Category Archives: Microsoft

Clear space on Windows Server 2003 with Symbolic Link

Posted by on November 2, 2011 No comments

I kept getting “out of space” warnings on a  server 2003 at work , backups were failing and updates were reporting error.

From my online research I see that  many systems Admins are now having the same problem with a Windows server 2003 installation in a 25GB partition, which was the default guidance from Microsoft.

I  looked into some partitioning software to make use of my large D: partition, but was wisely warned away from doing it as it may cause future problems if you need for some reason to restore your server.

As a Linux Admin I am very familiar with the concept of Symbolic Links, which has been around for a long time. On Linux the command LN is all you  need.

Well, to my heart’s content Microsoft does have a very useful, and yet not well publicised, command line tool called LINKD.exe, which is part of the Windows server 2003 Resource Kit.

Please note that a symbolic link is not the same as a Windows shortcut file, which is a regular file. The windows shortcut may be created on any file system (such as the earlier FAT32), and is not transparent to applications. SymLink is transparent to applications making it great for clearing space on your drive, without compromising file structure.

My example scenario.

  • Drive C:\ free space 2Mb
  • Drive D:\ free space 200GB
  • Identified a large folder to move to D:\ -  (Drive C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP\BackupAmsp -  size 6.5GB)
  • Moved the large folder to D:\  (I created a folder called “moved from C” and saved the large folder inside it)
  • Installed Windows server 2003 Resource Kit  (also to Drive D:\Program Files\RKTOOLS)
  • Opened Command Line (START\RUN\CMD), navigated to D:\Program Files\RKTOOLS
  • Run command: linkd “C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP\BackupAmsp”  “D:\moved from C\BackupAmsp”
  • Done.

Disclaimer: I used Symbolic Link on a non system critical folder. If you plan to use this on a system critical folder, do at your own risk.

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Fix Java install error 1334 and Error 1723

Posted by on September 25, 2011 No comments

I was getting the following installation errors while attempting to install Java on a client’s laptop.

Error 1334. The file ‘patchjre.exe’ cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file ‘Data1.cab’.

Error 1723. There is a problem with this Windows installer package.

Both errors can occur while installing Java and similar errors can occur while installing or uninstalling any other software. This is caused by an error during the uninstall process which corrupts the registry.

Microsoft has a very nice tool for fixing installation problems which is part of its Fix it Center Online (currently in Beta).

To fix this error go to http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

  • Run the application
  • Select option “Recommended (find and fix)”
  • Select Uninstall Program
  • Select program from list and click next

If you have more than one programme giving you trouble, run this same procedure for each one of them.

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Removing the Windows XP Security 2011 malware

Posted by on April 6, 2011 1 comment

There has been a surge in computers infected with the Windows XP Security spyware. The user is normally affected by clicking on a very convincing fake Windows XP security warning displayed on infected websites.   Once the malware is installed, it continues to display pop-ups with security warnings and installs a heap of trojans  on the computer. This malware also disables all .exe files, making it impossible for the user to run anti virus scanners and malware removers. Here is how I recently removed this pest.

  1. Disconnect your computer from the internet, this malware installs trojans which will make your computer vulnerable to remote access. Use another computer to download the following programmes, then run/install them on your infected computer in the following order.
  2. RKILL stops the malware process ( http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/rkill )  – Note, the malware process did come back, but this gave me enough time to execute the next  step.
  3. xp_exe_fix.reg ( you can read more about it here ) – This will fix your registry and enable the running of .EXE files, so you can install a malware remover and run your virus scan.
  4. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware – it’s a simple and easy to use anti-malware by Malwarebytes. Install and run, it will ask you to update, reconnect the internet and allow it to update, disconnect internet after update is done. Run the full scan.
  5. After malware scan finishes, click on “Remove Selected” to remove all malware from your computer.  After removal, reboot as instructed and your computer should be free.

 

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Microsoft’s Street Slide View is so unMicrosoft

Posted by on July 30, 2010 1 comment

Microsoft Research Street slide View managed to do what Google’s Street View failed to do.. oops “is missing”. After watching the video my only comment was, wow this is so unMicrosoft, this is cool.  Microsoft Research has not yet announced if and when it will be making it to the Bing Maps, or any Microsoft products. But for now you can see a quick demo of how it works.


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