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Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE, June 3, 2002
John Savill explains how to ensure that Microsoft Outlook overwrites information deleted from your personal folder store and offline folder store, how to track which machine a user is using, and how to recover a deleted dynamic NTFS or FAT32 volume.
John Savill
June 2, 2002
11 Min Read
Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE—brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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June 3, 2002—In this issue:
1. COMMENTARY
2. FAQS
Q. How can I ensure that Microsoft Outlook 2002 or Outlook 2000 will overwrite information I've deleted from my personal folder store (PST) and offline folder store (OST) when I close my mailbox?
Q. How can I ascertain which machine a user is using?
Q. How can I recover a deleted dynamic NTFS or FAT32 volume in Windows XP or Windows 2000?
Q. Why can't the Windows 2000 version of Windows Explorer display files or folders that have a path longer than 259 characters?
Q. How can I improve the video-viewing performance on my laptop?
Q. How can I create a TaskPad in a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) console?
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Time Is Running Out to Attend Our Free Security Summit!
Register for Our Latest Web Seminar and Get a Free Subscription to SQL Server Magazine!
4. CONTACT US
See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected])
This week, I explain how you can ensure that Microsoft Outlook overwrites information you've deleted from your personal folder store (PST) and offline folder store (OST), how to ascertain which machine a user is using, and how to recover a deleted dynamic NTFS or FAT32 volume. I also tell you how to work around a problem in the Windows 2000 version of Windows Explorer that prevents the OS from displaying files or folders that have a path longer than 259 characters; how to improve video-viewing performance on a laptop; and how to create a TaskPad in a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) console.
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2. FAQS
Q. How can I ensure that Microsoft Outlook 2002 or Outlook 2000 will overwrite information I've deleted from my personal folder store (PST) and offline folder store (OST) when I close my mailbox?
A. Outlook usually removes deleted data from the PST and OST when you close the application. To ensure that Outlook overwrites all deleted data when you close your mailbox, perform the following steps:
Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice10.0OutlookPST subkey for Outlook 2002 or to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice9.0OutlookPST subkey for Outlook 2000 (you might need to create the PST subkey if it doesn't exist).
From the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value.
Enter a name of PSTNullFreeOnClose, then press Enter.
Double-click the new entry, set the value to 1 (0 is the default setting) to instruct Outlook to remove the deleted data every time you close the application, then click OK.
Close the registry editor.
Q. How can I ascertain which machine a user is using?
A. To identify which machine a particular user is using, you can run a series of commands (and even create a script to automate this process) by performing the following steps:
Open a command prompt—go to Start, Run, and type
cmd.exeType
nbtstat -Rto purge and reload the remote cache name table.
Type
net send .to send the user a period (.) for a message.
Type
nbtstat -cto list the cache of recently used names and IP addresses, so you can identify the entry for the user you're communicating with.
Type
nbtstat -Ato equate the user's IP address to the machine name.
For example, to locate a user named Kevin, I performed the following series of commands and received the indicated responses:
C:>nbtstat -RSuccessful purge and preload of the NBT Remote Cache Name Table.C:>net send kevin .The message was successfully sent to KEVIN.C:>nbtstat -cLocal Area Connection:Node IpAddress: [200.200.200.5] Scope Id: []NetBIOS Remote Cache Name TableName Type Host Address Life [sec]------------------------------------------------------------KEVIN <03> UNIQUE 200.200.200.3 597C:>nbtstat -A 200.200.200.3Local Area Connection:Node IpAddress: [200.200.200.5] Scope Id: []NetBIOS Remote Machine Name TableName Type Status---------------------------------------------WORKST2 <00> UNIQUE RegisteredSAVILLTECH <00> GROUP RegisteredWORKST2 <03> UNIQUE RegisteredWORKST2 <20> UNIQUE RegisteredSAVILLTECH <1E> GROUP RegisteredWORKST2 <6A> UNIQUE RegisteredWORKST2 <87> UNIQUE RegisteredKEVIN <03> UNIQUE RegisteredMAC Address = 00-08-C3-8F-0D-83From this information, I discovered that Kevin is using machine WORKST2 at IP address 200.200.200.3.
Q. How can I recover a deleted dynamic NTFS or FAT32 volume in Windows XP or Windows 2000?
A. When you delete a dynamic volume, the OS erases the volume's file-system boot sector (sector 0) and removes the volume entry from the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Disk Management snap-in private region database. However, as part of this process, the OS leaves the rest of the drive intact, including the data. Both FAT32 and NTFS store a backup copy of the boot sector. You can copy this boot sector back to sector 0 and restore the volume as long as you know the original volume size.
To recover an NTFS volume, perform the following steps:
Open the Disk Management snap-in (go to Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and select Storage).
Recreate the original volume by right-clicking the unpartitioned space and selecting New Partition from the context menu; specify the exact size of the original volume in the process, but don't format the volume (you must know the original volume size to recreate the volume because the Disk Management snap-in rounds partition sizes).
Use dskprobe.exe to recover the backup boot sector for the NTFS volume from the end of the deleted dynamic volume (because you're restoring a dynamic volume, you might need to use dmdiag.exe to find the backup boot sector). See the Microsoft article "Recovering NTFS boot sector on NTFS partitions" ( http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?id=kb;en-us;q153973 ) for an explanation of how to copy the boot sector.
After you rewrite the NTFS boot sector, quit Dskprobe.
Go to the MMC Computer Management console Action menu and click Rescan Disks to mount the volume for immediate use.
To recover a FAT32 volume, perform the following steps:
Open the Disk Management snap-in (go to Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and select Storage).
Recreate the original volume by right-clicking the unpartitioned space and selecting New Partition from the context menu; specify the exact size of the original volume in the process, but don't format the volume (you must know the original volume size to recreate the volume because the Disk Management snap-in rounds partition sizes).
Use dskprobe.exe to recover the backup boot sector for the deleted dynamic FAT32 volume from sector 6 of the logical volume and write it to sector 0 of the logical volume. See the Microsoft article "Chkdsk Does Not Use Backup Boot Sector to Fix Corrupted FAT32 Boot Sector" for an explanation of how to copy the boot sector.
After you rewrite the FAT32 boot sector, quit Dskprobe.
Go to the Computer Management console Action menu and click Rescan Disks to mount the volume for immediate use.
Q. Why can't the Windows 2000 version of Windows Explorer display files or folders that have a path longer than 259 characters?
A. A bug in the Win2K version of Windows Explorer and the search feature prevent the OS from displaying files or folders in paths longer than 259 characters. This bug affects only searches you perform on your local system; it doesn't affect users who connect over a network. To work around this problem, you can take any of the following steps:
From a command prompt session, use the 8.3 file-naming convention to access files or folders.
Use the Net Use command to create a network path to your local drive.
Use the Subst command to create a new drive letter to a point in the path. For example,
subst g: d:pathpath2path3Q. How can I improve the video-viewing performance on my laptop?
A. Video playback performance is very CPU intensive. As a result, if you run other applications while attempting to view video on your laptop, you might significantly degrade the playback performance. Although this concern isn't specific to laptops, other components, such as power management, also affect laptop video playback performance. For example, some power-management technologies, such as Intel's Intel SpeedStep technology and AMD's AMD PowerNow! Technology, can affect the processor speed.
For Windows 2000, use the applet or configuration utility that the system vendor provided to select a setting that doesn't permit the processor speed to change during video playback. Likewise, if running the laptop CPU at a low speed compromises video playback performance, select a higher CPU speed.
For Windows XP, ensure that you've set the power scheme to Always On by performing the following steps:
Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and click Power Options).
Select the Power Schemes tab.
Select Always On from the drop-down list.
Click OK.
After you finish viewing your video, I suggest that you adjust the power mode or processor mode to a lower setting to preserve battery life.
Q. How can I create a TaskPad in a Windows XP Microsoft Management Console (MMC) console?
A. You can add snap-ins to an MMC console and even create a TaskPad to the console so that you can add commonly used actions and commands to a bar in the console. To create a TaskPad, perform the following steps:
Start the MMC console (go to Start, Run, and type
MMCto open a blank console).
From the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in to add the snap-ins you want to use (if you've already created an .msc file, right-click the file and select Author from the context menu to open the file in Author mode).
From the Action menu, select New TaskPad View.
Click Next to bypass the welcome wizard introduction screen.
Select the style you want to use for the TaskPad display, then click Next to display a preview of the TaskPad.
Decide whether the TaskPad will apply to just the tree structure or to all instances of the tree structure, then click Next.
Name the TaskPad, then click Next. A Finished dialog box will appear at the end of the wizard. The dialog box gives you the option of running the new task wizard and adding tasks to your new blank TaskPad.
Ensure that you've selected the "Run new task wizard" check box, then click Finish.
When the new task wizard opens, click Next to bypass the introduction page.
Select the type of task you want to add (you can add a link to a context menu option, a command execution, a Web site, or quick navigation to a Favorite), then click Next.
Enter the options for your choice, then click Next.
Click Finish (you can optionally select the "Another task" check box to add another task).
Save your console.
The figure at http://www.windows2000faq.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=25346 shows a completed TaskPad.
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO ATTEND OUR FREE SECURITY SUMMIT!
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