Uninstalling Google Chrome can really mess with your computer

Uninstalling Google Chrome can really mess with your computer

We had someone at work unwittingly install the Google Chrome browser. They noticed afterwards, and then uninstalled it. All of sudden, links in emails bombed with an error message: “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.”

Well, there's a kick in the pants!

After searching around for a few minutes, it appears that Microsoft offers a fix for this exact problem.

I have never used Microsoft's "Fix it for me" tool before. I'm not a trusting soul when it comes to my computers (or those entrusted to me) so I usually will make the required changes myself. I thought I would give it a shot this time, and it worked like a charm.

What happens is that the Google Chrome install changes entries in your registry having to do with how your computer opens certain files or protocols. Upon uninstall, however, Chrome doesn't put things back the way they were. Bad developers!!! So you either have to fix the entries that it messed up, OR you have to reinstall Chrome, so that Chrome can handle all of those things it changed instead of Internet Explorer/whatever other programs.

Random gripe for today

Random gripe for today: I hate when I have to use a support website that does case management, and the technician posts a reply to my case, whereupon I receive an email telling me to log back in to the website to see what the technician wrote. GRRR!!

Document Document Document!!

Document Document Document!!

So I spent all morning and part of last week documenting all of the connections in the server room. I've done this many times before, and it's my least favorite part of my job. Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't mind generating documentation! Realistically, it's a big part of being in IT. What I do loathe, however, is when the people around you change things (repeatedly) and don't update the documentation. So, the lesson for today is to get everyone on-board with some kind of change management scheme, starting with your manager for enforcement purposes. It doesn't have to be at the level of ITIL, but everyone needs to know that it's their responsibility to update the documentation when changes are made.

For our servers, we use SYDI to automatically document them on a weekly basis. When we fix an issue, we record the resolution in Spiceworks, our helpdesk software, so that we can find out what we did to fix an issue if it recurs. We run a ping sweep over an entire network on a monthly basis and check that against our Internal Network Address database (an excel spreadsheet) to see if our free IP addresses are actually unused. We have some snazzy Visio diagrams of network paths, server rack population, and power cable routing. The only part of this that's hard to do is mapping out what devices are mapped to which switch port. You can look into the switch's management interface and find out which MAC addresses are on that port, but that doesn't mean it's the only device (like if the switch is connected to another switch). Also, it's not easy to identify iSCSI HBAs or other odd devices like IP cameras and Virtual Tape libraries in this manner.

So, it's all down to tracing cables, unless you can get your team to write down what they did whenever they plug/unplug a network cable.

Cloud Storage

Cloud Storage

I'm using SkyDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox on my home computer and on my Android. I basically use them as backups, but I do remotely access my files from time to time. I ran across this yesterday at instantfundas.com. It's an app that allows you to transfer files between dropbox accounts, and/or using an FTP. This is really handy for web development people, because a lot of web admins use FTP to access their web sites. But, it got me thinking. I've got a few gigs here and a few gigs there. There are more services that offer cloud storage, but I don't use them because I think 3 is probably sufficient....

What if there was an app that could combine them all? One unified platform where you could browse all your files and didn't need to remember that all of your pictures are on Dropbox, but your resume is on Google Drive? You could search for "resume", it would bring up the appropriate files for you to choose from, and then you open it/edit it/whatever. ONE APP TO RULE THEM ALL. If you had sufficient space, you could even do some kind of Cloud RAID on them. Raid 0 if you just wanted one big filesystem across all of the platforms, Raid 1 if you wanted mirrors, and Raid 5 if you wanted redundancy; you'd use one service for parity data!

Of course, the minute something like this gained any traction, one of the storage vendors would change their code and render it inoperable, but WHAT IF.....

Of course, you could just run your own FTP site from your house, provided that you have a desktop sitting around that you could leave powered on 24/7. I do this as well, using FileZilla Server and Dyndns, so that when my IP address at home changes it will still resolve for me. I also use an obscenely long password, cause hackers love them some FTP sites.