right-click the top left hand corner of a remote desktop session and choose, Help > About

More info here and here

How to upgrade Window 7 Beta to RC/Retail [rTM] [Updated]

Here’s another fine example how Microsoft hates early software adapters – in order to upgrade to final retail version of newest operating system Windows 7 from it’s beta - MS suggests to downgrade to Windows Vista before upgrade ?! BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Luckily for us they also give us geeks (aka IT experts) there is a way around operating system check during installation and here is the steps according to Microsoft, one will have to perform in order to bypass the OS verification.

Here’s what you can do to bypass the check for pre-release upgrade IF YOU REALLY REALLY NEED TO:

1. Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.
2. Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).
3. Browse to the sources directory.
4. Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.
5. Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).
6. Save the file in place with the same name.

Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed.

These same steps will be required as we transition from the RC milestone to the RTM milestone.

Again, we know many people (including tens of thousands at Microsoft) are relying on the pre-release builds of Windows 7 for mission critical and daily work, making this step less than convenient. We’re working hard to provide the highest quality release we can and so we’d like to make sure for this final phase of testing we’re supporting the most real world scenarios possible, which incremental build to build upgrades are not. At the same time everyone on the beta has been so great we wanted to make sure we at least offered an opportunity to make your own expert and informed choice about how to handle the upgrade.

We’re always humbled by the excitement around the releases and by the support and enthusiasm from those that choose to run our pre-releases. We’re incredibly appreciative of the time and effort you put into doing so. In return we hope we are providing you with a great release to work with at each stage of the evolution of the product. Our next stop is the RC…see you there!

THANK YOU!

–Windows 7 Team

I ‘m going to try the procedure myself once the Windows 7 Release Candidate is out to see how it works.

Update:
I followed my own advice and updated my and my boss’s work pcs from Beta 7000 to RC 7100 without ANY issues. So workaround works. Confirmed.

Windows Server Administration Tools For windows 7 [Updated]

In case you got used to have DSA.MSC and DSite.MSC tools on you Windows XP workstation to manage Microsoft Windows 2003 Servers, and can’t live without them on your new Windows 7 Beta, unlike Windows Vista with got crappy batch file to fix broken install, Windows 7 gets its own Server Administration Package called:

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows  7 [RC]

Which is basically same thing, but fully compatible to Windows 7. 
Remember after finishing download & install, go to Control Panel/ Programs and features / “Turn Windows Features on or off” and Enable the tools you want from “Remote Server Administration Tools selection.

Enjoy!

P.S: Microsoft provided versions for both 32 and 64 bit systems.
P.S.S: I tried to install Adminpak.msi for Vista and fiddle with settings/permissions – Nothing really works – Don’t waste your time.

Update:
Original link was pointing to RSAT for beta, since then the tools updated for RC version.

Windows 7 (and Vista) Accelerated Wheel Scrolling Problem

Me and my boss decided to give Windows 7 Beta a test ride and the results are very positive for now, except very few small annoyances and one of them, like one mentioned in the title I’ll talk today.

Both Vertical and Horizontal scrolling works, but they weren’t accelerated. Not a huge deal, but once you had it working fine in Windows XP – I see no reason to give up and readjust.

It appears the problem can appear both in Logitech and Microsoft mice products and their corresponding drivers in current versions. Tweaking the settings 100 million times were fruitless, but as always solution was found on forums:

http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/970194.htm#post4332525

In short version the idea is to switch your mouse driver with different one.

The solution worked perfectly, with only difference – I picked the Microsoft Sidewinder mouse, which is a perfect button wise match to my Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0  mouse, so I got all buttons to work plus I didn’t loose my horizontal scrolling – which I have to admit use very rarely.

P.S: Apparently the this way around applies only for Microsoft devices and its driver. Sorry Logitech owners…

If you found different fix and/or way around – don’t be shy and share with all of us