It’s safe to say, don’t bother with anything source code build related on pre-dual-core PCs.  That write off Gentoo and Sabayon.  Arch Linux is just painful, the Pacman system and even the installer just suck.  I’m not a newbie by any stretch, but Jesus, put in some effort guys.  Mint 9 is ace, comes with everything from Flash through to MP3 codec wise, the way it should be, but it’s dog slow.

I thought I’d go back to the base, Debian.  Ah yes, I do love Debian, but then I realised that stability came with seriously out of date packages and I do like to be a bit slitting of the wrists on the app front.  Fedora, er, no.  Simple.

That leaves me on OpenSuse.  I tried a net install and on 2mb broadband (I’ve been kicked back from 10mb at the moment for abuse) it’s slow as arse to install at 2hrs.  But, it looks good, it’s stable and you can customise heavily.  I’ll post back how I get on.

Well it turns out that I either didn’t look close enough at the config file, or there’s a serious lack of documentation on this matter. Maybe a little of both (and I tried the IRC channel for #squid on Freenode, idlers galore!).

Well, it’s this simple: I want to connect to a new HTTPS server which I have set the port to as 4444 for Exchange OWA. Squid will give you a configuration error or a not allowed message when you try to proxy to any port other than 443 which is the standard allowed SSL.

To fix this, add your port to the line in the config file:

acl SSL_ports port 443

so it becomes

acl SSL_ports port 443 4444

/etc/init.d/squid3 reload

That’s it, job done.

Rather than worry about certificates, I decided just to open up another port for external and push that through to the new Exchange server. To do this, do the following:

1) On your Router, go to NAT and set port forwarding to be external port 4444 to go to your Exchange servers IP and port 443.

2) On your MSExchange server, open IIS Admin, right click “Default Web Site”, properties. Set the HTTPS port to 4444. Apply, OK. Fire up a CMD window and type “iisreset /restart /noforce”.

3) Open Exchange Management Console, Server Configuration, Client Access, choose the server in the top pane and then open the properties of OWA in the bottom pane. Set the External URL to https://your_ip:4444/owa

Click Apply, OK.

That’s it, you should now be able to navigate to your external IP/owa on port 4444 and open mailboxes on that exchange box without a hitch.

Windows 7 requires an extra profile location created with .v2 splattered on the end of it. For example, John Doe signs up to your company, you create his user and push his profile to:

\\myserver\profiles\john.doe

You set that location in your AD under the profile tab too. You log him in to XP, it’s all cool. He logs in to the Windows 7 pro box and Windows goes “Windows has logged you in with a temporary profile as I’m lame and don’t have a clue.” You check the event log, you get some random crap about it not having rights. Here’s the fix, create:

\\myserver\profiles\john.doe
\\myserver\profiles\john.doe.v2

Give John access rights to both directories and don’t forget to allow System and Administrators those rights too. Now when you log in, Windows 7 will say “Happy days”.

Tada.

I’m not referring to Windows for a change, this time I’m aiming a swipe at Windows 7 Sysprep and the Hell it’s put me through to get it to work correctly. I have total respect for this blog: http://blog.brianleejackson.com

Brian wrote a complete how to for the common man with input from other frustrated IT people. When I stumbled upon this blog I was all ready knee deep in MS documentation regarding Windows PE3 and the Sysprep process. Unlike the MS wording, his is straight cut and doesn’t give you all the crap you don’t need. I worked through his Sysprep guide (v2) and found that it did what it said on the tin. It’s been a great starting point…

Now, I needed to do some additional work to the image where Brian hasn’t. At the end of his tutorial you have a working Windows 7 image that will roll to most hardware, this is great stuff; but I need to join a domain and depending on the location of the PC I need it to go in to different OUs. Inside of the sysprep.xml file I have added all the information required to make it join, but will it? Will it Hell. You gotta love MS, the WAIK DVD you download and install is painful. I don’t mind it too much as it’s all command line based which suits me down to the ground, but when features they write it just plain don’t work you tend to turn grey and start pulling chunks of your hair out.

So, I’ve attached 3 files to this post, my sysprep.xml file with a few bits I’ve removed such as activation keycode and name of my company, you’ll need to add those yourself; my joindomain.vbs script which will join the PC to the domain as the final task of the build process and my SetupComplete.cmd file. Please edit the sysprep.xml in WAIK and set your settings as required.

WAIK Files as Required

http://freesofty.com/review.asp?p=Free_ … iiii_81957

When you open Default Programs applet, and click Set your default programs link, Windows Mail may be missing from the list of programs.

To reinstate Windows Mail entry to the default programs listing, follow these steps:

* Download mailclients.reg from the Attachments section below, and save to Desktop
* Right-click mailclients.reg and choose Merge
* If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation
* Click Yes to continue.

http://www.winhelponline.com/downloadattachment.php?aId=15d07b24bfb57425f1e72018886ed035&articleId=220

problem sorted

The trap I’ve fallen in to is that I am suffering with the amazing Service Unavailable screen on my OWA. The event log is screaming at me with W3SVC-WP errors:

ISAPI Filter ‘C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\\aspnet_filter.dll’ could not be loaded due to a configuration problem. The current configuration only supports loading images built for a AMD64 processor architecture. The data field contains the error number. To learn more about this issue, including how to troubleshooting this kind of processor architecture mismatch error, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=29349.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

—–

Okay, so we know this sucks. Finding the info to fix can be a little tricky so here, fire up a cmd shell and run these 2 lines:

cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 0

%SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i

The first line allows 64bit only, the second reinstalls asp .NET.

Go take a look at your OWA or Exchange web services and they should be back to normal.

ReadyBoost has been called a “gimmick” by many because they misunderstand what it’s supposed to do (see links below). For systems with less than 3GB of RAM, I’ll tell you here and now you can increase the responsiveness of Vista by taking advantage of it.

ReadyBoost is not:

- a replacement for an adequate amount of system memory

- a replacement for the page file (it works in tandem with it)

How Do You Use It?

Open up Computer > right-click on the drive that you want to use and choose Properties > click the ReadyBoost tab > click Use this device > optionally choose how much of the device to use.

tip – Use a USB port in the back of your computer. Yep, I broke a drive sticking out of the front when I bumped into it (dooh!)

ReadyBoost Spec’s & FAQ

Type of drive – USB 2.0 flash drive (often called a thumb drive) or SD card. See: Grant Gibson’s ReadyBoost Compatibility List – http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/

Space needed – min. 256 MB, max 4 GB (because ReadyBoost can compact this data this can yield up to 512 MB and 8 GB respectively)

recommended, ratio 1:1 to 2.5:1 (2 GB RAM would be 2 GB – 4 GB of flash drive)

How many drives can I use? – One (man, I would love to see someone come up with a way to RAID a couple of drives for this!)

Security risk? – No, the data is encrypted.

As a result, you’re unable to create System Restore Points or configure System Restore.
Resolution

This happens if the Turn off Configuration Policy is enabled in your system, either using Group Policy or through registry edit. For standalone Windows Vista systems, use these steps:

Using the Group Policy Editor

If your edition of Windows Vista includes the Group Policy Editor snap-in (gpedit.msc), follow these steps:

1. Click Start, type gpedit.msc and press ENTER

2. Go to the following branch:
Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | System Restore

3. Double-click Turn off Configuration and set it to Not configured.

Note: If the above setting is already set to Not configured, set it to Enabled and click Apply. Then revert back the setting to Not configured, and click Apply, OK.

4. Exit the Group Policy Editor.

Using the Registry Editor

1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER

2. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ SystemRestore

3. In the right-pane, delete the value named DisableConfig

4. Exit the Registry Editor.

Registry Fix

To automate the above setting, download srpol-clear.reg and save to Desktop. Right-click on the file and choose Merge.
More Information

If you set the Turn of configuration option to Enabled, the option to configure System Restore on the Configuration Interface disappears. If the Turn off Configuration setting is disabled, the configuration interface is still visible, but all System Restore configuration defaults are enforced, and the Create button is grayed out. If you set it to Not configured, the configuration interface for System Restore remains, and the user has the ability to configure System Restore.