Original Post by Robert Hallock

Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD. Configuring your computer to boot from CD is outside of the scope of this document, but if you are having trouble, consult Google for assistance.

Once you have booted from CD, proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:

After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (Typically number “1”). Select the installation number, (As mentioned, “1” in most cases), and hit enter. If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit enter. You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:

Bart PE is the best boot CD for windows to date. You can throw away the limited use WinPE system CD, which limit what you can do once booted.

Many of my friends understand the power and flexibility of using the Windows PE (Preboot Environment) for making a Windows LiveCD's, which allow you to have a CD that boots on most any PC system, and gets a running version of Windows XP going, allowing you to use diagnostic tools from that CD, on a Hard DIsk that is not locked by the Opertating system.

So for example, you could use the CD:

* To boot up and move files around, restore deleted files, or rename a file you just installed and put an older version back in its place. When all things goto hell and a handbasket, being able to access your computer is key.

- To add an XML RSS feed.

In Trillian create a new News Feed with:

Server: www.corvettepower.com

Location: node/feed

As I have been getting in and doing more stuff with ADSI programming from .NET, C# and VBScript, its a frequent need to lookup the users after I make changes to them. Also, finding their dn in the directory can sometimes be tricky, especially when you are working in a forest with 10,000 items, and multiple OU's where users can be hidden. Most of the GUI based browsers of Active Directory (like Softerra's LDAP Browser) have issues with returning all the objects in an OU. Fun to watch it scroll then choak. To that end, I found several nice command line utilities for querying Active Directory, and updating it for that matter.

Some people down the road might ask how to reference specific portions of the OWA interface. For example if you wanted to open another users Calendar, or open the browser right to the Calendar, with a specific view.

Here are some good links.

Customizing OWA and how the architecture works (its OWA 2000, but things work fairly close)
http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=19714

Custom URL's to display specific OWA information (email/calendar/contacts/tasks/views)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321832

With minor technical skill, you can change the fans & hard drives to
quieter ones yourself.

Fill unused drive bays with foam rubber. Otherwise fan noise comes
out the front.
All fans on rubber fan isolation posts, not screws. They come with
Silenx fans or can be bought separately.
The most amazing thing I've learned recently is that Seagate
Barracuda drives are essentially silent. The difference is amazing. vendors selling the components you need to make a quiet computer:

http://www.siliconacoustics.com
http://www.silentcomputing.org/
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
http://www.endpcnoise.com

Microsoft offers free security program

CNN Article

Microsoft (r) Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

Microsofts Spyware Site

Microsoft Anti-Spyware Software Info

I downloaded and installed the beta this morning, and it is interesting. I have attached a couple of screen shots. For those familiar with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D there are a lot of similarities.

For some time I've been looking for a way to securely remote certain protocols through a remote server. I've finally found several free SOCKS4 compliant server products that allow you to open one port to them, and they proxy requests to the original server. Particularly good for getting IM to work at places that block it, or sniff it. So far I only have AOL IM working, and it does allow me to do SecureIM over it. Next is IRC. I've started with the Analog X product. They have a SLEW of other neat network related tools.

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network.htm

A list of free Proxy Products

One of the things I do is carry around 2 blackberries, one for my personal email, and one for work email. The work device is one of the cool new CDMA based Blackberries that also works as a cell phone. I have found out that ALL blackberries that are cell phones also have the ability to receive email at a handfull of other email addresses. Granted they aren't your email address per-se, but with some work you can have your home, or other email directed to your pager as well.

By using Black Berry webMail

http://www.blackberry.com/go/vzw

You get a @vzw.blackberry.net email address. Which if you setup a contact or rule to send mail to this address when its received at home, you can now get a copy of the home email on your work device. :) Web mail lets you setup up to 10 addresses, each with its own 'reply address', so you can make the address of your replies come from your home, or from Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com. Pretty slick.

One of the things I keep running into is people that like how I have my email setup at home and work. Where I use Exchange and Outlook Web access to give me complete access to my mail from anywhere, in addition, i have the ability to use the Outlook 2003 client for all the desktop type email needs I have. Although the thought of running a server at a small company, or even for a one person company might seem daunting (needing IT staff etc). The best solution I have found is to use a ASP (Application Service Provider) to host your server for you... infact just a single mailbox if need be. So that everything is handled for you. Backups... upgrades... patches... virus protection... spam... all for an entry price of $9.95 a month. Wow did that sound like an add. Honestly, check it out.