WindowsAdminGuru BLOG

If you see a BSOD or a Blue screen of death on your computer, then the first step to troubleshoot the issue behind it is to write the error code that appears on the blue screen. However, by default, most Windows systems restart automatically in case of serious errors that normally cause a BSOD. So you see the BSOD for a couple of seconds and the computer restarts instantly making it impossible to write the error code. To pause the BSOD, you have to disable the automatic restart of Windows in case an error occurs. To do that, right click on My Computer and select Properties . Then select Advanced System Settings from the right panel. On Advanced System Settings window, un-check the Automatically Restart option. That’s it. Now Windows will not restart automatically in case of any serious issue and will pause at the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) screen.

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is very crucial for TCP/IP network communication. If you begin to notice network connectivity problems such as particular web pages not loading or not being able to ping certain IP addresses then clearing your ARP cache is a good place to start.The TCP/IP ARP Command component provides the functionality to add, delete, or display the IP address for Media Access Control (MAC) address translation. To flush/Delete the ARP cache in windows 7/Vista/XP/2000/Server 2003/2008 follow this procedure Click on Start --> Run --> type the following command click ok netsh interface ip delete arpcache Dynamic ARP cache entries update persist for 2-20 minutes depending on the system. Windows 2003 Server = 10 minutes Windows 2000 professional/Server = 10 minutes Windows XP = 2 minutes Solaris = 5 minutes Delete IP address using arp command arp -d example: arp -d 10.1.1.2 Command to display ARP table: arp -a Add static entry to ARP...

The easiest way to restore a Windows computer back to its factory defaults is to simply use the included recovery program to reinstall or recover Windows. This works well in many situations, and you can use this method to completely wipe your computer clean and start from new. But what if you don’t want to wipe your computer clean? If this is the case, you’ll need to use a few specific utilities if you’d like to clean up your computer to return it to a near-new state. This method isn’t always quicker than reinstalling Windows, but it’s often preferable if you don’t want to worry about losing files or you don’t have a Windows install disc handy. Let’s take a look at what you’ll need to finish the job. Use Windows Backup and Restore Recent versions of Windows, including Windows Vista and 7, include a Backup and Restore feature in the control panel. This feature lets you restore your computer to a previous state by using the Open System Restore option, which begins a s...

This error can occur if you have installed incorrect driver. You can check the solutions in the following threads: "Windows is unable to install to the selected location.   Technorati Tags: Windows 7 Error: 0x80300001 Error: 0x80300001" Can anyone elaborate? http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/3021b3aa-ce05-4cfa-8119-a531ed2e4d63 Windows 7 RC Installation Does Nothing at 'Completing Installation...' http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-CA/w7itproinstall/thread/86dc5fc5-d256-4e53-825f-042e6c78951c Error 0x8030001 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/07eb39ed-884d-44fa-bcb4-bd109f2d8524/ Install Failure: Windows cannot be installed to disk 0 partition 1. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/b8fbf1de-0d93-47ae-8ea8-70534f1816ba Source : Microsoft TechNet

When taking backup on external drives you may come across this error. Here are the two probable solutions: 1.remove and reconnect all drives 2.For every user on your machine, - Login as the user - Run -> regedit.exe - Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sofware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell  Folders - Observe the value of Appdata and LocalAppdata . If it has an empty value or a value of the type %Appdata% , this is the culprit. Can you verify that this is the case with your machine? If so, the workaround is the following:     a. Open a command prompt     b. Type set Appdata / LocalAppdata depending on which registry entry has the  wrong value. If Appdata is wrong, type set Appdata and if Local Appdata is wrong, type set LocalAppdata .     c. Copy the value after the = sign. Example if the output is: APPDATA=C:\Users\John\Appdata\Roaming, copy the value C:\Users\John\Appdata\Roaming  ...

This error usually comes when there is some issue in hard disk or disk controller. People are reporting other factors as well..go to this TechNet page for more details.

When you try to install windows 7 on a fresh machine you get this pop up which says “Windows cannot install required files.  Make sure all files required for installation are available and restart in the installation. Error code: 0x8007045D” and installation get failed. This is usually indicate that the installation media is corrupt . You ca try these things to resolve the issue: - Create / re-burn a new media at a very slow rate - use the best media that you can find - avoid ISO mounting utilities that mount the image as a removable drive (to avoid CRC errors) - replace the DVD drive ( rare)

When you use the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site to check for and install updates, you may receive one of the following error messages: 0x80070008, 0x800705B4, 0x8007000E, 0x80072EE2, 0x80072EFD, 0x80072EE7, 0x80072EEF, 0x80072EFE, 0x8024400E, 0x80072F76, 0x80244016, 0x80072F78, 0x80244022, 0x80090305, 0x8024402F, 0x8009033F, 0xC80003FA, 0x80244008, 0xC800042D, 0x8024400A, 0x80071A90, 0x8024400D This TechNet KB article describes the cause and cure about the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/836941/en-us

This error comes up while installing Windows 7 on a SATA RAID drive. Set up doesn’t recognize the SATA controller. You can try this: 1. Load the RAID driver from CD. (Vista driver will work) 2. Install the driver and create partitions. 3. Remove the driver CD and insert the Windows 7 DVD. 4. Click on Refresh and the error should disappear. Source : MS TechNet Post

If you tried to log on to Windows and received an error message telling you that your user profile might be corrupted, you can try to repair it. You will need to create a new profile, and then copy the files from the existing profile to the new one. To create a new user profile To create a new profile, you must first create a new user account. When the account is created, a profile will also be created. Open User Accounts by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking User Accounts and Family Safety (or clicking User Accounts, if you are connected to a network domain), and then clicking User Accounts. Click Manage another account. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Click Create a new account. Type the name you want to give the user account, click an account type, and then click Create Account. To copy files to the new user profile After you create the profile, you ca...

Error message when you log on to a Windows Vista-based or Windows 7-based computer by using a temporary profile: " The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded" Possible causes: This issue may occur if the user profile was manually deleted by using the command prompt or Windows Explorer by a user or by some program. A profile that is manually deleted does not remove the security identifier (SID) from the user profile list in the registry. Since the SID is still present, Vista will still try to load the profile by using the ProfileImagePath that points to a nonexistent path. Therefore, the profile cannot be loaded. This can also be a issue with the user profile entering into a backup state. Manually renaming the C:\Users\(User Name) folder. To resolve this problem yourself, follow these steps: Delete the profile by using the Computer Properties dialog box. To do this, follow these steps: Click Start , right-click Computer , and...

Many time I come across the issue with users where they are not able to log in to their original profile in Windows 7. They see an message after login which says: “Your user profile was not loaded correctly! You have been logged on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off. Please see the event log for details or contact your administrator.” Event viewer shows this application log: Log Name: Application Source: Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service Date: Date Event ID: 1511 Task Category: None Level: Warning Keywords: Classic User: User Computer: Computer Description: Windows cannot find the local profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off. Resolution: To resolve this problem, follow these steps: Log on to the system by using an administrative user account other than the user account that is experiencing the problem. Back up all ...

This issue may arise when you access a remote PC through RDP from various computers with different different screen resolutions. To resolve the issue: Delete the “Default.rdp” file from My Documents ( XP) or Documets( Win7) folder. Default.rdp is a hidden file hence make sure you select the proper view in folder options.

When we upgrade Windows 7 from a 32 bit version to 64 bit version, there is a folder called Windows.old get created the drive which may take up  a huge disk space. Here is how we can get rid of that: Click on Start -->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Disc Cleanup. When the dialog box comes up, select the drive that has the .old files on it and  click OK. The system then scans for the files to be cleaned up and another dialog box opens with the selection.  Click on the button labeled Clean up system files at the bottom of that dialog box. Another dialog box will come up, select the drive again that has the .old files on it.  The system will perform another scan for the system files that need to be cleaned up. After scanning, another dialog box opens up and there you will find a list of check boxes.  Scroll through and check on the box labeled Older versions of Windows and click OK . This can also help: Click Start--...

Slow behavior has something to do with the recovery files that IE8 continually writes at “ C:\Documents and Settings\ \Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Recovery\Active\” They have names like: .dat  -- {0E133027-5389-11DF-8A21-001422335927}.dat, etc. I resolve the issue  by disabling “ Enable  automatic crash recovery” option from: Tools-->Internet Options--> Advanced (tab)-->Browsing (section) ….

Error 80200053 comes when  am update related to some issue with .NET framework failed to install. Anti virus program installed in the system was causing the this issue. I was able to solve this problem by doing this: 1.  Disable the antivirus program 2. Restart Windows Update service ( from services.msc) 3. Now run Windows Update ( from control panel) 4. Install missing updates 5. Restart the computer and make sure your antivirus program is enabled. I hope this helps…

Windows 7 Error: “These files can't be opened. Your Internet security settings prevented one or more files from being opened” Today when I was trying to open a exe file that error came up showing the warning: Here is the simple solution worked for me: - Right click on the file for which warning is coming and open properties - Click on Unblock button and click Apply - Now open the file, you will not see the warning In my opinion  this is very feature of Windows 7 which prevent us accidently opening harmful files and programs.

Here are the simple steps for using SBMERGE command on a ThinApp Project... SBMERGE Process: Make a copy of the original ThinApp Project WITH the BIN folder and it's contents (EXEs/Data Container). Clear the SANDBOX within the %APPDATA%\THINSTALL folder. Run the virtual application in the project to be updated. Update the application with plugins, settings, updates, modifications. Close the app. Re-launch the app and test the updates exist and work. Close the app. Open CMD and change to the directory where virtual application is stored. Example: C:\Thinapp\packages\Firefox Type "SBMERGE APPLY" NOTE: If successful, the ThinApp Sandbox for this packaged app will have been removed from %APPDATA%\Thinstall . Execute BUILD.BAT within the project just updated by SBMERGE. Run new version of ThinApp packaged app to test updates/mods. Deploy via AppSync, Side-by-Side, MSI (via ESD), etc. Source: VMware More on updating ThiApp packages: http://blogs.vmwa...

Verify that the network DLL files are registered correctly: 1. Click Start, and then click Run. 2. In the Run box, type cmd.exe, and then click OK. 3. Type the following lines. Press ENTER after you type each line. This command text is difficult to type. Be sure that you type it exactly as it appears below. Or you may find it easier to copy and paste the text instead. Click OK when the RegSvr32 dialog box appears for each command. regsvr32 netshell.dll regsvr32 netcfgx.dll regsvr32 netman.dll 4. Restart the computer. Check to see whether your networking icons appear. [OR] Method 1: Let Windows automatically detect and install network adapters 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager. 3. To see a list of installed network adapters, expand Network adapter(s). Click to locate the network adapter, and then click Uninstall. 4. Restart the computer, and then let the system automatically detect and insta...

What is SNMP? SNMP is a standard protocol for managing and monitoring network devices. SNMP works by having an agent run on a SNMP device, and having a SNMP manager run on a workstation or server. In our case, a Cisco IOS router will be the SNMP device. A Windows workstation with PRTG will be our SNMP manager. SNMP is a standard defined by the IETF and is based on a number of RFC’s. Usually, the agent uses UDP port 161 and the manager uses UDP port 162. There are 3 versions of SNMP. There are so many different types of SNMP managers available and they are all created to perform different functions. For example, some programs like Whatsup can alert you when a server is low on disk space, or when a printer runs out of toner. As we don’t have room to go into all the details on SNMP, take a look at Wikipedia:SNMP for more information. What is Cisco SNMP Tool? “Cisco SNMP Tool” is not made by Cisco. Instead, it is a free SNMP application available for download on the Internet. It ...