Windows Administration

One of those nice hidden things that makes life much easier. There is a nice GUI-based CSV viewer built into PowerShell!From the PowerShell prompt, use the following line:Import-Csv filename.csv | Out-GridViewWhich will give you a view like this:Also, if you have a file that uses something other than commas to specify the separate fields (Such as a pipe '|', or semicolon ';'), you can add the following extra parameter:Import-Csv filename.csv -delimiter '|' | Out-GridVieworImport-Csv filename.csv -delimiter ';' | Out-GridViewTab-delimited requires a strange specification (backtick followed by t), but works just fine:Import-Csv filename.csv -delimiter "`t" | Out-GridViewEnjoy!

Wow, that was quick. http://www.myce.com/news/microsoft-were-pulling-the-plug-on-windows-xp-in-3-years-48249/ I can remember back before it came out, after reading about it on slashdot, and telling my mom about the ridiculous new name for the next version of Windows  (I thought the name sounded goofy when I first heard it.), "Can you believe it, Microsoft is going to call the new version 'Windows XP'?" She looked really surprised and kind of offended by what I'd just said. A more severe reaction that I had expected: "They'd never call it that, why would you even say that?".I was completely confused at first, then realized she'd thought I said "Window-Sex Pee". Had to quickly explain that one.What was that, why did they name it that? Was it supposed to be some subliminal advertising to make you associate the new version of Windows with some exotic exhibitionist routine?Very strange, glad they went back to numbers with Windows 7.

Out-of-the-box, Windows XP will show the drive letters (Ex: C:) AFTER the drive description (Such as Local Disk) in "My Computer". For some reason, that's always bugged me. (I think Windows 3.x did it the other way.)So, instead of Local Disk (C:), the following registry change will change it to instead look like (C:) Local Disk.There are four possible settings for how drive information is displayed:ShowDriveLettersFirst Registry ValuesValueDescriptionExample0 Description followed by drive letters (Default) Local Disk (C:)1 Show network drive letters before description, but for local drives show description, then drive letters. (U:) User on Server  Local Disk (C:)2 Only show drive description, do not show drive letter. Local Disk4 Show drive letter, then description (C:) Local Disk      To modify the default setting, perform the following steps:Click Start, Run, then type Regedit.exe Open the following branch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer If a setting named ShowDriveLettersFirst already exists, then just adjust the value of the setting. If not, then create a REG_DWORD value and name it ShowDriveLettersFirst. Double-click ShowDriveLettersFirst and set the value to the value you wish to use in the table above. Close RegEdit, and close My Computer. Next time you open My Computer, it will use the setting you specified in the registry.   Note: This setting has been known to work on everything from Windows 95 on through to Windows XP. It's not known if it will work on Vista.

This is a fix for Windows not wanting to open CHMs over the network. Very annoying, but easily fixed:REGEDIT4[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x\ItssRestrictions] "MaxAllowedZone"=dword:00000001

Doing a definitive query using T-SQL is easy. When you know all the criteria in the query it's as easy as SELECT something WHERE Criteria1=x AND Criteria2=y. But in the case where you have some loosely defined criteria and want SQL to find the best possible match rather than an exact match, it gets to be a tricky problem. Introduction There are two basic types of best matching approaches: A Best Match Substring Search and a Best Match Full Criteria Search. A Substring Search is for best matching in text searches. (There may be a more standard term for that but I am not aware of one so am making up my own term for it.) This is more along the lines of finding the best matches in a block of text, similar to a search engine (aka Google) search. A Criteria Search where you have the complete value or text of each of the parameters/criteria you are searching for, and need to find which entry in the database matches the highest number of criteria in that search. Some criteria may be undefined (null). You may wish to add "mass" to a certain criteria type to give it more "weight" in the search, such as "If you match on [Criteria A but not criteria B or criteria C], it's considered a better match than matching on [Criteria B and criteria C, but not criteria A]. This means that a higher weight has been assigned to criteria A than on criteria B ...

I'm getting the "This device cannot start (Code 10)". What usually works is to unplug both the power and the USB cable from the unit for at least 60 seconds, then plug it back in. The drive will then work for about a week, and then I have to do it again. Also, sometimes after doing the above, you have to go into Device Manager and disable the drive (Under USB Storage Device) and then re-enable it.

I've had a problem for quite a while where I cannot get the drive tray to eject, with or without a disc in the drive. Found that there is apparently some system contention going on (Apparently there's something stupid going on where pressing eject also signals Windows to try and read data from the disk at the same time it's trying to eject, which cancels the eject), there might be a better way to do this, but I've at least found something that works, most of the time, sometimes you still have to do this a couple times:Open "My Computer", right-click on the DVD-RW drive icon, in the menu that pops up position the mouse cursor over "Eject" but DO NOT CLICK it yet! Now, press the eject button on the drive, wait a 1/4 second for the 'in use' light to come on, now as quickly as possible, click "Eject" in the menu.Most of the time this will work. It's not perfect, but it's better than mindlessly pressing the eject button over and over.

Thanks from me too - I wasted many hours looking at the Microsoft "knowledge base" and other help sites but none of their solutions worked - this one did, on Windows XP (client and ICS host), but I had to reboot the client before seeing results.Thanks a heap.  Regards ... Trevor

An easy way to find out just how long that Windows server has been up:Open a command prompt and type NET STATISTICS WORKSTATION and you'll get the following. The 'Statistics since xxx' shows when the machine was booted, along with a bunch of other good info. (Note you can also type NET STATISTICS SERVER, but the info it gives you is a bit lame)Workstation Statistics for \\MACHINENAMEStatistics since 2/19/2006 6:38 PM  Bytes received 187770141  Server Message Blocks (SMBs) received 83361  Bytes transmitted 44165182  Server Message Blocks (SMBs) transmitted 83513  Read operations 9122  Write operations 2764  Raw reads denied 0  Raw writes denied 0  Network errors 0  Connections made 1647  Reconnections made 0  Server disconnects 7  Sessions started 0  Hung sessions 0  Failed sessions 0  Failed operations 0  Use count 612  Failed use count 2

I'm so glad they allow feedback. This is the feedback I sent after wasting my time reading Q301677This means pretty much nothing. Yes, it's the templates used to display the errors. Big deal. How worthless. Oh boy. How about links to real-world explanations of these things. Obviously I'm currently seeing a real-world error (#560) or I wouldn't be looking for information about it. Anybody that thought this was a complete example needs to be kicked in the damn head a few more times. Notice the very top of this so-called article: "and information about how to interpret these events. "  Um, where is the information about how to interpret these events? Oh, it's not there. Someone should be fired. Or kicked in the damn head. What would be useful is descriptions of what conditions might trigger these individual events. Like Error#666 may be caused by abject stupidity, or being kicked in the damn head.