Image your hard drive with DriveImage XML.

I remember a time when a new computer purchase included the OS disks.  That's becoming a thing of the past.  So what do you do if you want a really good image of your current system in case it crashes?  I recommend creating a drive image using DriveImage XML.

Here's a scenerio of how it works.  Last week I decided to replace the 40 GB HDD in my kid's computer with a   80 GB HDD.  The issue was that I didn't want to start the install process from scratch mainly because I no longer have the original Windows XP cds.  I have no idea where they went to.  So I installed the new 80 GB HDD and simply imaged the 40 GB HDD to it using the Drive to Drive option in DriveImage XML.  Once it completed I removed the main 40 GB HDD and made sure the 80 GB HDD was set to be the main drive.  Worked perfectly.

Another way to use DriveImage XML would be to create an image and put that image on a separate hard drive for back up.  That way if my hard drive crashes I can simple put in a new one and re-image from the back up.  Of course in order to do that you may need to create a bootable cd with DriveImage XML on it.  I recommend Ultimate Boot CD for Windows.

DriveImage XML comes in two flavors.  Free for home and persona use and Pro for commercial use.  I could see where DriveImage XML would be incredibly handy at work where I maintain over 30 computers and 5 servers.  I could create pc images as backups to a central server in case a hard drive goes out.  It's also a great way to get a computer back to it's original "new" state.

Another great feature of DriveImage XML is that you can browse the image just like it's a folder.  Very handy!

Remove programs with Revo Uninstaller

When you install software on your computer you may, or may not, realize that a lot goes on in the background.  Folders are created, registries are made or updated, DLLs are put in hiding places and much more.  That's all ok because that stuff is needed for the program to run.  The issue is what happens to all that stuff if you ever need to uninstall the software?

Well, not everything gets removed during an uninstall with normal uninstallers or even the uninstaller that came with the software.  Sometimes a lot of it gets left behind on your system.  Most of the time that's ok too.  The left overs may never do any damage to your system at all.  However, for me it's a mind game.

After being in the programing field and in computer technology I know what's going on inside my computer better than the average user.  I know there are crumbs and junk left under the sofa cushion...if you know what I mean.  And even though those crumbs aren't doing anything it still bugs me knowing they're there.

That's what I really like about Revo Uninstaller.

With its advanced and fast algorithms, Revo Uninstaller Pro analyzes an application's data before uninstall and scans for remnants after the uninstall of a program. After the program's regular uninstaller runs, you can remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer.

Incomplete or corrupted uninstalls?  I've had those before too.

Revo Uninstaller Pro has a very powerful feature called Forced Uninstall. This feature allows you to remove leftovers of programs that are already uninstalled, incomplete installations and uninstall remnants of programs! It does not matter if the program, you want to remove, is not listed in Revo Uninstaller Pro or in Windows Add/Remove Programs Control Panel applet. Forced Uninstall gives power to the user but still keeps the safety and the accuracy of the results. It is very useful when the installation is corrupted and cannot continue further. 

Once I've ran the first portion of the uninstall I can get much deeper and see what leftovers are there to get rid of.  Does it REALLY matter that every last remnant of a software be removed?  Perhaps not in 99.9% of the  cases. But if you're having trouble uninstalling something it's worth giving Revo Uninstaller a try.  There is a free version available.

LIberkey: 165 free programs.

I love the portable apps movement that's popular right now.  As an IT guy in charge of over 20 computers at work it's nice to have some good software that can be used where you need it.  Yeah, I know it's easier to just create a network drive and access it from each computer. I do that too but for those of you who don't have that kind of access this is a very good solution.

There three flavors of Liberkey.
Basic: 12programs using 120 MB
Standard: 90 programs using 442 MB
Ultimate: 168 programs using 587 MB

I've been using Liberkey Ultimate for a few months now.  It easily fits on a 1 GB flash drive which means I don't have to break the bank to get it portable.  I saw 1 GB drives at Target over the weekend for $5.  I've installed it on a 4 GB drive that I got at Best Buy for $13 so I have room to have additional documents and installations.

Liberkey allows for customized additional software and has it's own "My Documents" where you can store files accessible through Liberkey.  Here's what the default tree looks like. I've added an autorun.inf file which can be created within Liberkey.

 Here is what the Liberkey Tools section contains.

 

This what the main program window looks like.

Ninite.com is a huge time saver!

I recently received two new computers at work. Dell, Intel Core i7 920  @ 2.67GHz running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with 8 GB RAM.  Yeah.  Beasts and I've got one of them now.

So last night I stayed at work late to get my machine all set up and ready to use.  Well, if you've ever had to reinstall more than 30 programs you know what a huge time suck it is.  This is where Ninite.com comes in very handy.  All you have to do is select the software you want installed and click the "Get Installer" button.  Then all you do is sit back and either watch it work or do other things while it runs.

I had 21 programs downloaded and installed without ANY intervention by me.  I was able to install other programs like Office 2007, Adobe Pro 9, Visual Studio 2010 Express and a host of other things while Ninite did it's thing.  Easily saved me 30 minutes to an hour of my time.

Ninite is free and no registration is required.  There is a Pro version for $20 US which may come in really handy if you need to set up more than 2 new computers at once.

Here are some great features of Ninite.com

No Toolbars
Ninite says "No" to toolbars
and other junk.
No Clicking
Ninite automates installers offscreen.
32 and 64-bit
Ninite installs the best version of an app for your PC.
International
Ninite installs apps in your PC's language.
Fast
No manual labor means
installs finish quickly.
And More
Ninite Pro has even more features. Learn more

New template.

I've just changed the design of this blog.  Hope you all like it.

DoS attacks at work?

I installed a new Cisco/Linksys RVS4000 router at work last night. Since then I've been watching the IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) Reports are showing 19 Dos/DDoS attack on our IP within 24 hours.

So in my efforts to help fight crime here is the list of IP addresses. I use Network-Tools.com to trace.

nLite helps with reinstalling my OS.

My work computer has been out of commission for the last 1.5 weeks. The motherboard died. Dell came out and replaced it for me which I'm glad I decided to have them do because, as it turns out, there's more problems with it. I'll be getting a brand new computer with a week or two.

In the mean time I get to use my computer but I had to start fresh with a new hard drive. It's a good thing I made an image cd with nLite.

Have you ever wanted to remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...
How about not even to install them with Windows ?

nLite is a tool for pre-installation Windows configuration and component removal at your choice. Optional bootable image ready for burning on media or testing in virtual machines.
With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install does not include, or even contain on media, the unwanted components.

Features

• Service Pack Integration
• Component Removal
• Unattended Setup
• Driver Integration *
• Hotfixes Integration **
• Tweaks
• Services Configuration
• Patches ***
• Bootable ISO creation

Using nLite to make an image cd BEFORE the emergency was smart. I configured my install cd to include the install of CCleaner, Firefox, Defraggler, Recuva, Mediamonkey and others.

nLite worked so well I will be making install cds for all the computers here in my office. I suggest you at try it out.

Tracking web site statistics.

As you can see I have not had any visitors to this blog since February 2009. I feel lonely.

I use Statcounter.com to help me keep track of the activity of my web sites. Here's how Statcounter.com explains each way it tracts data.

• Returning Visitors - Based purely on a cookie, if this person is returning to your website for another visit an hour or more later. 
• First Time Visitors - Based purely on a cookie, if this person has no cookie then this is considered their first time at your website.
• Unique Visitor - Based purely on a cookie, this is the total of the returning visitors and first time visitors - all your visitors.
• Page Load - The number of times your page has been visited.

Any way you look at it I'm not popular. Statcounter is free and can hide the counter from the web page you decide to place the tracking link on.

Spam is still out there.

One of the most annoying things to deal with in IT is spam. It floods people's inboxes with all kinds of junk and reduces productivity. I've spent A LOT of time dealing with it. We've used GFI and others to try and keep spam out of our office but nothing has worked.

Then I heard about MXLogic from a local company. It's cheap and since we started using it a few months ago we've not had a single spam come through. And since 90% of all email is spam that's a huge help for me and a relief to everyone else.

Extending a USB device.

I started a live web cam steam with Ustream.tv but I didn't like the camera in my face. I had a 2 foot USB extension cable sitting here doing nothing so I decided to extend the extension.

It's easy to do if you have the supplies and skills to do some very basic soldering. I used simple phone cable for the extension material. It works perfect because the phone cable and the USB cable both use 4 wires. All you have to do is cut and strip them. Once you do that it's all a matter of matching the colors as best you can and solder them together. I have a nice supply of items here at work so I used some heat-shrink tubing to make it all nice and neat.

I've read on the Internet that there is a length limit to doing this. I can't recall the number off hand but I (personally) won't make them longer than 100'. After than you may see some line-loss and most simple USB devices (like my web cam) need about 5 volts for power.

I'm pleased with the way this came out but I see that I need a new web cam to get a better picture to feed the masses. TechCrunch.com has a nice stream.

Here's an example of how to run USB through phone lines.

What I did yesterday. Panoramic pictures.

It's been a while since I posted here so I thought I might start back in with a little bit of what tools I needed to get a job done yesterday.

The Job: Merge multiple photos of a field site into a single panoramic view and place it in a figure frame.

The Tools: Konica C450's scanner feature, Pain.net, Acrobat Pro 9 and AutoCAD 2006 LT.

Some of the job was easy because Mike (name used here for story time) had printed out the pictures he wanted and taped them into a panoramic view. I simply scanned the strip into JPG format using the companies Konica C450. Once I had my sections I used Paint.net to merge the

pieces.

Once I had the images digitally I then uesd my mad AutoCAD skills to make a nice figure frame for each photo. Once completed I created PDFs of each figure and combined them into one single PDF file for the client.

Nothing amazingly cool here. I just wanted to show an example of what IT tools I may use during the evolution of a project I've been asked to help out with.

This isn't the first time I've been asked to merge several pictures into one single picture. This is called image stitching and there are better ways to do it than what we've done on this project. Ideally you want to set up a nice digital camera on a tripod to take the pictures. This give a nice center point for all the photos. Take pictures every x-degrees or just make sure each photo overlaps so that the software you decide to use can have a better chance of making a nice photo. I just found Hugin panoramic photo stitcher today. Although I've not used Hugin yet I do plan on testing it within the next week because I'm sure that I'll need to do something like this again in the future.

UPDATE: 5-11-2009 Here's what it looks like. This panoramic picture of the building where I work is comprised of 23 photos stitched together. Click on it to see the full version.

Custom resource cd

A computer's life cycle is about 3 years. That's what I hear anyway. We have some computers here (still working) that are over 5 years old. When we get new computers for users here there is a set of software that goes onto each machine. Acrobat Pro6, Acrobad Reader, In-Out Board, Outlook Messenger, printer drivers, fonts and more.

What I've done in the past is just install these softwares from a network "drive" called Software which, if you think about it, is where all the software is located. Makes sense.

Then I got the idea of creating a cd that has all that stuff on it already. I used to make photo web sites on a locale computer then burn the "site" to a cd and have it autorun when loaded into a cd drive. It was very handy when I wanted to send a bunch of pictures to a relative. they load the cd and up pops a web site that they can browse and see pics of my kids. That was about 10 years ago.

So that's what I did for my Resource CD.

First I needed a web template. There are some great sites that provide open source web templates such as Open Source Web Designs, freewebsitetemplates.com, Open Web Design and a great list at DesignVitality.com.

So I pick a nice CSS design from freecsstemplates.org and rework it to list all the software I need to install on a machine. I also add serial codes to the main "page" to make life easier.

Here's where i had some trouble. I wanted to be able to "run" programs from the html page. I didn't want to be asked where I want to save the file to. I just wanted it to run. After a while of searching the internet I found that all you have to do is rename the index.html file to index.HTA. This will open the file into a different window and allow you to run the files you want.

After I get it looking just the way I want I copy the autorun files from another cd and tweak them to point to the new index.hta file.

I made two versions. One has basic software that is on all the computers here. All the data fits easily on a cd. I made another version that has more software to choose from which needed a DVD to fit it all on to.

Try to download an ISO I made here.

UPDATE: link is broken. sorry.

ZipGenuis does almost everything with compression

You gotta have a compression app these days.  I've been using ZipGenius for years. With 

ZipGenius is the absolutely free software for Windows® that lets you compress files to almost any kind of archive. ZipGenius supports more than 20 compressed archive formats, including CD/DVD-ROM image files in ISO9660 standard. This is the file compression suite you were searching for: it is free and easy to use, plus it supports more than 20 formats of compressed archives, including RAR, ARJ, ACE, CAB, SQX, OpenOffice.org documents and the excellent 7-zip. ZipGenius now can precompress executable files going to be added to a ZIP archive through the UPX compressor.

ZipGenius I can right-click a file (zip or rar is what I deal with mostly) and select whatever I want to do with the contents.  This picture below is a screnschot of the options I have on my machine.

I can do the same with multiple selected files.

ZipGenius is fast and easy to use.  Once you try it you'll love it.

CDBurnerXP Pro is my cd burner of choice

I burn cds almost every day either at work or at home. I prefer CDBurnerXP for several reasons first of which is that it's free. It's also been very reliable.

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

Key Features

• burn all kinds of discs
• audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks
• burn and create ISO files
• data verification after burning process
• create bootable discs
• multi-language interface
• bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Create Data-CDs/DVDs

• burn any Data on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/BD/HD-DVD, including double layer mediums
• burn mp3-CDs to store many audio files on one single disc
• create bootable discs
• verify written Data automatically after burning process
• use either the internal browser to add your files or the intuitive Drop-Box to drag and drop files directly from any Windows Explorer window
• save your compilations for creation of backups
• burn on-the-fly and with buffer-underrun protections
• import previous (ISO 9660) sessions and edit existing file structure on CD/DVD
• quick- and full-erase disc
• copy data discs (possible copy-protection is not bypassed)
• retrieve recorder and disc information

Create Audio-CDs

• create Audio-CDs from mp3, wav, ogg, flac and wma files
• add single or multiple tracks from existing audio-CDs directly to your new compilation without ripping tracks before (add cda-files)
• play audio-files with integrated audio player
• gapless audio-CDs supported (disc-at-once-mode)
• import M3U or WPL playlists
• support for ReplayGain
• import CUE sheets
• create mixed-mode discs

ISO features

• burn ISO files to CD
• create your own ISO files
• convert bin- and nrg-files to ISO
• save CDs/DVDs as ISO file to disc

Other features

• simple cover printing feature for data- and audio-discs
• LightScribe integration
• Command line version
• supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
• integrated option to enable access to drive for restricted users
• multi-language interface
• online update
  

I've created ISOs, burned them, made DVDs, audio cds, data cds, data DVDs, erased rewritable cds and the list goes on. It just does the job and looks great doing it.

The main site is full of great resources and information. Here's the features, the screenshots, the awards, the downloads, the list of compatible drives and the shop.

Password manager KeePass

Keepass is a free tool to help you manage all the password in your life. Here's a better pitch from the main site.

Today you need to remember many passwords. You need a password for the Windows network logon, your e-mail account, your homepage's FTP password, online passwords (like website member account), etc. etc. etc. The list is endless. Also, you should use different passwords for each account. Because if you use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password you have a problem... A serious problem. The thief would have access to your e-mail account, homepage, etc. Unimaginable.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).

Keepass has a HUGE list of features and because it's open source there are 3rd party plugins you can install to extend the functionality of the software.

Oh you want downloads? How about:
KeePass 1.14 (Windows Installer EXE)
KeePass 1.14 (ZIP Package)
KeePass for PocketPC and Smart Devices
KeePass for Linux / MacOS X (KeePassX)
KeePass for J2ME (Symbian, ...)
KeePass for BlackBerry
KeePass for PalmOS (Converter) (also see 2.x To KeyRing)
KeePass for PortableApps Suite™
KeePass 1.14 for U3 Devices
KeePass for Preinstalled Environments (PE)

Need it in another language? 42 languages!!

Screenshots

I suggest that if you aren't currently using a password manager that you download and use Keepass today!

Keeping clean with CCleaner

Keeping junk files out and caches clean is a must for all computers.

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Cleans the following

Internet Explorer Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.

Firefox Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.

Opera Temporary files, URL history, cookies.

Windows Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.

Registry cleaner Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.

Third-party applications Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more...

100% Spyware FREE This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.

You can even take an online tour here and there are plenty of reviews and awards to look at.

I install this on all the computers at work and run it at least once a week on them. This helps keep the internet caches from getting too large and bogging down the computer.

I suggest you install this on your machine and use it every week to keep your computer from getting out of shape.

The Boss got spam attacked!

Monday the 13th. October, 2008. I get into work and my boss calls me wondering why there are some many emails flooding his Inbox informing him that the emails he has sent can't be delivered to the recipient. I take a look at his screen via mRemote and UltraVNC to check out what he's talking about. WOW! He's receiving dozens of emails per minute.

I call an IT consulting company to see if they know what is going on. I send them some emails that my boss is receiving and wait for their answer, which I think I know but want a confirmation from an outside source.

A spammer had gotten a hold of my boss's email address and was using it as the "from" address in all his spams. Of course a ton of the spammer's "to" addresses are bogus due to directory harvesting and are bounced back to the sender...MY BOSS.

How did this happen?

There is more than one reason for this. I will explain 2 of them that are relevant to my boss and his company.

Spammers need legitimate email addresses. One way to get good email addresses in large amounts is to hack a site that allows a person to subscribe to a newsletter. There's tons of good email addresses in those databases which can be as simple as a text file.

Another great way to get a good email address is to post code in your web site such as "mailto:email-address". Spammers run custom software called crawlers to search web sites for such code and glean the email addresses found therein. This can happen when you decide to ignore the IT Guy for several years to change your web site to NOT have this code because he knows about crawlers and what can happen with your email address.

So how did we stop the emails from coming in?

We did nothing. Absolutely nothing. See, spammers know that the emails they send out will be blocked or put on a custom blacklist by the recipient's spam filters. So they don't use them for long. By the end of the day the barrage of emails had stopped.

The Dude: Network Topology

There are more than 20 computers in my network at work and keeping track of who is using which computer and if it's "up" or not is important. Using a Network Topology can be very helpful. I've been using The Dude for 2 years now and I find it increases my network organization 100 fold. It also makes me look really cool when people walk by my office.

(Click image for larger view)

The Dude network monitor is a new application by MikroTik which can dramatically improve the way you manage your network environment. It will automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems

Some of it's features:

• The Dude is free of charge!
• Auto network discovery and layout
• Discovers any type or brand of device
• Device, Link monitoring, and notifications
• Includes SVG icons for devices, and supports custom icons and backgrounds
• Easy installation and usage
• Allows you to draw your own maps and add custom devices
• Supports SNMP, ICMP, DNS and TCP monitoring for devices that support it
• Individual Link usage monitoring and graphs
• Direct access to remote control tools for device management
• Supports remote Dude server and local client
• Runs in Linux Wine environment, MacOSDarwine, and Windows
• Best price/value ratio compared to other products (free of charge)

Scanning your network is a simple as clicking the "Discover" button. This software is very customizable as you can see from the photo above. The Dude is definitely worth looking into.

Recover lost files with Recuva

Sometimes people delete files when they don't mean to. This can happen to anyone. I've installed Recuva on the main file server in an effort to not have to deal with a restore from the backup tapes.

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

Like all other Piriform products (including CCleaner), Recuva is free for both commercial and personal use.

This software isn't much more complicated than it sounds. If a person has deleted a file and lets me know about it as soon as possible I can usually recover it. If, however, the file has been deleted for a few days or longer there is a possibility that the system has written over that file during a defrag or other file write. The sooner you search for a deleted file the better your chances of a full recovery.

There's a nice Wikipedia article about Data Recovery here.

Sharing files with WWW FileShare PRO

At work we have clients that span the globe. Some times we need to share large files much larger than a normal email client can transmit and hold. We're talking about files above 50 megs. Many of our clients are not allowed to install custom programs on their work computers due to their company's IT rules. This makes it impossible to use an online file server. I also didn't want to be in charge of FTP servers and the potential security that can be associated with them. So I use WWW File Share Pro.

WWW File Share Pro is a software that can help you share files with your friends or share files in the office. They can download files from your computer or upload files from theirs. What you need to do is to simply specify a directory for downloads and a directory for uploads. Your friends can download/upload files via browser (IE/Netscape/Opera/etc.) They will not be required to install this software or any other software because an internet browser is enough.

WWW File Share Pro supports password protection (for all directories or for individual directory). If you enable password protection, only authorized user can access your service. This software supports virtual directory and default document. It can be installed as NT service. You can easily customize the html page as your wish. WWW File Share Pro also supports resuming downloads and multiple downloads.

There is also a nice collection of plug-ins here with instuctions on how to write your own plug-ins here.

License for a single user to register WWW File Share Pro on one computer is only $39.95 (USD). You can try a 30 day demo beofre you decide to purchase. I've dedicated an older computer as our FileShare server. I then shared the FileShare Folder with everyone on the network so they can copy files to the directory they desire. I can set up an account for a new client in under 5 minutes.

This method of sharing large files with our clients has worked perfectly. All the end user needs is a browser such as IE, our FileShare web address and their password is emailed to them.