markwilson.it

I frequently connect to Windows hosts from my Mac and I have been using the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection client for Mac OS X. The trouble with this is that it only allows a single connection and it’s not a universal binary (it also has a tendency to crash on exit, requiring a forced [...]

I’ve written previously about why open source software is not really free (as in monetary value), just free (as in freedom). Companies such as Red Hat and Novell (SUSE) make their money from support and during Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) setup, it is “strongly recommended” that the system is set up for software [...]

Last year, I wrote about installing VMware Server on Fedora Core 6. At the time, I was using version 1.0.1 (build 29996) and tonight I needed to load the latest version 1.0.3 (build 44356) on my laptop, which is now running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5. In theory, installing on [...]

I’m not sure if it’s the gradual improvement in my Linux knowledge, better information on the ‘net, or just that integrating Windows and Unix systems is getting easier but I finally got one of my non-Windows systems to authenticate against Active Directory (AD) today. It may not sound like much of an achievement but [...]

Phew! I’ve just read an e-mail from Red Hat informing me that I passed the Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) exam that I took this morning.
The confidentiality agreement that I had to sign makes it practically impossible for me to talk about my exam experience but Red Hat’s RHCT exam preparation guide gives the [...]

“Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script”
[T-shirt slogan from an attendee at tonight's Windows PowerShell for IT administrators event.]

I’m back in my hotel room having spent the evening at one of Microsoft UK’s TechNet events and this time the topic was Windows PowerShell for IT administrators. I’ve written previously [...]

Many organisations have realised the value of blogging from a corporate marketing perspective but I’ve recently gained first hand experience of blogging as a social networking tool.  In general, any relationships formed as a result of blogging activities are online (whilst other tools such as LinkedIn attempt to convert personal relationships into more complex social [...]

It’s not often that I come away from a Microsoft event as excited as I was after the recent Vista after hours session.
You see, we have a problem at home… our DVD player has stopped recognising discs. That shouldn’t really be a problem (DVD players are cheap enough to replace) but it’s a CD/DVD player, [...]

One of my Windows Vista PCs has been refusing to download updates from Windows Update, reporting that:
Windows could not search for new updates
Error(s) found:
Code 80245003
A bit of googling turned up various forum threads/blog posts about this article but most of them recommend stopping the Windows Update service, renaming/removing the %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution folder, restarting the Windows Update [...]

A few months back, I wrote about how Windows Vista product activation works for volume license customers.  Last night I was searching to find out what the grace period is before activation is required and I stumbled across some interesting articles. You see, it turns out that there are three main problems with product activation:

Corporate IT departments [...]