Sunday, March 21, 2010

WinPE Multi-boot a Bootable USB Storage device

Amazing!

Things like this keep up my faith in blogging and the blogging scene.

I’ve posted a number of articles related to WinPE as well as making portable storage devices (USB HDD/ USB flash sticks) bootable for use as WinPE boot media.

It was under that last, most recent post that I mentioned a trick I do to carry multiple WinPE boot.wim varieties on my bootable USB stick:

On my own bootable USB flash stick, in addition to the required “SOURCES” folder and contents, I also have a “SOURCES-ALT” folder.  In there I keep all my additional and scratch-space-adjusted WIM files.  So I have a  Boot-32.wim, Boot-128.wim, Boot-256.wim, and a Boot-512.wim file stored in there.  Typically, I have the 512 MB set scratch-space boot.wim file in my SOURCES folder to boot with.  However, if I know I need to WinPE boot a system that that wouldn’t work on, then I can delete the boot.wim file out of my SOURCES folder on the USB stick, and copy another more appropriate version from my SOURCES-ALT folder over into it, say the Boot-128.wim one.  Then I rename it to boot.wim and I am good to go!

In fact, once the contents of the WIM file are loaded into the scratch-space/RAM Disk, it is then released.  That means if you are going from a system that uses the 512 MB scratch-space, and then progress on to one that will require the 64 MB scratch-space version, it seems you can do the boot.wim delete/copy/rename routine on your USB stick still from within your WinPE boot session!  I’ve done this on a number of occasions.

Even more fun is making up not just different scratch-space flavors of the boot.wim file, but even wholly different versions of the boot.wim file itself!  You could have a custom WinPE 2.0 boot.wim file, a custom WinPE 3.0 boot.wim file, an AntiVirus PE Disk to offline-scan a Windows system, or maybe, say, a Win(FE) forensics build boot.wim, and so on…limited only by the size of your USB storage device and your imagination and efforts.  Even different WIM files with different hardware drivers injected for various system platforms.  Instead of carrying a mess of optical disks, just a single large USB storage may do the trick (assuming the system BIOS supports USB based booting).

Of course, you do have to reboot the system to then load whichever WIM file you have swapped out…but I’m sure you knew that already.  Just keep the originals safely and alternatively named in your “storage” folder location and delete/copy/rename the original boot.wim file as needed.

Brilliance = Bret ?

Well, there I was thinking just how clever a trick this was to sort-of “multi-boot” the WinPE’s off my USB stick.

Then Bret came and visited the blog and dropped an “outside-the-box” kind of comment that was bloody brilliant.

Instead of copying and renaming your boot-*.wim files, have you thought about using bcdedit to add entries to display a bootmgr menu with choices of each wim? You could keep all of the wims in your sources folder, too. I like to have a menu with a 4-second timeout to the default.

I read it and just sat there stunned.

Seriously.

Simple and elegant…and something I was already familiar with (in concept) from my earlier boot to VHD work.

Crap.  Now I’ve got yet another fun project to work on tweaking my super-boot USB stick.

In case you haven’t caught what Bret proposed, he is saying that we can just set the BCD file in the \boot folder to point to additional wim entries as well as the default boot.wim.  You can name then whatever.wim you wish and then when you boot from the USB device, be offered a nice multi-bootloader menu and select which particular flavored wim you want to boot from.

No swapping out/renaming of the extra wim’s you carry.  No rebooting to get the one you want loaded.

See?

Simply brilliant.

How To Resources #1

Amazingly, I didn’t find all too many references to this trick on the Net and forums.  There are a few, and they all seem to be pretty recent.

Below are some of the best resources I located to help guide someone through the process.

Both of these techniques require comfort and skilled familiarity with the command-line bcdedit.

Just take a lot of notes and make sure you have pre-structured which wims you want to use before you get started.  Being organized first will save you a lot of headaches.

How To Resources #2

If you are just not a CLI person, then there is at least one GUI alternative to use: EasyBCD

The current version does allow you to work with PE files.

The trick is to first run the program then load the BCD (Boot Configuration Database) file on your portable WinPE boot stick located in the\boot folder.

However, I discovered that the EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds (free registration required to access) have even more robust and enhanced support.

With the latest version (2.0 Beta Build 86) You can actually not just add additional WIM files to your bootloader but VHD files as well. ISOs are another option but I’ve got enough on my hands for now to take in!

Using EasyBCD should allow you to back up your existing bootloader file before making changes.  Just be very sure you are on the USB drive \boot folder and not the one for your primary system.  If you get mixed up and start making incorrect changes, bad things could happen man.

Sure, with the base bcdedit application, you have all you need without extra software, but EasyBCD is very slick and just (basically) provides an advanced GUI wrapper for the bcdedit app at the core.

Choice is yours.

Here are some additional links that while not directly related to multi-booting of USB sticks, do have additional great examples of bcdedit in action for reference.

Final Thoughts

This is a really cool synthesis of concepts and even more could be extended from this on your USB device.  Really the only limits are the size of your storage device to hold the files, the memory of the system it is running on, and the speed of the hardware to make it usable.

You almost certainly don’t have to limit yourself to just WinPE wim files.

Imagine also if you had a VHD file of a full-blown specialized Windows 7 system  or Sever 2008 to pick from your bootloader list, and not just the WinPE flavors.  Awesome.

Spend some time poking around on Mark Wilson’s blog.  He’s got a lot of research and lessons learned on his and other sites he found that we can benefit from there.

  • Running Windows from a USB flash drive– Mark Wilson blog. .

  • Windows 7 and Windows Application Compatibility : Boot from Windows 7 VHD Boot without having any native Operating System.

  • Booting Hyper-V R2 off a USB stick – Virtual PC Guy’s weblog.

  • Create bootable USB drive for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – MSDN Code Site.

  • Boot from VHD – the joy of BCDedit and a nice hyper-v gotcha or two – James O’Neill’s blog.
  • My Boot-to-VHD experiment: found some tips, like it, but still haven’t found VM nirvana - Jon Galloway.
  • Anyway…you get the idea.

    I’m likely to stick to WinPE / WinFE wims myself but I’ve already got a project in mind once I get my own USB boot stick squared away.

    We deploy to our techs a bootable WinPE portable HDD.  It boots from the base WinPE boot.wim (32 MB RamDisk). None of the extras and we use it for imagex system image deployments.  I’ve stuck with the base boot.wim as it will work dependably on most all our desktop systems.

    The techs have been clamoring for me to switch out to the heavier customized WimPE image I provide them on a CD-ROM disk.

    I’ve declined as it just doesn’t work on some of our system-RAM limited desktops/laptops while the CLI WinPE base would.

    Now I can give them their cake and let them eat it too.

    Sweet baby jebus.

    All this because of Bret….

    Cheers!

    --Claus V.

    Saturday, March 20, 2010

    Dealing with the Dell … 2010 Edition

    For the longest time, the Dealing with the Dell... post I did back in 2006 was a perennial top post ranker here at the GSD tech ranch.

    Most of that I have to credit to Tech Blog’ist Dwight Silverman and Ed Bott who both linked to the post.

    So this past week, I stopped by a senior friend’s house after work and set up his new Dell Inspiron 580 Desktop.

    My o my. How far we have come.

    Back in 2006, setting up that new factory-fresh Dell system took 4.5 hours.  In 2010? Just under two hours.

    Sure my experience has grown since then, systems are faster, and this user’s needs were more simple than before, but it was a very refreshing experience.

    The User

    This wonderful mentor of mine would fall squarely in the “senior” category.  Long since retired but still very active.  He continues to grow PC savvy and I usually function as the premiere pc support source he relies upon.

    He has had two laptops as well as a previous Dell desktop system.  All running Windows XP.

    He surfs the web, does financial management, is getting into digital photography (after many years as a film-based hobbyist) and prints/scans stuff.

    His XP system continued to experience crashes and while adequate, was showing its age.

    A few weeks earlier he asked for advice on what to look for in a desktop system and I gave him my basic spiel.

    Then he called me to come set it up and swing his data over onto the new system.

    The System

    The Dell system he purchased came with a quad-core, 6 GB of system RAM, a 500 GB SATA drive, and a new wide-screen LCD monitor.

    It was loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium running as x64 bit flavor.

    He had gone ahead and purchased the MS Office 2007 Student Teacher edition which was pre-loaded.

    It also came with a trial McAfee Security Center.

    The Setup

    I didn’t have much work to do on his current XP system.  It had BSOD and (knowing I was busy with a work project) had elected to have a local PC shop work on it.  They “solved” his problem by saving his My Documents folder and a few others, overlaying XP as a fresh install, then porting his “My Documents” folder back into the fresh profile.

    Great.

    Gone were the Outlook Express data stores that were kept in a non-My Documents location along with a lot of other data.

    Fortunately all of the key stuff was still present and he had religiously been backing up Quicken data to a USB stick and CD media.

    Lessons learned…call me.  Really.  If I’m so busy I can’t look at it I can give you advice.  Anyway…

    Shut down the old system.  Pulled all the cords/cables, etc and strung the new ones out of the box.

    Cordless mouse and keyboard now.  Sweet.

    In about ten minutes it was unboxed, cabled up, and powered on.

    I quickly set up the single user account on the system and rebooted.

    It was wicked-fast.

    I checked the add/remove programs list and it was refreshingly clear of any and all crapware and third-party software add-on bloat.  Both the x32 and x64 bit Java versions had been loaded and were current.

    No need for deployment of the awesomely helpful PC Decrapifier (recently updated to version 2.2.1).

    Quick and deeper system reviews using Process Explorer and Autoruns found everything ship-shape.

    Flash and Shockwave got installed and updated.

    I uninstalled the McAfee trialware package.

    I made sure the Windows 7 Microsoft Firewall was on and set correctly before plugging it into the DSL modem. (for some easy Win7 alternative firewalls see this The Best Free Firewalls for Windows 7: Top Firewall Options Compatible with Windows 7 Including Software from Comodo, Sunbelt, and Outpost) post.  More on why I stuck with this one later..

    Windows Updates took quite while to download over DSL. (Cable broadband has spoiled me silly.)  I think there were about 32 Microsoft updates as well as maybe three hardware driver updates.

    Microsoft Security Essentials also got installed and configured for daily scans about this time.

    I had to enter the MS Office key and activate it.  No problems.

    I installed the ACDSee Photo Software trial so our budding digital photographer could try this semi-pro application out, having learned that he wanted something a bit more sophisticated than the FastStone Image Viewer could provide, particularly in regards to photo image management.

    I also tucked away downloads of ShowMyPC as well as TeamViewer Portable so we would have remote support options in place prior to any future calls for assistance to me.

    We quickly loaded the latest version of Quicken which he had purchased.

    Then came the HP Printer Driver update.  Windows 7 did pick up automatically the base drivers for the device, but I had to download the full x64 bit software package to realize the scanning and other advanced features his HP printer offered.

    All done with no issues and in no time flat.

    Using my Rosewill RCW-608 USB2.0 Adapter I finally yanked the IDE hard-drive from the XP system, connected it up to the new system, and in just over five minutes had copied over almost 20 GB of user documents, photos, music and tucked them away in their proper Windows 7 library locations.

    After a quick review with the x64 bit version of Recuva as well as DiskDigger I was hopeful I could recover additional files that had been nuked, in case they were needed.  I advised my mentor to keep the drive in a safe place, out of the old system. If he found something very important later we could arrange for a data recovery at the sector level.  Othewise if all ended up being good, we could arrange for a secure wipe of the drive before he donates or tosses the old system.

    Then came the Mail Client

    As mentioned, he had been using Outlook Express.  I had done my homework and was all set to root out the .dbx files buried in the C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{your Windows user identity number}\Microsoft\Outlook Express location.

    Unfortunately, the “crack” local PC support shop tech had only focused on the “My Documents” folder and not bothered to save the entire user-profile folder with all it’s hidden system and application files and folders.  Oh bother.

    Outlook Express doesn’t come available for Windows 7.  I could have gone with Thunderbird or another email client, but to keep things simple as possible for this user I just set up Windows Live Mail (which turns out was pre-installed on his system with most of the other Windows Live items as well).

    Turns out Windows Live mail is very slick and has a very simple interface.  He felt quite at home in it and it reminded me of a minimalist version of the full Outlook application.

    I was all set with my Verizon email settings to manually configure it.

    But I was amazingly surprised that after we had put in his Verizon email address and proceeded, Windows Live Mail had automagically pre-configured all the settings correctly!  Sweet!

    Fortunately for us both, we had never set his former Outlook Express client to delete messages off the server once downloaded, so all 9500+ of his emails were still living.  Down they came (and continued long after I left).  So we were lucky that though the Outlook Express files had been nuked, they were “recoverable”.  I showed him how Windows Live mail offers to “add contact” up at the top by each email sender’s name so he can quickly rebuild his contact lists.  We reviewed the junk mail settings/folder, the calendar and how to change views and add items. Easy peasy.

    Wrap up and Final Thoughts

    I have to confess we have come a long way since the last time I had to set up a factory Dell system for a home user.

    The process was faster, the setup was simpler, and Windows 7 alone makes a large improvement.

    Because of the precipitous XP system failure/reload, I didn’t get a chance to use any of the various user/system migration tools/utilities I had brought along to the setup party.  That was good for me but clearly not a representative experience for most users moving from one physical XP/Vista system to another Windows 7 system.  Being a sysadmin I did feel very comfortable with the manual user-data transfer process and having a drive adapter made it rocket-fast.

    You will have noticed also that I stuck with many Microsoft products for the security protection and web-work.  No I didn’t load Firefox.  We stuck with IE 8.  I went with MS Security Essentials and not VIPRE or AVG Free or avast! Free Antivirus or even Comodo Free Anti Virus. I didn’t even use a more robust third-party firewall with anal-retentive outbound traffic monitoring/blocking.

    Why all this stock Microsoft stuff?  Clearly there are “better” browser, email, and security options out there.  I know because I use them all on my own systems at home and work. 

    The answer is complex and easy at the same time:

    This was not my system. 

    I knew my friend and how he had used his PC over many years.  I needed to keep it simple, consistent, and easy for him to use.  That in turn will result in less need for troubleshooting and support.  The fewer deviations and more transparent the systems and software applications, the easier it would be for him to enjoy it and still remain acceptably secure.  Too much security was a bad thing as the block/allow notices from the previous firewall under XP often led to many safe and necessary things getting blocked by accident and causing support calls to me when software “just wouldn’t work right” anymore.

    Sometimes hardened security options leads to more problems and frustrations.  That ends up with it being turned off.  Even worse.

    Dell seems to have successfully come a long way, at least based on this system, on removing all the crapware and bloatware that used to bog down their systems.  Alas this isn’t the norm with all factory systems, but in my experience, those purchased direct from the OEM’s seem to have way fewer bloatware/crapware than those picked up at BigBox outlets and office supply stores.  And even then, in many cases even these systems seem more dialed back now with that nuisance stuff than in years past.

    Yes…and given the options when setting up a new factory-fresh system and porting the old data over, on an after-work worknight, I’ll take this brave new 2010 PC world over that of 2006 anytime!

    And I have to chuckle.  This still-youthful senior friend is ripping away now on a quad-core, 6 Gig RAM, 500 GB SATA drive running a x64 bit OS that is so fast we both might need to go to confession after using it.  It seems sinfully fast and robust for a simple middle-of-the-road home desktop system.

    Yes indeed. How far we have come.

    Cheers.

    --Claus V.

    Not there yet, but if I click my heels together three times…..

    Spotted this the other day and it gave me hope, even if I’m not there yet on the salary data presented:

    image

    ..caught via The Best Jobs in America – Sociological Images Blog – Context.org

    Super-big graphic and expanded list of fields at Best_Jobs_in_America

    For the full list of jobs, including details on us poor Information Technology Project Manager folks see the

    What they do: Keep big tech projects like software upgrades running on time--and on budget. "We bring order to chaos," says April Ellison, an IT project manager in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Drawbacks: Hours (and hours and hours) of meetings. Aggressive project timelines. Staff jobs can be outsourced to consultants.

    Fun and challenging but yes, long hours and bad-crazy timelines on projects seem to be my norm of late.

    I really like what I do most days; a mix of SME work, incident response, advanced desktop troubleshooting, IT project management, and policy development. 

    The trick is applying all the tricks such as those at Zen Habits, zen family habits, and the very tiny but digestibly filling :mnmlist blog to keep things in personal balance and harmony so I stay sane in the process.

    It definitely is a work in progress.

    Speaking of clicking of heels together, Dr. Isis has some crazy reds highlighted on her most recent Dr. Isis's Shoe of the Week.

    Wouldn’t look good on my tootsies but Lavie likes.  Maybe she can get us both there if we hold hands while she clicks them for us…

    Claus V.

    A Census 2010 Drive By…

    Just in case you have been living under a rock for the past two months, the radio, television, and news outlets have been rife with warnings and PSA’s about the March mail-out of the 2010 Census form.

    Completing of the Census is mandatory.  Regardless of you personal feelings and perspectives on the gobermint asking for all this personal info, it does help determine some critical baselines and information that might qualify your community for additional benefits and representation.

    Anyway, for the past few weeks I was a bit confused about this.

    As I said, the PSA’s were all saying how the official 2010 Census form would be arriving in the mail in March.

    Only I had filled one out in early February.  A really long one, that I had ignored for some time until they sent it to me a second time along with more than a few letters reminding me I had to fill it out.

    So I did, and it asked all kinds of personal household questions and details and took about fifteen minutes or so to finish.  It was really big.

    Then about three weeks after mailing it in, I got a phone call from someone official like saying they were from the Census and needed to clarify a few of my answers.  I did so and got a big laugh when they confirmed that my salary was not in fact 100 times higher than what I actually earn.  (Not much, btw as doing my 2010 income tax made painfully clear).

    So I didn’t think much about it; mostly.  I had done my civic duty.  But why were those PSA ads saying I would get the official census in March by mail?

    And when it did arrive last week as promised in our mailbox…my heart sank.  Had I been royally scammed?

    US Census Scams

    I would like to think that I practice very good skepticism towards my mail and email boxes.  I perform due diligence to vet the authenticity of requests for personal information; particularly of a id or financial nature.  It doesn’t take but a moment’s relaxation of guard to get whomped.

    In this case the mailers seemed legitimate, they had all the right words, the pre-paid return mail envelope looked accurate, the fact that I got several follow-up mailers as well seemed positive factors.  The form itself seemed professionally composed (spoken as a sociology major). And the call-back indicated an acknowledgement of my submission.  All the parts fit.

    So why was I getting the official 2010 Census form in the mail?

    What happened?

    Was a victim of one of these?

    Digging Deeper

    Regrettably, I had shredded the 2nd survey form I had received and all the associated mailings.  Bother.

    So I got to digging on the Net and started to see if I could find out any information on the possibility that maybe I had received a Census “Long” form survey.  I remember Dad got one once while I was a kid and it took him quite a while to fill it out. Maybe that’s what it was?

    Nope:  2010 Census: What Questions Will They Ask Me? Why Should I Fill it Out? - Associated Content.

    2. When and how will I get my 2010 Census form, and how lengthy will it be?

    Census forms for the 2010 Census will be mailed out in March of 2010. These forms are short and to the point, and will "less than 10 minutes to complete." Whereas one in six households used to get a census long-form to fill out, in 2010 there will be only short-forms for everyone. This should serve as an encouragement to you. The 2000 Census long-form asked nearly ten times the questions per person as the short-form.

    Now I was really getting concerned.  What had I done!

    I was starting to feel like Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men.

    Uncovering the Perpetrator; ACS

    Finally, after additional digging and refining my search I started to flesh out the corpse that was my pride.

    My first clue was this How the 2010 Census is Different - Population Reference Bureau tidbit.  From that post…

    However, for the first time since 1940, the 2010 Census will be a short-form-only census. This is because the decennial long form has been replaced by the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is a nationwide, continuous survey designed to provide reliable and timely demographic, housing, social, and economic data every year. The ACS will replace the long form in 2010 and thereafter by collecting long-form-type information throughout the decade rather than only once every 10 years.

    That led me to this Wikipedia post: American Community Survey

    The planned sample will be 3 million housing units and group quarters in the U.S., in every county, American Indian and Alaska Native area, and Hawaiian Homeland, and in Puerto Rico annually (250,000/month). Data will be collected primarily by mail, with Census Bureau follow up.

    The Department of Commerce has stated that those who receive a survey form are required to provide answers to a long list of questions about themselves and their families, including their profession, how much money they earn, their source of health insurance, their preferred mode of transportation to and from work, and the amount of money they pay for housing and utilities. Those who decline to answer these questions may receive follow-up phone calls and/or visits to their homes from Census Bureau personnel, and are threatened with prosecution and fines up to $5000.

    That seemed to fit my experience.

    Fortunately, the article had additional links at the bottom to follow, including the money ones;

    And finally the final verification, a sample form on-line to match the one I completed.

    Whew.

    But really?  What a load of confusion!

    Recommendations, Lessons Learned…and Not

    This still needs some way-additional public relations management improvement.  In a flood of media saturation about the 2010 Census and the importance of it, I didn’t hear one single mention of the ACS.

    None.

    It took quite a bit of Google work after the fact for me to track down just what was going on and why I was getting “two” census forms when the media PSA’s only seemed to indicate one.

    It would be nice to see some wider public media attention provided to the ACS as well.  Maybe they are trying to avoid confusion by not mentioning the ACS, but the sword cuts both ways and I feel like I’ve been halved right down the middle.

    Think I had a hard time with the ACS?  That’s nothing compared to the work in 2008 that Robert Hueston went through.

    His posts and analyses are still spot-on, over two-years later.

    If they really want me to fill out this survey, or the 2010 census in two years, they really should:

    • Provide a way I can authenticate that the survey came from the US government. Giving me a phone number is useless; anyone can get a phone number these days. Instead, the instructinos should provide something more authentic, like the URL of a web page, based off of census.gov, that confirms the survey is authentic.
    • Provide a way I can ensure that my data is really going to the right authorities, for example, on the web site list the address that should be on the return envelop.
    • Encourage, no mandate that everyone visit the web site, and verify the address on the envelop before they mail their response! Anything less is just encouraging people to believe whatever they get in the mail with an official-looking seal; it's tantamount to abetting identity theft.
    • Allow people to fill out the survey on the web. Personally, I trust ssl encryption far more than I trust my local mail carrier. On the other hand, I don't really trust the government to secure their servers, so maybe that's a bad idea, too.

    Finally, I thought to google '"po box 5240" jeffersonville', and got a hit. Looks like this is a real survey from the Census Bureau, albeit conducted in one of the most shady, disreputable, and hard-to-authenticate manners possible.

    Two weeks after mailing in the survey, we started to get phone calls from a mysterious 800 number. No name on the caller id, just a number.

    After, literally, hundreds of these unanswered calls, we slipped. I was traveling and my wife answered the call, despite the anonymous caller id, thinking it might be from a hotel or calling card. But it was someone claiming to be from the Census Bureau wanting to "verify" our answers to the American Community Scam. If these calls were really from the Census Bureau, why would the caller id name be blocked? Obviously, this is a follow-on scam.

    (snip)

    Ironically, the US Department of Justice, has a web page on Identify Theft and Fraud. On that page, the DOJ gives some good advice about avoiding identify theft at home, including:

        * Start by adopting a "need to know" approach to your personal data. A person who calls you and says he's from your bank doesn't need to know information if it's already on file with your bank; the only purpose of such a call is to acquire that information for that person's personal benefit.
        * If someone you don't know calls you on the telephone and asks you for personal data -- such as your Social Security number, credit card number or expiration date, or mother's maiden name -- ask them to send you a written application form.
        * If they won't do it, hang up.
        * If they will, review the application carefully when you receive it and make sure it's going to an institution that's well-known and reputable.

    Based on the guidance given us by the Department of Justice, it's clear that we should all discard the American Community Survey if we receive it in the mail, and hang up when they call.

    …the Census Bureau has rolled out a new home page with a link called Are You in a Survey? This new web page gives the following information and advice:

        * The address that the American Community Survey response should be sent to, so you can verify that the data you provide is going directly to the Census Bureau.
        * If you have received a telephone call from someone at the Census Bureau, and you have any questions, you may speak directly via telephone or e-mail with an employee of the National Processing Center (at 1-866-226-2864).
        * If a person claiming to be from the Census Bureau comes to your door, ask to see their identification badge and a copy of the letter that was sent to you from the Census Bureau. And if you have any questions about their authenticity, call the National Processing Center.

    All of this is good advice, and helps to ensure that your personal information is only going to authenticated, and authorized, individuals. Interestingly, these are all things I suggested in my recent posts.

    I’m not bashing the substance of the ACS, and (once I eventually tracked it all down) they do have quite a lot of information on the US Census home site about it.

    It was just a very inopportune time to be one of the few who were randomly selected to receive it, right before the official and primary 2010 Census surveys were mailed out and publicized.

    Know we know better.

    --Claus V.

    GSD Recent Comment” Sidebar link references fixed

    For anyone who cares, I finally took the time to “fix” the html links in the “Recent Comments” sidebar.

    While they look good, it has always annoyed me.

    The format is this.

    (poster name) on (post title) comment bits(more).

    Clicking on any of the HTML links just took you to the top of the post the comment was left on. Not the comment itself as expected.

    While users could scroll down to the comment section, it just wasn’t as right or polite as I wanted.

    I’m not really much of a coder, particularly JavaScript, but I decided it was time to try to fix it.

    So I located the correct comment link HTML format from a post comment as a sample to examine.

    http:// <blogtitlelinkurl> ?showComment= <numbersetA> #c <numbersetB>

    This code correctly takes you directly to the respective comment under the post.

    Then I copied the existing HTML codes the JavaScript was generating into my notepad text editor and set out to compare them all.

    Very quickly I found that the original JavaScript code (included at the end of this post for the curious) was replacing the “#” symbol in the working comment HTML structure with a “#comment-“ string instead.  This routed the link-click to the post title when Blogger couldn’t figure it out.

    Looking at the JavaScript code I found a line “ctlink = ctlink.replace("#", "#comment-");” and replaced it with “ctlink = ctlink.replace("#", "#");” which was a dirty way to not muck the code up but keep the variable structure the same.  (Note: “ctlink” variable name stands for “comment link” I think).

    Testing finds that it works perfectly.

    Clicking on either the (poster name) or (more) parts will now take to directly to the comment itself, not the post title.

    While clicking on the (post title) link takes you to the top of the post itself.

    The only thing I still needed to do (being a bit neurotic) is that while that worked, the (post title) HTML code was sloppy as the JavaScript generating it still seemed to either be tagging it with, or failing to remove the “?showComment=numbers”  bit at the end.  It did work, it’s just not pretty.

    That still needed fixin’.

    Trial and Editor

    Luckily I had recently found the following W3Schools Online Web Tutorials site that also has their “Tryit Editor”.

    This is really, really cool as it lets coding doofs like me copy/paste/tweak/test code and scripts into their editor and view the results without nuking my deployed blog until fully tested.

    Once I think I have the solution down, I then upload the changes to my gsdtemplatetester blog page.  This is the proving ground where I can experiment with code and templates on a “real” Blogger deployment before moving those changes into production on the GSD blog page template proper.

    So I set to work using the JavaScript descriptions there, picking apart more of the code elements and variables, and via trial and editor, found the line to fix.

    Originally it was

    var ptlink = ctlink.split("#");

    Where the variable name “ptlink” stands for “post title link” I think.

    Which I finally worked out needed to be

    var ptlink = ctlink.split("?showComment=");

    Replacing that finally resulted in the comment sidebar (post title) link returning the HTML code format

    http:// <blogtitlelinkurl>

    and not the incorrect (but still functional)

    http:// <blogtitlelinkurl> ?showComment= <numbersetA>

    Hurrah! The Recent Comment sidebar links now all work correctly and the HTML code is fully correct as well.

    Hopefully this will make monitoring and following the recent comments a bit more enjoyable and efficient for readers.

    Cheers!

    --Claus V.

    Note:

    For posterity, here is the original (working but barely) and fixed (working great) JavaScript code I am using if anyone cares to study it more.  I’m clearly not the original author of the JavaScript.  It came from somewhere within this Now See This: Adding Comments to your Blogger sidebar GSD post back in 2008 (gosh has it been that long?!!).

    Original (working but barely) JavaScript code

    <ul><script style="text/JavaScript">
    function showrecentcomments(json) {
    for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
    var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
    var ctlink;
    if (i == json.feed.entry.length) break;
    for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
    if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
    ctlink = entry.link[k].href;
    break;
    }
    }
    ctlink = ctlink.replace("#", "#comment-");
    var ptlink = ctlink.split("#");
    ptlink = ptlink[0];
    var txtlink = ptlink.split("/");
    txtlink = txtlink[5];
    txtlink = txtlink.split(".html");
    txtlink = txtlink[0];
    var pttitle = txtlink.replace(/-/g," ");
    pttitle = pttitle.link(ptlink);
    if ("content" in entry) {
    var comment = entry.content.$t;}
    else
    if ("summary" in entry) {
    var comment = entry.summary.$t;}
    else var comment = "";
    var re = /<\S[^>]*>/g;
    comment = comment.replace(re, "");
    document.write('<li>');
    document.write('<a href="' + ctlink + '">' + entry.author[0].name.$t + '</a>');
    document.write(' on ' + pttitle);
    document.write('<br/>');
    if (comment.length < 120) {
    document.write(comment);
    document.write('<li>');document.write('<br/>');
    }
    else
    {
    comment = comment.substring(0, 120);
    var quoteEnd = comment.lastIndexOf(" ");
    comment = comment.substring(0, quoteEnd);
    document.write(comment + '...<a href="' + ctlink + '">(more)</a>');
    document.write('<li>');document.write('<br/>');
    }
    }
    document.write('</li>');
    document.write('<div style="font-size:95%;text-align:center"><a href="http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/full">GSD RSS Comment Feed link</a></div>');
    }
    </script>
    <script src="http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments">
    </script></ul>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to read this.</noscript>

    I’ve also linked to some of the JavaScript examples and actions at w3schools page as well for easy cross-reference to show what these various calls are doing.

    Fully Working JavaScript code (changes in yellow)

    <ul><script style="text/JavaScript">
    function showrecentcomments(json) {
    for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
    var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
    var ctlink;
    if (i == json.feed.entry.length) break;
    for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
    if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') {
    ctlink = entry.link[k].href;
    break;
    }
    }
    ctlink = ctlink.replace("#", "#");
    var ptlink = ctlink.split("?showComment=");
    ptlink = ptlink[0];
    var txtlink = ptlink.split("/");
    txtlink = txtlink[5];
    txtlink = txtlink.split(".html");
    txtlink = txtlink[0];
    var pttitle = txtlink.replace(/-/g," ");
    pttitle = pttitle.link(ptlink);
    if ("content" in entry) {
    var comment = entry.content.$t;}
    else
    if ("summary" in entry) {
    var comment = entry.summary.$t;}
    else var comment = "";
    var re = /<\S[^>]*>/g;
    comment = comment.replace(re, "");
    document.write('<li>');
    document.write('<a href="' + ctlink + '">' + entry.author[0].name.$t + '</a>');
    document.write(' on ' + pttitle);
    document.write('<br/>');
    if (comment.length < 120) {
    document.write(comment);
    document.write('<li>');document.write('<br/>');
    }
    else
    {
    comment = comment.substring(0, 120);
    var quoteEnd = comment.lastIndexOf(" ");
    comment = comment.substring(0, quoteEnd);
    document.write(comment + '...<a href="' + ctlink + '">(more)</a>');
    document.write('<li>');document.write('<br/>');
    }
    }
    document.write('</li>');
    document.write('<div style="font-size:95%;text-align:center"><a href="http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/full">GSD RSS Comment Feed link</a></div>');
    }
    </script>
    <script src="http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments">
    </script></ul>
    <noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to read this.</noscript>

    Sunday, March 14, 2010

    Skipping Links in a Sunday Stream

    One of the joys I had as a kid was skipping stones by the lake.

    First there was the search for the right stones, wide, round, flat surface (though an oyster-shell half would do fine in a pinch).  Then with my pile collected, I would toss them out, waves or not, seeing how far they could go and how many skips would be produced before the object sank beneath the water.

    Here is a mishmash of collected links I’m tossing into the lazy Sunday afternoon waters.

    Enjoy.

    Cheers.

    Claus V.

    WinPE and DISM/PEimg to boost Scratch Space (Ram Disk)

    Soon after I had posted this Custom Win PE Boot Disk Building: Step Four – Pulling it all together walkthrough binding all the elements on making a custom PE boot disk, I started getting comments that followers were unable to get CubicExplorer working in it.

    The solution was a long time coming, but revelation of the solution culminated in the Solved: Run CubicExplorer in Win PE with no Crashes... post.

    I’m not revisiting that one, but one path I and parities played with in the process was to fiddle with the PE Ram Disk size.

    As this may or may not be something amateur PE builders and hobbies may be familiar with (I really wasn’t fully) I thought I would take a few moments to post some related links about it for future reference.

    Very Basic info on RamDisk/ScratchSpace in PE

    By default, Windows PE builds “by the book” allocate 32 MB of writeable memory to the PE environment.

    I like to think of it (very roughly) like this.

    The space of my yard would correspond to the System RAM.

    The PE system (containing all the stuff in your PE wim-image file) would correspond to a kiddie-pool placed in the back-yard.

    The scratch space would correspond to how big the kiddie-pool is and, thusly, how much water fills it up for everyone to play in.

    Now generally, for most stock PE builds, 32 MB of scratch space works very well.  PE environments (base) run a CLI shell box and a simple background.  The services are simple and it’s not like you are running a lot of GUI apps.  This small and shallow pool is more than sufficient to let the kids play happily and safely.

    But say you then get a lot of neighborhood kids coming to join in.  And some of them aren’t five-year olds.  These are third and fourth graders.  Suddenly there isn’t enough water in the pool for everyone to feel comfortable in.  Kids get cranky and don’t behave.

    Under these circumstances you need to get a larger kiddie-pool!

    Microsoft describes it like this:

    If your Windows PE environment becomes unresponsive when running an application, you may have run out of memory. By default, Windows PE allocates 32 megabytes (MB) of writeable memory, known as scratch space.

    Typically, you don’t need to do anything as the standard 32 MB scratch space size is adequate.  But if you need to, you do have the option to manually set the scratch space size larger…assuming the yard (system RAM) is large enough to accommodate things…

    In WinPE, scratch space can be set at 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512 MB levels.

    It does make a difference, particularly with GUI-heavy applications running in the WinPE environs.  I’ve personally  observed some applications either not running at all, running very sluggishly, or even not fully displaying all the expected graphical elements.

    When I rolled out the larger kiddie-pool, they suddenly sprang to life and made things much more pleasant.

    The drawback is you have to know the systems you intend to deploy these specific solutions on, and ensure you find the sweet-spot.  If your supported desktop systems have just 256 MB of RAM, and you go to boot it with a WinPE disk set at a 512 MB scratch-space size, it won’t be pretty.  Then again, if you don’t really use a lot of additional memory-intensive applications in WinPE, then you also don’t probably need a 512 MB scratch space wrapped WinPE setup.

    In other words, your kiddie-pool can’t be larger than your yard or else it just won’t fit in there.

    WinPE 3.0 and Increasing Scratch Space

    WinPE 3.0 is based on the Windows 7 platform.  As such, you have to use a WinPE 3.0 specific tool to make changes to the default scratch-space settings.

    The beauty of it is that once you get this basic process down, the rest is gravy.  I’ll come back to that in a minute.

    Under WinPE 3.0 building, you must use the DISM.exe command tool.

    Go ahead and create your WinPE 3.0 “wim” file image using your own technique or the ones I outlined in the first link of this post.

    This assumes you have already installed and are familiar with the Windows® AIK for Windows® 7.  There are a few other related Microsoft WinPE building packages/tools as well that should include the tool (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit).

    Launch the “Deployment Tools Command Prompt” and use the following format to adjust the scratch-space of your wim file. (note in this case I am using standard locations to mount the wim file for servicing as well as using the name “winpe.wim” for this example. You will need to adjust to your own particular wim-file and mounting location accordingly.)

    Dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\winpe_x86\mount

    dism /image:C:\winpe_x86\mount /Set-ScratchSpace:256

    Dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\winpe_x86\mount\ /Commit

    In the second line of the example above I used the “256” value to set the scratch-space to 256 MB RAM.  Adjust the value you use accordingly (32, 64, 128, 256, or 512 MB levels).

    Then toss the updated wim image file either into the correct location of your USB-bootable storage device, or into the proper folder and build/burn your WinPE ISO file to optical media.

    To verify that you were successful, launch your PE build, navigate in a CLI window to the X: drive (RamDisk) and run a DIR command.  The size shown should equal the scratch-space size you set.

    Easy!

    Related WinPE 3.0 Resources:

    WinPE 2.0 and Increasing Scratch Space

    WinPE 2.0 is based on the Windows Vista  platform.  As such, you have to use a WinPE 2.0 specific tool to make changes to the default scratch-space settings such as the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Vista or (even better) the Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008.

    Under WinPE 2.0 building, you must use the PEimg.exe command tool.

    The principle is basically the same as before, and again assumes you already have build your WIM image file and now need to adjust its scratch space.

    I’d type it again, but fortunately, The Deployment Guys have already done the hard work so from their post Expanding the Scratch Space in Windows PE 2.1 we have the following:

    “With the introduction of Windows PE 2.1 (supplied with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) 1.1), the scratch area can be changed from the command line. Below is the process for creating a larger scratch area.

       1. Create a temporary mount folder on your hard disk - MD c:\temp\mount
       2. Go to the Windows AIK tools folder for the platform of PE that you will be changing (ie x86/x64) - CD "Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86"
       3. Mount the default Windows PE image supplied with Windows AIK to your temporary mount folder - imagex.exe /MOUNTRW "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\winpe.wim" 1 c:\temp\mount
       4. Go to the Windows AIK PETools folder - CD "C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools"
       5. Run the PEIMG command to adjust the scratch size in the mounted image using /SCRATCHSPACE flag to set the size of the drive you want (in this case 128Mb)  - peimg.exe /SCRATCHSPACE=128 c:\temp\mount\windows
       6. Change back to the PETools directory - CD "Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86"
       7. Unmount the image and commit the changes - imagex.exe /UNMOUNT /COMMIT c:\temp\mount

    “That's it - the scratch area will now be set at 128 Mb for all boot images based on this source - which means all boot images created by MDT will now have the set scratch space set….”

    Again, pretty easy stuff.  Just adjust your recipe accordingly.

    Related WinPE 2.0 Resources:

    Gravy

    So earlier in the post I said that once you get down the commands to modify your WIM boot image file, you can easily crank out various versions.

    If you are using optical media based WinPE builds, then you just have to carry a few disks in each of the scratch-space flavors you created.

    However, if you are using a bootable USB disk, and it has sufficient space, you can get all crazy!

    On my own bootable USB flash stick, in addition to the required “SOURCES” folder and contents, I also have a “SOURCES-ALT” folder.  In there I keep all my additional and scratch-space-adjusted WIM files.  So I have a  Boot-32.wim, Boot-128.wim, Boot-256.wim, and a Boot-512.wim file stored in there.  Typically, I have the 512 MB set scratch-space boot.wim file in my SOURCES folder to boot with.  However, if I know I need to WinPE boot a system that that wouldn’t work on, then I can delete the boot.wim file out of my SOURCES folder on the USB stick, and copy another more appropriate version from my SOURCES-ALT folder over into it, say the Boot-128.wim one.  Then I rename it to boot.wim and I am good to go!

    In fact, once the contents of the WIM file are loaded into the scratch-space/RAM Disk, it is then released.  That means if you are going from a system that uses the 512 MB scratch-space, and then progress on to one that will require the 64 MB scratch-space version, it seems you can do the boot.wim delete/copy/rename routine on your USB stick still from within your WinPE boot session!  I’ve done this on a number of occasions.

    Even more fun is making up not just different scratch-space flavors of the boot.wim file, but even wholly different versions of the boot.wim file itself!  You could have a custom WinPE 2.0 boot.wim file, a custom WinPE 3.0 boot.wim file, an AntiVirus PE Disk to offline-scan a Windows system, or maybe, say, a Win(FE) forensics build boot.wim, and so on…limited only by the size of your USB storage device and your imagination and efforts.  Even different WIM files with different hardware drivers injected for various system platforms.  Instead of carrying a mess of optical disks, just a single large USB storage may do the trick (assuming the system BIOS supports USB based booting).

    Of course, you do have to reboot the system to then load whichever WIM file you have swapped out…but I’m sure you knew that already.  Just keep the originals safely and alternatively named in your “storage” folder location and delete/copy/rename the original boot.wim file as needed.

    One more Bonus Find

    The real find on this tip comes at the bottom of the page.

    CatPawz has three helpful CLI sections documented that deal with “Build a Windows 7 AIO DVD”, “To Modify a Win7PE Disk”, and “To Create a Win7 Disk”.   If you aren’t familiar or comfortable with CLI usage in WinPE building and servicing, these could be great examples to follow and learn from.

    Cheers!

    --Claus V.

    Saturday, March 13, 2010

    GSD Redesign (again)

    Probably not the best time to do something like this.  Been out in the back yard for most of the day hand-pulling the thick blanket of weeds from the yard.

    My fingers are numb.  My sittin’ bucket is busted. My arms and legs still itch even after a long shower scrub-down.

    The smell of wild green onions lingers in my nose.

    I’ve got a 50-pound of weed bio-mass pilled in a back corner.

    And then I take a moment to rest and find this stupid link:

    Official Google Blog: Express yourself with the Blogger Template Designer

    Well yeah. Of course I have to go muck around with it.

    I’ve generally liked the lightly dark format of some sites/blogs but have never been brave enough to try it on for size.

    I have also strongly resisted the image-background/floating layout style as well.

    However, the new Blogger Template designs are quite well balanced and I’ve always been a sucker for earthy warm-tone color schemes.

    I’m liking this one for now but I expect more tweaks will come down the line.

    This is probably one of the largest in-house updates Blogger has released in quite some time.

    Rendering so far in Firefox 3.6, Opera 10.5, IE 8, Chrome, and Safari all seem very spot-on.

    Sidebar items will require some custom adjustments but I think overall it has translated pretty well.

    Stay tuned.

    --Claus V.

    Saturday, March 06, 2010

    March Madness Linkfest #3 – Forensic Fallout

    Still got chores on the list so I’m afraid I’ll have to drop these into the blog-o-sphere a-la “pooh-sticks” and just let them drift on their own.

    Let’s open the race up with the usual bundle of sticks from the Windows Incident Response Blog.  The ones listed here are those that I found particularly thoughtful, helpful, and/or engaging.

    Cheers!

    --Claus V.

    March Madness Linkfest #2 – Windows Tips

    OK. Back from running me errands.  Lavie’s looking particularly fetching today as well, causing additional blogging distractions.

    Oh my.

    Just saw this tip from Lifehacker: Get Gigabytes of Free, Legitimate Music from SXSW 2010.  For those who don’t know, South by Southwest (SXSW) is a celebration of film and music hosted in Austin, Texas.  Goes to figure that Texas would be one of the few states large enough to try to hold all that material.  (official SXSW web site)

    While I’ve not yet attended SXSW, I’ve been in Austin last year on business when it was in full swing.  What a party town!

    Anyway, Lifehacker links back to the Home of the Unofficial SXSW torrents which contains music files (apparently freely provided by the artists) from this year back to 2005.  The current torrent file has 646 legit tracks while there is a 2nd torrent coming soon with hopes of 200 more.  Sweet.  Get your jam on.

    Now, here are the promised Windows tips for your perusal and studyfication…

    Bonus Stupid Batch File of the Day

    Running PGP Whole Disk Encryption can be a drag sometimes.  It works great and protects my system but one of the “timewasters” is when I run into a Windows Update or some other system activity that requires a system reboot.  That means that when the system bounces, I have to then re-log into my BootGuard check with my super long and complex passphrase.  Since my assigned system isn’t a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, this just adds to the reboot time by at least an unbearably long five to ten extra seconds on reboot.

    So I wrote this stupid batch file that allows me to fire it off, pre-type my crazy-complex passphrase in, then hand it off to the PGP one-time boot bypass switch, and then set the system shutdown/reboot timer to as many seconds as I want.

    After the system shuts down, it reboots normally and the passphrase is handed off in milliseconds and the OS boot continues; and I’ve shaved at least five or ten seconds off the reboot time!  brilliant.

    I suppose in theory it creates a gaping security hole in that, were I to use this very specific circumstance operating too, then someone were to come and bonk me over the head and make off with my laptop, PGP would be bypasses so they could get at my system.  Or maybe some rouge keylogger could strip my input then the laptop could be physically stolen and the info used against me, but hey, if I’ve got spooks lurking just outside my door to do so, or in my system, then I’ve got bigger issues.

    Anyway, it was more an exercise in batch file fiddling then anything else.  Tested on XP.  Your results may vary and I’ve not adjusted it for high altitude cooking.

    Cheers.

    --Claus V.

     

    @echo off

    echo.

    echo.

    echo This will initiate a “fast reboot” of the system and allow

    echo a ONE-TIME system reboot without PGP-WDE BootGuard prompt.

    echo.

    echo.

    echo      To initialize     type 1

    echo.

    echo       To cancel        type 2

    echo.

    set /P selection =      Type the number and then press Enter:

    If “%selection% == “1”  goto PGP

    If “%selection%” == “2”  goto end

    :PGP

    set /P PGPWDEPP=       What is the phassphrase?

    cd\

    cd Program Files\PGP Corporation\PGP Desktop

    pgpwde.exe –-add-bypass –-disk 0 –-passphrase “%PGPWDEPP%”

    echo.

    echo  PGP passphrase set, bypass enabled.

    echo.

    set /P Reboot=    How many seconds should system wait for reboot?

    shutdown –r –f –t %Reboot%

    echo.

    echo Reboot initialized

    echo.

    :end

    March Madness Linkfest #1 – Freeware Apps

    I’ve been overwhelmed with projects at work.  All critical priority (to someone else).  All requiring great devotion of shoe-rubber and gray-matter.  Most nights consist of pulling into the house, making sure nothing urgent is unattended, then crawling into bed.

    However, the mad rush of cool freeware, Windows tips, and forensic goodies continue to fall into my RSS feeder.  And they are still too great to ignore.

    Here is the first of three weekend linkfests; freeware finds

    • SSD Tweak Utility – Performance Tuning Tool for Solid State Drives – (freeware) -- I don’t have a SSD yet.  Probably won’t for quite a while.  In my mind I see an eventual upgrade to a two-drive device.  The first would be the SSD which would contain the OS and the second would be a fast and large SATA drive for data.  The first might allow me faster boot times while then 2nd would (hopefully) deliver dependable storage.  Anyway, this utility offers quick access to settings that might optimize SSD usage under Windows. YMMV. 

    • 7capture - (freeware) – Nice and small-sized free window capture tool.  Pros are that it is free and handles rounded corners and Aero transparencies nicely.  Cons are that it doesn’t come with any image manipulation tools embedded to allow for cropping, resizing, or text/graphic additions (like say FastStone Screen Capture – not free).  Worth checking out and adding to your USB stick…
    • Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector - (freeware) – really cool Wi-Fi scanner and signal locator.  The “radar” tool is a bit gimmicky but does seem to work as far as visualizing the relative direction/strength of the signals.  It is very easy to use and works off my USB drive where I copied the setup files onto.  Coupled with inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner and WirelessNetView you can have a nice little package for general home and office network finding.  Particularly useful if you have a issue like Dwight recently posted on: Ask TechBlog: Tracking an offensive Wi-Fi network [Updated] – TechBlog and your iPhone options have been yanked:  Apple removes Wi-Fi finders from App Store - CNET News and Apple purges Wi-Fi discovery apps from App Store (updated) - ZDNet.com

    • Windows System State Analyzer - (freeware) – I have a number of applications I use to diff a system pre/post activity.  All are portable and this Microsoft in-house tool will probably rise to the top of the list.  It too is portable once you copy out the key files from the install program folder.  Granted, diff’ing a system can take a loooong time, no matter how fast your drive and hardware is.  However, if you really want to find out what an installer does or what activity takes place with a malware loader, tools like this are very important.. Does require .NET 2.x, and the newer the better performance seen (IMHO). 

    • AppCrashView - (freeware) – Nirsoft new tool to pull stats on app crashes under Windows Vista and 7.  No support (yet) for XP systems.  Another great tool for quickly chewing through valuable app-log data when troubleshooting. 

    • TinyApps.Org Blog : Tiny HDD activity monitors - (tiny freeware) – TinyApps bloggist has located three very nice micro-apps to indicate HDD activity in your system tray.  Many laptops have HDD indicator LED’s but they might not be positioned helpfully, or are hard to see in bright light.  Also uploaded for easy downloading.

    • ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver -version 1.2.7 – another update in this virtual disk driver for Windows systems.  Recent updates now include full driver certificate signing support for x64 bit system compatibility. It warms my heart to see the hard work and continued development that Olof Lagerkvist puts into this project.  I have a few other virtual disk driver/mounting apps, but this one is by far my favorite.

    • Updated Sysinternals Suite Installer - (freeware) – update to Michael Murgolo’s little project for installing the Sysinternals Suite. It will create a Sysinternals Suite folder with Start Menu shortcuts.  The Suite can also be uninstalled from add/remove programs.  See also the cool(er?)  NirLauncher tool package that not only downloads the NirSoft tool collection, but can also add in the Sysinternals Suite collection.  Then there is also the WSCC - Windows System Control Center which also includes an update manager.  It too supports both the Nirsoft suite and the Sysinternals suite. 

    • TechTools 3.0 – since I was mentioning Windows utility suites, it seems a good place to mention that this tool also has been upgraded.  Like the others, all actual utilities are downloaded directly from the developer’s sites to respect redistribution rights requirements/limitations.  I must say it’s a giant collection of some of the best sysadmin loved utilities.  All neatly categorized. 

    • Sysinternals Site Discussion : Updates: AdExplorer v1.3, VMMap v2.6, Disk2vhd v1.5, LiveKd v3.14, Sigcheck v1.66. – Quite a few tools from Sysinternals have been updated this week.  Get ‘em while they are still hot! 

    Hope you found something here you like!

    Got some outdoor chores to do in the pretty Texas coastal weather, then another linkest.  This times, Windows tips and tricks.

    Cheers!

    --Claus V.