Server

A quick post which takes advantage of a new Windows 2008 Server feature to workaround the lack of tools available today.

Need to admin your Server 2008 Server from Vista? Publish the Server Manager and/or MMC from the server as a RemoteApp.

I know a lot of you might be thinking, "Thanks Captain Obvious" but it can come in handy if you haven't thought about it. It also works for Server Core installs.

The only caveat I can think of is that I think you might need a Terminal Service license to do this for longer than 120 days.

The Administration Tools Pack allows administrators to install the Windows Server 2003 SP2 management tools onto a computer running Windows XP Professional or a Windows Server 2003 family operating system to perform remote server management functions.

Although it doesn't seem to mention what has changed in this release, it was updated on 1/14/08. It also notes that this is the final version, which makes me wonder if this is the last release they will do, especially considering the direction that Windows 2008 is going with RSAT (remote server administration tools)/etc.

You can download the updated x86 version here and the x64 version here.

You can read about the known issues here. Unfortunately, it looks like they still haven't added 'official' support for Vista.

Hopefully I will be posting more later this week. I have a backlog of goodies but no time to post them. This entry was actually written a few days ago.

WebGuide for Windows Home Server enables you to remotely access, listen, watch and stream your music, photos and videos stored on your home server while away from home.

1. Integrates with Windows Home Server remote website via homepage link and single-sign on.
2. Access your photos with thumbnails, "zoom" and EXIF-data.
3. Browse your music library and listen to it via the web.
4. Stream your videos/movies at multiple resolutions and bit-rates.
5. Mobile access to your music and videos from Windows Mobile devices.

Download it here.

Originally spotted here.

These commands assume administrative rights on the PC.

To temporarily disable the PC Speaker beep:
net stop beep

To disable the PC Speaker beep for good (until you undo this setting):
sc config beep start= disabled

So, if you are bothered right now by PC Speaker beeps and want them to go away even after a reboot, run net stop beep and then run sc config beep start= disabled.

The space between start= and disabled is required.

The most noteworthy item, to me, is x64 support for the Connector software. There are plenty of other cool additions too. Read more about it here.

A few months ago, I blogged about a change in behavior of the Printer Spooler in Windows 2003 SP2 which can mark printers offline when they are actually online.

With KB 946198, you can restore the Windows 2003 RTM/SP1 behavior by setting the SNMPLegacy DWORD registry setting to 1, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print.

Please note that this only works after you apply KB 946198. The registry setting did not exist until KB 946198 came along.

Improvements

1. Improvements to package upgrade when importing upgraded sequences into the SoftGrid Server Management Console Snap-in.
2. Improvements to package downgrade operation.
3. Improvements to non-paged pool usage when sequencing large applications.
4. Improvements to sequencing of applications that use both Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
5. Improvements to command-line parameter handling of virtualized child processes.

New capabilities

1. Microsoft SoftGrid now provides support for the MSI Utility for Microsoft Application Virtualization.
2. Microsoft SoftGrid now supports SoftGrid Server components running under WOW64 on 64-bit Windows.

Read more about the 4.1 SP1 Hotfix Rollup 1 from here and the 4.2 SP1 Hotfix Rollup 1 from here.