Preparing to configure Windows. Do not turn off your computer.

Stuck on "Preparing to configure Windows. Do not turn off your computer" as I wanted to restart the Windows Server 2008 machine. I could still ping the server but could not able to remote using either Dameware Mini Remote Control tool or Remote Desktop Connection. I don't want to hard boot the server because it can result in windows operating system crash.

Solution:

1. Open services.msc on the other server or machine.
2. Right-click Services(Local) and select Connect to another computer...
3. On the another computer box, type the hostname of the machine that has error.
4. Navigate to Windows Modules Installer, you will notice that the status is stopping.
5. Right-click on Windows Modules Installer and select Properties then Recovery
6. On the subsequent failures, choose either Restart the Computer if you want to restart the machine or choose Restart the Service
7. Wait for a couple of minutes and the machine will restart automatically if you select Restart the Computer.

Windows 7 Aero peek not working when hovering taskbar icons

In my Windows 7 computer, I was once experienced that aero peek (transparency) is not working when hovering taskbar icons.

In this example below, the cursor is hovered on the control panel icon but aero peek is not working cause it does not preview as thumbnail. But instead it only display the list of opened items in the control panel.




You can see the image below where aero peek is working. The cursor is hovered on the Internet Explorer browser icon on the taskbar and it displayed a mini window or it preview as thumbnail for all IE open tabs and windows.




To troubleshoot the issue, right-click on the desktop and select Personalize


Click Troubleshoot problems with transparency and other Aero effects


Click Advanced to verify if "Apply repairs has been checked" then click Next



It seems that a mirror driver is causing the aero peek not to work properly. To solve the issue, you need to close the programs that are using mirror drivers.



Even though troubleshooting was unable to automatically fix the issue, but we already identify that Mirror drivers don't support Aero effects.



To manually fix the issue. Go to Control Panel > Device Manager > Display adapters
Mine i have "DameWare Development Mirror Driver 64-bit"


Right-click on the mirror driver and select "Uninstall".

Dameware "Error 1053: The service did not respond to the stat or control request in a timely fashion"

Dameware Mini Remote Control is use to remote machines connected on the network. This software is licensed per IT technician, not per computer.

I have once experienced that i could not able to remote a server.
I was able to remote other servers or machines except on this one.

As i have checked on the services of the server that i could not remote, the Dameware Mini Remote Control service is not started and was set to Automatic. I started the service but got the error message below.

To solve the issue, open Dameware Mini Remote Control and input the host or server that you could not remote. Select File, then click Remove Service.

Note: You may receive message that service is pending for removal and you may need to restart the server to successfully remove the service.

VMWare Workstation 10 "Unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume(s). Error code: 2147754767 (0x8004230F)"

I received error message when creating P2V in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Solution:

1. Right-click any local disk on the physical machine that you are going to virtualize.
2. Select Configure Shadow Copies
3. Highlight each volumes
4. Select Settings
5. Set the Maximum size to No Limit

Note: 

• If No Limit is already selected, click Use limit and accept the default size. Click OK then OK. Then go back to Settings and Set the Maximum Size to No Limit.
• When creating P2V (Physical to Virtual), destination folder where the virtual machine is saved should be shared. Grant full access to the account you use to virtualize a physical machine.

How to limit the size of database files (ARCSERVE)

This is not a CA recommended procedure it does work though.

The largest log file on our system is the Tape.log file which holds debug information for the application.

You cannot edit the file, limit it or access it from the application. Once you note it as a problem the file is too big to open. However you can replace it.

Firstly make sure that ARCSERVE is not actively open in a window, services running on NT4 or WIn2K Pro or Server are OK.

Then do the following:
1. Open Explorer and navigate to the ARCSERVE share.
2. Open the LOG folder
3. Create a new text file there called Tape.log.new
4. Rename Tape.log --> Tape.log.old
5. Rename Tape.log.new --> Tape.log
6. Restart the ARCSERVE manager, goto the Jobstatus window.

If everything is OK you should not have a problem from here on out.

This has been working at our site for only a couple of days. We do not know of any long term issues.

How to reset CAROOT password in ARCServe Backup

1.    Open a command prompt on the server where you want to change/reset the caroot password.
2.    In the command prompt browse to the drive where you have ARCServe installed
       (e.g. C:\Program Files\CA\...)
3.    Once in the ARCServe folder type in the following: cstop
4.    This will stop the ARCServe services that are running.
5.    When all services are stopped open the Windows Explorer and browse to the folder:
       C:\Program Files\CA\BrightStor ARCserve Backup\Data\Discovery
       Here you will find a folder that has the name of your server.
6.    Rename this folder.
7.    Back in the command prompt type in the following: cstart
8.    This will start the ARCServe services that were stopped in item 4.
9.    Still in the command prompt type in the following:
       Authsetup/p "password" where “password” is what you want the new password to be.
10.  Close the command prompt and try to open ARCServe with the new password.

BOOTMGR is missing, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

If you receive above error message after booting up your windows 7 machine,

It indicates that your operating system boot sector is missing or corrupted.

Follow below steps to fix the problem. You must have windows 7 OS installer to proceed.

1. Insert windows 7 OS installer on your CD/DVD ROM drive.
2. Reboot your computer and set CD/DVD drive as the primary boot device on your BIOS. To get in to the BIOS, press F2 for Dell and F10 for HP and go to Boot Sequence.
3. Press any key when "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" message appears.
4. Enter your language and other preferences and click "Next" to continue.
5. Select "Repair your computer"
   
6. System Recovery Options will load, select "Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows. Select an operating system to repair" and select Windows 7 under Operating System and click Next.
   
7. Select Repair and restart
8. Select Startup Repair under Choose a recovery tool on System Recovery Options
9. Remove the windows 7 installation disc on your CD/DVD drive.
10. Click Finish to restart your computer to complete the repairs