Carving and Merging Multiple PDF Documents – Pdftk

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Stephen

I had a few hundred PDF documents and I wanted to take the first page of each PDF and put them into 1 single PDF document.

Enter: Pdftk – The PDF Toolkit

Downloading the Zip file, and in the bin folder was pdftk.exe and libiconv2.dll. Running the pdftk.exe via the command line fired it up into action.

pdftk A=one.pdf B=two.pdf cat A1 B1 output combined.pdf

I done some command line trickery with dir > outputlist to get a single pdftk command with all the documents.
Other Examples of pdftk can be found at: http://www.pdflabs.com/docs/pdftk-cli-examples/

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Windows chkdsk Log

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Stephen

The Windows chkdsk log takes quite a long time to run. You’ll probably want to run it overnight. After the chkdsk runs, a summary screen appears for a while and then disappears as Windows boots up.

To find out the results and to see if chkdsk found any errors, look in the “Event Log” and under Applications -> “Wininit” you will see the chkdsk results 🙂

 To create a chkdsk, in “Computer”, right-click on the Disk Drive, Properties, Tools, Check.
To find the “Event Viewer”, inside the Control Panel is Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer
Running a chkdsk can solve many problems such as when a file/folder cannot be removed, or if a program can/can’t be (un)installed. In my case it prevented Vista SP2 from being installed.

Ref: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/2172-63-win7-chkdsk-file-location
( event viewer, applications, under “wininit )

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Notes: windirstat & wireless repeater

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Stephen

To find the files and folders taking up the most space on your computer, google for the following and download. It does require a quick install, but when installed, works very well.

  • windirstat

——————————–

If you have an old Eircom Netopia Router, you should be able to set it up as a Wireless Extender. See the how-to at:

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Reset Windows Passwords for Vista, 7, and 2008 Server

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Stephen

Logo image for resetting forgotten passwords for Windows Vista, 7 and 2008 ServerOn one of my VMs with Windows 2008 Server, I needed to reset the Administrator password. A quick google led me to a very nice little trick. This also works for Windows Vista, Windows 7 as well as on Windows 2008 Server.

The trick involves booting from a Windows CD, getting to a repair Ease of Access icon button, which is used to launch a command prompt to change the windows passwordCommand Prompt, replacing the utilman.exe file with cmd.exe, booting Windows up as normal, and then clicking the “Ease of Access” button on the login screen to bring up a Command Prompt to issue: net user administrator newpassword

What you need to reset the Password

  • A Windows installation DVD (or reinstallation DVD)
    (If you have Vista installed, you’ll need a Windows Vista DVD. If you have Windows 7, you’ll need a Windows 7 Microsoft DVD).

Reset the Windows Password

  • Image of the Repair Windows Option, where you can choose the Command Prompt which will let you change the utilman.exe to the cmd.exeInsert the Windows installation DVD
  • Reboot the PC and boot from CD/DVD
  • Choose “Repair”. Under the Repair menu, look for “Command Prompt”.
  • In the Command Prompt, issue the following commands below:
c:
cd\
dir
#(You should see some folders listed. If you don't see Windows, change to the d: drive. d:)
cd Windows
cd System32
move Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak
copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe
  • Reboot the PC and start Windows
  • Click the “Ease of Access” button on the bottom left (or press Windows + U)
  • In the resulting Command Prompt window, issue the folllowing:
net user administrator newpasswordhere
#(to list all local usernames, just type "net user")
  • Close the Command Prompt and Login 🙂
  • Rename and move the files (utilman.exe) back.

Further information: youtube has many videos showing a step by step process. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-VoO9ogHc

This above method helped me quickly reset the Windows Password without having to go making a special boot CD such as the Offline NT Password and Registry editor.

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Allow Domain Admin to Login to SQLServer & have full Access

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Stephen

For some reason when SQLServer 2008 was installed/setup, admins were not added. Therefore when trying to login via SQL Management Studio, an error was obtained:

Login failed for user "username". (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 18456)

I also didn’t know the “sa” password which would have let me login. I also didn’t have access to another admin account to test logging in under their account.

Start SQLServer in single-user mode

  • Open “SQL Server Configuration Manager” found in the Start Menu under Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 -> Configuration Tools.
  • Right-Click properties of the SQL instance you want to start in single user mode.
  • (Optional / Maybe not required) Change the Logon Account to a different one
  • Under Advanced and “Startup Parameters”, add in:
    ;-m
  • Click Apply. Restart the Service

Add Windows User as SQLServer Admin

  • Start a Command Prompt (right-click Run as Administrator!!)
  • Issue the following commands:
C:\Windows\system32>sqlcmd -E
1> exec sp_addsrvrolemember 'yourdomain\sburke', 'sysadmin';
2> go
1> exit
#For a named instance, go:
sqlcmd -E -S servername\instancename

Reference 

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