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Archive for August 2008

IE8 and it’s backwards incompatibility???

30. August 2008 by Myke.

Microsoft has officially launched it’s Beta version of Internet Explorer 8. If you have been hiding under a rock in the IT world recently here is a list of “cool” new features of IE8.

Accelerators - Accelerators let you efficiently complete your everyday browsing activities like mapping directions, translating words, emailing your friends, and more in just a few mouse clicks.

InPrivate Browsing - Browse the web without saving your history with Internet Explorer 8’s InPrivate Browsing. Now you can “shop for that special gift” with confidence knowing your family won’t accidentally find out or use a shared computer without leaving a trace. More like surf the Internet for PORN without your significant other or boss knowing.

Avenue Q - The Internet is for Porn
Uploaded by slzaza

Web Slices - Keep up with changes to the sites you care about most. Add a Web Slice and you won’t have to go back to the same website again and again for updates on news, stock quotes, online auctions, weather, or even sports scores.

Search suggestions - Search smarter with detailed suggestions from your favorite search providers and browsing history. See visual previews and get suggested content topics while you type in the enhanced Instant Search Box.

SmartScreen Filter - New security features help to protect you against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise your data, privacy and identity.

Pretty cool but after a recent quote from Microsoft that was either misheard or elaborated by the MFIA (Mozilla Firefox Intelligence Agency), someone has some explaining to do.

“The core web rendering engine in IE8 is compliant with web standards, but we have also tried to maintain compatibility with sites written specifically for older versions of IE,” says Ryan Servatius, senior product manager at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer division. This actually sounds pretty cool so far.

The new browser will come with a ‘compatibility button’, which users can click if they stumble across a site that was designed for older versions of the software. Once pressed, the page will reload in ‘compatibility mode’. Again, sounds great so far to me.

“Sites that are specifically written for IE will not display properly. Many people probably will not ever use the compatibility button that Microsoft has built into IE8, which means some sites will not work and the user will get a message saying the site needs Internet Explorer.” Huh??? Come again my man. Maybe I am misreading this but it sounds like you know that a lot of sites will not even work and most people will never even know why. I think you need ot go back to your marketing team and re-phrase that statement…maybe.

Posted in Internet, Microsoft | No Comments »

Comcast gets slapped, then locks down bandwidth usage

30. August 2008 by Myke.

After the FCC ruled against Comcast and it’s illegal bandwidth throttling, they moved forward with publishing that all “excessive users” will be subjected to a possible warning and/or disconnection of service. Now granted the usage threshold you get to hit is 250GB per month, but those of us in the IT world know we can hit that with ease. For the average Joe at home using the Internet for his bills, surfing and day trading this will be just fine as they will never hit that mark. I still hate Comcast and their service and their lack of customer service. Let’s just say I am one of MANY dissatisfied ex-customers of Comcast. Just like my favorite Comcast haters Travis “Sugar Bear” Sarbin and Mona Shaw.

Let me give some advice to those over at Comcast that make the high level decisions. A very large community of IT professionals and hard core gamers used/use your service because it was good and it worked great. But then you basically slapped all of us in the face and said, “sorry, we no longer want your business”. Ever since a group of us in Denver, CO switched over to QWest DSL we have been made happy again. We can do business/work/pleasure all at the same speeds without any interference from QWest. Do not crap on the best customers you can have. We will hardly ever call you for service unless it is down or being throttled so you spend less money working with us. You screwed up and are now are paying for it with large amounts of us leaving your service. Goodbye and good riddance.

posted by: Myke Reinhold

Posted in Internet, Rant | No Comments »

Customize/Create Outlook Web Access 2007 Themes

27. August 2008 by Myke.

OWA 2007 comes stock with 4 themes but if you require more or want to make a Corporate based theme, use these instructions.

A theme in OWA is a collection of media (e.g. .GIF and .WAV files) and .CSS files. These files are installed in folders under in the vroot under ‘version\themes’.

Out of the box, we ship with three themes: blue “Seattle Sky” (folder name ‘base’) and black “Carbon Black” (folder name ‘1′) and a mountain image “Olympic Sunrise” (folder name ‘2′). Customers can add more themes by creating new folders and adding their own customized files.

We recommend here that you optimize your theme by changing only the logo, top banner area and the selection highlights so the theme will have less potential for destabilization and bugs. Using very bright or very light dark for the selection colors and the top banner are not advised - try to use subtle or primary colors for the banner area and medium-hued colors for the selection/highlight colors. If you want to use darker or very light colors, you’ll need to also adjust the text for the appropriate level of contrast and the best legibility by testing on various monitors at different resolutions.

The base theme

The base theme lives under ‘themes\base’ and it contains all of the themeable files. Any other themes are built by overriding files in the base theme.

Say for example the base theme is made of files A, B, C and D. I can create a new theme by changing say, C and D, and leaving A and B untouched. Thus for the new theme, C and D will come from the new theme folder, while A and B will come from the base theme.

What’s in a theme folder

The two most important types of files in a theme folder are icons (GIF files) and styles (CSS files). Specifically, premium.css is the style sheet file for Premium OWA (the OWA Light client is not themeable).

Premium.css can be edited to change things like colors, gradients and font styles.

The GIF files can be edited to change any icons in the UI. Keep in mind that the sizes of the images should not be changed.

This is an improvement over Titanium, where only a handful of GIFs could be themed (the logo and a couple of others), and only the colors in the .CSS file could be changed.

How to install a theme

Create a new folder under version\themes (e.g. “themes\viayoga”).

Copy the files from the base theme that you will want to alter for your new theme. If for example, you want to change the logo, then copy ‘logop.gif’ from ‘themes\base’ to ‘themes\viayoga. The viayoga folder at this point will contain only one file. If you also want to change some of the styles, then copy premium.css. You can do this with any files in the base theme. As they are copied to the new theme folder, the theming engine will pull the modified files from the ‘viayoga’ folder while still using the unchanged files from the ‘base’ theme.

You can give a name to the theme in two ways:

Adding a file called themeinfo.xml and specifying the name in it (see below).

Leave it like this, and the name will come from the folder name (in this case, “viayoga”).

Restart IIS so OWA automatically picks up the new theme.

Themeinfo.xml

The syntax of this optional file is very simple:

If present, the value of the displayname attribute is used as the name of the theme.

The themes we ship with contain a macro like this:

…which we use internally to map to localized strings.

How to create themes

First, start by setting up the theme without changing any files. Create a new folder under themes (call it ‘test theme’), then copy premium.css, logopt.gif, logopb.gif and nbbkg.gif (the files for the top banner “brand bar”) to begin with, which are probably the first files that you will be editing for your theme.

Changing the top banner can be done most easily using a solid color or a vertical gradient similar to what is already in place. Your custom nbbkg.gif (repeating background image) can be any width but must remain the same height.

If you want to include a more complex or interesting image as your background, be sure to create the right and left edges as a mirror so that the strip meets when it repeats and appears as a single image so it will work on a variety of screen resolutions. Or, you can create one long image for the target width you’d like to support.

Looking at these files in an image editing tool, you can see that logopt.gif and logopb.gif are the top and bottom of the OWA logo including a background, and nbbkg.gif is a gif that repeats as the background.

We split the images up so that we can add “Connected to Microsoft Exchange” as a live text string that can be localized into different languages. You can create one image and remove this string by editing the style sheet. Simply add “display:none” to the tdLogoB class, then save your image as one piece, 238 x 49 pixels, and edit the height of the image here:

}

td.tdLogoT

{

width:238;

height:49;

background:url(”logopt.gif”) no-repeat

}

td.tdLogoB

{

vertical-align:top;

height:16;

padding-left:42;

font-size:7pt;

font-family:tahoma;

color:#EEEEEE;

background:url(”logopb.gif”) no-repeat;

display:none;

}

Example theme

As an example, we created a theme for a Seattle yoga company that provides yoga retreats and surfing lessons in Mexico (yes, you should go!).

We removed the “Connected to…” string by editing the style sheet as shown above. You can see how it looked before and after editing the style sheet and adjusting the images slightly. The background image is simply filled with a solid, bold color. The resulting background image - nbbkg.gif - only needs to be 1 pixel wide.

Changing colors and other styles in premium.css is the tricky part:

Use an image editing tool like PhotoShop or PainShop Pro to take screenshots and sample colors that you want to change. For instance, to change the yellow color of the selected module in the secondary navigation:

First, obtain the html RGB values (#RRGGBB) for that yellow: that value is #FFEFB2.

Then look for this in premium.css:

/* NavBar buttons selection color */

a.nbHiLt

{

background-color:#FFEFB2;

}

Here’s where the tricky part comes. In debug builds, we know this is the color because in most cases we have a comment above the style. As an OWA dev, we also have access to the sources so we can verify this is the color we want. For people without access or familiarity with the source code, this is a trial and error process: guess if this is the right style by the name of the class (which is relatively hard, because our names are shortened and not too easy to decipher unless you are an OWA dev), then apply the change, refresh your browser and see if you are lucky.

Continue changing the colors until the theme is starting to look right to you. For some pieces of the interface, there are two values specified for each end of a gradient, when a lighter color blends into a darker color. These work best with lighter hues of colors.

When creating your theme, you may find a color and want to do a straight find and replace action on the entire style sheet file. Be careful when doing this. For the areas defined as gradients (Find = “gradient” to see all the instances of these) you might accidentally change all the light grays to your new highlight color. Try saving and refreshing your build with your new theme selected in Options > General Settings > Appearance in order to make sure you’ve changed only the intended elements.

We don’t recommend changing the colors of the red and yellow informational messages that appear at the top of the message forms, alerting users to potentially harmful content, phishing attacks, viruses and blocked or missing content. We call these “infobars” (non-phishing are yellow:#FFEFB2 ) and “error infobars” (errors and phishing alerts are light red:#FFAEB9). There is also an infobar for meeting conflicts on meeting invitations:

/* Non-phishing infobar messages */

div#divIB div#dvExp, div#divIB div#dvInf, div#divIB div#dvExpErr, div#divIB div#dvErr,

div#divIB div#dvJnkMl

{

margin:2 0;

padding:1 3;

background-color:#FFEFB2;

border:solid 1 #FDD981;

}

/* Phishing */

div#divIB div#dvPhsh

{

padding:1 3;

background-color:#FFAEB9;

border:solid 1 #FF99CC;

Main Selection Colors

Selection in mail list is probably one of the most important highlight colors. This is the color over the selected message which tells users what item they are currently reading. There is a primary color to indicate focus and a secondary highlight color that is slightly lighter to show selection when the focus moves away from the item, like the currently selected folder or the current day in the Calendar. For each theme, these two colors are the same color that we use for the primary and secondary highlight colors.

Shown below, the primary color is on the left, the secondary color on the right. You can see the difference is quite subtle.

In the premium.css style sheet, this highlight in the mail list is specified as:

tr.sel, tr.srsel, tr.lrsel

{

background-color: #FFEFB2;

color:#000000;

}

tr.shdw, tr.srshdw, tr.lrshdw

{

background-color:#F8F0D2;

Icons

In order to change icons, the process is quite similar, find out which icon it is you want to change in your theme, copy it to your theme folder and then change it there. Then verify the change in the product with your new theme name selected. We use .gif files with transparent backgrounds. Make sure to keep the image sizes unchanged.

Customize the Logon Screen

To customize the logon (and log off) screen, update the images and the background color to create a custom look. You can create your own custom look and feel by updating the image files that create the logon screen. Note that the logon screen cannot be customized per theme since the user needs to enter their credentials and be authenticated prior to accessing their own user settings (theme selection) for each session. Therefore, you’ll need to directly manipulate the files in the base folder starting with the style sheet “logon.css” and the images that create the border and the main logo for the screen.

The screen is made up of several images for the border top, bottom, sides and also includes repeating images and corners for expansion. The images that create the logon screen are:

lgnbotl.gif

lgnbotm.gif

lgnbotr.gif

lgnexlogo.gif

lgnleft.gif

lgnright.gif

lgntopl.gif

lgntopm.gif

lgntopr.gif

To create a new look and feel, using a solid color is easiest since the screen uses the same collection of images for several screens and resizes horizontally and vertically based on the contents for each screen: logon, language selection (shown on the first logon per mailbox), and the log off screen that’s shown each time the user presses the Log Off button.

Before changing the images, you can make a backup of the image files in case you need to revert your changes to the original configuration. Start by opening the Microsoft Outlook Web Access logo (lgntopl.gif):

…and change it to your own company logo:

Here is a general idea of how all of the new image files will fit together on the logon screen:

Logon Screen: background color

Editing the logon.css is necessary if you want to change font styles and other colors, including the background color that exists behind the controls in the middle of the screen. Currently the background color is specified as #7F90B1. For our custom logon for Via Yoga, we need to replace this with orange #E48310 for the area behind the controls that is not colored by the other images.

Logon Screen: active text color

The active text color on the existing OWA logon screen is yellow: #F8D328 since that stood out best on the blue background as a secondary font color. We’ll want to change this for Via Yoga, but we still want the primary white text to come into focus first so we’ll leave all that text white. We’ll change the active text to the same blue used elsewhere in this theme to indicate that something is active or “clickable.” That blue RGB value is #266CBC. Do a find and replace to make this color change in the logon.css.

Logon Screen: final details

After logging off, this is looking pretty good, but the lines used to separate text and form elements are hard to see in the existing gray #A9AAC4. Open the logon.css file and find that color value. Change it to something a little lighter than your background but darker than the text so that the text still stands out as the most important information on the screen. We replaced the gray with a light orange RGB value #FFC279.

Voila - looks good:

posted by: Myke Reinhold
Info credit: Jorge Pereira and DJ Schwend

Posted in Exchange, Microsoft | No Comments »

Applying Managed Folder Mailbox Policies via LDAP Filters

27. August 2008 by Myke.

In Exchange 2003 Mailbox Manager Policies could be applied to subsets of mailboxes using LDAP filters the same way Recipient Policies were applied.

In Exchange 2007 this behavior changed. Mailbox Manager Policies are now called Managed Folder Mailbox Polices and they are assigned on a per user level. This new methodology allows more granularity and eliminates some of the confusion about which policy is being applied.

However, in some cases the ability to apply these policies via LDAP filters is desired and the change is cumbersome. If you prefer the filtered method for applying policies, you can write a script using the PowerShell function below:

functionApply-FilteredManagedFolderMailboxPolicies ($LDAPFilter, $ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy){ $root = [ADSI]” $searcher = New-ObjectSystem.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher($root) $searcher.Filter = $LDAPFilter $searcher.PageSize = 500 $users = $searcher.findall() foreach ($user in $users){ $UserDN = [String] $user.properties.distinguishedname if ($UserDN -notlike “*SystemMailbox*”){ $mailbox = get-mailbox $UserDN if ($mailbox.RecipientTypeDetails -ne “LegacyMailbox”){ write-host “Updating: $UserDN” Set-Mailbox -Identity:$UserDN-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy:$ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicyAllowed:$true } } }}

This function will search your current domain for user accounts that match the supplied LDAP filter. For each user returned, the account is checked to ensure that the mailbox is hosted on an Exchange 2007 server and will set the Managed Folder Mailbox Policy as desired.

Combining with the LDAP filters you have already created for your existing Mailbox Manager Policies, you can easily write a script to apply the appropriate policies via filters.

#Usage:#Apply-FilterdManagedFolderMailboxPolicies $LDAPFilter $PolicyName

# Default PolicyApply-FilteredManagedFolderMailboxPolicies “(&(&(& (mailnickname=*) (| (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(homeMDB=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*))) ))))” $null

# Delete after 180 days policyApply-FilteredManagedFolderMailboxPolicies “(&(&(&(& (mailnickname=*) (| (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(homeMDB=*)(msExchHomeServerName=*))) )))(objectCategory=user)(memberOf=CN=Delete After 180 Days,CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com)))” “180 day policy”

When writing the script, remember that the precedence of your policies should be lowest to highest. The first policy you should apply should be your default policy (or $null if you don’t want one) and the last policy should be your most restrictive filter with the highest precedence.

In this example, the default action is to no assign policy. The “180 day policy” is applied to the members of the “Delete After 180 Days” group.

When using groups to apply policies it is important to remember that there must be a default policy in your script so that once a user is removed from the defined group, the existing policy applied will be updated to the default policy.

About LDAP Filters

To get the LDAP filters used with existing Mailbox Manager policies simply open the policy and copy the text in the Filter Rules:textbox. Paste this filter encompassed in quotes into your script and you will be good to go.

If you want to manually create your own LDAP search string you can use the information at Creating an LDAP Search String to get you started.

If you prefer the GUI method open Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click the Saved Queries folder, select New, and Query. Click the Define Query box and select Users, Contacts, and Groups from the drop down box. On the Advanced tab select the attribute you would like to use from the filter from the Field box. At the very minimum you should add the following filters to start:

User: E-Mail Address Starts with *

User:Exchange Home Server Starts with *

Scheduling the Script

To ensure user policies are updated correctly based upon the filters, you must schedule this script to run sometime before the Managed Folder Assistant runs on the servers. Therefore as the assistant runs daily at 5am, the script should run daily at 3am.

posted by: Myke Reinhold
Info credit: Nick Smith

Posted in Exchange, Microsoft | No Comments »

Exchange 2007 SP1 ActiveSync issues

27. August 2008 by Myke.

ActiveSync Default Policy

Exchange 2007 RTM would allow you to assign ActiveSync policies on a per user level. Exchange 2007 SP1 added the ability to define an ActiveSync policy as a default policy for all users. You can read more about this and other changes to ActiveSync in SP1 on the “What’s New for Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox Policies in Exchange Server 2007 SP1?” post on the Exchange team blog.

However, if your environment does not utilize ActiveSync policies you should be aware that the default policy will be applied to all users after upgrading to SP1. The default policy is pretty vanilla and would not really impose any configuration changes on mobile devices. However, users will be prompted to apply required security settings before syncing. The following Exchange Management Shell command can be used to prevent the default policy from being applied to all users, thus preventing the prompt on mobile phones.

Set-ActiveSyncMailboxPolicy Default -IsDefaultPolicy:$false

**Note: Each time a CAS server is upgraded this policy will be re-enabled as the default.

Load Balancer SSL Offloading

If you have multiple CAS servers and are using SSL offloading on your hardware load balancers you should be aware that installing SP1 will re-enable the SSL requirement at the root level of the “Default Web Site”. This will likely prevent the ‘http listener’ form detecting that your CAS servers are available and OWA access will be unavailable.

To resolve this, edit secure communications on the Directory Security tab of the “Default Web Site”. Uncheck the Require secure channel (SSL)checkbox.

**Note: The option is also re-enabled when running the Enable-ExchangeCertificate cmdlet to apply a new certificate to IIS.

posted by: Myke Reinhold
info collected at: Nick’s Unified Communications and Scripting Blog

Posted in Exchange, Microsoft | No Comments »

Physical Memory - How much can MS handle

25. August 2008 by Myke.

When it comes to Windows OS and Server OS, there are many questions as to how much memory can the actual OS handle. I ran across a great post today done by Mark Russinovich, Mark’s Blog. I am going to see if Travis and I can test out the Max memory theory of a few Server OS versions and report back. Enjoy the read.

Posted in Memory, Microsoft | No Comments »

7 golden Internet security rules

21. August 2008 by Myke.

There is a lot of junk and crazy crap happening on the Internet these days and you can never be too safe. Just because you have Anti-virus software does not make you protected or safe. Think of it this way, just because you use a condom…that does not mean you cannot still get pregnant or get an STD. The Internet is full of nasty STD’s that can cause some serious burn. If you follow these 7 rules, you may help protect yourself even more.

“You can’t be too safe,” said Jeff Fox, technology editor at Consumer Reports. People are more savvy today about online security, says Fox, “but a lot more education is needed. You need to be street-smart, the way you are in the real world.”

In an interview with CNN, Fox listed seven common online blunders that make people vulnerable to viruses and theft, and offered tips on how to avoid them:

Assuming your security software is protecting you
Just because you install it and run it, does not mean it cannot happen to you. Your best bet is to run a security program that makes you answer questions to learn your habits. it is frustrating at first but that means it is working. Always make sure your software is up to date as new viruses and variations of old ones come out every day. Along with virus issues, there is Malware/Spyware that can cause just as much if not more damage.

Accessing an account through an e-mail link
In short, don’t do it. If you get an email from your bank asking you to update financial or personal information, there’s a good chance it’s actually from a “cybercrook” seeking to empty your account. Such “phishing” scams allow criminals to steal your logins, account numbers and other sensitive data. These e-mails are especially insidious because they come adorned with genuine corporate logos and look legitimate. “This stuff has gotten so sophisticated that it’s pretty much impossible for people to know … if the e-mail is real or not,” Fox said. Because of this, most banks have stopped sending out e-mails asking for updated customer information, said Fox, who thinks the ones that still do should stop. People who must access an online account should do so by typing the institution’s address in their browser, he said.

Using a single password for all online accounts
Yes, trying to remember a bunch of passwords can be a serious pain but it can also limit your chance of having everything hacked in one fell swoop. Some cybercriminals use code-cracking software, which uncovers passwords by trolling through millions of common number-letter combinations. “If somebody manages to get hold of your password … they basically have entree to all your accounts,” Fox said. “You’re making it easier for them to impersonate you.” Fox suggests using variations on the same password to make them easier to recall. He also recommends a complex password with at least eight characters, including numerals or punctuation symbols, to thwart thieves’ computers.

Downloading free software
It is okay to do this, but you had better make sure the source is well known and trusted. Remember, if it is too good to be true…then chances are it will bite you in the *** later. Some “free” software comes loaded with spyware, which clogs your computer with ads or employs a keystroke-capture program to steal your personal information. Fox recommends downloading only from such reputable sites as Download.com or SnapFiles.com, or, if you have a PC, scanning it with Windows Defender software.

Thinking your Mac shields you from all risks
Macs are much less susceptible to viruses and spyware than PCs. But surveys show that may breed a false sense of security among Mac owners, who still fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users. Until Apple beefs up Safari, Fox recommends using another browser with phishing protection, such as the latest version of Firefox.

Clicking on a pop-up ad that says your PC is not secure
This is one of the most famous attacks of all time and to this day it still works. Unless a pop up window comes up from your software you have loaded, never click on these messages. Danger Will Robinson Danger. It’s easy to click inside the ad by mistake and be redirected to a spyware site or have malicious software downloaded to your computer. In a recent Consumer Reports survey, 13 percent of respondents said they did just that. Instead, Fox recommends clicking on the tiny “close” button in the ad’s upper left or right corner. Or better yet, enable your browser’s pop-up blocker or use a free one from Google Toolbar.

Shopping online the same way you do in stores
Shopping online is a huge business anymore but is also the most dangerous way to shop. One of the biggest problems for companies today is employees shopping online from work. Not only do you run the risk of infecting your PC but the entire company. On the Internet, you can’t always be sure who you’re doing business with. When entering your address and credit card information, make sure the site’s URL says “https,” which offers greater security than “http.” Don’t shop online with debit cards, which, if stolen, offer no liability protection, Fox said. Fox suggests using one credit card for most of your business transactions and a separate card for your online purchases. That way if a hacker steals your credit card number and you must replace the card, it won’t disrupt your gym memberships or other accounts. Finally, some banks (Citibank is one) will even issue you a temporary, one-time credit card number for specific transactions, Fox said. If stolen, it’s completely worthless.

posted by: Myke Reinhold

Posted in Internet, Security | No Comments »

lphcerpj0ec7t.exe has taken over my computer

19. August 2008 by Myke.

We received a few calls today from a client stating there was a window on their screen claiming they had Spyware and we needed to load a Spyware removal tool or Anti-Virus software. Well, that is the first clue you have been taken for a ride, on the Spyware/Malware roller coaster. Upon investigation, we noticed that the message was not in fact a window, but rather a background image. Very tricky, sort of. We found the image on the PC, lphcerpj0ec7t.bmp, and it was every where. We then proceeded into the registry and sure enough it was there as well.

After checking every location it was located without actually touching it, we decided to Google the item and we found nothing. So now it was reverse engineer time. Without sending you through engineering 101, here are some steps to follow to remove this item. The sad part is that Symantec, McAfee, AdAware, Spybot S&D and a few others could not find it or fix it. More on that later.

Steps to remove said crap on one’s PC:

1 - Boot the PC into safe mode
2 - Open Regedit and do a quick backup to your hard drive and then do a find on lphcerp
3 - Every single instance you find of the item (.bmp, .exe, .scr and so on), replace the item with a valid file
Example - replace lphcerpj0ec7t.bmp with bliss.bmp (as long as bliss.bmp is located in your System32 folder)
Example - replace lphcerpj0ec7t.scr with blank.scr
4 - Once you have cleaned these files out of your registry, reboot and go back into safe mode
5 - Now do a search on your local drive for lphcerp and delete every single instance (shift - delete)
6 - Once this is complete, reboot your PC and log into Windows normally
7 - Verify that your desktop looks correct now and that you can right-click on your desktop and make a change to your desktop background and your screen saver.

We decided to copy this little beast and load it on our laptop that was running BitDefender and then launch it. Without ever letting us down, BitDefender not only stopped the file, but it deleted it right away. We love you BitDefender. Just as an FYI, we are running BitDefender Total Security 2008 and we have never run into any issues.

posted by: Myke Reinhold

Posted in Security | No Comments »

$1000.00 Computer Case

15. August 2008 by Myke.

Yes, you heard right folks, there is now a $1000 computer case for sale (well, September 1, 2008 anyways). HP will sell 25 of it’s Blackbird cases on a first come first serve basis on September 1, 2008. If you are interested in ordering one, please feel free to call HP at 1-877-776-4752…if you do not mind, I would like one too. I can give you a post dated check for say 2025 if you do not mind waiting.