Recently I had nightmare when Firefox started crashing consonantly on my Windows 7 machine. I like Firefox because it runs 10x faster then Internet explorer , even on Windows 7 -64 bit Edition the Firefox speed was significantly faster then Internet explorer. I am using Trend Micro Internet Security on my Windows 7 machines, reason i picked Trend Micro Internet security again because of speed reason, Comparing to Symantec Norton Internet Security TrendMicro is much better because it doesn’t slows down your PC even scanner is running in background.

Fixed FireFox Crashing

Recently Firefox version 3.63 start crashing automatically, problem got so worse that it wouldn’t let me even open the firefox windows.

What i did to fix Crashing Firefox on Windows 7

1.I read on Firefox support forums that i can try running firefox in safe mode , it didn’t worked out for me because i was not able to run firefox in safe mode.

2.It got so worse that i have to un-install the firefox out of my Windows 7 desktop and then reinstalled it. Guess what that didn’t resolved the issue, even after removing firefox and re-installing the crashing issue didn’t fixed

3.I tried removing firefox and installed older verison of firefox, started firefox 3.5 but that crashed right away , i wasn’t able to removed any addons, plugins.

4.Then i tried a system restore before i installed Windows 7 patches, i thought may be newly installed windows patches is responsible for Firefox crash.

I gave up and start using Chrome, but my love affair with Firefox didn’t vanished, for two days i survived without firefox, I am not the person who gave up easily, then i realized it’s probably some kind of rootkit or trojan or virus that TrendMicro is not able to detect , that could be issue. I started reading review on Security/Mal-ware Scanner and one of the top that came up in my list was Spyware Doctor, i purchased spyware Doctor and started scan on my PC , right after 10 minutes it did picked up some serious rootkit on my PC.

I managed to removed the rootkit and sure started Firefox , bingo ! that was it , I was able to get Firefox running again. I added Spyware Doctor to my Security Software list , Spyware Doctor not only saved me from root-kit and harmful security attacks but it helped my fixed Crashing Firefox error .

If your Firefox is crashing constantly and you are not able to get it running then try Spyware Doctor , It will fix your crashing Firefox issue. Good luck!

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Running p2v on Suse Enterprise server is not straightforward especially for windows folks. I read vmetc article on P2v SLES but that didn’t provide me enough details on how to do P2V on Suse Linux Enterprise server (SLES). In my lab i had to convert a physical server running Suse Linux Enterprise server 10 (SLES) on HP Proliant DL580 so i started searching online and stumbled onto vmetc article for doing P2V Suse Linux. According to Suse Linux P2V some customer used VMware Live Converter CD that was unusable so they had to use Ghost imaging on the physical server, and restored that image to “bare metal” VM , but they encountered some error like volume not mounted or something like that . In my attempt to complete a P2V on Suse Linux Enterprise error i didn’t noticed any Kernel panic or volume not found error but error was exactly like this

“resume device /dev/sda1 not found (ignoring) ”

“waiting for device /dev/sda2 to appear”

I am not sure how old that P2V SLES article is but VMware Converter now called VMware vCenter Converter has fixed lot of bugs and resolved various P2V related issues. If you want to convert Physical machine to Virtual machines you can download VMware vCenter Converter from VMware site (http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/) . There are two different version of VMware converter – Started Edition (Free) and vCenter Converter Standalone Enterprise Edition). In my SLES p2v conversion i used standalone Enterprise vCenter Converter. The Current version of VMware P2V standalone converter is based on WinPE. VMware Converter provides an easy-to-use, scalable solution for migrations of machines, both physical to virtual and virtual to virtual On my SLES physical host I have used P2V cold converter, conversion worked fine make sure you follow I have successfully converted P2V using VMware Converter using following steps:

Pre-requisites for SUSE Enterprise Linux (SLES 10) P2V using VMware vCenter Converter:

VMware vCenter Converter (Standalone Enterprise ) CD – Version 3.0.3

Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES 10) DVD/CD

1. Boot the Physical SLES 10 Linux host using VMware vCenter Converter for P2V.

2. Let the WinPE load up and watch for the Network adaptor settings screen. Make necessary network setting changes –use dhcp or static ip addess and make sure you can access VMware infrastructure server from P2V converter screen.

3. On VMware Converter screen click on “Convert machine” to start the P2V converter process.

4.Make sure you select convert all disk and maintain size option and not resize to save or add space.This is important step the other option didn’t worked for me so in my successful P2V conversion i used convert all disk and maintain size.

5. Enter VMware infrastructure hostname, login information and select appropriate destination template for SLES server.

6. Once P2V conveter step completes Edit settings to make BIOS changes to boot the SLES using SLES10 installable CD/DVD. Select Power on the SLES VM and select “Linux rescue” option to boot the Suse Linux Enterprise server virtual machine into rescue mode. I missed this step and got into “waiting for device /dev/sda2 to appear” error but didn’t notice any kernel panic error.

7. Select Rescue login: root and run cat /proc/partitions to find the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 disk devices. Ignore type 82 which is Linux swap partition, for finding root partition mount the /dev/sad1 on /mnt and look for file listing /etc , /root. If you can see these partitions you are good.

8. Mount the SLES /root partition on /mnt directory and run chroot for accessing file with root privileges.

#mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

#chroot /mnt

9. Edit the /etc/sysconfig kernel file and look for INITRD_MODULES to replace Physical server SCSI driver to Bus Logic :

INITRD_MODULES=”mptspi reiserfs dm_mod”

to

INITRD_MODULES=” BusLogic reiserfs dm_mod “

Save the changes.

Change ip address in /etc/sysconfig/network folder to ip address you want to assign to SLES P2V host.

10. So far so good, in last step you have to rebuild the initial ram disk to update the driver changes we just did in last step.

Go to /boot directory and save a copy of initrd file not the link file, initrid is the link for initrd file

#cp –p initrd-version-default initrd-version-default.preBusLogic

#mkinitrd

Once you are done reboot the VM and your P2V converted SLES Linux will come up without any errors .Red Hat has pretty good documentation on doing P2V on RHEL 4/5 Linux server in their Knowledge base, i have done several successful P2V conversion on RHEL5 server running on HP DL servers onto VMware ESX. Probably i will add RHEL 5 Linux P2V steps in here.

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Verizon in 2010 running special promotional deals on High speed Internet , these deals includes FREE HP Compaq Mini Netbook ($299) on Double play and Triple play bundle packages.

Verizon Double play bundle package with FREE Compaq Mini Netbook

When you Sign-up for Verizon High Speed Internet bundle with 1 year agreement you get $5 off for 1 year – that’s an extra $60 off .Your Monthly bill cost you $64.99 with Verizon Freedom Essentials phone plan- unlimited residential local and long distance calling and Free WiFi with 3 Mbps download speed.

• Verizon Phone plan includes calling features: Home Voice Mail, Caller ID and Call Waiting
• High Speed Internet Power plan with Wi-Fi included- good for sharing photos, downloading music and gaming.Special offer Includes:
Order today to get a FREE Compaq Mini netbook, a $299.99 value (taxes, shipping & handling apply).

Internet + TV + Phone starting at $89.99/mo for 1yr – FREE HP Mini netbook + FREE DVR Upgrade & FREE Showtime® 1yr w/term agmt. Ends 4/17

Verizon is running FiOS special offer called FiOS Triple Freedom where if you sign-up for FiOS bundle offer you can choose to get either FREE Compaq Mini netbook or FREE Flip ultra camcorder.This is the best FiOS bundle deal i have ever seen comparing to AT&T Uverse or Comcast offering.With Current Verizon FiOS bundle promotional offer you will get $5 Off on your monthly FiOS bundle package which would normally costs $119.99/mo. This Verizon FiOS bundle promotional offer started on  6/21/2009 and will be valid till 9/19/2009.For monthly bill of $114.99 on your bundle Verizon FiOS you  will get :

• Verizon Freedom Essentials ($49.99/mo), which includes  unlimited local, regional and long distance calling across the U.S. and to Canada and Puerto Rico – PLUS these popular calling features:  Voice Mail, Caller ID and Call Waiting. You will get additional $5 off/mo for a period of 1 year.
• Verizon FiOS inter

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According to Mary Jo Windows 7 release date could be Q3 2009 but Microsoft is still saying early 2010. Also Mary Jo is reporting that Tech ARP may have found some information on Windows 7 release date. According to Tech ARP Microsoft provided PC partners with a first pass draft of its Tech Guarantee documentation on December 10. If you are planning to buy new PC and wouldn’t want to use Windows Vista then it is really worth waiting few more months as new PC buyers will get Windows 7 Free upgrade with new PC. As per Tech ARP site if this date is going to be correct then Windows Vista Home Premium purchasers will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. The Windows Vista Business users will get an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. And users who buy PCs running Windows Vista Ultimate starting July 1 will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate. PC buyers will receive the free Windows 7 updates some time after Windows 7 becomes generally available – a date not mentioned in the Tech ARP posting. Last Year PC word reported that Windows 7 should be released by October 2009 but with Tech ARP report it looks like Windows 7 can be released by July 2009.

1. Windows Vista® Home Premium -> Windows® 7 Home Premium

2. Windows Vista® Business -> Windows® 7 Professional

3. Windows Vista® Ultimate -> Windows® 7 Ultimate

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We are already in 2009 and i hope to see Windows 7 coming out either mid of this year or no later than end of this year. I have been looking for Microsoft Windows 7 pre-release version for long time finally i have got my hands on Windows 7 beta (build 7000). Since i don’t have any spare PC to install Windows 7, so i thought it would be worth to install Windows 7 on VMware workstation as virtual machine. In my VMware workstation virtual machine for Windows 7 i selected Windows XP Professional template.For your information i  have successfully installed Windows 7 beta on VMware Workstation running on Windows Vista Ultimate without experiencing any driver issues.

Windows 7 beta installation requires minimum 512 Mb. Memory and 8 Gb. of disk space to install on VMware Workstation.After finishing Windows 7 virtual machine creation i have to mount the DVD image to start the install process so i clicked on power on, within few seconds I got to see the Windows 7 installer screen which was very much like Windows Vista splash installation screen, so from Graphical user interface point of view Windows 7 is more like Windows 7. I was surprised to see that Windows 7 didn’t have any issues finding hard disk drive, this was huge for me because i remember there was lot of driver issue installing Windows vista on VMware. After setup finished copying installation file Windows 7 rebooted to continue with installation, while entering username and password i notice Windows 7 ultimate on screen so this tells me that Microsoft is going to release several similar version of Windows 7 like Vista – Home – Basic, Premium, Business and Ultimate. If you are not familiar with different versions of Windows Vista then you should check out pricing and feature differences on Microsoft Vista edition URL. Entire Windows 7 installation took me 20 minutes .I decided to install the VMware tools which was infact Windows XP Professional VMware Tools , i was little spectacle about installing Windows XP VMware Tools on Windows 7 beta but since this was test machine i decided to go ahead with VMware Tool install. The VMware tools installation worked fine without any issues.If you are planning to install Windows 7 on VMware Workstation then you can choose either Windows XP Professional, Windows vista or Windows 2003 template.I can say this time i am impressed with Windows 7 because installation was really a breeze, there was no driver issues i had to struggle with . Some of the improvement  I have noted on Windows 7 are:

1.) Quick installation

I have noticed Windows 7 Beta installs more quickly than does Windows Vista installation.

2.)Windows 7 New Task bar

I quick find the new task bar which is still controversial , if you want to read about new task bar check out Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite Windows 7 review. The new taskbar at the bottom of the screen now functions somewhat like Mac OS X’s Dock, probably Microsoft want this feature to be part of Windows 7 to compete with Mac OS. X Large application icons on the taskbar launch programs when clicked on. You can customize which application live there, In addition, when you run applications, they run in the taskbar as well.Here is an update Microsoft announced that Windows 7 beta will be available for download for the first 2.5 million users who would like to try out Windows 7 beta. This is first public announcement done by Microsoft on Windows 7 beta downloads. If you are looking for Windows 7 beta download you can find information here on how to download Windows 7 beta , ISO file size is close to 2.4 GB so download can take couple of hours based on your internet connection. Windows 7 beta can be installed on VMware ESX and VMware ESX 3i for testing purposes.

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AT&T uverse deals is offering $300,$200 and $100 reward card to new residential uverse customers for ordering uverse bundle package online.For uverse orders between 5/23/2010 and 5/26/2010 and get additional $50 reward card back.

uverse Phone+uverse Internet+uverse TV deals:

uverse online orders can get you $350 back on uverse Phone,TV and Internet bundle. Order U-family or higher Uverse TV service with any High Speed Internet and Uverse Voice plan and receive a $300 AT&T uverse Reward Card. PLUS, if you order today, you get an additional $50 AT&T uverse Reward Card. That’s a total of $350 back!

uverse Internet+uverse TV deals:

With uverse double bundle deals you get $250 back as reward card when you order U-family TV or higher service with any High Speed Internet and receive a $200 AT&T Reward Card. PLUS, if you order today, you get an additional $50 AT&T Reward Card. That’s a total of $250 back!

uverse TV deals:

The  $100 in AT&T Reward uverse Card(s) available to new Uverse residential customers ordering U-family TV or uverse higher online at att.com. Offer ends 11/6/10. An additional $50 AT&T Reward uverse Card for qualifying services purchased online at att.com between 5/23/10 and 5/26/10.  Card Redemption details provided to customer within 4 weeks of activation of qualifying service. Card(s) sent to customers 4-6 weeks after redemption. Redemption requires customer to retain qualifying service a minimum of 30 days and at time processing of reward is completed. The AT&T Reward Visa® Prepaid Card is not redeemable for cash and may not be used at automated gasoline pumps or for cash withdrawal at any cash dispensing locations.The TV uverse deals  include package starting from $39/month for 6 months.

uverse deals Coupon code offer portal

1.Click on Uverse Coupon code to get to uverse deals page on AT&T Uverse site.
2.Select Shop uverse and enter your address to check uverse availability in your area.
3.You will get $350 reward card information in your mail after 4 weeks of activation

Order uverse online and Get uverse $350 reward card – uverse deals expires 11/06/2010

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I ran into some permission issues while installing VMware View agent on base Windows XP image. If you are unable to install VMware view agent then you are definitely missing some of the requirements

For installing VMware View 3 agent on Windows XP/Vista virtual machines running on VMware ESX make sure you have latest VMware tools installed. While installing VMware View 3 agent on Windows XP virtual machine (vm) i received error “you need administrative privileges to install this software” even though i was logged in as Active directory domain administrator. This is more of Windows Security issue where vmware view active directory domain administrator accounts needs to be added to Windows XP local administrator group to install the VMware View agent software. If you cannot install VMware View 3 agent on Windows XP vm because of same error then try adding active directory administrator account to local administrator group.

1. Login in to Windows XP virtual machines using local administrator account on Windows XP vm.

2. Open Windows computer management by running compmgmt.msc from Run

3. Select Groups under Local users and Groups and add VMware View administrator active directory account. This VMware view administrator account has to be same account you use for VMware View Manager server.

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Linked clone desktops are virtual desktops that can be created using VMware View Composer from a single base image and use considerably less storage space than non linked clone desktops.

Because each linked clone virtual machine is cloned from a common source, desktops in the pool can be deployed extremely rapidly and simultaneously upgraded, patched, and maintained without affecting user data. Linked clone.

The VMware View Composer feature enables View Manager Administrators to rapidly clone and deploy multiple desktops from a single centralized base image, called a Parent VM. Once the desktops have been created they remain indirectly linked to a snapshot residing on the Parent VM. For using Linked clone technology you must install VMware View Composer agents on the parent virtual machine when you install VMware View agent on XP/Vista desktop.

As shown in picture above to generated linked clone VM’s VMware View composer first create a repica, replicas are created from base image (Parent VMware Virtual machine) and snapshot taken off that parent VM.These steps will appear as tasks under vCenter client when you use VMware View Manager to deploy Linked clone Virtual desktops.

In my lab environment i am successfully running Windows vista virtual desktops using VMware View linked clone feature, this is really one of the great feature i have ever seen in virtualization product. VMware View helped me save lot of disk storage space in deploying VMware virtual desktop using linked clone feature on my EMC SAN.

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If you are planning to install VMware View 3 in your environment then you have two choices .First you can use VMware View 3 Composer with existing VMware Infrastructure environment or if you are planning to do new VMware infrastructure then you can install VMware View composer with it by purchasing VMware View 3 Premier Edition. Once you have completed VMware ESX 3 installation, vCenter and VMware View 3 Connection Server installation you need to setup View Composer server. When i was working on VMware View setup i was wondering where i need to install View Composer server. So Let me try to answer this question on where to install VMware View Composer?

Where to install View Composer

VMware View 3 composer server can only be installed on vCenter (VMware Virtual infrastructure ) server, and requires the use of a Microsoft SQL database. You need to create new  MS-SQL database instance and a new Data Source Name (DSN) which connects to VMware View database. You have to make sure that you are not configuring VMware View Composer to use the vCenter DSN. This would result in View Composer using the same database as used by vCenter serve, which  is not supported . You can use the same MS-SQL database server as vCenter, but you need to setup separate database instance with separate DSN only to be used by View Composer server.I did find the one and only one documentation link on VMware View 3 at VMware site, here is the documenstation link on VMware View 3 Server installation and administration that i have used to setup VMware View 3 :

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I will do my best to simplfy this for you .To get started lets take a case where  you are already running VMware Infrastructure in your environment and intesreted to purchase VMware View 3 for virtual desktop deployments ,then you only need to purchase VMware View 3 Enterprise edition which costs $50/concurrent desktop (ccd) .VMware View 3 Enterprise edition will give you ability to use VMware View Manager (Connection server – a broker  and a web console) , to manage virtual desktops, you would need to install VMware connection software on existing VMware vCenter Server (formerly VMware virtualCenter Server) . However if you are looking for  application virtualization and you have plans to deploy large number of virtual desktop then you should seriouly look into buying Premier version of VMware View 3, which comes with ThinAPP and linked clone technology offered by VMware View Composer , costs $150 ccd.

If you are not running VMware Infrastructure in your IT environment and planning to get your hands on VMware View 3 then it would cost $150 ccd for buying VMware View Enterprise editon and $250 for Premier edition. Those who are new to VMware they have to decide whether they want Application virtualization and Linked cloned technology to buy Premier or less expensive Vmware View 3 Enterpriser version. For large virtual desktop deployments buying Premier VMware View 3 really make much sense because by using VMware View Composer Linked Clone technology to create virtual desktops from a single master image they can save up to 70 percent less storage space.. that’s a huge saving on SAN expense.

Here is a link on VMware website for information on License pricing and features you will get with VMware View 3

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