Windows 7 - Disabled Windows 10 Upgrade Tray Notification

Yes, Windows 10 is now available for upgrade to those computer with eligible hardware and licenses, but what if I don't want to upgrade ?

Doesn't the annoying notification in the system tray bother you ? Well to me yes, I find it very distracting and after some search in Microsoft website, they have recommended to uninstall "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB3035583)".

Just follow the below steps :-

1. Press --> CTRL + ALT + DELETE.

2. This will open the "Task Manager" windows, now select GWX.exe and --> End Process.

3. Now the "Windows 10 Upgrade Notification" icon is remove from the system tray, but this is not permanent yet, to make it permanent you must uninstall the update.

4. Goto --> Control Panel --> Programs and Features --> View installed updates --> Update for Microsoft Windows (KB3035583) --> Uninstall.

Alternative method to uninstall this update via the command line, run --> CMD (as Administrator) --> wusa /uninstall /KB:3035583 --> [ENTER].

5. After the uninstall process completed, just restart the computer. Now once restarted, browse to --> C:\Windows\System32\GWX folder.

If the folder exist, just delete the entire folder.

6. Now the notification will no longer shown in the system tray, but wait here's the catch to ensure that "Windows Update" do not update it again, you must "Hide" this update.

That's all now and Happy Computing ! :)

Windows 7 - Printer Port Redirection

Recently a friend of mine requested some help. He is facing some problems where the new computer he bought only have USB ports available but his existing printer is using LPT port.

In this the kind of scenario, commonly people will tends to get a USB-LPT converter available in any computer shop. And does him, which he went to Plaza Low Yat to buy that particular converter.

Now the connection problems is now solved, how about installing it ?

It just happens that the printer he wanted to use is Epson TM-U210, it's a dot matrix receipt printer type that are commonly used in P.O.S. (Point Of Sales System), so he did some downloads of the drivers in Epson's website and to his surprise Windows kept on displaying an error message stating

"There are no compatible drivers available or the path is incorrect......"

So this where I comes in, remoting to the said computer via TeamViewer (I was at work that time) and force the printer to be installed as "Generic/Text Only" printer. Tested the print test page and it works just fine, even printing from a notepad also works.

But here is another catch, the software or P.O.S. system his company is using only supports LPT1, Com1 type of connection (pretty old), so I've paused for a while trying to search my mind how to solve this problems and voila !

Follow the below steps :-

1. Ensure the printer's driver is installed, either use "Generic/Text Only" or use manufacturer's provided drivers.
2. Share the printer, use a short common name (eg. "Receipt").
3. Run --> Command Prompt with elevated privilege.
4. Type --> NET USE LPT1 \\[PC Name]\[Printer's Share Name] /PERSISTENT:YES
5. Now the printer should be printing like normal.

Example : C:\>NET USE LPT1 \\MyPC\MyReceipt /PERSISTENT:YES

What it does is by telling Windows to accept all incoming connections for LPT1 port and redirect it to the network path with auto-reconnect enabled. In this case its a loop back network path (to itself).

Just a simple and brilliant workaround. :)

TeamViewer - Fix "Suspected Commercial Use"

In such case, sometimes you are a genuine home user just offering your assistance to your friends or family but TeamViewer's trial or "suspected commercial use" message is preventing you.

Please play fair, I've been using TeamViewer for my daily use and I've registered a full version as I find it very useful and convenient. Please do register.

1. Close the running TeamViewer.
2. Goto START --> RUN --> Type "%appdata%" --> Delete "TeamViewer" folders.
3. Now goto START --> Type "regedit" --> Press [ENTER] key.
4. Browse to --> HKCU\Software\TeamViewer --> Delete the entire registry entry.
5. Browse to --> HKLM\Software\TeamViewer --> Delete the entire registry entry also.
6. Now restart your computer and run TeamViewer again, it should have fixed the problems.

If the above doesn't fixes the problems, I would suggest you contact TeamViewer Support Team for further help.

Happy Remoting !

VMWare - Moving/Copying VM(s) to another host server.

These few days I have received an order to upgrade an existing VM with higher memory capacity in order to cope with workload.

Sadly the host (eg. ESXi-1) which the VM is running on have used all the maximum available memory thus a new server must be acquired.

Now the problems arises where the client didn't have any vCenter server thus there's vMotion was not available for the task. After some studies in VMware's KB articles, there is a way to move a VM from 1 host to another host regardless of the hardware specifications.

But for me to play it at a safe side, I ensure the new server is installed with the same ESXi version and the VM must be shutdown for this process (yes, there is downtime on this).

So I get a temporary desktop (Windows 7) & install vSphere Client and an extra 1TB of HDD, what VMware recommended in their website is to use vSphere Client to perform the migration and the following steps was done by myself.

1. Run defragment on that VM.
2. Ensure no one is using that VM anymore (a scheduled downtime required) & shutdown the VM.
3. Browse to that particular "Datastore" where the VM is located and download the entire folder into the extra 1TB HDD with the same folder structure.

* Proper & good downtime management is required here as the process took around 6-12 hours to complete.

Now once the download complete, I perform the following :-

1. Ensuring the VM is no longer power on automatically on ESXi-1 server & stays shutdown.
2. Comparing the file sizes on ESXi-1 server & the downloaded copy.
3. Now ensure the new server is ready (eg. ESXi-2) with sufficient storage space for the "Datastore".
4. Start uploading the entire folder from the local copy to ESXi-2 datastore.

* This process will also take similar times to complete, so be patient.

Once the upload is complete you need to "add into inventory" in order for the ESXi-2 server to recognised it as a VM.

1. At ESXi-2 server, browse to the "Datastore" where the new VM has uploaded.
2. Select the VM's folder and search for "xxx.vmx" file.
3. Right-click the "xxx.vmx" file --> Select "Add to inventory" option and wait for it to complete.
4. Open the VM Console and you will receive a prompt message, select --> "I move it" option.
5. Once completed, you may now startup that VM.

Overall, this process took me almost 2 days to complete. So please do plan the downtime correctly and sufficiently.

HP - iLO (Integrated Lights Out) Port Listing

If you want to access an iLO behind a firewall, there are some TCP ports that need to be opened on the firewall to allow all iLO traffic to flow through.  Here is a list of the default ports used by iLO, but these can be modified on iLO’s Administration… Access… Services… tab.

 

iLO Function	Socket Type	Port Number
Secure Shell (SSH)	TCP	22
Remote Console / Telnet	TCP	23
Web Server Non-SSL	TCP	80
Web Server SSL	TCP	443
Terminal Services	TCP	3389
Virtual Media	TCP	17988
Shared Remote Console	TCP	9300
Console Replay	TCP	17990
Raw Serial Data	TCP	3002

 

Batch - Join Domain Batch File

This is a batch file to automatically join the computer to the specified domain, the purposes of the batch file as below :-

• To avoid typography error in domain name.
• To avoid mismatch username and password when joining to domain.

Syntax of the command :
 

netdom join %COMPUTERNAME% /domain:[domain name] /userd:[domain\username] /passwordd:[password]

 

• %COMPUTERNAME% = Computer's Name, a variables.
• [domain name] = The actual domain name (eg. google.com)
• [domain\username] = The actual domain's username (eg. google.com\administrator)
• [password] = The username's password.

Of course you can put in a lot of things into this batch file such as checking the computer's name validity (eg. length of the name, cross checking with a database file to match the S/N etc.)

Note that the "netdom" command is NOT AVAILABLE in standard Windows 7 OS, it must be installed separately. Download & install Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT).

Once installed you need to enable the "AD DS Command-Line Utility" before you can start using the "netdom" command.

Batch - Verify Model & Install Drivers

The following batch file are to check whether the supported model is valid or not and if valid will proceed to next step which is "valid" in this case.

Subsequent batch command is to call the HP SSM built-in command to install the respective drivers automatically.

 

REM Check for valid model & proceed to install. SET INPUT=Model for /f "tokens=1,* delims==" %%i IN ('wmic computersystem get %INPUT% /VALUE ^| FIND /I "%INPUT%="') do set Model=%%j   ECHO   Found the following model : %Model%   IF "%Model%" EQU "HP Compaq 6200 Pro SFF PC" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP Compaq Pro 6300 SFF" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP Elite 8300 USDT" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP ProDesk 600 G1 SFF" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteBook 2560p" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP ProBook 6470b" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteBook 2570p" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteBook Folio 9470m" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP ProBook 640 G1" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteBook 820 G1" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteBook 840 G1" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP EliteBook 1040 G1" GOTO valid IF "%Model%" EQU "HP Z230 SFF Workstation" GOTO valid

 

Please take note that the model name are {CASE SENSITIVE} and thus extra care required when typing the model name into the batch file.