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How to Clone Windows with Clonezilla when the Destination Disk is Smaller than the Original – OR – Cloning a Large Drive to a Smaller SSD

I’ve done this dozens of times now over the last couple of years when it comes to swapping out workstation hard drives with SSDs and it’s pretty much become second nature at this point, but I think the world could use a good write up on this because I’ve wasted countless hours acquiring this knowledge.

So, for today’s lesson, we will be cloning a Windows 8.1 installation from a 500GB desktop hard drive onto a 250GB SSD. Basic knowledge of how to use tools like the command line and Disk Management are assumed. Continue reading “How to Clone Windows with Clonezilla when the Destination Disk is Smaller than the Original – OR – Cloning a Large Drive to a Smaller SSD”

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Server 2012 – Force a Network Type with PowerShell

Here’s an annoying one that I run into quite frequently. On Windows Server 2012, it appears there’s not a quick and easy way to change the network type for a network connection other than to use PowerShell. The problem that I typically run into, is that firewall rules for a specific program are only set for the “domain” profile, so here’s how to force the network type on some interface. This is just for my own personal reference, but I took this info directly from here. Continue reading “Server 2012 – Force a Network Type with PowerShell”

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Batch Script – How to Check if the Current User is a Member of a Group

Here is a batch script, using only DOS commands, to check if the current user is a member of a specific group. The way it is currently written, you can call a batch file containing this code using the CALL command and pass the short NetBIOS domain name (or possibly the computer name if it is a local account) and the group name to search for as arguments, and it will return a “1” if the user is a member of the specified group and “0” if they are not. Just be sure to put quotes around any group name that contains any spaces. Continue reading “Batch Script – How to Check if the Current User is a Member of a Group”

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HP Support Assistant – The Epitome of Spyware and How to Disable It

Sure there are several legitmate cases where the HP Support Assistant can be helpful, such as updating drivers or flashing the BIOS on the computer, but if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already established the fact that the software basically hijacks your computer and does a lot of shady shit in the background. I would absolutely classify the product as being spyware and would highly recommend that you take all steps necessary to disable it when it is not being used, and here are some reasons why.

My first problem is that by default, the HP Support Assistant does an intrusive scan of your network to search for “devices” every time the software runs and it appears you can’t turn that off. It doesn’t get much shadier than that folks, seeing as how you don’t really know what they are up to and why they are taking an inventory of your entire network.
Continue reading “HP Support Assistant – The Epitome of Spyware and How to Disable It”

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Cannot Log onto Windows – Trust Relationship Failed

There’s several different things that can cause the trust relationship issue and there are hundreds of post or more online about the subject. Sometimes simply resetting the computer account in Active Directory can fix the problem. Other times, unjoining/rejoining the computer from the domain will fix the problem. If either of those isn’t the case, usually that is a good indication that there is some sort of corruption in the Active Directory database that can only be fixed by manual intervention.
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Fuck You Microsoft, I Will Install the Cisco VPN Client on Windows 10 and Furthermore, You Can Suck It

Seriously man, fuck Microsoft, fuck Windows 10, and fuck you. No actually you are ok, as long as you don’t work for Microsoft or are some sort of freak MS enthusiast, but what kind of shithole stasi big brother state do we live in when your software vendor tells you what applications you can and can’t install on the operating system you purchased for your own PC? I mean I know they’ve been doing that shit for a long time, but tonight the stars revolt (seemingly misplaced Powerman 5000 reference).

I just had the joy of wasting an hour of my life getting the damn Cisco VPN client to work. When Windows 8 came out, there were a few workarounds to have to do, but now MS has stepped up their game of being total assclowns and won’t let you even run the installer. In your delight, you will receive the pleasantly authoritarian popup box that says, “This app can’t be run on this PC“. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Continue reading “Fuck You Microsoft, I Will Install the Cisco VPN Client on Windows 10 and Furthermore, You Can Suck It”

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uTorrent – Don’t Have Permission to Uninstall the Program

There are certainly versions of uTorrent that have massive problems. Whether it be the inability to click on magnet links and open them properly inside the program or the never-ending issue where the program constantly tells you some shit about there being an update when you open it and says something along the lines of “you already have a more recent version of the program installed, would you like to downgrade?”. Just an FYI, downgrading doesn’t do shit, it’s an endless loop of futility, sad faces, and teardrops.

It is even more disturbing when you want to uninstall uTorrent to try and install a more recent beta version that doesn’t have all these bugs and when you try to remove it the conventional way, you receive the message “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall uTorrent. Please contact your system administrator.” and you are logged on as the user with administrator rights.
Continue reading “uTorrent – Don’t Have Permission to Uninstall the Program”

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Outlook 2010 – Only Starts in Safe Mode

What a surprise, this morning I came into the office only to find that all of my people running Outlook 2010 were now having it open in Safe Mode and I immediately thought, OK this had to have been a Windows Update issue. This seems to be the norm for old Microsuck these days, as I’ve had these sort of problems with Outlook happen twice within the last month. Perhaps they should come up with a new slogan, “Microsoft: Raising the Bar in Repudiation”. Continue reading “Outlook 2010 – Only Starts in Safe Mode”

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Server 2012 – Enable/Disable Spellcheck Highlighting and Auto-Correct with Group Policy

Courtesy of this fancy post where they use big words and pictographs here, you can use this info to enable or disable the built-in global spell checking/highlighting and auto-correct features of Windows 8/Server 2012 to deploy these settings as a group policy preference.

One can only hope that this feature is any better than the auto-correct on Android phones which makes me want to smash my spy phone into tiny little pieces with a claw hammer or test it’s aerial durability/impact resistance with the closest nearby wall at times, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Continue reading “Server 2012 – Enable/Disable Spellcheck Highlighting and Auto-Correct with Group Policy”

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WinSCP – Import/Export Your Saved Sessions List and Settings from a Computer that is Offline

If you want to backup your saved sessions from WinSCP, that is easy enough, as long as the computer is still in a working state, you can use the backup and restore feature from within the software. But what if the computer doesn’t boot or you swapped the drive into a different machine? So long as you can still access the drive and have access to that user’s registry file, you can easily extract the data you need. Continue reading “WinSCP – Import/Export Your Saved Sessions List and Settings from a Computer that is Offline”