Old Ultimate Bootdisk 4 Windows?

I keep about 10 of theses in my office to help with every thing form virus/spyware removal to re-imaging full labs and I have recently ran into a problem with Avira's AntiVir program not updating correctly. It seems this program all though free, requires a licence file(hbedv.key) to update the virus def. file. Here is a link to the updated .key file

http://dlce.antivir.com/down/windows/hbedv.key

Next I had a problem with downloading the update multiple times in the same room (this this is several Megs). To fix this, I found the update link to get the file it downloads:

http://dl1.avgate.net/down/vdf/ivdf_fusebundle_nt_en.zip

Finally, I started having problem with Antivir grumbling that the virus def file was corrupt and found that the defs were for a newer version of the program. Here is another work around:

Prep Work:

Download the current version of Antivr to a clean computer. 

Use 7zip to extract the .exe file to a folder 

Rename the basic folder to antir (optional) and copy to a USB drive or a network drive

Download the update file above

Boot up a computer with UBD4wWin disk and use the Antivir on the USB drive.

BTW here is the update to the Adaware program on the Disk:

http://download.lavasoft.com/public/defs.zip

This stuff works in a pinch, but I would advise you to update you UBD4Win iso soon. And for those that are scratching your heads asking what I am talking about, go here:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

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No Taskbar, Desktop Icons... Nothing.

Haven't seen this problem before...
A computer had a few viruses and some spyware, but when I removed them the computer starts up and can not start explorer.exe.  I could get to a blank desktop, but there was not a start menu or desktop icons. I had to do CTRL-ALT-DELTET to get to the task manager and run anything.  I was able to get to every thing I needed except explorer.exe which would give me an error about not being able to find it - DANG. 

I ran all the fixes I could find an still was not able to get it to work. in desperation I tried the following and both worked but I would suggest the second method:

Method 1:

First, go to c:\windows and rename explorer.exe to zexplorer.exe and try to launch it. If you get your desktop back, then go to regedit and change 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon  to zexplorer.exe

This would work but I was not comfortable in having to change the file names to get it to work.

Method 2:

Open regedit and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe then restart the computer.

 Explorer.exe should start up when your computer comes back up.  

Of course before doing either of these, you need to make sure that you have removed all viruses and spyware from your computer.

Good luck!

twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

I am an Idiot

 OK, so I spent a couple hours fiddling with a project that should have taken a few minutes.  The kid got a PSP for for Christmas and wanted to put some music on it.  No problem... Export her iTunes Playlist and use a script to copy the files...hmmm if was only that easy.  I have a batch file that will read a txt file and use it as an input for something else that works great, but I did not realize that the (whatever.txt) line had to be different for xcopy. Also, the txt file contained "fullpath\2\whatever.ext" one on each line and in quotes.  Here is what I finially had to do to get it to work:

FOR /f "tokens=*" %%X IN ('type fullpath\2\whaterver.txt') DO (XCOPY %%X dest\ /y)

The TYPE statement is manditory! It will not work with out it.
Have fun!
-
Respectfully,
twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

Its Christmas in Texas

Well, it's Christmas time again and I found the PERFECT song for the holidays. Here is a video of Christmas in Houston... enjoy and Happy HO HO HO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhei5sUY3I4



Respectfully,
twitter @dkirkland

Posted via email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish

Budget

It has been about a month since I posted on my quest for financial freedom and about two months since I started my budget... I have to say it is going better then I expected.  I have been able to pay off 2 credit cards (low balances) and move those payments to the next highest one on the list.  I have also started treating the money I need to pay property taxes as a revolving monthly payment due and putting in my savings account.  I see no reason not to make a little interest off money I have to pay the government.  I am still working on my Emergency Fund... This seems to be the hardest to get started.  I think once I pay off a couple more cards it will be easier to contribute.  
With Holidays coming so soon after my  decision to become fiscally responsible, I am glad to report that with the help of my every loving and infinitely patient wife we have agreed to not over spend and adjusted our Christmas list accordingly.  This means only spending on the kid, niece and nephew this year (sorry Grandpa) and asking that the family not spend anything on me. By this time next year I expect that I will have a tidy little sum in place for gift giving.  Yes, it is marked as a revolving monthly payment (% of yearly take home divided by 12) in my budget to be activated after my Emergency Fund gets to a certain balance.  Wish me luck... I will need it.
By the way for whatever reason I did not include a link to a page that I found most helpful in starting my budget it is The Financial Page Created and maintained by Keith Rawlinson. Please, if you have a few minutes, stop by his site it will be well worth your time. It has saved me several hundred dollars already!

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Replacing Notepad.exe with Notepad2.exe

I do not like notepad.exe... It will not behave the way I think it should so I replaced it with something better: Notepad2.exe
Hare are some of the features:

  - Syntax highlighting: HTML, XML, PHP, ASP (JS, VBS), CSS,
    JavaScript, VBScript, C/C++, C#, Resource Script, Makefiles, Java,
    Visual Basic, Pascal, Assembly, SQL, Perl, Python, Configuration
    Files, Apache Config Files, Batch Files, Diff Files
  - Drag & drop text editing inside and outside Notepad2
  - Basic regular expression search and replace
  - Useful word, line and block editing shortcuts
  - Rectangular selection (Alt+Mouse)
  - Brace matching, auto indent, long line marker, zoom functions
  - Support for Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files
  - Open shell links
  - Mostly adjustable

Below is a batch file I found to help speed things up (Wish I could remember where I found it to give credit) in replacing notepad.  You will notice that notepad2 has been renamed and is in the folder c:\notepad.  Also you will need to un-hide all system files. 
To install just copy the batch file below into a txt file and name it whatever.bat and run it.  That's it. Have fun.

@echo off
echo ****You must have Notepad2.exe in c:\notepad and named notepad.exe****
pause
copy /y %WinDir%\System32\dllcache\notepad.exe %WinDir%\System32\dllcache\notepad.exe.orig
copy /y %WinDir%\ServicePackFiles\i386\notepad.exe %WinDir%\ServicePackFiles\i386\notepad.exe.orig
copy /y %WinDir%\System32\notepad.exe %WinDir%\System32\notepad.exe.orig
copy /y %WinDir%\notepad.exe %WinDir%\notepad.exe.orig
copy /y C:\notepad\notepad.exe %WinDir%\System32\dllcache
copy /y C:\notepad\notepad.exe %WinDir%\ServicePackFiles\i386
copy /y C:\notepad\notepad.exe %WinDir%\System32
copy /y C:\notepad\notepad.exe %WinDir%
echo.
echo.
echo Write down the locations after the REG_MULTI_SZ or REG_SZ in case the batch file does not work.  If it does not work, you will need to look in the locations from below to find other copies of notepad.exe that are possibly being used to restore the original notepad.exe
echo.
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup /v "Installation Sources"
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup /v ServicePackSourcePath
reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup /v SourcePath

twitter @dkirkland

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Ok, I have had it with IIS... Time to install Apache!

I was reluctant to install Apache because I always thought that it would be too hard.  Lot's of fiddly things to install, mucking about with a bunch of text files... the list went on and on, but as it turns out, I was wrong.  Just go to http://httpd.apache.org/  grab apache_2.2.10-win32-x86-openssl-0.9.8i.msi (at the time of this writing) and run the msi file.  The only change I made was to install everything and point the installer to something like x:\apache  (x being any drive you choose) for easy webroot access. 

This install will do everything! Unlike the PHP installer Apache will work as soon as the installer is finished.  Now the fiddly part that I was afraid of: Getting PHP and MySQL to play nice with it...
Add these three lines to your httpd.conf:

LoadModule php5_module "x:/php5/php5apache2_2.dll"
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Do a search for DirectoryIndex and make it look like this: DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

That's it! You are done.

Ohh almost forgot if you have set anything to the Inetpub\wwwroot folder in the php.ini file (like upload_tmp_dir or session.save_path), you will need to change it to reflect your new webroot folder:x:\Apache\htdocs

Posted by email from Musings, Ramblings and Other Assorted Rubbish (posterous)