The issue: Lots of user profiles on workstation
There are about 300 systems with 20, 40, maybe even 60 user profiles stored on each of them.

Cause: Non volatile account setup
In Novel there are several ways of dealing with local Windows users. One of those ways is by using Dynamic Local users (DLU). This creates local windows users with the same name and password as their eDirectory accounts. There are potential problems with this approach.

If you have a large volume of users that will be using any one workstation you will want to check volatile users on the DLU policy. Because if you do not then profile data will remain stored for every individual user that logs in to that workstation. If it is checked then the profile data and user account is removed during logoff. Using DLU correctly does require some other prep-work too. Like, you will need to build a very good Default local user profile.
What if someone didn’t turn on the volatile account option? How do you fix it without re-imaging every system?

Solution: Delete Profile or Delprof
Delprof program is a Microsoft utility to delete user profiles on systems. It is distributed in an MSI directly from Microsoft. Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5405
The greatest thing about delprof is that you don’t really need to install it on every computer. You only need to install it on one to get the delprof.EXE file from the install. It will work without all the other stuff it may or may not install.
Now that you have the EXE you can place it somewhere everyone in the network can have read access to it. Like the Public folder.
Here is where we start talking geeky.
Create a DelOldProf.bat file and call out our nice new and shiny delprof.exe file with some extra parameters. Just a caution… you can name your bat file anything you want… but never create a .bat with the same name as a .exe saved in the same folder and called by your .bat file. The .bat files won’t work right and you will be banging your head against a wall trying to figure out why. BEEN THERE DONE THAT… me = id-ten-t error.

Below is the full list of all the options you can use with this exe.

usage:  DELPROF [/Q] [/I] [/P] [/R] [/C:\\] [/D:]

        /Q      Quiet, no confirmation.

        /I      Ignore errors and continue deleting.

        /P      Prompts for confirmation before deleting each profile.

        /R      Delete roaming profile cache only

        /C      Remote computer name.

        /D      Number of days of inactivity.

My command looked a little like this: \\server\sys\public\delprof.exe /Q /I /D:60
/Q  because I want this to run without user intervention.
/I  because I don’t care about errors. I am trying to sweep up the big dirt on this one. The small dust that might get left behind I couldn’t care less about.
/D:60  because if it is that many days old no one would care about it anymore. The number of days is up to you and how it works with your environment.

Save the nice batch file in your same public directory and add it to your Novell login script like this. #DelOldProf.bat

Next time someone logs-in… The big command screen will pop up and show everyone all the data it is deleting.
Note: You can hide some info from the users by adding a @ECHO OFF command in the first line of the .bat file before your commands.  This turns off the prompt screen prints and will only display actual command outputs.

There are a few other things with this… This will delete your administrator profile if they exist. From my experience it will not delete the Default profile. This is something you really want not to happen and it should be restricted to read only just to be safe. There are commands that you can use to change that before the delprof if you are scared it isn’t set already.
Last thing I promise… I don’t see this as a long-term solution for the too many profiles thing in my case. But in the case of roaming profiles…use the /R as a great way to clear that cache after so many days to keep it from clogging up the systems.
I lied… one more… Always remember if you are adding and removing that much data on a workstation hard drive every day… make sure you are running a defrag at least weekly. I scheduled my workstations to do a 2 hour defrag three times a week.

Until the next tech thing…

Andrew Birchler

So last week I updated phones to get a faster Dual Core CPU phone. My 1 1/2 year old Motorola Droid wasn’t cutting it anymore that my phone is my primary internet access now. (High-Speed internet technology has yet to make it where I live.) I needed something faster, less laggy, and had a bigger screen. Wow… this thing has problems. It seems to be all software related from what I have seen. And I am hoping the promised update makes it out sooner rather than later. The inconstant lag in the phone is annoying but when it effected dialing touch-tones for an automated system several times in a row it was on. Luckily I am generally a calm guy and my new Droid X2 didn’t end up at the bottom of the river. So now that I have had the time to play with my new phone, I give it a 9 for hardware, a 3 for software, and only a 4 for over all experience. Typing up a blog or beating a friend on Words with Friends just isn’t as satisfying as it was on my Old Droid.

It took time to get used to my last Droid so I hope with just a few tweaks here and there on the software will get me back to the feeling of “AWESOME” I always had before.

Andrew

FYI.. Rooting is the process of hacking an Android phone so you have access to the kernel files and can replace them with anything you want. Android is an open source OS. Everyone, even you, have access to the raw computer code that it is written in. There are many people in the Android community that create their own special versions of this code and publish it for general use. Many do these types of things in there free time and ask for donations. It is always good to donate some cash to these guys so they keep up the great work that they do. Think of it like tipping the bar tender, I tip my software providers.

Getting started…
Everyone knows you have to prepare for any project you take on. It may be as simple as closing the door of your office but you have to do it. In this case, I was doing this as an after work (starting at about 7pm) project. With this in mind there are some things that you have to do to prepare your body, mind and, as I like to believe, my soul. I took a shower and got in to comfortable, lay-around-the-house cloths grabbed some mind food. Most of the time I prefer a simple meat and vegie plate, like a grilled chicken breast and a side of broccoli. I didn’t have the time to pull off such a meal so I digressed to the more popular and overly effective bowl of fruit loops cereal. These little sugar coated multi color loops of joy may be the best brain food have used in my entire life. I use them a lot!!!

Action…
Now I bring up the guide that I have decided to follow. It is a two part guide… an overview from a user that wanted to make sure he was doing it right, good links to more info from his post: HERE… the actual step my step detailed guide I will be following (yes guys do read instructions and follow them): HERE.

The first part of the guide is mainly downloading and installing software and drivers. RSD Lite and Motorola Flash Interface Drivers. I these items install without much issue. Suggestion… do this on a pre-Windows Vista system if possible. Issues with the new UAC (user account control) can keep it from working correctly. My Windows 7 Ultimate N 64 Bit didn’t like it much. Once I moved the setups to my Windows 2003 SB Server everything went smooth. Like I said the first attempts at rooting the phone failed, I tried it about 6 – 10 times for each of the methods with slight variations in the process that I came up with on my own. The two methods I tried are the Terminal Enumerator method (not explained in the linked guide) and the RSD Method. The Terminal Enumerator method entails moving some files to the SD Card and loading them using a command line app. This didn’t work all that well so I abandoned it for the RSD method as it seemed to be more well documented in the forum world and if there were problems I could find solutions. I spent the next two hours trying to get my Phone to detect on the RSD software on my Win 7 system. By the time these two hours were over and I had read about 20 different sites and forums trying to find anything that could cause the problem as I had almost nothing to go on besides it just didn’t work… I wanted to not only shoot my laptop… I wanted to hack it up in to little inch squares and burn it!!! We who love and live the world of technology have the times where we are just as frustrated, if not more because we are the geeks and should know how it all works already, as the average users out there. It just made me more mad when I installed the software in to my home server and the whole process of rooting using the RSD method was complete in less than 5 mins. The process after that was merely copying files to and from the phone so that part was all done on my laptop. Important note… Do the backup processes and data clearing as stated in the guide do it twice if you have any doubts. If you do not and you update and it doesn’t work… you may have a nice paperweight when you are all done. BACKUP EVERYTHING you want to keep. I didn’t care about a lot of it so I only did the Nandroid backup and made a copy of some of the files on my SD Card that I didn’t have saved anywhere else. I also have my contacts backed up in several other ways so I don’t loose them so I did’t need the backup off the phone.

Rooting is done, so it is time for loading the kernel of choice. I decided on the basic Froyo FRG01B release listed in the guide. This is just one that doesn’t have too many custom mods in the release. I only wanted to add flash and the new Froyo features to my droid. I can’t really afford downtime with my phone as it also is my business phone. If you want to go to the extreme mod side… Check out Bugless Beast V0.4 Android 2.2 FRF84B (Fully Deodexed). That is one of the most modded I have seen to date. The update process is easy from this point, follow the instructions and you are all set. If the update crashes your phone… see the Rescue Squad forum. There are all kinds of info in there to help you out.

Flash Update and cleanup…
There are several other things listed in the guide that you can mod to add features to your device. You are the only one to judge if you need them or not… Don’t do them unless you need them. The less you mess with your phone the less likely you are going to break something. I added the Flash Beta as that was one of the reasons I was doing this update. I also followed the Watch Hulu steps for the browser to make sure flash was working correctly and I love HULU. Everything worked awesome.

Be cautious with your data usage after the update. Froyo’s new features have more sync options that increase the amount of data you need to use, like Picasa web albums can now be synced to your phone gallery, and if you have multiple Google accounts it will now allow you to sync all your calendars from all accounts. Use a good WIFI connection to speed this update process up, my phone is still trying to complete the updates. I almost have 11 GB of pictures posted on my Picasa account so they are taking a while to sync to the phone. Based on the data usage it isn’t downloading the full copy of the files. What can I say like to take pictures.

After the fruit loops, shredded laptop, hours of research, and quick updates, I ended with a rooted and updated phone with so many new features and I found new ones every time I opened another app. At this point I am very happy with my choice to update this way. I not have the choice to change out versions fairly easy and might up my mod level if I find something I can’t live without. You can ask just about anyone I spoke with today… this root has made me like a kid geek again… and that feeling is why I test and run Beta and Alpha release software all the time. Finding a new version or new program that does better or something never done before makes me just ecstatic and I can’t hold myself back from yelling it to the world.

Until my next big breakthrough… the techy writer in me is signing off.

Andrew

This is just one more reason I love my android phone. Having the physical keyboard is just nice when you are typing emails or blog posts, like this one. The software keyboards can slow me down a bit and there isn’t anything to feel when you are typing. Now for those that like the software keyboards that is availabe too. Nothing like having the choice of how you want to type each time you do.

I think that is the point of open source option of android. a hundred different hardware options with nearly all the same apps no matter what you choose. And there are some killer apps out there. Like Touchdown for MS Exchange access. Nothing I have found beats it on any phone.

So if you are looking for a smart phone in the near future. Take a look at the android line of phones. Available on nearly any service and in all the styles and colors you can think of. Who knows you might even comment on my blog from your android.

Until next time.

Andrew

The now: So what is going on here… a little of everything these days. I have had so much going on that I have all but dropped out of the MINI scene. I have been spending most of my time learing my new job and doing side work. NVCS has really picked up in 2010. I think more and more people are trying to my computer systems run longer to save money in these shaky times. That just means for a few dollars I can show up and clean and do some general work on your systems. I am even thinking about a flat rate on system cleanups. It can be time consuming but it is a low cost endevor for me and customer satisfaction is the best part of my job. There is just something about helping someone out and taking a system that is trashed and make it as clean and new as possible.

The future: I see a very bright future ahead of me. Work is good, home isn’t bad. There are always things that anoy you and in time you either get used to the fact that is how it is… or you work to change it. I have a bad habbit of just sitting back and waiting for it to change itself. I am working to change that habbit and start working hard to make everything better. Life just doesn’t fix itself and it isn’t complex just hard.

Lets see if I keep the posts flowing this time. Doing this makes working though issues in my head easier.

Andrew

I believe liking what you do and doing well at what you do are two requirements to having a successful career. You don’t need both but it is easier to be good at your job when you like that job. I have been misjudged several times as liking my job because I work hard and do well. I guess work ethic isn’t something thought of when looking at employees. That is where those employers made the fault and I didn’t stay long after that in most cases. I have had my share of bad and good jobs. Many of the best jobs were with bad companies and the worst jobs were with good companies, but there were a few that were in the middle ground of both and I stayed a happy employee for much longer at these places. In the end, I am usually disappointed in the company and leave for greener pastures. This has worked well so for, with a few stumbles along the way. Nothing that a little hard work couldn’t fix.

That brings me to today. My work is a source of happiness in my life. I am not a workaholic but I like what I do and I am good at it. I work long hours and most of my time is dedicated to my work. It didn’t even take a year at my current job to earn a promotion and several raises in pay. I have done this because I learn quickly, I have practical experience in the application of software and hardware solutions, and I work with my team to solve problems. In a job like mine sharing the knowledge you have is a two way street. One way if you share everything you know then you may not be needed anymore. We all know the idea of working yourself out of a job! The other way is that by sharing you gain perspective on your ideas and experiences making you more effective in diagnostics and troubleshooting.

This all leads in to the most important piece of being a technical support person, personality. I think if you can get along with people you are more apt to share with them. You can be more empathetic to customer’s problems and that leads to being better at customer service. Dedicating yourself your self to your customers will get you far in tech support but rarely makes you friends in other departments and can hold you back from moving to other places in a company. Choose you battles wisely and be sure you make intelligent well planed moves.

The best part of being in the technical field is the option to work privately on the outside of your normal job. Many techs do this to make the extra money they spend on the tech products they buy for themselves. I do it for extra spending cash and to experience other parts of computer support I don’t see in my job. It is a way for me to keep my knowledge more current on what is happening to the individual user and what they use computers for. I also like the work because it reminds me of when I was young and still learning to interact with technology. It is fun to work with people and gain their respect and gratitude. I am not the best but the work makes me happy and I will always work hard to keep it that way. Tech work is happy work is successful work and makes a happy worker in my case!!

Andrew Birchler
Newest Version Computer Services

Twitter is now not only a tool for me to be notified and be informed… it is a tool I use to notify and inform others. This is my tiny contribution to the Twittersphere. Follow Me….

Andrew Birchler
Newest Version Computer Services
www.nvcomputerservices.com