Wednesday, August 25, 2010

System Preventive Maintenance Guidelines



After a long time Faizu Baba is back again with some of the guidelines so that people can take proactive actions to avoid system crash.

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance refers to carrying out measures to prevent problems from occurring, in contrast to corrective maintenance, which seeks to solve an already-existing problem. In the long run, preventive maintenance saves time and money, protects your data, improves computer performance, and prolongs computer life. These are accomplished by considering and planning for the risks involved in working with computers (e.g. data loss, hardware failure). Preventive maintenance can be classified into following:

1. Hardware Maintenance
2. Software Maintenance

Hardware Maintenance


Hardware maintenance encompasses preventive maintenance of following items:


Clean the case: Wipe the case and clear its ventilation ports of any obstructions. Compressed air is great for this, but don't blow dust into the PC or its optical and floppy drives. Keep all cables firmly attached to their connectors on the case.

Maintain the mouse: When a non-optical mouse gets dirty, the pointer moves erratically. Unscrew the ring on the bottom of the unit and remove the ball. Then scrape the accumulated gunk off the two plastic rollers that are set 90 degrees apart inside the ball's housing. Similarly when an optical mouse gets dirty clean its bottom protrude edges

Keep a keyboard neat: Turn the keyboard upside down and shake it to clear the crumbs from between the keys. If that doesn't suffice, blast it (briefly) with compressed air.

Make your monitor sparkle: Gently clean the screen with a standard glass cleaner, such as Glint, and a lint-free cloth.

Check your power protection: Do not connect power sources directly into wall outlets but rather connect them first to some form of surge protector. Surge protectors prevent electrical surges from destroying hard drives and erasing data.
Swipe your CD and DVD media: Gently wipe each disc with a moistened, soft cloth. Use a motion that starts at the center of the disc and then moves outward toward the edge. Never wipe a disc in a circular motion.

Clean the CD-ROM drive: Clean the laser. One can use cleaning media for this purpose. Many programs are installed corrupted from a dirty CD reader.

Give an Air Below: Give the system an air below in around 4-6 months. However, if the computer is operates in a dusty environment, it should be cleaned more frequently. But before give it an air below do not forget to unplug all the connections inside and outside the CPU. Also put emphasis on the slots of all cards and RAM banks.

Change of CMOS: If your system is 4-5 years old then it is recommended to change your CMOS or you can do it when the system asks to do so.

Swipe the RAMS and Cards: Gently wipe the dust from the RAM and all other cards by using an eraser and Tissue paper. Check rams with utility called memtest86 (but it is a time taking activity) (http://www.memtest.org/)

Periodic Checkups: Also check the hardware with some hardware diagnostic utilities like
• #1-TuffTEST-Lite™ PC Diagnostic (http://www.tufftest.com/tt01-lite.htm)
• Sandra Standard (http://www.softsea.com/review/SiSoft-Sandra-Standard.html)

Periodic Checkups of HDD: Always check the hard drive status by scandisk, chkdsk and by enabling S.M.A.R.T option in BIOS.

Hardware Upgrades: Proactively upgrade the hardware by forecasting the upcoming needs. Before installing any software also check its minimum hardware requirements and act accordingly.

Software Maintenance


Firmware Upgrades: Check the vendor’s website for latest firmware version for the system. It is recommended to upgrade the firmware if the vendor suggests it as a critical update or the system is generating issues.

Driver Update: Always keep the system up to date with latest drivers from vendor’s website so the system can work more efficiently.

Windows Service Pack Upgrades: Check the vendor’s website time to time for latest service packs of Windows and update the systems with it.

Windows Update: After updating the service just not finishes the task, one should download and install the windows updates time to time from Microsoft’s site (http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us). So the system becomes updated with latest fixes, malicious software removal tool and etc.
Get rid of Temporary files: If the system has multiple profiles on it and expose to internet very frequently then it must contain temporary files that occupies lots of disk space and cache which cause slow performance. So periodically empty all the temporary internet files, files in Recycle Bin, C:\Windows\Temp, C:\Windows\Prefetch and the temporary folder in user’s own profile. Do not forget to remove files with a tilde (~).
To do it more easily and efficiently use a tool called CCleaner which can be downloaded from following URL (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner).

Delete .zip files: Users unzip files on their system and leave the zip files which occupy the space on disk.

Set Swap files: By default, Windows automatically adjusts your swap file's size to meet its needs. A nearly full hard disk squeezes your swap file, and this can lead to sluggish performance or sometimes a system crash. Freezing the swap file's size may increase system performance because Windows no longer has to adjust the file size, but it also increases your PC's risk of running out of memory. So it is recommended to save only important data (frequently needed data) as permanent.

Remove Old Programs: Periodically remove all unnecessary programs, like games, old versions of same utilities / softwares and etc. For un-installation one can use windows add/remove program utility but it leaves orphaned registry keys so more effective way is to do this by a utility named Revo-Uninstaller (http://www.revouninstaller.com/). This utility not only removes the program but also its registry values.

Registry cleaning: Adding and removing system components leaves orphaned entries in the Windows Registry. This can increase the time your PC takes to boot and can slow system performance. So, one should run registry cleaner periodically. Some good registry cleaning tools are
• RegistryDrill (http://www.easydesksoftware.com/regdrill.htm)
• RegistryCleaner(http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_clean/registry_cleaner.htm)

Disk Defragment: Windows stores files on a hard drive in rows of contiguous segments, but over time the disk fills and segments become scattered, so they take longer to access to keep the disk in shape run Windows' Disk Defragmenter utility. But defragmentation does not defragment swap files so doing it more efficiently use a utility named Defraggler (http://www.piriform.com/defraggler) it will defrag swap files as well.

Removal of duplicate files: Users mostly create multiple copies of same files to avoid so by removing them one should save lots of space on HDD for this use following utilities:

• Auslogics' Duplicate File Finder (http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Duplicate-File-Finder/3000-2248_4-10964299.html)
• Duplicate Cleaner (http://download.cnet.com/Duplicate-Cleaner/3000-2248_4-11309622.html)

Avail system’s best performance: Always use system on best performance. For this move right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click Advanced, and then choose the Settings button under Performance now select “Adjust for best performance”.

Startup Programs: Remove all unnecessary programs from startup. For this move on Start → Run → type msconfig now move on to startup tab and uncheck all unnecessary programs.

Check for memory Leaks: Always keep an eye on the memory leaks. For this one can use system monitor or sysinternal’s utility called Process Explorer which can be downloaded from here (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx).

Antivirus update: Always keep update the antivirus with latest definitions.

Antispyware & Antimalware: Today viruses are not the only risk so keeping update with antispyware and antimalware enables system work more effectively & efficiently. Antispyware and antimalware are as follows

• Malewarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org)
• SuperAntispyware ( http://www.superantispyware.com/)
• Hitmanpro's Surfright (http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro)

Data Placement: Educate the user to place data on his secondary partition and create its shortcut on the desktop. This will also make system faster as C: drive only use for installed applications.

Data Backup: Educate the user to place his/her important data on server and on network shares or in home directory. So they should be on minimum risk.

Monday, May 17, 2010

How to Reset BIOS password

Hello friends, I am here with one of the most craziest problem's solution which is BIOS passwords. Mostly people set passwords on Bios and somehow they forgot those and put themselves in the fix. Now here is the solution for password reset.

Here i am going to tell you the password reset process by following ways:

1.Resetting the BIOS Password using Hardware
2.Resetting the BIOS Password using Software
3.Using a Backdoor BIOS Password
4.By vendor specific solution

Resetting the BIOS Password using hardware

In this process we use the traditional ways of password resetting. As we all know the BIOS password is stored in CMOS memory that is maintained while the PC is powered off by a small battery, which is attached to the motherboard. If you remove this battery, all CMOS information (including the BIOS password) will be lost. You will need to re-enter the correct CMOS setup information to use the machine. The machines owner or user will most likely be alarmed when it is discovered that the BIOS password has been deleted.

On some motherboards, the battery is soldered to the motherboard, making it difficult to remove. If this is the case, you have another alternative. Somewhere on the motherboard you should find a jumper that will clear the BIOS password. If you have the motherboard documentation, you will know where that jumper is. If not, the jumper may be labeled on the motherboard. If you are not fortunate enough for either of these to be the case, you may be able to guess which jumper is the correct jumper. This jumper is usually standing alone near the battery. If you cannot locate this jumper, you might short both of the points where the battery connects to the motherboard.
If all else fails, you may have to clear the BIOS password by resetting the RTC (Real Time Clock) IC (Integrated Circuit) on your motherboard.

Many RTC's require an external battery. If your RTC is one of this type, you can clear the BIOS password just by unsocketing the RTC and reseating it.

RTC's which require external batteries include:

* Dallas Semiconductor DS12885S
* TI benchmarq bq3258S
* Motorola MC146818AP
* Hitachi HD146818AP
* Samsung KS82C6818A

Most RTC chips with integrated batteries can be reset to clear the BIOS password by shorting two pins together for a few seconds.You can discover how to reset the BIOS password stored in most RTC (Real Time Clock) chips by reading the manufacturers data sheet for that RTC. Some RTC's, like the Dallas DS1287 and TI benchmarq bq3287mt cannot be cleared. The solution to resetting the BIOS password on systems with those RTC's is to purchase a replacement RTC chip.

Resetting the BIOS Password using Software

Many software also provide the functionality to resetting the password as we know every system must store the BIOS password information somewhere. If you are able to access the machine after it has been booted successfully, you may be able to view the BIOS password. You must know the memory address where the BIOS password is stored, and the format in which the BIOS password is stored. Or, you must have a program that knows these things.

You can write your own program to read the BIOS password from the CMOS memory on a PC by writing the address of the byte of CMOS memory that you wish to read in port 0x370, and then reading the contents of port 0x371.

!BIOS will recover the BIOS password for most common BIOS versions, including IBM, American Megatrends Inc, Award and Phoenix.

CmosPwd will recover the BIOS password for the following BIOS versions:

* ACER/IBM BIOS
* AMI BIOS
* AMI WinBIOS 2.5
* Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0
* Compaq (1992)
* Compaq (New version)
* IBM (PS/2, Activa, Thinkpad)
* Packard Bell
* Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0 (1994), a486 1.03, 1.04, 1.10 A03, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107
* Phoenix 4 release 6 (User)
* Gateway Solo - Phoenix 4.0 release 6
* Toshiba
* Zenith AMI

Using a Backdoor BIOS Password
Some BIOS manufacturers implement a backdoor password. The backdoor password is a BIOS password that works, no matter what the user sets the BIOS password to. These passwords are typically used for testing and maintenance. Manufacturers typically change the backdoor BIOS passwords from time to time.
AMI Backdoor BIOS Passwords

Reported AMI backdoor BIOS passwords include A.M.I., AAAMMMIII, AMI?SW , AMI_SW, BIOS, CONDO, HEWITT RAND, LKWPETER, MI, and PASSWORD.
Award Backdoor BIOS Passwords

One reported Award backdoor BIOS password is eight spaces. Other reported Award backdoor BIOS passwords include 01322222, 589589, 589721, 595595, 598598 , ALFAROME, ALLY, ALLy, aLLY, aLLy, aPAf, award, AWARD PW, AWARD SW, AWARD?SW, AWARD_PW, AWARD_SW, AWKWARD, awkward, BIOSTAR, CONCAT, CONDO, Condo, condo, d8on, djonet, HLT, J256, J262, j262, j322, j332, J64, KDD, LKWPETER, Lkwpeter, PINT, pint, SER, SKY_FOX, SYXZ, syxz, TTPTHA, ZAAAADA, ZAAADA, ZBAAACA, and ZJAAADC.
Phoenix Backdoor BIOS Passwords

Reported Phoenix BIOS backdoor passwords include BIOS, CMOS, phoenix, and PHOENIX.
Backdoor BIOS Passwords from Other Manufacturers

Reported BIOS backdoor passwords for other manufacturers include:


Remember that what you see listed may not be the actual backdoor BIOS password, this BIOS password may simply have the same checksum as the real backdoor BIOS password. For Award BIOS, this checksum is stored at F000:EC60.

Vendor Specific Solutions for Resetting the BIOS Password

Most vendors provides their own solutions for password resetting like

Dell soluiton

Dell Dimension BIOS Password Recovery

The BIOS password may be cleared from a Dell Dimension by moving the password jumper on the motherboard.

The location of the password jumper on a Dell Dimension motherboard can be found by reviewing the Dimension User Guides.

For most Dell Dimension desktops, the steps to reset a BIOS password and clear all CMOS settings are:
* Locate the 3-pin CMOS password reset jumper on the system board.
* Remove the jumper plug from pins 1 and 2.
* Place the jumper plug on pins 2 and 3 and wait approximately 5 seconds.
* Replace the jumper plug on pins 1 and 2.

Dell Optiplex BIOS Password Recovery

The BIOS password may be cleared from a Dell Optiplex by removing the password jumper (PSWD) from the motherboard.

The location of the password jumper on a Dell Optiplex motherboard can be found by reviewing the Optiplex User Guides.

For most Dell Optiplex desktops, the steps to reset a BIOS password and clear all CMOS settings are:

* Locate the 3-pin CMOS password reset jumper on the system board.
* Remove the jumper plug from pins 1 and 2.
* Place the jumper plug on pins 2 and 3 and wait approximately 5 seconds.
* Replace the jumper plug on pins 1 and 2.

Dell Inspiron BIOS Password Recovery

Each Dell Inspiron has a master password which will clear the BIOS password. You can get this number by calling Dell Technical Support at (800)624-9896.

Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Inspiron.

If you were not the original owner of the Inspiron, Dell will transfer registration of the used Inspiron from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop.

To transfer the registration of a used Dell Inspiron, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

Dell Latitude BIOS Password Recovery

Christophe Grenier has written a program that will calculate the master BIOS password for Dell Latitudes from the Service Tag number. That program is available at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~skynet/zips/latitude.exe.

If you cannot boot your Latitude to run this program, you can get the master password for your Dell by calling Dell Technical Support at (800)624-9896.

Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Latitude.

If you were not the original owner of the Latitude, Dell will transfer registration of the used Latitude from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop.

To transfer the registration of a used Dell Latitude, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

IBM solution
An IBM ThinkPad laptop can have three hardware passwords set:
* Power-On Password
* Hard Disk Password
* Supervisor Password
Power-On Password

RT/CMOS RAM has 8 bytes reserved for the power-on password and the check character. The 8 bytes are initialized to hex 00. The microprocessor can access these bytes only during POST. After POST is completed, if a power-on password is installed, the password bytes are locked and cannot be accessed by any program.

During power-on password installation, the password (1 to 7 characters) is stored in the security space.

Installing the password is a function of the built-in system program Easy-Setup. The power-on password does not appear on the screen when it is installed, changed, or removed. After the power-on password has been installed, it can be changed or removed only during POST.

Hard Disk Password

The hard-disk password (HDP) protects the data on your removable hard disk drive from being accessed by unauthorized persons.

Supervisor Password

The supervisor password protects the system information in Easy-Setup from being changed by unauthorized persons.

How to Reset an IBM ThinkPad Power On Password using Software

If you can boot the IBM ThinkPad, KeyMaker will recover the BIOS password.

How to Reset an IBM ThinkPad Power On Password Using Hardware

If you cannot boot the ThinkPad, you will have to reset the IBM ThinkPad password via hardware.

If only the power-on password is set, do the following to remove the power-on password.
1. Power off the computer
2. Remove the DIMM cover on the bottom side of the computer.
3. Short-circuit the two password pads or put a jumper on the contacts to short the circuit.
4. Under the short-circuit condition, power on the computer and wait until the POST ends. After the POST ends, the password prompt does not appear. The power-on password is removed.
5. Reinstall the DIMM cover.

If both the power-on password and the supervisor password are set, do the following to remove the passwords:
1. Power on the computer by pressing and holding F1.
2. Enter the supervisor password. The Easy-Setup menu appears.
3. Click on the Password icon.
4. Click on the Power on icon.
5. Enter the supervisor password and press the Space bar.
6. Press Enter twice.
7. Click on Exit; then click on Restart.

Toshiba's Solution

Older Toshiba laptops can be convinced to boot without their power-on BIOS password by attaching a dongle to the parallel port which crosses a number of the pins. The pin out is:

Pins
1-5-10
2-11
3-17
4-12
6-16
7-13
8-14
9-15

Acer Solution
If you can boot the Acer, you may be able to reset the BIOS password using Acer eSettings Management.

* Click the Start button
* Click the All Programs menu item
* Click the Empowering Technology menu item
* Click the Acer eSettings Management menu item
* Once inside Acer eSettings Management, click the Security button.

Sending Your Computer to Acer to a BIOS Password Reset

Acer refuses to assist customers with BIOS password issues. The only option they will discuss involves sending them your laptop and paying a $100 fee.

Resetting an Acer BIOS Password Using Hardware

If you cannot boot the Acer and don't want to send your computer back to Acer for an unknown amount of time, you can try to reset the BIOS password via hardware.

you can reset the Acer BIOS passwords by simply opening the notebooks and removing the CMOS batteries for 30 minutes.

Once your BIOS password is removed, you will need to press the key during POST (Power On Self Test) to enter the Acer BIOS setup.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

How to Shutdown or restart the remote system autometically

People from here, there and everywhere do not fear because Faizu Baba is here. As you all know that this blog always try to help you resolve your technology related issues. So I am back with another resolution. One of my friend asked me for a scheduled PC shutdown or restart. For which i have made a script which will help you schedule your shutdown or restart.

@ECHO OFF
PING 192.168.0.1 |FIND /I "TTL">NUL
IF NOT %ERRORLEVEL%==1 (
SHUTDOWN -s -f -m \\192.168.0.1 -t 60 -c "To abort system auto shutdown Click Start -> Run -> Cmd.exe -> OK -> shutdown a [Hit Enter]" >>C:\ShutResult.txt)
EXIT /B 0

What above script do is firstly it pings the system with stated IP address and when it will get the reply then this script will automatically shutdown this. But keeping this thing in mind that may be a user is using this system I have placed a comment that how to abort this process.
Now what you need to do is just copy and paste this script save it with a name shut.cmd or shut.bat. Now schedule this with windows task scheduler on any system and enjoy remotely shutdown of a system.

Note:
If you want to schedule a restart then just change the -s switch to -r and this script becomes the scheduled restart script.
This script is for remotely shutdown or restart the system.

After writing this script you have schedule it on windows task scheduler for which you have to follow following steps.
To open Scheduled Tasks, click Start, click All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Scheduled Tasks.

To schedule a new task:

1. Double-click Add Scheduled Task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard, and then click Next in the first dialog box.
2. The next dialog box displays a list of programs that are installed on your computer, either as part of the Windows XP operating system, or as a result of software installation.

Use one of the following procedures:
* If the program that you want to run is listed, click the program, and then click Next.
* If you want to run a program, script, or document that is not listed, click Browse, click the folder and file that you want to schedule, and then click Open.
3. Type a name for the task, and then choose one of the following options:
* Daily
* Weekly
* Monthly
* One time only
* When my computer starts (before a user logs on)
* When I log on (only after the current user logs on)

4. Click Next, specify the information about the day and time to run the task, and then click Next.

Note that the information about the day and time to run the task vary depending on the selection that you made in the previous wizard dialog box. For example, if you chose Weekly, you must indicate the day of the week, the time, and if the task should run every week, every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, and so on.
5. Type the name and password of the user who is associated with this task. Make sure that you choose a user with sufficient permissions to run the program. By default, the wizard selects the name of the user who is currently logged on.
6. Click Next, and then click Finish after you verify the choices that you have made.

Now leave all the things on the script.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

How to convert Bulk Office 2003 files to Office 2007 format

Hello, my friends. Today what I am going to tell you is a very good tweak. Most of us are using MS office 2007 and facing this issue that files with Office version 2003 takes too much time to be converted in office 2007 format. But when Faizu Baba is here do not fear. The solution is Migration Manager. It is a free tool from Microsoft that was designed for administrators to work with Office 2007 files. However, anyone can use it as it is quite handy in use but if someone follow the directions below. There are some commands you have to type into the command prompt.
First download the Migration Manager tool and extract it to a folder on your hard drive, i.e. C:\Convert. Next download and install the Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Now go to the C:\Convert\Tools directory and open the ofc.ini file in Notepad.


Find the path below in the INI file:

fldr=C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents


Now replace the current path in the file with your desired path and also remove the semi colon sign ";" written before the path. Actually this path that you enter above will be the path that the program will look into for all of the files you want to convert to Office 2007. You can also enter a server share if you have documents stored on the network:

fldr=\\server\share\docs

By default, the program will go through the directory and all sub-directories and convert all Word files (doc to docx), Excel files (xls to xlsx), Powerpoint files (ppt to pptx), Access databases, MS Project files, and Visio diagrams.

In order to run the program, you have to open the command prompt, Start – Run – type in CMD, and navigate to c:\convert\tools\. You can do this by typing in CD C:\convert\tools or whatever your path is.
Now type in the command ofc.exe and press Enter. The program will automatically begin converting the old Office XP and 2003 files to Office 2007 and give you a summary report at the end.
If you have other documents in the folders that are already in Office 2007 format or that are PDF’s, etc, don’t worry, the program will just skip over that files and not convert it. The path where your converted files are now as follows
C:\Documents and Settings\User name\Converted\ORIGINAL_PATH_NAME
User name = Your current user name under which this activity is perfomed
ORIGINAL_PATH_NAME= The folder name on which you have run this utility

Note that your original files are not touched or modified in any way, so you can rest assured that your files will not be damaged or lost in the conversion process. Overall, it’s a simple and fast way to convert many Word 2003, Excel 2003 and Powerpoint 2003 files to Office 2007 format. Enjoy!

Downloads required for this conversion
Migration Manager
Office Compatibility Pack

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Backup, Restore and Sync your Bookmarks

Friends, as you know that this blog keeps you inform about new technologies, softwares and etc. So Faizu Baba is here with another amazing information.
As we all are aware that Bookmarks play an important role in our daily life due to we search a lot of websites over internet and frequently and make them our bookmarks but the problem is we have multiple bookmark lists like one at home and second one at office and most of all both of them contain different list of websites due to this everyone of us wonder that there should be a way to sync them. Now the good news is, there is a solution called "XMARKS".

"XMARKS" is an addon which provides following funtionalities

1. Smarter Search
Xmarks will highlight the 3 top sites in your Google results based on how many people have bookmarked them. Simply move your mouse over the site info icon to learn more about that site.

i.Get site info before you click on a link
Simply move your mouse over the site info icon to learn more about that site. Xmarks shows you bookmark popularity, average review, related topics and more.
Click through to Xmarks.com and discover more!
Clicking on GET SITE INFO shows you lots more on Xmarks.com. Discover similar sites, read user reviews, and even write your own.

2. Site Info built into your browser

i. Start with any web site
Enter the address of a web site and click the blue GET SITE INFO button to get started.

ii. Get Site Info


Xmarks helps you quickly assess how good a site is and what it’s about. The bookmark icons indicate how many other people have bookmarked this site; the stars indicate the average user review. The list of topics help describe the site and are clickable to discover other sites within that topic.

iii. Discover Similar Sites
Xmarks uses the power of hundreds of millions of bookmarks to automatically uncover similar sites. Now you can leverage the research of millions of users to help find the best sites on the Web.
Read Reviews
The description of a web site doesn’t always tell the whole story. Now you can read user reviews and see a more complete picture. If you have experience with the site, you too can easily write a review and leave your mark!

Click on the Xmarks info icon in your location bar to see detailed information about the site you are on, and discover other great sites just like it.

3. Sync and Backup


Install Xmarks on each computer you use, and it seamlessly integrates with your web browser and keeps your bookmarks safely backed up and in sync.
Xmarks will sync across browsers too. Today it support Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari (Mac OS).

i.Every change is backed up


Whenever you add, delete or edit a bookmark, Xmarks will automatically backup the changes on our servers and store them for six months.
To view and restore past bookmark collections, visit my.xmarks.com.
Then select "Tools" > "Explore and Restore Old Bookmarks" to get started.

ii.Explore & Restore details


Pick a backup collection to view its contents, export it to an HTML file or restore those bookmarks back into your Xmarks account.
Use this feature to undo mistakes when managing your bookmarks, or to recover deleted bookmarks that you later realize you need.

Friday, February 19, 2010

How to prevent your mobile data loss in case of snatching

Folks,today what i am going to tell you is a wonderful site named "RSEVEN". Most of us encountered with mobile theft or mobile snatchers. As we all are aware that mobile phone is our most personal device; it is with us most of the time that's why it contains very important data regarding our daily activities; calls made, text received, pictures taken, contact, emails and etc so this theft or snatching not only cause our financial loss but loss of our valuable data as well.
So whenever we lost our mobile. We are really in merciful situation because we not only lost our precious data but become isolated from our entire gathering.
Now the question is that how to prevent our data loss because this is the only thing we can do in such situations. The answer is "Rseven.com". By this site you can create backup of your mobile data even record your incomming and outgoing calls voice and voice mailbox as well. When you backup and sync your mobile to Rseven, the Rseven.com website will show those activities in a Timeline format and displays the strength of your relationships with the people that you communicate with and by which whenever you want to restore your activities you can in the chronological order.

For further reference i am attaching this video.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Find Computer name through username

If you want to search computer name of a system on network through its username what you have to do is copy this script and paste it on notepad save it with any name but extension should be .bat or .cmd forexample: "username.cmd"


@ECHO OFF

:GETUSERNAME
ECHO.
SET UName=
SET /P UName=Enter Username for %USERDOMAIN%:
IF [%UName%]==[] (
ECHO Please provide username.
CALL :GETUSERNAME)

NET USER "%UName%" /DOMAIN 2>NUL>NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (
ECHO Username not found in Active Directory.
GOTO :GETUSERNAME)

ECHO Please wait... &ECHO.
FOR /F "delims=\\ " %%c IN ('NET VIEW ^|FIND "\\"') DO (
PING -n 1 -l 10 -w 100 %%c |FIND /I "TTL" >NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 (
REG QUERY "\\%%c\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultUserName |FIND /I "%UName%" >NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 ECHO %UName% is logged onto %%c))

ECHO.
PAUSE
FOR /L %%v IN (1,1,24) DO ECHO.
PAUSE


:ENDSCRIPT
EXIT

Sunday, January 3, 2010

How to rename an existing Domain with child

Friends, this post of mine is for Network administrators, IT Manager and System Administrators, today i am going to discuss how to rename a running domain with multiple childs. You people can have such guides on microsoft's official website but here i am going to explain this procedure in a bit easier way.
First we have to know the requirements for Domain rename procedure:

Domain Rename Requirements

1.Forest functionality: You can rename domains only in a forest where all of the domain controllers are running Microsoft® Windows® .Server 2003 Standard Edition, Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, or Microsoft® Windows® Server 2003 Datacenter Edition operating systems, and the Active Directory forest functional level has been raised to Windows Server 2003.

2.Administrative privileges: The domain rename procedure requires Enterprise Admins privileges to perform the various steps in the procedure.

3.Control station: The computer to be used as the control station for the domain rename operation must be a member computer (not a domain controller) running Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, or Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition.

4.DFS root server: To rename a domain with domain based DFS roots, all DFS root server must be running Windows 2000 server with SP3 or higher.

Pre Domain Rename Steps:

1.Raise Forest Functional Level to Windows server 2003:

•Open Active Directory Domain and Trusts.
•In the scope pane, right click Domains and then raise all domain functional levels to windows server 2003.
•After that right click Active Directory Domain and Trust and then click Raise Forest Functional Level.
•n the Select an available forest functional level box, click Windows Server 2003, and then click raise.
•Click OK to raise the forest functionality, and then click OK again

2.Prepare DNS Zones for Domain Rename
Whenever an application or client request access to AD, a Active Directory server is located by DC locator mechanism, DC locator uses SRV resource record in DNS to locate Domain Controller, due to this reason before renaming an AD domain we need to create appropriate DNS Zones.

•Firstly compile a list of DNS Zones to be created
•Use the DNS mmc for this purpose
•Add a forward lookup zone
•Configure the dynamic DNS update by “Allow Dynamic Updates

3.Configure Member Computers for Host Name Changes.

By default, the Primary DNS suffix of a member computer of an AD domain is configured to change automatically when the domain membership of the computer changes. Same thing happens when the DNS name of a domain to which a computer is joined changes. To apply the Group policy to change Primary DNS suffix to group of member Computers:

•Before doing this move on a member computer, in control Panel click System.
•Click computer Name tab and then click change.
•Click more and verify whether change primary domain suffix when domain membership changes is selected.
•Now verify this by registry. Open registry by regedit.
•Navigate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Set\Tcpip\Parameters.
•Verify whether the value REG_RWORD SyncDmainWithMembership is 0x1. This value indicates that the primary DNS changes when the domain membership changes.
•Now to apply above settings on all member computers move on Active Directory Users and Computers, right-Click the domain or OU now click Group policy tab.
•Create a new Group Policy object and edit.
•Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, Network and then click DNS client.
•In the results pane, double click Primary DNS suffix and Enabled and then enter a primary DNS suffix box, type the DNS suffix for the domain whose member computers are in the group.

4.Activities to Discontinue Prior to Domain Rename

•Creating or removing domains from forest
•Creating or removing application directory from forest
•Adding or removing domain controllers from forest
•Creating or deleting shortcut trust within forest
•Adding or removing attributes from global catalog.

Procedures of the Windows Server 2003 domain rename:


Step #01: Backup All Domain Controllers

Perform a full system state backup of all domain controllers in the forest.

Step #02: Setup the Control Station

Create a computer with Windows server 2003 standard edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 20003 Datacenter Edition operating system. Join this computer to the existing domain (Remember do not install active directory on this system or do not use a domain controller for domain renaming operation.). Now setup Control Station with the required tools for domain rename operation.

1.On the control station create a directory named X:\Domain Rename where X: is a local disk drive
2.Insert windows server 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 20003 Datacenter Edition operating system CD and copy the files from the valueadd directory as follows:
Copy M:\valueadd\msft\mgmt\DomainRename\*.* X:\Domain Rename
Where M: is the CDrom drive, varif that two tools random.exe and gpfixup.exe have been copied into the working directory of X:\Domain Rename on the control station.
3.Install the Support Tools from Support\Tools folder from windows server 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition or Windows Server 20003 Datacenter Edition operating system CD. Verify that the tools repadmin.exe and dfsutil.exe are installed on control station.

Step #03: Generate the Current Forest Description
To generate forest structure in XML encoded file user must be a member of enterprise admin group in the current forest and local admin group of the control station.

1.On the control station, open a command prompt and change to the X:\Domain Rename directory.
2.At the command prompt, type the following command and press ENTER:
rendom /list
3.Save a copy of the current forest description file (domainlist.xml) as domainlist-save.xml for future reference by using the following copy command:
copy domainlist.xml domainlist-save.xml

Step #04: Specify the New Forest Description
To perform this, change the current forest description with new forest description in domainlist.xml.

1.Open domanlist.xml file in a simple text editor such as Notepad.
2.Replace current DNS, NetBIOS and application directory partitions to the planned new DNS and NetBIOS names.
3.Now save it with the same name.
4.To review the new forest description in domainlist.xml use following command and then press ENTER
rendom /showforest

Step #05: Generate Domain Rename Instruction

To generate the domain rename instructions and upload them to the domain naming master.

1.On the control station, open a command prompt
2.From within the X:\Domain Rename directory, execute the following command:
rendom /upload
3.Verify that the domain rename tool created the state file dclist.xml in the directory X:\Domain Rename and that the state file contains an entry for every domain controller in the forest.
The rendom /upload command generates the domain rename instructions and upload them to Active Directory.


Step #06: Push Domain Rename Instruction to all DCs and Verify DNS Readiness
To discover the DNS host name of the domain naming master.

1.On the control station, open a command prompt
2.At the command prompt, type the following and then press ENTER:
Dsquery server –hasfsmo name
3.To force synchronization of changes made to the domain naming master. Type following command and press ENTER.
Repadmin /syncall /d /e /P /q DomainNamingMaster
Where DomainNamingMaster is the DNS host name of the domain controller that is the current domain naming master for the forest.

Step #07: Verify Readiness of Domain Controllers

To verify the readiness of domain controllers in the forest

1.On the control station, open a command prompt and change to the X:\Domain Rename directory
2.At the command prompt, tupe the following command and then press ENTER
rendom /prepare
3.Once the command has finished execution, examine the state file dclist.xml to determine whether all domain controllers have achieved the prepared state.

Step #08: Execute Domain Rename Instructions

To execute the domain rename instructions on all domain controllers

1.On the control station, open a command prompt.
2.At the command prompt, type the following and then press ENTER
rendom /execute
3.When the command has finished execution, examine the state file dclist.xml determine whether all domain controllers have reached either the Done state or the Error state.
4.If the dclist.xml file shows any DCs remaining in the prepared state.


Step #09: Unfreeze the Forest Configuration

To ensure that all services on the control station learn the new domain name

1.Reboot the control station twice to ensure all services running on it learn of the new domain name of which the control station is a member. {Do not restart the control station by turning its power off and then back on.
2.To unfreeze the forest configuration, execute the following command from X:\DomainRename.
rendom /end

Step #10: Re-establish External Trust

All external trusts should be deleted and recreated from/to domain rename operation occurred. When a domain in the forest is renamed, the following trust relationships become invalid.

1.Any inter-forest trust relationship established at the forest root level (cross-forest trust)
2.Any external trust relationship with a domain in another forest.

Step #11: Fix Distributed File System (DFS) Topology

To fixup DFs topology in every renamed domain following steps should be followed:

1.For a renamed domain examine the DFS topology using the DFS MMC or dfsutil.exe.
2.The Dfs root path would need to be changed in the topology. For example, if the name of domain abc.com changed to xyz.com then a domain based Dfs root named \\abc.com\public to \\xyz.com\public.
3.On control station, open a command prompt for each Dfs root and type the command
Dfsutil /RenameRoot /Root: DfsRootPath /OldDomain: OldName /NewDomain: NewName /Verbose
Where
DfsRootPath is old Dfsrootpath
OldName is exact old name to be replaced in the topology for the Dfs root
NewName is the exact new name to replace the old name in the topology.

Step #12: Re-establish External Trust

To fixup Group Policy in every renamed domain following steps should be followed:

1.On the control station open a command prompt and change to the path X:\Domain Rename
2.Now type the following command
Gpfixup /olddns: OldDomainDnsName /newdns: NewDomainDnsName /oldnb: OldNetBIOSName /newnb: NewDomainNetBIOSName /dc:DcDnsName 2>&1 >gpfixup.log
Where
OldDomainDnsName is the old DNS name of the renamed domain
NewDomainDnsName is the new DNS name of the renamed domain
OldNetBIOSName is the old NETBIOS name of the renamed domain
NewDomainNetBIOSName is the new NETBIOS name of the renamed domain
DcDnsName is the DNS host name
3.The output of the command execution both status or error is saved to the file gpfixup.log
4.To force replication of the Group policy fixup changes made at the DC named in DCDNSName of this procedure to the rest of the DCs in the renamed domain, type the following and then press ENTER
repadmin /syncall /d /e /P /q DcDNSName NewDomainDN
Where
DCDnsName is the DNS host name of the DC that was targeted by the gpfixup command
NewDomainDN is the distinguished name (DN) corresponding to the new DNs name of the renamed domain.

Post Domain Rename Steps:

1.Rename the Host machine of domain controller
2.Restart the domain Controller
3.Restart the Control Station
4. Restart all Member Stations