Paging File Error in Hyper-V Virtual Machine

I'm experimenting with Hyperoo Backup software for Hyper-V virtual machines at some clients. Hyperoo analyzes the virtual disk files and sends changes to a backup copy. I rather like it so far.

To minimize the changes inside the VM disks, I've be moving the paging file to a separate virtual disk. We can then exclude this disk from the backup process.

One one VM (and only one) we got the following error:

Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than the size you specified.

It turns out that on this particular virtual machine, we needed a total of four virtual disks. This combined with the virtual DVD drive meant that we needed to use SCSI disks in the VM. In a Hyper-V VM, you cannot place the paging file on a virtual hard drive on the virtual SCSI bus. The virtual SCSI bus is not available early enough in the boot process.

So, in this case, the easy fix was to move the paging drive to be an IDE disk and all was good.

Microsoft has a knowledge base article to this effect:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979386

Cached Credentials for a Mac using AD

When you have a laptop computer, you want to be able to use the same logon credentials when you are in the office as when you are on the road. With a Windows-based laptop, this is accomplished by cached credentials. The cached credentials on a Windows computer are automatically created the first time you log on. A network administrator can disable this, but it is enabled by default.

On a Mac that logs on using AD credentials, you can get similar functionality by enabling the option "Create mobile account at  login" in the Directory Utility that you use to configure AD connectivity for the MAC. When this option is enabled, the local mobile account is enable the first time the user logs on by using AD credentials.

Many times, no one thinks of this option until after the user has already logged on. In such a case, you need to log on as root and manually create the mobile account by using createmobileaccount. It is located in /System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/Resources/.

createmobileaccount -n Bob -p Pa$$w0rd

A couple of links with additional info:

• http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/103386-active-directory-user-login-in-macosx
• http://www.macworld.com/article/1157198/askmacitguy04.html

New Tool for Analyzing Outlook Configuration

Microsoft has recently release the Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool. This tool scans the configuration of locally installed Microsoft Office components, including Outlook to identify potential issues. This can be useful for technicians troubleshooting Outlook related problems for users.

You can download the tool here:

• http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36852

If you run the tool only for Outlook, it takes 2-3 minutes to run and the provides a report. I was surprised to see that my installation of Outlook has a few issued that need to be investigated. Apparently 60,000 deleted items is considered a potential issue.

TurboTax 2012 Won't Run

When attempting to run TurboTax 2012, the application would close with no error message. When the application started, it identified the application as untrusted, but that is normal for this application and just means that Intuit for some reason was too cheap to digitally sign their application. After looking in the Application log, I found this:

Event 1000, Application Error
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\TurboTax 2012\tt2012.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client\LIBEAY32.dll

It seemed odd to me that TurboTax was using a DLL from another folder. It turns out that LIBEAY32.dll is a generic dll used for cryptography and can come with several products. The iCLS Client is separate software from Intel that has nothing to do with TurboTax.

So, I made a guess that TurboTax installed it's own version of LIBEAY32.dll in an alternate location and that it's using the wrong one. My fix was to rename the LIBEAY32.dll in the iCLS Client folder to LIBEAY32.dll.old. After this was completed TurboTax started without any issues (well, it still complained missing a digital signature, but the application worked now).

Unable to Install FileOpen Client

One of the staff at a client is taking a course that uses the FileOpen client for DRM on PDF documents that are distributed as part of the course. Unfortunately, he was having issues installing the FileOpen client on his computer. It was Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and he has full Administrative permissions on the local computer. He had even tried disabling user account control with no success.

The error during installation was:

Service 'FileOpen Manager Service' (FileOpenManagerService) could not be installed. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to install system services.

Support at FileOpen responded very quickly with the following:

Please run this program: http://plugin.fileopen.com/tools/FileOpenUninstallTool.exe
Then install via this program: http://plugin.fileopen.com/new/current/FileOpenInstaller.exe

This resolved the problem and FileOpen installed with no issues.