Tabbed Remote Desktop / VNC Client for Windows

Anybody that works in a multiple server environment knows that it can be annoying to have half a dozen remote desktop windows open at any given point. Thankfully there’s a slick application called Terminals that gives you tabbed remote desktop capabilities.

Not only can you do Remote Desktop, but you can use VNC or even Citrix if you choose, and all within the same tabbed window.

When you first install the application you’ll be prompted for a master password, which is probably a good idea:

You can create a new stored connection of any supported type:

I’m connected to my Kubuntu Linux server box here in this tab…

And also connected to an ancient server at work…

One of the rather cool features is that you can have the terminals window minimize to the system tray.

There’s dozens of other features in this application, including the ability to upload screenshots directly to flickr.

It’s definitely worth a look, although I did have a few problems with it crashing on me. Since it’s in active development, I assume these issues will be worked out over time.

Download Terminals from codeplex.com

How to disable USB ports

 To disable the access to USB port, in windows XP and 2000, follow the steps below
    1. Click Start, and then click Run.
    2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
    3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
    4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
    5. In the Value data box, type 4, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
    6. Quit Registry Editor.


     

To re-enable a disabled port, follow these steps below
    1. Click Start, and then click Run.
    2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
    3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
    4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
    5. In the Value data box, type 3, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
    6. Quit Registry Editor

Large VM crashes during snapshot commit

Snapshots can be your friend but they can most certainly also make your life miserable. The other day we had a rather large VM (with 20 GB mem, 8 vCPUs and 28 TB storage divided on 22 .vmdk's) that crashed during a snapshot commit. The error stated: "Performing disk cleanup. Cannot power off." The snapshot had been taken while the VM was powered off and only a few changes had been made to the VM before the snapshot was committed.


After the crash, the VM would not power on. The error stated: "Reason: Cannot allocate memory" and in the error  description (see screendump below) there's an indication of disk a lock or disk error. Fortunately, the VM could be started from the service console (ESX 4.1 classic) with 'vmware-cmd'.

After boot, vCenter stated that there was no snapshots on the VM. However, 22 delta files on a single LUN was telling otherwise.

A normal procedure to do cleanup is to power off VM and clone it. However, with 28 TB storage in the VM, this was not an option.

Instead, the following did the trick: Log on to the service console, change directory to the folder where the .vmx file for the VM resides, take a new snapshot and then do a remove all snapshots (see this KB article for more info). This removes the new snapshot as well as the 'defect' snapshot.

To see if any snapshots exist (that will probably not be the case): 

vmware-cmd vmname.vmx hassnapshot

To take new snapshot (with no quiesce and no memory, see this KB article for details)

vmware-cmd vmname.vmx createsnapshot snapshot-name description 0 0

As you can see in screen dump below at first I tried to run the command without the two boolean arguments that relates to QuiesceFilesystem and IncludeMemory. 

To remove all snapshots:

 vmware-cmd vmname.vmx removesnapshots

In the screendump above the removesnapshots command returns an error code '1' which means that all is well and snapshots are gone.

VMware: How to check HBA firmware version without rebooting ESX host

I need to find out witch firmware version is running on my HBA without rebooting the ESX host.. I thought this was possible by GUI but couldn’t find it, so I decided to check this by console. Give the following commands:

Navigate to:
- cd proc/scsi/qla or lpfc820
- ls –lia
To view the HBA information:
- cat 6
- cat 7

Result:

Hide The Username On The Start Menu

Use this trick to hide the Username that is usually displayed in theXP start menu (not the Classic Start Menu, where the username isnot displayed).
 

Navigate to:
 

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
And to:HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Change the DWORD Value NoUserNameInStartMenu to

 1 to hide the username display. 

 The default is 0.

How To Add Your Own Windows Tips

Are you sick of seeing the same tips again and again when you first logon to Windows? Now you can change them to whatever you want, whether it's quotes, jokes or a to-do list, anything is possible.

Open your registry and find the key below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Tips

Create a new string valued named by incrementing the existing value names and set it to the required tip text.

eg. 32 - Dont forget to Visit / http://techsohail.blogspot.in

Disable Desktop Cleanup Wizard

By default Windows will run the Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days to remove unused desktop items and shortcuts. 
This setting will disable it from running automatically.
 
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\CleanupWiz 
and create Dword 
value NoRun 
and give 1 to disable it.

Enable Advanced File System and Sharing Security

This setting is used to enable the ability to control advanced NTFS permissions on local and shared files.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
and create Dword value ForceGuest and give the value 1.

Disable the Ability to Customize Toolbars

By right clicking on a toolbar you are usually given the option to Customize, which allows you to change which functions are available from the toolbar. This tweak allows you to disable that function.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoToolbarCustomize and give the value 1.

Remove the Option to Change or Hide Toolbars

By default users are able to select which toolbars are displayed either be right clicking the toolbar itself, or by changing the options from the View menu. This tweak locks the toolbars, removing the ability to change which are displayed.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoBandCustomize give the value 1.

Remove File Menu from Explorer

This setting is used to Remove the File option from the Explorers toolbar.
(This option was added in Windows NT Service Pack 2 and is standard in newer Windows versions.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoFileMenu give the value 1.

Hide the Network Neighborhood Icon

The Network Neighborhood icon is shown on the Windows desktop whenever Windows networking is installed, by enabling this setting the icon will be hidden.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoNetHood give the value 1.

Hide the Search Button on the Explorer Toolbar

This restriction allows you to remove the search button from the "Standard Buttons" toolbar in Windows explorer.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoShellSearchButton give the value 1.

Could not power on VM - lock was not free

The other day we experienced an incident on the SAN storage with high latency and even loss of connection to the SAN. This can generate a lot of really unpleasant errors on the ESX hosts. Even after the SAN is brought back to a stable state we've seen hosts that won't boot, VM's that won't vMotion and VMs that won't power on due to file locks. 

If you receive a 'locked file error' (like screendump below) and your VM won't boot there are a couple of ways to go about it. This VMware KB article explains it quite well. Either you can cold migrate the VM to the  other hosts in the cluster (to find the ESX host with the lock) and then try to boot it from there or you can try to locate specifically which host has the lock.

If the vCenter log does not tell you specifically which files are locked, this can be viewed in the vmware.log which is located in the VM folder. If you just tried to power on the VM, then relevant info should be at the end of the log file.

In the example below, it is the swap that is still locked.

This can be verified by running the touch command on the locked file.
With vmkfstools you can get the mac address that has the lock:

# vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes///

In the screendump below, the MAC address has been highlighted.

The same info can be found in the /var/log/vmkernel log

Once you have the MAC address you can find a match by, for example, logging in to vCenter or onto the Blade enclosure. When you have a match, cold migrate the VM to the relavant ESX host and boot it.

Remove Properties from My Computer

This restriction remove the properties option from My Computer and hides the "System Properties" screen.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoPropertiesMyComputer give the value 1.

Remove the Ability to Modify File Types

This setting allows you to remove the ability to change, add or delete file types using explorer the Folder Options interface.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoFileAssociate and give the value 1.

Show Hidden Operating System Files

This setting controls whether the normally hidden operating system files should be displayed when using explorer to browse the file system.

Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advance 

and create Dword 

value ShowSuperHidden 

and give 1 to show the files

Unload Unused DLLs

After an application is closed in widows XP, it has the bad habit of leaving the associated DLL files in memory. This can hog precious resources and memory, and also cause stability problems. To makethe DLLs unload themselves from memory after the program is closed,

Navigate to: HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDLL

If the DWORD AlwaysUnloadDLL is not present, you will need to create it. Set the Value of the (Default) setting to 1. Application associated DLLs will get unloaded when the application is closed.

Remove the Hardware Tab

This restriction removes the hardware tab from applicable items in the Control Panel and from the local drive properties. This prevents users from changing the hardware device properties.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoHardwareTab and give the value 1.

Boot directly into BIOS - Workstation 8

In Workstation 8, there's a nice new little feature that let's you boot directly into BIOS from the power on button. Instead of having this option under edit settings it has been moved to the power on button itself.

A small thing perhaps, but quite practical.

Remove the Distributed File System Tab

This restriction removes the Distributed File System (DFS) tab from Windows explorer. This prevents users from viewing or changing the properties of local DFS shares.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoDFSTab and give the value 1.

Hide All Items on the Desktop

Enabling this options hides all the items and programs on the Windows desktop.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoDesktop and give the value 1.

Disable the Ability to Right Click on the Desktop

This setting removes the context menu that would normally appear when the user right clicks on the desktop or in the Explorer right results pane.
Navigate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and create Dword value NoViewContextMenu and give the value 1.

Hide The Username On The Start Menu

Use this trick to hide the Username that is usually displayed in theXP start menu (not the Classic Start Menu, where the username isnot displayed).

Navigate to:

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

And to:HLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Change the DWORD Value NoUserNameInStartMenu to 1 to hide the username display. The default is 0.

Disable desktop cleanup wizard

By default the Desktop Cleanup Wizard runs every 60 days to cleanup unused shortcuts and other desktop items. You can change the setting with clicking the properties on start button and navigating thier but you may want to do from registry setting. If so navigate to

HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\CleanupWiz

Modify the DWORD Value called NoRun to 0, or to 1 to bringback the poor Wizard if you like to begin it again

Edit The Startup Programs List

Many of the programs that start up at boot time do not show in the Startup folder. If you want to stop more than one application from loading at startup, you will need to go and unmark the preference in each application one by one.It is tedious and time consuming. Following hack can help you do this in one go.

Navigate to the following registry settings

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

And to:

HCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

All the programs that load at boot time will be specified under these two keys. Review the applications listed in this list anddelete all the entries you dont want started up at boot time. Next window start or logoff , they will be gone.

In most cases, it is safe to delete all setting in that registry setting but you have to be careful. If you don't know about associated application donot delet it. And don't forget to backup your settings.

Disabling Drives in My Computer

If you want to prevent any users to access your computer or network shared drives using My Computer then you can hide the all drives for example C:/, D:/ and save your data from any unknown user. But next time you can turn on the display of these drives using registry editor. Now edit the computer registry to turn off the display of drives, but be careful to work with computer registry.

Follow the given steps to hide computer drives:

First click on Start button then type Regedit in Run option.

Here locate the location to:

HKey_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows

\ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer

Here right click on right side of Registry editor panel and add new DWORD then put its value 3FFFFFF.

Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

Hide Drives and Partitions

Do you want to hide the drive from your explorer in your computer. But still have the access from the dos and run. then this tweak help you.

Open the Registry Editor by going to Start/Run and typing in "regedit" (without the quotes). Find your way to...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

Click on "Explorer".

Double-click the "NoDrives" key in the right column. If you don't find a "NoDrives" registry key, just right-click in the right pane and choose "New/DWORD Value" then name the key "NoDrives".

You'll see a value like "0000 00 00 00 00". This is where the fun starts. The four sets of double zeros (after the "0000") are where you'll enter the values for the drive/partitions. Now, stay with me on this—it's not as complicated as it sounds:

The first column is for drives A-H, the second for I-P, the third for Q-X, and the fourth for Y-Z.

The values for each drive are as follows:

1 - A I Q Y

2 - B J R Z

4 - C K S

8 - D L T

16 - E M U

32 - F N V

64 - G O W

80 - H P X

So, let's say you want to hide drive D. In the first column you would put "08". For drive K you would put "04" in the second column.

But what if you want to hide more than one drive in a column? Simply add the values together: D+E = 8+16 = 24. So in the first column you would put "24".

Still baffled? If you have XP then go get TweakUI and save yourself the math.

Whichever method you use, you can rest easy knowing that the files on that drive or partition are less accessible to other users.

Clear Unwanted Items From Add And Remove

Clear Unwanted Items From Add And Remove

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT).

Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Uninstall, and remove any unwanted subkeys under "Uninstall."

Disable Recent Documents History

If you want to keep privacy that which file you have opened, then you can disable recent documents history.

For this create a new DWORD value under key given below, or modify the existing value if exist, called 'NoRecentDocsHistory' set the value to equal '1' to enable the restriction.

For per user setting

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

For system setting

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]

Disable the Windows Key

Disable the Windows Key

you can disable windows key on keyboard.

For this navigate the following key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]

Name: Scancode Map

Type: REG_BINARY (Binary Value)

Value: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00

To enable just delete the name and value.