If you use a Windows XP CD to perform a repair of XP, you’ll find that Windows Update won’t work correctly afterwards. There are some DLLs that come with the latest version of WU that don’t register with the system, and this prevents WU from running correctly. There is no official fix from Microsoft as of this writing, but it’s pretty easy to fix things manually.
Windows Secrets has all the details here.
Every once in a while the TCP/IP stack in Windows XP will break. The most obvious way to tell is to open a command prompt and run ipconfig. If it comes back with “Windows IP Configuration” and nothing else, TCP/IP is broken. If it was working, you’d at least see that the IP was 0.0.0.0. One oddity I’ve run across is that TCP/IP will function normally in Safe Mode but not in Normal Mode. YMMV, obviously.
Some will tell you that you have to reinstall XP if TCP/IP breaks. This is not necessarily the case. You can repair TCP/IP with one simple command. Open a command prompt and run this command:
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
This resets TCP/IP to the state it was in when XP was first installed. Run this command, reboot, and you should be golden.
Note: After you run this command, some apps that rely on networking might need to be reinstalled. When I used this command to repair TCP/IP on one of our company laptops, the VPN client on the laptop didn’t work anymore. I had to remove and reinstall it. Again, YMMV.
You can kill processes on a remote computer by using the taskkill command. Run ‘taskkill /?’ on a command line to see all the options.
We use SpySweeper on all our workstations at work. It occasionally hangs during a scan, severely slowing down that particular PC. Here’s the command I use to kill it remotely:
taskkill /s computername /im spysweep* /f /t
/s lets you designate a remote PC, in this case ‘computername’.
/im lets you specify a process by application name. This lets you kill a process without knowing the PID
/f forces a process to close
/t also kills any child processes
I’ve actually made a batch file on my workstation called ks.bat. ‘ks’ = kill SpySweeper. Here it is:
taskkill /s %1 /im spysweep* /f /t
I simply open a Run dialog box, enter ‘ks computername’ and it kills SpySweeper on whatever workstation I specify.
Change XP to the Classic theme: Right-click on the desktop and select Properties. On the Theme tab, select ‘Windows Classic’ from the drop-down menu. Click Apply, then OK.
On systems that use shared system memory instead of dedicated video memory, turn off the wallpaper and reduce the color depth to 16-bit.
Reduce visual effects. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Under ‘Performance’, click Settings. Select ‘Adjust for best performance’. Click Apply, then OK, then OK again.
Open the Registry. Start > Run > regedit.
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl
Give ‘Win32PrioritySeparation’ a Hex value of 26. This prioritizes applications over background services. Do NOT do this on a server.
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Give ‘DisablePagingExecutive’ and ‘LargeSystemCache’ each a value of 1. The first one keeps critical OS and application processes in RAM and prevents them from being written to the swap file. This keeps apps more responsive. The second one makes that RAM cache larger. This does not reduce swap file use per se, but it does keep the more important stuff in RAM so apps remain (mostly) immediately usable.
Schedule weekly disk defrags:
Open a command prompt. Enter: at 03:00 /every:Sunday “defrag c:”. This will defragment the C: drive every Sunday at 3:00am. Change time and day values to whatever you need. Enter a separate ‘at’ command for every local drive letter, staggering the times by 30-60 minutes.
Reboot and enjoy. It won’t be greased lightning, but it’ll be better.
There are several things you can do with XP to make it run better on older hardware.
Lastly, turn off any unneeded services. Here’s a good list:
One thing I’ve encountered at every tech support job I’ve had are users that are afraid of their computers. I liken this to driving to a location you’ve never been before in the dark without a map. You’re either going to drive slowly so you don’t miss your destination or drive fast to cover up your nervousness. While the first approach is preferable, it is also inefficient. It would better to look up directions and become familiar with a map of the area before you begin your trip. This is the approach I take to user training.
There are several things every computer user should know. Here’s a partial list, in no particular order:
By learning these things, all of which can be easily taught in 30 minutes or less, users become more confident, more productive, and, because they’re better equipped to explain problems clearly, trouble tickets can be closed more quickly.
If you’re sending an email to more than one person, it’s not always a good idea to put everyone’s email address in the TO field. Every address you put in the TO field will be visible to everyone who receives the email. People often like to keep their email addresses private, and you would be sharing it if you put everyone’s address in the TO field. Instead, add them to the BCC field. Let’s go over some rules.
Why that last one? I, like many people, keep tight control over my personal email address. I don’t mind my friends having it, but I do not want your sister’s best friend’s husband’s cousin to have it. Instead, put your own email address in the TO field, and put everyone elses email address into the BCC field. That will retain the privacy of everyone’s email addresses.
David Allen is, as many of you know, the man behind Getting Things Done. I’ve been meaning to become more familiar with GTD methods and have been reading a lot about the subject. The websites 43Folders.com and LifeHacker.com in particular are great resources.
It was through the 43Folders Wiki that I found a link to “an informative article” about Ticklers on Mr Allen’s website. I put that in quotes because I have no idea whether the article is informative or not.
Why, might you ask? Because the article is no longer simply presented on Mr Allen’s website for you to read. He’s set up a shopping cart system for people to buy his articles - even the free ones. Now, instead of simply providing access to something that was and still is free, Mr Allen now requires that we jump through the hoops of registering with his company, add items to a shopping cart, and go the the entire checkout process.
Now, I have no problem with Mr Allen charging for content. However, I have a big problem with him lumping the free items in with the nonfree items. A process that should have taken me a few seconds and maybe three mouse clicks would instead take 2-3 minutes and a fair amount of typing. Mr Allen won’t benefit from me going through this process - I only wanted a free item, after all - and I would be put to an unreasonable inconvenience. This seems to go completely against the nature of Getting Things Done.
Shame on you, David Allen, for making things more difficult than they need to be.
It can be quite confusing and time consuming to read a long trouble ticket log to determine what the problem is and what steps have been taken to resolve the problem. This can be avoided by using templates. Let me give you some examples.
ATTEMPT:
RESULT:
CAUSE:
TROUBLESHOOTING:
FIX:
Copy and paste this into the ticket and start filling it out. ‘Attempt’ is what the user is trying to do. ‘Result’ is what happens when they try. ‘Cause’ is what caused the problem, if known. ‘Troubleshooting’ would contain a summary of all the troubleshooting steps taken. ‘Fix’ is what steps actually resolved the problem.
Not every step is necessary for every problem. If a user needs their password reset, there’s little need to fill out Troubleshooting, just Fix. In fact, for very simple problem, you could use an abbreviate template:
PROBLEM:
FIX:
A general rule would be to use the longer template for any tickets you have to pass on to someone else.
Process improvement is one of my strengths and one of my on the job joys. I thoroughly enjoy figuring out how to do things better.
Buy a travel-sized wireless router to use in hotels that offer only wired broadband connections. This could get you in trouble with the hotel, so turn off the router’s SSID broadcast so no one else can see your router. This will let you move about your room or suite without worring about cables. Sharing this wireless connection with your travel companions to deny the hotel more than one broadband access fee is between you and your conscience.
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Program any phone numbers you’ll need on your trip into your cell phone before you leave. Boss’s home number, customer, travel agent, rental car place, hotel, etc. Alternatively, make a list of those numbers and keep it in your wallet so you’ll always have them with you.
Tips and Tricks
*On PCs with less than 512mb RAM, set Windows XP to the Classic theme. This will save about 30Mb RAM and help avoid hitting the swap file, which will speed things up nicely.
*If a login script instead of a Group Policy is used to map network drives, remote users will often not have their network drives mapped upon login. No server connectivity, no login script. Create a batch file for them and place it on their desktop. After connecting via VPN, they can run the batch file and have access to their drives.
*If your company has several departments where different groups have, say, a different S: drive, make a list of what the S: drive should be for each department. Keep this list handy so you can refer to it when someone can’t connect to their S: drive. This will save you from having to hunt down that information every time.
I have an ancient Samba file server at home. It’s a Pentium Pro 180 with 256mb RAM, a custom BIOS that allows it to recognize large hard drives, and an 80Gb drive. I run Red Hat 7.1 on it and it works just fine. Running X on it is a tad slow, but it’s perfectly usable as a small file server.
I also have a sweet little Windows 98SE box I keep around for older games. It’s a Dell Dimension 4100. 1Ghz PIII, 512mb RAM, 40Gb drive, 32x CD burner. I used Alper Coskun’s unofficial Win98SE service pack, which includes many Win98 patches not included in Windows Update, along with registry and appearance updates. He updates this service pack every so often. I’ve been using it for several years. It boots faster than my 2.4Ghz P4 box and is just as stable.
I keep around a PII-350 and a Duron 700 box for miscellaneous testing and experimenting. I have at various times installed Win2k Advanced Server, Win2k3 Server, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandriva 10.x, Fedora Core 1-6, Damn Small Linux, Knoppix, and others.
I also have a nifty little P200 box. It runs FreeSCO, uses a 4mb Compact Flash card instead of a hard drive, and two PCI NICs. It boots in about 12 seconds once the POST is done. This was my firewall at home for about three years. Except for power outages and tinkering, I think I had to reboot it three times. This box actually started out as a P100, which is more than enough CPU power for a firewall. I swapped in a P200 chip just because I had it around.
My main box is a 2.4Ghz P4 with the 800Mhz FSB and 2Gb RAM.
It can be quite confusing and time consuming to read a long trouble ticket log to determine what the problem is and what steps have been taken to resolve the problem. This can be avoided by using templates. Let me give you some examples.
ATTEMPT:
RESULT:
CAUSE:
TROUBLESHOOTING:
FIX:
Copy and paste this into the ticket and start filling it out. ‘Attempt’ is what the user is trying to do. ‘Result’ is what happens when they try. ‘Cause’ is what caused the problem, if known. ‘Troubleshooting’ would contain a summary of all the troubleshooting steps taken. ‘Fix’ is what steps actually resolved the problem.
Not every step is necessary for every problem. If a user needs their password reset, there’s little need to fill out Troubleshooting, just Fix. In fact, for very simple problems, you could use an abbreviated template:
PROBLEM:
FIX:
A general rule would be to use the longer template for any tickets you have to pass on to someone else.
If you work in an environment that has a number of everyday problems, keep a bunch of these templates in your text file already filled out as much as you can. You can also do this for short-term issues. For example, let’s say a recent patch installed on a server used to verify VPN logins caused a problem where every user was locked out. You’re of course going to see a spike in calls, so make yourself a template:
ATTEMPT: Logging in via VPN
RESULT: Error message: Access Denied
CAUSE: Server patch causing account lockouts.
TROUBLESHOOTING: None needed - known issue.
FIX: Unlocked user’s VPN account and verified they could log in.
There you go. Type it up once then copy and paste it for every VPN call related to this problem.
Google Maps is your best friend when it comes to travel planning. Use it to locate your hotel, your worksite such as a convention center or customer location, nearby restaurants, any other places you want to visit, and for driving directions between these places and the airport. Print out as many maps as you think you’ll need. Once you have the directions, follow them on screen to make sure they make sense. It can also be useful to switch to satellite view to make note of landmarks.
About directions: If the directions say ‘Turn left on Turner Drive’, make note of the last street you’ll cross before Turner to use as a landmark. Once you find that street, you’ll know that Turner is next. This decreases your chance of missing a turn.
Stack the maps in the order in which you’ll use them. The map on top of the stack should be the one with directions from the airport or car rental place to your hotel. The second map should be from your hotel to your customer’s site or wherever you have to go next. Keep the printed maps in a manila folder. When you get into your rental car, take the folder out of your bag and keep it within easy reach. It’ll usually tuck nicely between the center console and passenger seat. Also print the maps to PDF and keep them on your laptop or thumb drive.