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Site of the day

admin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 09:24:43 +0000

1md.be is probably the best promotion of creativity that I’ve seen since Modernista. Very nice:)

Redirecting Favorites folder using Group Policy

admin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:12:07 +0000

Very useful article on Petri.co.il about redirecting the favorites folder using group policy. This came in handy for me as I needed to replace roaming profiles (too slow!) – so after some GPO folder redirection and the addition of a few login scripts I had a good alternative – except users wouldn’t be able to hold on to their favorites when moving to another machine – enter Petri’s GPO extension!

New Blog Layout

admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:09:17 +0000

Welcome to my new layout. I have simplified my design, its inspired in part by http://www.fastcodesign.com/ and http://www.weblator.com/.

I have moved all of my articles/tutorials etc to faq.ds32.com so I can keep this site purely as a blog.

Google search results being redirected

admin — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 11:27:34 +0000

Came across a vertually undetectable virus today that was randomly redirecting search results on google -for example, if you searched for “bt email” the number 1 result (btw website) would be redirected to an ask.com advertising page. I tryed all the usual stuff -an avg scan, a malware bytes scan and a thorough check with hjt, none of which found anything.

I also checked the hosts file, but there was nothing suspicious in there.

Finally I done an avg scan with the hard drive attached to another machine, and it turned out that atapi.sys, located in windows/system32/drivers, had been infected with a Trojan.

After copying the un-tampered atapi.sys file from another pc, the issue was resolved -this goes to show that hijack this can no longer be trusted to detect all viruses!!

Bp.blogspot.com

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:35:30 +0000

Nyone know what was on this blog? It’s in the top 100 sites in the world (alexa) but when you try and visit the blog, it seems as though it doesn’t exist…?

ehrec.exe using up CPU

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:42:26 +0000

Had an issue today with Windows Media Center where ehrec.exe was using nearly 100% CPU shortly after the PC had started up. In addition to this, after the desktop appeared, there was a 2-3 minute gap before any applications could be used – for example if you ran internet explorer, it would not open for about 3 minutes (or untill the networking icons showed up in the task bar).

Anyway, after a bit of research and troubleshooting, it turned out to be and update from Microsoft – .NET Framework 4 Client Profile (KB982670) that seems to have a bad reaction to ehrec.exe (apparently a component of Windows Media Center that controls TV recordings???).

Once this update was removed, all works fine. Apparently this issue only exists in Media Center – HOWEVER, this isnt the first time the NET Framework Client Profile has come up in conversations regarding a Windows issue. So I will be marking that update as “Don’t show again!!”.

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:46:55 +0000

Why does Word press attract so much spam?

Connecting local printers when using remote desktop

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:44:24 +0000

Have been struggling with this all day today so just thought Id make a note of some useful information I found out. I’ll assume that people know how to connect local printers when using remote desktop (IE ticking the box that says “printers” in the remote desktop options).

However, you may have noticed that it doesn’t always work – you may find that even though this box is ticked, the printer doesn’t show up when in remote desktop.

This is a common problem and is related to the drivers not being installed on the remote machine – which seems to be the popular consensus. The information that wasn’t so clear, is confirming this; as follows:
On the remote machine, go into the event log, and look for a 1111 Event ID – this confirms that the problem is with the driver not being present. It should then just be a case of installing the driver on the remote machine – its proving a pain for me however, because I’m using a Kodak, which wont install the driver unless the printer is present – guess this will involve a little trip to the office with the printer!!

Sources: Howtofixcomputers.com

Site of the day:sampsonmay.com

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:21:33 +0000

sampsonmay.com – Came across this site today, it belongs to a London based design consultancy – I love the simple layout! Very effective.

Website best practices

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:55:26 +0000

Lesson of the day: ALWAYS test and double test structural changes to a website – our best advertising space on Shareworld (top of page above menu and below logo) has been performing exceptionally bad for the last month – about 0.1%ctr – today we found out why: a link had pushed the adverts behind the menu in ie7 – so no one was seeing the advert!

It normally gets a ctr of between 2 – 4%!