What are /r/computertechs' favorite Products & Services?

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Don't use ophcrack and try to brute force the password use http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/ and enable the administrator account and clear the password but bear in mind this won't work for an encrypted drive but in guessing it's not

You don't. Those are extremely small wires that are nearly impossible to fix. It's cheaper and faster to replace the cables. This is likely what you need but you I can't guarantee they are the correct size: https://smile.amazon.com/U-FL-RP-SMA-Pigtail-Antenna-Cable/dp/B005UWD0EG I recommend looking at the measurements and trying to estimate the size of yours.

The other end of that black wire that is twisted up connects to the chip with a push connector. THEY ARE VERY FRAGILE. Use a small plastic spudger or guitar pick to pry them off very slowly so you don't rip the connection off the chip.

Actually the original cryptolockers server was raided by the FBI and all the keys were published so people could unlock their files for free. Bleeping computer link

Edit: Yes as several have pointed out this won't work for OP because it's created by a different people with different decrypt keys.

Same for the past few months here, and many others have seen the same problems.

Have you tried out the new convenience update? It kinda fixes the aforementioned issue and knocks out well over half of the updates that need to be pulled in after a clean Win7 SP1 install.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/05/17/simplifying-updates-for-windows-7-and-8-1/

The files (prerequisite and the update itself) are buried away pretty well, so here's a link to the updates I kept after getting them last week:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=2475ED984C0E0BFF!5222&authkey=!AFYmXXQkyUDCsvY&ithint=folder%2cmsu

Starting with Windows 8, the license is now stored in the BIOS of OEM machines. There are retreival tools for it.

I use PsExec from the PsTools Suite. It lets you execute anything from the command line as if you were actually at the remote machine without anything showing there.

By the way, there are a lot of other very useful tools in that suite. check them out!

Use Process Explorer to see if the CMD is being called with arguments: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

And Autoruns to track down the cmd entry (if there's a match): https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

(I'd start in the task scheduler.)

I use a usb3 64GB flash drive running Easy2Boot with all of my isos on it. It took me maybe 20 minutes for initial setup and now I can just add isos and execute a batch file on the drive to get it good to go. http://www.easy2boot.com/

Ok, so, assuming the version of Musescore you're using is the latest available from their website, I took the liberty of scanning every dll file it installs and the exe with Virustotal and it comes back 100% clean on all of them.

There are a few possibilities here, but primarily I would say that you might have misconstrued his ability to immediately 'fix' the problem with the fact that first it must be determined that:

1. There is a problem.

2. They're allowed to fix the problem.

3. That the antivirus, in fact, is the root cause, and if not the root cause has been identified. I am going to go out on a limb and say that virus definitions are not at fault here for it being blocked.

4. That despite what you might believe, maybe there is something wrong with the current version of Musescore and before it is white listed it needs to be vetted by the admin team first.

In IT no promises are made unless the thing promised already exists. I don't know is a much better answer than "sure" followed by "Whoops, nevermind" a day later.

Honestly I've never found much advantage in using electrics, they don't save much time really.

What IS great though if you don't have one is a long blade phillips for reaching inside cases. Makes things like taking boards in and our so much nicer and if you spin it by the shaft instead of the handle you can get really fast with one actually.

Amazon Link

/r/computertechs is for us computer technicians to trade tips and stories, you should check out /r/techsupport

That being said, use a Mac to reformat the drive as VFAT, or use MacDrive on your HP to view the Mac-formatted disk.

I use OpenBroadcaster. It's pretty straight forward for basic use. There are also advance features for the more serious/professional user. I primarily use it to record quick 'how to' videos.

It's free and open source. There's 32-bit and 64-bit versions as well as Windows/Mac/Linux versions.

You can record as well as setup a live stream.

I used to use CamStudio but the developer went shady and basically added malware to their installer.

WinPE is really the way to go for tech tools. Try out Aomei PE Builder. Fresh out of beta as of a few days ago, super simple and takes all the guesswork & manual tinkering out of creating a WinPE environment. Just create a bootable USB using any external HDD/SSD/flash drive, and that will give you pretty much what you're wanting.

http://www.aomeitech.com/pe-builder.html

I use this to do pretty much exactly what you're wanting to do. I have a 120GB SSD with WinPE5.0 built by Aomei PE Builder. It includes Backupper, Partition Manager, and 4 sysprep'd images to deploy to new systems for my clients. So I plug up & boot this one drive, restore an image, and reboot. Easy peasy.

The only catch is that for some reason, it only works with Win7 and Win8 right now.. Giving you WinPE 3.1 or WinPE 5.0, respectively. Aomei PE Builder won't run on Win8.1, which would have given you WinPE5.1 bootable media. Last month, the beta ran on Win8.1 but the media didn't work on anything you tried to boot with it. So I see why they blocked it for the first non-beta release, but I'm also curious as to why it left beta if 8.1 is still problematic.

Now for a full Windows OS on an external drive, there's Windows To Go. Main issue here is that A) It's only available in Win8.x Enterprise, and B) you need proper licensing for the OS.

Even with the workarounds that lets you do Windows To Go-type external Windows volumes without the Enterprise SKU, you still have to worry about licensing if you're wanting a "portable" full blown install of Windows to carry around. But if anyone wants to tinker with it anyway, Aomei Partition Manager has a Windows To Go builder.

Instead of guitar picks, we picked up 100 of these. I emailed them to ask about bulk pricing. The support guy set up a special coupon code just for me to use. I don't want to say how much they were, but it was less than half, and I got free shipping.

I'm sure if anyone wants to order 10 or more, they will give some kind of discount.

Also, they're not rubber or plastic. They say it's "Vulcanized Fiber" and, as they claim, it can hold up to a soldering iron. Not directly for a long time, but if you're prying something up while desoldering it, you won't have to worry about it melting.

Angry IP scanner v2.x (not v3 - it is much slower). Fast, portable, quick way to see what's active on a network, what ports are open, etc.

CutePDF - simple print to pdf, faster than Acrobat. I like to make PDF copies of all online receipts, confirmations, etc. Not a tech, but still necessary for documentation.

I've ran into this numerous times and every Windows 8 disc I have requires a product key BEFORE I can install Windows. So here's what to do:

1. Obtain a regular Windows 8 disc and boot from it

2. When prompted for a key, use a generic install key:

   Core: 334NH-RXG76-64THK-C7CKG-D3VPT

   Professional: XHQ8N-C3MCJ-RQXB6-WCHYG-C9WKB

   Enterprise: MNDGV-M6PKV-DV4DR-CYY8X-2YRXH

3. After Windows is installed, run the contents of this zip which injects the correct key from the BIOS

What's in the zip? The folder has two files: a batch file and a hidden keyfinder. The batch runs the keyfinder, removes the old generic key, prompts for the new key, and activates Windows online. It merely saves you from remembering a few commands. (Those commands are slmgr -upk, slmgr -ipk, and slmgr -ato)

I hope this helps a fellow tech.

hey, 10 minutes of googling and i found this article:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-free-wifi-hotspot-ddwrt/

seems like the cheapest way to go, and I've found variations on this solution in many other pages as well. All you need is a Linksys router that can support the DD-WRT firmware, and a free account here http://www.hotspotsystem.com/

It's worth a shot... it's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a Cisco wireless controller or something of that nature lol

Friends and family? Sending them to a web site, even one as good as u/thetoastmonster's, will get skimmed and do little. Expertise like yours comes with massive effort over time. So do what you'd do for clients:

First is basic prevention: help them set up anti-virus/malware/ransomware, email filters and spam flagging, firewall, updates, cycling regular off-line backups.

Second is Internet configuring (also prevention): router and wifi, ad and javascript white/black-listing, password manager, maybe pihole or similar.

If you've done this right, the third yet still critical part, training and info (still prevention), becomes much easier because they'll (relatively) rarely get exposed to problems. Keep yourself informed, say Schneier, and occasionally pass along the current popular scam with descriptions they'll comprehend, to keep them wary without feeling scared.

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Professor Messer and I'm going to use those videos to supplement my training book and cd media I got from Amazon for $34.80 with free two day shipping.

Are you working from a bench or having to go onsite? That changes the answer a bit, but ifixit is a solid choice either way.

I have the Pro kit and it works well. For things like tweezers and forceps, I would recommend just getting cheap ones from Amazon. I also highly recommend a magnetizer. Makes getting small screws out much easier.

If you have an android device you can use wifi analyzer. It will tell you the strength in dB, the channel it is running on, and what channel it would be strongest on.

reverse image search:

https://images.google.com/ https://www.tineye.com/

If nothing comes up or something incriminating comes up, then i'd day you have some decisions to make, if it comes up on basically any searchable site (ie listed in google) then you shouldn't worry.

Edit: shit didn't see you said video: it might still be possible but you would have to break the video down to stills... I wouldn't recommend it as that's getting a little too 'hands on'

Pull up half a dozen command prompt windows.

Ping things in five of them.

Play an ASCII roguelike in the sixth.

You'll be making keypresses and seeming techy and busy, all while trying to collect the Amulet of Yendor or whatever.

I don't work on computers with spinning hard disks without checking the hard drive for corruption. Not filesystem corruption but physically bad sectors. More often than not I would find the 'wonky' behavior that the computer was having was due to a bad drive.

Seatools and WDLifeGuard are great.

A SMART test is not a substitute for this. There are other great bootable/offline tools that are great to use.

Most of the time when I get problems like that it's due to RAM. If you have more than one stick, just take one out see if it works, if it still fails, put it back in and take out the other chip and see if it also fails.

The system might also be writing minidump files when the system encounters these crashes, I use this program from NirSoft - it's a BSOD Viewer to see whats been failing. Works wonders when I trouble shoot random crashes at work.

I know these problems are never fun, good luck.

You can't take all four because the 700 series was retired several months ago. You only need the 801 and 802 to get your A+ Certification.

Check out http://www.professormesser.com for great study material, videos and study groups. Plus they have a chat to help answer any questions you may have.

Here's something that might be of interest to you: you can download the join.me app directly, without having to use the website. You can send the URL to anyone via email, have them click it and run the app, instead of using the website. It also gets around an issue some computers have with the .NET ClickOnce Deployer. Here's the URL:

https://join.me/download.aspx

Hope that helps.

Plugable USB C to M.2 NVMe Tool-free Enclosure USB C https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N48N5GR/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_QEA3FA81FNKZ1142PZ9B?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This is the one that i use, and it works great

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y465VX1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used to use one with a 2.5" drive in it, but upgraded to this one when it died. Its saved my butt so many times.

You can get a vacuum that's designed for use on computer equipment for under $100.

A quick Amazon search revealed:

Metro Vacuum MDV-1BA DataVac Pro 4.5-AMP Computer Vac/Blower

https://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-MDV-1BA-DataVac-Computer/dp/B00006IAOR

4.5 stars rating, $80 and Prime eligible shipping.

checking ownership of the encrypted files will give you nothing....

you need to check the ownership of the newly created files by the ransomware, those that inform you how to pay: Locky_recover_instruction.txt

those will reveal the culprit, though funny thing is when AV software removes those...

Anyway OP, antivirus can clean it up sometimes, meaning it will kill the ransomware from being active, but I would definitly do reinstall and checked other PCs on your network for registry changes and stuff...

when we got hit by locky it was actually interesting that ESET on two PCs that opened the invoice mail caught it. But on one PC it got through and on another it seemed like it got partly through and did some encryption but far from all...

the next day after the infection ESET caught it 100% when we checked the email that caused it

Windows 7 upgrade path

Long story short, no way to directly upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit OS. You'll need to back up your files and install over the existing 32-bit OS.

You might want to try posting this in /r/techsupport and /r/24hoursupport.

Check to make sure all your drivers are up to date first of all. If not, update them.

Next, use a can of air to clean out any dust from around the components/fans/heat sinks, etc.

Next, reseat the RAM and video card. Carefully use the can of air to blow out the slots when you reseat the cards.

If you've done all this and you're still having trouble, I'd recommend opening up task manager to the processes tab and finding the cause of the intense CPU usage. Look for anything you don't know that's taking a large percentage of your CPU usage. If you're running XP, ignore system idle process, that should normally be between 80-90% if everything is running correctly.

You'll likely need to get Process Explorer once you find the culprit and do a bit of research to figure out what's causing the problem. A lot of times you'll see an svchost process taking up a lot of CPU usage. This is basically a large grouping of processes, hence why you need Process Explorer to figure out which one is messing you up.

As always, make sure to do your research before you stop a process.

Also, I'd recommend running Malwarebytes (make sure it's up to date) just to rule out the possibility of malware.

Hope this helps!

Just use Portable windows 8.

http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/

This allows you to put a fully working version of windows 8 on a USB 2.0/3.0 drive and boot it from any machine. It stores your programs and settings, Simply overrides with new drivers every startup. Because of this I suggest you put it on an SSD.

In fact you can make the drive with a USB enclosure, then remove it. You can boot it from SATA Internally from any system (Faster read and write times through SATA, USB 3.0 is finicky in contrast due to drivers at startup.) Thing being if you boot it from SATA, It must always boot from SATA. Same goes for USB.

I typically use this for anything. Especially when your wondering if something is hardware or software, Or if a wipe would fix the issue or not. Boot some portable 8 and run Heavyload, Bam its the ram or a popped capacitor, Or its software, You know right away. This thing has been my life long dream in IT, It's the ultimate rescue environment! You can easily boot into desktops and transfer their files across the Gigabit network while scanning their drive for viruses with all the tools preinstalled and updated at all times. You can easy install doom and your emulators and run them during service calls!......Ok maybe dont do that...... ;)

And then you've got OpenBSD's pf packet filtering firewall to think about, if you're interested in making even more decision trees about what you need for a good router these days.

Like a few other commenters have stated, I don't want to have to learn IOS' or JUNOS' strange & convulated ( to me, at least ) ways in order to feel confident that I've set up my router correctly. Coupled with the expense of enterprise-grade equipment, the learning curve is too expensive for me to even want to bother.

OpenBSD & pf, on the other hand, will run on any $20/$50/$500 trash computer with a couple extra network cards for wifi & gigabit ethernet. which are like $40 a pair now. Learn at your own pace, on disposable equipment if you must, & you'll probably see that pf's syntax & overall layout is far better than banging your head against yet another Cisco cert or, even better, ponying up serious moolah to hire a Cisco certified person.

If you want, you can even run a locked-down meshed perimeter grid with trunking & failover, with all the amenities of bgpd & it's ilk, with centralized logging through syslogd & advanced QoS tuning available with the various packet filtering mechanisms built in to pf.

But you don't have to. If all you need is a single router/firewall, you can definitely do that all by your lonesome, or sign up for the @misc mailing list to join the many other OpenBSD users in conversation.

( I'm done 'buying' "routers" now, I think. )

Possibly you mean easy2boot. Yes, once made you can drop/add isos on the correct folder using a file manager. I have the old Hirens on one, also a gparted disk, clonezilla, acronis, windows 7, 10, etc.

http://www.easy2boot.com/

I would start off by downloading the Ultimate Boot CD. It has a number of different free utilities that can test things like hard drives, processors, and yes MemTest is on there too.

It also has utilities for exploring the file system and wiping the hard drive and such, so it's a nice all-in-one utility to have (and easier than making your own)

Or just pay for the amount of machines you process per month (for pc shop or equivalent). From what I remember (previous post from Ninite guys), it's a legit usage - having said that, if your tech lead found that, you must have quite a few computers.

tl;dr: Not a fixed cost at $100k - up to 1000 machines per month, $2220/year. https://ninite.com/pro

Combofix is the best shit ever.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix

I can't tell you how many times that little peice of software has saved me hours worth of work.

Little dixie cups for screws if you're familiar with the disassembly, otherwise use a piece of paper and draw circles or squares and label them as you remove them.

Magnetize your screwdriver with a hard drive magnet.

Use SARDU for lazy custom multi boot cds or usbs.

Ninite after a fresh OS install.

Never be afraid to break something, you'll learn either way.

I've always used a program called DBAN; Darik's Boot and Nuke. It usually comes on those utility CDs like Ultimate Boot CD, or you can download an ISO of just that here. It basically writes multiple passes of random data to the hard drive a bunch of times to wipe it.

Before even considering fulfilling that request, you might want to verify that such monitoring is legal in your country or portion thereof (in some places, it ain't).

With that out of the way, I usually use Wireshark if I need to monitor network traffic beyond what the router/switch/gateway provides.

Someone you should really check out is Professor Messer. He has hours upon hours of study videos that go segment by segment through each exam. All of the videos are free to watch, or you could pay to download them all. Before my exam day I spent 7 hours straight just watching his videos. He also have videos for Network+ and Security+.

I would get a usb-c multimeter and go from there. The charge should be 5v and then kick over to 20v once voltage is confirmed by the board.

It's not an easy repair I'll tell you that and this is a very broad answer. Louis Rossman has awesome youtube videos about this sort of repair.

Also you can download the schematics for this board and use the software openboardview to confirm voltages and trace routes.

For something as old as in OP's pic, there's a very good chance is going to have an IDE drive inside. But yea, same advice applies. I'd get a kit with both SATA/IDE just to cover any future projects.

https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Universal-Converter-Adapter-UA2001/dp/B00MLYV5XY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=ide+sata+usb+3.0&qid=1606096450

Amazon Link

We can still use the free (or Premium) D7 without TechUSB, correct? I like your program, but like others have said, the price seems a little steep. I've been having good success with a Hiren's usb boot or similar paired with D7 standalone. (D7 Here: https://sites.google.com/a/obxcompguy.com/foolish-it/d7 ).

Well, I know none specifically but I believe that falls under the category of White and Gray Hat Hacking.

Look at Gray Hat Hacking The Ethical Hacker's Handbook.

Here it is for free. AFAIK, it's been free forever in pdf (please correct if wrong). I downloaded it myself from here actually and the files safe (no bugs).

Planet sysadmin, which is a blog aggregator, and a custom google for it.

Also lots of subs, /r/sysadmin,/r/linuxadmin,/r/networking, /r/powershell, /r/sccm etc. Go explore more tech subs

I've used ProduKey from NirSoft. Super lightweight and portable, great for customer machines on the bench and it does have remote capabilities as well.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

1. Because we're doing multiple things at once, we charge for the time it actually takes us to get the thing cleaned off. While the scan is running, I'm doing something else. But the time it takes to get the machine booted up, get Malwarebytes running, and then get whatever is on there removed and clean up the damage...that gets billed.

2. Once again, it's the time it takes to actually "do" something. I don't have to watch their data backup. Now, I will charge you a little more for that then just backing up a couple photos because it takes a lot longer and you definitely aren't getting your computer back in a day.

3. We backup drivers before the machine is wiped. If that is not possible, then it takes the time it takes. If the customer isn't able to provide drivers CDs for their laptop/desktop, then it's going to take extra time to figure it all out.

4. As for updates, we use: http://www.wsusoffline.net/. Updates take about 30 minutes to go from fresh install to fully updated.

Inside GEGEEK there is a folder called Program Files. Inside that folder are sub-directories for each category. Create a folder inside the category folder you want to add something to and put the .exe file in it or.... You could also go to the GEGeek Ver10 menu folder in the bottom, run Ketarian update and add the URL to automatically download the file to that folder.

Inside GEGEEK go to: SyMenu\Tools\Configuration Right click the folder you want to add your program in and click add program. Then point it to the .exe file that you just dropped in the folder you created.

Also here is the manual: http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx

Edit: The way I figured out how to customize it was to look at what was already there.

Hello, I use this one for various functions through the command line http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html.

You can then set a shortcut to it and assign a key combination (Properties > Shortcut > Shortcut key).

Good time to ask this question. What is the best solution for having multiple boot images on a single usb memory stick? I use YUMI Multiboot disk creator at the moment but I have heard about a better solution where you just drop the ISO files to the disk and off you go. I just cannot remember it!

ScreenConnect is a good one for remote access. You can pay once off and host on your own server, or pay a subscription and they sort that out for you.

You can setup unattended access and sort pc's under different client names, or in whatever way you want. Or you can do once-off remote access by sending the user to your website to start a session.

Windows and Mac compatible (and android if you are into that sort of thing)

For non invite trackers, kickass really was the best. It is gone now so https://thepiratebay.org/ is currently the most populous site. As always, TPB's current correct url (there are copies of TPB) can always be found in the sidebar of /r/tpb.

If you mean the actual tracker UDPs, here are the most populous:

• udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969

• udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969

You want Bulk Rename Utility.

Install it, run it, specify your directory and then adjust these settings:

Name (2) - Remove

Numbering (10) - Mode: Prefix (or suffix, doesn't matter in this case.)

All other defaults are fine for your case. You just need to change those two dropdown boxes.

Once you've done that, select all the files in the pane above. You will see a preview of what the filenames will look like before you click the Rename button at the bottom.

No apple specific questions will be on the test. I'd go through some practice tests or pick up Mike Meyer's A+ book, and also visit http://www.professormesser.com/ - he has some good videos and practice quizzes too i think.

SMS Backup & Restore has become the de-facto standard in SMS and call log backup on Android devices.

It outputs an .xml with all message threads and can also backup MMS content. The .xml's can be restored on any other Android device by the same app, but are also natively readable by many other messenger apps (e.g. Signal).

Worked every time without a hitch for me.

I had this problem last night, the second answer on this page ( http://superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates ) solved it for me. The one that starts with the sentence "This issue has come and gone over the years with different fixes along the way, so here is my updated guide to this issue as of this date January 5th, 2016"

I personally use Revo as well. I don't know about IOBit's product, but I try to boycott their products due to them stealing from other companies.

http://www.cnet.com/news/malwarebytes-accuses-rival-of-software-theft/

I predominantly use flyers in mailboxes. Note! this is in the UK where it's perfectly legal; in the US one isn't allowed to put anything in the mailbox however there are frequently newspaper tubes nearby which I understand could be so used. Roughly speaking, about 10% of my work by hours comes directly from calls from the flyers -- the rest of it is made up of repeats and referrals. With what I know about the US (I stayed in CA, NY and CT for a while), I would personally like to try the newspaper tube route on non-delivery days as an experiment while advertising in the newspaper proper.

One thing I'll add: if you advertise at $40ph, you get people who want to pay $40ph. If you advertise at $120ph, you get people who want to pay $120ph, and it's not necessarily so that there'll be fewer of them: many $120ers would rather keep looking than stop at a $40. Similarly, if you advertise with flyers, you get people who want to be advertised to with flyers: They are not necessarily the same people as would respond to a newspaper advert, or a bill on a telegraph pole. But as I said -- answering this question solves only for about 10% of income -- it isn't that important.

It runs off USB. The bootable items in the picture take up about 10GB, and the portable programs (malware removal, office installers, and various repair tools) take up around 8GB. 18GB seemed too big to post, so I simply posted links on how to start making your own.

Yumi makes it pretty easy to get started. Then just go into the multiboot folder and edit the syslinux.cfg file to make the flash drive into whatever you want. Here's my syslinux.cfg for referance. Good Luck!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-15-Quart-Latch-Box-Stadium-Blue-Case-of-10/44785809

We used something exactly like these. On the top, we put something like this and put all the paper work in it. Right before I left, I started sticking a piece of wide masking tape on the side and marking the work order number on the tub to make it easier to grab the right tub out of a stack.

When we would return the laptop to the customer, we'd bring the whole tub out, let the sign the paperwork, verify their inventory, and go. These tubs saved us so much time, 100% worth it. At around $4 per, they were cheap too.

They also work great for workstation and server parts too. Just stick them on top of the server/tower with all the parts inside.

• MSCONFIG and try to reduce as much startup items and non-MS services as feasibly possible.

• Tweak/Configure Windows Services. A trusted source would be Black Viper. I will admit I hadn't even looked at his site in a few years, but it looks like he is still on top of the services.

• Tweak/Configure Scheduled Tasks, especially ones that startup with the PC.

• Replace Boatware with lighter alternatives. Biggest example would be to remove Adobe Acrobat Reader and replace it with Foxit Reader.

Also, one trick I have been experimenting with lately is to check the user's installed software with Ninite. What I will do is create an installer that only updates existing software on their PC, save the file to a safe location, then create a manual scheduled task that runs the app as admin and hidden, once a month, and killing the task after 2 hours. Then disable any instances of the individual apps auto-updating (Chome, Firefox, VLC, Java, iTunes, etc)

EDIT: All other suggestions are great. Keep the PC clean, both software and hardware. And I don't know why /u/connery_007 was downvoated, but I am in favour of setting a manual pagefile size to 1.5x the amount of RAM your system has. I admit this is back from the XP/Vista era, so if this information is inaccurate, I would appreciate an intelligent response as opposed to a downvoat!

If this is your itch, no serious tech would blame you for scratching it. Rule 1

Comments:
* I don't know personally know of anything like this.
* Consider researching in narrower places than here - /r/sysadmin has ten times more subs, thirty times more "here now", and your idea seems to overlap their interest too.
And ...
* I'm assuming you're meaning a general tool that can be implemented within a private network, not that you're proposing a tool for which an RFC would eventually be written
* The problem you seem to have seems to be one of discovery, similar to the problem solved by DHCP.
* The answer "Where is the H: drive" in my experience would change far less often than "What's my IP address". Indeed, it would change less often than the router itself. It seems excessive, then, to build out supporting infrastructure for an answer that doesn't change.
* This changes the initial problem to one of persisting an announcement, "The H: drive can be found at fqdn\path"
* If there's no reason otherwise, such an announcement should go in your sites notes for that client
* If there is a reason that's not possible, you could avail yourself of DNS TXT fields, storing the above announcement in the record for hdrive.client.com. Such info can be trivially (for us, not them) retrieved from the user's machine using nslookup on Windows (WilfriedVS answer), and "dig" on a Mac.

Beyond there, auditing of drive access would be better done on the server rather than the user's machine because the server can be secured. Also moving IT work (modifying permissions) to a Manager sounds like a recipe for trouble: an employee's ability to interact with the IT should not be contingent on a direct manager.

I'd suggest using https://www.code42.com/business/

Supports file versioning and its more affordable. I believe its roughly $10/mo.

Here is another option if you're into managing your own solutions.

https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/

Oh Quebec...

Is your client looking for something where their customers can self-serve creating and managing events? That's a little more complex, it sounds like more than what a restaurant reservation system might handle. You might try checking out Capterra for solutions.

Snappy Driver Installer is open source. You can audit and contribute to it. Been using it for years.

The drivers that SDI downloads are from the DriverPack team which is a very old project that started to catalog drivers to streaming into Windows installers.

It matches hardware ID's for installed hardware to hardware IDs in the driverpacks. This can result in getting more up to date drivers from a specific part manufacturer instead of out of date crap from an OEM web site. Occasionally it can fuck up touchpads because of weird hardware IDs, in which case you just restore the OEM driver.

It is all legit.

Every single program you just stated is a common piece of malware. Did you return the customers data from their old computer onto their new one? Cause if it were never connected to the net, But you left malicious downloads in their downloads folder when you backed it up. They reinstall all those downloads on the new computer, and bam you got malware.

PC Optimizer pro is one of the most common pieces of malware I see today, It is not preloaded on machines. The coupon scanner as well, Doesnt come preloaded.

Dell preloads with things like Dell Datasafe, Dell Safedock, Etc. They almost always put dell in the name.

Customer is lying to you. I would snag a small program called "Last Activity Viewer" http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/computer_activity_view.html

This will allow you to see every little thing that was clicked on and run since the computer has had life. I cant tell you the amount of times I have heard "It never worked once, We had it for 3 weeks and we sat it in the attic until we came back from vacation, So this is the first we used it and you put all those viruses back on."

Last activity viewer lets me tell those people the time/date in which they received their malware. You can also cross reference that information with their browser history and nail them.

yeah that was /u/grintor -- Here's the link to that thread and here is the link to the batch file.

Sounds like the term you're looking for is a surface scan. I've used DriveDX as a Mac version of HDSentinel to great effect.

I'd run that on the Mac and see what it comes up with. You can also throw a spare hard drive in it and reimage it; see if the problem persists.

I'm with /u/Alistair_Mann - single bad sector and it's dead to me. Disk space is just too cheap to mess with.

100% stardock start 8. It's $5 but works fantastically. It's such a perfect recreation of the windows 7 start menu that I legitimately forget I'm using Windows 8 on my personal computer.

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

It's the only one I recommend to my clients because it works so well you forget it's an extra program.

I was going to suggest WinDirStat but see you've tried it already. While I haven't tried it before, maybe http://www.foldersizes.com/ will work? It is paid software but provides trial.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-disk-space-analyzer.htm may also give you some pointers.

Right, the 8/8.1/10 COA is just a logo now for OEMs.

The keys instead are embedded in the BIOS and can be retrieved with produkey.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Install 10, specify you don't have a key, and get the network going. If it doesn't activate on it's own then use the 8/8.1 key retrieved via produkey.

8/8.1 should activate on their own using the embedded key otherwise the same method applies.

produkey will find and display keys from the registry, however if Office is asking for the key, there is a chance that the registry key that holds it was removed or overwritten during repair. You can try either way, it is a free download.

Try searching again using the term(s) 'key finder' 'serial' and/or 'product key'

If I had to choose one right now, I would second the recommendation of the NirSoft software.

Just create a portable windows 8 drive. Take SSD or HDD and use this tool. http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/

You can use a USB 3.0 drive enclosure, Or if you want to hook it to anything at all you can simply take it out of the enclosure after installation and plug it into a free sata on the board. You can connect and disconnect to pretty much any computer with sata (Even more so if you use 32-bit windows 8). You can run pretty much anything you can think of, It's the ultimate rescue environment. Im thinking about writing a guide cause it's a commonly asked for thing.

ahh i guess a lot of us didnt read. You dont necessarily have an infection but building something more perm.

depends on your PE..

you cna make a windows 7 PE with windows safety scanner in it. or get some portable apps and just drop them in the pe.. probably easiest

portable apps (this one has a nice little launcher)

or just download portable clamav from here.

you cant just copy over from hirens as it writes reg entries and such.

1. Autoruns.
2. Remove suspicious group policies.
3. PC Decrapifier (or your favorite batch removal tool) - or just run though add remove programs.
4. Revo.
5. ADW cleaner.
6. Mbam.
7. Super AntiSpyware.
8. Hitman Pro.
9. SFC.
10. Some tidy with your favorite cleanup tool, namely CCleaner.

If some further damage was done by malware i recommend you check out complete Internet repair, or tweaking.com's windows repair

Experience, I feel, is the best teacher, here. The training was always too sanitized for me to really get a grasp on 'So, what if this doesn't work like it's supposed to.

Bluescreenview, as sketchy as it looks, has been really handy to better ID those system crash errors.

Google is also your friend for all those nearly similar error messages.

Download Hirens boot CD and use e.g. Rufus to create a bootable usb drive. When that's done plug it into the Dell pc and boot from the usb drive. From there you can hopefully get through the password. Step-by-step guide on how to reset windows password; https://www.hirensbootcd.org/faq-items/resetting-windows-password/

Checkout Ketarin. I've used it for almost 6 years now and love it. You can have it run scripts before or after downloads, has scripting built in and can do just about anything.

https://ketarin.org/forum/announcement/1-ketarin-188-beta/

All linux machines come with a tool called "curl" that access the website ( in theory simulating a click) , and displays what ever the site returns.

If the output / resultant page is not needed to you, just pipe the output to /dev/null.

example : curl http://www.google.com >/dev/null

You can download curl for windows or any other OS here.

If you know all the links that you need to click, just put the whole link in a text file and write a batch file to have curl cycle through all of them.

check if curl works for you and let me know if you need help writing a script.

>Uses ninite, using internet explorer like a pleb.

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin

Choco install googlechrome

Choco install javaruntime

Choco install 7zip

Choco install vlc

Choco install chocolateygui

Choco install life

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq

If you take the free upgrade before July 29, 2016, it is free for that device for the lifetime of the device and only that device. You are free to reinstall all you like, but it is only for that device. Microsoft has not made statement or replied to any of the forum posts about hardware upgrades.

I've only seen /u/amwdrizz mention it so far in the thread, but Ninite Pro is worth it.

https://ninite.com/pro

The pro version allows you to make offline installers all bundled into 1 exe for easy running on non-networked computers or across a LAN that has no network access. It also has tons of switches ( https://ninite.com/help/features/switches.html ) that you can use to do totally silent installs by just calling a preconfigured exe.

The amount of time saved after doing OS re-installs will add up really quick.

http://www.howtogeek.com/168896/10-useful-windows-commands-you-should-know/ and http://serverfault.com/questions/3780/useful-command-line-commands-on-windows

Others you will pick up as you work. I started from scratch, and can probably recall dozens correctly on the spot while doing repairs. Mostly its about understanding command lines in general. Usually you can query the built in help of a given program to feel your way through a command line operation.

according to this thread, Memory mapping may be the answer, like you said, in the BIOS config. Thank you.

You can still do it in Windows 7, you have to make a change to registry however, example here:

http://superuser.com/questions/63017/how-do-i-delete-a-user-profile-on-a-windows-7-machine-that-is-part-of-a-domain

otherwise I believe the behavior is it keeps generating a temp profile.

If you haven't already, try out adwcleaner or JRT for junkware. Takes away the need for manual removal. I've used both products hundreds of times with no issues at all.

ClamXAV is another one for Mac that will pick up Windows and Mac malware alike. It will also flag phishing emails.

I find that in the time it runs, however, I can run Adware Medic and manually go through the usual infection spots and check the browsers for redirects/hijacks - So I mostly use it to clean out phishing emails.

You're a bit late - SARDU does this and does it well.

Edit: I'm going by your comment:

> My goal is similar, in that it is to make a program that will allow you to download every installer/operating system

Time to come correct.

Try SARDU. It'll help you make a similar multi-boot tool, and even help you download the proper ISOs if you don't have them.

I had read that SARDU had some spyware, but I tested myself on a sandboxed VM and none of the major antispyware utilities picked up any kind of infection. I do not believe it does.

Using one of Steven Black's black lists will block connections to all known Windows telemetry domains without degrading any other services, which will definitely improve both network performance as well as cause all background telemetry processes to stop wasting CPU because they can't even connect to Microsoft to send all your personal info you never wanted them to send in the first place.

https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

There is also a Windows script available to keep your hosts file up to date automatically, as well as a bunch of different formats available for if you want to do something like put the black list on a shared network proxy server, DNS server, DNS resolver, etc., so everyone on your home network is protected by the same black list.

The only thing keeping me with Firefox is Tree Style Tabs, because for everything else, it has become a slow steaming pile of shit Chrome wannabe. Doubly so since Flash dropped NPAPI support on Linux.

>Adblock

I find uBlock github (Chrome addon) is better. Bonus points it's open source.

I used to have a program back in os 10.7 days that i think was called RenameIt or somethinng like that and would rename folders and files. I know that isnt super helpful but know there were multiple free applications 5 or so years ago that would do this seamlessly. edit it was renamer4mac https://renamer.com

Professor Messer has good vids you can stream from his site or YouTube channel that's free. However if you want the downloaded version you'll have to pay. Also has good notes to study off of and sample questions for 801 after each vid.

Professor Messer, CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Linux, Microsoft Certification Training http://www.professormesser.com/

I liked Professor Messer's videos, so here is one of his videos on troubleshooting theory.

http://www.professormesser.com/free-a-plus-training/220-802/troubleshooting-theory/

I think some of my co-workers need to go back to the basics, yesterday I was reminded of this fact...