The System State includes the most important system files for WHS such as the Registry, Startup Files, and Protected System files.

The first thing you’ll want to to is log on to WHS either through the WHS Console, Remote Desktop, or through Advanced Admin Console. Now navigate to Start \ All Programs \ Accessories \ System Tool \ Backup.

The Backup or Restore Wizard launches, but we’re not going to use the Wizard. From here click on the Advanced Mode link instead.

This opens the Backup Utility and in the left pane expand My Computer and check System State.

Now at the bottom of the screen click the Browse button to find a destination to save the backup file.

Note: Don’t back it up to the server’s local drive. Make sure you choose a destination like a shared folder, Flash Drive, or External HD.

As you can see here we have it set to backup to our shared backup folder…now click on Start Backup.

You will get an overview of the backup job and can start it right away or schedule it for a later time.

Now wait while everything is backed up. The amount of time it takes will vary depending on the server configuration. Also keep in mind the file can be large (ours was 627 MB), so make sure you have enough space on the location you’re backing up to.

When the backup is complete you can view a report for detailed information on the backup or close out of the utility.

After we completed the System State backup, we brought the file to one of the PCs on our network and backed up the backup file using Carbonite…having redundant backups is always a good idea!

Backup the Registry Only

If you don’t want to backup the full System State, you can also backup the entire Registry only. Remote into WHS and open the Registry Editor.

Then click on File \ Export…

Now select a location and name for the backup. Under Export range make sure to select All to backup the entire Registry. Or you can go through and backup a Selected branch if you’re only making changes to specific parts of the Registry. When in doubt just backup the entire thing.

Again you’ll want to back it up to a location other than your local server drive. The size of our Registry was around 45 MB, though yours may vary.

Backing up your server’s System State and Registry is a great idea to incorporate into your backup strategy. If something does go wrong, you can easily restore the settings which should help get your server back to where it needs to be.

You’ll need to start off with Administration –> Time and Date.

Then use the Click to make changes button to enable the window.

Then change Configuration from Manual to Keep synchronized with Internet servers.

At this point you’ll probably be prompted to install NTP support, and asked for your password again, which is annoying.

At this point the window will change, and you can select the time servers you want to use—make sure that you set your Time zone properly here.

That’s all there is to it! You now have internet time up and running on your Ubuntu box.

I like to have mydata on my server, not just ‘somewhere in the cloud’. Fortunately, recently Novell released a new version of iFolder. Seemed like the perfect solution, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Of course, the first requirement for this tutorial is that you have your own server. Either a dedicated or a shared one, or some computer in your garage, but you must have root access to it.

Update

You can also refer to this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/iFolderInstall

There is also a google groupe dedicated to this: http://groups.google.com/group/ifolder-ubuntu-debian-dev

Update

There is now a guide to compile with 9.10 (and possiblity 10.04) and 3.8 simias. It should be straightforward, but if you have questions, ask !

Resources

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ModMono
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/iFolderEnterpriseServer
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/iFolderPackaging
http://www.thesummit-grp.com/index.php/matts-blog-right-menu-12/37-ifolder-37-on-sled-11
http://community.ifolder.com/ssf/a/do?p_name=ss_forum&p_action=1&title=installation&binderId=1487&action=view_folder_entry&page_title=Installation
https://edge.launchpad.net/~ruiboon

vikholt has adapted the steps to work with debian lenny. You can read his tutorial here:

https://trac-git.assembla.com/unifolder/wiki/InstallingIFolderServerOnDebianLenny

Requirements

• First, you must have a up-to-date Ubuntu server. I installed iFolder on ubuntu server 9.04 and 9.10, I think it should also work with server 8.10 and desktop 9.04. However in the case of 8.10, the dependencies may be a little bit different.
• Also, you must have apache installed and configured to work with ssl to have the windows client to work. You can quickly enable it with:
  sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo a2ensite default-ssl
• That’s all

Steps Simias 3.8 for 9.10 from source

Start in an empty folder, for example ~/ifolderinstall

1. Install the dependencies
   sudo apt-get install build-essential automake autoconf mono-complete liblog4net1.2-cil uuid-dev libxml2-dev mono-apache-server mono-apache-server2 gsoap libapache2-mod-mono libncurses-dev libtool g++-4.3 gcc-4.3
2. Install flaim
   On my 9.10 64 bit machine, libflaim and libflaim-dev were not available. If you can install them with apt-get, install them. Else, compile them as follow:
   wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/flaim/stable/flaim/source/libflaim-4.9.845.tar.gz?use_mirror=freefr -O - | tar -xzf -
cd libflaim-4.9.845/
sed -i "s/\-Werror//" Makefile
make
sudo make install
3. Get the simias source from sourceforge:
   wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/ifolder/files/iFolder%20Clients/3.8.0/simias-1.8.3.9328.1.tar.gz/download -O - | tar -xzf -
cd simias-1.8.3.9328.1/
4. Define some compilations flags. Very important : you must compile it with gcc4.3, else it will crash on run ! The fault is in FlaimWrapper, but until there is a bugfix, compile it with gcc4.3 !
   export CSC_LIBFLAG="/target:library"
export WSDL=wsdl2
export CSC2="gmcs /d:MONO /d:MONONATIVE"
export CSC="gmcs /d:MONO /d:MONONATIVE"
export MONO=mono
export CC=gcc-4.3
export CXX=g++-4.3
5. Fix a problem with gsoap:
   sed -i -e "s+\$(GSOAP_PATH)/wsdl2h+wsdl2h+g" -e "s+\$(GSOAP_PATH)/soapcpp2+soapcpp2+g" -e "s+\$(GSOAP_PATH)/stdsoap2.c+/usr/include/gsoap/stdsoap2.c+g" -e "s+\$(GSOAP_PATH)/stdsoap2.h+/usr/include/stdsoap2.h+g" src/core/libsimias/Makefile.am
6. Compile it:
   ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install
7. Run the Simias server setup:
   sudo /usr/bin/simias-server-setup
   enter these for answers (most are default, take care of apache user and group):
   
SIMIAS SERVER SETUP
This script configures a server installation of Simias to setup a new Simias system.
----- SERVER'S DATA PATH -----
Path to the server's data files
Server's Data Path? [/var/simias/data]:
----- SERVER NAME -----
The name of this server
Server Name? [Host1]: iFolder
----- SSL -----
Select SSL/NONSSL communication for this server. Options
are SSL, NONSSL or BOTH
SSL? [SSL]:
----- PUBLIC URL -----
Public URL of this Simias Server
Public URL? [https://127.0.1.1/simias10]: https://yourserver.com/simias10
----- PRIVATE URL -----
Private URL of this Simias Server
Private URL? [https://yourserver.com/simias10]:
----- SLAVE SERVER -----
Install into existing Simias Domain
Slave Server? [N]:
----- SYSTEM NAME -----
A name used to identify the Simias system to users.
System Name? [iFolder]:
----- SYSTEM DESCRIPTION -----
A detailed description of the Simias system for users.
System Description? [iFolder Enterprise System]:
----- USE KEY RECOVERY AGENT -----
Use Key Recovery Agents to recovery the encryption
key if the user forgets the pass-phrase used for encryption?
Use Key Recovery Agent? [Y]:
----- RECOVERY AGENT CERTIFICATE PATH -----
Path to the Recovery agent certificate's.
Recovery Agent Certificate Path? [/var/simias/data]:
----- USE LDAP -----
Use LDAP to provision and authenticate users?
Use LDAP? [Y]: N
----- SYSTEM ADMIN -----
The Simias default administrator. If the system is
configured to use an external identity source, the
distinguished name (dn) should be used.
System Admin? [admin]:
System Admin Password? [novell]:
----- CONFIGURE APACHE -----
Configure Simias to run behind Apache
Configure Apache? [N]: Y
----- APACHE USER -----
Apache User
Apache User? [wwwrun]: www-data
----- APACHE GROUP -----
Apache Group
Apache Group? [www]: www-data
Working...
Configuring /var/simias/data/simias/Simias.config...SetupSimias - Done
Configuring /etc/apache2/conf.d/simias.conf...Done
Configuring User Movement plugin..
Setting up Log4Net file...Done
Setting up permissions...Done
SUCCESS
8. Correct the mod_mono path:
   sudo sed -i 's/apache2\/mod_mono.conf/apache2\/mods-enabled\/mod_mono.conf/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/simias.conf
9. Fix some permissions and paths:
   sudo mkdir -p /var/www/.config/.mono/
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/.config/
10. Restart apache and verify it is still restarting (it should ):
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
11. Run the setups for ifolder (answers are default):
    sudo /usr/bin/ifolder-admin-setup
sudo /usr/bin/ifolder-web-setup
    Put the following answers to apache:
    Apache User? [wwwrun]: www-data
Apache Group? [www]: www-data
12. Correct again mod_mono path:
    sudo sed -i 's/apache2\/mod_mono.conf/apache2\/mods-enabled\/mod_mono.conf/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/ifolder_admin.conf
sudo sed -i 's/apache2\/mod_mono.conf/apache2\/mods-enabled\/mod_mono.conf/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/ifolder_web.conf
13. Enable rewrite:
    sudo a2enmod rewrite
14. Restart apache:
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
15. Go to https://yourserver.com/admin , create a user, and enjoy !

Steps for 9.04 with rpms
Start in an empty folder, for example ~/ifolderinstall

1. Download the different packages:
   wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ifolder3/ifolder3-enterprise-3.7.2.9089.1-0.2.i586.rpm
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ifolder3/ifolder-enterprise-plugins-3.7.2.9089.1-2.i586.rpm
wget http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/repo/oss/suse/noarch/log4net-1.2.9-104.noarch.rpm
2. Install alien and convert the packages:
   sudo apt-get install alien
sudo alien --scripts *.rpm
3. Install the packages:
   sudo dpkg -i ifolder3-enterprise_3.7.2.9089.1-1.2_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i ifolder-enterprise-plugins_3.7.2.9089.1-3_i386.deb
4. Install the dependencies:
   sudo apt-get install mono-1.0-runtime mono-2.0-runtime mono-apache-server mono-apache-server2 libapache2-mod-mono libmono-system-web1.0-cil
5. You must install a special version of log4net:
   sudo apt-get remove liblog4net1.2-cil
sudo dpkg -i log4net_1.2.9-105_all.deb
6. Restart apache and verify everything is still working (it should):
   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
7. Run the Simias server setup:
   sudo /usr/bin/simias-server-setup
   enter these for answers (most are default, take care of apache user and group):
   
SIMIAS SERVER SETUP
This script configures a server installation of Simias to setup a new Simias system.
----- SERVER'S DATA PATH -----
Path to the server's data files
Server's Data Path? [/var/simias/data]:
----- SERVER NAME -----
The name of this server
Server Name? [Host1]: iFolder
----- SSL -----
Select SSL/NONSSL communication for this server. Options
are SSL, NONSSL or BOTH
SSL? [SSL]:
----- PUBLIC URL -----
Public URL of this Simias Server
Public URL? [https://127.0.1.1/simias10]: https://yourserver.com/simias10
----- PRIVATE URL -----
Private URL of this Simias Server
Private URL? [https://yourserver.com/simias10]:
----- SLAVE SERVER -----
Install into existing Simias Domain
Slave Server? [N]:
----- SYSTEM NAME -----
A name used to identify the Simias system to users.
System Name? [iFolder]:
----- SYSTEM DESCRIPTION -----
A detailed description of the Simias system for users.
System Description? [iFolder Enterprise System]:
----- USE KEY RECOVERY AGENT -----
Use Key Recovery Agents to recovery the encryption
key if the user forgets the pass-phrase used for encryption?
Use Key Recovery Agent? [Y]:
----- RECOVERY AGENT CERTIFICATE PATH -----
Path to the Recovery agent certificate's.
Recovery Agent Certificate Path? [/var/simias/data]:
----- USE LDAP -----
Use LDAP to provision and authenticate users?
Use LDAP? [Y]: N
----- SYSTEM ADMIN -----
The Simias default administrator. If the system is
configured to use an external identity source, the
distinguished name (dn) should be used.
System Admin? [admin]:
System Admin Password? [novell]:
----- CONFIGURE APACHE -----
Configure Simias to run behind Apache
Configure Apache? [N]: Y
----- APACHE USER -----
Apache User
Apache User? [wwwrun]: www-data
----- APACHE GROUP -----
Apache Group
Apache Group? [www]: www-data
Working...
Configuring /var/simias/data/simias/Simias.config...SetupSimias - Done
Configuring /etc/apache2/conf.d/simias.conf...Done
Configuring User Movement plugin..
Setting up Log4Net file...Done
Setting up permissions...Done
SUCCESS
8. Correct the mod_mono path:
   sudo sed -i 's/apache2\/mod_mono.conf/apache2\/mods-enabled\/mod_mono.conf/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/simias.conf
9. Fix some paths:
   sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gmcs2 /usr/bin/gmcs
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/.config/.mono/
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/.config/
10. Restart apache and verify it is still restarting (it should ):
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
11. Run the setups for ifolder (answers are default):
    sudo /usr/bin/ifolder-admin-setup
sudo /usr/bin/ifolder-web-setup
    Put the following answers to apache:
    Apache User? [wwwrun]: www-data
Apache Group? [www]: www-data
12. Correct again mod_mono path:
    sudo sed -i 's/apache2\/mod_mono.conf/apache2\/mods-enabled\/mod_mono.conf/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/ifolder_admin.conf
sudo sed -i 's/apache2\/mod_mono.conf/apache2\/mods-enabled\/mod_mono.conf/g' /etc/apache2/conf.d/ifolder_web.conf
13. Enable rewrite:
    sudo a2enmod rewrite
14. Restart apache:
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
15. Go to https://yourserver.com/admin , create a user, and enjoy !

There is a windows, MAC, and linux client for iFolder. Just google it.

Installing Boxee

Download and install the current version of Boxee. (See download link below) The install is very straightforward, just take the defaults. You’ll also need to register for a Boxee account, if you don’t already have one.

If you have Windows Firewall enabled and this is the first time you’re running Boxee, allow it to access your network.

Boxee Integration 1.0

Close out of Windows Media Center, then download and install the Boxee Integration application. It’s also a simple install. Just take the defaults and click “Finish.”

Restart Windows Media Center and you’ll see a Boxee tile on your main interface.

Click on the Boxee tile to launch it. You will be prompted to enter your username and password. Select the “Remember password” option if you don’t want to have to enter your login credentials each time.

You’ll be prompted to set screen calibration. You can do so now, or click “Skip.”

Boxee will open up in full screen. From here you can enjoy all your favorite Boxee content.

When you exit Boxee, Windows Media Center will restart in Full Screen mode. It is not completely seamless. You will see the desktop and a command box flash for a few seconds before Media Center opens.

Conclusion

This a great way to get access to some popular apps that aren’t currently available in Media Center like Pandora, LastFM, and MLB.TV. Unfortunately, Boxee Integration does not work on extenders.

Links

Download the latest version of Boxee

Download Boxee Integration 1.0

Note: For this article we’re accessing the Home Server Shared Folders from Windows 7.

Default Shared Folders

After installing Windows Home Server you’ll notice that the default shared folders are Music, Photos, Public, Recorded TV, Software, and Videos. These folders cannot be deleted, but we can create our own folders if needed. We can also go through and change permissions and view folder histories.

Accessing Shared Folders

You can access your shared folders on the server a few different ways. One is to double-click the Shared Folders on Server icon that was created on the Desktop when you installed WHS Console.

Or right-click on the WHS Console icon in the tray and select Shared Folders.

Open WHS Console and under Shared Folders right-click and Open the folder you want.

You can also go into Network and double-click on the Home Server icon…

Which ever method you use, it’ll open the Shared Folders directory and you can begin browsing through your data.

Add New Folder

Adding a new folder is pretty straight-forward. Open Windows Home Server Console and under Shared Folders click Add from the toolbar or right-click an empty area in Shared Folders and select Add from the context menu.

Either way it will pop up the Add a Shared Folder wizard where you type in the name for the folder and give it a description if you want to. You’ll need to decide if you want to enable folder duplication or not. With it enabled, it duplicates the folder and files contained in it across multiple drives on the server. It will take twice as much space on the total storage of your server and can take a while for the process to complete. In this example…these files are going to be large video files, and we don’t need to create a duplicate.

Next we need to select the type of access each user will have for the new folder. The types of access are as follows…

• Full – The user can view, add,.modify, and delete files in the shared folder.
• Read – The user can view files in the shared folder, but cannot add, modify, or delete files.
• None – The user can’t view, modify, or delete anything in the shared folder…they have no access.

The folder has been successfully created and you can close out of the wizard and start adding files.

Now in Windows Home Server Console we can see the created folder named DVD Movies. We also see the Description, it’s currently empty, Duplication is off, and a status of Healthy.

Delete a Shared Folder

If you ever find that you need to delete a shared folder you created, right-click the folder and select Remove from the menu.

Then click finish on the warning message if you’re sure you want to delete it. Remember that if a folder is duplicated, that will be deleted as well. Also you can’t delete the folders that were included by default by WHS.

Change Folder Properties

We can also go back and change the properties and user access to the folders at any time. In this example we created a Documents shared folder and want to enable Folder Duplication and change user access. Just right-click the folder and select Properties.

The Properties window appears and under the General tab we want to mark the box next to Enable Folder Duplication. You need at least 2 drives on your server to enable folder duplication. What it does is automatically duplicate the folder and its contents over to another drive. It also syncs the folder with the duplicate. So for example if you take a file out of the folder, that is updated in the duplicate as well.

This is very handy incase one of the server drives fail, you’ll still have access to the folder contents. Remember that duplication takes twice the amount of space of total storage space. You might want to use this feature for your most important files and documents.

Click on the User Access tab to change the type of access each user has to the folder.

You’ll get a message reminding you that the new permissions won’t go into effect until the user logs off then back on to the machine.

If a user tries to access a file that you haven’t assigned rights to, they’ll get a File Access Denied error message.

You can also check out folder history and see how it has grown over time. Right-click a particular and select History…which brings up a screen showing what’s been going on. You can choose to display week, month, year, or a full history.

If you try to view the history of a folder that hasn’t had enough time to accumulate any, you’ll get the following error. A folder needs to be in operation for a minimum of one week.

Conclusion

Windows Home Server is an excellent way to centralize all of your data, and access it from different machines throughout the house or small office. Managing the shared folders on the server will be one of the main administrative functions you’ll need to do. You’ll be able to administer user account access to the folders on the network and over the web. The Folder Duplication feature is a great way to ensure there is redundant backup of your most important files.

This guide should help get you started with using and understanding shared folders on your home server.

We recently had one of our computers in the lab take a turn for the worse after trying to do a complete uninstall of Office 2010 beta. It didn’t go the way we had hoped and experienced a hard time getting 2010 or 2007 reinstalled. It also caused some other apps that are associated with Office to error out and act unstable. Rather than spend hours researching Knowledgebase articles and tinkering with the Registry, we turned to restoring the system back to an earlier state with System Restore. In this article we thought we’d remind you about the importance of System Restore, and walk you through the restore process in Windows 7.

Recover from a Restore Point

First type system restore into the search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.

That opens the System Restore wizard and from here you can choose the recommended restore point,which is the most recent one…Or you can choose a different restore point, which for our situation we need to do. Select the radio button next to Choose a different restore point then click Next.

Now you get a list of different restore points and the description of what was taking place when it was created. We tried several attempts to install / uninstall Office 2010 Beta on this machine so there are several of those points listed as you can see. We need something later, so in this instance we want to click on the box next to Show more restore points.

Now scroll through and determine which restore point you want. For example, we know our system started being unstable at the time of trying to get rid of Office 2010…so we’ll pick a restore point that is a couple days before that when everything was working successfully.

When you pick a restore point, another thing you should do is click the button to Scan for affected programs.

The scan will kick off and determine what will be affected by the restore point you choose.

Then it brings up the results. It shows which programs and drivers that will be deleted…And what programs will be restored (though they may not work correctly and need to be reinstalled). This is goo information to know when selecting a point to recover. If some important drivers or programs would be deleted, you might want to try another restore point. Although, you may not always that luxury and will have to go with the one that works.

Confirm the restore pint and click Finish.

Click Yes to the message saying that it can’t be undone until it has completed, or cannot be undone if running it from Safe Mode.

The System Restore process begins…

You’ll see a series of messages display while the process completes and different things are being restored. The amount of time it takes to complete will vary between computers.

After returning from the restart, you’ll have a message advising it was completed successfully and the time and date it was restored to.

Now, your system should be functioning exactly how it was during the time it was restored to. You’ll still have all of your documents, but might be missing a couple of programs that you’ll just need to reinstall again.

Conclusion

Although often overlooked, it’s very important to create and maintain System Restore Points for the overall health of your system. It can make life much easier if something bad happens and you need a quick way to get your machine working again. A lot of times some programs and some Windows Updates will create a Restore Point for you automatically but not always.

The Blue Screen of death has been a geeks favorite template for screensavers, websites, photos, software, and more.

Get this great screensaver made by Sysinternals (Microsoft) and enjoy the geekyness.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx

I love writing applications and script. I wrote an IP-Blocklist package for the pfsense router. There is no PeerGuardian2 available for freeBSD so I made one.

This package is really sweet because you can upload list URLs and add manual IPs to block. The IPFW adds a drop entry for each IP. A perl script converts the addresses from the URL list to a ipfw friendly command.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

if($#ARGV != 1) {
    print("Usage: $0 <input file> <output file>\n");
    exit(1);
}

my ($line,$title,$iprange,$cidr);
my $i = 30000;

open(INFILE,’<’,$ARGV[0]) or die("Could not open input file $ARGV[0]");
open(OUTFILE,’>>’,$ARGV[1]) or die("Could not open output file $ARGV[1]");

foreach $line (<INFILE>) {
    chomp($line);
    $line =~ s/:((\d{1,3}[-\.]*){8})//;
    $iprange = $1;
    print OUTFILE "#$line\n";
    foreach $cidr (split(/\n/,range($iprange))) {
        print OUTFILE "ipfw -q add 1000 drop ip from any to $cidr\n";     
        #$i++;
        print OUTFILE "ipfw -q add 1001 drop ip from $cidr to any\n";     
        #$i++;
    }
}

close(INFILE);
close(OUTFILE);

sub ntoa {
    return join ".",unpack("CCCC",pack("N",shift));
}
sub aton {
    return unpack ‘N’, pack ‘C4′, split/\./, shift;
}
sub deaggregate {
    my $thirtytwobits = 4294967295;
    my $start = shift;
    my $end = shift;
    my $base = $start;
    my ($step,$output);
    while ($base <= $end) {
        $step = 0;
        while (($base | (1 << $step)) != $base) {
            if (($base | (((~0) & $thirtytwobits) >> (31-$step))) > $end) {
                last;
            }
            $step++;
        }
        if($step == 0) {
            $output .= ntoa($base);
        }else{
            $output .= ntoa($base)."/" .(32-$step);
        }
        $output .= "\n";
        $base += 1 << $step;
    }
    return $output;
}
sub range {
    my ($address,$address2) = split /-/, shift;
    $address = aton($address);
    $address2 = aton($address2);
    return deaggregate($address,$address2);
}

Using this I can process the over 225 thousand line lists in a matter of minutes. The really long lists take more than an hour but it pays off. Now you can block spam, hackers, and bogon addresses.

There are some limits though.

Lists can have any extension BUT if the list is compressed only .gz is supported.
Long lists take a very LONG time to process. A level1 list (225,000 lines) will take over 1h or more
The Firewall entries are lost on several occasions (when config.inc is processed) such as Rebooting, restarting the WebGUI, restarting SSH, etc…

IP-Blocklist

pfsense.org

We recently had one of our computers in the lab take a turn for the worse after trying to do a complete uninstall of Office 2010 beta. It didn’t go the way we had hoped and experienced a hard time getting 2010 or 2007 reinstalled. It also caused some other apps that are associated with Office to error out and act unstable. Rather than spend hours researching Knowledgebase articles and tinkering with the Registry, we turned to restoring the system back to an earlier state with System Restore. In this article we thought we’d remind you about the importance of System Restore, and walk you through the restore process in Windows 7.

Recover from a Restore Point

First type system restore into the search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.

That opens the System Restore wizard and from here you can choose the recommended restore point,which is the most recent one…Or you can choose a different restore point, which for our situation we need to do. Select the radio button next to Choose a different restore point then click Next.

Now you get a list of different restore points and the description of what was taking place when it was created. We tried several attempts to install / uninstall Office 2010 Beta on this machine so there are several of those points listed as you can see. We need something later, so in this instance we want to click on the box next to Show more restore points.

Now scroll through and determine which restore point you want. For example, we know our system started being unstable at the time of trying to get rid of Office 2010…so we’ll pick a restore point that is a couple days before that when everything was working successfully.

When you pick a restore point, another thing you should do is click the button to Scan for affected programs.

The scan will kick off and determine what will be affected by the restore point you choose.

Then it brings up the results. It shows which programs and drivers that will be deleted…And what programs will be restored (though they may not work correctly and need to be reinstalled). This is goo information to know when selecting a point to recover. If some important drivers or programs would be deleted, you might want to try another restore point. Although, you may not always that luxury and will have to go with the one that works.

Confirm the restore pint and click Finish.

Click Yes to the message saying that it can’t be undone until it has completed, or cannot be undone if running it from Safe Mode.

The System Restore process begins…

You’ll see a series of messages display while the process completes and different things are being restored. The amount of time it takes to complete will vary between computers.

After returning from the restart, you’ll have a message advising it was completed successfully and the time and date it was restored to.

Now, your system should be functioning exactly how it was during the time it was restored to. You’ll still have all of your documents, but might be missing a couple of programs that you’ll just need to reinstall again.

Conclusion

Although often overlooked, it’s very important to create and maintain System Restore Points for the overall health of your system. It can make life much easier if something bad happens and you need a quick way to get your machine working again. A lot of times some programs and some Windows Updates will create a Restore Point for you automatically but not always.

First, download and install Virtual Clone Drive. It’s a free application that allows you to mount an ISO file so that it appears as a CD/DVD drive. The install process is very simple and you can just take the defaults.

Next, download and install Mikinho Mount Image. This add-in allows for the ISO image files to be displayed and mounted automatically in Windows Media Center. This is also a very basic install and is available in 32 & 64 bit versions.

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to either copy your ISO files into your Media Center Movie Library, or add the folder containing your ISOs to the Movie Library.

When you are ready to watch a movie, simply browse to the Movie Library and click on the ISO you wish to view.

When you open an ISO file, you are presented with a “Please wait while mounting disc image…” message. The process will take several seconds. It may take a bit longer if another ISO file needs to be unmounted before mounting the new one.

After the ISO is mounted, your movie will begin to play. Now just relax and enjoy the movie.

When the movie is over you can eject the ISO image (which actually unmounts it from the virtual drive) just as you would with an actual physical DVD. You don’t have to, but it makes mounting the next ISO you want to watch load faster.

These two apps work behind the scenes and it feels like the feature was built into Windows Media Center to begin with. There is nothing you need to setup or tweak, just install the two programs and you’re done. Of course with Virtual CloneDrive, you’ll get the extra benefit of having a virtual disc drive on your system for running other disc images.

If you are looking for a simple, no hassle way to enjoy those ISOs in Windows 7 Media Center, then these simple apps will be a welcome addition to your Media Center setup.

Download Mikinho Mount Image

Download Virtual Clone Drive