Application as a Service Installation

Prerequisites
Use instsrv.exe and srvany.exe tools from the Windows 2003 Server Resource Kits.

Create New Service

1. Copy instsrv.exe and srvany.exe from C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\ tool to C:\Program Files\Srvany\
2. Open command prompt and type in the following (replace <ServiceName> by the the name you want to assign to the service):
   "C:\Program Files\Srvany\instsrv" "<ServiceName>" "C:\Program Files\Srvany\srvany.exe

Configure the Service

Set the following registry keys:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<ServiceName>\Parameters]
"Application"="C:\\Program Files\\<Path to executable>"
"AppParameters"="<Application Parameters>"
"AppDirectory"="<Path to Application Directory>"

Use the following information to decide which account to use to run service:

• The type of log on account you should select is usually determined by the requirements of the specific application.
• Local System Account does not have network access.
• If you need access to the screen and keyboard, you must choose System Account and allow the service to interact with desktop.
• If you chose Local System Account, to allow access to the screen and keyboard, check the Allow Service To Interact With Desktop check box.
• If you chose This Account, type or browse to specify a valid account name, and in Password and Confirm Password, type the same correct password for the account.

Resolve error 800a01c2 when using the ADsContainer MoveHere method in VBscript

Many published scripts on the Internet suggest to use the MoveHere method as follows:
    intReturn = objOU.MoveHere(strADsPath, vbNullString)

This statement however throws the following error:

Even the Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog of the reference experts in VBScripting do so. Their script, however, doesn't throw an error as they set the following resume statement at the beginning of their script:
    On Error Resume Next
Don't do that! That is bad programming style!

The MoveHere method however returns the moved object and therefore the correct statement to use is:
    Set objCN = objOU.MoveHere(strADsPath, vbNullString)

And always remember what the scripting guys say: don’t burn down anyone’s house ;)

"Update could not be found" error when reinstalling WSUS

When installing the WSUS role, Windows first tries to find updates for this service. If the setup fails to connect to the update source, it stops with the error: The Installation failed the update could not be found there may be a network connection issue.

This can happen when reinstalling the service while the server is still configured to update from itself or when migrating the WSUS serviceafter uninstalling it from the old server.

In order to resolve this, modify the Windows Update settings of the server then add the WSUS role again. For example you may disable the Windows Update group policy and apply the modification running gpupdate /force on the server. Afterwards WSUS should add successfully.

Get your Google+ invitation and get started!

It seems that the Google+ social networking service has a great start. According to The Wall Street Journal 20 million accounts were created in just 3 weeks.

This is the moment to create your own page and reserve the right shortcut to your account on gplus.to (an upcoming post will describe how to do this).

Unfortunately account creation is still based on invitations. If you want me to send you as a biterapia follower an invitation for getting started, just follow these two steps:

1. Share this post on Facebook (see Facebook button below) or +1 it (again see button below). If you have neither a Facebook nor a Google account, just leave a comment with your email address here.
2. Send me an email asking for an invitation. Please provide a link to your Facebook account, if available.

You then will receive an invitation to the specified address. Stay tuned, as I soon will post more information on getting started with Google+.

Installing Trend Micro OfficeScan 10.5 server together with WSUS or SCE

When installing the OfficeScan 10.5 server on a Windows 2008 (R2) sever running WSUS or SCE, the setup fails with the error "Setup cannot initialize the server, Please contact your vendor for assistance". Well, that is quite bad: As the OfficeScan server supports Windows 2008 (R2), it should also be compatible with any of its default services, like WSUS. This is one of the moments where intuition is needed.

Here's the workaround which allowed us installing OfficeScan 10.5 on a SCE server:

1. Stop the WSUS Administration ISS site:
   1. Start the Internet Information Services Manager
   2. Go to Sites > WSUS Administration and click Stop in the Actions pane.
2. Stop the following services (if available): all SQL Server services and the Windows Update service.
3. Run the OfficeScan 10.5 setup. The setup should terminate succesfully. If the setup should hang when trying to start the HTTP server run this command as administrator: SVRSVCSETUP.EXE -enabless1
4. Start the services and site, which were stopped previously (or just restart the computer).

WebDAV without SSL with Windows 7 or Vista

The Windows 7 Webclient service per default does not allow logins per Basic Authentication over non-SSL connections (like Windows XP does).

In order to do this you have to modify the following registry setting:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters\BasicAuthLevel
Change the value from 1 (which is the default value) to 2 in order to allow Basic Authentication over non-SSL connections.

Restart the Webclient service:

1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
2. Find and restart the Webclient service.

TeamDrive "forever"

I recently tested TeamDrive, a service, which synchronizes your data to the cloud. It is quite an interestig service. However I decided to use another service. So I decided to delete my data on the TeamDrive server and finally my account.

Well, deleting the stored data was quite easy, but there was no option to delete the account. So I wrote an email to TeamDrive, asking how to delete the account. They wrote back:

an der Funktionalität den Account über die Webseite zu löschen, arbeiten wir aktuell noch. Zur Zeit löschen wir die Accounts manuell. Welchen TeamDrive-User möchten Sie löschen?

So they are still working on the posibility of removing an account through the web interface. They asked which account do I want them to delete.

So I wrote back which account I want to be deleted. This was three month ago. I got no answer and the account is still working. Recently I asked them again how to remove my account but didn't receive any answer. So before creating a TeamDrive account think twice if you really are ready for a "TeamDrive forever" account!

Well. I will post here if there is anything new about this in the future. Stay tuned! I will also post here soon which solution I am using now for synchronizing and backuping to the cloud.

Get free SoftMaker Office 2008

Do you consider Microsoft Office as too expensive? Open Office as too fat? Why not trying a professional Office system which is free and fast? SoftMaker offers their SoftMaker Office 2008 suit for free. The suite contains the word processorTextMaker, the spreadsheet program PlanMaker and the presentation graphics program SoftMaker Presentations. It is compatible with Windows and Linux. Both versions are fully functional and can be downloaded after registration.

 

This is a screen shot of TextMaker:

Now, this is what PlanMaker looks like:

Build nice presentaion with SoftMaker Presentations:

With SoftMaker Office 2008 you can open and save documents in the Microsoft Office format. It's free. It's fast.