Minimize Downtime for Linux Updates
Anyone who's ever run a production server knows that our users appear to never sleep. Just when you think it's late enough at night that no one will be working, you get a call asking why the server is down.
Set Page Numbering for Multiple Excel Sheets
For the first time I can recall, I had to setup page numbering in an Excel footer. Initially it was driving me crazy that I would set the footer for one tab, but it wouldn't apply to the rest. For a brief moment I thought I would have to set the footer on each page and remember to adjust the numbering.
Fortunately, I decided to Ctrl-click each of the sheet tabs I wanted to number enter page setup and set the footer in the normal Microsoft Office way. Sure enough it worked. Shift-click will also work to select a range. No doubt this also works for other Page Setup options.
This may be common knowledge, but I never needed to do it until today.
Daylight Savings Time Update for Windows 2000
The United States government has changed the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The theory is energy will be saved by starting earlier and ending later. Of course our computers don't know that yet. Unless you fix it, your computer's clock will be off by an hour when you wake up on March 11th.
Make the Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility into a Bootable CD
In September Microsoft released the Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility at their downloads site. The utility fills a void in my software toolbox I've been trying to fill for some time. There are ways to boot into the recovery console and fix the registry but there's never been an easy way and they often don't work. This utility has already saved more than one computer I administer.
The instructions provided with the utility require creating six Windows XP Setup Floppy Disks and then running an installer that copies some files to the sixth disk. To run the program you need to boot from the floppy drive and successively insert each disk until you get to the last one. The program then asks which installation to fix and hopefully fixes it.
I wasn't satisfied with loading six floppies to get the job done. My toolkit only includes one blank floppy. Everything else I need is kept on CDs. If I need a bootable floppy I have images on a CD that I can load to the floppy as needed. So I set out to figure out how to move the utility to CD.
Dual Boot Windows 2000 and Ghost
For some time now, I've been using Norton Ghost to make perfect backups of my computers. The one thing about Ghost that gets old, is you have to boot up to DOS with a floppy disk or CD-ROM in order to make the backup. In addition to requiring a boot floppy, I keep my BIOS set to only boot to the hard drive so I don't accidently boot up a floppy and risk infecting my computer with a virus.
I decided to figure out how to dual boot Windows 2000 and DOS so I can boot up to DOS on the hard drive and run Ghost without popping in floppy disks and changing BIOS settings to allow the computer to boot to the floppy.
Recovering From a SYSTEMced Error
Note: This procedure has been superceeded by the availability of the Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility. Please see my tip on how to make it into a bootable CD and try it before you try this tip.
The Windows 2000 SYSTEMced error occurs when the system can't load the SYSTEM hive of the registry. The reasons include the SYSTEM hive being damaged, missing or too large to load.
The cause I've experienced most often has been the hive being too large to load. The SYSTEM hive has to share 16 MB of memory with several other processes when it is first read so if the hive is 16 MB and the other processes take up 3 MB it just can't be read. Microsoft has instructions for recovering from a hive that gets too large in knowledge base article Q269075. However, I've never been able to recover a system using only the method they specify. Microsoft assumes that the SYSTEM hive is too large because there are a large number of shared resources and their fix is to eliminate the key of the hive with the shares in it.
Cleaning up after Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer leaves pieces of information from browsing all over the place and doesn't clean up after itself when you're done browsing. Whether your concerned about privacy or just don't like having all the garbage lying around, this one's for you.
You use this script at your own risk. I am not a programmer. I just occasionally hack together code that gets the job done. If this script should happen to go wild and hose your computer you've been warned.
Securing Netbios on Windows 98
Microsoft is not known for it's high security practices. As a result most people who run a Microsoft operating system have the security holes already built in. In this tip I'll show how to add just a little more security to your Windows 98 setup.
Securing Netbios on Windows 2000
Microsoft is not known for it's quality security practices. As a result most people who run a Microsoft operating system have the security holes already built in. In this tip I'll show how to add just a little more security to your Windows 2000 setup.
If you are using file and printer sharing or any other service that depends on netbios you shouldn't use this tip. If you are unsure you certainly shouldn't bother.
Creating a Bootable CD-ROM
The directions for making a bootable were never obvious to me so I never did it. One day I decided I wanted a bootable CD and made several coasters in the process of trying to get it right. Hopefully my directions will help you save a couple bucks on blanks.
The directions that follow were written with Adaptec Easy CD Creator in mind. There are many CD burning packages available and there will be variations in procedure.