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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Just touching Powershell

As you see it is late at night and I am trying to use powershell not only to apply instructions from a guide on how to migrate Exchange 2007 users or how to create connectors using a powershell, but I am trying to have it as a tool for being used as a day to day...
I write this blog article as I feel confident somehow in using powershell as I did some small commands just to refresh my  network card; it is too simple
1st I queried a wmi class for network cards
Get-WmiObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
it results a long list of instances and properties

 

We can modify the system behavior in displaying the class instances to be in tabular format by piping the data to format-table command like this

PS C:\> Get-WmiObject Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration |format-table

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you can define the command as variable then you can call any methods like renew DHCP lease

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I will describe all what we have done later in a series of powershell

Friday, March 27, 2009

Using VMRC Plus to manage your Microsoft Virtual Server

In one of my previous blogs it was about how to access VMware Server using a GUI and today I am presenting a nice tool if you want to manage your MS Virtual Server using GUI; this tool is VMRC Plus it is enhanced version of VMRC Client but the VMRC Client is used only to connect to your VMs without giving you access to configure your host server( adding VM, create disks, create networks …. )

this tool is downloadable though this link https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=80ADC08C-BFC6-4C3A-B4F1-772F550AE791&displaylang=en

it requires that your Virtual server to be Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1

once you launch the tool you will get the application window which allow you to connect to the desired Virtual Server by name or IP

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Once you are connected you will get a list of your VMs and their status, you can start stop save  modify configuration as below.

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if you would like to see the VM you can choose VM Console from the context menu or from the icons on the right

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You can modify settings like add disk, NIC or even change VM name.

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when you select the memory input box you will get information about the maximum allowed based on the system you are connecting to.

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if you would like to see the Windows Event logs related to Virtual Server it self you can launch Event Viewer from tools

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to create disks you can use tools –> create Disk

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You will get window like the below

imageyou have to write the name of the file in the input field and then it allows create button to be activated.

 

 

 

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Allow boot from VHD on Windows Vista

The main change for just booting form VHD file is the new boot manager for Windows 7 which allow mounting VHD as hard disk,so if you need to allow the same feature while you are still using Vista so you can change the boot manager only.

To do so, you have to unhide and replace bootmgr which located on the root of your vista drive and the bcdedit.exe which located under \windows\system32\

To unhide

attrib -h -r –s c:\bootmgr
attrib -h -r -s c:\windows\system32\bcdedit.exe
To replace 

Find these files from Installed Windows 7 or 2008 R2, then you can use the commands below to add your VHD as Bootable option.

C:\>bcdedit /copy {current} /d "My New VHD Description" 
C:\>bcdedit /set <guid> device vhd=[driveletter:]\<directory>\<vhd filename> 
C:\>bcdedit /set <guid> osdevice vhd=[driverletter:]\<directory>\<vhd filename> 
C:\>bcdedit /set <guid> detecthal on

Boot your physical machine from a VHD file

a new feature has been added to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 which allow users to install the OS on a VHD file and therefore to boot from that file and use it as OS partition.

I was trying this feature 2 weeks ago, but I failed to install it, it seems for me that because I am using VHD Dynamically expandable Disk.

I have successfully installed Windows Server 2008 R2 on my laptop HP 6730b and below a snapshot of Disk Management snap in

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and here is the list of drivers for drives attached to your system, you will see MSFT Virtual Disk SCSI Disk Device; this is the VHD driver.

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Installing Window 7 / Server 2008 R2

1- Boot from you Windows DVD.

2-Start the command prompt by press shift+f10 on the install now screen.

3- Launch Diskpart command utility by typing diskpart on the prompt then type the below commands.

create vdisk file=c:\r2.vhd type=fixed maximum=10240
select vdisk file=c:\2.vhd
attach vdisk

now you can get back to installation and continue installation as normal by selecting the virtual disk 

Notice that there is a message to inform that you can not install on this disk you can ignore it safely.



continue normally and you will find bootable Windows through VHD file.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Using your Windows Mobile Device as Bluetouth Mouse and remote control

Use Your Phone as a Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard

MobileRemote transforms your phone into a wireless Bluetooth mouse, keyboard and media controller.  Connect to any bluetooth enabled PC and wirelessly type, move the mouse, and control the media from your phone.  MobileRemote behaves exactly like a physical Bluetooth keyboard, with the convenience and portability of your phone.

http://www.mobilesrc.com/MobileRemote.aspx

Windows Mobile 6.5 Overview

Learn about the cool new Windows Mobile 6.5 mobile platform! Hear about the new UI, the 6.5 emulator and other SDK tools, and Web enhancements in Internet Explorer Mobile including support for the W3C Mobile Widget Packaging and Configuration standard. Also see a demo of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 User Interface and productivity enhancements.

http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/T61F

Strange relation between copying and the taskbar icon.

I just noticed one of the new enhancement features in Windows 7 which related to the Information workers where they copy files while they are doing another task and as they need to know the status for there copying so Windows 7 relates the copy progress bar with task bar icon for you Windows Explorer like in the below snapshots.

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Creating VHD disks natively with Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2

There is a new enhancement in the next version of Windows “Windows 7 Client and its server Windows Server 2008 R2” which allow you to attach the VHD directly using Disk Management Snapin or Diskpart command.

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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Enable Hyper-V Virtual Machines to access the internet through Wireless Network Adapter

I have faced another challenge today in Hyper-V

I need to allow Virtual Machine Access to the internet thought the Wireless Network card
as It is not allowed by Microsoft to allow connectivity between the Parent Partition( the Host Machine) and other partition throught Wireless network card

so I found that we can Use Internet Connection sharing feature
simply

Start Hyper-v Manager

From the Actions menu, click Virtual Network Manager.

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Give a name to the connection

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in the Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections

find out the name assigned for the new Network connection like Local Area Connection 4

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then open the properties page for your wireless adapter then select Sharing Tab then choose Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection then select your network card like

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

List disk free space for disks locally using PowerShell

I was thinking about how to get the free space from all drives using single command.

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