Messing about with XP user profiles

Posted by on 10/03/2009 No comments

Migrating to AD can be a pain, creating new users, migrating the profiles and settings.. oh dear – and keeping your users happy. If you have a small office with about 10 computers/users, there is an easy hack to make the users keep their profiles.

  1. The procedure involves you creating the user accounts in AD;
  2. Adding the computers to the AD;
  3. Giving users full permissions of the profile folder they want to keep so for example “%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\andy”
  4. Editing the registry;
  5. Log in with the new username;

NOTE: these profiles are local computer profiles – they are not roaming profiles.
OK, join the computer to AD and create a username for the computer user, “andy” for example. Now log into that computer as a domain admin and give “andy” full control over “%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\andy”

Now log into that computer as “andy” the domain account so he gets a uid generated and a profile created – this will be an empty profile.

Profile generation for AD will create a new profile folder similar to this

"%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\andy.000"

Log onto the computer as admin again, now go to start > run > regedit > hit enter:

Now go to: HKLM>Software>Microsoft>Windows NT>CurrentVersion>ProfileList

here you will find all of the profiles on the computer, the nubers indicade uids, find the uid that has the same “ProfileImagePath” variable as your new domain user account for “andy”

"%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\andy.000"

now replace this with the local user account profile folder

"%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\andy"

Reboot the computer and let andy log in with his domain account, all of the profile settings will be there as before joining AD.

Experiment – may be you find some more hacks.
Please do tell me if anything is unclear.

VMWare Trickery

Posted by on 29/12/2008 No comments

I use vmware server, it’s brilliant. Here are some reasons to use it.

  • Testing slipstreamed Windows disks (service packs and drivers);
  • Configuring messy software like msSQL, without it crippling your computer;
  • Recovering a backup image ghost/true image to recover some files/settings;
  • Running almost any operating system and no dual boot mess;
  • Preparing for and testing vpn, ssh, pki, deployment;
  • Consolidating servers, have apache2 ubuntu, mssql xp, active directory 2003, all running on the same box. Centralize management and backup policies.

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netsh: Administrators friend

Posted by on 29/12/2008 No comments

Resetting the TCP/IP Stack

For XP/2003
Go to start > Run > type “cmd” press enter > then type the following:

netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

For Vista
Go to start > Run > type “cmd” press enter > then type the following:

netsh int ip reset
netsh winsock reset

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CleaningComputers on a Windows Domain – [Lazy ADMIN]

Posted by on 29/12/2008 No comments

Lately I have been cleaning up too many computers and need to find a way of automating everything.

A post by “StreamlinePanda” @ Piriform forums (ccleaner people) http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=14936

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News 10-12-08

Posted by on 10/12/2008 1 comment

Cleaning your computer of malware and other crap & Scripts for windows, this is for admins, how to automate everything.

How about automated computer clean up ? To be released next week.

Wires and Cableless – You know what I mean: Writing an article about the importance of cables in a wireless network .. it will make sense. Stay Tuned.

HP DV9000 Series, the laptop that couldn't

Posted by on 24/11/2008 2 comments

Recently I finished repairing a HP DV9000 series laptop. It’s initial fault was the hinges but after a period of about 8 hours it crashed.

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How to unlock O2 ST780WL [updated]

Posted by on 17/11/2008 9 comments

How to unlock O2 ST780WL

Why unlock O2 Wireless box?

Well, O2 wireless box is actually ST780WL router with some nice features. The O2 firmware is a dumbed-down version of generic Speed Touch firmware, it locks you down to only using the router for O2 adsl (or be-there or other broadband).
Another thing is that O2 and other ISP firmwares are broken, and insecure: the router has a “technician” account with a password that’s either the same across the entire ISP firmware version or easily breakable based on routers MAC or other information. You have no control over this and potentially have a backdoor into your network. Read more »

PHPBB3 – Backup & Restore Tutorial

Posted by on 13/11/2008 7 comments

PHPBB3 – backup & restore tutorial (this tutorial should apply to other forum/bbs on mysql)

For this tutorial we will use several methods to backup and restore mysql databases.

Since you are reading this guide and need to back the database then you may already have a running server or have it hosted somewhere, for those who don’t have a server here is some software to get you hosting.

These downloads are for Windows, but the back up process is more or less universal.

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Power Supplies

Posted by on 13/11/2008 No comments

Your computer needs power and it need good stable reliable power otherwise all your components may fail in a cascade of unpredictable destruction.

Efficiency

Power supply has to be efficient otherwise it will draw a lot more power to produce the stated 500W there are plenty of reviews out there that point out above 80% efficient power supplies. My personal pick Antec, Enermax, Seasonic these brands produce better power supplies. This does not mean don’t buy anything else but you’re just less likely to be let down by these manufacturers.

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News

Posted by on 12/11/2008 No comments

Here are some things I am working on and planning on releasing tutorials/guides.

  • Unlocking ST780WL O2 router;
  • Cleaning your computer of malware and other crap;
  • Scripts for windows, this is for admins, how to automate everything.

By 20-11-2008 I should release at least one of the above.