Sysadmin Link Seventh-Inning Stretch

Here are some tips and tricks for the sysadmin crowd.

While doing a project on a Win 7 laptop cleanup, I was looking for an automated way to clean off all the inactive/unused Windows user profiles. Sure I could have gone into the advanced settings and removed the account profiles manually. But a command-line tool would have been helpful.

I re-found the Delprof2 - User Profile Deletion Tool provided by Helge Klein. It worked as advertised. The first pass I used it it could not delete one local profile for some reason. Turns out that some software that had been installed was still running as service under that account. After I had deleted the software and rebooted, the tool then worked to remove that remaining account. Free for private, non-profit org, or educational org use. Otherwise requires a commercial license purchase.

More Tips and Tricks

• How To Fix Cisco VPN Installation Error 27850 on Windows 10 - Next of Windows
• Defrag Tools: #134 - Microsoft Symbol Proxy (SymProxy) - Defrag Tools | Channel 9
• How to disable driver updates from Windows Update - gHacks Tech News
• Fix the “Dell iDRAC undefined” and “The webpage cannot be found” errors - 4sysops
• How To Find Port Number by Process ID (PID) on Windows - Next of Windows
• Message Analyzer v1.3 vs Network Monitor v3.4 - MessageAnalyzer blog

Smartphone-Friendly Conference Bridge URL Formatting

One of my biggest frustrations with conference call invites is receiving one when I am in the field and having to join via smart-phone. The meeting reminder comes up with the main dial-in number, but then I have to try to switch back-and-forth to find, note, and enter the actual bridge #.

So I found a standard formatting that can be included/used for one-click use in both calling the main # and then auto-entering the bridge number.  Please folks! start adding this to your meeting invites!

The basic format is thus:

tel:12345678,,100200#
join 100200 conference code on the conference line 12345678 on most of the newer devices

• Special links: phone calls, sms, e-mails, iPhone and Android apps, … - adrian's blog
• Creating iPhone Clickable Conference Call Information - DanielMiessler.com
• Auto-dial Teleconference Codes using iPhone - JoshMcCarty.com - Josh suggests use of a semi-colon instead of commas. This might pop a separate window to click to initiate the bridge login.
• Changing the default app used to open tel: links on Windows - MarkWilson.IT

Malware Anti-Exploit Update

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit - Version 1.07.1.1015 was released. From the setup installer’s change notes:

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit 1.07.1.1015

New Features:
• Added new Layer0 exploit mitigations for IE VB scripting
• Added new Layer1 exploit mitigations for ROP detection
• Added new Layer3 exploit mitigations for Powershell abuse
• Added telemetry from Firefox
• Added ability to edit custom shields
• Added ability to log protection events to UI
• Added ability to auto-upgrade corporate builds
• Added support for Windows 10
• Added blacklisting of pirated and fraudulent license keys

Improvements:
• Improved Java shield in corporate environments
• Improved exploit telemetry
• Removed duplicate default shields for portable browsers
• Removed "shielded applications" counter from UI

Fixes:
• Fixed issue when printing to Adobe PDF
• Fixed issue with Speedbit Download Accelerator
• Fixed issue with plugins from PowerDVD and GAS Tecnologia
• Fixed issue with nProtect GameGuard Anti-Cheat
• Fixed issue with certain exclusions not respected
• Fixed issue with Knowledge Coach Office Add-In
• Fixed issue with false positive from IE
• Fixed issue with Foxit Reader startup
• Fixed issue with Excel PowerQuery
• Fixed issue with Excel DEP Enforcement
• Fixed issue with IE VB scripting block
• Fixed issue with Chrome crashes

Techniques for adding “Open Command Prompt Here” &/or “Elevated” to the Windows Explorer Shell Menu

Windows 8/8.1/10 have an option to allow you to open both a Command Prompt or Elevated Command Prompt window from the start menu.

You can also right-click a folder or white-space and open a command window. However you likely won’t be able to open an elevated one easily.

There are a number of ways you can modify the registry to create some optional Explorer shell menu items. And you can do some clever keyboard/copy/paste tricks as well in the default Windows GUI.

In the end I found and went with this utility on my personal systems.

• ContextConsole Shell Extension - kliu.org
• ContextConsole Shell Extension - FAQ - kliu.org

Here are a few more options:

• Open Command Window Here as Administrator - Windows 7 Help Forums
• Open Command Window Here - Tech Donjon // André Burgaud
• Open command prompt in any folder - Remote Administration For Windows
• Power Tip for Windows Users Open Command Prompt Here – Michael Crump
• Power Tip Elevated Command Prompt Here in Windows 8.1 – Michael Crump
• Replace Command Prompt With PowerShell On Power User Menu In Windows 10 -  AddictiveTips

On my own system I don’t mind using a utility to make the changes needed, but if you really need the feature and are authorized to make the changes, “manually” setting the feature via RegEdit works well. The benefit of that method is that you “know” what changes are being made and how to remove/regress them if required.

Windows Critical Out of Band Security Patch Released

Yes…late again…but better late than…well, you know.

• Special Microsoft Bulletin Patching Remote Code Execution Flaw in OpenType Font Drivers - InfoSec Handlers Diary Blog
• Out-of-band release for Security Bulletin MS15-078 - Microsoft Security Response Center
• Microsoft releases emergency patch for all versions of Windows - ZDNet
• Microsoft releases emergency security patch for all Windows versions - BetaNews
• Microsoft issues emergency patch for critical vulnerability in Windows - Ars Technica
• Emergency Patch for Windows vulnerability MS15-078 released (KB3079904) - gHacks Tech News
• UPDATE NOW: Critical Patch Pushed by Microsoft - Malwarebytes Unpacked

Cheers!

Claus Valca