Posted by Adam Ruth on Wed, Apr 28, 2010
One of problems people run into when running any program written using Microsoft .NET is a corrupt .NET Framework (files missing or damaged.) We've seen this problem a number of times when administrators try to run Admin Arsenal (shameless plug.) Usually, it's difficult to tell exactly what went wrong, since the exact error conditions and error codes aren't always the same. One common error code is clr20r3, though this code may be related to other issues.
Repairing .NET is very easy, though, so it's the low hanging fruit you can try if you ever see strange errors related to .NET applications. How you repair .NET will depend on which version of Windows you are running.
On versions earlier than Vista, all you need to do is run the .NET installer, which can be accessed from the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel. You will see a repair option when you click the Change/Remove button:
On Windows Vista and later .NET is part of the operating system, so it doesn't have a separate installer. You'll need to run a command from an elevated command prompt:
sfc /scannow
This will replace any operating system files which are missing or corrupt (including .NET Framework files.) On the rare occasion that this doesn't make the repair, then you will need to perform a repair installation of Windows (run the Windows installer from the original installation disk but select Repair when prompted.)
I haven't yet seen a .NET corruption problem that isn't fixed by one of these techniques, so hopefully this should help you out.
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Posted by Adam Ruth on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
Photo by tanvach
Microsoft's recent confirmation that
Internet Explorer 9 won't be available on XP gives one more reason to finally move up to Windows 7. At the same time it highlights the interesting position that many people and companies are in. The missteps of Vista (real or imagined) following the long development cycle have gotten many very comfortable with XP and opposed to upgrading. Don't fix it if it ain't broke, as it were. I can certainly understand this view. It used to be that finishing a migration to a new OS entailed a turn around to immediately planning the next one. Getting out of that habit was nice, and a couple of years where the next migration kept getting pushed off gave us some breathing room that is difficult to give up.
We all know that the world keeps moving too fast to let us stay safely ensconced in one OS forever, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. Perhaps one day OS updates will trickle out slowly and continuously allowing us to move from an XP to a 7 over the course of a few years without even thinking about it. From an OS vendor's standpoint such a move would require something more like a subscription model, but consumers have been reluctant to go that direction. One advantage of the model is that it could flatten out the upgrade cycle, with migrations being more like today's service packs. Microsoft, and other OS vendors for that matter, may have to move that direction anyway because they're running out of new things to put into an upgrade that warrants the pain and cost of a massive migration. Microsoft may have inadvertently demonstrated this with XP lasting so long and users realizing that the OS is becoming a commodity.
If XP lasts 10 years, how long will Windows 7 last? What could be following on that compelling enough to make the next upgrade? I think users are going to be wary of moving again now that we've seen it's not as necessary as we thought.
Posted by Adam Ruth on Mon, Mar 15, 2010
Here are some small tidbits of information I've run across this week that may be of interest to you, the humble system administrator (
YMMV,
IANAL,
WTF.)
Photo by extranoise
An interesting blast to the past of Windows during the earliest of days. Written by Trandy Tower, the product manager over the 1.0 release. It's interesting to see how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Windows had been announced the previous year with much fanfare and support from most of the existing PC vendors. However, by the time of my discussion with Steve, Windows still had not shipped within the promised timeframe and was starting to earn the reputation of being "vaporware."
It's still early days, but it appears that the European requirement for Microsoft to display browser alternatives in Windows is spreading the love around. Will it keep up, and if so, is it good for the industry? What about the really small players who don't get a spot on the screen? It may already be too late for them. An interesting experiment to keep eyes on.
The 50,000-plus Firefox downloads that have occurred via direct links from the browser choice screen are only a fraction of overall downloads of Mozilla’s browser, which can reach half a million a day across Europe, Mr. Lilly said. That total has not changed much since the Microsoft initiative began at the end of February, he added.
But Mr. Lilly said downloads could increase once more people received the choice screen. Microsoft says the system was tested first in Britain, Belgium and France but has not said how widely it has been rolled out elsewhere in Europe.
Count me in to the group of people who thought that the Internet wouldn't succeed in the mighty face of the walled gardens of online services. Or, at least, the group of people willing (or clueless enough) to admit how wrong they were. Some people, though, made their opinions known in print so they couldn't hide if they wanted to. This article from Newsweek in 1995 shows not only how common this view was, but it's a cautionary tale today for how wrong our predictions of technology can be.
Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.
If there's anyone who knows hosting, it's Google. And it's very instructive to see how they handle a major power outage. Their openness about what went well and what didn't is a benefit to anyone who has the ability to learn from the mistakes of others.
What happens when the power goes out at a Google data center? We found out on Feb. 24, when a power outage at a Google facility caused more than two hours of downtime for Google App Engine, the company’s cloud computing platform for developers. Last week the company released a detailed incident report on the outage, which underscored the critical importance of good documentation, even in huge data center networks with failover capacity.
We can all give a sigh of relief for good old Bill. I was worried about where his next meal would come from.
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Posted by The Admin Arsenal Team on Fri, Jan 22, 2010
Author: Shane Corellian
What 3 words define the home theatre system of the 1980's?
Listening to the TWiT episode 231 (titled Be Kind, Rewind) I heard that Microsoft is now offering "rented" copies of Windows and Office.
Extracted from Mary-Jo Foley's ZDNet article.
"The new rental option “could give a boost to Internet cafes, companies renting rather than buying computers, etc.,” DeGroot said. “It also could be good for seasonal businesses who could rent additional PCs for a short time, then send them back.
To attract interest in the new rental program, Microsoft is offering a promotion (through the end of June 2010), via which a rental version of Office Professional is available for $58 (regularly $83 via volume discount pricing). Office Standard (rental) is available for $45 per copy (as opposed to $64 per copy regularly.) Windows is available for $23 per copy (as opposed to $32 per copy), DeGroot noted."
At least these rentals won't have the problem that plagued rented VHS copies of Basic Instinct where one particular scene had been paused so much and so often it was, well, unwatchable. (or so I, ahem, hear).