The problem with Java Runtime Environment is that security holes and flaws are constantly found and new patched versions and updates pop up way too often. This causes a lot of work for the person(s) in charge of keeping the Java up to date on the computers. This is especially true if the company has business critical applications that rely on JRE and if the company therefore does not allow the JRE on the workstations to update themselves automatically or if the level of permissions granted to the users is too low for using JRE's autoupdate feature.
I happen to work at such a place. As we have about 1500 computers, most of which need to have JRE installed, there's a lot of work keeping the JRE's on the workstations up to date. Even though we have a workstation management system for deploying the new Java it's a lot of work. To ease the burden of keeping the JRE environment up to date I made a simple script to remove all old versions of Java and install the new veresion.
The script checks what version(s) of Java is installed. It then removes all versions, except the most recent version. If the most recent version isn't installed it will install it. Furthermore, the script will copy the deployment.config file to the workstation. This file points the Java installation on the workstation to use settings from a central settings file. This might be useful in a corporate environment.
Please click on "Read more..." to read more :)
I happen to work at such a place. As we have about 1500 computers, most of which need to have JRE installed, there's a lot of work keeping the JRE's on the workstations up to date. Even though we have a workstation management system for deploying the new Java it's a lot of work. To ease the burden of keeping the JRE environment up to date I made a simple script to remove all old versions of Java and install the new veresion.
The script checks what version(s) of Java is installed. It then removes all versions, except the most recent version. If the most recent version isn't installed it will install it. Furthermore, the script will copy the deployment.config file to the workstation. This file points the Java installation on the workstation to use settings from a central settings file. This might be useful in a corporate environment.
Please click on "Read more..." to read more :)
I just found a bunch of scripts from way back in time. One of them is particularly interesting. It is a script that monitors the availability of the e-mail service. This might be useful for some of you, so I decided to share it here. The script monitors the availability of the e-mail service by sending an e-mail message, and then making sure that the message arrived in the mailbox it was sent to. If the message doesn't arrive within a predefined time, an SMS will be sent using Microsoft's SMS sender program. This means that you need to have a mobile phone connected to your computer, but the script could be modified to start any program if the message didn't arrive on time. I wouldn't recommend sending an e-mail though...
The script uses w3sockets (socketreg.exe & socket.dll) from http://www.dimac.net. I won't post those files here, but you can download them from here.
Also, the script uses Microsoft's SMS sender for sending the SMS messages using a mobile phone connected to the computer that runs the script. The SMS sender program can be found here.
The SMS sender program is kind of problematic. When you send an SMS it will throw a notification on the screen. I've used pskill.exe (part of the pstools, available here) to kill the SMS sender program and its notifications.
And finally, the script itself is shown below...
The script uses w3sockets (socketreg.exe & socket.dll) from http://www.dimac.net. I won't post those files here, but you can download them from here.
Also, the script uses Microsoft's SMS sender for sending the SMS messages using a mobile phone connected to the computer that runs the script. The SMS sender program can be found here.
The SMS sender program is kind of problematic. When you send an SMS it will throw a notification on the screen. I've used pskill.exe (part of the pstools, available here) to kill the SMS sender program and its notifications.
And finally, the script itself is shown below...
26/07: Ok, they found me...
I wondered why the traffic was suddenly up to 2GB per day, until I noticed my blog's comment-function was being misused by mass-posting various spam messages into the comment-field.
With 6000+ spams I figured it was best to just bulk-erase them all. Sorry for removing all nice comments as well.
For the time being the comment-section is closed :(
With 6000+ spams I figured it was best to just bulk-erase them all. Sorry for removing all nice comments as well.
For the time being the comment-section is closed :(
29/05: HTA
I've mostly been using vbscripts to accomplish various system administration tasks. It's a good tool for automating tasks. While you can get nice message- and input boxes with vbscript I've been missing a real graphical user interface though. A while ago I stumbled upon something called HTA (HTML Applications), and thought it sounded interesting. I didn't have time to study it any further at the time, though, so I just added the site to my favorites folder, where it's been sitting dormant for some months now. A couple of days ago I found it again and took a closer look, and WOW! That's cool. Microsoft has a really nice little two chapter introduction to this here.
I've created a small and simple helpdesk application for our users in just a couple of hours. The hta does some basic diagnostics (Checking if the computer is on the network, checking that e-mail servers are available, checking CPU load, etc.), shows basic computer information (Computer name, make, model, memory, hard drive, serial number etc), and allows the user to send support requests to the support team. The nice thing with this method of sending support requests is that the hta can automatically add some relevant information to the support request (such as computer name and IP address), that the user doesn't necessarily understand to add themselves.
I may be posting the hta here if someone requests it, and more importantly, if I have the time to tidy it up a bit. For now the application is in English only, but I just might add different languages (Swedish, Finnish, German).
I've created a small and simple helpdesk application for our users in just a couple of hours. The hta does some basic diagnostics (Checking if the computer is on the network, checking that e-mail servers are available, checking CPU load, etc.), shows basic computer information (Computer name, make, model, memory, hard drive, serial number etc), and allows the user to send support requests to the support team. The nice thing with this method of sending support requests is that the hta can automatically add some relevant information to the support request (such as computer name and IP address), that the user doesn't necessarily understand to add themselves.
I may be posting the hta here if someone requests it, and more importantly, if I have the time to tidy it up a bit. For now the application is in English only, but I just might add different languages (Swedish, Finnish, German).
I'm getting frustrated. My excellent blog isn't getting any hits. I guess this is the problem with a privately owned and hosted blog like this. Maybe I should have started this blog on one of the numerous free blog sites on the Internet.
Well, anyway I should probably start investigating how I can get some publicity for my fine blog. The only thing is that I don't find that very interesting.
A quick search on one of the leading web search engines led me to some kind of link exchange program, which can be found here:
SubmitLinksFree.com - the high quality Links Directory for webmasters.
Add Your Link - Web Directory. Add your link today.
-Sorry, I had to include those links to be allowed to submit my link to the site. Let's see if it helps. I'm expecting to get numerous hits within the next 24 hours ;)
Well, anyway I should probably start investigating how I can get some publicity for my fine blog. The only thing is that I don't find that very interesting.
A quick search on one of the leading web search engines led me to some kind of link exchange program, which can be found here:
SubmitLinksFree.com - the high quality Links Directory for webmasters.
Add Your Link - Web Directory. Add your link today.
-Sorry, I had to include those links to be allowed to submit my link to the site. Let's see if it helps. I'm expecting to get numerous hits within the next 24 hours ;)
So we had this old Windows printer server that needed to be replaced. The server had about 200 printer queues shared to about a thousand computers. A new printer server was set up and new printer shares were made. At the same time we decided to deploy a new printer naming policy, so the printer queues got new names on the new server. Now the only problem was to replace the printer queue connections on the 1000+ workstations from the old server to the corresponding queues on the new server. As our users haven't got that good computing skills we realized we couldn't just post instructions to the users on how to replace the old queues with the new ones. After some thinking I came up with the idea to use a script to replace the old queues with the new ones on the workstations.
25/05: Instant VNC session
Ever wanted to remotely assist someone with their problem only to find out that the remote help program isn't installed on the remote user's computer. Here's a simple solution for that problem. I call it instant VNC session. A script installs the VNC service onto the remote computer and 'instantly' opens a VNC session to it. This can be handy when Remote Assistance or any other remote help software hasn't been installed on the remote computer, or when the installed program just doesn't work. The beautiful thing with this instant VNC script is that upon disconnect it will clean up after itself. No service or files will be left on the target computer. Obviously you will need to have admin privileges to the remote computer for this to work! (Otherwise it would be an evil H4x0R backdoor thingie...)
Have you ever been searching for a file that you know is on one of your computers in the AD, but you fail to remember which computer the file resides on. I've had that problem on several occasions, so one day I made a vbs script that searches through all the computers in the AD for the bugger. It might take some time for this script to find your file, because it searches through the computers one by one. Maybe I'll create a new version sometime that searches for the file on several computers in parallel. The script will remember which computers it wasn't able to search, so switched off computers will be retried.
There are a number of things that could have been done better in this script. Now you can e.g. only search by exact file name, including extension (e.g. filename.exe) or substitute the file name or extension with wildcards (e.g. filename.* or *.exe). You're welcome to improve the script. If you decide to do so, please post the improved version here for everyone (including me) to enjoy.
Oh, and all scripts on this site (including this one) may be used by anyone for free, as long as you include the credits in the script code.
Well, enough babbling. Click on Read More to see the script.
There are a number of things that could have been done better in this script. Now you can e.g. only search by exact file name, including extension (e.g. filename.exe) or substitute the file name or extension with wildcards (e.g. filename.* or *.exe). You're welcome to improve the script. If you decide to do so, please post the improved version here for everyone (including me) to enjoy.
Oh, and all scripts on this site (including this one) may be used by anyone for free, as long as you include the credits in the script code.
Well, enough babbling. Click on Read More to see the script.
25/05: First post
Just installed Nucleus. I haven't got any experience in this, nor other CMS:es so it will be interesting to see what this will become. I'll probably get stuck while trying to get this CMS to do something exactly as I want instead of settling for what the system can do without major efforts.
25/05: Welcome to Nucleus CMS v3.3
This is the first post on your Nucleus CMS. Nucleus offers you the building blocks you need to create a web presence. Whether you want to create a personal blog, a family page, or an online business site, Nucleus CMS can help you achieve your goals.
We've loaded this first entry with links and information to get you started. Though you can delete this entry, it will eventually scroll off the main page as you add content to your site. Add your comments while you learn to work with Nucleus CMS, or bookmark this page so you can come back to it when you need to.
We've loaded this first entry with links and information to get you started. Though you can delete this entry, it will eventually scroll off the main page as you add content to your site. Add your comments while you learn to work with Nucleus CMS, or bookmark this page so you can come back to it when you need to.
