Jeff Wouters

My Virtual Business Card

2010-01-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ok...here is my first try: Virtual Business Card

Any comments are welcome, positive AND negative ;-)

Yeah I know...I'm still working on a "about-me" that I can live with...

Ode to my cat

2009-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature.
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.
A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents.
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion,
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.
Oh Tigger, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array,
And though you are not sentient, Tigger, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

71-693 - Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

2009-12-12T00:50:00.000-08:00

At December 14, 2009 (12 AM EST) the registration for the Microsoft beta exam "71-693 - Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator" will become available for registration.

If the post with the promotional code will become available to the general public, be fast to register... be very fast!

The last time the "71-659 - Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualisation" became available it was full within 3 hours!

Just to get something out of the way: I WILL NOT GIVE YOU THE PROMOTION CODE!
The official announcement will be done by Microsoft at the blog of MSLearn.

Why I will not give you the promotional code? Take a look at this blogpost from MSLearn.

More information to follow (including some great sites with study matterials for this exam!)

The power of punctuation...

2009-11-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

An English professor wrote the words:
"A woman without her man is nothing"
on the chalkboard and asked his students
to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing".

All the females wrote:
"A woman, without her, man is nothing".

Punctuation is extremely powerfull ! ! !

Mistakes when configuring a virtual clients environment

2009-11-05T23:43:00.000-08:00

I came across some interesting tips on things to consider in a virtualized environment by Greg Shields (Consultant and Microsoft MVP).
They are non-issues (or settled issues) on physical environments and you might overlook them when making the transition to virtual machines.

Here's a summary to get you interested:

*) Screensavers
*) Managing from the console
*) AV on VM disk files
*) Power options
*) Cluster Failback
*) RAM availability
*) Backup for CSV
*) Number of processors

Here are the links to the actual articles:

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1365989_mem1,00.html
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1372408_mem1,00.html

You only think you know...

2009-10-23T01:41:00.000-07:00

*\ Quote from Donald Rumsfeld:

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

Microsoft Security Essentials - Free Anti-Virus for genuine Windows users ! ! !

2009-10-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

For all you guys/girls that didn’t know : You can download Microsoft Security Essentials for FREE and use it if you are a genuine Windows user!

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Microsoft Security Essentials is an anti-malware service that helps protect consumers against viruses, spyware and other malware.

I've been participating in the beta-program of the Microsoft Security Essentials product and I must say that it is a very easy-to-use application, but also quite good in it's job!

To download it, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

You can specify the language, operating system and bits-version (x86 and x64) at the download page.

Have fun!!

Riddle me this

2009-09-13T00:43:00.000-07:00

A treasure born of sorrow,
nurtured by time and every tomorrow.
It grows with age,
more precious then gold.
Cannot be bought
and not to be sold.
It comes to those
whether peasant or lord...
Who knows where to find
life's humble reward.

*** THE ANSWER IS: " WISDOM " ***

BUILT-IN\Administrators vs. Domain Admins

2009-08-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

A question I've recieved from a colleague this week which a could not give a straight anwser to: What's the difference between BUITL-IN\Administrators and Domain Admins?

Ok... after some intense googling:

If you add a user to the Built-In Administrators group on a domain controller, that user becomes
an administrator on all domain controllers in your domain, and by extension a Domain Admininstrator.

The difference between making a user a member of Administrators on a Domain Controller vs making them member of the Domain Admins Security Group is an
implementation detail.

Let's take an example:
Domain Admins are members of the local Administrators group on each domain-joined workstation and member server, where BUILTIN\Administrators are not and BUILTIN\Administrators is a Domain Local group whereas
Domain Admins is a global group. So making a user a Domain Admin will automatically grant the user certain rights to domain-joined
workstations and servers where BUILTIN\Administrators does not...but at the end of the day a member of BUILTIN\Administrators on a DC still
has the effective rights of a Domain Admin, and so a determined user could figure out how to grant themselves
whatever rights they don't have by default on workstations/member servers. This is a security issue not to take for granted!

From a security perspective, BUILTIN\Administrators membership should be treated as the security equivalent of
Domain Admins, even though there are certain implementation details that may differ.

As writen before:
BUILTIN\Administrators on a Domain Controller still has the effective rights of a Domain Admin, and so a determined user could figure out how to grant themselves whatever rights they don't have by default on workstations/member servers.

So what's the point of Microsoft using BUILTIN\Administrators in Domain Controllers instead of just using the Domain Admins?
Backwards compatibility with pre-Active Directory NOS's, same as the rest of the BUILTIN objects. It's basicaly a legacy feature which Microsoft has not yet decided to remove...

Mere words can not describe...

2009-08-28T14:18:00.001-07:00

I searched among the card displays,
To see if I could find,
A little something that would say
Just what was on my mind.

However there was not a one,
That captured it just right,
For no one else can understand
Just what I'd like to write.

I even find it difficult
To try to write it down,
For how do I portray to you,
The love that I have known?

I close my eyes and what I see,
Is someone I adore;
A person who is beautiful,
Right down into their soul.

Mere words cannot describe
The many qualities you show,
The love and caring nature that
You share with those who know.

Your kind and gentle temperament,
Your sweet angelic smile,
Your softly spoken sentiments,
That reach across the miles.

Your smile and laugh that sparkle with
The softness of your sighs,
The way your face lights up a room ...
That twinkle in your eye.

The loving gestures through the years,
That quickly come to mind,
For always you've a gentle word
To calm and soothe I find.

I struggle and I search to try
To find some words anew ...
And yet I cannot capture
All the things that make you you.

I shall therefore, be satisfied
That you must simply know,
Just how I feel about you,
For with words I cannot show.

Should you return to me

2009-08-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

How to survive
How to calm my thirst
How can I continue without you
How can I jump without a net [to catch me]
With that farewell so wild and cruel
You hurt me to the core
I remain stuck in time
And my heart is a desert

Oh if you would come back to me
The sun moves through 1000 spring times
If you returned to me
It would be miracle with each kiss you give me
But today you’re gone
And there is no turning back

What is there after you?
More than these tears
Like the rain in a garden
Little music in end
I could try but I would fall
Today I say “goodbye” on bended knees
That by good of the two
I sense the emptiness in you
I’m crazy that I am dying of love

Oh if you could come back to me
The sun moves through 1000 spring times
If you returned to me
It would miracle each time you see me.
But today you are gone
And there is no return for us

And, I am an undone hurricane,
The fire and fury of a volcano
That doesn’t turn off
I was like a fine wine
Slave to you
I am no longer able

Oh if you come back to me,
If you returned to me,
I would be happy once again
But today you are gone
And there is no turning back.

I will not turn back anymore...

Windows 7 "XP Mode" RC Released !!!

2009-08-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

The much talked about “secret feature” of Windows 7; XP Mode. Is in RC (Release Candidate) and available to download for all who want to try it out. “Windows XP Mode is specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses to help ease the migration process to Windows 7 by providing additional compatibility for their older productivity applications. Windows XP Mode provides what we like to call that “last mile” compatibility technology for those cases when a Windows XP productivity application isn’t compatible with Windows 7.” as quoted from The Windows Blog.

Based on feedback Microsoft got from the beta. They have added lots of features. Here are some of the new features included in the RC.

*) You can now attach USB devices to Windows XP Mode applications directly from the Windows 7 task-bar. This means your USB devices, such as printers and flash drives, are available to applications running in Windows XP Mode, without the need to go into full screen mode.
*) You can now access Windows XP Mode applications with a “jump-list”. Right click on the Windows XP Mode applications from the Windows 7 task bar to select and open most recently used files.
*) You now have the flexibility of customizing where Windows XP Mode differencing disk files are stored.
*) You can now disable drive sharing between Windows XP Mode and Windows 7 if you do not need that feature.
*) The initial setup now includes a new user tutorial about how to use Windows XP Mode.

In order to run the XP Mode RC properly. You must have either RC (7100) or RTM (7600) version of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise. Also you must have 1 GB of RAM, 15 GB of available disk space, and processor capable of hardware virtualization with AMD-V or Intel VT turned on in the BIOS.

The download consists of a 5 MB Virtual PC file and a 450 MB copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3. Try it for yourself here.

To cloud or not to cloud?

2009-08-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

I've read a blog from Alex de Jong called "To cloud or not to cloud".
Next I was part of a discussion about it... Note: It's in Dutch!
Some people saying that cloud computing is THE future of the IT business... others saying the exact opposite!
There I've found myself smack in the middle of that... 'cause I agree with both. Both ways have positive- but also negative points.

What to decide? Well... I think that's something everyone has to decide for themselves.

But then I started thinking, which is never a good sign for the rest of the world... What is cloud computing? the definition can be found here

So... let's take the internet... that's basically one big cloud!

So to all people that say "I will never cloud... no matter what you say, I will not do it!" I can only say: "You ignorant fool!" You use webbased mail? Twitter? Facebook? Google? Newsfeeds?.... Yes? Then your already cloud-computing!

Ignorance is bliss? Not when you're done reading this article :-P

Procdump 1.0 from Sysinternals

2009-07-17T00:04:00.000-07:00

Introduction
This new command-line utility is aimed at capturing process dumps of otherwise difficult to isolate and reproduce CPU spikes. It also serves as a general process dump creation utility and can also monitor and generate process dumps when a process has a hung window or unhandled exception.

ProcDump also includes hung window monitoring (using the same definition of a window hang that Windows and Task Manager use) and unhandled exception monitoring.

Prerequisites
Client: Windows XP or higher
Server: Windows Server 2003 or higher

Using Procdump
usage: procdump [-c CPU usage [-u] [-s seconds] [-n exceeds]] [-h] [-e] [-ma] [-r] [-o] [[ [dump file]] | [-x < image file> [arguments]]

What kind of information will the usage of such a parameter give you?
Let’s go a little deeper into those parameters…

-c Specify what the CPU threshold is for ProcDump to start a dump of the
process. This option can be very usefull when an application, for example,
has a memory leak which causes a very high CPU load.
-e This parameter will trigger ProcDump to write a dump of the process
encounters an unhandled exception.
-h Write dump if process has a hung window.
-ma This parameter writes a dump file with all process memory. The default dump
format includes only the thread and handle information, when this options
gives you all output from the process information which is stored in the
memory at the time of the creation of the dump file.
-n With this parameter you can specify the number of dumps to be created before
exiting the application.
-o This option overwrites an existing dump file.
-r This parameter clones the process for the dump to minimize the time the
process is suspended.
Note that this only works on a Windows 7 operating system or higher.
-s The CPU threshold must be hit for several seconds continuously before the
dump is written (default value is 10, so 10 seconds).
-u If you have a quad core server, and so have 4 cores, the maximal CPU time
you can have is potentially 25% of the global CPU time.
This parameter will treat CPU usage as a single core, and so tell you when a
single core is swamped. This can be very useful if you have redirected an
application to use a specified core.
-x Launch the specified image with optional arguments.

This tool can be very usefull when you have an issue occurring on several of your servers or workstations, but at random so you’re having trouble to pin-point the cause. Making a memory dump of an application can sometimes be a challenge because the issues are occurring when a user within your company is using his or her environment.

Examples

Write up to 3 dumps of a process named 'consume' when it exceeds 20% CPU usage for three seconds to the directory c:\dump\consume with the name consume.dmp:
C:\>procdump -c 20 -n 3 -o consume c:\dump\consume

Write a dump for a process named 'hang.exe' when one of it's windows is unresponsive for more than 5 seconds:
C:\>procdump -h hang.exe hungwindow.dmp

Launch a process and then monitor it for excessive CPU usage:
C:\>procdump -c 30 -s 10 -x consume.exe consume.dmp

Write a dump of a process named 'iexplore' to a dump file that has the default name iexplore.dmp:
C:\>procdump iexplore

** Source: command-line “procdump /?” **

2009-07-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

I've got multiple personalitys... or no, I've got multiple sides of my personality.
I am online, and therefor I exist, that has been one of my life lessons and it has gone to extreme.
Just a little overview... I exist on:
* JeffWouters.nl
* Hyves
* TMF
* NGN
* Windows Live
* Blogspot
So that are 6 personalities that I have to deal with. To make it even worse... Within Hyves and Windows Live I'm online on several places AT THE SAME TIME! My mobile phone, laptop, and my PC at home.
Next is to keep those personalities sattisfied and make some activities on those places.... COOL!
You can keep track of me at all of the above places, but want a real-time update: msn = depthstrike at hotmail dot com...
No I have to stop... some other personalities are starting to complain and want some attention :D

Greetsz.

Een vriend...

2009-06-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

Je hebt iemand nodig, stil en oprecht
die als het er op aan komt met je sms't en met je chat
Pas als je iemand hebt die met je skypet en met je mailt
dan pas kun je zeggen: ik heb een vriend die zich verveelt

Passion, it lies in all of us

2009-06-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sleeping, waiting and although unwanted, unbidden, it will stir.
Open it's jaws and hauwel.

It speaks to us, guides us...
Passion rules us all and we obey, what other choice do we have?

Passion is the source of our finest moments...
The joy of love, clearity of hatered and the extacy of grief.

It hurts sometimes more then we can bare...
If we could live without passion maybe we could know some kind of piece, but we would be hollow.
Empty rooms, shutterd and blank.
Without passion, we'd be truly dead...

Passion is what drives us and makes us tick.
With money we can survive, but with passion we can live.

Passion is what defines us, but is also that which confuses and seperates us.
Leave it up to us, and we’ll tear each other limb from limb, as we slowly all fall apart...

Windows 7 sidebar fix after disable UAC

2009-06-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

When a user disables User Account Control in Microsoft Windows 7 sometimes the Sidebar Gadgets stop to work.
Easy to solve!

In regedit create the following:
System Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Setting
Value Name: AllowElevatedProcess

Data Type: DWORD
Value Data: 1

Problem: Outlook 2003 works offline

2009-06-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

A several times on multiple projects I've found this issue. When clicking on "Work online" doesn't work the challenge begins...

Colleagues of mine ofted delete the entire userprofile and recreate it.

This action takes a lot of time, not to mention the effort you need to put in it so save user settings.

So I was thinking:"Can't this be done faster, easier and more userfriendly?"

The answer was as easy as always:"Yes!"

These are te steps to take:

Close Microsoft Office Outlook and all applications that have an active link to it, for example like Office Communicator.

Delete all files in "c:\documents and settings\%username%\local settings\application data\microsoft\outlook.

Start Microsoft Office Outlook and, if needed, create the connection to the mailserver.

Problem solved!

A colleague of mine was taking the long way around and it took about 15 minutes to complete... Using my was he was done the next time within 5 minutes!!!

Also the issue can be solved remotely by a 1th line (like a unskilled or semi-skilled servicedesk).

Offline Folders - Delete cache

2009-06-18T03:55:00.000-07:00

Offline folders... beautiful concept, but I've had a lot of trouble with it when users start to work with it. So I had a few situations that I had to delete the Offline Folders Cache.

To delete the offline folders use the following steps:

1. Open My Computer
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. On the Offline Files tab, click Delete Files.
4. In the Confirm File Delete dialog box, select the check box next to the shared folder that contains the offline files you want to delete.
5. Do one of the following:
• To remove copies of the network files Windows automatically stores on your computer, click Delete only the temporary offline versions.
• To remove the network files that are automatically stored on your computer as well as the network files you specifically made available offline, click Delete both the temporary offline versions and the versions that are always available offline.

Update forefront from command line

2009-06-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

Is there a critical computer that you do want the ForeFront Client to update it’s definitions, but not downloading and installing other Microsoft Updates by default?

I’ve had that situation and it took me a lot of searching to find the solution:

Execute these commands from the command line with administrator rights.

If you would like, you can schedule the command through the Task Scheduler.

Note: This will update the definitions, not the engine!!!

For also updating your scan engines, I’ll refer to Microsofts Knowledge Base Article 950547.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950547

After a while

2009-06-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand
and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of woman, not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plansand futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn
that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn...

QuakeLive.com

2009-06-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

Remember.... in the old days? First there was Quake, then Quake 2 appeared... Next up was Quake 3!

Now Quake 3: Arena was one of my favorite games...and still is!

Then it was silent on the Quake-area for a few years, and I did not like that at all...

But... the waiting was not for nothing. Now we've got: QuakeLive!!!!

Can I just say:"Wow, gimme gimme gimme!!!!!! I want it NOW!!!!" :D :D :D

Hello world!

2009-06-17T00:14:00.001-07:00

Finaly it's time... I've found a website that I'm happy about to post my Blog on!

What will this blog cover?

* IT issues (Problems, Causes and Solutions)
* IT visions
* IT fun (let's go GEEK!)

* Personal stuff

I hope you will find my posts useful and fun. If you have any comments or advice, please post them!