Thursday, August 16, 2012

psexec.exe


psexec.exe is a sysinternals tool for remotely running commands.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

For example

psexec.exe \\machine ipconfig /all

remotely runs the ipconfig /all command on \\machine but provides the output to the "host" machine where psexec.exe has been run. admin permissions are required of course.

psexec can also be used to run commands in the context of the local system account.  Using

psexec -s -d msiexec.exe /i "%~dp0xxFILENAMExx.MSI" TRANSFORMS="%~dp0xxPackageNamexx.mst" /L*V %temp%\xxPackageNamexx.log /qn

would run a Windows Installer installation in the context of the Local System account in the same way that SCCM does. -s Use System Account  -d Don't wait for process to terminate (Non Interactive)

A further option enables the current command window to run as it would on the remote machine.  For example, after issuing the command

psexec \\machinename cmd.exe -i

the current command window now acts as it would on the remote machine.  Typing HOSTNAME will return the remote machines hostname not the hostname of the machine the command window appears to be running on.

psexec \\machinename -s cmd.exe -i

the above command runs the session in system context.

PsExec cmds will not execute against a remote ip address/machine unless either a) that machines Firewall is disabled or b) File and Print Sharing is enabled - so it can access the Admin$ share.

-u <username> -p <password> can be used to supply the admin account credentials

Friday, August 3, 2012

Web Browser Plug in Test Pages

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/

http://www.cyscape.com/showbrow.aspx?doJvmd=1&bhcp=1

Java Version
http://slslabs.sun.com/check_java (expired)?

http://javatester.org/version.html  this page explains the new (Jan '14) unsigned Java applet restrictions

also

https://blogs.oracle.com/java-platform-group/entry/new_security_requirements_for_rias

Sites and URLs listed in a text file %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\Security\exception.sites

can be excepted.

Javascript Benchmarking
http://browserbench.org/JetStream/

SVG Test Page
http://philarcher.org/diary/svgtest/

PDF Test Page
http://www.education.gov.yk.ca/pdf/pdf-test.pdf

Silverlight Test Page
http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx

Note: Ensure the Silverlight ActiveX control is enabled in IE or else it may appear to be installed but not working.

Embedded QuickTime movie page
http://mac.sillydog.org/qt/mov/embed_s3.php

Embedded Video test page - Big Buck Bunny
http://camendesign.com/code/video_for_everybody/test.html
http://camendesign.com/code/video_for_everybody/test_qt.html

Test Media Library - multiple formats
http://download.wavetlan.com/SVV/Media/HTTP/http-index.htm
Quicktime (MOV) Test File 13 does play in Quicktime player but it is a very
boring video about a tortoise.  Sorry.

ClickOnce

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Passing Remote Recording through RDP on Win 7




I was using Microsoft Remote Desktop on a Microsoft Windows 7 machine to remotely control an other Windows 7 machine an I was running Skype on the remote machine. There was coming sound through the boxes of the local machine, but the microphone was not recorded even when the settings of the Local Resources where: Remote audio playback [Play on this computer] and Remote audio recording [Record from this computer].

image

The problem was found in the control panel > sound > recording > Select a recording device below to modify its settings:
this list was empty.

Solution
After setting the registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\fDisableAudioCapture] to [0] on the remote machine and reconnecting the problem was solved.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Techsmith Jing %LOCALAPPDATA% exclusion


Techsmith Jing v2.6.12032

Jing is free screen shot and windows video capture software.

The problem with the Jing sequence was that it did not repair as expected.  An App-V repair should delete the user settings and usually cause the application to launch as it does after it is first delivered. 

The Jing app is arguably not written quite correctly.  It stores it’s user settings in files under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Techsmith\Jing   This location should be used for large application user orientated files that are not suited to roaming in the profile.  In order that the App-V application user cache does not get too large App-V apps are allowed to write to this REAL location and do not redirect it to a location “inside the bubble”.   Attempts to write to %APPDATA% and user registry are redirected to the App-V user cache.  When the app is repaired the user cache is deleted and the settings are removed.  The problem with Jing was that the user settings are being written outside the bubble to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Techsmith\Jing   This meant that the repair of the Jing sequence did not work !  The user setting were retained L

It can be fixed though.  Before you sequence an application where you want the %LOCALAPPDATA% kept inside the bubble, remove these locations from the excluded folders list.  Also when you get to the “Configure Software” stage launch the application so that it (hopefully) writes some launch config files to %LOCALAPPDATA% which will go inside the bubble. Watch for unwanted user specific stuff though.

Specifically, in this case the software asks for online account information to be entered.  Once the settings are properly redirected inside the bubble, repairing the application correctly causes the account information to be lost when a repair is done.


Although this application could be successfully sequenced and launched it turned out to be very fragile on the client.  It could be consistently broken by launching immediately after a shutdown.  This seemed to cause some sort of corruption which could not be rectified by deleting caches (any of them!).  There was insufficient time to analyse further, ultimately it was delivered as an MSI.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Skpe App-V

Skpe and App-v....

http://www.tmurgent.com/TmBlog/?tag=skype

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Hyper-V remote server management


It’s possible to manage the Hyper-V VMs without remoteing into the Hyper-V server itself.

Download
Windows6.1-KB958830-x64-RefreshPkg.msu or Windows6.1-KB958830-x86-RefreshPkg.msu
from
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7887


Run it to install the Remote Server Admin Tools.
Go to the Programs and Features applet in the control panel and click “Turn Windows Features On or Off”
Activate the Hyper-V tools by selecting the item under Remote Server Administration Tools \ Role Administration Tools

Monday, May 21, 2012

.lnk files in 32/64bit environments


Avoid using .lnk files in packages which could potentially be used in a mixed 32/64-bit environment.  They would be effectively be hardcoded to point to either C:\Program Files.... OR C:\Program Files (x86)....