How to Import Multiple VCF contacts into iCloud
One of my users recently came to me with an interesting problem this week. She had left her old job but had left all her contacts on her work account. Once the account was deleted, all the addresses were wiped out as well. By sheer luck, her iPad had a copy of the contacts since she never connected it to a new network which prevented any type of sync. We managed to export the contacts off the iPad to VCF cards but were now left with the tedious task of importing them all into iCloud for her to use on her phone. I tried dragging and dropping all the VCF cards into the browser but iCloud displayed 300+ errors saying the card could not be imported, without specifying which ones were a problem. The import would error out after clicking OK at around 300 times and not actually import a single one.
I remembered that the format of the cards is simple text and you can easily merge the files into one big file to import.
- Copy the VCF cards to a folder like c:\temp\vcf.
- Right mouse click on c:\temp\vcf while holding shift and you’ll see an option that says “Open with Command Prompt”
- You can also open command prompt by clicking Start -> Run, or windows button + r and type cmd to launch it.
- Enter the command copy /a *.vcf merge.vcf in the command prompt.
This will merge all cards into a single VCF file. Now return to iCloud Contacts, click on the gears icon on the bottom left, and click “Import Contact” and choose the generated VCF card. iCloud will now display a progress bar of the import and any errors. In a strange coincidence, importing the contacts this way only prompted me with three or so errors. I’m not exactly sure why the error count was reduced doing it this way. (There were over 1500 contacts to import and I wasn’t about to sift through them to see what was different since it was for personal contacts.)
Mac Outlook 2011 Reply All Includes My E-mail (with solution)
I’ve started a new job and was assigned a Macbook for my daily work. I’ve found equivalents for most of my applications. Personally, I find the native Mac apps are just extremely underpowered for my computing needs. I hate Mail especially, and even more so how all the apps are split out into separate apps. Luckily I have Office for Mac. Not so luckily, Outlook Mac 2011 is not as well designed as Outlook for Windows in so many ways.
One of the bugs I ran into was the “Reply All” bug where your e-mail is included in the CC field. It’s rather annoying having to choose from having to manually delete your address or having an extra e-mail to delete from your inbox.
The fix turned out to be rather simple for me. It turns out that Outlook for Mac isn’t very smart. It doesn’t seem to be able to tell which address you’re sending the e-mail from even though it’s doing the sending. When my account was initially setup, the company set it up with one of their subsidiary domains which was incorrect. Rather than creating a new inbox, they simply created an alias for the domain but never updated my configuration.
To fix the issue, do the following:
- Go to Tools -> Accounts.
- Ensure that your e-mail address field is set to match the address you are sending from.
My e-mail address had been set to the old one and still worked due to the aliasing. As soon as I updated the address to match the corrected domain, the reply all stopped including my e-mail address.
ESET AntiTheft Causes Dell Machines to Lose Permissions on C:
I just spent the past two days complaining about Windows 8 to everyone I know because of how awful the experience is. I installed Windows updates, rebooted, and the system stops working.
It turns out it wasn’t Windows causing the problem but ESET AntiTheft on Dell laptops. It turns out there’s a permission bug specific to Dell machines when ESET creates it’s ghost account and instead of giving it restricted access, the system essentially copies the permissions and then changes everything on the C: drive to a state where the permissions are no longer accessible.
Unfortunately, the only known fix at this point is to contact ESET support. I called their support line in North America and the tech knew about the issue right away. You’ll have to reboot into safe mode, and then get them to remote in to install a utility that runs a script that resets the permissions.
Contact Info here: http://www.eset.com/us/about/contact/
The tech assured me they are working with Dell to get this issue resolved so until they do, make sure you don’t activate ESET’s AntiTheft on the Dell machine.
What’s the Problem?
A few years ago, I started at a company as a help desk tech. After establishing myself, I’d often get put on all the…interesting issues. When nobody else could figure out the problem, I’d get called in to figure out the issue. During my early days as a new tech there, the manager of the team passed me a ticket and stopped by to give me background on the situation. This particular client would call in every week because one computer couldn’t talk to the server and at one point, every tech on the team had worked on the problem and nobody had been able to figure it out. My manager told me not to stress about it because it was definitely something on their side but he treats the situation as a rite of passage for all new hires.
I give the doctor a call back and he gets me connected to his PC and begins to elaborate on the problem and all the things everyone has had him do. He explains how his tech knows the problem is with our software since everything on the network side works. He clicks on the Windows XP start menu and by sheer luck, the tech had set the menu back to classic which meant the banner along the left showed which version of Windows was running. As the doctor continued on with his explanation, I noticed the banner on the start menu said “Windows XP Home Edition”.
I politely interrupted the doctor and informed him that I had figured out the problem. He went quiet for a few seconds and said “You haven’t done anything yet and I haven’t finished explaining everything. How could you possibly have figured out the problem?” I informed him that he’s running Windows XP Home Edition which doesn’t support business networking and explains why he couldn’t connect to the server. He insisted that all his computers are running Windows XP Pro and besides, how could I possibly know that without having even done anything?
I asked him to click on the start menu and then he went quiet. I asked if he was there and he apologized and said he was going to call his tech to get the OS fixed. He asked if it would be alright for him to call and request my help if there are any problems from there.
I closed the ticket with “Problem solved. Issue was Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition”.
How to remove win64/sirefef.AE trojan & c:\windows\system32\services.exe win64 patched b.gen trojan
I’m kind of the default “go to” guy for all PC issues with friends and family. One of the most common problems people bring to me is malware. Going forward, I’m going to document the removal process for some of the more difficult ones I encounter.
The most difficult trojan I’ve encountered thus far is the sirefef.AE trojan. It infects the PC by replacing c:\windows\system32\services.exe which is pretty ingenious in that it’s extremely difficult to remove since Windows requires it and it’s always in use which keeps the antiviruses and applications from being able to remove it.
I just spent a few days battling this one and successfully cleaned it off the system.
To remove it:
- Run the ESET Online Scanner (http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/). Have it scan archives and let it remove whatever it finds.Side note: If you use Norton or McAfee for antivirus protection, now’s a good time to dump them for an antivirus that actually works and doesn’t hog resources: http://go.eset.com/r/7NQZN
- Run ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix) in safe mode. It will find and remove some of the trojans already downloaded. Instructions are on the bleepingcomputer page on how to use it but for the most part it’s mostly automated.
- Download and install MalwareBytes (http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5756). The free version will suffice. Run a full system scan and remove whatever it finds.
- You will need a Recovery Disc from Windows 7 for the next step. Make one on a non-infected computer if you don’t have one already.
- Download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool x64 (http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/farbar/FRST64.exe) and save to a flash drive.
Enter System Recovery Options.
To enter System Recovery Options from the Advanced Boot Options:
- Restart the computer.
- As soon as the BIOS is loaded begin tapping the F8 key until Advanced Boot Options appears.
- Use the arrow keys to select the Repair your computer menu item.
- Select US as the keyboard language settings, and then click Next.
- Select the operating system you want to repair, and then click Next.
- Select your user account an click Next.
To enter System Recovery Options by using Windows installation disc:
- Insert the installation disc.
- Restart your computer.
- If prompted, press any key to start Windows from the installation disc. If your computer is not configured to start from a CD or DVD, check your BIOS settings.
- Click Repair your computer.
- Select US as the keyboard language settings, and then click Next.
- Select the operating system you want to repair, and then click Next.
- Select your user account and click Next.
On the System Recovery Options menu you will get the following options:Startup Repair System Restore Windows Complete PC Restore Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool Command Prompt
Uninstalling Trend Micro Client/Server Security without a Password
Lost or forgot your Trend Micro Client/Server Password? How about inheriting a computer that had the software installed by an IT team or consultant that won’t give up the password? I had to work on a network with the latter and it’s rather annoying. The product is utter crap as the machine is spyware infested even though the antivirus is running and present. I went to uninstall it but can’t because the previous person/company password protected it and nobody has it.
Here’s how to bypass the protection:
- Load up Regedit and browse to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\PC-cillinNTCorp\CurrentVersion\Misc.\Allow Uninstall - Change the value to 1.
Now you can uninstall TrendMicro’s crappy product and replace with a real solution like Eset.
TrustedInstaller.EXE CPU Usage
Solution 1: Clear Problem History
The following fix is intended for situations where trustedinstaller.exe causes problems due to the Problem Reports and Solutions history maintained in Windows Vista.
- Go to Start and then select Control Panel.
- Turn on Classic View.
- Select Problem Reports and Solutions.
- Click Clear Solution and Problem History in the left panel.
- Confirm your decision.
- Exit the Problems Reports and Solutions Window and Control Panel.
You can also click Change in the Problems Reports and Solutions Window. And then change the configuration from Check for solutions automatically setting to Ask me to check if a problem occurs.
Solution 2: Change Microsoft Update Startup Settings to Manual
- Go to Start and then select Control Panel.
- Select Administrative Tools and then select Services.
- Scroll down to Microsoft Update, right-click on it and then select Stop.
- Right-click on Microsoft Update again and select Properties.
- On the General tab, set Startup type as Manual.
- Next, display the Recovery tab.
- Choose Take No Action and click OK for First Failure.
- Exit the properties dialog box.
- Bring up your Task Manager by pressing on Ctrl + Alt + Del or Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
- On the Processes tab, look for and select trustedinstaller.exe.
- Click End process to kill trustedinstaller.exe.
Solution 3: Disable Automatic Update
- Go to Start and then select Control Panel.
- Go to System and Maintenance.
- Click Turn automatic update on or off option.
- Next, depending on your preference choose one of the following options:
- Never check for updates (not recommended)
- Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them
- Download updates but let me choose whether to install them
- Click OK to save your changes and exit the dialog box.
Solution 4: Stop the Windows Module Installer That Runs Trustedinstaller.exe
- Click on Start, in the Start Search box, type msconfig and then press Enter.
- Click Continue when User Account Control prompt is displayed.
- In the System Configuration window that is displayed, open the Services tab.
- Locate and clear the Windows Module Installer check box.
- Click OK save your changes and exit the dialog box.
- Next, open Services window again and change the Startup type of Windows Module Installer to Manual.
Drobo Dashboard Can’t Connect to Drobo when ESET Firewall is Active
Have a Drobo storage unit? If you have ESET Smart Security Firewall enabled, you’ll probably find Drobo Dashboard can’t connect while the firewall is on even after adding all the required ports and services to ESET’s rules from the Drobo online help site (http://goo.gl/iVKVU).
After enabling the detailed logging in ESET, I found that ESET’s firewall was flagging Drobo Dashboard as an intrusion attempt and blocked it. From the Drobo help page (http://goo.gl/iVKVU):
Drobo Dashboard connects to port 5000 and then randomly picks a port in the range for broadcasting.
This is definitely not the most intelligent way to build a product when users who are trying to secure their home or business network and it’s no wonder that ESET flagged the behavior as suspicious. Luckily there’s a fix to keep ESET from blocking the Drobo connection:
- Make sure you add the rules as per Drobo’s site (http://goo.gl/iVKVU).
- Open the main program window by clicking ‘Start’ -> ‘All Programs’ -> ‘ESET’ -> ‘ESET Smart Security’.
- Click on ‘Setup’ on the left, and then click ‘Enter Advanced setup’ on the right to open the Advanced Setup tree.
- From the Advanced Setup tree on the left, Expand ‘Network’, and Click on ‘Personal Firewall’, and then select ‘Interactive mode’ from the Filtering mode drop-down menu on the right.
- From the advanced setup tree, click ‘Personal Firewall’ -> ‘Rules and zones’. Click the ‘Setup…’ button in the Trusted zone section and then choose ‘Allow sharing’. Click ‘OK’.
- Click ‘Personal Firewall’ -> ‘IDS and advanced options’. In the ‘Allowed services’ section, make sure all services are selected. Click ‘OK’.
Drobo Dashboard should now be able to connect to the unit with no issues.
Round Up to Whole Numbers in Excel (10s, 100s, 1000s, etc)
After years of using Excel, I realized today I have never had to round up to the nearest whole number before – until today that is. I was organizing my finances and realized that I wanted to round some of the amounts up to the nearest 10. So to round to the nearest decimal place in Excel, the formula is:
=ROUNDUP([Range],[Position])
Count the number of places after the 0 to round to and set [Position] to that value
So if you had 1234.25 in Cell A1 and wanted to round up to the nearest cent, =ROUNDUP(A1, 1) would produce 1234.30.
| 1234.25 ^ 1 |
1234.25 ^ 2 |
| =ROUNDUP(A1,1) | =ROUNDUP(A1,2) |
Want to go the other way? Simply start at the decimal as 0 and count backwards in the negated position.
| 1234.25 ^ -1 |
1234.25 ^ -2 |
1234.25 ^ -3 |
1234.25 ^ -4 |
| =ROUNDUP(A1, -1) | =ROUNDUP(A1, -2) | =ROUNDUP(A1, -3) | =ROUNDUP(A1, -4) |
To round to the nearest ten (10)
To round to the nearest hundred (100)
To round to the nearest thousand (100)
Kill Multiple Processes at Once Via Command Line with Taskkill
Ever have a program or process that doesn’t end properly and runs in the background continuously?
I recently encountered this issue with VLC on one Windows 7 machine where it keeps the process never terminates. Since I never reboot the machine for other than Windows Updates, this amounted to 633 copies of VLC running in memory. Each process only used about 633k so it wasn’t an astronomical memory hog but multiply that by 633, you begin to feel the machine slowing down. Task Manager doesn’t let you kill multiple processes in bulk and I didn’t want to go through killing them one by one or rebooting.
The solution? Good old command line. Open up command prompt (start -> run -> cmd.exe). This snippet will kill all processes that start with the taskname:
TASKKILL /IM [TASKNAME]* /F
To kill all VLC processes, you’d use:
TASKKILL /IM vlc* /F
All running VLC processes will be terminated automatically.