Jared Heinrichs

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FIX ColdTurkey doesn’t seem to block websites in Chrome Browser sometimes…

I use a program called “ColdTurkey” to help me block social media during work or study hours. This program typically works well in Internet Explorer however I find that sometimes in Chrome that the page I want to be blocked will sometimes be accessible.

What’s going on with the program?

The Cold Turkey program blocks your access to the websites using your “Hosts” file. It adds a bunch of options to the host file that basically says:

If you want to go to Facebook… Instead of looking up its address through your Internet Service Providers name server, look it up using your locally created host file.

All the sites you block actually get pointed to the Cold Turkey servers instead of the real address of the blocked websites.

Your computer will always look to your host file instead of looking up the name from the name server so it just always seems to work with Internet Explorer but not Chrome.

When troubleshooting the issue I noticed the system was going to the host file (Cold Turkey) location… However, I noticed Chrome was going to the legitimate location. This meant the website could still be accessed.

Because of this troubleshooting, I knew the “issue” was with chrome. It was not with the system or the Cold Turkey software.

After trying several things nothing seemed to work. I did find however a chrome command that seemed to do the trick. If you are using Cold Turkey lots you might want to bookmark the command page for easy access.

In the Chrome Browser you will need to type:

  • chrome://net-internals/#dns

The page will look like this:

chrome-dns-info1

You will need to click the “Clear host cache” button. Once you do this the pages that you had blocked using Cold Turkey will actually be blocked!

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How to convert a YouTube video longer than 20 minutes to MP3

I recently found out that youtube has a tonne of really amazing audio books online.

In my quest to convert these audio books to mp3 files I soon realised almost none of the websites I had use would allow me to convert a VERY LONG youtube video into a mp3.  Most audio books are like 9+ hours!

I started thinking how would I be able to do this. I remembered I had installed an awesome piece of software called “Freemake Video Converter”. It would take videos on youtube and convert them into anything you wanted. I just couldn’t remember if it would do mp3’s.

I opened it up and found it DID!

Here’s the complete “how to convert a Youtube video longer than 20 minutes to MP3”!

  1. Make sure “Freemake Video Converter” is installed.
  2. Go to youtube and find the video you want to convert to MP3. Copy the URL at the top of the page
    1. I will use this link for my tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NghA0I_MJFA
  3. In Freemake Video Converter Click “Paste URL”
  4. At the bottom click “To MP3”
  5. It will ask you a couple of things
    1. What bitrate you want
    2. Where you want to save the MP3
  6. For Audiobooks 128Kb/sec is fine. I told it to save to a folder on my computer.
  7. Viola. Sit back and let the program do the hard work!

 

convert-youtube-to-mp3

 

 

 

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Windows 2012 – Study Notes

This pages will continue to grow as I finish studying for the Windows 2012 Exams. I will break the studying up into 46 sections.

01 – Windows Server Editions

windows-server-2012-editions

  1. 4 editions
  2. No 32bit editions
  3. Can switch between the Gui and Core
  4. No Itanium
  5. No standalone HPC Server. You can add it to other servers here as a package.

Foundation Server Edition

  • Scaled Down
    • limited to 15 users
  • Designed for small business file and print sharing
  • Simple dashboard
  • Physical server only (not virtual machine)

Essentials

  • 25 Users
  • 1 physical or Virtual Server
  • Defaults to Server Manager

Standard/Datacenter

windows-server-2012-limitations

  • Contains all Windows Server 2012 Features
  • Standard
    • 2 Virtual Instances
  • Datacenter
    • Unlimited number of virtual Instances
    • Not available via Retail Channels.
  • Licensed per user (cal)

02 -New Features in 2012

Server Interfaces

There are now 3 interfaces:

  1. Core
  2. Minimal
  3. Full GUI

Windows 2008 made you specify the interface at install. You couldn’t change this option unless you re-installed. 2012 allows you to switch between the interfaces at any time however you do need to restart the server. You can do this by enabling or disabling the item in “features”. It is called “User Interfaces and Infrastructure”.

windows-server-2012-gui-01

Server Core

Roles Not available in Server core:

  • Active Directory Federation Services
  • Fax Server & Application Server
  • Network Policy & Access Services
  • Remote Desktop Services / Gateway / Session Host / Web Access
  • Volume Activation Services
  • Windows Deployment Services

The number of roles supported by Server core has increased:

  • 12 of the 19 roles are available to be used.
  • Only 9 were available in 2008
  • Only 10 were available in 2008R2

Server Core 2012

  • SQL Server is supported in Server core!
  • Server Manager has changed significantly
    • Provides access to most admin functions
  • Manage Pools of servers from Server Manager

Storage Spaces

This allows you to:

  • Combine several disks together.
  • They can be internal or external and SSD or Standard.
  • Allows you setup a large pool and then you can set it up into one or more virtual drives.
  • Supports Redundancy
  • Support Thin provision

Resilient FS (ReFS)

  • New Generation File System
  • Self Healing (reduces downtime by not needing to restart)

 

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Delete or restore users in Office 365

As an Office 365 admin, you may have to delete or restore a work or school account. Once you delete the work or school account, unauthorized people can’t continue to use the account. Deleting the work or school account also frees the Office 365 license assigned to that user. When you create an Office 365 user account, a license gets assigned to that user so they can use certain features. When you delete a user, you don’t lose their data. The user’s data is stored for 30 days. When you restore thework or school account within the 30 days, the user account and all associated data are restored.

TIP: Do you want to delete a user on the go? Use your mobile device. Delete a user on the go using the Office 365 admin mobile app. Enter your mobile device number and we’ll text it to you or you can get it from your mobile device’s store.

You can re-assign a license without deleting the related work or school account. Check out Assign or remove a license for more info about removing or assigning licenses.

Delete users

To delete the account for one or more users

  1. Sign in to Office 365 with your work or school account.
  2. Go to the Office 365 admin center.
  3. Go to Users > Active Users.
  4. Choose the names of the users that you want to delete, and then select Delete or Delete user Delete.

    Your screen might look like either of the following screenshots:

    Delete a user in Office 365. Delete a user in Office 365.
  5. On the confirmation page, select Delete.

When you delete a user account, the account becomes inactive. However, for approximately 30 days after you have deleted it, you can restore the account and the associated data.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you reset the user’s password after you restore the user. Follow the steps in this topic.

NOTE:  If your organization synchronizes user accounts to Office 365 from a local Active Directory environment, you must delete and restore those user accounts in your local Active Directory service. You can’t delete or restore them in Office 365. For more information about synchronizing user accounts to Active Directory, see Activate synced users.

Restore Users

Restore one or more users
Restore a user that has a user name conflict
Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict
Reset a user’s password

Restore one or more users

When you restore a user account within 30 days after deleting it, the user account and all associated data are restored. The user can sign in with the same work or school account. Their mailbox will be fully restored, and they’ll have access to all services they previously accessed.

NOTE:  If you need to find out how much time remains before a particular user account can no longer be restored, contact Office 365 Support.

Before you restore a user account, make sure there are Office 365 licenses available that you can assign to the account. Also, when you restore an account, you may encounter conflicts with user names or proxy addresses, which you can resolve.

To restore one or more users

  1. Go to Users > Deleted users.
  2. On the Deleted users page, choose the names of the users that you want to restore, and then select Restore users orRestore.

    Your screen might look like either of the following screenshots:

    Restore a user in Office 365. Restore a user in Office 365.
  3. If the user is successfully restored, click Close in the confirmation box.

For more information about deleted user accounts and how to restore them, see How to troubleshoot deleted user accounts in Office 365.

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Restore a user that has a user name conflict

A user name conflict occurs when an admin deletes a user account, creates a new user account with the same user name (either for the same user or another user with a similar name), and later tries to restore the deleted account.

To resolve a user name conflict, you can either replace the active user account with the one that you are restoring or assign a different user name to the account that you are restoring so that there aren’t two accounts with the same user name.

Which version of the admin center do you see?

Illustration of the Office 365 Admin Center. Find out more about the Office 365 admin center

If you see this, follow the steps: Restore a user that has a user name conflict

 Illustration of the Office 365 Preview Admin Center. Find out more about the Office 365 Preview admin center

If you see this, follow the steps: Restore a user that has a user name conflict

Restore a user that has a user name conflict in classic admin center

  1. Go to Users > Deleted users.
  2. On the Deleted users page, choose the names of the users that you want to restore, and then select Restore users.

    NOTE:  If two or more users fail to be restored, an error message advises you that the restore operation failed for some users. View the log to see which users were not restored, and then restore the failed accounts one at a time.

  3. On the User name conflict page, do one of the following:
    • If you want to keep the restored account and the conflicting active account, select Edit user name of the user you want to restore, type a new user name, and then select the appropriate domain name.
    • If you want to remove the active account and replace it with the account that you are restoring, select Replace active user with this deleted user.
  4. Select Submit.
  5. Review the results, and then select Finish.

Restore a user that has a user name conflict in preview admin center

  1. Go to Users > Deleted users.
  2. On the Deleted users page, choose the names of the users that you want to restore, and then select Restore.

    NOTE:  If two or more users fail to be restored, an error message advises you that the restore operation failed for some users. View the log to see which users were not restored, and then restore the failed accounts one at a time.

  3. On the Restore page, choose whether you want to have the password automatically generated, or whether you want to create the password. Additionally, you can choose to Make this user change their password when they first sign in.
  4. If you chose Let me create the password, type the password in the Password box, and then retype the password.
  5. Click Restore.
  6. A message advises you that there was a problem restoring the account. Do one of the following:
    • Cancel the restore and rename the current active user. Then attempt the restore again.
    • Type a new primary email address for the user and click Restore.
  7. Review the results, and then select Close.

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Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict

A proxy address conflict occurs when an admin deletes a user account that contains a proxy address, assigns the same proxy address to another account, and then tries to restore the deleted account Follow the steps below to fix this issue.

Which version of the admin center do you see?

Illustration of the Office 365 Admin Center. Find out more about the Office 365 admin center

Follow the steps: Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict

 Illustration of the Office 365 Preview Admin Center. Find out more about the Office 365 Preview admin center

Follow the steps: Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict

Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict in classic admin center

  1. Go to Users > Deleted users.
  2. On the Deleted users page, check the names of the users that you want to restore, and then select Restore users.

    NOTE:  If two or more users fail to be restored, an error message advises you that the restore operation failed for some users. View the log to see which users were not restored, and then restore the failed accounts one at a time.

  3. On the Restore User page, if you want to restore the user account and delete the proxy addresses attached to that account, select Submit.

    NOTE:  If a user account contains more than one error that prevents you from restoring it, the Resolve proxy address conflict page displays a Next button instead of a Submit button. Select Next to resolve the error on the next page.

  4. Review the results, and then select Finish.

Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict in preview admin center

  1. Go to Users > Deleted users.
  2. On the Deleted users page, select the user that you want to restore, and then select Restore .
  3. On the Restore page, choose whether you want to have the password automatically generated, or whether you want to create the password. Additionally, you can choose to Make this user change their password when they first sign in.
  4. If you chose Let me create the password, type the password in the Password box, and then retype the password.
  5. Click Restore. Any conflicting proxy addresses are automatically removed from the user you are restoring.
  6. Review the results, and then select Close.

Reset a user’s password

After you’ve restored a user, make sure you reset the user’s password by following the steps in the Reset a user’s passwordtopic.

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Unattended Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

 

The hardest thing about auto unattended installs is creating the autounattend.xml files. Two of the best resources I have found online are:

  1. http://windowsafg.no-ip.org/ – This site will use a Web page to create the file. There is no easier way than this to create the files.
  2. Microsoft WDS Unattended Example Files – Microsoft created an example page to help people make answer files.

The next section will require that you have proper .xml files.

There are a couple of ways you can use autounattend.xml for WDS installs but really you will only use one. You can apply the autounattend.xml files to either the:

  1. “Server” or the
  2. “Install Images”

I will cover the Server section because I don’t know why anyone would ever use this option first:

Right click Server and select properties:

create-multicast transmission-007

Go To Client tab and click “Enable unattended installation”. Browse for the .xml file for each architecture.

WDS-autounattend-001

The other place you can specify the .xml file is on each Install Image. To do this you must right click it in WDS and select properties:

WDS-autounattend-002

When the windows Open click the “Allow image to install in unattended mode”, then select the image file click ok and then click “OK” back at the original image window.

WDS-autounattend-003

And you’re done!

 

 

 

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