Find Windows Version and Architecture

Explains how to find out Windows operating system version and architecture easily.

You can run the Winver.exe command-line tool to determine the version of Windows Server 2003 / Windows Vista or XP that is installed on your computer:

  1. Click Start, and then Select Run.
  2. In the Open box, type winver, and then press [ENTER] key.

Find Windows Version
(Fig.01: Viewing Windows Version [Click to enlarge])

Getting Windows Version and Architecture Information

Simply find out My Computer on desktop > Select My Computer > Right click > Properties :
Basic windows version architecture information
(Fig.02: Viewing Windows Version and Other Basic Information [Click to enlarge])

Windows Disable USB / Floppy / CD Autoplay Feature

Describes how to use the Group Policy Editor to change policy settings in Windows Operating system to disable all drives autoplay feature.


Group Policy is used to define user and computer configurations for groups of users and computer. There is a file called gpedit.msc to configure autoplay. This is useful to avoid viruses and malwares.

Step #1: So click on Start, and then click Run

Step #2: In the Open box, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.

Step #3: Expand Computer Configuration > System > Turn of Autoplay (make sure you enable on all drives)

Step #4: Quit the group policy editor

See also:

Recover a Non-Booting Windows System After Loading Device Drivers or Software

Explains how to recover a non-booting Windows System after loading device drivers or software.

This may happen and and Windows may not boot after installing a device driver or new software. However, you can easily recover a non-booting Windows system after you have changed the device drivers or new software

Each Windows has boot option called “Last Known Good Configuration”, which is available during reboot. So all you have to do is follow these steps:

  • Reboot your computer.
    During the boot process, hit F8 function key until you see the boot menu
  • Select the “Last Known Good” menu option item.
  • Press [Enter] key to boot into system

Please remember that using this option will remove any changes to your device drivers and may cause problems with software installation. Now, simply remove driver or software that was causing this issue and reboot the system again.

Terminal Services Error 1075 – the dependency does not exist or has been marked for deletion

Explains how to fix terminal services error 1075 – the dependency does not exist or has been marked for deletion.

One one of Windows box I got the following error:

1075 – the dependency does not exist or has been marked for deletion

So how do You fix this error? The solution is simple, but you need to reboot the box:

To fix the 1075 error

Login to your windows box.

Open the control panel

Install MS Terminal Services and reboot the server. This make sure that all the systems files got installed and working fine.

After reboot, again open the control panel

Uninstall MS Terminal Services. For Windows Server 2003, the MS Terminal Services option is not required for remote administration.

Open up regedit and verify that the entries for “\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService” has the following entry:

DependOnService               REG_MULTI_SZ         RPCSS

If you found another “Depend” entry, just delete it.

Finally, reboot the server.

Windows Server 2008 will be Launched on February 27, 2008

Yup, February. 27, 2008 date announced for Server 2008

Just announced at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Windows Server 2008 will be launched jointly with Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 on Feb. 27, 2008, in Los Angeles. As the most important enterprise launch in company history, this will kick off a “launch wave” of hundreds of worldwide events hosted by Microsoft.

Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimized datacenter. Powerful new tools like IIS7, Windows Server Manager, and Windows PowerShell, allow you to have more control over your servers and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements like Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller harden the operating system and protect your server environment to ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build your business.

Read more…

Howto setup and configure Windows Server 2003 DHCP server

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a set of rules used by communications devices such as a computer, router or network adapter to allow the device to request and obtain an IP address from a server which has a list of addresses available for assignment. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a member of the TCP/IP suite and a protocol that is designed to save network administrators a lot of time and effort. A successful DHCP implementation can do just that.

This article explains setting up DHCP on tens, hundreds, and even thousands of computers can be daunting. Here’s how to do it easily with Windows Server 2003:

As you probably already know, every computer that communicates on a network does so via an IP (layer 4) address. The goal of DHCP is to provide a mechanism of automated address delivery, to give every computer its own IP address without an administrator having to type them all in manually. In small networks, this isn’t too big of an issue. However, in networks with tens, hundreds, and even thousands of computers, the task of IP address management is daunting. Luckily, Windows Server 2003 provides a means for us to implement DHCP with its own DHCP server service

Implementing and Understanding DHCP

Howto connect MySQL PostgreSQL server to Microsoft Office Application using ODBC

Learn how to connect Microsoft application such as Excel and other to MySQL and PostgreSQL database server running on Linux. This is an excellent information / howto.

In cases where business applications have been built on open source databases, it may be necessary to connect other Windows applications, such as Microsoft Access or Excel, to these databases for reporting or business intelligence purposes.

One potential application of this process is to use Excel as a front-end for data analysis. Data can be pulled from views or tables and then further analyzed, graphed, and the like. Even pivot tables can be used to create even more powerful reporting solutions.

This how-to walks through this process using Excel as an example application. Although in this example, the MySQL and PostgreSQL servers are running on Linux, the steps are no different if the software is running on Windows. These steps are:
1. Setting up authentication
2. Installing the ODBC Drivers
3. Configuring the data source
4. Importing the data.

=> Connecting Office Applications to MySQL and PostgreSQL via ODBC

Download of the day: CoRD Mac OS X remote desktop client for Microsoft Windows

CorRD is Mac OS X remote desktop client for Microsoft remote desktop and terminal services.
It is an open source native client for Mac OS X.

It is a Universal Binary, and allows you to connect to multiple servers concurrently. It was originally ported from the UNIX program rdesktop

Download link

=> Download CoRD