Cleanup old files from your harddisk using PowerShell

This script removes all files from the current folder (in this case 'c:\temp') that are not accessed during the last 3 months.  A confirmation is asked because -Confirm is included.

Get-ChildItem -Recurse | where { $_.LastAccessTime -lt (Get-Date).AddMonths(-3) } | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -Confirm

Clock problem when running Windows and Linux on same computer

When you install both Windows and Linux on the same machine (using dual/multi-boot), you get into an annoying problem with the system time:

• Linux uses the internal clock as UTC/GMT
• Windows uses the internal clock as Local Time.

On my box, in Belgium, this currently gives a difference of 2 hours (1 hour + 1 hour for daylight saving time) between my Windows 7 and Ubuntu.  After some time, the time is corrected because the operating systems syncs its time with an NTP-server on the internet.  But after booting into the other operating system, the problem repeats itself evidently.

This problem can be solved either in Windows or in Ubuntu.  I have chosen to change the Windows configuration:

• Start regedit.exe
• Go to the key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation
• If it doesn't exist, add a new key (or change the existing):
  Set "RealTimeIsUniversal" as DWORD to "1"
• Reboot

You can also solve it in Linux:

• Open the file "/etc/default/rcS". When using a graphical shell like Unity or Gnome:
• start a terminal window by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T
• run "sudo gedit /etc/default/rcS" 
• Look for the line "UTC=yes", and change it to "UTC=no"

Creating symlinks and hardlinks in Explorer

A very useful tool to create  hardlinks, junctions and symbolic links ("symlinks") in Windows Explorer:
Link Shell Extension

It includes an explanation on hardlinks, junctions and symbolic links used in the NTFS file system:
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html#hardlinks

Burning CDs and DVDs over RDP

When using a remote connection to Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can no longer burn CDs or DVDs in any application (e.g. Nero Burning ROM, Windows Media Player, Windows Explorer, ...).  Nero Burning ROM mentions that this is a security measure in Windows Vista.  Connecting to the console session (/console or /admin, depending on your operating system and service pack) doesn't help.

In Windows XP, there are no problems burning CDs or DVDs in an RDP session.

You can bypass this new security measure by changing the Group Policy settings:

• Press "Windows-R" to open the Run dialog, and start "gpedit.msc".
• In the treeview of the Group Policy editor window, descend to:
• Computer Configuration
• Administrative Templates
• System
• Removable Storage Access

• In the right pane, double click on "All Removable Storage: Allow direct access in remote sessions"
• Select "Enable"
• Log off and log on again, and from now on, writing CDs and DVDs will be possible in all applications supporting it.

FinalBuilder trigger problem

I discovered that the continuous integration using FinalBuilder didn't run because of an error on the triggers that check the SubVersion repository.  When checking the Windows EventLog, I saw many errors from the EventSource "Userenv":

• Windows has backed up this user's profile. Windows will automatically try to use the backed up profile the next time this user logs on.
• Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off.
• Windows was unable to load the registry. This is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security rights.
  DETAIL - A required privilege is not held by the client.  for C:\Documents and Settings\TEMP\ntuser.dat
• Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system.
  DETAIL - A required privilege is not held by the client. 

FinalBuilder is configured to use the local user "builder" to execute its triggers, but the 3 finalbuilder services were running as "System".

Initially, I thought that the problem was because of a corrupt user profile of the user "builder".  So I recreated the user profile, using these steps:

• First, I removed the existing user profile for "builder":
• Log-in as an administrator (that is not the user that you want to delete the profile of)
• Right click on "My computer", and select "Properties"
• Go to the tab "Advanced", and under "User profiles", click the button "Settings"
• You get a list of all profiles that are present, with some information such as size on disk and the last log-in time.
• Select the profile that you want to delete, and click "Delete".
• Second, recreate the profile by logging in once using the user "builder"

This solved all the existing EventLog errors, but I got a new one:

• Windows cannot unload your registry file. The memory used by the registry has not been freed. This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account. If this problem persists, contact your administrator.
  DETAIL - A required privilege is not held by the client. 

To solve this, I configured the 3 FinalBuilder services to run as the user "builder":

• Start "services.msc" to see all services, and locate the 3 FinalBuilder services:
• FinalBuilder Server 7 Build Service
• FinalBuilder Server 7 Logging Service
• FinalBuilder Server 7 Management Service
• For each of these services:
• Right click on the service and select "Properties"
• Open the tab "Log on"
• Select "This account" and enter the user name and password (twice) of the account.

The combination of the two actions above (recreate the user profile, and change the service log on) eliminated all the events, and consequently the trigger problems with FinalBuilder.

Typing international characters on a US keyboard

I often need to log-in on machines all over the world using RAdmin, and those machines all have a US keyboard layout.  My laptop has a Belgian keyboard layout (azerty), but for easier access to those remote machines, I connected an external keyboard with a US keyboard layout.

This makes life much easier... unless I have to write French or Dutch words which are full of accents (grave accent, acute accent, circomflex, tréma, ...).

The easiest way to type these special characters on a US keyboard is to install the "International" keyboard layout instead of (or beside) the "US" keyboard.  You can do this by going to the keyboard layout settings in the Control Panel:  (instructions are for Windows 7, but it is very similar on other versions)

• Go to the "Control Panel", follow the link "Clock, Language, and Region", and click "Change keyboards".
• Click the "Change keyboards" button.  You get a list of languages, with for each language the installed keyboards and other input services.
• Click the "Add" button
• Locate the tree item: "English (United States)" => Keyboard => "United States-International"

After enabling the International keyboard, you can type a "ë", simply by typing a double quote first (which doesn't do anything), and type a regular "e" afterwards.

One drawback of the International keyboard layout, is that you cannot type regulare single or double quotes anymore using one keystroke.  You need to press the double quote first, followed by e.g. a space.  This can be a burden when you have to type text with many single and/or double quotes like programming languages (C++, C#, Java, ...).  That's why I keep both keyboard layouts (US and International) installed.

When you install both keyboard layouts, you can easily switch between them using the "Language bar" that you can add by richt clicking on the taskbar, opening the "Toolbars" submenu and enabling the "Language bar" menu item:

SIPp 3.2 and 3.1 problems on Windows

I am unable to get SIPp 3.2 running on Windows. I get the error "Error opening terminal: cygwin.".  I tried several things, such as installing Cygwin. I even tried it on both Windows XP Professional 32-bit and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.  Googling the problem gave me no additional ideas...

So I tried the previous version: SIPp 3.1.  This one gave a popup window because "wpcap.dll" could not be found:  But this can be solved by installing Wireshark.

Aero Peek Alt-Tab problem in Windows 7

In Windows 7, I had an annoying problem with Alt-Tab. After pressing Alt-Tab, the window containing the thumbnails of all applications disappeared due to "Aero Peek". In fact, the window containing the thumbnails disappears to the background because "Aero Peek" is showing an another Window on top of it. This problem was seen on two machines (a laptop and a desktop). On most machines it is working fine.

 I could not resolve the problem for now, but as a workaround I have turned off "Aero Peek":

1. Start Control Panel
2. In the search box, type "Performance Information and Tools"
3. In the left panel, click "Adjust visual effects"
   
4. On the first tab "Visual Effects", disable "Enable Aero Peak"
   
5. Click "Apply" or "OK"