iPhone pros and cons

This is in no means an exhaustive comparison of the iPhone to windows mobile devices (at least the ones we currently use in our company, Treo's, Q's, etc.). I just needed a place to jot down a few observations because I know people will ask me later.

Cons of the iPhone compared to windows mobile devices:

• Can't include attendees on calendar items


• No cut and paste


• No task synchronization with Exchange- no tasks at all unless you use a third party app


• Harder to type for most people (compared to devices with actual button keyboards - can't type by feel)


• No week view on calendar


• Can't put files on the phone - your own html docs, word and excel docs, etc, unless you email them to yourself


• Can't customize ringtones as much - customize sounds for event notification, new email, etc.(Not without jailbreaking it and some creative work that is)

Pros:

• It's just plain cool


• Way more apps, useful and fun apps


• Web browser is way better


• Interface is intuitive, easy to use


• iPod


• Stable

I'll add more later as I think of them or encounter them...

Exchange System Management for Vista

Hallelujah, Microsoft has finally released a tool to be able to manage an Exchange 2003 server from a Windows Vista client! What a novel idea - being able to manage Microsoft products with other Microsoft products! You are sheer genius, Microsoft - who would think of such a wonderful concept??? Ok, sarcasm aside, because it's about to get worse before it gets better.

Yes there is a tool. Yes it works. But I sure hope you've never attempted to get Exchange tools to work BEFORE this tool, or happen to use another Microsoft product so obscure as, I dunno, say Outlook? Because you can't install this tool with Outlook installed. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Thanks a lot Microsoft.

Ok, so here's the procedure, the real life procedure, not the "Release Notes" procedure you'll get from Microsoft. But you're a diligent I.T. professional, you'll read the release notes anyway, right? You should. Ok, first the link to the tool and the release notes:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3403d74e-8942-421b-8738-b3664559e46f&displaylang=en.

That page gets you to the tool and the release notes. As you diligently read through the release notes, you will notice several prerequisites - go ahead and do them - the ones about getting Windows Server 2003 SP1 Admin Tools Pack installed and turning on IIS features in Vista. So far so good. Now you get to the "Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1" prerequisite. Not so fast, there sonny.

The link for this tool is found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94274318-27c4-4d8d-9bc5-3e6484286b1f&DisplayLang=en

Assuming that link still works, use it - because when I clicked the one in the release notes it took me to the right page, or so it seemed, but clicking the download button gave me a big fat 404 (page not found). Thanks again, Microsoft.

Now for the fun - this tool will not install with any version of Exchange (i.e. the management tools you tried to get to work despite being told it didn't work in Vista), or ANY VERSION OF OUTLOOK. WHAT??? Yup, that's right. But don't fret, where there's an idiotic Microsoft stumbling block placed in your way, there's a convoluted workaround. Hooray.

First the easy - you can simply uninstall Outlook and reinstall it later. However, getting rid of Exchange might not be so easy. Now if you're lucky, you weren't like me and didn't try to get it to work, so you don't have any leftover remnants of Exchange hanging around. But if you do, you'll need to uninstall them. But don't just do the typical Uninstall from the "Programs and Features." That doesn't work - or didn't for me at least. You can choose "change" for exchange, and then "remove" for the client tools, which does remove the client tools, but remnants of Exchange will still be hanging around and you won't be able to proceed. Luckily there's a Microsoft KB on manually uninstalling Exchange, found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833396

Scroll down to "Manually remove Exchange 2003." Not all of the services and registry settings apply, but stop/delete those that do.

Ok, NOW you can run the "Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1". Phew it worked! If not, don't ask me - ask Google. At this point it worked for me, so I don't have any more information for you if it doesn't, other than to say make SURE all remnants of Outlook and Exchange are gone. NOW that that's installed you can install the ESM for Vista. Wow, worked again! I launch my MMC, go into AD, and wipe away a tear or two as I double click a user and see all the exchange tabs. What a beautiful thing. Of course, I am only crying because of the pain and months and MONTHS its taken to get there. I can finally stop RDP'ing into the server to do anything Exchange related and have all my tools in one lovely mmc (assuming you've gone through the rigamaroll to get AD Users and Computers working, DHCP tools working - they don't by default - and the new group policy management tools - all topics for another day!!!)

Just to be sure, I reinstall Outlook, which goes without a hitch, and everything still works as far as both ESM and Outlook. At least so far...

Replace a bulged battery in an APC Symmetra

Recently we had a battery go bad in our APC Symmetra. I found that there was absolutely no way the battery was coming out because it had bulged. To make matters worse, the battery above it was bulged also (but still working). I had to figure out how to get the battery out, so I thought I'd document it here.

You are probably not going to muscle this thing out if it is bulged very much at all, so don't try. Instead, you need to take the top off. This can be done without powering it down, but please follow proper safety procedures and don't do anything stupid. These instructions are not sanctioned by APC or any other authority, and I accept no responsibility for consequences of you following these instructions. And I have no idea what the official names of parts are, so whatever...

Here is our APC:

The first thing you need to do is take the front vent(s) off. You may need to disconnect the console so you can get the top vent cover off.


To get the very top cover off you need to remove four snap on plastic plates, four long bolts, and three screws in the back:

There is a notch where you can insert a flathead screwdriver to pry off the plates - they come off easily (you kind of have to slide them horizontally once you pry them up) so don't force it.



The bolts are the height of the actual symmetra, so you need 54" of clearance above the APC to get them out. I actually had to move it beneath a fluorescent light (recessed in the ceiling) that gave me a little more height.


I'm assuming you know how to use the console to figure out which battery is actually bad, so I won't go over that - it's pretty self-explanatory. With the top off, it should look something like this:



The basic idea here is that with the top off, you can lift (just enough) the part of the APC above the battery you are trying to get out. With the top off and the long bolts removed, you should have enough give without having to remove anything else to get the clearance necessary to remove the battery. Of course, follow all APC safety guidelines for removing the battery (use two people, support the full weight of the battery when lifting past the second safety stop, etc.) In my case I had to lift the top level slightly to get the top battery out, then lift the top two levels to get the battery out in level 3 (from the top). It didn't take much lifting of the levels - I only need a quarter inch or so.

Put it all back together again and you're done. Did I mention I take no responsibility for you hurting yourself or damaging your APC? Proceed at your own risk.

Nifty Outlook Tip

I’ve always been bugged that you can’t view the attachments to undeliverable messages in Outlook.  You can see the icon indicating they have an attachment (which is the original message) but you can’t open it.  I have no idea why – you can view it just fine in either Outlook Express or WebAccess.  Anyway, if you open the undeliverable message and click the “Send Again” button, it will then open a new email with the original message in it for you to send.  You don’t need to send it of course, but this at least this shows you the original message.  It’s just something that’s bugged me for awhile.

 

Rights required to run scheduled tasks in Windows 2003

This one has bit me a few times, so I'm documenting it for next time...

In Windows Server 2003 the cmd.exe file is more locked down than previously. Any scheduled task that needs to use it (to run a batch file, for example) needs to run as an account that has rights to read and execute cmd.exe (by default in c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe). This is in addition to any NTFS rights your particular program may need, share permissions when accessing files across the network, and the "Logon as a service" right in the security policy editor (run gpedit.msc -> computer configuration -> windows settings -> security settings -> local policies -> user rights assignment -> Log on as a service). The account should also have the "Log on as a batch job" right, but that should automatically be configured when you configure your task to run as your specified account.

This same idea applies if you are trying to use IIS to launch some process on the server (through a web page, for example) that runs a batch file or needs to use cmd.exe in some way - only when IIS is involved then the account that the application pool associated with your web site is running as needs read and execute rights to cmd.exe.

One of the easiest ways I have found to test that scheduled tasks have sufficient rights is to use the runas command with whatever program you are trying to schedule. For example: runas /user:myAccount "c:\test\myscript.bat"
This way you are running the process interactively and can see any errors that happen - it gets particularly tricky when running processes that use network resources, in which case it is generally best to use an AD account rather than local accounts.

You can either give your specific account rights to cmd.exe, or you can grant those rights to the implicit "Batch" group. The latter will cause any scheduled task to have rights to cmd.exe, regardless of what user it runs under. Obviously the former is more secure. For more information, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/867466/en-us

Windows Mobile 5.0 Daylight Savings bug

The following is an email I sent out to our company about a bug in the Treo 700W and 700WX phones (among others) so I thought I'd include it here. Note that neither the Daylights Savings patch or latest firmware from verizon (1.22 at time of writing) does not fix this problem (actually, Verizon's daylight savings patch seems to CAUSE it). Also, I'm in the Mountain time zone, so adjust for where you are.

This email applies to Treo 700W and Treo 700WX users, or more specifically those of you who use a PDA to synchronize with Outlook, use Verizon, and have a device running Windows Mobile 5.0. It does NOT apply to those with Windows Mobile Smartphone, like the Motorola Q.

First the fix, then the explanation:
On the phone, click Start -> Settings -> System -> Clock & Alarms -> More. If you have “Enable local network time” and “Use network time zone” checked, then uncheck “Enable local network time” . Then click on the Time tab. You may see that the phone is set to Arizona time. Change it to GMT -7 Mountain US. Click OK, and Yes to save clock settings. Click Clock & Alarms again. Select the More tab and check the “Enable local network time” box (make sure “Use network time zone” is also checked). Click OK and Yes to save clock settings.

This will not fix any appointments between March 1 and November 1 that were previously created, only those created from now forward. You will have to manually adjust those appointments. I’m not positive, but the problem does not seem to occur in recurring appointments, only one time appointments, like the holidays that Outlook adds. If you’ve already added holidays to your calendar, then you will have a lot of appointments to change. If so, let me know and I can show you how to easily delete those and add them back again.

Explanation:
We have discovered a bug in the way Verizon handled the daylight savings changes implemented last year. If you updated your phone with the Daylight Savings patch, then you may notice that any when you are in standard time (like now), any all day appointment you schedule between March 1 and November 1 (like the 4th of July) shows up on your phone a day early (although it shows the correct date in Outlook). Appointments that are not all day may show up an hour early on your phone. The default result of Verizon’s patch was that it set your phone to Arizona time during standard time, and Saskatchewan time during daylight savings time in order to accommodate the changes in dates to daylight savings. This worked great as long as you weren’t scheduling an appointment in the daylight savings time period, but you were presently in standard time. We’ve found that by setting the phone to Mountain Time that it fixes the problem, but you have to disable the feature to get the time from the Network (Verizon) in order to make this change. However, after changing it to Mountain time you can turn the feature back on to get time from the network and it will remain in Mountain time. I am not sure, however, what happens when you travel outside the Mountain time zone and then return. You may have to repeat the above procedure when returning to get it back to Mountain time.

General Failure Error with Firefox

I've created a simple registry import that fixes the "General Failure" error when clicking links from other applications (like Outlook) or loading url's from a run line. Get the script here:
firefoxFix.reg(right-click, save, and rename the file to firefoxFix.reg after downloading it then double click it to import it into your registry).

Now hopefully you are a savvy internet user and don't just go randomly importing registry settings from any tom dick or harry on the web, so feel free to take a look at the file and see that it's contents are pretty innocuous. Basically, this registry import does what is recommended by mozillazine knowledge base, instead of deleting the offending registry keys, it just blanks them out. You can find the mozillazine article here:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_error_opening_Internet_shortcut_or_local_HTML_file_-_Firefox

I'm a little disappointed with Firefox on this one. This problem has been around for awhile, and 2.0.0.7 doesn't fix it. Also, they recommend you go through a hairy 9 step process in windows explorer to fix it! - unless you have Vista, in which case you need to edit the registry. Never mind that the same registry fix works for XP, and is MUCH easier than the aforementioned 9 step process they enumerate for XP. Never mind they could have just had you download a registry import script like the one I've created. Never mind they could have just fixed it in 2.0.0.7. Oh well, at least I have a simple script to fix this problem. I wonder - how many people go back to setting IE as their default browser because of this annoying problem?