Force remote desktop sessions to logoff

I use remote desktop on one of the production servers I work on since it is located outside of Lebanon.  However, I encountered a problem a couple of days ago because some people were using the close button to terminate the remote sessions instead of logging off, so I started receiving an error telling me that I cannot exceed the number of remote sessions that can be established even though no one is connected to the server.

Restarting the server was not an option so I had to find a way to terminate the stuck sessions, keep in mind that I have SSH (secured telnet) access to that server…. Thanks to Google I found some commands that made it possible!

First you have to execute the command “query session” which will print a list of the currently active sessions on the server along with their ID.
Now to force these sessions to log off, use the command “logoff sessionID /server /v”.
Replace ‘sessionID‘ with the ID numbers you got in the first command, one per time.
/server is to log off the session on the current server.
/v is to print the actions that are being performed while logging off.

Note that you should have telnet access to the server to perform these commands… DUH!

Tested on Windows 2k3 Server.

Hiren’s BootCD 9.1

Yes 9.1 is out!

I noticed how the post about version 9.0 was getting a good share of the blog hits everyday because of the large number of people that are searching for it, so here I am posting download links for the latest Hiren’s BootCD 9.1!

Download link: http://rapidshare.com/files/33944651/hbcd.9.1.en.rar
Mirror 1: http://files.9down.com:8080/HBCD9.1_www.9down.com.rar
Mirror 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OG0PQYXQ
Mirror 3: http://rapidshare.com/files/33985056/Hirens.BootCD.9.1.rar

The current version contains the following utilities:

Partition Tools:
- Partition Magic Pro 8.05 – Best software to partition hard drive
- Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0.554 – Popular disk management functions in a single suite
- Paragon Partition Manager 7.0.1274 – Universal tool for partitions
- Partition Commander 9.01 – The safe way to partition your hard drive,with undo feature
- Ranish Partition Manager 2.44 – a boot manager and hard disk partitioner.
- The Partition Resizer v1.3.4 – move and resize your partitions in one step and more.
- Smart Fdisk 2.05 – a simple harddisk partition manager
- SPecial Fdisk 2000 – SPFDISK a partition tool.
- eXtended Fdisk 0.9.3 – XFDISK allows easy partition creation and edition
- GDisk 1.1.1 – Complete replacement for the DOS FDISK utility and more.
- Super Fdisk 1.0 – Create, delete, format partitions drives without destroying data

Disk Clone Tools:
- ImageCenter 5.6 (Drive Image 2002) – Best software to clone hard drive
- Norton Ghost 11.0 – Similar to Drive Image (with usb/scsi support)
- Acronis True Image 8.1.945 – Create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning.
- Partition Saver 3.30 – A tool to backup/restore partitions.
- COPYR.DMA Build013 – A Tool for making copies of hard disks with bad sectors

Antivirus Tools:
- F-Prot Antivirus 3.16f (1003) – Very good virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu)
- McAfee Antivirus 4.40 (1003) – a virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu)

Recovery Tools:
- Active Partition Recovery 3.0 – To Recover a Deleted partition.
- Active Uneraser 3.0 – To recover deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS systems.
- Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.10 – To Recover data that has been deleted/virus attack
- Winternals Disk Commander 1.1 – more than just a standard deleted-file recovery utility
- TestDisk 6.7b – Tool to check and undelete partition.
- Lost & Found 1.06 – a good old data recovery software.
- DiyDataRecovery Diskpatch 2.1.100 – An excellent data recovery software.
- Prosoft Media Tools 5.0 v1.1.2.64 – Another excellent data recovery software with many other options.
- PhotoRec 6.7b – File and pictures recovery Tool.

Testing Tools:
- System Speed Test 4.78 – it tests CPU, harddrive, ect.
- PC-Check 6.0 – Easy to use hardware tests
- Ontrack Data Advisor 5.0 – Powerful diagnostic tool for assessing the condition of your computer
- The Troubleshooter 7.02 – all kind of hardware testing tool
- PC Doctor 3.0 – a benchmarking and information tool
- Test Cpu/Video/Disk 5.6 – a tool to test cpu, video, and disk
- Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0 – a tool to test Hard Disk Drive

RAM (Memory) Testing Tools:
- DocMemory 3.1b – RAM Test utility
- GoldMemory 5.07 – RAM Test utility
- Memtest86+ 1.70 – PC Memory Test

Hard Disk Tools:
- Hard Disk Diagnostic Utilities
- Seagate Seatools Desktop Edition 3.02
- Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools
- Western Digital Diagnostics (DLGDIAG) 5.04f
- Maxtor PowerMax 4.23
- Maxtor amset utility 4.0
- Maxtor(or any Hdd) Low Level Formatter 1.1
- Fujitsu HDD Diagnostic Tool 6.61
- Fujitsu IDE Low Level Format 1.0
- Samsung HDD Utility(HUTIL) 2.02
- Samsung Disk Diagnose (SHDIAG) 1.28
- IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.08
- IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool 2.03
- Gateway GwScan 3.15
- ExcelStor’s ESTest 3.80
- MHDD 4.6
- WDClear 1.30
- Toshiba Hard Disk Diagnostic 2.00b
- SeaTools for Dos 1.08
- HDD Regenerator 1.51 – to recover a bad hard drive
- Ontrack Disk Manager 9.57 – Disk Test/Format/Maintenance tool.
- Norton Disk Doctor 2002 – a tool to repair a damaged disk, or to diagnose your hard drive.
- Norton Disk Editor 2002 – a powerful disk editing, manual data recovery tool.
- Active Kill Disk 3.1 – Securely overwrites and destroys all data on physical drive.
- HDAT2 4.5.2 – main function is testing and repair (regenerates) bad sectors for devices
- SmartUDM 2.00 – Hard Disk Drive S.M.A.R.T. Viewer.
- Victoria 3.33 – a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics

System Information Tools:
- Aida16 2.14 – a system information tool, extracts details of all components of the PC
- PCI and AGP info Tool (1003) – The PCI System information & Exploration tool.
- System Analyser version 5.3p – View extensive information about your hardware
- Navratil Software System Information 0.59.14 – High-end professional system information tool
- Astra 5.31 – Advanced System info Tool and Reporting Assistant
- HwInfo 5.0.5 – a powerful system information utility
- PC-Config 9.33 – Complete hardware detection of your computer
- SysChk 2.46- Find out exactly what is under the hood of your PC
- CPU Identification utility v1.12 – Detailed information on CPU
- CTIA CPU Information – another CPU information tool

MBR (Master Boot Record) Tools:
- MBR Work 1.07b – a utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR functions
- MBR Tool 2.2.100 – backup, verify, restore, edit, refresh, remove, display, re-write…
- DiskMan4 – all in one tool for cmos, bios, bootrecord and more
- BootFix Utility – Run this utility if you get ‘Invalid system disk’
- MBR SAVE / RESTORE 2.1 – BootSave and BootRest tools to save / restore MBR
- Boot Partition 2.60 – add Partition in the Windows NT/2000/XP Multi-boot loader
- Partition Table Doctor 3.0 – a tool to repair/modify mbr, bootsector, partition table
- Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1 – a multi boot manager
- Bootmagic 8.0 – This tool is for multi boot operating systems
- MBRWizard 2.0b – Directly update and modify the MBR (Master Boot Record)

BIOS / CMOS Tools:
- CMOS 0.93 – CMOS Save / Restore Tool
- BIOS Cracker 4.8 – BIOS password remover (cmospwd)
- BIOS Cracker 1.4 – BIOS password remover (cmospwc)
- BIOS Utility 1.35.0 – BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more.
- !BIOS 3.20 – a powerfull utility for bios and cmos
- DISKMAN4 – a powerful all in one utility
- UniFlash 1.40 – bios flash utility
- Kill CMOS – a tiny utility to wipe cmos
- Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43 – DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents.

MultiMedia Tools:
- Picture Viewer 1.94 – Picture viewer for dos, supports more then 40 filetypes.
- QuickView Pro 2.57 – movie viewer for dos, supports many format including divx.
- MpxPlay 1.54 – a small Music Player for dos

Password Tools:
- Active Password Changer 3.0.420 – To Reset User Password on windows NT/2000/XP/2003 (FAT/NTFS)
- Offline NT/2K/XP Password Changer – utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.
- Registry Viewer 4.2 – Registry Viewer/Editor for Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP
- Registry Reanimator v1.02 – check and restore structure of the damaged registry files of NT/2K/XP
- NTPWD – utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.
- ATAPWD 1.2 – Hard Disk Password Utility

NTFS Ext2FS, Ext3FS (FileSystems) Tools :
- NTFS Dos Pro 5.0 – To access ntfs partitions from Dos
- NTFS 4 Dos 1.4 – To access ntfs partitions from Dos
- Paragon Mount Everything 3.0 – To access NTFS, Ext2FS, Ext3FS partitions from dos
- NTFS Dos 3.02 – To access ntfs partitions from Dos
- EditBINI 1.01 – to Edit boot.ini on NTFS Partition

Dos File Managers:
- Volkov Commander 4.99 – Dos File Manager with LongFileName/ntfs support (Similar to Norton Commander)
- Dos Command Center 5.1 – Classic dos-based file manager.
- File Wizard 1.35 – a file manager – colored files, drag and drop copy, move, delete etc.
- File Maven 3.5 – an advanced Dos file manager with high speed PC-to-PC file transfers via serial or parallel cable
- FastLynx 2.0 – Dos file manager with Pc to Pc file transfer capability
- LapLink 5.0 – the smart way to transfer files and directories between PCs.
- Dos Navigator 6.4.0 – Dos File Manager, Norton Commander clone but has much more features.
- Mini Windows 98 – Can run from Ram Drive, with ntfs support, Added 7-Zip which supports .7z .zip .cab .rar .arj .gzip, .bzip2 .z .tar .cpio .rpm and .deb, Disk Defragmenter, Notepad / RichText Editor, Image Viewer, .avi .mpg .divx .xvid Movie Player, etc…

Other Tools:
- Ghost Walker 2003.793 – utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP
- DosCDroast beta 2 – Dos CD Burning Tools
- Universal TCP/IP Network 5.9.3 – MSDOS Network Client to connect via TCP/IP to a Microsoft based network. The network can either be a peer-to-peer or a server based network, it contains 85 different network card drivers

Dos Tools:
- USB CD-Rom Driver 1 – Standard usb_cd.sys driver for cd drive
- Universal USB Driver 2 – Panasonic v2.20 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage
- SCSI Support – SCSI Drivers for Dos
- SATA Support – SATA Driver (gcdrom.sys) and JMicron JMB361 (xcdrom.sys) for Dos
- 1394 Firewire Support – 1394 Firewire Drivers for Dos
- Interlnk support at COM1 To access another computer from COM port
- Interlnk support at LPT1 – To access another computer from LPT port

Windows Tools:
- SpaceMonger 1.4 – keeping track of the free space on your computer
- Drive Temperature 1.0 – Hard Disk Drive temperature meter
- Disk Speed 1.0 – Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool
- MemTest 1.0 – a Memory Testing Tool
- PageDfrg 2.32 – System file Defragmenter For NT/2k/XP
- WhitSoft File Splitter 4.5a – a Small File Split-Join Tool
- Ghost Image Explorer 11.0 – to add/remove/extract files from Ghost image file
- DriveImage Explorer 5.0 – to add/remove/extract files from Drive image file
- Drive SnapShot 1.37 – creates an exact Disk Image of your system into a file while windows is running.
- Active Undelete 5.1.010 – a tool to recover deleted files
- Restoration 2.5.14 – a tool to recover deleted files
- GetDataBack for FAT 2.31 – Data recovery software for FAT file systems
- GetDataBack for NTFS 2.31 – Data recovery software for NTFS file systems
- Unstoppable Copier 2.28 – Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.
- Startup Control Panel 2.8 – a tool to edit startup programs
- Startup Monitor 1.02 – it notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup
- IB Process Manager 1.04 – a little process manager for 9x/2k, shows dll info etc.
- Pocket KillBox 2.0 – can be used to get rid of files that stubbornly refuse to allow you to delete them
- Unlocker 1.8.5 – This tool can delete file/folder when you get this message – Cannot delete file: Access is denied, The file is in use by another program etc.
- HijackThis 1.99 – a general homepage hijackers detector and remover and more
- RootkitRevealer 1.7 – Rootkit Revealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility.
- Silent Runners Revision 50 – A free script that helps detect spyware, malware and adware in the startup process
- Autoruns 8.61 – Displays All the entries from startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys, Explorer shell extensions,toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock, LSA Providers, Remove Drivers and much more which helps to remove nasty spyware/adware and viruses.
- Dial a Fix 0.60.0.24 – Fix errors and problems with COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries, Automatic Updates, SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues, Reinstall internet explorer etc. comes with the policy scanner
- CurrPort 1.07 – displays the list of all currently opened TCP and UDP ports on your computer
- Unknown Devices 1.2 (1003) – helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are
- PCI 32 Sniffer 1.1 (1003) – device information tool (similar to unknown devices)
- NewSID 4.10 – utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP
- Double Driver 1.0 – Driver Backup and Restore tool
- DriverBackup! 1.0 – Another handy tool to backup drivers
- CPU-Z 1.39 -It gathers information on some of the main devices of your system
- CWShredder 2.19 – Popular CoolWebSearch Trojan Remover tool
- Winsock 2 Fix for 9x – to fix corrupted Winsock2 information by poorly written Internet programs
- XP TCP/IP Repair 1.0 – Repair your Windows XP Winsock and TCP/IP registry errors
- CCleaner 1.38.485 – vulgar language not allowed Cleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool
- EzPcFix 1.0.0.16 – Helpful tool when trying to remove viruses, spyware, and malware
- Content Advisor Password Remover 1.0 – It Removes Content Advisor Password from Internet Explorer
- WinKeyFinder 1.0 – Allows you to View and Change Xp, Windows 2003 and .NET Product Keys
- Spybot – Search & Destroy 1.4 (1003) – Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software.
- SpywareBlaster 3.5.1 (1003) – Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
- Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 (1003) – find and remove spyware, adware, dialers etc. (a must have tool)

Searching in upload sites – Part 2

This is a follow up to a post I made about searching in upload sites.
Today I found a site that will make your life easier if you want to search in rapidshare, megaupload or depositefiles. You will get to choose 1 of these 3 website and search in it for whatever you want. Search results will be displayed in a nice organized way.
I assume it searches websites and NOT upload sites for uploaded files, because search results will guide you to existing web pages. The idea is cool though and quite helpful.
The search engine can be found on the following link: http://www.keepmywebsite.com/rapidsharer

Cool card trick

I found this video by chance today, pay attention to the magic word he says..! funny!

The chaotic fights in north of Lebanon

Below are some videos of the fights that took place in the north of Lebanon, in “Nahr Al Bared” camp for palestinian refugees between the Lebanese army and the “Fateh Al-Islam” terrorist organization.

Before watching the actual clips, I would like you to take a look at the first clip for Seymoure Hersh who revealed the truth about “Fateh Al-Islam”. He claims that the Lebanese government has been supporting this organiztion to battle agaisnt Hezbollah (the Lebanese islamic resistance against Israel), see for yourself. Time will tell how true this info is.

The fights videos. (2 days old)

Searching in upload sites

We all became familiar recently with free uploading sites such as rapidshare.com and megaupload.com.
Usually, when a person needs to share some file, he will upload it to one of these site and then share the download link with others. But what few people know is that we can actually search these websites for whatever we want! And that’s of course using Google.

To start searching, use the following expression:
site:site_name_here search_term_here
Words in italic are for you to fill. For example, if you want to search rapidshare for songs for the Eagles you will be writing:
site:rapidshare.com eagles

Same applies for other websites!

Enjoy searching!

Multi Virus Cleaner 2007

Today I came across a nice software to carry around! The Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 is a utility to remove major viruses and threats, yet it cannot be a substitute to an antivirus software.

Multi Virus Cleaner is a free, stand-alone utility used to detect and remove major viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when cleaning infected systems. Multi Virus Cleaner is regularly updated and can detect over 5,500 common viruses, worms, trojans and dialers (including all variants of the Sober, MyDoom and Bagle viruses). The program boasts a fast, user-friendly scanner that requires minimal processing power and is an excellent choice for repairing a compromised system.

This software can be portable as well, all you need to do is to copy the directory where the software was installed, usually ‘C:\Program Files\AxBx\Multi Virus Cleaner 2007′, to a USB flash drive then run it anywhere else.
Note that there are no virus definitions updates, so you have to download the installation package every now and then when updated versions are released.

Download link: http://www.viruskeeper.com/us/mvc2007us.zip

Painting with light

Experimenting…

Betting on Beirut

More than 2 years ago, with the assassination of the late prime minister Rafic Hariri on the 14th of February 2005, things started to fall apart here in Beirut and all of Lebanon…

Since that date the situation in Lebanon has been very unstable. We have seen many explosives placed in small neighborhoods, many politicians assassinated, and a long exhausting war last summer. A lot of young Lebanese people have migrated to other countries, mostly to the gulf!
Even though a lot of my friends and relatives were part of these immigrants, but throughout that time, I have been saying that there’s no way I will leave Lebanon, because I believe that we are born to stay in here. Moreover, how will Lebanon survive if we all left!!

It was like a bet, I was always optimistic, I always thought Lebanon will recover and most probably we will get to live better days… I placed my bet on Beirut!

Today, May 20 2007, things started to get worse again… the Lebanese army got into fights with the Palestinians in the north of Lebanon, and 2 hours ago, an explosion took place in Achrafiyyeh near a very popular mall, ABC. And only god knows how things will end.

Now what about my bet? is it time to give up on my Beirut? is it time to do just like everybody else and start searching for a job in the Gulf?

Time SHOULD tell…

EZ Backup Firefox & Thunderbird Premium 4.7

If you a Firefox or Thunderbird user, then you might find this software handy for you.

EZ Backup Firefoc & Thunderbird Premium can be used to backup your bookmarks, mail and settings to any local or network drive, and even to a CD/DVD. It also offers a scheduling feature to provide a total automated backup which can be secured with a 128bit encryption!

Enough talking, the software is easy to use so no instructions are needed, just use the download link and use the crack included withing the package.

Download Link: http://www.box.net/shared/dig8zd8hku