BFTech Impressions

Credit where credit is due: I found this information here. There are some alternative suggestions about using Group Policy in the comments. One person said it worked. Another said it didn’t. It looks like the suggested GPO modification turns off all system maintenance, not just the shortcut issue. Anyway, here is my version of how to fix this issue, minus scripts, batch files, etc.

The problem: Windows 7 runs system maintenance periodically, and among other things, performs these actions:
1. Deletes broken shortcuts with broken network links, if there are more than 4 of them.
2. Deletes unused desktop shortcuts.

Prerequisite: You will need to be logged in as an administrative user, or start an Explorer instance as one.
1. Go to the \Windows\diagnostics\scheduled folder.
2. Take ownership of the Maintenance folder. Select the checkbox to replace owner on subcontainers and objects.
3. Set NTFS security on the Maintenance folder to allow the admin user to modify.
4. Click the Advanced button and then Set Permissions button, and check the box to replace all child object permissions…
5. In the maintenance folder, edit the file called “TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1″ as follows:

Remove everything between these two lines:
[string]$list = “”
return $list

This should include:
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -filter *.lnk | Foreach-Object {
$fullPath = ConvertTo-WQLPath $_.FullName
$wmiLinkFile = Get-WmiObject -query "SELECT Name,Target,AccessMask FROM Win32_ShortcutFile WHERE Name = '$fullPath'"

if(-not(Test-ValidLink $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-Delete $wmiLinkFile))
{
$list = AttachTo-List $list $wmiLinkFile.Name
}
}

6. You may also choose to modify the parameter that decides how many broken shortcuts are tolerated before a mass deletion occurs. To do this, do a search for “-gt 4″ and change the number 4 to something big, like 50.
7. Save the file. If you are prompted to save a copy of the file elsewhere, and cannot overwrite the existing file, you didn’t modify the NTFS permissions correctly.
8. You may choose to edit the file called “TS_UnusedDesktopIcons.ps1″ as well, like so:

Remove the content between the same two lines as above. This should include:

Get-ChildItem -Path $path -filter *.lnk | Foreach-Object {
$fullPath = ConvertTo-WQLPath $_.FullName
$wmiLinkFile = Get-WmiObject -query "SELECT Name,Target,AccessMask FROM Win32_ShortcutFile WHERE Name = '$fullPath'"
$lastAccessTime = Get-LastAccessTime $_.FullName

if((Test-ValidLink $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-Delete $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-FileShortcut $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-Unused $lastAccessTime $threshold))
{
$list = AttachTo-List $list $wmiLinkFile.Name
}
}

9. You may also choose to modify the parameter that decides how many broken shortcuts are tolerated before a mass deletion occurs. To do this, do a search for “-gt 10″ and change the number 10 to something big, like 50.
10. Save the file. If you are prompted to save a copy of the file elsewhere, and cannot overwrite the existing file, you didn’t modify the NTFS permissions correctly.
11. You may want to set the permissions back to where they were before by removing the extra permissions you added, then enabling inherited permissions from the “scheduled” folder. You can also edit the ownership of the “scheduled” folder, do not change owners, and set the checkbox to replace the owner on subfolders. This will trickle down to the maintenance folder and its contents.

You have a Dell workstation. It’s under warranty. The event log has a bunch of errors with source “Disk”. CHKDSK reports bad sectors.

You KNOW the hard disk is failing, but Dell Support wants you to boot from a diagnostic CD and run some tests to generate an error code, which could take hours. You’re on the clock charging your customer for your time. Time is money.

You can tell the Dell technician that you have run the diagnostics utility, and that it generated this error code:

Error Code 4400:011B
Msg: Block 253122 (feel free to change up the block number for variety)
Medium error (3-1101)
Read retries Exhausted.

More recently, from an Optiplex 780:

Tags: Dell, Error Code, Hard Disk

You may received the following event in the Application log:

Application log generated Error Event 12016 on server.domain.local
Log: Application
Type: Error
Event: 12016
Source: MSExchangeTransport
Category: TransportService
Computer: server.domain.local
Description: There is no valid SMTP Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate for the FQDN of server.domain.com. The existing certificate for that FQDN has expired. The continued use of that FQDN will cause mail flow problems. A new certificate that contains the FQDN of server.domain.com should be installed on this server as soon as possible. You can create a new certificate by using the New-ExchangeCertificate task.

If you are not using TLS, you might not notice any ill effects of this error, but it’s annoying anyway.

You’re probably confused as to why you’re seeing this error, since you have a current, valid SSL certificate.
If so, there’s a good chance you used IIS to get your new certificate, and Exchange simply doesn’t know about it.
All you have to do to fix this is run a simple command line to tell Exchange to use your new certificate.

Before you can do this, you need to know the “thumbprint” of the certificate you’re going to replace the expired one with.

Here’s how to find it:
1. Run “MMC”.
2. Add the Certificates snap-in to your MMC console. Choose “Computer Account” and “Local Computer” when adding the snap-in.
3. Navigate to where your certificate is in the Certificates snap-in.
4. Double-click to view your certificate.
5. Click the Detail tab and scroll down the list of fields until you find Thumbprint (usually near the bottom).
6. Open Notepad, and paste the following command line below into it:
enable-exchangecertificate -thumbprint [your thumbprint here] -services SMTP
7. Copy the thumbprint’s hexadecimal sequence into the command line, replacing “[your thumbprint here]“, and remove the spaces.
8. Open Exchange Management Shell and paste the adjusted command line into the powershell.
9. When prompted, press Y to confirm the replacement of your expired certificate.
10. Make yourself a note on how to do this next time the cert expires.

Note: You could make yourself a self-signed certificate WAY into the future and use that one to avoid messing with this on a regular basis.

Tags: SMTP Transport, SSL, TLS

Reposted from here.

To remove / reset the uninstall password for Trend Micro OfficeScan

Edit Ofcscan.ini file. (Do a search.)

Windows 95/98/XP machines it is usually in C:\Windows\Ofcscan.ini

On Windows.NT/2K machines it is usually in C:\WINNT\Ofcscan.ini

Open the Ofcscan.ini file using notepad search for the [INI_CLIENT_SECTION]

Find the line reading Uninstall_Pwd= and type a # at the beginning of the line to comment it out.

Insert a new line saying Uninstall_Pwd=70

Save the Ofcscan.ini file and retry the uninstall. When it prompts you for a password, enter a ’1′.

Good Luck!

Editor’s Note: I used this in a fairly recent version on Windows 7 successfully.

I was also able to reset the uninstall password using the same method, and change the client’s permission to uninstall in the same section of the INI file. That’s fantastic security, by the way.

I went from being unable to uninstall due to a generic unspecified OFCSCAN.INI error in “Programs and Features” to being able to unload and then uninstall the software thanks to these INI file tweaks.

This is good stuff!

So you’d like to standardize your computers on Windows 7…

This all sounds like a LOT of work, and a VERY expensive process.

Yes, yes it is. I’m glad you noticed. Now you have a decision to make. Buy new PCs with Windows 7 pre-loaded, or upgrade the ones you have.

If nothing in the above article has killed the upgrade initiative for you, then consider this:

You’re going to have to go to Windows 7  eventually, and you’re going to have to spend every dime of what I listed above eventually. All you really have to decide is whether you want to do it all at once, right now, and have smooth sailing for a while, or whether you’re going to do it one at a time, as PCs fail or as your budget allows.

Upgrading  your workstations all at once is much more efficient – but yes, it’s a lot of work, and it’s a lot of money to spend all at once.

But the good news is that now you know exactly what you’re in for, and have the tools to make an informed decision.

Good luck!