Evicting a broken cluster node via command line.

Like I’ve said before, I mostly have this blog for me. I often forget how to do stuff due to getting old.

Ran into a situation where a Microsoft Cluster node ate itself, and I wasn’t able to evict it with the GUI Cluster Administrator. This second proceedure at this link fixed it up: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282227

If you cannot start the Cluster service, or if you have trouble removing the node, you can manually unconfigure the Cluster service:

1. Run the Cmd.exe program to open a command prompt.
2. At the command prompt, type cluster node nodename /forcecleanup, and then press ENTER.

Getting show desktop back into your quick launch.

I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason the Show Desktop shortcut disappeared from my quick launch menu. You’d think this would be really easy to get back, but either I’m stupid or it isn’t that easy. I’m sure there’s some more elegant way to do this, but I never claimed to be an expert. Whatever the case, not having this shortcut really bugs me … too lazy for keyboard shortcuts 😎

Anyway, here’s how I got mine back.

Start -> Run -> notepad

Paste in the following and save it as Desktop.scf:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Copy / paste this file into: C:Documents and Settingsyour_user_hereApplication DataMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch

Then right click on the task bar and disable/enable Quick Launch to force a re-read.

Till next time…

Lockdown Firefox updates on Microsoft Terminal Server

I had an interesting dilemma today.

Due to the way some of our internal applications and certain brands of network gear function, our NOC requires Mozilla Firefox on the terminal servers. Over the weekend an update must’ve come out for Firefox, and a user clicked OK.

The update crapped out halfway through since they didn’t have administrative rights. Firefox doesn’t appear to roll back in this situation, leaving you with a broken install. So broken that you can’t even uninstall it without getting the dreaded: “Your computer must be restarted to complete a previous upgrade of Firefox. Do you want to reboot now?” which is also what it says when a user tries to open it.

Sure would be nice if the developers of Firefox threw in a privileges sanity check.

We need a two phased approach to fix this fiasco.

Fix #1: Get rid of that obnoxious error.

Lucky for me, a co-worker of mine has ran into this before and has the fix documented on his blog here:

http://blog.acrile.com/2008/12/your-computer-must-be-restarted-to.html

Long story short: delete the *.moz-upgrade and *.moz-delete files from Firefox folder. Now that the error is gone, I went ahead and uninstalled/reinstalled Firefox just to make sure nothing dirty was left behind.

Fix #2: Disable the auto-update feature in Firefox.

I accomplished this by first creating a file called mozilla.cfg in the C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox directory with the following contents:

// Disable Auto Updates
lockPref(”app.update.enabled”, false);
lockPref(”extensions.update.enabled”, false);

Those instruct Firefox to disable the auto update for the browser itself AND any add-in extensions.

Also you must edit C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxgreprefs edit the file all.js and add this to the bottom:

// Process mozilla.cfg in FireFox root directory.
pref(”general.config.obscure_value”, 0);
pref(”general.config.filename”, “mozilla.cfg”);

Without that last piece, Firefox won’t process the mozilla.cfg you created.

No reboot needed, and hopefully you’ll never run into this again.

Later on I found a nice website that lists many other features an administrator might want to enforce in a terminal server environment. Check them out here:

http://www.pcc-services.com/kixtart/firefox-lockdown.html

Till next time…

Adobe Flash Player on Microsoft Terminal Server

Adobe Flash can be a systems administrator’s nemesis on a Microsoft Terminal Server.

After installing the Adobe Flash ActiveX widget, you might notice that non-administrative users aren’t able to browse sites utilizing flash. They’ll be presented with a rather ambiguous message.

The error: “Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player. ”

I must admit that I do like polite error messages, butbutbutbutbut I already have the latest Flash Player!

This only happens in IE, Firefox is just fine. I’d tell my users to just browse in Firefox, but of course we have some applications (IE: SharePoint, CRM and others) where IE is pretty much required.

So, what’s the fix?

Open regedit and find these two keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{D27CDB6B-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D27CDB6B-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}

Right click -> Permissions -> Click Everyone -> Check the “Read” box -> No reboot needed. Now, with any luck, your users can get Flash goodness. I tend to test the fix out by going to YouTube and rewarding myself with a video.

Till next time…