Changing to ACHI from RAID (Dell T5500)

Replacing 3x SAS disk RAID on a Perc6 controller, with a single SSD connected to the motherboard SATA ports, I needed to perform the following steps; otherwise I would get a BSOD on booting.

Run regedit
Edit the following keys so that the value is 0 instead of 3

(Windows 7)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci\Start

(Windows 8)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\Start

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV\Start

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Start 

Reboot, then change the BIOS settings in the from RAID to RAID/ACHI Autodetect
Make sure the SATA ports are enabled in the BIOS

Apply the BIOS settings, then reboot.

Test SQL OLE Connection String

A quick way to test or generate an OLE SQL connection string for your application

For example, troubleshooting the following UniFLOW database connection string

Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=<some_User>;Password=<some_password>;Initial Catalog=<Database>;Data Source=<SQL_Server>;Use Procedure for Prepare=1;Auto Translate=True;Packet Size=4096

Log on to the server running the application

Right click on the desktop and choose New -> Text document
Rename the document SQLTest.udl - the UDL extenstion is the important part

Double click the new file and a Data Link Properties wizard should pop up

You can now enter the details of the database server and test the connection

Clicking OK will save the connection string into the SQLTest.udl file. Just open it with Notepad to see the connection string.

Remove OEM Modern UI (Metro) Apps from Windows 8.1

Use these PowerShell commands to remove any OEM Modern Apps. In this example, anything not published by Microsoft is removed. It's best to do this while in the first account you create, before joining a domain

You need to run these from an administrative PowerShell session.

Use this code first to see what will be removed:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | where Publisher -notmatch "Microsoft"
This will show currently installed apps, and who has them installed 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | where PackageName -notmatch "Microsoft"
This will show apps that are part of the image Windows was deployed with

In both instances, the Sony Vaio listed McAfee Virus Control, the Intel App store, Skype and some Vaio apps.

Then to remove:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | where Publisher -notmatch "Microsoft" | Remove-AppxPackage

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | where PackageName -notmatch "Microsoft" | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage - online

Getting Make and Model from WMIC for WDT/MDT

When setting up your driver folders, their names need to follow the WMIC make and model. Here are the commands to get this information.

From an elevated command prompt:

For computer model
wmic computersystem get model

 For computer make/manufacturer
wmic computersystem get manufacturer

Searching for a file using Unix command line

This will search the current directory and all sub-directories for an exact match of string in quotes

find . -name "searchstring" -print
 
Here is an example with output

[root@cacti /]# find . -name "cacti" -print
./etc/logrotate.d/cacti
./var/backups/cacti
./var/lib/mysql/cacti

You can add asterisks as a wild card. The example below finds any filename that contains the search string

[root@cacti /]# find . -name "*cacti*" -print
./etc/logrotate.d/cacti
./home/cacti-0.8.8a
./usr/libexec/webmin/cactiez
./var/backups/cacti
./var/lib/mysql/cacti

Change Server 2012 or Windows 8 Product Key

From the Start Screen (Modern UI) type

slui.exe 0x3

and press return

A new window should open allowing you to enter a Product Key

Office 2010 SP2 activation fails with error 0x80070190

I have an Office 2010 deployment with SP2 updates copied into the Updates folder.

On a new install, if the Activation Wizard appeared, it would not activate, giving an error

An unspecified error has occurred. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later. (0x80070190)

It seems the activation wizard is no longer automatically UAC prompting for elevated permissions.

To work around this, there are two options:

Using the Administrative Command Prompt, navigate to

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14
 
or

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14 

Then run

cscript ospp.vbs /act

The software activated using the MAK already provided by the Office Customisation Tool

Alternatively, if you navigate to where Office is installed and right click on an Office program and Run As Administrator eg. EXCEL, POWERPNT, WINWORD

Then GUI activation will succeed

If you are using Windows 7, you can press the Start button on your keyboard and type Word. 

Microsoft Word 2010 should appear at the top. Then hold down Ctrl & Shift keys, and press return. This will also launch the program as an administrator

The same also applies to Visio and Project. No Office product will activate unless performed from an administrative command prompt or explicitly running the program as Administrator