Virtualization, EUC, and Computing in General
I ran into something strange when adding the Failover Cluster Manager tool to RemoteApp – the icon on both the RD web services site and RemoteApp and Desktop Connections did not show properly – here’s what I mean: The above was taken from RemoteApp and Desktop connections – here’s what it looked like on the RD Web Services site: As you can see, the Failover Cluster Manager app has the standard RDP connection icon. Something is … Read more…
I have seen this issue more and more lately…don’t get me wrong, Windows SBS is a perfect solution for smaller businesses that can’t afford a more robust infrastructure…however – the nature of Small Business Server can be its downfall: all applications and core services running on a single server. Thus the problem: a SBS system drive tends to run out of space quick. Consider the following applications\services running on a single box: Active Directory Domain … Read more…
The other day a user sent me a screenshot of an online banking website with a comment of “I have a virus..?” I was happy that the user had learned to spot malware or fraudulent activity so quickly….but as it turns out, the user had already called the bank and spoke to the support team – they were the ones that informed the user about having a virus. I tried logging in to the banking … Read more…
Same story, different capacitors. The symptoms were “a loud pop, followed by the smell of burning plastic”. This PC was made by a certain small company that went bankrupt in 2008…it’s a P4 Intel board, so it’s fairly old. Removing the side panel from the case exposed the vented electrolyte: This failed capacitor was a part of the processors VRM – only one showed to be failed, but where there is one, there are probably … Read more…
I just got a call from 620-450-4497 which came up as Pratt, KS. It was some cheap recording stating that “My debit card has been lost or stolen. Press 1 to reactivate” Being that I just love hearing all the latest scams, I eagerly pressed 1 to “find out more about my debit card”. I was then prompted to “press 1 to continue or 2 to exit”- 1 was pressed again of coarse. I was … Read more…
It’s not a good day when an ESX host goes down…thankfully HA brought the VMs back up on another host, but still. Then when the host doesn’t boot back up after…it gets worse. Turns out there was an issue with the storage controller for the local drives – had to load the foreign config and bring the array healthy again. That worked successfully – and ESX started to boot…then I was greeted with this screen: …stuck in busybox. … Read more…
In a mad dash to “reclaim some of my memory”, I built a DC with some spare hardware, and begun the installation of SP1 on my 2008 R2 host – if you’re wondering why I did that, my [only] other domain controller is a VM. The install was uneventful – I ate dinner while it was going on. When I came back, the two VMs that I had left running were now saved, and SP1 … Read more…
Now it’s time to see if MyCleanPC can really clean an infected PC. So here’s my test Windows XP SP3 VM – the only change I have made is the malware that I ‘accidentally’ downloaded – in reality, it was the typical ‘click-where-I-should-not-have’ and then have an IE window come up looking like the ‘My Computer’ window and being scanned….a very common scare tactic: Your computer is infected, download this program to clean it up! … Read more…
Lately, the local stations have been playing the stupid ‘MyCleanPC’ ad A TON. I have never used any of these products and I have always throught that they look cheezy and “gimic-ey”. Here’s the ad: I think the best part is the horrible pink hue on the speaker – hilarious. So I had to try this out and see just what it was all about. So first up, I needed a PC that I could … Read more…
I recently updated both of my Parents’ systems to Windows 7 – and last night I was asked to “Get rid of the security on my Mom’s Outlook”…?…My first thought was UAC. But then- what the heck was she doing that was popping up UAC?? So upon further investigation, the issue was quite different. In Outlook, anytime a web link was clicked the following error showed: This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in … Read more…