Windows service pack 1 takes 2 tries

22 03 2011

Microsoft are distributing Windows Service Pack 1 via Windows update. It is a massive download. On 3 of my PC’s I’ve seen downloads from 550mb to 890 MB.

On all my PC’s it failed after the initial download and install. Clicking on try again results in an additional download and the install then succeedes. It’s like the initial download forgets something.

So far so good after the upgrades. Other than the install glitch the upgrade works well.

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Remote IP Discovery

1 03 2010

The need

Occasionally I need to access a computer using remote desktop, however the IP address of the computer is dynamic and changes every few weeks making the computer unreachable via remote desktop.

Here I describe how I setup a couple of simple batch files that will record the computers IP address to a secure website. More importantly the website can be used to trigger a new IP discovery on the remote computer. Oh yeah, it’s all for free :-)

Outline

  • Install DropBox webservice in order to store the IP address of the computer(s) you wish to interrogate.
  • Install two batch files on the target PC’s one which run in the scheduled tasks manager in windows.
  • Create a ‘trigger’ text file on the target PC.
  • Rename the trigger file to a given name to initiate the interrogation and publishing of the IP address.

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