One of the hardest things I have ever searched for is this product. Microsoft has changed the way there format works, instead of a DVD or CD they provide you with a card with the product key (Good for them, I don't like using DVDS anyway)

You goto www.office.com/setup , enter your product key and then they want you to either sign up with a outlook.com account or login with one before you can download the program.  For a single user for there home this is fine, as a MSP installing these on systems for clients this is a large pain in the neck. 

After much "google-ing" I found the download links for each of the version. You still must activate them but that is done with your product key, you can use my OFFICE ACTIVATOR program that will prompt for the product key (with dashes) and activate for you, or you  can do it the old fashion way using office activation prompt (or through control panel)

Here are the download links , enjoy.  (English Versions Only sorry)

Office Home and Student 2013
Office Home and Business 2013
Office Professional 2013
Word 2013
Excel 2013
PowerPoint 2013
OneNote 2013
Publisher 2013
Access 2013
Project Standard 2013
Project Professional 2013 
Visio Standard 2013
Visio Professional 2013

The first thing I noticed was the Hybrid solution MS has offered for there famous start menu. They initial install gives us the classic start menu along with live tiles within it.  For most desktop user this was one of the biggest issues with windows 8. Most people who yet do not own a tablet or touch PC complained about this.  This was brought up by many and took time for MS to realize this. 
Check out Alex Appleton's Blog on this topic.

The next feature that jumps out is there "Desktop" feature. This allows you to have multiple desktops. I work with multiple monitors and still run out of desktop space. This could simplify the layout as each "Desktop" would be dedicated to specific things. For instance desktop 1 you could have your email open, jump to the next desktop and have your browser open to what ever website you want.   

The overall look has changed a little as well, they have fine tuned the icons, removed the boarder around open objects. Even the metro based apps now have the options to close, maximize and minimize them like their classic brothers. 

At this point in testing all i can say is about time Microsoft. Although now I like the Metro start menu,  there are a lot of people who will want this version. 

Just remember Microsoft don't overcharge for this version if your client owns Windows 8 - make it reasonable to upgrade.  If you charge too much you will end up pissing off more of your clients. 

I like the setup of the spiceworks agent the only issue is I wish "Spiceworks" would allow you to create a silent installer that you can simply deploy. There are several methods listed online how. Here is how I created mine to work. 









Step 1: Download the installer and choose custom and apply the settings you require for it.

Step 2: Depending on which OS version you are using 64 or 32 you need to grab a copy of the registry files that are installed. 

(64-bit Windows) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent
(32-bit Windows) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Spiceworks\Agent (not verified)

Export the Key to a folder "Spiceworks Agent Project" or whatever you prefer. I converted the Reg Key to a BAT file using REGTOBAT - located on softpedia, open the reg key and covert to BAT. I then just copy the contents displayed in viewing box.

Step3: Next copy the Spiceworks Agent folder that is created 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Spiceworks\Agent - 64 Bit
C:\Program Files\Spiceworks\Agent - 32 Bit

Copy the folder to you "Spiceworks Agent Project"

Step 4:  Next we need to create a BAT file to  1 copy the Agent Folder to a location on the computer, 2 add the registry key with all the custom settings and 3 create a service to start the program.

Step 5: There are two ways to add the Registry keys, you can script them in a bat file or use a Batch file to add the key directly. I prefer the single BAT file method. I included the example below.

Here is my final BAT file, works great.  I wrap this in a EXE that extract to c:\EN folder.  Also Note I had to start the service twice, not sure why it doesn't start on the first go.

@rem +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Copy Required Files +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

echo Y | start /I xcopy c:\EN\EasyAgent c:\windows\EasyAgent /s /i 
start /min ping -n 1 127.0.0.1 > NU
attrib +h c:\windows\EasyAgent
start /wait /min ping -n 1 127.0.0.1 > NU

@rem +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Add Reg Keys ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "SpiceworksServer" /t REG_SZ /d "YOUR SERVER ADDRESS HERE" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "ConnectivityIntervalSeconds" /t REG_DWORD /d "300" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "HandshakeCode" /t REG_SZ /d "YOUR HANDSHAKE CODE" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "InstallDir" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\Spiceworks\Agent\\" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "ScanIntervalMinutes" /t REG_DWORD /d "600" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "SpiceworksPort" /t REG_SZ /d "YOUR AGENT PORT  " /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "TrayClickLabel" /t REG_SZ /d "" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "TrayClickUrl" /t REG_SZ /d "" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "ClientPort" /t REG_SZ /d "      " /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "CloudDiscoveryToggle" /t REG_SZ /d "True" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "LastCloudDetectionTimestamp" /t REG_SZ /d "9/7/2014 8:47:14 PM" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent" /v "LastEventTimestamp" /t REG_SZ /d "9/7/2014 8:47:23 PM" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent\Stats" /v "agent_handshake_attempts" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
Reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Spiceworks\Agent\Stats" /v "agent_full_scan_count" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f

@rem ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Create the service +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

sc create EasyAgent binpath="c:\windows\EasyAgent\Spiceworks Agent Service.exe" DisplayName= "EasyAgent" auto
start /wait /min ping -n 1 127.0.0.1 > NU
Net Start EasyAgent
start /wait /min ping -n 1 127.0.0.1 > NU
Net Start EasyAgent
exit

For those in IT out there that connect remotely to clients using various remote support software (LOGMEIN, JOIN.ME etc) These are one of the most essential tools we can have. This saves us from having to go onsite for everything. It allow faster remote service for our clients.

One of those essential remote support software clients I have been fortunate to come across is ScreenConnect

My current company pays through the teeth for LOGMEINRESCUE which if used day to day by all our technicians. The difference between the two on the front end is very little. Both allow remote support and full control of remote computers.

Its the back end cost and customization that makes ScreenConnect miles ahead of LOGMEIN.

Lets start with cost. We currently spend around 1200 dollars per year on a subscription based service with LOGMEIN. I have been here for five years giving us a grand total of 6000 dollars spent for this software (We have had it longer but we will leave it at that) We have several technicians that use it so we must purchase two licenses - so that being said we have spent in the time I have been here 12,000 for 5 years of use. Again we don't own it so once we stop paying its gone.

Enter ScreenConnect.

I bought for myself (Being a IT guy I get to support my whole family and friends "yippy") I was using LOGMEIN free which worked great up till they got rid of it. I spent 325.00 for 1 license of ScreenConnect.

This allows me to connect to a single computer (Single session) at a time, which is fine I'm not likely to be supporting two computers with issues at the same time (I hope) I now have it installed on all my family's computers.  I can issue command line remotely without ever having to login in and control the mouse on there side. The nice feature is it shows a screen capture before you connect to give you a idea of what your going to see when you login. I also get full computer info (NAME, WAN IP, MEMORY etc) before connecting.

Now putting all this aside the purpose of this post is to take this great piece of software and integrate it into a WINDOWS PE. I want the client to be able to either boot off a CD or USB or Network and boot the portable windows PE that has ScreenConnect running. This would start a remote session and allow me to connect to run the various tools I need to fix the computer. Here's how. 

Step 1:

Create your windows PE rescue disk, my choice method is to use WINBUILDER  a program designed to give a more gui based PE that allows you to work from it like a standard windows 7 or 8 OS. You then add all your assorted tools to it (Virus Scanners, HDD Checkers etc)  My choice project from the site is NETTY this is based off windows 7 (x86 or x64) and gives you a nice workable OS from which to build your image. Make sure to include .NET (ALL VERSIONS)

Step 2:

Download a unattended ScreenConnect session from your installation host and install it on a computer. Unattended would be called "Access" under your ScreenConnect installation.

Step 3:
Open REGEDIT on your machine and goto the following KEY.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\ScreenConnect Client ([yourspecialcode])


You will need to open the KEY and select "ImagePath" key within that registry entry. Right click it and select Modify. We copy the contents out of that registry key and remove non essentials. 

Complete ImagePath Key:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\ScreenConnect Client (b03e3c1b0cb494ba)\Elsinore.ScreenConnect.ClientService.exe" "?e=Access&y=Guest&h=support.markcollins.ca&p=8041&s=bae44dad-d947-47e4-9663-5875b785a53b&k=BgIU0ExAAgAABEAAADh7TOZHOjP%2bdIflNjdtRb%2ffzqV4n4NSuhxE6%2fWbYpKyiLJIQ61gzDlxlnol0QyAYs%%2fsf6Akje3FHAFfQwIR5J9C%2b71VDFOM4A9%2fw88OrV19x62F9BQmNcyr%2fpvbOOmBN0XboO%2fciX%2fYxbMwNreur0GcG51Vi%2fpCd9iz%2fGngbHtOcebz7c%2btHuA8CPeIYFtYc5w25OIuu%2flKGeaYZXU6yYCqBozhqeaNHGyn9ozzPMYH5c%2fl8JqH1aUa7itBgnnFWJ%2f3SkJckZdxQFweXGt2vP5z6kR7S21CpIjO12eOHsg%2ba&t=&c=Client1&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=&c="


Required info from ImagePath Key:
?e=Access&y=Guest&h=support.markcollins.ca&p=8041&s=bae44dad-d947-47e4-9663-5875b785a53b&k=BgIU0ExAAgAABEAAADh7TOZHOjP%2bdIflNjdtRb%2ffzqV4n4NSuhxE6%2fWbYpKyiLJIQ61gzDlxlnol0QyAYs%%2fsf6Akje3FHAFfQwIR5J9C%2b71VDFOM4A9%2fw88OrV19x62F9BQmNcyr%2fpvbOOmBN0XboO%2fciX%2fYxbMwNreur0GcG51Vi%2fpCd9iz%2fGngbHtOcebz7c%2btHuA8CPeIYFtYc5w25OIuu%2flKGeaYZXU6yYCqBozhqeaNHGyn9ozzPMYH5c%2fl8JqH1aUa7itBgnnFWJ%2f3SkJckZdxQFweXGt2vP5z6kR7S21CpIjO12eOHsg%2ba&t=&c=Client1&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=



So for the above "RED" text we strip out the rest and leave only the red (Minus the "" quotes) DONT COPY THIS as your will be different this is your connection key to your installation of ScreenConnect.
Save this to a TXT file somewhere safe.

Step 5: UPDATED Aug 8th 2014
 Now we need to simply need to mount our Windows PE we created in "step 1"

Edit the STARTNET.bat file located in "Windows\System32\startnet.bat" within the PE and add the following to it below or create another bat file and point to it to launch it. Add this below WINPEINIT in the startnet.bat or like I said create another BAT file and just have StartNet launch it with the script below.


In the root of your mounted PE created a folder called "SCREENCONNECT" in this folder we are going to create a txt file called "REMOTE.txt"

In the REMOTE.txt file copy your "SPECIAL CODE" to it example below. No quote either just exact code.

e?=Access&y=Guest&h=support.markcollins.ca&p=8041&s=b16b9926-97e4-444d-a04f-da43d0646cfc&k=BgIAAACkAABSU0ExAAgAABEAAADh7TOZHOjP%2bdIflNjdtRb%2ffzqV4n4NSuhxE6%2fWbYpKyiLJIQ61gzDlxlnol0QyAYs%2bF17N5fzBZR5HscrI%2bOZZ%%2flKGeaYZXU6yYCqBozhqeaNHGyn9ozzPMYH5c%2fl8JqH1aUa7itBgnnFWJ%2f3SkJckZdxQFweXGt2vP5z6kR7S21CpIjO12eOHsg%2ba&t=&c=Client1&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=&c=

Next we create a bat file with the following code in it or have startnet.cmd  launch it. Copy below and save as a .BAT or add to STARTNET.cmd




:: remote support starting
for %%p in (Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L J I H G F E D C) do if exist "%%p:\ScreenConnect\Remote.txt" set /p SCVar=<"%%p:\ScreenConnect\Remote.txt"
for %%p in (Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L J I H G F E D C) do if exist "%%p:\ScreenConnect\Remote.txt" start "ScreenConnect" "X:\Program Files\ScreenConnect\Elsinore.ScreenConnect.WindowsClient.exe" "%SCVar%"




There we have it, I can now connect remotely. I add my PE to boot options on each image I deploy. I add a BCD entry as a second boot option and set the timeout to 5 seconds. If a user ever has issues then can choose this boot option and I can connect and fix issues if the OS is not booting.

***Please note I did not pay the 189.00 dollars to certify the EXE so UAC and or your AV might complain. And as a good rule always test unknown apps in a test environment***

RAW CODE MINUS PSEXEC + CHROMESTANDALONE

(REQUIRES CHROME STANDALONE AND PSEXEC - Rename Chrome installer to Setup.exe)

@echo off
color F0
mode con lines=6 cols=80
@echo Remote Chrome Installer
@echo Courtesy of Mark Collins www.markcollins.ca
SET /P pcip=Please enter the IP Address of the computer:
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip%  taskkill /im setup.exe /f
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 1
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip%  taskkill /im googleupdater.exe /f
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 1
start %temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip% -c -f Setup.exe
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 18
taskkill /im psexec.exe

LINK TO REMOTECHROMEINSTALLER

LINK TO LOCALCHROMEINSTALLER   (INCASE YOU WANT TO DIRECTLY INSTALL)

As a IT administrator for my clients, I have been using NETSCAN a handy little network scanner. It gives you IP, NETBIOS names etc. From its menu you can RDP, remotely reboot etc devices it finds on the network. This has been in my arsenal of useful tools for several years now.

Another network scanner that is not so well know is a product produced by MIKROTIK ROUTERS

This actually maps out the layout of your network. Most times you manually have to move the devices around to fit your layout but once done. It gives you a physical live layout of your devices which you can customize the ICONS or the background.

This I use on a stand alone PC with a large LCD screen. It shows all my connected clients. Any go down I will see that change live.

The program is setup as a installer - which you can simply extract to a folder and run directly if you don't like installing extra hardware.

Below is screen shots of how the layouts look after a scan. All the generic icons can be replaced with actual photos of the devices.

Need to update the JAVA or Adobe Reader on computers on the network.

A great website that a automate this is www.ninite.com basically select your apps and it will download a single EXE that runs updates or installs them without the annoying toolbars and EULA's you must accept.

I took this one step further and create a EXE that allow you to execute this on a domain network against PC's. This will save you the step of having to manually sit in front of them and update them. It will prompt you for the IP address of the computer and download the NINITE exe and execute it against the PC.

Enter the IP or HOSTNAME of the computer.

For this to work you would need full administrator access to the machine, test by slashing over to \\PCNAME\c$ - make sure firewalls and AV are not blocking you from doing this. If they are you could try disabling them remotely.

Once it copies the NINITE exe across to the PC it will execute it and update both JAVA and Adobe.  Please find my source code below, it requires WGET and Microsoft PSEXEC




Please NOTE: I didn't pay for my APP to be certified so your AV or the OS will complain about it. Use at your own risk, again nothing scary about it but don't like complaints. Always test before deploying.

@echo off
color B1
mode con lines=2 cols=60
SET /P pcip=Please enter the IP Address of the computer:
@echo off del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\temp /f /y
color A8
mode con lines=4 cols=80
@echo Lets Cleanup all Temp Files
wget.exe --no-check-certificate "https://ninite.com/java-reader/ninite.exe"
echo D | xcopy /f /y ninite.exe \\%pcip%\c$\windows\temp
color E0
mode con lines=60 cols=90
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip% c:\windows\temp\ninite.exe

Previously I built a simple BATCH file that uses Microsoft existing VB script in office 2010 to activate using command line. There design in this was to simplify the process and overall speed it up. The end user however generally would not use this method rather go into the software and when prompted to activate go from there.

This is for techs that have to do this constantly and the quicker the better.



I updated the script to now check for which version of office is installed on the system and execute the VB script to activate office.  The video below just shows the execution of the EXE, windows will complain as I don't pay to register the app. So use at your own discretion. 

The app open a small CMD line that asks you to enter the product activation key including dashes. Prior opening it does the check on which version you have installed. Below find both my shared link to the script and raw files to check out on your own.



RAW CODE: Office 2010 and Office 2013 Activator.

echo off
color F0
mode con lines=3 cols=80


IF NOT EXIST "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" goto 2010OFF
IF EXIST "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" goto 2013OFF

:2010OFF
color AE
@echo Example: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
SET /P offkey=Please enter office 2010 License Key with Dashes:

cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs" /inpkey:%offkey%
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.vbs" /act
color 0E
exit


:2013OFF
@echo Example: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
SET /P offkey=Please enter office 2013 License Key with Dashes:

mode con lines=30 cols=80
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /inpkey:%offkey%
cscript "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\ospp.vbs" /act
color 0E
exit

This is what the app looks like - Yes I know ugly but does what its supposed to do. Click on the picture above to open the link to my ONEDRIVE share. Take a look at the raw file and wrapped exe. 

Windows Deployment Service is great feature created by Microsoft.

This allows one the ability to image PC's on a mass scale over a network. As long as the PC supports PXE boot over LAN and is enabled its easily done.




Adding Windows Deployment Service to you computer gives you more then just the ability to reimage a computer. I have figured a way to integrate Tight-VNC into the PXE bootable image. This allows you to remotely support/access the computer from their server from a offline standpoint. Meaning active virus are not running, OS boot issues are no an issue. You can get at the RAW files on the PC and copy them off, virus scan or reimage the computer. The goal of this was to save me the tech from going on site for these issues.

Imagine you support a client many miles away and they either get infected with a virus, the computer wont boot or simply need to reimage a computer with a upgraded OS.

(This is assuming you can get to their server and browse there network)

Here is How:

Create your PXE boot image either using windows created one or a customized one try Reboot.pro they have created a neat little program called WINBUILDER. This allows you to create a PXE bootable image that includes a GUI (Start Menu, Antivirus etc)

The purpose of a PXE boot image is you the technician to be able to repair/reimage etc the computer that will not boot.

Once you have your PXE image created or grabbed from Microsoft - Here is How 

We mount this image using IMAGEX or GIMAGEX

Once mounted we will need to add some files to it. 

In the shared folder you will find some bat files which start the VNC server running on the PXE boot. We are overwriting a bat file called "configdot3svc.cmd" I found this to be one of the last scripts to run as the PXE image was booting and as such had it launch my bat files to add VNC to the image.

It will register Tight VNC server and then start the VNC server up. This will allow you to access it using your browser on port 5800. Find it using Netscan a nice free network scanner.

Depending on what type of PXE boot you use - your customized one will have a name you specified or some random name either way grab the IP address and add port :5800 in your browser. It will run the built in JAVA and allow for you to connect and do what you must.

The link below has to two sub folders. Depending on the type of PXE PE you create either 32-64 bit. Either way copy the contents to the SYSTEM32 of your mounted PE.

There is also a REG key that will need to be added to the PE registry. There are two approaches to this, first using the existing bat file to add the reg key on startup (I find added reg keys somewhat finicky)

Second and preferred way is to mount the SOFTWARE hive on the PE and add the key into it. See picture below. Name it what ever you want, just make sure to mount it under local machine on your registry - default I call it is "BLAH" not sure why just stands out. Next the registry key that is located in my shared files you want to import into that key so you will have to edit it to include the BLAH path.  Under the path change where it shows "HKLM\Software..." to "HKLM\BLAH\software..." then save it and add the key.

This adds the Tight VNC key with server settings. Mine doesn't include a password so a word of caution if you are using this on a corporate network. Any who PXE boots a machine could potentially open use another machine to VNC to it and access the local files. If you want security install a copy of Tight VNC server on any machine add a access password and export the key. It might install itself under HKCU so change that to LOCALMACHINE.
Message me if you require further details.

FILES REQUIRED

The goal around this is have a centralized location where clients go to check their inventory, create support tickets etc.

Requirements: Simple URL they can type in there browser "reports.mycompany.com"

We want to keep the data secure and centralized at our site, we start this by installing Spiceworks at the clients site on either a server or workstation that runs 24/7.

Back on our side we setup PFSENSE running in hyper-v, we give it its own dedicated WAN ip address. We setup DHCP and DNS on PFSENSE giving it its own private network.

We fire up Windows 7 with IIS, we put it onto the private network (LAN side that PFSENSE runs on)
This now runs on its own private network separate from our companies network.

We fire up Windows 7 and install Spiceworks on that same private network. When setting up spiceworks choose port 80 and what ever port you wish for the data to be received on. I start usually with 9675 for secure port.

On PFSense we open the data port 9675 to the IP address of Spiceworks install.  Using NAT rules to complete this.

On Clients Spiceworks install verify your network scan looks good, re-scan, fix errors on your scan etc. Once your happy with the scans and inventory looks good we now push the data to our central site. Either point the data using a A-Record you have setup for that WAN ip or directly to WAN IP address and port 9675 - This should now push the data to your local Spiceworks install.

On Windows 7 IIS - Create a client website - Under C:\INETPUB create a sub folder called "Redirects" and below that another folder with the clients name c:\INETPUB\Redirects\"Client"

Setup a website pointing to that folder as its location. Prior to this create a A-Record pointing to the WAN IP of this setup. So that now we have a IIS website created, Binding are something like "mycompany.yourcompany.com" now we create a URL redirect that will point this to the Spiceworks IP address on this network (Your Side)

This should now allow you to browse to (Your Side) Spiceworks externally, you can now create further sites for each client and only use the single WAN ip with URL redirect to point to each install.

**When creating the install of Windows 7 for both IIS and Spiceworks I kept it simple by using a differencing disk to keep drive space usage down and to save on configuring several different instances of windows 7.

The goal of this was to assist clients that were on a local network (Domain structure)

The usual method was to do a rescue session with the client. Have them go to a website, enter a code, download the file, execute it and finally get me connected to help them.

I was able to get TIGHTVNC,  a remote access program to work on a PXE boot OS so I thought why not on a standard OS.


Using PSEXEC from Microsoft and TIGHTVNC along with BAT files to create a method to start VNC on a remote computer and allow me to connect. The BAT file takes the files, copies them over to the users PC, starts the VNC Server running on the users PC and then opens up VNC VIEWER locally for you to connect.
The default password I set is "5101" no reason just liked the sequence.

Once you close VNC VIEWER it removes the files on the remote PC.

REQUIREMENTS: You must have full administrator access to the PC, this was designed to work in a domain environment where you as the domain admin already have access to the computer (IE you can slash over to it C$)

I have wrapped this in a EXE and you can download it from here REMOTEVNC

****Please note I didn't pay for EXE to be certified so you AV will likely complain****

Test this in a test environment. Let me know what you think.

Below please find the actual bat file used to send the files over to the remote PC. I have included a link to the other files required. It uses MS PSEXEC and components from TIGHTVNC. Please let me know what you think.  REMOTEVNC

color A0
mode con lines=3 cols=90
@echo This will install VNC on a remote computer to help you a user.
@echo It will self delete once you close VNCViewer.
SET /P pcip=Please enter the IP Address of the computer:


color A8
mode con lines=2 cols=90


mode con lines=30 cols=90
@echo off
color A8
echo Y | xcopy %temp%\CSystem32\*.* \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip% c:\windows\system32\TVNCStart.bat
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip% c:\windows\system32\TVNCStart.bat
color A5
mode con lines=2 cols=90
%temp%\tvnviewer.exe %pcip%
@echo off
mode con lines=20 cols=90
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip% taskkill /im tvnserver.exe /f
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\tvnserver.exe
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\screenhooks32.dll
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\screenhooks64.dll
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\OLEPRO32.dll
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\hookldr.exe
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\TVNCStart.bat
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\tvncreg.reg
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
del \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\tvncreg.reg
ping -n 2 127.0.0.1
%temp%\psexec.exe \\%pcip% reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TightVNC /f
IF NOT EXIST \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\tvnserver.exe goto exit
IF EXIST \\%pcip%\c$\windows\system32\tvnserver.exe goto RemoveVNC

:exit
exit

POINT OF SALE SYSTEMS: http://www.myfreepos.net/
I have worked in the industry for several years. I came across this software when a friend of friend needed a inexpensive restaurant point of sale software. 

Essentially its free for TWO SYSTEMS but with limitations. You can register each system for 99.00 each - this allows you save your  "NAME" at the top of the receipts etc.  

Overall this is really decent software, it does the functions required of it for inexpensive price. I had some issues configuring it to work with printers and cash drawers but once I figured it out it worked quite well.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MY DEPLOYMENT: 

I deployed two systems with single receipt/bar printer and cash drawer behind the bar, Second waitress station just off the bar for floor orders, and a single PARALLEL printer for the kitchen (At the time the company that was selling the printers were out of stock and there was a time line).  A third wireless PC was setup in a upstairs office for running reports etc.

I had to run a 50FT parallel cable from the Bar POS to kitchen. 

As a additional setup - I installed DROPBOX on both stations and backed up the POS databse. This will give the client a full offsite backup if anything ever happens. Also the second station can become the main station as it also contains the full copy.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TO THIS DATE the POS deployment has processed over 44,000 reciepts and still going strong. I havn't received a single phone call regarding it only one asking where to order paper from.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My Goal this time around is to build the same setup at home on my server running as a virtual machine. I plan on using Remote FX to redirect USB and hopefully get the serial touch to work (I have an old POS serial touch screen) This along with a USB printer I am hoping I can use a thin client and get a POS system running.

If this works I believe it will be the first THIN client based POS. There are web based ones currently but this would allow a conversion for current POS systems to be located offsite and backed up.

CLOUD POS is the final goal. Take OLD POS system and make them cloud based. Centralized and protected.

Looking to test further into RemoteFX for Server 2012.
I just purchased a RADEON R9 270X video card. 
Installed it and Server 2012 sees it as RemoteFX capable card right away.

I fired up a windows 7 Ultimate to test some feature on Remote FX.

This site is running old hardware era 2006/2007. 
They have no backups of any kind. 
They have approximately 15 computers.
They will not spend money on a backup solution (NAS etc)
They are located over an hour drive away.











Scenario:

This site gets hit with the "Cryptolocker Virus". The site manager brings his computer to repair. Since its Cryptolocker there is nothing I can do to recover his files (Except pay the ransom)
He brings in his external USB drive which also happens to be dead so no backups are available to it.
His computer is a old dell 755 (Year 2006)

He is okay with loosing his data as he deems it not important enough to pay the Ransom.
His PC is old and not worth the service charges to re-image with XP and reload his software. 
At this point I recommend replacing his computer since its running XP and its end of life is approaching shortly with new hardware that has full warranty. 
For backups I recommend a second internal HDD set in a RAID 0/Mirror. He doesn't take his external offsite so there no point in replacing it with another external drive.

Once the computer has been imaged and deployed for him he would like me to look at their other computers and figure out what is best for backing up, updating the equipment etc.
(Again likely won't purchase replacement PC's)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Technical Work Part 1: Hardware

The NEW PC gets imaged with Windows 7/Office 2010 and a AV.
The  internal backup HDD gets installed. 
In BIOS we set the PC to turn on daily - I set it 8 PM 
(Just in case the user turns it off and his day ends at 5PM)
A soft raid/mirror is created using MS Soft Raid (I'll explain why over hardware raid)

The internal HDD that comes with the PC is 500GB HDD. A 2TB HDD is added for backups and additional cloud storage using SYMFORM. If a hardware raid was set we would not be able to access the additional storage space within the OS. Using a software raid we are able to access that additional space.

Using MS Dynamic disks to create a mirror (500GB + 2TB - Mirror | 1.5TB left as free space) this gives me 1.5TB of additional storage that can be used for SYMFORM cloud contribution. By contributing the 1.5TB I get back approx 700GB of cloud storage I can use to backup the clients data.  

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Technical Work Part 2: Software

Since this 700GB of SYMFORM cloud storage exceeds the entire sites data I will use this to provide a cloud backup for all the users at the site.

I create a share on the C drive "SHARED" I set sharing permission to "everyone" read/write.
I enabled FILE ACCESS ENUMERATION on the share. Normally this isn't easily  done. A simple APP you can set share flags and enable it.  On the link below, download the second part called SHRFLGS to enable file access enumeration. 
The first part you can manually do without downloading a app for it.
ENABLE FILE ACCESS ENUMERATION

Test this by creating a share and a user and see if you can see it as that user from another computer.


Second thing needed is to enable Concurrent Logins to allow me to login to his computer and setup shares as I visit each computer without disrupting his work on his computer. 
Download the patch found here ENABLE CONCURRENT LOGINS
 
Test this by being logged in locally as the user and remote desktop to it from another computer and verify you didn't kick off the local user.

Download and install SYMFORM for cloud backups. Set the local user files for backup & "shared" folder, also add the 1.5 TB of storage to the contribution folder. You should now have the local users files and the "shared" folder being backed up to the cloud and have 700GB approximately of cloud storage to use.

Since this site is remote there is no hardware monitoring being done to make anyone aware of hardware or software issues we need Spiceworks to monitor the sites hardware and software.


The computers at the site will need to have the local administrator account set to a common password (which likely they don't have) to allow Spiceworks  to fully scan the systems. I should now get alerts for hardware failures and virus infections going forward.

At this point the PC has been setup with the following

1. Software Mirror
2. Shared Folder "\\%PCNAME%\Shared"   (Everyone Read/Write Access)
3. File Access Enumeration (Hide folders from other users in shared drive)
4. Symform Cloud Storage with 700GB of available space
5. Spiceworks Monitoring (Hardware and Software alerts)
6. Concurrent Logins enabled (Allow administrator to rdp to the PC without kicking off user)
7. BIOS is set to turn the computer on every day in case the user shuts it down or there is a power outage

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Technical Work Part 3: Deployment

On site we deploy and setup the user with his new computer, install printers etc so he is 100% and can start using the computer. All his data is being mirrored to second HDD and backed up offsite using SYMFORM

We now sit down to each computer verify the user name and password. We RDP to primary computer where the share is located and setup a local user matching credentials of the current computer we are working on. With the user account created on both local computer and primary computer we can create a share naming it the computer name of the local pc currently working on.

We now set up windows backups to send the data to that share. We verify with the user a best time to send this backup job (Making sure the computer will be on to complete it) This I would set up weekly so that the user has a weekly backup of the files.  If windows backups are not available (PC is XP) then create another backup job with one of the programs below.

Next we install ALLSYNC or SYNCTOY to echo daily changes to the share. This ensures their data is updated to the cloud and at least two copies exist on the local network.

This is a simple COMMAND file that cleans all temp files on a remote PC. I have used this numerous times to clean up infected PC's (It cleans APP DATA where most infections sit)

I wrapped the CMD in a EXE that prompts for the IP address or PC name.


Always run unknown programs on a test machine before using on live PC's. Test this on a stand along PC or private test network. For stand alone PC you can type "localhost" to test the local pc if you want. 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Program Details: 
The program extract to %temp% so you can look at the contents there if you want. There will be two files PSEXEC.exe + alltempclean.cmd + Remote_AllUsersTemp_Clean.cmd

Remote_AllUsersTemp_Clean.cmd - Copies "alltempclean.cmd" to the "c:\windows\temp" on the machine you specified. It then runs that cmd using PSEXEC which does a cleanup of all temps files on the PC. 

Goal: 
Initially this was just to clean up older machines but I found this actually helped in virus removal as it cleared out temp locations when the little bugs hide. Not saying this will do a virus cleaning but it has worked for me in getting rid of infected files. Still use a AV to verify its clean.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


*** I did not pay for code signing ($179 per year) so your AV will complain this is a "Unknown Publisher" ***


ALSO FIND BELOW THE SOURCE CODE ALONG WITH FILES REQUIRED TO COMPLETE EXE.

(FOR THOSE WHO ARE WORRIED ABOUT IT)





Download: Remote Temp File Cleaner

@echo off
title All Users Temp Cleaner 2.1
For %%I IN (A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO for /f "tokens=4,6*" %%k in ('vol %%I: 2^>nul^|find "drive"') do echo %%k - %%l %%m
echo.
SET DRVL=C
echo c | set /p DRVL=Enter a Drive Letter Only ( Example. C ):
set confd=n
set confdl=
echo n | set /p confd=Confirm Before Delete? (y/n)
if /i "%confd%"=="y" echo y&set conffile=/p
if /i "%confd%"=="n" set confdir=/q

set UFLD=Documents and Settings
if exist "%DRVL%:\Users" set UFLD=Users

if /i not "%systemdrive%"=="%DRVL%:" goto a
if not exist %Windir%\System32\wevtutil.exe goto sp
if /i "%confd%"=="y" set /p evend=Clear Event logs? (y/n):
if /i "%confd%"=="y" if /i not "%evend%"=="y" goto sp
:sp
if /i "%confd%"=="y" set /p spbk=Clear Service pack backup files? (y/n):
if /i "%confd%"=="y" if /i not "%spbk%"=="y" goto a
if exist %Windir%\System32\vsp1cln.exe vsp1cln.exe /quiet
if exist %Windir%\System32\compcln.exe compcln.exe /quiet
if exist %Windir%\System32\dism.exe dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded /hidesp

:a
(
echo %DRVL%:\pagefile.sys
echo %DRVL%:\hiberfil.sys
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log
)>%systemdrive%\$tmplistf.txt
(
dir /b /s "%DRVL%:\Windows\inf\setupapi*.log"
dir /b /s "%DRVL%:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\*.log"
)>>%systemdrive%\$tmplistf.txt


(
echo %DRVL%:\$Recycle.Bin
echo %DRVL%:\Recycler
echo %DRVL%:\Recycled
echo %DRVL%:\System Volume Information
echo %DRVL%:\Temp
echo %DRVL%:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER
echo %DRVL%:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\History\Results
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\Prefetch
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player\Art Cache
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\System32\spool\Printers
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\Temp
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\Logs
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\Debug
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\MiniDump
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\Security\Logs
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\System32\Wbem\Logs
)>%systemdrive%\$tmplistd.txt

for /F "tokens=* delims=" %%w in ('dir "%DRVL%:\Windows\$n*$" /A:D /b 2^>nul') do (
echo %DRVL%:\Windows\%%w>>%systemdrive%\$tmplistd.txt
)

for /F "tokens=* delims=" %%i in ('dir "%DRVL%:\%UFLD%" /A:D-H /b 2^>nul') do (
(
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Flash Player\AssetCache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\CryptnetUrlCache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\SystemCache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\javaws\cache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Downloaded Installations
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Temp
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Burn
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\SystemCache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\javaws\cache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Local Settings\Temp
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Local Settings\Temp\History
echo %DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\Local Settings\Temp\Temporary Internet Files
)>>%systemdrive%\$tmplistd.txt
(
dir /b /s "%DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\edb*.log"
dir /b /s "%DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\edb*.jrs"
echo "%DRVL%:\%UFLD%\%%i\AppData\Local\IconCache.db"
)>>%systemdrive%\$tmplistf.txt
)

echo.
echo Delete Confirmation
for /F "tokens=* delims=" %%j in (%systemdrive%\$tmplistf.txt) do (
if exist "%%j" echo Removing %%j &del /f /a %conffile% "%%j"
)
del %systemdrive%\$tmplistf.txt

for /F "tokens=* delims=" %%j in (%systemdrive%\$tmplistd.txt) do (
if exist "%%j" echo Removing Directory %%j &rmdir /s %confdir% "%%j"
)
del %systemdrive%\$tmplistd.txt

:y
echo.
echo Done.
pause>nul

PXE Bootable Thin Client:

Rescue OS, THIN USB
Bootable OS. Imaging Computers.




Going to Apologize as this tends to ramble a bit.


The idea of this was to develop a portable recovery OS.

This idea came to be from having to service clients that were a long distance away. I needed to be able to have them simply PXE boot to a OS that I could connect too and control. It would allow me to virus scan, re-image the computer (if needed). recover files from the PC.

Windows 7 has the ability to boot
from a WIM file. These are image files created to apply to
computers.

Simply put: Create a MINI OS - save it as a IMAGE
(WIM FILE TYPE), copy it to a safe place on the PC, Set windows to duel boot to
it.

On Boot the client should see two boot
options (Windows and "Recovery Console") or whatever you named it. They choose
the "Recovery Console" it boots from that saved WIM file to a PXE OS that loads
in memory. From there you connect with either LOGMEIN rescue or VNC from another
PC to it.

Once connected you can backup files, run offline
virus scans, reimage the PC if needed all from that PC. Simply put you can
remotely manage all aspects of the PC with the exception of hardware
replacement. This is good for both the technician and client. Recovery time is
cut down no longer waiting for the technician to show up, Backups can be
preformed, Offline virus scans/cleanup (Only effective method to removing
viruses) 

Great PXE APP goto
http://winbuilder.net/  you click on a link
"Downloads" which provides with suggested "projects" sites. Which is here http://reboot.pro/files/category/4-projects/ 
My project of choice is nettyPE this is a Windows 7 PXE project. Remember to
build a PXE OS you must own a licensed copy of Windows 7. Download the nettyPE
project found here  http://reboot.pro/files/file/68-nettype/ (Its
129mb)

Extract it to your folder of choice,
suggest in the root of your HDD as Windows UAC tends to fight it when it runs. I
found running from the root you had fewer
issues.

Customize it to your liking, I used
"ClearLock" as a option to lock the screen. Since this will give a person full
access to the PC you want to protect it from people. Set your background etc.
The program additions will come after its
built.

I ran the build using 32bit version of
Windows 7, 64 version don't allow LOGMEIN RESCUE to work from some reason. VNC
also complains. So stick with 32bit
windows.

Once the build is done grab the WIM
file that gets created, we are going to mount this and add some scripts to it. I
will include links from my SKYDRIVE.

Within the
folder I provided you copy the files to the folders named

(Within "MAKETRIM" there are three folders
CopyToProgramFiles,CopytoSystem32,desktop)

Copy
the contents to each folder in your mounted WIM. You can edit as needed or add
or remove apps to your liking.

http://sdrv.ms/VWa63a

The
install of VNC server is a little tricky. I choose TIGHTVNC or others based on
trial and error, Tight was the simplest to setup  Basically once
you have your WIM setup the way you like boot to it. The WINBUILDER creates a
ISO that you can boot to using a VM machine or you can use BCDEDIT and boot to
that WIM file.
Either way boot to the WIM and install the
TIGHTVNC server, set a password to your liking and then export the registry key
created HKLM\SOFTWARE\TIGHTVNC   - This contains all your settings for
TIGHTVNC server.

Exit your WIM and go back to your primary
OS where you created you WINBUILDER WIM. We will then mount the WIM file (using
GIMAGEX or any other program) From here use a remote registry editor and connect
to the WIMS registry. We are going to add the key you exported to the registry
and then update the hive. This will now contain the settings for TightVNC
server.

The files you copied into your WIM will launch bat
files on startup and get the TVNCserver running. You should now be able to
connect to it remotely. You don't have to install TIGHTVNC you can open IE and
Browse to the PC using the built in web viewer (port 5800) by default.


I recommend adding BGINFO to your WIM within winbuilder as its useful information that client can tel you or if you login you have it handy.

So will the above built you can do several things, first its a excellent offline virus scanner, backup tool etc. I include this in my images I apply for clients. I use BCDEDIT and add the WIM file to the boot options, I set the timeout=1 so the customer doesn't really see it as a boot option unless they hit a key on startup.  In a case where the PC wont boot the OS/Badly infected I have them turn on the PC and start hitting the down arrow this will halt the boot of the primary OS. I name the WIM file "RECOVERY CONSOLE" have them choose this and boot. It will goto the PXE OS, it starts CLEARLOCK to lock the screen in case the user is not around there PC. Once its done loading everything the last thing it does is load BGINFO to the
desktop. I can then connect from server on site or give the client the CLEARLOCK password,
have them login and preform a rescue session (USING LOGMEIN RESCUE)


Personally I don't like giving out any passwords so I would connect form a server using VNC web connection (OPEN IE and type in the name of the PXE WIM - In building I set a static name 
*TECHCOMPANY*rescue etc  - you can then connect enter the password and your connected, from there (VIRUS SCANS, BACKUP USER DATA, REMIAGE the PC)

My favorite is reimaging the PC, backup the
users data to a network share (you have to RUN NET USE from command to map using windows to
browse or \\ to drive doesn't work for some reason) and apply a WIM image,
reboot the PC and reconnect once your done. All done remotely without a on site visit.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECOND 
OPTION FOR PXE BOOT:

We can make this a RDS client, you can set the PXE OS to load a RDS screen, the user would then run RDS to connect to TS server. In this case you would no longer need HDD in computers, if you
have a WDS server (Windows Deployment Server) you have set all computers to boot to network. NO MORE HDD failures. Everyone working from Remote Desktop you would be preventing local infections on computers. This makes managing your network that much simpler.

The idea behind this was to run MS SAFETY SCANNER on a remote computer that is reported as infected (either from a user or AV)
Unfortunately the AV they use doesn't always stop the infections. In most cases its just a profile infection and can be cured with a Scan.

I wanted to figure out a way to run Microsoft Online Safety Scanner and run it against the machine I choose on my network.




I located a direct link to download MS Safety Scanner and created a Bat file along with PSEXEC and WGET to download it, copy to the PC on the network and run it.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Always run unknown programs on a test machine before using on live PC's. Test this on a stand along PC or private test network. For stand alone PC you can type "localhost" to test the local pc if you want. 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Program Details: 
The program extract to %temp% so you can look at the contents there if you want. There will be four files PSEXEC.exe +WGET.exe + MSERT.cmd + schmsert.bat

MSERT.cmd - Does the following, it asks for the IP address (you can put in hostname as well) and then does a folder check "Program Files (x86)" - This determines if its 64bit OS or 32bit.
Depending on which one it uses WGET.exe to download the latest msert.exe from Microsoft's website, xcopy it the remote computer along with a "schmsert.bat". It then runs the schmsert.bat  to start the scan on the machine (NOTE the end user will not see this running) 

Once the scan is completed it outputs the results on the cmd screen so you can verify the results 
(infections found etc)

Goal: 
Corporate AV don't always stop infections, usually the end user clicks on something they shouldn't and they get infected.  I just wanted a way to scan a network computer without having to sit in front of it. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


*** I did not pay for code signing ($179 per year) so your AV will complain this is a "Unknown Publisher" ***


DOWNLOAD:Microsoft Remote Safety Scanner

Need to open CMD line on a remote machine. Add a local user, enable RDP or Disable Firewall.

This simple exe consists of two things
PSEXEC+BAT FILE




It will prompt you for the IP address and user/password to run it against 
(Assuming you will user the Administrator or Domain Administrator account)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
**** Word of caution this shows the Password as you type it****  Don't run this front a user.
I will create a VB script next time around to hide the password.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Always run unknown programs on a test machine before using on live PC's. Test this on a stand along PC or private test network. For stand alone PC you can type "localhost" to test the local pc if you want. 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Program Details: 
The program extract to %temp% so you can look at the contents there if you want. There will be two files PSEXEC.exe + RemoteCMD.cmd

Goal: 
Run quick commands on network computers. Restart, Shutdown, delete files, copy files etc. Anything you can do from command line. 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


*** I did not pay for code signing ($179 per year) so your AV will complain this is a "Unknown Publisher" ***
Download: Remote Command Line
This is my shared drive on SKYDRIVE, its called "RemoteCMD_IPPrompt" 

Let me know
what you think!!!!

Print spooler locks up on your PC, Surprise likely the printer is a HOST based printer. Likely the user printed a PDF or large document that locked it up.




Manual Solution: On the local PC, GOTO "services.msc" stop print spooler,
goto "c:\windows\system32\spool\printers" and delete the jobs and then GOTO
"services.msc" and start up Spooling service.

This is time consuming and I got sick of doing this on a daily basis because the client would not upgrade there printer to a non-host based printer.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Always run unknown programs on a test machine before using on live PC's. Test this on a stand along PC or private test network. For stand alone PC you can type "localhost" to test the local pc if you want.         
You will see command prompt "stopping print services, deleting jobs, starting print services"
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Program Details: 
The program extracts to %temp% (Three files PSEXEC.exe & printrepair.cmd & RemoveNon.cmd) 
You can check them for your testing. 
The program runs RemoveNON.cmd 
 (This copies printrepair.cmd to the remote PC and runs it using psexec.exe)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________                                  
*** I did not pay for code signing ($179 per year) so your AV will complain this is a "Unknown Publisher" ***

I have included a link to my SKYDRIVE to download it. 
Download: Remote Printer Repair Utility

                                          
Let me know what you think?

Simple solution:
Small business with 30 users or less.


1 Server, 2 arrays 
(SAS for OS and SATA for storage)
Will host two VM's (minimum)
1 DC, 1 RDS.
1 Upgrade Desktop, 2 arrays
(SMALL SATA for OS, Large RAID for Storage)
1 Switch (24 or 48 Port)
HP Zero Clients or Thin Clients


Hardware will depend on client size this is just a summary, if you have questions on specifics message me.

ON SITE SETUP:

Server Setup:   Server 2012 R2 standard (Roles: Hyper-V, Hyper-V Replica)

Virtualized: Server 2012 R2 (ADDC, DHCP, DNS)
Virtualized: Server 2012 R2 (RDS, Office 2013)
Virtualized: PFSENSE 2.1 VHD


Desktop Setup:  Hyper-V 2012 R2, Symform
Replicated VM's (DC, RDS, PFSENSE)
Symform - Uses 2TB HDD Storage to provide 1 TB cloud storage.
Replicated VM's and Customer DATA is backed up offsite VIA Symform.

OFF SITE SETUP:
HP Desktop: Hyper-V 2012 R2, Symform
The Desktop is located at Branch office (if they have one) or your NOC 
(This can also be hosted solution instead of physical desktop if you have a virtual environment available)
If primary host completely fails hosted site or Branch office can fire up the replicated VM's and users can connect to that site.

My find was FREEPOS.net yes it says free and technically it is for two stations. However its better to not look at as free but inexpensive. The completely free version gives you what you need for simple functions. However you don't have your name printed on the receipt, you are missing reporting functions and limited on printer types you can connect. Get this for testing to make sure your happy with the software but a company that makes a product you like won't stay around if they don't make money.

For 99.00 per station to get a unlocked and registered copy, this one you add you business name to the receipts.  
You get updates as they occur, additional reports, carry out and delivery orders, the list goes on and on.

Requirements:

Basic PC, Touch screen, Cash drawer, Receipt printer, Kitchen Printer (If you have a kitchen)
The PC can be older one era 2008 - POS is not hardware intensive. It can run on Windows XP without issues.

SETUP: 

Get your PC OS installed, updated and activated. Once that is done install SKYDRIVE, DROPBOX or your choice of FREE CLOUD SERVICES available. (We are going to use this for offsite backup)

For my example I am using a Virutal Machine Running Windows 7 64Bit OS. Please follow my guides to installing the system. 

READ MORE OF MY BLOGS....

Another hidden GEM for tracking folder sizes is an application called WinDirStat.



This is similar to FolderSize in features.  Download from the following link. http://sourceforge.net/projects/windirstat/files/latest/download
(This is for windows - assuming you are using that OS, there are Linux version and Mac version available)
Its a whopping 640KB in size.

Installation is straight forward, next, next finish.

Select the drives you want scanned and let it do the rest
(Granted the scanning with PAC-MAN's are cheesy but worth the wait)
The Chart below gives you a basic idea of space used while the right sides has a nice summary of the files.

This is a great little APP and one as an Administrator of multitude of  servers and thousand of users, one I find useful when ever space becomes an issue. You can click on the colours to drill down to the files that are taking up the space. There is also a nice built in function for clean, cmd prompt. And great find.

A lot of times I find myself running into issues with servers that are out of space. Unfortunately windows doesn't do a great job on its own to show you needed space usage. 

There are two programs I have used to help me hunt down the culprits.

First is a program called "Folder Size by Mindgems" This product is listed as freeware and can be downloaded from there site.  http://www.mindgems.com/software/FolderSize.exe
They have a paid version which unlocks additional features. If you find the product worthwhile keep them going by purchasing a copy.

Download the file approx. 1.71mb in size.

Go through the setup which is straight forward.
Next, next  finish.

Once installed open it up and select the drive that's reporting low disk space.

Click on the scan button to have it index the drive and give you details you need.

Once the scan completes, you can see the results here. I just scanned my C: drive and gives me a nice pie chart showing details.

As you click on the folders and dig deeper you can track down the files and folders that are taking up space.

I have Adobe Master collection copied to my HDD I had completely forgotten about.


This is installed on Server 2012.   Don't miss out on this gem from mindgems

****UPDATE the latest version will not work on Server 2012. I have located a older version that works. Message me if you would like a copy.

Microsoft allows people with domains to create there own customized Hotmail account. Basically if you own a website domain. You can goto http://domains.live.com/  - sign up with a existing Hotmail account (This will become your primary account to control the rest) Once you login, you have the option to "Add Domain" it will ask you to enter your domain (example www.happymanarcade.com) 

Next it will ask a security question (just making sure your not a BOT. You Accept the terms, it will then ask you to prove you own that domain. There are some fields that you must copy and ad to your DOMAIN account (who ever hosts your domains - example GODADDY.COM)
The firs thing is to change the MX record - copy the long string of numbers to your DOMAIN ACCOUNT, next they require you to TXT string as well - just copy and paste as directed you should be ok.

Once done and OWNERSHIP is proven to hotmail. Your good to go to start creating email addresses with your domain giving nice professional look.

So for mine it could be   SALES@MARKCOLLINS.CA or BLOG@MARKCOLLINS.CA etc etc.
They allow up to 500 email accounts on a single domain. Go ahead and make your business look professional without somthing like MarkCollins@hotmail.com - doesn't look as nice.

If you have a small business this completely free and very simple to setup.

YOU GET:

500 personalized email address that have your DOMAIN as the email address.
(Example sales@markcollins.ca or tech@markcollins.ca etc)
You can use the build in SKYDRIVE for document sharing and cloud backups)
All of this is web based without requiring any software to be installed.

For a long time now (2 years) I have been using WEEBLY to host and create my websites. Initially I had some difficulty creating them to look the way I envisioned them in my head.

Over time WEEBLY create more and more tools, along with pre made themes to choose from.  I host all my sites on www.weebly.com for one simple reason - FREE. Thats right free, no cost to you at all, they ad there little logo to the bottom which is hardly seen at all. The themes are getting better and better. You can now create your website pretty much any way you want. There is a paid version which unlocks many additional features. For myself who just rants this works just fine. Weebly has allowed me to create many sites. Even if I dont want to host them I can create them and download a copy to host elsewhere (why would you want to)

I hope this company keeps going because so far I am very impressed with it. If you dont own a domain weebly can help you create one, you use there weebly.com but ad your name of choice (if its not used) to the front. So I could use   "markcollins.weebly.com" If I didn't already own my own domain.

This is a hidden gem out there. Don't miss out.