Wondered how to reset your Windows Server 2008 / 2008R2 Administrator password password (or any other user) by using the Windows Server DVD?

Have no fear!  Instructions below...

1.   Have you Windows Server DVD ready in the drive
2.   If your system uses a RAID card that is not detected by Windows Server 2008, have those drivers handy (the .inf file along with the other files - not .zip or .exe files!) on a USB flash drive
3.   Reboot the server from the Windows Server installation DVD
4.   After selecting language etc, on the next screen where you would select "Install", look a bit further down.  There is an option for "Repair".  Select that.
5.   On the next screen, you should see you O/S in the list.  If not, you will need to load the RAID drivers.  Select "Load Drivers", insert the USB flash disk, then select your drivers.  Once installed, you will see your Windows Server installation in the list.  Select that one and click Next.  Note the drive letter!!!
6.   On the next screen, select "Command Prompt"

The Command prompt will now open.

7.   Change to the drive letter of your Windows Server installation as noted above (c:, enter)
8.   Change to c:\windows\system32 (cd c:\windows\system32, enter)
9.   Move Utilman.exe to Utilman.exe.bak (move Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak, enter)
10. Copy cmd.exe over Utilman.exe (copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe, enter)
11. Exit, then reboot your server normally

With your server restarted and at the login screen


12. Press CMD+U together.  You will now see the command prompt

13. Reset the desired user password (net user username newpassword)
14. Once reset, exit Command Prompt and log in with the new credentials.  Voila!

I leave that hack in place for future use by my clients if required.  Just make sure that physical access to the server is restricted if you are paranoid.

If your 3G iPad keeps losing the APN setting, you can fix this by resetting the network settings on your iPad.  To do this, do the following:

• Go to Settings
• Select General
• Select Reset
• Select Reset Network Settings, then click Reset

Your iPad will restart.  Once restarted, re-enter your 3G APN settings.  The setting should now stay.
Caution:  You will lose all saved Wifi networks.  You will need to re-connect to your save

We have re-worked an old module for VCS (Virtual Card Services) to work with OpenCart 1.4.7 an higher.

Please check out the downloads section to grab a copy.

Should you need assistance with implementing the module , or any OpenCart support or hosting, please don't hesitate to contact us!

Note, the module is made available under the terms of GNU General Public License.

Something I've needed to do continuously is change permissions on directories or files only recursively on a linux / unix box.  I'm sure just about every sysadmin has needed to do this sometime in their lives.  Well, the most elegant way I could think of is to do the following:

For directories only:
find /location -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
The above example does the following:

• Finds all directories in the location specified (-type d)
• Executes "chmod 775" on all directories found leaving files untouched
  
• Permissions of 775 are RWX for owner, RWX for owner's group and RX for everyone else

For files only:
find /location -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;
The above example does the following:

• Finds all files in the location specified (-type f)
• Executes "chmod 664" on all files found leaving directories untouched
• Permissions of 664 are RW for the owner, RW for the owner's group and R for everyone else.

Have fun!

We have gone through a re-branding exercise!  Keep an eye out for our new look on your communications from us going forward.  As part of this exercise, a new website was created to better match our brand of professionalism.  Take a look around and let us know what you think!

In November 2010, OKES IT Consulting Services successfully implemented VMWare Server on Ubuntu Server 10.4 LTS in order to virtualise Universal Services Access Agency of South Africa's entire Microsoft server environment.  At the same time, we completed the upgrade of their Active Directory from 2003 to 2008, replaced their MS Exchange 2003 server with Exchange Server 2010 as well as replaced their SQL 2000 server with SQL 2008.  All this was achieved in 2 weeks from start to finish with absolutely no downtime of any systems!