For a lot of applications today you’ll need to install the Microsoft .NET Framework on your Windows systems to get them working. If you’re one of the administrators around the world that hasn’t made the jump to Windows Vista yet then you’ll know that the .NET Framework 2.0 doesn’t come pre-installed with Windows XP. (more…)

Tags: .net framework 2.0, silent, unattended install

If you’re involved in systems administration like me you’ll quite often find yourself with multiple RDP connections to the various servers you manage. Sometimes this can be a bit of a pain, especially when you don’t like the Windows taskbar option to ‘Group similar taskbar buttons’ and have it turned off. Luckily there is an easy (and free) solution. (more…)

Tags: citrix, http, https, ica, rdp, terminals, vmrc, vnc

In Windows XP SP2 it was a pretty simple case of configuring the security/firewall rules for a selected network interface so that ICMP Echo (PING) requests would be allowed to pass through the firewall. ICMP Echo requests are a pretty standard way of seeing if a machine is up and running … depending on your configuration of course. In Windows Vista the way to allow PING requests is a bit different. (more…)

Tags: echo, firewall, icmp, inbound rule, ping, rule, Vista, windows vista

Have you ever connected a USB or portable device, used it then tried and eject and had Windows say the device can’t be ejected? You’d expect Windows to give a nice message saying it’s now safe to unplug the device but instead you receive a message saying “The device ‘Portable Drive’ cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.” (more…)

Tags: can't eject portable, eject, portable device, recycle bin, usb

HEAPS of people use Skype. If you’re one of the people that don’t use it to make calls directly from your machine you might want to turn off the feature that highlights phone numbers in IE so they’re clickable. If you’re one of those people, read on … (more…)

Tags: ie, internet explorer, phone number, phone number skype, phone numbers, skype, skype ie, skype ie plugin

Calculating the cost of your Active Directory site links can be a tricky process. If you get it wrong you can easily cause un-necessary load on your inter-network links. (more…)

Tags: Active Directory, ad, ad cost, replication, site link

ATDT ScreenshotThere seem to be a few people about asking how they can document their Active Directory or Exchange topology. There are 2 main ways and both are pretty obvious - either use your knowledge of the AD or Exchange topology to draw the diagram manually or use a plugin, utility or application to do it for you. (more…)

Tags: Active Directory, ad diagram, network, visio

For as long as I can remember I’ve always used Firefox. I prefer it to Internet Explorer for heaps of reasons, the main one being the huge range of available extensions/add-ons that are available (depending on which version you’re using). (more…)

Tags: del.icio.us, del.icio.us ie, extension, firefox, ie, internet explorer

Quite some time ago I posted an article called "How to make a full-screen Windows app using VB.NET". I’ve just added a comment to that post in response to a number of queries I’ve had re how to change the application back to normal mode/how to restore the window back to normal. (more…)

Tags: .NET - VB, full-screen code, fullscreen, fullscreen code, method, vb, vb full-screen, vb.net full-screen

I’ve got one of these: (more…)