How to get the Outlook Social Connector in MSI format

19 August, 2010 at 4:42 pm by · Filed under Miscellaneous

If you need to Deploy the Outlook Social Connector via GPSI, you’ll need to get your hands on the MSI files.

To do so, follow these instructions…

  1. Download the OSC file from Microsoft
  2. Run the following command from a command prompt: outlooksocialconnector-x86-en-us.exe /extract:C:\osc\
  3. This will extract the msi files to c:\osc\
  4. You can then use the MSI file to deploy OSC! :)

If you want to integrate the MSP Patch files are well, just do this:

  1. msiexec /p c:\osc\osc-x-none-en-us.msp /a \\yourserver\share\osc.msi
  2. msiexec /p c:\osc\oscintl-en-us.msp /a \\yourserver\share\osc.msi

Then you’ll be deploying the MSI fully patched :)

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NetApp SnapDrive Error: VDS volume object for the LUN

16 June, 2010 at 2:55 pm by · Filed under Miscellaneous

Earlier today, I was trying  to set up a Remote Verification Server on NetApp SnapManager for Exchange 6.0, but came across this error when the remote verification server tried to mount the snapshot:

[SnapDrive Error]:VDS volume object for the LUN s/n ‘<serial>’ has not been found

The error shows up in the Report that SME generates when it runs a snapshot/backup job.

To get around this error, install the latest (apparently not-quite-released-yet) SnapDrive on to your Verification Server. You can get it here: http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/software/snapdrive_win/6.2P1/

This problem appears to happen on Server 2008 R2 servers, and I can confirm that installing the download above fixed the issues for me.

For the record, this is our configuration:

Exchange 2007 SP2 running on a Server 2008 SP2 box, with a Server 2008 R2 box set up for Remote Verification

The full thread discussing this is here: http://communities.netapp.com/message/24568?tstart=-1

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How to get WMC to play MKV files

26 March, 2010 at 3:48 pm by · Filed under Miscellaneous

How to get Windows Media Center to play MKV files on Windows 7

So I just bought an Acer Revo 3610 so that we can watch MKV files without converting them to MP4 and putting them on the Xbox/faffing around with 4GB file limits etc. The Revo is a brilliant box: cheap, tiny, near-silent and plays 1080p video with no dropped frames. I got mine from Amazon, if you’re curious. They had the best price at the time :)

Anyway, back to Windows Media Center. Out of the box, WMC doesn’t recognise MKV files. To get this to work:

1. Download and install Divx 7.
You only need the Codec bits, not the player/converter. This will setup MKV integration into WMC.

2. Download and install AC3 Filter
This will process AC3 audio if your MKV files has AC3 sound (a lot do, so it’s worth installing, otherwise you won’t get any sound)

3. Reboot your PC
4. Log back in, and open up WMC.
5. Ta-daa, you can now view (and hear!) MKV files :D

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Treats damaging your servers

11 March, 2010 at 2:28 pm by · Filed under Miscellaneous

Don’t you just hate it when treats damage your corporate servers :(

;)

Spotted on the DrayTek website

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Windows 7 – Cannot remove from network bridge

10 March, 2010 at 11:04 am by · Filed under Miscellaneous

Just had a very weird issue on Windows 7, where I was unable to remove a network connection from a network bridge I’d setup.

The normal way of doing it is described on the Microsoft website. However, right clicking on the network connection had the “Remove from bridge” option greyed out, meaning I couldn’t remove it. I was also unable to delete the Bridge miniport itself from within Manage network connections.

To fix this, we can brute force the removal:

  1. Open up Device Manager
  2. Expand “Network Connections”
  3. Right click on the MAC bridge miniport
  4. Uninstall it

As your bridge has been uninstalled, your connections should now be removed from the network bridge :)

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