the back room tech » Windows XP

Find Windows system uptime from the command line

Julie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:43:29 +0000

Here’s a quick and easy way of checking how long a Windows server or workstation has been up, via the command line. It pipes the results of Net Statistics Workstation into find. Run the following from a command prompt:

net statistics workstation | find /i “statistics since”

The results will look like

Statistics since 8/12/2009 11:08 PM

Which shows the machine has been up since 11:08pm on August 12, 2009.

Fix: The IP address you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter that is hidden from the Network Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer

Julie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:30:23 +0000

I brought up a snapshot of a Windows Server 2003 R2 guest today and could not login to the domain. After further review I found the server had lost its static TCP/IP settings – both NICs were set to DHCP (they had previously been statically set). When I attempted to add the TCP/IP addresses back to the NICs, I received the following error message:

“The IP address you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter “Fast Ethernet Adapter #2″. “Fast Ethernet Adapter #2″ is hidden from the Network Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they both become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the Advanced dialog box?”

Solutions – KB825826 outlines several potential fixes. I ended up using Method #6 to remove the hidden network adapter. To uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry, complete these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
Expand the Network adapters tree.
Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

Next I configured the static IP on the NIC, and regained network connectivity. A reboot was required in my case, only because services dependant on domain availability did not automatically startup.

Howto: Do not display the name of the user who has locked a Windows computer or server

Julie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:58:06 +0000

Normally when a Windows workstation or server is locked, you’ll see something similar to the following Windows Security message:

This computer is in use and has been locked.

Only DOMAIN\USER (user name) or an administrator can unlock this computer.

To not show the name of the user who has locked a computer, the following can be defined in a workstation level GPO

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Interactive logon: Display user information when the session is locked.

There are three choices if you enable this policy:

User display name, domain and user names (default setting)
User display name only
Do not display user information

Besides being able to apply this to Active Directory GPOs, this setting appears in the local security policy on my Windows XP SP3 VM. The setting is not available on my XP SP2 laptop, but I see from KB837022 there is a hotfix that corrects this problem in XP SP2.

Alternatively, the following DWORD can be created in the registry of XP SP2, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 machine to accomplish the same thing:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system\DontDisplayLockedUserId

User display name, domain and user names = 1

User display name only = 2

Do not display user information =3

You need to restart the machine for the change to take effect.

You may also be interested in the related Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Interactive logon: Do not display last user name setting. This security setting determines whether the name of the last user to log on to the computer is displayed in the Windows logon screen.

If this policy is enabled, the name of the last user to successfully log on is not displayed in the Log On to Windows dialog box. If this policy is disabled, the name of the last user to log on is displayed.

Howto: Disable the clicking sound in Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer

Julie — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:55:15 +0000

The clicking sound that Windows plays when you click on a link in Internet Explorer or open a folder in Windows Explorer can get annoying.

Here’s how to disable the sound in Windows XP:

Click Start > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices
Click the Sounds tab
Scroll down the list under Program Events. Under the Windows Explorer section, highlight Start Navigation.
Under the Sounds box, select (None) > OK, close Control Panel

Here’s how to disable the sound in Windows Vista:

Click Start > Control Panel > Sound
Click the Sounds tab
Scroll down the list under Program. Under the Windows Explorer section, highlight Start Navigation.
Under the Sounds box, select (None) > OK, close Control Panel

You should no longer hear the clicking noise when you select links in Internet Explorer or open directories in Windows Explorer.

Howto: Fix Slow USB 2.0 file transfer on Windows XP

Julie — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:41:18 +0000

USB storage devices can be optimized for either quick removal or performance. If optimized for quick removal, data transfer can potentially be reduced to a crawl.

To optimize your USB drive for performance:

Right click on the USB drive and select properties
Select the Hardware tab
Under All Disk Drives, highlight your USB drive and select Properties
Select the Policies tab and select Optimize for performance.
Press OK twice, and your transfer speeds should increase dramatically

Note that when your drive is optimized for performance you’ll need to use the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the taskbar to eject the drive – otherwise you’ll risk corrupting your data by just removing the drive from the port.

Howto: Register Firefox Portable as the default Windows browser

Julie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:24:44 +0000

Ramesh has written some instructions detailing how to register Firefox Portable as the default browser for Windows XP and Windows Vista.

He uses a utility called DefaultBrowser to define the default browser in XP, and uses a tool called RegisterFirefoxPortable to do the same in Vista.

This is pretty slick, something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while.

Windows XP SP3 and Associated Resources

Julie — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:06:30 +0000

Windows XP SP3 is now available for download. Before you manually update your machine, check out KB936929, Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 3. It has links to vaious other KB articles that discuss items such as troubleshooting installation problems. You can also read the Overview of Windows XP SP3.

Please be aware of the following scenarios prior to installing XP SP3:

If you are an IE 6 user, SP3 will simply updated your IE 6 installation. You will continue to be able to upgrade to IE 7 as an option.

If you are an IE 7 user, it will update your IE 7 installation. HOWEVER, you will NOT be able to go back to IE 6 after applying this service back.

If you are an IE 8 (beta) user, you will need to uninstall IE 8, apply the service pack, and then reinstall IE 8.

Check out Jane’s post for additional information regarding how XP SP3 affects the various versions of Internet Explorer.

If Windows XP SP3 is not yet ready for your environment, you can download the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit that will keep it from automatically installing the update for 12 months following the service pack’s release. Please note that this toolkit will not prevent the installation of the service pack from CD/DVD, or from the stand-alone download package.

Howto: Automatically Slipstream Windows XP with SP2 and All Post-SP2 Security Hotfixes with a Single Command

Julie — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:52:31 +0000

Ross has updated his batch file xpsp2.cmd to automatically download and slipstream a standard Windows XP boot disk with Service Pack 2 and all post-SP2 security hotfixes. It uses wget, curl, or your Internet browser to download the updates. He has tested this with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera.

His batch file xpsp2local.cmd will update the copy of Windows XP that is installed on the computer you run the command on. You may wish to do this if:

You do not want the machine you wish to hotfix connected to the Internet
You are unable to run Microsoft/Windows Update for some reason

Ross’s batch files work great, especially for those users unfamiliar with AutoPatcher or similar programs. He also has scripts compiled for Windows XP Service Pack 1a and Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.