How To Enable Windows Installer Service In Safe Mode

When things go wrong with your Windows especially after new software or driver installation/upgrade, among first thing you can do is to uninstall the program that causes the problem. But what if the new program somehow make you unable to boot into normal Windows state? Yeah you can boot into safe mode and uninstall but the things is, by default Windows Installer service are not running during safe mode. This service is required to perform installation, maintenance and removal of software in Windows.

There's a simple way to enable the service though by editing the registry entry. All we have to do is to add new REG_SZ key with the service name 'MSIServer' and the value data 'Service'.

To make it simpler for you, you can just download this file onto your desktop and run it. It will automatically register the entry into your computer registry.

Hope this helps you in some way:)

How To Toggle Fullscreen with Remote Desktop Connection in Windows

For most IT related staff, I'm sure you guys use remote desktop or mstsc quite frequently. For me, one of the most common problem with it is the fullscreen bug. When you are doing your remote in fullscreen and you minimize or downsize the window, it will most likely to not revert to fullscreen windows when you maximize the window. At the beginning, I will simply close the window and relaunch remote desktop with fullscreen mode.

But, there is a way to toggle to fullscreen..quite simple actually. The keystrokes is Ctrl+Alt+Break.
For HP Pavilion dv4 users like me, the keystrokes is Ctrl+Fn+Alt+Right Shift key.

Thats it. Hopefully this will help somebody and if you have different key combination for different PC, do share in comment section.

Adios!

Sample of Insurance Policy Cancellation Letter

Just want to share the sample of insurance cancellation letter I once use to cancel mine.

Download from here and edit the doc with your details.

Steam Summer Sale is On!

Just a quick info for Steam user out there.
From 11 till 22 July 2013, there is summer sale on Steam so plan your time wisely and get your favourite games for up to 90% discounted price.

Another thing is, I provide service for any of you that need my help to buy steam games. I'll send to you as a gift and you can download rightaway.

Send me an email at senndoh@gmail.com.


P/S: Thanks to Fizi, anhilios_84, notskedofu767, Fendi. Nice dealing with u guys. Hope we can deal again next time :)

The Truth About Analytical Thinker

I stumbled upon an article at HERE where the author describe the attributes of analytical thinker which most/all of them are true; atleast for me though.

It is quite a good write so I would like to share it.

1: Information addict

Analytical thinkers just can’t get enough information. They devour Web pages about everything from the weather to the latest high tech gadget. They are gluttons for online discussions, but they’re more often lurkers than participants. They have voracious appetites for facts and figures of any kind. They head straight for the specs page when shopping for anything more technologically sophisticated than an alarm clock. The siren call of the Internet cries out, “Step right up to the buffet — all the information you can eat for one low price”.

I can understand how this behavior might be really annoying to a family member. Please understand it is natural for humans to seek after information — just not as compulsively as the analytical thinker seeks it. Come to think of it, this propensity for information binging might explain the swelled heads of a few IT personnel I have encountered over the years.

Windows Installer Service Could Not Be Accessed Error

The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed.
This can occur if you are running Windows in safe
mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly
installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.

If you ever encounter this error while installing or removing windows application, try to re-register windows installer component.

 1. Press shortcut key to Run - Windows button + R
2. Type in " msiexec /regserver"  (without quote)
3. Press enter

Try to install/remove software again. Hopefully that works :)

MSSQL: How To Retrieve Your Product ID

The product ID/key for MS SQL is located in registry and is in unreadable format (binary I guess). Anyway, I found the script from HERE and would like to share with you guys. Works like charm and also it worth to mention that it DOESNT work on SQL 2005. :(

1. Copy below script

function Get-SQLserverKey {
    ## function to retrieve the license key of a SQL 2008 Server.
     param ($targets = ".")
    $hklm = 2147483650
    $regPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Setup"
    $regValue1 = "DigitalProductId"
    $regValue2 = "PatchLevel"
    $regValue3 = "Edition"
    Foreach ($target in $targets) {
        $productKey = $null
        $win32os = $null
        $wmi = [WMIClass]"\\$target\root\default:stdRegProv"
        $data = $wmi.GetBinaryValue($hklm,$regPath,$regValue1)
        [string]$SQLver = $wmi.GetstringValue($hklm,$regPath,$regValue2).svalue
        [string]$SQLedition = $wmi.GetstringValue($hklm,$regPath,$regValue3).svalue
        $binArray = ($data.uValue)[52..66]
        $charsArray = "B","C","D","F","G","H","J","K","M","P","Q","R","T","V","W","X","Y","2","3","4","6","7","8","9"
        ## decrypt base24 encoded binary data
        For ($i = 24; $i -ge 0; $i--) {
            $k = 0
            For ($j = 14; $j -ge 0; $j--) {
                $k = $k * 256 -bxor $binArray[$j]
                $binArray[$j] = [math]::truncate($k / 24)
                $k = $k % 24
         }
            $productKey = $charsArray[$k] + $productKey
            If (($i % 5 -eq 0) -and ($i -ne 0)) {
                $productKey = "-" + $productKey
            }
        }
        $win32os = Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem -computer $target
        $obj = New-Object Object
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty Computer -value $target
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty OSCaption -value $win32os.Caption
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty OSArch -value $win32os.OSArchitecture
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty SQLver -value $SQLver
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty SQLedition -value $SQLedition
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty ProductKey -value $productkey
        $obj
    }
}


2. Open up windows powershell
3. Rightclick in the powershell window. It should paste above code, otherwise select paste
4. Type in: "Get-SQLserverKey". Press enter. In certain cases you may need to press enter twice, or thrice

If you get error null exception, that means that you didnt have any MSSQL installed OR yours is evaluation version.

Updated 15/3/2016
For SQL 2012, please use below script.It has some minor changes as previous script won't work on 2012.

function GetSqlServerProductKey {
    ## function to retrieve the license key of a SQL 2008 Server.
    param ($targets = ".")
    $hklm = 2147483650
    $regPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Setup"
    $regValue1 = "DigitalProductId"
    $regValue2 = "PatchLevel"
    $regValue3 = "Edition"
    Foreach ($target in $targets) {
        $productKey = $null
        $win32os = $null
        $wmi = [WMIClass]"\\$target\root\default:stdRegProv"
        $data = $wmi.GetBinaryValue($hklm,$regPath,$regValue1)
        [string]$SQLver = $wmi.GetstringValue($hklm,$regPath,$regValue2).svalue
        [string]$SQLedition = $wmi.GetstringValue($hklm,$regPath,$regValue3).svalue
        $binArray = ($data.uValue)[0..16]
        $charsArray = "B","C","D","F","G","H","J","K","M","P","Q","R","T","V","W","X","Y","2","3","4","6","7","8","9"
        ## decrypt base24 encoded binary data
        For ($i = 24; $i -ge 0; $i--) {
            $k = 0
            For ($j = 14; $j -ge 0; $j--) {
                $k = $k * 256 -bxor $binArray[$j]
                $binArray[$j] = [math]::truncate($k / 24)
                $k = $k % 24
         }
            $productKey = $charsArray[$k] + $productKey
            If (($i % 5 -eq 0) -and ($i -ne 0)) {
                $productKey = "-" + $productKey
            }
        }
        $win32os = Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem -computer $target
        $obj = New-Object Object
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty Computer -value $target
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty OSCaption -value $win32os.Caption
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty OSArch -value $win32os.OSArchitecture
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty SQLver -value $SQLver
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty SQLedition -value $SQLedition
        $obj | Add-Member Noteproperty ProductKey -value $productkey
        $obj
    }
}