Category: Vista / 7

Update your Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1

In case you’ve missed it, Microsoft released a roll-up update Hotfix for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 which includes 90 updates (!) post-SP1 – An enterprise hotfix rollup is available for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Here’s a quote from the KB:

This article describes a hotfix rollup for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1-based computers. This hotfix rollup contains 90 hotfixes that were released after the release of SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. These hotfixes improve the overall performance and system reliability of Windows 7 SP1-based and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1-based computers. We recommend that you apply this hotfix rollup as part of your regular maintenance routine and build processes for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 computers.
Note This hotfix rollup primarily addresses the issues that occur on domain-joined client computers and servers. Therefore, this hotfix rollup is available only from the Microsoft Update Catalog. You can also install this hotfix rollup on computers that are running Windows 7 SP1 in nonenterprise environments. After you install the hotfix rollup, the performance of the computers may be improved.

stay updated 🙂

ilantz

Exchange 2007 SP3 is out !

At last !

Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 was released this week !

What’s New ?

  1. Top requested Support for Windows Server 2008 R2 server installations
  2. Windows 7 – for Exchange 2007 Management Tools
  3. Improved Password Reset Functionality – Enable the Exchange 2007 SP3 Password Reset Tool
  4. Updated Search Functionality – mailbox server side indexing
  5. Support for Right-to-Left Disclaimer Text
  6. And of course… Active Directory Schema Changes, although with only a few changes but still take that into account.

Don’t forget the installation path to success :

  • Prepare your environment – Forest changes..
  • Upgrade Client Access servers (Internet Facing first…)
  • Upgrade Unified Messaging servers
  • Upgrade Hub Transport servers
  • Upgrade Edge Transport servers
  • Upgrade Mailbox servers

Enjoy !

Reference:
Ask and you shall receive – Exchange 2007 SP3 w/support for Windows Server 2008 R2 Now Available
What’s New in Exchange Server 2007 SP3

Exchange 2007 SP3 Release Notes

Download Exchange 2007 SP3 here

Delete old removed or disconnected device drivers

So you’ve plugged a harddrive / disk-on-key or any other hot plugged device, and oops BSOD 🙁

or, you want to install a new driver for a device that you have removed, but windows magic plug-and-play installed the driver automatically…. but you don’t want that do you ?

Anyway there’s an old method that works great.

You open device management, and click , view “show hidden devices”… but you fail to see your disconnected devices…

FIX – Show all disconnected devices, open System Properties, click Environment Variables and click to add a New System Variable.

Configure a New System Variable

After this you will be able to launch Device Manager again and when you’ll click to Show Hidden Devices, you will see all those removed or disconnected device drivers !

Device Manger Before-After

That’s it ! Enjoy

Ultimate list of keyboard shotcuts for Windows (7)

Well, I know… there’s tons of links on the net for this.. here’s my top selected keyboard shortcuts.

Some are mostly all Windows 7 specific, and includes a few Aero shortcuts…but some are old school ones.

Start Clicking !

Win+UP Arrow :- Maximize the current window

Win+Down Arrow :- If the current window is maximized, restore it; if the current window is restored, minimize it

Win+Left Arrow :- Dock the current window to the left half of the screen

Win+Right Arrrow :- Dock the current window to the right half of the screen

Win+Home :- Minimize all but the current window

Win+P :- Open the projection menu (generally used for laptops connected to projectors)

Win+X :– Open Windows Mobility (For Laptops)

Alt+F4 :- Close the active window

Alt+Tab :- Switch to previous active window

Alt+Esc :- Cycle through all open windows

Win+Tab :- Flip 3D

Ctrl+Win+Tab :- Persistent Flip 3D

Win+T :- Cycle through applications on taskbar (showing its live preview)

Win+M :- Minimize all open windows

Win+Shift+M :- Undo all window minimization

Win+D :- Show Desktop

Win+Space :– Preview Desktop (Aero Peek)

Win + “+”:– Zoom in Desktop (Full Screen) – This is by far the best addition for windows desktop on my part.

Win + “-”:– Zoom out Desktop (Full Screen) –  “-”

Win + 1-9 :– Launch Pinned Applications on Taskbar by their locations

A Few More Handy Shortcuts:

CTRL + SHIFT + N :– Create a new folder

F2 :– Rename on mostly any parameter (yeah.. well not anyone knows this handy one) Try the TAB key with this too.

CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER :– While in the Search bar on Start menu – Run a program as Administrator (When UAC enabled)

SHIFT + Right Mouse Button :– In an Folder window – allows “Open A Command Prompt Here”

SHIFT + Right Mouse Button (on a file / folder) :– “Copy as Path” for the selected file / folder

CTRL + SHIFT + ESC :– Open Task Manager

F7 :- While in Command Prompt / Powershell – Shows recent commands

Links:

Windows 7 Shortcut keys on blogsdna.com

“The IO Guy” blog on TechNet – this is by far the most comprehensive list I’ve encountered.

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts – the complete list

Feel free to comment and add more handy stuff, I’ll be happy to include more “must have” shortcuts.

Enjoy

my cup of checkpoint SecuRemote / SecuClient

Well.. I really like checkpoint products.. with that being said it , and by the title of this post i’ll rather go to business 🙂

For the record, I’m using Vista x86 with sp1 on my laptop , and mostly happy with the OS behavior..
anyways, the thing is that i have VPN-1 SecuRemote / SecureClient NGX R60 HFA2 installed on my laptop since I’ve installed the OS,
i’m installing only SecuRemote during setup & using it a lot to connect to costumers and such .

so far os good , then comes this time when I had to connect to a client and for some reason,
I had been persuaded to install the SecuClient because we had some issues to connect…!@$@

yea , from this point things went bad !

humm.. well for starts I’ve uninstalled , restarted & re-installed the SecuClient this time, setup got stuck..
in the part where it configures additional components or something (that gui with the wheels …)
then on the reboot… hum well the desktop fail to show up , it was pitch black with the mouse cursor only !!?
so obviously something went wrong.

long story short , after battling with the install over and over again, the quick fix to the black screen is manually delete fw.sys from system32drivers each time,
this fastlly broke the service binding on the network adapters & made me able to boot normally to windows and uninstall the secure client software and drivers.

finally what fixed the issue is actually binding back IPV6 which i’ve disabled …added the binding to the network adapters & removedthe registry key
for info on that to: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852
after that , all went great.. regarding the install of the client – securemote only !! 🙂

okay, now what … some more fun to the end !
I’m lately using internet connection sharing on my laptop , so that it shares wireless to the lan adapter.. humm that got broke ,
unbinding the checkpoint service from the network adapter did the trick on that one.

There. nuff rumbling.