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

Read More

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

Read More

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.

Read More

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:

Read More

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.

Read More

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

Read More

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.

Read More