Sysinternals Tools Can Now Run From The Web

Posted on May 28th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Cool Tools, Downloads, Free!, Microsoft, News, TechNet, Tools.

While they also updated several of their tools like Process Explorer, Handle, ZoomIt and SigCheck, the much more interesting news is that you don’t have to download the tools any longer and put them somewhere in %PATH% you can execute them directly from the website. How cool is that?

From a command prompt or Run simply type \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\<tool name here>

And this site has all of their tools, check it out on their site at http://live.sysinternals.com

You can sill download the tools if you want to use them locally, go to the same link and click on the exe and/or the chm file to download them.

This is a quote from the About_This_Site.txt file.

“What is this?

This is a file share allowing access to all Sysinternals utilities. We have developed this to test an alternate distribution mechanism for our utilities.

This will allow you to run these tools from any computer connected to the Internet without having to navigate to a webpage, download and extract the zip file.

If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Windows Sysinternals, it is highly recommended that you visit the website at http://technet.microsoft.com/sysinternals before using these tools.

If you have any questions or comments on this file share, please email syssite@microsoft.com

Regards,
The Microsoft Windows Sysinternals Team”

Sysinternals Site Discussion : Updates: Process Explorer v11.20, ZoomIt v2.0, Sigcheck v1.53, Handle v3.4 and introducing Sysinternals Live beta.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: sysinternals,psexec,processexplorer,sigcheck,zoomit,handles

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Get FREE One Year Subscription of CA Anti-Virus - Tweaking with Vishal

Posted on May 27th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Blogroll, Downloads, Free!, Repost, Security, Tools.

In case you missed out the free AVG offer here is another free anti-virus product. Once you create a free account on the CA site they will send you link to download it.

There words regarding the account.

“This information will be used to create your FREE account in case you are in need of any support. Your information will be kept private and will not be shared with any third parties.”

Get FREE One Year Subscription of CA Anti-Virus - Tweaking with Vishal

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: antivirus,CA,free

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ConfigMgr SP1 Goes RTM

Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Config Manager, ConfigMgr, Downloads, News, SCCM, Server 2008, Vista.

Update: Download link

More Details.

Overview

Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 now offers full support for management with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, integrates customer feedback, feature Integration with Intel vPro Technology and enhances Asset Intelligent features.

Full Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 Support: Deploy and manage Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008—with full support for the latest Windows platforms, from planning through inventory, to deployment, and into operational scenarios such as software distribution, software update management, desired configuration management, and more.
AMT Integration: Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 integration with Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) enables hardware-based power control (on/off/restart) and delivers many new remote diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities. Configuration Manager can now perform scheduled or on-demand power control operations on Intel vPro enabled systems in the enterprise, enabling higher levels of software update compliance as well as increasing application installation and operating system deployment success rates. The new out of band management console provides direct hardware interaction using Windows Remote Management (the Microsoft implementation of WS-MAN). This enables remote boot control, allows forced PXE boot for operating system deployments, remote network boot for customized remote tasks and diagnostics, and direct inspection of hardware inventory and power state—even if the system is powered off.
Asset Intelligence: Building on the original release within Configuration Manager, this enhancement to the inventory capabilities of Configuration Manager 2007 provides improvements for stronger inventory of hardware, software, and software licenses in use throughout the enterprise. The enhancements made enable administrators to more easily, and more accurately, inventory and manage hardware and software assets as well as view and manage purchased software license information. By providing this essential information, Asset Intelligence makes it easier for administrators and asset managers to more effectively plan for upgrades, migrations, and software license compliance reporting.
Asset Intelligence in Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 adds the following additional functionality over that provided by the Asset Intelligence feature in Configuration Manager 2007:

The Asset Intelligence feature node has been added to the Configuration Manager console to allow easier Asset Intelligence–related administration tasks and rich reporting capabilities.
The Asset Intelligence Configuration Manager Console home page has been added to provide at-a-glance feature state status and information.
The Asset Intelligence catalog has been expanded to contain categorization and identification information of a large catalog of software titles—both Microsoft and 3rd party—as well as the hardware requirement information for many software titles found in today’s IT environments.
The ability to customize the Asset Intelligence catalog with additional software categorization information and hardware requirements information has been added.
New reports have been added that enable administrators to generate a total of 70 reports, based on inventoried information, that present data about hardware, software, and license usage.

General reports are linked to more specific reports and allow IT administrators to query general information or drill down to more detailed levels if required.

Hardware inventory enhancements have been added to gather information such as processor age, speed, and USB devices in use or when hardware has changed since the last inventory or during a specified period of time.
Installed software inventory enhancements have been added that gather information about installed software in use in the enterprise.

These enhancements allow IT organizations to identify and better categorize their software assets.
Robust reports provide information about types of software in use to help identify redundant software and optimize software support and purchasing.

Software license management capabilities have been added that allow purchased software license data (both Microsoft and non-Microsoft) to be imported into the Asset Intelligence catalog to enable better license management and reporting.
Improvements have been made to provide data about utilized Client Access Licenses (Windows Server, and Exchange Server) and computers acting as Key Management Servers for Windows Vista activation.

The report output format is congruent with Microsoft License Statements facilitating system-wide license tracking and compliance.

Just made public today, it will take a day or so to get the bits available for download.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: ConfigMgr,service pack,SCCM

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Scriptomatic for PowerShell

Posted on May 19th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Beta, Coding, ConfigMgr, Downloads, PowerShell, Scripting.

Now you have the same ability to auto generate scripts for PowerShell that you did with VBS when it comes to WMI.

Overview

A new utility that writes Windows PowerShell scripts that harness the power of WMI (Windows Instrumentation Management) for use in system management and administration. This tool was created by Microsoft consultant and author Ed Wilson.

Windows PowerShell Scriptomatic

Brief Description

Utility that writes WMI scripts for system administration.

Download details: Scriptomatic 2.0

And coming soon is PowerShell v2 with the following new features (so far).

PowerShell Remoting

Graphical PowerShell

ScriptCmdlets

Modules

Transactions

Eventing

Restricted Runspaces

RunspacePools

Background Jobs

Data Language

Script Internationalization

Script Debugging

51 New Cmdlets

Parser Tokenizer API

New PowerShell Hosting APIs

Metadata APIs for Command and Parameters

You can get a pre-release copy of v2 here. And Kevin Remde has even more details and links on his blog post regarding the next version of PS

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

Microsoft MVP System Center Configuration Manager

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: PowerShell,VBS,ScriptoMatic,WMI,Cmdlets

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Ronni Pedersen’s Blog Visio 2007 Pro ConfigMgr & OpsMgr Connectors

Posted on May 17th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Blogroll, Config Manager, ConfigMgr, Cool Tools, Downloads, Office, SCCM.

Download the Visio add in and the web server component to connect and generate datasets to connect to your existing diagrams or auto generate your diagrams for your infrastructure monitoring needs. See your data from OpsManager and ConfigManager live in Visio diagrams.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=521B3884-1EDA-4B9D-8AD7-67D00FE9CE8A&displaylang=en

Ronni Pedersen’s Blog Site: Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Pro SCOM & SCCM Connectors

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: ConfigMgr,OpsMgr,Visio,Office 2007,SCCM,SCOM

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System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Eval Available

Posted on April 17th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Downloads, Microsoft, System Center, TechNet.

This is not a part of ConfigMgr, this this a separate management tool that does a ton more than what you can do with mobile devices in ConfigMgr.

You can get a 120 day eval of Mobile Device Manager (MDM) from Microsoft’s TechNet site here.

What is MDM you ask?

"The goal of MDM is simple: Enable Windows Mobile powered devices to become managed and authenticated members of the IT infrastructure of an organization. The Windows Mobile platform is the ideal platform for this solution. The features of MDM help extend this platform in a manner that is both manageable and protected."

Get more detail here at the MDM 2008 site.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: System Center,Mobile Device Manager,MDM,Mobile Device,MDM 2008,Mobile Device Manager 2008

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Turning Your Wii Into a Streaming Media Center

Posted on April 12th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: ConfigMgr, Cool Tools, Downloads, Free!, How-To, MMS 2008.

After you win the Wii at the 1E booth (311) at MMS and you have made Pro on all the sports, have made all your family WiiConsole members and friends into Wii peeps, the next logical step is to stream all your music and videos with it from your PC upstairs to your Wii downstairs in your media room. XBox does this out of the box (no pun intended) from what I have heard, since my daughter is only in second grade and my son is just in junior high they aren’t quite ready for an XBox, plus I suck at video games so I am not a gamer. The Wii doesn’t have a whole suite of additional features, and streaming music and video is not one of them. It does come with a built in wireless adapter so you can get it on your home wireless pretty easy. It also uses Opera for a web browser. I mention both of these because you will need them for streaming.

I was first introduced to Orb several years ago when I got my first Netgear wireless router, it was 802.11B, so that should give you some idea on how many years ago. The Orb CD came in the box and I checked it out to see what it was. Set it up, showed it off at work a few times and then I didn’t use it much again. Back when I was still working at ESRI I played Classical music in my office all day and it was local plus I didn’t want to use up the bandwidth needlessly. I looked at it again when I started to travel with my last employer (Hey everyone!) I even bought a tuner card, but I don’t really like TV, and really don’t like 99.99% of movies for a list of reasons so I didn’t really end up using Orb or the tuner card.

But now that I have a home office upstairs, and my wife’s art studio is downstairs when I am at home and the kids are in school and I am not on the phone I will play music, but I have to play music we both like and loud enough for her to hear. So this is not ideal. But our Wii is hooked up to the surround sound system and LCD downstairs, so if she could play music from it and choose her own music, and what level that would just about be perfect!

So what you will need:

Wii
The Opera browser installed on your Wii (500 Wii points or $5)
Your Wii connected to your LAN
Orb
Wake-On-LAN (if you are going to use Orb on a laptop)
A computer with music, videos, pictures, files…!

Download Orb here.

Get additional addons for Orb from their MyExtras here.

extras include video mail, watching Internet videos on your mobile device, and watching you video content on your TV instead of in Flash in the Wii’s Opera browser.

You can get version 1.0 of Orb here.

Once you have Orb installed you will have to create an account. Next specify what folders you want to include in the different categories. Keep in mind that any folder you put on there you and your family will be able to access from the Wii console.

After you have Orb configured you will need to get the browser installed on your Wii if you haven’t got it already. Once it is just go to orb.com, put in your account info and you will be listening and viewing in just a few seconds.

In Orb you can search by artist, title, genre, playlist, resume a playlist, shuffle your search results, it’s pretty nice.

And if you have bluetooth in your car, a phone with an unlimited data plan and bluetooth…

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: Wii,Orb,Opera,WOL,MMS2008,1E

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Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Posted on April 4th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Config Manager, ConfigMgr, Downloads, et. all.

I have an advantage, my son is in seventh grade and my daughter is finishing second, so all those geography questions, and factoring, I have done them recently.

But the real question is are you smarter than a seasoned ConfigMgr admin? Find out by taking some the ConfigMgr quizzes, recently updated and located here. If you take them post your scores in the comments section and I will buy the winner lunch at MMS. Beer mug Pizza

Configuration Manager 2007 Client Installation Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Client Management Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Client Site Assignment Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Desired Configuration Management Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Internet-Based Client Management Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Native Mode Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Network Access Protection Quiz

Configuration Manager 2007 Wake On LAN Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Operations Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 OSDeployment Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 What’s New Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Configuration Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Mobile Device Management Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Fundamentals Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Client Roaming Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Software Updates Interop Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Setup Quiz

New! - Configuration Manager 2007 Software Distribution Quiz

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: ConfigMgr,SCCM

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New Tool for DCM

Posted on April 4th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Config Manager, ConfigMgr, Desired Configuration Management, Downloads, Tools.

This tool coverts Security Content Automation Protocol files into DCM packs. It is in public beta and you can get it here. YellowToolbox_sm

Overview

The SCAP Conversion Tool for DCM can convert any SCAP stream files into DCM Configuration Packs for use with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007. This Beta release includes a user guide that provides detailed instructions for using this command-line tool, as well as detailed information about the mapping between the SCAP protocol and DCM.
Please note this is a Public Beta, the review period runs from April 3 to May 8, 2008. After using the tools and reading the documentation, please provide feedback by completing the Security Compliance Management Beta survey on Microsoft Connect. The survey provides opportunities for written feedback. Alternatively, you can turn on the Track Changes feature in the Beta documents to use the Comment feature to include your feedback. Please e-mail commented documents to SCMBeta@microsoft.com.

Regards,
Anthony

Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E

http://configmgr.com

© Anthony Clendenen

Technorati Tags: ConfigMg,DCM,SCAP,SCCM 2007,SCCM

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OneNote PowerToys

Posted on March 30th, 2008 by Anthony Clendenen.
Categories: Blogroll, ConfigMgr, Cool Tools, Downloads, Office, OneNote, Tools, et. all.

If you don’t know I am a HUGE OneNote fan and have converted countless people from using Notepad, Notepad2, Word, paper, you name it to using OneNote since it first came out in Office 2003. (If you are only interested in the the list of OneNote PowerToys, skip this section and scroll down).

Some of my favorite things are the ability to write anywhere, assign "tags" to notes, copy and drag from anywhere, any application, webpage, pdf - anywhere into a OneNote page, and have it enter the link where it came from directly below it, create Outlook tasks or appointments, even contacts directly from the notes. You can record audio and/or video directly into a note page, you can password protect sections, you can draw, highlight, email…and one of the functions I use most, use the Windows key + S to screen clip any area of your desktop without losing the mouse focus on a menu or highlighted item!

Here is an example. On the left is a screen clip using OneNote’s function and you can see the Firefox right click context menu after left clicking on a link on Chris Pratley’s OneNote blog. On the right is text that from the same page that I copied and then drug onto the same note page, as you can see at the very bottom is a link to where it was copied from. You can also see that the same link that I used in my screen clipping example is brought over automatically into OneNote.

Let’s see what else I can do with these two examples.

You can see I have taken the text from Chris’ blog and the image of my Firefox context menu and switched their position on my notes page, I also shrunk down the image size and moved it lower on the page, I could also do things like make the text in the image searchable, crop the image, send it to the back, resize it, save it externally. OneNotes screen clipping tool also allow you to set default behavior when you do capture an area, copy it to the clipboard or copy it to the clipboard and send it to the Unfiled notes section of OneNote, and either view it or not. I just use the copy to clipboard option.

I also added some things after the text I copied in. I added a "To Do" tag next to the text "Get list of plugins for blog post" it’s that empty checkbox, that I can later check when I am done. I can also create a summary page that shows all my To Do’s, tasks, remember for later, follow up, essential any tags I choose for a notebook and it will group them together, showing completed items together. The search function in OneNote is one of its better features as well.

The next line is just to highlight another one of the tags, which you can assign hot keys by ordering them. And the final line is a tag that I have customized. It is a "For Follow Up" tag that I have made the text white and to highlight it in red. You can build you own custom tags or customize the built-in ones.

Here is the tags toolbar, also captured with OneNotes screen clipping tool

Plugins for OneNote

The original intent of this was to capture a list of OneNote plugins because I could not find a single source that had them all. So here is a list of plugins I was able to locate at the time of posting.

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