Managing Printers: Kernel Mode Drivers (version 2) are blocked on the target machine

When trying to restore printers using Printer Migrator on a windows 2003 server, you may receive this message: “WARNING: Kernel Mode Drivers (version 2) are blocked on the target machine. Disable Kernel Mode driver blocking and re-run Printer Migrator…”

1. Run Local Group Policy. Open Run and type gpedit.msc
2. Explorer Computer Configuration,
3. Select Administrative Templates,
4. click Printer.
5. On the Right pane, right-click on "Disallow installation of printers using kernel mode drivers"
6. Select Properties and check Disabled.
7. Click OK to close the Local Group Policy.

Terminal Server Licensing

This is a pretty basic one today, but I thought it would be worth noting. In a domain if you want to use Terminal Server licensing on a local server instead of the auto-detected server follow this guide: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561

To tighten security on that server so other Terminal Servers can not use your licenses
gpedit.msc
goto "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\TS Licensing"
Enable "License server security group"
Add your Terminal Server on the Licensing server to the "Terminal Server Computers" group.

References:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725704(WS.10).aspx

Mythbuntu: Firewire Channel and Recording

I got this working, and it was helluva lot simpler than I had been going after. There were a few key settings that made everything just fall into place and "just work".
First and foremost find out what works best for YOUR STB. From everything I've read Motorola's like Broadcast @ 400mbps. Most articles I've read tell you use Point to Point (P2P), this failed every single time for me. So Broadcast and 400mbps (this is in back end settings for your device).
That is really all I needed to do to get it working, but here are my notes on if it does fail how you can prime the STB.

Mythbuntu: Antec Fusion v1 VFD & MCE Remote

I like simple. But in trying to get my VFD and MCE remote working seemed anything but. So this is how I got my VFD and MCE remote working. This is pretty strait forward, I tried all sorts of articles but all in all, if you are running 0.22 this is what I came up with.

Mythbuntu: Mounting Media

I was going to write up a long nice detailed thing here, but then I found this, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountWindowsSharesPermanently and now I don't need to as it explains it way better.

Ubuntu 9.10 Remix Frustration

Ok, so I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 Remix; burned it; installed it. All flawlessly on my Dell 700m. This laptop is old, Pentium M 1.8; 2GB Ram, 60 GB Hard Drive. Yes, I know this is a old laptop, but honestly it does everything that a "Netbook" does 12.1"  1280x800 screen, DVD Burner.. OK battery life.

So, I installed Remix, and everything went as expected except that I can't use it.  It seems that the Intel 852/855 Video chipset doesn't properly work due to the "fancy" video rendering Remix uses.

I doubt anyone is reading this, but if you have a possible solution I would be glad to hear it. From what I can tell I think Remix is perfect for this laptop so ...

Change the default location of the user profiles in Windows 2003 Server

Goal is to define an alternate location for user profiles; move them from the C: drive to a different drive due to space allocation. I want to store the terminal server profiles on a different drive.

In the registry find:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

ProfilesDirectory:C:\Documents and Settings

Change to:

ProfilesDirectory:X:\Documents and Settings

**Note** Existing Profiles will remain under C:\Documents And Settings; you'll need to move these profiles manually.

New users will have there profile created in the location you specified.

There is also an administrative template which enables you to set the default place teminal server profiles. You can find this template at following location in the group policy editor:

Computer Configuration\Administraive Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Set Path for TS Roaming Prifiles.

Take Ownership in Registry

This is a neat little trick, if you have a registry key you can't take ownership of or delete.

Downoload 'PsTools'

(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896649.aspx)

Unpack file *psexec.exe* and place it in *C:\Windows\System32*

next run *cmd.exe* with administrative previlliges (right click on it

as admin if you use UAC) and in *cmd.exe* type:

PSEXEC -S -I -D REGEDIT.EXE

-this command allow you run *regedit.exe* from a SYSTEM account (not

from your account) so remember if you want remove any key the owner of

this key should be SYSTEM now and full control for him for this key

also.

(see PsTools describe)

Cisco & Radius Authentication

Yay... If you have multiple devices from multiple vendors, Radius is a nice way to get them to talk together. This is how I got Radius working with my Cisco router.

1. Install IAS from add/remove programs
2. Launch IAS, create a new "Radius Client".
Friendly name can be whatever you want, I chose the name of my router.
IP is the device you want to connect to IP address.

Set the shared secret (something good, no less than 6 characters, 16 would be best, no spaces, dashes are ok)
3. Create a "Remote Access Policy".

I use the wizard one, seemed simple enough. For the policy name i just chose what i was connecting to. Ethernet; Group, added a new group in AD called "Network Admins". Chose MD5 (will change later); Finish.

4. Edit your new policy (properties), remove NAS-Port-Type and put in "NAS-IP-Address"; then put in the ip of your device.

5. Edit Profile; Authentication Tab, select PAP. Under EAP methods, remove MD5.

6. Advanced Tab; add Cisco-AV-Pair; Add "shell:priv-lvl=15" under Attribute value.

Now for the Cisco Part; what got me interested was tightening security on my router, so parts are from (Here)

aaa new-model

aaa authentication login default group radius local-case

aaa authentication enable default group radius enable

aaa authorization commands 15 default group radius local

aaa accounting exec default stop-only group radius

aaa accounting commands 15 default stop-only group radius

aaa accounting network default stop-only group radius

radius-server host 0.0.0.0 <--change this to your Radius Server IP

radius-server key password <-- change this to the shared secret you set up on the Radius Server

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Dell 700M

So "netbook's" seem all the rage these days, so i thought i would dust off my old Dell 700m, it's not quite as small as a current netbook, but it is nice and tiny.

My plans include putting in a nice little 32GB SSD drive, and upgrading the processor to a 2.10Ghz when they are ~20 (no rush, not a big difference in speed over the current 1.8Ghz Pentium M)

Anyway.. i installed Ubuntu on it, and it's been nice for surfing and basic tasks... but ran into a problem of it not shuting down properly. More like X was crashing...

There are a number of tricks out there to try and fix it, this one seems to make it happen less than any others.

First i shut off the splash screen's (edit /boot/grub/menu.lst)

then, in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
EndSection
to
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "ForceEnablePipeA" "true"
EndSection

it seems to make it better... we'll see!

EDIT: I'm including this link, as it has other options that might help on other hardware.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/208479

Win 7 Media Center + WMA 10 Pro + SPDIF

OK, so I've been working on a couple issues with my Media Center PC for about a week now. I have to say, MC7 is by far better than any other media center I've used. But I've run into a few issues I'm not too happy with.

I encode all my movies in WMVHD format so the kids can watch movies either the xbox 360 or on the HTPC. This gets me away from having them fight about who gets to watch what and when, they each get what they want.

So with MC7 it plays absolutely everything I've tried; WMVHD, DiVX, DVD...

DTS and Dolby Digital movies both output via SPDIF to my Yamaha receiver, play perfectly.

Now the problem; I encode my WMVHD's in WMA Pro 10 5.1 surround... my receiver does not nativly decode this, so i've always in the past used either FFDshow or AC3filter to "recode" the WMA Pro 10 to DD 5.1.

Well, this no longer works in MC7. I have applied numerous hacks from hack7mc.com (superb site BTW) and can get AC3Filter to load perfectly for everything except... WMVHD files. It works for mp3's, DVD's, DiVX, and Live TV.

If I load GraphEdit and have it render a WMVHD file, the flow looks correct, File --> DMO WMA Decoder --> AC3Filter --> Default Sound Device.

I've posted on numerous sites, but not come up with anything that actually works...

Latest thing I've tried is renaming the WMADMOD.DLL, but then nothing plays... even with FFDshow and AC3filter loaded... I also know that Windows 7 (along with Vista) actually have moved to a new "filter set" that is no longer DirectShow, it's now called WMF or Windows Media Foundation. I have yet to find any filters that have moved to this new format.

Choppy 1080 Streaming to a Xbox 360

Copied from: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/308476.aspx

I made these changes, and my stuttering dissapeared instantly.

Network issues with NIC

Enable flow control(I know you did this already)
Disable autotuning (netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled)

Turn off the following settings for NIC
Ipv6
Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Take a look at this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929707/en-us

One of the most frequent complains about Windows Vista is the Multimedia Class Scheduler. The is an enabled-by-default component that prioritises multimedia applications and tasks such as video and music playback.However, when multimedia tasks are active, MCS will throttle down the global network bandwidth to around 10,000 packets per second. On high speed links like 100Mbps full duplex and 1000Mbps LAN connections that doesn’t use Jumbo Packets, the throttling may be significant drop network throughput. In Vista SP1, Microsoft added the ability to change the packet per second limit of the MCS, or completely disable it. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows key and R simultaneously.

2. Enter “regedit” (without the quotation marks) and press enter.

3. Using the tree on your left, navigate to the following branch:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Multimedia\SystemProfile

4. Double click on “NetworkThrottlingIndex“.

5. To disable completely, enter FFFFFF with base hexadecimal.

6. To let say, 100,000 packets through per second, enter 100000 with base decimal.

7. Click Ok and restart your computer.

Note: This works only on Windows Vista operating systems with SP1 installed or later (I made this change on Windows 7)

Etherchannel or "trunking" on a Cisco 3560G

Pretty simple actually, select the ports you would like to trunk.

conf t

int range g0/1 - 2

channel-group 1 mode desired

switchport
switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

switchport mode trunk

You can check if the ports are trunked by running...

sh int po1

sh eth 1 sum or det

Printers on Server 2003

OK, so I've been using Server 2003 for quite some time now, and kinda surprised I've never seen this before.

When in the printers and faxes window, you can right click in the empty space to change ports, remove old drivers, change Forms and change Advanced printer settings.

This is useful when you need to add a printer to a Terminal Server for users. Also, it seems that Xerox printers do not install drivers by default in Terminal Services, so installing/adding the universal printer drivers ahead of time seems to help.

Macbook Pro with a External Monitor

New trick for the day for Macbook Pro's (might work on regular Macbook's as well). Plug in the external display, set for mirroring. Close the lid, use your USB keyboard or mouse to wake up the Mac. That's it; it should show up on your external display working...

MSDN down

Well, i've been trying to download RC 1 of Windows 7 all morning, no luck; MSDN doesn't like me today :(