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Showing posts from 2011

CMD Print DIR to text file

dir > print.txt The ">" symbol is telling to put the output of the command to whatever is next. In this case "print.txt". This is useful for writing any output to a file in a script or whatever. Example: dir > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\print.txt This example will print the directory listing to print.txt on your desktop. Other flags: dir /b file names only dir /s include all sub folders & files Original source:  http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000772.htm Actually I really like that site, and spent some time taking their quiz. Entertaining.

CMD combine CSV files into one

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I had the need to combine several CSV (excel) files into one file. The set was long enough that even opening them and copy/pasting would take over an hour. This little trick will do it in a few seconds. (in windows) 1. Put all of your files in the same folder. They all need to be CSV format and should be the only CSV files in the folder. You may want to remove headers from your spreadsheets if you don't want them later. 2. Open a command prompt. Windows+R > cmd This should be the normal command prompt because it doesn't work in powershell. 3. Navigate to the folder with your .csv files 4. type " copy *.csv newfilename.csv " 5. A new file named "newfilename.csv" will show up in the same folder. If you wanted to copy it somewhere else you could run copy *.csv path\newfilename.csv. Example: copy *.csv  %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\newfile.csv This will copy all the CSV files from the folder you are in to a file on your desktop named newfile.csv

Save communicator chat history in outlook

For some reason, our installation of communicator was set not to save any messages by default, but it did save my call history.  Since I don't have any juicy communications at work, I don't have any problem saving everything in communicator. I save those chats for gchat. By the way, administrators of communicator can view your conversations in communicator, so I would be careful when using it. They also control if these settings are available, so you might not be able to change much anyways. When this option is selected, your chat messages and history will be saved to a folder in Outlook named "Conversation". (Image) Enabling this is very easy. It's done in Communicator, NOT in Outlook. 1. In Communicator go to file, tools, options... 2. Check the box that says " Save my instant message conversations in the Outlook Conversation History folder" After restarting you will have a folder in Outlook that will save your chats from now on. Here

Only one processor showing XP

This fix is if Windows XP is only showing one processor on a multi processor/core machine. 1. Boot to safe mode with networking  2. Delete (or rename) the following if they exist from C:\WINDOWS\System32\ hal.dll ntoskrnl.exe ntkrnlpa.exe (Check for these. They usually do not exist but delete them if they do) halmacpi.dll ntkrnlmp.exe ntkrpamp.exe 3. Copy the following into C:\WINDOWS\System32\ from the files described in the bottom note. hal.dll ntkrnlpa.exe ntoskrnl.exe 4. Reboot and it should fix itself the rest of the way.   NOTE: The new files in step 3 were taken from the originals which can be found on other machines in C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386: halmacpi.dll renamed to –>HAL.DLL ntkrnlmp.exe renamed to –>ntoskrnl.exe ntkrpamp.exe renamed to –>ntkrnlpa.exe

Outlook 2010 - Change default from-address gmail

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It took me a while to figure out how to change the default from address in Outlook when using gmail or a google apps account. I've done it in Office 2010. This will make your alias the default email address when sending any emails. It won't say "on behalf of" or anything like that. 1. Set up gmail account in outlook if you haven't done so already http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77689 2. In file tab, open Options 3. Select Advanced Tab 4. Send/Recieve... 5. Edit... 6. Select your account and click Account Properties... 7. IMAP E-mail tab 8. Change E-mail Address: (not User Name) Now when sending emails from the original account, the email address will actually be the new one even when the original account is selected. Note: You can't use google apps sync with this solution; you have to use use calendar sync if you want use the calendar also. If you just want to change the from address once, you c

Admin Group Policy fails to apply

Problem:  Group Policy doesn't apply, but gpresult doesn't show any problem. Some Policies are working on the same computer The same policy is working on other computers The windows log has an error with something like this: The client-side extension could not remove computer policy settings for ' ' because it failed with error code '0x8007000d The data is invalid.' See trace file for more details. Solution: Delete all files in this path:  C:\ProgramData\ Microsoft\Group Policy\History In Windows XP: D:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Group Policy\History In a command window run "gpupdate /force" I ran into a problem where our administrator group policy was not applying for some reason, while other policies were applying. I could not find any information in gpresult or in any group policy settings or information. The policy is the same that is on all the other machines in the domain, and was working, except f

Export Domain Users to CSV with PowerShell

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If you would like to create a list of all domain users in excel with a powershell script you are in luck. Quest software has created some pretty awesome tools to manage Microsoft Active Directory. Here's how to do it: 1.   You'll need to install the Quest ActiveRoles management shell v. 1.4 or later, located here:  http://www.quest.com/powershell/activeroles-server.aspx 2. Create a PowerShell file with the following script. Basically, just copy this text into a text file and rename the extension to .ps1. #This script requires Quest ActiveRoles management shell v.1.4 or later and Powershell to be installed. http://www.quest.com/powershell/activeroles-server.aspx #The script may be run on any machine that is bound to the domain and actively connected. You do not have to be a domain administrator. #Two files will be created. One CSV with results and one TXT log file. $strTimestamp =  [string](Get-Date -format "yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm") start-transcript DomainScript

Export Domain Admins to CSV with Powershell

It would be nice to be able to run a PowerShell script to query certain domain groups in Microsoft Active Directory, and write them to .CSV files for easy review in excel. Here's one way to do it: 1. You'll need to install the Quest ActiveRoles management shell v. 1.4 or later, located here:  http://www.quest.com/powershell/activeroles-server.aspx 2. Create a text file with .ps1 extension, and the following text. You can review the comments in the script to see what each part does, or just google the commands you don't know. Quest has some documentation last time I checked. #the AD groups that will be queried. These are groups that are considered domain admins $aGroups = @("Administrators", "Domain Admins", "Server Operators", "Enterprise Admins", "Account Operators", "Backup Operators", "Group Policy Creator Owners", "Schema Admins",  "Domain Controllers") #where the resu