So, its 4:00 AM and I’m in the lab finishing up my Ghost disk-to-disk imaging on the remailing machines: total time to break remaining boxes and yank HDs + Ghost imaging time = 30 mins, time wasted to get to this point = 3 hours.

If anyone can prove me wrong concerning the shortcomings of Clonezilla, please do (and comment, duh).

As root edit “/etc/ssh/sshd_config” and add the line “UseDNS no“.

This can also be done by running the following command:

sudo echo "UseDNS no" >> /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Sources:

This issue is documented at OpenSSH.org

Fix and more details available at: http://tech.waltco.biz/2008/02/02/ssh-slow-to-connect-in-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon/

In order to stop the Administrator account from showing as a login option on the Welcome Screen in Windows Vista you need to set the Administrator account to not active with the net user command from an Administrative cmd prompt as follows:

net user Administrator /active:no

Some people report that the “/” causes the command to fail, try it without:

net user Administrator active:no

From then on the the Administrator account should no longer show on the Welcome Screen.

SOURCE:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/08/10/activate-enable-and-show-administrator-account-in-vista-welcome-screen/

“configuring updates stage 3 of 3. 0% complete”

and then an automatic reboot and the same message over and over again in an endless loop.

Some people say to just let it sit while plugged in to the ‘net or to try a repair install but without any restore points you aren’t going to get anywhere.

For some odd reason they removed the Method 3 from this MS help article, here is a copy of it:
Method 3:

Rename the Pending.xml file, and then edit the registry.

To rename the Pending.xml file and to edit the registry, follow these steps.

Start Windows Vista and go to the System Recovery options:

1.       Insert the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then restart the computer.

2.       When you are prompted to restart from the disc, press any key.

3.       When you are prompted, configure the Language to install, Time and currency format, and Keyboard or input method options that you want, and then click Next.

4.       On the Install Windows page, click Repair your computer.

5.       On the System Recovery Options page, click the version of the Windows Vista operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.

Use the System Recovery options to rename the Pending.xml file and edit the registry:

1.       On the System Recovery Options page, click Command Prompt.

2.       Type cd C:\windows\winsxs, and then press ENTER.

3.       Type ren pending.xml pending.old, and then press ENTER.

4.       Type regedit, and then press ENTER.

5.       Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

6.       On the File menu, click Load Hive.

7.       Locate the following folder: C:\windows\system32\config\components

8.       When you are prompted for a name, type Offline_Components.

9.       In Registry Editor, locate and then delete the following registry subkey:

HLKM\Offline Components\AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving

HKLM\Offline Components\PendingXmlIdentifier

Exit Registry Editor:

1.       At the command prompt, type exit to exit Registry Editor.

2.       Press ENTER.

3.       Click Restart.

When you can actually log in again, the following hotfixes are supposed to prevent the loop from returning – I haven’t had much luck in installing them (usually says I don’t need them) but maybe they will help you:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5639710d-dfbf-4527-806e-9a1634d0cc8e&DisplayLang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1adf1d6c-ad46-4d09-a99c-ba3b1d9bcf4f&displaylang=en

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

But they didn’t show up in the Accounts Control Panel or in Run > control userpasswords2.

But they do show up when you run the command:

net user

aaand each account is active.. BUT they had no groups assigned to them and since it was XP Home Edition we didn’t have access to the groups snap in.

So, thanks to Google we found the proper syntax for adding a user (“username”) to a group (“Administrators”) with the net command:

net localgroup Administrators username /add

Sources:

http://www.ss64.com/nt/net_useradmin.html

http://www.theeldergeek.com/create_hidden_user_account.htm

Source: http://www.jonasblog.com/2006/05/search-and-replace-in-all-files-within-a-directory-recursively.html

grep -rl 'what_to_find' ./ | xargs sed -i 's/what_to_find/what_to_replace_with/g'

Put  a not in front of that expression:

find ./ ! -type d

Escape wildcards to avoid the shell expanding them:

If you just quote it; “*.avi” you can often run into trouble.

find ./ -name \*.avi

Prune empty directories

find ./ -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir -v {} \;

Source: http://duramecho.com/ComputerPrograms/DeleteEmptyDirectories/index.html