The 'microsoft.jet.oledb.4.0' provider is not registered on the local machine

On Windows 7 64bit and Windows 2008 64bit system a common error may arise when using Microsoft.jet.oledb.4.0 driver. Applications running in 64bit mode may not be able to access this driver. This is because 64bit version of this driver does not exist.

Solution to this problem is as follows:

1. We use 32bit application, 32bit application will be able to access the ODBC drivers

2. If you are a application developer and need to develop a 64bit application which can connect to csv, excel files, etc using ADO.NET. You should use Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 which is a small redistributable and available in both 32bit and 64bit versions.


Summary:

Issue:
The 'microsoft.jet.oledb.4.0' provider is not registered on the local machine.
Issue is that Application pool is running in 64bit mode, therefore 32bit Jet drivers not accessible.

Solution:
Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=13255
Use this provider Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0 to connect with csv, excel, etc files.

SQL Server Management, error 29506

When installing SQL Server Management studio on Windows 7 64bit it gives an error with error code 29506. The problem is we need to start this setup as Administrator. Unfortunately when we right click on the setup file, there is no option to Run as Administrator in the context menu.

A work around to this problem is we start a Command prompt (Console) as Administrator, set directory path to the location of setup file, and type the setup file name and press enter to execute.

Now the setup will start as Administrator and will successfully complete.

Steps:

1. Downloaded setup file SQLServer2005_SSMSEE_x64.msi from Microsoft and saved on my local disk, in my case it is D:\Softwares\SSMSEE\

2. Open start menu and type "cmd" in the search box, you will see "cmd.exe" program

3. Now right click it and select Run as Administrator

4. First change drive by typing D: and press enter

5. Now change directory to setup location, type "cd D:\Softwares\SSMSEE\" and press enter

6. Now type setup file name "SQLServer2005_SSMSEE_x64.msi" and press enter

7. The setup will start and complete successfully. That's all

This might also be the case with Windows 7 with 32bit version, in that case same solution should work.

How to find Allocation Unit of your Disk Partition?

Default allocation unit of any disk partition under Windows operation system is 4096 bytes for drives under 16 TB, this is the information as per Microsoft article 140365. The allocation unit is also referred as Cluster size.

Simple and fastest way to check what is the allocation unit size of any partition is as follows:

Command:
C:\Windows\system32>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:

Output:
C:\Windows\system32>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:
NTFS Volume Serial Number : 0x0000000000000000
Version : 3.1
Number Sectors : 0x0000000000000000
Total Clusters : 0x0000000000000000
Free Clusters : 0x0000000000000000
Total Reserved : 0x0000000000000000
Bytes Per Sector : 512
Bytes Per Cluster : 4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0
Mft Valid Data Length : 0x0000000000000000
Mft Start Lcn : 0x0000000000000000
Mft2 Start Lcn : 0x0000000000000000
Mft Zone Start : 0x0000000000000000
Mft Zone End : 0x0000000000000000
RM Identifier: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

In the above result "Bytes per Cluster" represents the allocation unit size.

Best Allocation unit Size:

Higher the allocation unit size better the performance, but lower the disk space available, because data is written in units, if you write 1 byte the allocation unit consumed will be 4096, with 4098 bytes wasted.

Therefore if you are going to use a drive for large files like videos, or other multimedia formats, than higher allocation will be better. And for partitions that will hold documents like text files, etc. default allocation unit size is enough.

Size and Size on Disk:

If you are a windows user, you may have noted that when we view properties of any file or folder, the general tab mentions two sizes. One is the "Size" which is the actual size of the file and other is the "Size on disk" which is the space consumed on the drive.

The difference in both size indicate how much space has been wasted.

Microsoft Windows, Briefcase

This is a special folder which is used by mobile PC users, this folder provides synchronization feature, file synchronization can be done between briefcase and another folder. The briefcase is infact just a folder, but provides some additional features.

The briefcase folder contains two files one "desktop.ini" and another "Briefcase Database", both these files identify a briefcase folder.

The "desktop.ini" file will look like this:

[.ShellClassInfo]
CLSID={86BAC831-52A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}
RunWizard=0
[Briefcase]
Database=Briefcase Database

Whereas the "Briefcase Database" is a binary file and is used for synchronization process.

Why Vista Failed?

Windows 7 is through beta, it is now release candidate, soon we are going to have a brand new operating system from Microsoft. I have been some what loyal to Microsoft Windows, when i worked on Windows 98 for the first time it was like Wow! I would say Windows 98 really changed the way people think about a personal computer. When Windows Me came in, i decided to stick with Windows 98, reason was i did not find any reason to switch as Windows 98 was doing everything i wanted at that time. When Windows XP, i still kept with Windows 98 until Windows XP Service pack 1 came in.

Now i am using Windows XP Service pack 3, i installed a dual boot with Windows Vista a number of times, but was unable to convince myself to switch. As i have been so used too with Windows XP and i really like it now.
Windows Vista Service pack 1 is a real improvement, but compatibility issue of Windows Vista with its predecessors is one of the reasons most of the users are not switching. Still i have kept Vista on a Virtual machine.

Reasons behind failure of Vista i think:
1. Strong security model, which keeps showing annoying dialog windows, and it is so frequent that users get used to just click OK without bothering for it, because they want to complete a task quickly

2. Hardware requirements, so Windows XP users will have to buy a new hardware if they want to have Windows Aero

3. Performance promises not met, seem to be slow as compare to XP

4. Windows Vista not showing backward computability is biggest reason among all

5. Most of the IT industry have applications developed that run nicely on Windows XP, but same application tends to crash on Vista without a clue

6. Software Vendors are also getting problem in making their programs work on Vista, for this they have to maintain a Virtual machine all the time to test their code on Vista.

7. For gamers that like their old games as well, get a set back when they see the older games are not working well on Vista

I hope Microsoft gets around and fixes them in the up coming Windows 7, i am hopping for the best, otherwise i will keep myself with Windows XP, and let Vista run on a Virtual machine.

Change User Profile Folder Location in Vista

Here is how we can move user profile location.  Please note that we want all of the profiles moved, included Public and Default, so some of these steps can be skipped if you do not want that:

1. Make sure you have a complete backup of your system!


2. Copy the original Default Profile directory to the new location (e.g. from C:\Users\Default to D:\Users\Default).


3. Copy the original Public Profile directory to the new location (e.g. from C:\Users\Public to D:\Users\Public).


4. Navigate to 
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.


5. Change the value of the Default key to the new user profile location (e.g. D:\Users\Default).


6. Change the value of the Public key to the new user profile location (e.g. D:\Users\Public).


7. Change the value of the ProfilesDirectory to the new user profile location (e.g. D:\Users).


8. At this point, you need to restart and log back in as a different user that has never logged in before and therefore does not have a profile created.  In my case, the Administrator user had never logged in before so I enabled it so that Administrator could log in and used that.  You can enable Administrator login by loading Computer Management and then go to User Accounts, edit the properties for Administrator, and then uncheck Disable Login.


9. After logging in for the first time with the new user account, you will see “Creating Desktop” and other things like that while Windows is creating your profile.  Note that the new profile should be created in the new location.


10. After logging in, try to close as many applications as possible.  This will prevent most files from being locked so that you cannot copy them.


11. Copy the entire original user profiles folder from the original location to the new location (e.g. C:\Users\* to D:\Users\).  (See next step after copy starts).


12. There are a few things to note during this copy.  There were thousands of .TMP files that were locked and would not copy.  I just skipped these files.  I held down Alt-S so that I could see all of the skipped files and make sure that there were only .TMP files being skipped.  Yes, this took a little while, but at least I was confident that I got all of my files copied.  This process could probably be made easier using the command prompt or powershell.


13. If, in your case, there are some files that will not copy, you can run procexp.exe, which is file provided by sysinternals.  Then do a Find Handle and search for part of the filename.  procexp will tell you which programs are locking the file.  As long as you closed as many programs as you could, though, this should not happen.


14. Find and download a program that will do a Search & Replace on the registry.  I will not suggest one because I did not find one single program that worked perfectly.  I ended up downloading a few different freeware applications and using all of them.


15. Using the Registry Search & Replace program, do a search for the original user profile folder and replace it with the new user profile folder (e.g. search for “C:\Users” and replace with “D:\Users”.  Note that some of the applications I used would only change values and not key names.  However, the keys that needed to be chagned were all related to MuiCache.  I do not know if these actually need to be updated.  I did just to make sure.


16. Log out.  Log back in with the same user.  Repeat step 14 until there is nothing left to replace.  The reason for this step is that on logout, some programs seem to update the registry using the old user profile path.


17. Run regedit.exe and do a search for the original user profile path and make sure it does not exist.  The reason for this step is because (as noted in step 13), I did not trust any of the Registry Search & Replace programs I used.  I ended up needing to update about a dozen of the keys and values manually, since the search & replace missed them.


18. So that you can easily find programs that do not use the registry and hard-coded profile paths, rename your original profile folder (e.g. rename C:\Users to C:\~Users).


19. Log out. Log back in as your usual user.  Everything should be working correctly except for programs that use a “hardcoded” user profile location.


20. There are two easy methods that can be used to find programs that use a “hardcoded” profile location and are still looking for the original user profile path.  You can use the procexp.exe trick mentioned above and search for handles in the original profile location.  You can also monitor the oringal profile location to see if any new folders or files were created.  For example, in my case, FolderShare created some folders and files in the directory C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Local\FolderShare\.  So, I updated the FolderShare settings to point to the different path and then deleted the C:\Users directory (note that C:\~Users still existed as a backup).


21. Since you are now confident that all of your data has been moved (right??????), you can deleted the backup of the original user profile location (e.g. C:\~Users).

NTFS symbolic link

An NTFS symbolic link (symlink) is a file-system object in the NTFS filesystem that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target. Symbolic links should be transparent to users; the links appear as normal files or directories, and can be acted upon by the user or application in exactly the same manner. Symbolic links are designed to aid in migration and application compatibility with POSIX operating systems, and were introduced with the modifications made to the NTFS file system with Windows Vista.

Unlike a NTFS junction point (available since Windows 2000), a symbolic link can also point to a file or remote SMB network path. Additionally, the NTFS symbolic link implementation provides full support for cross-filesystem links. However, the functionality enabling cross-host symbolic links requires that the remote system also support them, which effectively limits their support to Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems.

Symbolic links can point to non existent targets because operating system does not check to see if the target exists.

Restrictions:
The default security settings in Windows Vista disallow non-elevated administrators and all non-administrators from creating symbolic links. This behavior can be changed in the Local Security Policy management console (under: Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignment\Create symbolic links). It can be worked around by starting cmd.exe with Run as administrator option or the runas command.

Since Windows Vista Home does not have the Local Security Policy Management Console, the command line utility ntrights.exe from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools can be used to grant rights to symbolic link creation.

Syntax:
The mklink command is used to create a symbolic link. It has the following command line syntax:

mklink [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] link target

/D – Creates a directory symbolic link. Default is a file symbolic link.
/H – Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
/J – Creates a Directory Junction.
link – Specifies the new symbolic link name.
target – Specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link refers to.
Just like ordinary files and folders, del and rmdir can be used to delete the symbolic links to files and directories respectively.

To delete symbolic link to a file, the following command line syntax can be used:

del filename

filename – Specifies the name of the file/symbolic link to be deleted
To delete symbolic link to a folder, the following command line syntax can be used:

rmdir directoryname

directoryname – Specifies the name of the folder/symbolic link to be deleted

Windows Vista – Missing CD/DVD-Rom drive

A problem lot of people got after upgrading or installing Vista, i myself had this issue and got the solution from different forums. The one that work for me is as follows:

Follwoing key in the registry has the solution to this problem:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

1. Click on the start menu.
2. If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks.
3. Maximize the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key shown above.
4. In the right panel you’ll see “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter”, you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click yes when it asks to confirm if you wish to delete the key.
5. Restart Windows.

And thats all the drives should show normally after your system starts up.

Vista Shorcut Keys

These are not all the shortcuts, Vista has tons of usefull shortcuts, under are the mostly used and liked by users, as follows:

[Win]+[Tab]
Flip 3D, new feature in Vista.

[Win]+[Space]
Shows the sidebar holding Gadgets.

[Ctrl]+[Win]+[Tab]
Flip 3D, but you do not need to hold the keys, just press the combination once and the 3D Flip will remain active, now you can use Up/Down arrow keys to navigate windows.

[Win]+[E]
This opens the file explorer, mostly opens the my computer where all drives are visible.

[Win]+[R]
This opens the traditional run command dialogue box.

[Win]+[T]
Tabs between running applications on the taskbar, also a small thumbnail of the application window is shown just above the focus.

[Win]+[G]
pushes focus to the the sidebar the focus and when you press this key combination again it tabs between the gadgets on the sidebar.

[Win]+[M]
This is also a traditional shortcut, this minimizes all windows and shows the desktop.

[Shift]+[Win]+[M]
Undoes the minimize windows

[Win]+[Number]
Press the Win key and then choose a number of the applications that are in the quick launch task bar. An example the third icon on the taskbar (starting from left) is IE so to run IE press Win-3 and it will launch IE.

[Win]+[U]
This will open Ease of Access Center, here all accessibility features are available.

[Win]+[F]
This opens the search window, here vista users can enjoy the fast searching feature.

[Win]+[L]
This is another traditional shortcut, it is used to lock you computer so no one else access it when you are away.

[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Esc]
Press this combination to open task manager, here all running programs can be seen, performace of CPU and memory consumption can be checked.

How to disable hibernation in Vista

Hibernation is a feature introduced in Windows 2000 and later in Windows XP which allows your computer to enter a sort of "deep sleep" mode - your computer's state is preserved, and it uses far less power than if you just put your computer into Standby mode. But in order to enable your system to Hibernate, Windows reserves a hidden file (c:\hiberfil.sys) which is roughly equal in size to the amount of RAM your system has. Hence if you have 2GB of RAM in your system, then you'll have a corresponding hiberfil.sys file which is roughly 2GB in size. This is perfectly fine and harmless if you plan on using the Hibernation feature and you have plenty of hard disk space to spare. On my desktop machine, however, I don't plan on using the Hibernation feature (since this system is always on as a server/workstation) and my drive space is at a premium.

Disabling the Hibernation feature in Windows XP was fairly straightforward using the Power Options in the Control Panel. It's a bit trickier in Windows Vista, though, since there's no graphical way of disabling this via the Control Panel. (Or if there is, I certainly didn't find it!)

In Windows XP you can disable hibernation by doing the following:
1. Open Power Options in Control Panel
2. Select the Hibernate tab
3. Clear the checkbox for enabling hibernation

In Windows Vista, it is easy enough to disable via the command line as follows:
1. Click Start (or the Windows Logo) -> All Programs -> Accessories.
2. In this folder you will see an entry labeled Command Prompt. Right-click this entry and select "Run as administrator."
3. At the command prompt, type "powercfg -h off" (without the quotes) and press Enter.

Unfortunately there's no confirmation message to indicate whether or not you were successful. But we can confirm this for ourselves by typing "dir /a:h c:\hiberfil.sys" (again, without the quotes) and pressing Enter.
If we were successful then you should get a message which says "File Not Found."
That's it We have just disabled Hibernation and freed up some disk space. But if you decide that you want to enable Hibernation later you can do so by following steps 1-3 again, but this time specify "on" instead of "off" during step 3.

Note: If you get a User Account Control dialog during any of the above steps you can simply click Continue.

Windows XP mouse Snap To

Enable the Microsoft Window XP mouse Snap To feature to automatically focus on dialog box buttons. Enabling this feature will automatically move your mouse cursor to the default button on any dialog box that appears on Windows. This is a great way to save a little time and not have to move you mouse cursor to the "Ok" button each time a dialog box appears. To enable this feature follow the below steps.

1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Mouse icon
3. In the Mouse Properties window click the Pointer Options tab and check the "Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialog box" option.

Create desktop shortcuts to your favorite web pages

Easily create Windows desktop shortcuts to your favorite web pages by following the below steps.

1. Open the web page you wish to create a shortcut for.
2. Resize your browser window so it's not maximized.
3. Once in a window mode click the icon to the left of the Internet address in the address bar and drag it to your desktop and let go to create a shortcut.

Backup data using WinRAR

WinRAR has become a standard for compression of data. This program has a core utility running on its back, that is the Rar.exe file, this is the executable program running behind the user interface. This file can be easily located in its installation directoty like:

C:\Program Files\WinRAR\

In this directory you will also find a Rar.txt file, this file contains all the command options Rar.exe program takes to perform different operations.

I developed a routine to backup my data using it as follows:

1. We create a text file named "mybackup.txt", in this file we enter all the directories or files for which backup is required. This file is filled as follows:

C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\My Documents\
C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Desktop\

And save this text file in the same directory where Rar.exe program is located, i am doing this to avoid path errors.

2. We create a batch file, in this file we will call the Rar.exe program and pass it required parameters to backup my data as follows:

rar.exe -r u D:\mybackup.rar @mybackup.txt

[-r]
This indicates that all files and sub directories should be included

[u]
This indicates to update archive, if archive mybackup.rar already exists than update files in it and add new files

[D:\mybackup.rar]
This is the location and name of archive file

[@mybackup.txt]
This is the name of list file from which Rar.exe program will find directories and files you want to backup

We will save this batch file it the same location where Rar.exe program is located.

That’s all the backup routine using WinRar is ready, the best part of this backup routine is its ability to check a file if it has been modified, if a file is modified than and only than it is added to archive, this reduces overall backup time for subsequent backups. The backup routine will take time when executed first time, after that all subsequent backup operations will be faster as it will backup only modified files.

Failed to access IIS metabase problem

When you install IIS AFTER .NET 2.0 framework, the rights of the ASPNET user had not been set correctly.

Repair (Uninstall if repair does not work for you) .NET Framework 2.0

Simply run the following from command line to reset the IIS registry settings for aspnet user. Usually framework directory for .Net Framework 2.0 resides under C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis -i

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=267904

On Vista and VS 2005 check the shortcut to VS 2005, and make sure 'Run as Administrator' option is checked. If not check this option in Advance section.

How to Remove Linux Boot Loader?

How to Remove Linux Boot Loader From Startup After Deleting Linux Partition on a Dual-Boot System?

Using Windows 98 CD:
Boot into Command Prompt and provide following command:

fdisk /MBR

Using Windows 2000, XP, 2003 CD:
Enter into "Recovery Console" by pressing "R", select your Windows installation and enter administrator password. Now provide following command:

fixmbr

Press "Y" to confirm and type Exit to exit from recovery console.

Using Windows Vista, Server 2008 DVD:

Boot using setup DVD and click on "Repair Computer" link, then click on "Command Prompt". Now navigate to your DVD drive using CD command and at last provide following command:

bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr

Exit from Command prompt and restart your system.

2. The above commands will remove the Linux boot loader from startup and you'll be able to directly boot into Windows.

3. If you have not deleted Linux partitions, then you can delete them using "Disk Manager" tool in Windows.

Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide. I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps. These commands are as follows:
1. C: CD ..
2. C: ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
3. C: ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
4. C: ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
5. C: del boot.ini
6. C: BOOTCFG /Rebuild
7. C: CHKDSK /R /F
8. C: FIXBOOT

Hack to Remove/Uninstall Symantec Norton Antivirus (SAV) Client without Password

Norton AntiVirus Clients or Symantec AntiVirus Clients especially Corporate Edition Clients can be installed as managed network setup type by a Symantec AntiVirus Server. When a Symantec AntiVirus Client is managed, it will prompt for password when uninstalling client via local computer Control Panel Add or Remove Program applet. If you don’t know or forget the password, then the client is not able to uninstall or remove. And the SAV client uninstall password won’t work with server group password too, as if you enter that password, you will receive an invalid password message.

The client uninstallation password is different from the server group password, and it can be set by the administrator through the Symantec System Center for the client that is managed. If the client uninstallation password has not been set or changed specifically, it will still be the default password. Thus, first thing to try in order to successfully uninstall a Symantec Client Security program is by using the default password for the uninstalling clients, which is symantec.

In the cases where Symantec AntiVirus server has been taken down and no longer exist, or the client computer has no access to company network, or the default client uninstall password does not work, the following hack will enable you to remove Symantec Antivirus without using a password:

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\INTEL\LANDesk\VirusProtect6\CurrentVersion\Administrator Only\Security\
3. Change the value for useVPuninstallpassword key from 1 to 0.
4. Exit Registry Editor and now you can uninstall Symantec AntiVirus Client.

The trick should work on most version of Symantec AntiVirus client or Norton AntiVirus Client, including version 7, 8, 9 or 10.

Free Disk Space By Making Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Permanent

If you are using Windows Vista and have installed the Service Pack 1, you may be losing up to 1GB of space because of old and redundant files Windows has stored. You can easily recover this space by making Windows Vista Service Pack 1 permanent.

To recover almost 1GB of space after you have installed Windows Vista service Pack 1, follow the simple steps listed below.

1. Open a command prompt window.
2. Type in the command “vsp1cln” (since this executable exists in system32 folder, it’s a global command and can be run from any folder) and hit Enter.
3. Read the instructions and type in “Y” and hit enter.
4. You should see Vista performing a clean up of old files, once it’s complete you should recover almost 1GB of disk space.