User cannot delete offline folder in My Documents

Problem Description and explanation:

User's laptop had accidentally shut off the wireless adapter.  Wireless adpater has hardware switch on side of laptop.

Tech engaged the adapter, user connected, but still got the error.  User logged off and logged back in, but still could not delete folder.

Files were deleting, but not going to recycle bin.

Problem "fix:"

Rebooted machine and everything was fine.  Evidently, turning on the adapter was not enough, must perform complete system reboot.

Windows Moodle Email STARTTLS error - fixed!

THE FOLLOWING APPLIES TO AN OLDER VERSION OF MOODLE. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY:

The Windows Moodle package is a great, easy way to get Moodle up and running on a Windows machine. The downside? Setting up email is a pain in the rump.  It didn't have to be.

The problem we had was one where the SMTP server would respond with "STARTTLS" errors.  I spent a LOT of time editing my sendmail.ini file (and even installed the latest sendmail for Windows).  Nothing would cure the problem.

I started poking around the Moodle forums, and while they are generally helpful for many things, the STARTTLS error is not one of them.  However, *nix forums ARE helpful.. sorta.

In the Moodle directory on your Windows server, you need to edit the class.phpmailer.php file *in addition* to setting up sendmail as your mailer. Why? Who the heck knows.  In any case, here is what is working for us, so I hope it helps you!

FIRST: MOODLE ADMIN

   Site Administration > Plugins > Message Outputs > EMAIL
   Type your SMTP host, username, password as needed (you NEED the SMTP host, the others may be optional based on YOUR mail handler/mail host. Google requires it)
   Type noreply@yourdomain.com for the no-reply address.  Substitute your REALY domain for the "yourdomain" part there!

SECOND: SENDMAIL

   Download the latest SENDMAIL to your Moodle server and unzip it to X:\moodle\server\sendmail (substitute the actual driver letter for X there!)
   On your server, go to your X:\moodle\server\sendmail folder
   EDIT the sendmail.ini file:
       smtp_port=25 (usually leave this as is)
       smtp_ssl=auto (could specify TLS here)
       auth_username=valid.user@yourdomain.com
       auth_password=ValidUsersPa$$word
       hostname=yourdomain.com

THIRD: PHPMAILER

   Navigate to X:\moodle\server\moodle\lib\phpmailer on your server (again, substitue your actual location for X)
   EDIT the class.phpmailer.php file (use WordPad)
   SEARCH for TLS
   A few lines down, edit the "SMTPSecure" line:
       public $SMTPSecure = 'tls';
   DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS FILE!!

FOURTH: PHP.INI

   Navigate to X:\moodle\server\php
   EDIT the php.ini file:
       SMTP = yourmailserver.com
       smtp_port = 25
       sendmail_from = valid.user@yourdomain.com
       sendmail_path = "X:\moodle\server\sendmail\sendmail.exe -t"
   SAVE the file.

Once you have done these, you need to STOP MOODLE then START MOODLE in order for the system to take the changes.

Moodle email may not run by itself.  You can use Task Scheduler in order to call the CRON.PHP page in your Moodle environment. Or you can use MoodleCron for Windows. Very easy to use!

NOTE: Use at your own risk. This worked for me. I hope it works for you, but I will not be held liable for anything that goes wrong with your server/environment/etc.

NOTE: The above steps may be a bit of overkill.  Some steps may not be required in order to get email working in Moodle. I have not gone back to determine just which step(s) worked.  Once it was fixed, I didn't break it again.

Decipher an unknown text file with Wintext

I had a user with a file that had a WPD extension. Normally, this would be a WordPerfect file that could easily be opened in Microsoft Office or Open Office or a myriad of other programs.  Nothing worked.  Instead, all we got was jibberish.  I even tried zamzar.com to convert it to Word, and that produced garbage.

After searching the net, I found a program called "Wintext!"  Wintext will take ANY file and extract any viable text from it.  With that program, I was able to pull out the text the user needed.

The file can be had from here:
http://www.softoxi.com/download-wintext.html

Open .pages file in Windows or without Mac Pages!

I encountered a few .pages files that were created on a Mac.

I am using a PC and my MacBook doesn't have Pages on it, so I was a bit stumped as to what to do (short of asking the author to export them as PDF).

Instead, here is a solution:

change the extension to .ZIP and open the files with Winzip or whatever.  Inside there, you will find a folder called "QuickLook." Inside Quicklook, you will find a PDF of the .pages document! Bingo!  Copy and paste the content, and you should be good to go.

Work Life: Awesome Links for Custom Install Disks

November 30, 2012

I really enjoy deployment in the enterprise environment and also making the perfect Install disk for my home computers. I don't like wasting time with installation. I want to start it up and walk away.

Links 

With all MS Service Packs and hotfixes, Microsoft has made it possible to slipstream them into installation disks which is a great thing. It really cuts down on the time having to babysit the computer to do updates (if you don't have WSUS). Well, as time goes on and more patches being released, it is really time consuming keeping up with all of them and also time consuming running each one in slipstream mode.

Along came Ntlite and RyanVM. Nlite is the most awesome Installation Customization tool. I have used quite a bit of them but this one is probably the best. It will let you do pretty much anything. And the other godsend is RyanVM who is a guy that has been keeping up with all of the patches that are post SP2.

Winnaddons is probably the most amazing set of programs that you can integrate into your installation disk. These add-ons allow you to have programs automatically installed for you during the installation of windows. It will take some time to go through the list but I guarantee that you will find programs that you will want to install right away and programs that you will want to integrate into your installation of Windows.

RyanVM also has some add-ons to download.

Nlite has a General Usage Guide up. It is old but it will get you started.

RyansVM's Forums has some interesting stuff.

And the best link ever for windows users, admins, and techies: http://www.msfn.org/ Peruse the forums and you will get more then you will ever have time for.

Best Practices 

Some things that I have learned:

Make sure that you have a copy of Windows XP with SP2 that is in your license notebook. You can create your own slipstreamed copy of Windows XP with SP2, but I have run into issues doing it that way. Some things don't get upgraded when you slipstream SP2 into the Windows Gold disk. It is better to start with the 'real' version of Windows XP with SP2.

Test these in Virtual PC 2007 before using of course.

You will not be able to use these disks when you create your Images for Windows Deployment Services. I haven't found out why, but it just doesn't work. So until SP3 comes out your WDS solutions will suffer unless you have the patience to download all the critical hotfixes and slipstream them yourself or unless you have an awesome script to do it for you. I have neither, but we use WSUS and it gets the job done pretty quickly without any intervention

Stay as organized as possible. It is easy to get jumbled up with all the files that you will be using.

Stay simple at first and then get more daring. It is easy to do all that work and testing only to have the machine blue screen on you.

(Matthew Johnson)