Tuesday 20 December 2011

The Official 2011 - Most Embarrasing Computer Mishap Contest! - (1st Place - NCIX GC!)

Alright so Happy Holidays, there are only 5 days left!

Let's get the season started by starting a nice good ole'd fashioned contest!

Contest Name: Submit your most embarrassing Computer Experience

Prize:  The user with the most embarrassing experience will receive a $10 gift certificate to NCIX Computers!

Criteria:

Alright so this is quite simple really, all that needs to be done is to submit your most embarrassing Computer Experience, this can be anything from having your e-mail account compromised for having a simple password, such as (password).  Or accidentally deleting your entire hard drive.

You need to include:

A)  The incident, including to the best of your knowledge the date it happened, as well as a brief description. 
B)  Resolution, how did you solve it?
C)  What did you learn from that experience?

and finalllyyy..

D)   I'd like a picture of the event, or a mock up impression of how you reacted when this happened! (Humour scores points).  This can be either genuine, or fabricated in Paint or whichever Graphics program you happen to use!

Simple right?

Next the top 5 entries will be taken and reviewed.  Finalists will be reviewed and notified on the Blog in 1 weeks time. 

We'll then open up the polls and let the users decide!  We'll be sure to create a link to the entry so users can read your tales and when the contest finally closes there will be links created to some of the other finalists!

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Remember, no cheating or lying!  Fictitious stories will be disqualified, we can tell you know! :)

Regards,

Michael
As per request: Z5T5QPHW5XM3 to be added for site verification.
E-Mail: mreith@gmail.com
Blogsite: http://technobloggings.blogspot.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/technoblob (work in progress, visit back for updates and our premiere!)

Monday 19 December 2011

Windows 7 - Home Premium The Unlucky Few lacking GPE (Group Policies)

It's kind of interesting the other day. I was at a clients house and I was installing some new software on their machine. Evidently they had a virus and the result was they wanted me to completely re-install their operating system and lock it down.

The setup was pretty simple, however they wanted to enforce a password policy, the passwords must be 8 characters or longer, and contain a combination of base 10 (0-9) Upper and Lower Alphabet Characters and some funny ones (!@#% etc).

This would have been pretty simple if they had been running just about any other version of Windows 7, such as Professional, Ultimate etc..

Though they weren't and to my dismay they weren't able to use a simple Group Policy SNAP-IN to configure this template. As a result I had to go through MMC, and create a new Security Template and add these through an alternate means.

If you ever find that you are in the same boat it is quite easily rectifiable by performing these simple steps:

Howto Create a Security Policy in Windows 7 - Home Premium without the use of a Group Policy Editor!

1 -> Begin by clicking on the Start Button

2 -> Next in the search field at the very bottom where it says "Search Programs and Files" enter mmc, and hit .

3 -> This will bring up the Microsoft Management Console.

4 -> Next click on "New" and go to "Add/Remove Snap In"

**NOTE: if at this point you noticed the Local Users and Groups Snap In, this is where you would be notified that you aren't using the proper version of Windows**

5 -> From the list you will select "Security Configuration" and "Security Templates" and add them both, select OK and close that Window.

6 -> Next we are going to need to create a Security Template that we will associate with the Database we create later.

7 -> You will need to click on the MMC Console Root on the side on "Security Templates". You will then see the folder we are using to store Security Templates. If you right click on that folder you will be given the option to create a "New Template". Do this and name it and describe it, however you like.

8 -> With that out of the way you are going to see a plethora of options available to you, I won't go through individual items but under "Account Policies" is where you would setup password restrictions, expirations etc..

9 -> So with that out of the way you will need to configure the "Security Configuration and Analysis" Snap-In.

10 -> Simple right click on the title and choose "Open Database" Enter whichever name you want to call this database (testdb) and proceed. Next it will ask you for the Security Template you would like to use. This will be the security template you configured above. It is important to note that you will need to make sure you select, "CLEAR THIS DATABASE PERFORMING IMPORTING" you will see this just below the Open button.

11 -> With that out of the way you should have successfully opended the database and be able to apply these changes by right clicking the "Security Configuration and Analysis Page" and choosing, "Configure Computer Now" .

That is it!, Hopefully this hasn't been to confusing, or lacking clarity however questions and comments are always open Youtube to Channel by the end of the week, please check out, subscribe, comments, or even troll :)

Tecnoblob Youtube Channel:

Technblob's Youtube Channel

Have a great week.

Regards,

Michael