I am back!

Hello everyone! I am back! It has been a while and with so many great tutorials out there (Google) now a days I feel that writing repetitive stuff is not worth it. So I took a break from this blog. I has some other stuff going on.
Lately I've been on the IT world dealing with different challenges on a daily basis and sometimes you cannot find the right solution.
Finding a solution is like a puzzle. I take bits and peaces of different places and put them together and find a solution.
And this is what I will be doing on this blog from now on. I will not post stuff regularly but rather sporadically when I really feel like I can't find a solution for something nowhere else.

If any of you out there need help with whatever on the IT world I will be glad to try to help with my expertise's. Don't hesitate to drop a msg.

Soon I will be changing the look and feel of this blog to a more modern look.

Stay tune! ;-)

How To: Create a Collection Based on an Advertisement Status

How To: Create a Collection Based on an Advertisement Status

You may encounter a time when you want to target systems that reported a failure message for an advertisement, or reported a specific failure exit code. This is an example of how to create a query-based collection of all systems that reported a failure for AdvertisementID LAB20089.

SELECT sys.ResourceID,sys.ResourceType,sys.Name,sys.SMSUniqueIdentifier,sys.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,sys.Client FROM sms_r_system as sys inner join SMS_ClientAdvertisementStatus as offer on sys.ResourceID=offer.ResourceID
WHERE AdvertisementID = 'LAB20089' and LastStateName = "Failed"

Replace the AdvertisementID = 'LAB20089' with the ID you wish to create the collection based upon.

You should be able to paste this WQL directly into a new query-based membership rule, and modify the AdvertisementID for your environment.

No program in the Task Sequence

You’re trying to add a program in your Task Sequence but the program in your package doesn’t appear?

This can be one of two things.

Either you’re allowing your users to interact with the program or the program can only run with a user logged on. This is not possible since the task sequence is supposed to be unattended.

Choose “Whether or not a user is logged in” and uncheck “Allow users to interact with the program”.

[ TUTORIAL ] NAVICAT - Generating MD5 Hash

Hello everyone,

For those who use phpMyAdmin to create databases might already know the function that it has to generate MD5 hash for a password field. When you are entering a field just select MD5 in the 'Function' and the chosen password field turns into a MD5 hash.

For those using NAVICAT this feature is not so simple but can be done without problems.

After a long time trying to figure it out in Navicat. I come here to post a 'mini' tutorial on how to generate MD5 hash in Navicat.

You need to enable Raw Mode from the View menu.
Once activated the Raw Mode you type the function directly in the function field, ex MD5 ('123abc ').

I hope this will help those who use Navicat for databases.

Download a Google Chrome Theme or Extension (.crx file) WITHOUT installing it

Hello everyone. I am here after a while without posting anything bringing you this nice little trick for Google Chrome. 

Have you ever liked a Goggle Chrome Theme from Web Store but still you would like to be able to change something within it so you make it 100% to you own taste?

Well. Follow the steps below and download the Theme you like! After you download the Chrome Theme you can Edit it to your taste.

1. Go to Google Web Store and find the Theme you want to download.
2. In the URL of the Theme you will find the Theme ID after the /detail/
1. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mcphcjcjgkjmbphkfjleamgkinaeebnm
3. Now copy the follow URL and paste it in a browser other than Google Chrome. Ex. Internet Explorer https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&x=id%3D%26uc 
4. Replace the  with the Theme ID you copy from step 2.1 above.
5. Save your .CRX file in your PC and you can do whatever you want with it.

The .CRX file can be opened with 7zip!

Automatically Change Windows 7 Aero Colors According To Weather Conditions In Your City

AeroWeather is an interesting application which looks for temperature or weather condition of your city and change the Windows Aero theme color according to it. The application sits silently in the system tray, retrieving the temperature in real-time. Overall, it makes an appealing connection with the temperature of your location with Windows Interface to give the real-life experience of knowing the weather conditions. With AeroWeather up and running, you can just look at the Windows current color scheme to know the temperature of your current location.

Backing up your firefox profile has never been easier!

Have you ever had to re-install  you OS or simply want to install Mozilla Firefox on another PC but wanted to have it the same exactly way as you had before but don't know how to do it or thought it is very difficult to be done? Not anymore! 
This where MozBackup comes into play! And best of all. It's FREEWARE!

MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Sunbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, Spicebird, Songbird and Netscape profiles.
It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, passwords, cache etc. It's an easy way to do Firefox backup, Thunderbird backup ...

Windows 7 - Cannot delete .eml files

One one of my clients got a very  nasty virus called Win32.runouce (Avast Name) a variation of the W32/Chir. What this virus does is creates big amount of tmz****.tmp files that infected with a trojan file pp.exe. Also modifies registry keys and infect other executables files.

Even after you have the system cleaned by your anti virus and/or manually this virus leave lots of .eml files. These .eml files are generally email files but in this case are left overs from this virus.

The whole point here is that even after the system is supposedly cleaned you still cannot delete these files within Windows 7 operating system. If you search for these files the results might come out hundreds or thousands of them. You can select them but Windows Explorer will not give you the option to delete!

Tips: Favorites & FlashFolder

One of the annoying things about Windows 7 is that it does not currently run many of my favorite utilities. Perhaps in time it will. Consequently, I still spend a lot of time using Windows XP. One of the utilities I miss when using Windows 7 is FlashFolder. FlashFolder puts a small toolbar on top of open/save dialog windows which allows me to quickly navigate to my desired folders/directories.

The FlashFolder toolbar has drop down menus which show me 1) a history of folders I went to recently in the open/save window, 2) folders that I’ve added as my favorites, and 3) folders I currently have open in Windows Explorer, i.e. the directories/folders I have open on the desktop.

The standard Favorites menu on the Windows XP Explorer menu bar is useful for storing favorite folders and files, but it is not accessible in most open/save dialog windows. Consequently, we often must navigate through a maze of folders when we need to open or save a file.

One thing about the Favorites menu that annoys me is that Internet Explorer will sometimes store its favorites/bookmarks on it, which I then have to manually remove.



Windows 7 does not have an Explorer window Favorites menu like Windows XP. Instead, it has a Favorites directory on its new Explorer window sidebar. You can simply drag and drop your favorite folders and files there, similar to how the Macintosh Finder sidebar works. In addition, Windows 7 allows you access those favorites from many (albeit not all) open/save dialog windows. There is also Recent Places item on the Win 7 Favorites sidebar directory that shows some folder history, but it doesn’t store currently open desktop windows, as FlashFolder does. I often use the current folders option of FlashFolder when I’m in an application to open files I recently found in my folders.