Fixing the Automatic Updates Service

Sometimes I suspect that my users have maliciously found a way to avoid having to deal with Restart prompts by sabotaging the Automatic Updates service. On some of the machines I keep running into errors when trying to start the Automatic Updates service. The solution I found on Microsoft's site at:

Basically you can make a batch file to run on the client machine. I dump it on their c:\ drive and then use Dameware to open a remote command prompt on the client and run the batch file directly. Alternately you could tell the user to run it or put it into a logon script temporarily.

Symantec - Veritas backup exec 11 second impression

When backup exec 11 first came out I had been ready to upgrade to it right up until I read the message boards. The boards were full of hate and frustration due to bugs, lack of exchange 2007 support, the recent shift of tech support to somewhere in BFE, and the breaking of many features that used to work when it was still veritas. So a year and a service pack and a few hotfixes later, I'm taking the plunge. Their license management site gave some minor difficulties but overall wasn't as bad as my previous experiences with it.
Installation breezed through and the LiveUpdate window was a welcome change from the old patch system. Once I confirmed that all my backup jobs were still there I uncrossed my fingers and started upgrading the remote agents. They've added a new remote agent utility which adds a GUI to the remote agent and publishes current IP and port information back to the media servers at regular intervals. Hopefully this'll make it easier for it to keep track of servers outside the firewall or in the dmz.
All in all I'm cautiously optimistic about this upgrade.

** If you're upgrading exchange 2k7 to SP1, pay close attention to the readme when it talks about remote streaming support. I've seen this pop up on some of the boards with backup exec and exch 2k7 when doing individual mailbox restores.


**Update** Had some weirdness with the jobs that were scheduled from policies. I deleted the jobs from the policies menu and recreated them so we'll see if it works better tonight.

Minimizing the Word 2007 Ribbon

Seems basic enough I know but those are the features that we often can't find because they're so simple but still elusive at times. Some of our users who run lower resolutions weren't happy with the new super sized ribbon that comes with office 2007. Simple fix, set the ribbon to minimize.



Voila, you're done.