Ask DACS
May 2010

Moderated and reported by Jim Scheef

AskDACS is a Question and Answer session before the main presentation at the monthly General Meeting. We solicit questions from the floor and then answers from other audience members. My role as moderator is to try to guide the discussion to a likely solution to the problem.

Q – When cleaning out temporary files, I found 30 gigabytes of Microsoft Search index and temporary files on my C: drive. Are these necessary? If not, is it advisable to delete them and how should that be done?

A – There was much good discussion with members divided on whether it is necessary to keep the files. The machine in question is a desktop running Windows 7 with plenty of RAM, a fast processor and a modern, large hard disk. The hard disk is divided into several partitions; the system partition (C: drive) being 100G with 30G free space. The other partitions are used for data of various types. The member uses Microsoft Search for both Internet and desktop searches. Prior to Windows 7, Windows Search was an optional add-on installed or activated by the user. As Microsoft often does with such things, in Win7 it became an integrated part of Windows. One member suggested CCleaner as a tool for cleaning up temporary files.

Follow up question: What if I turn off the indexing?

A – Certainly the search function will not work without the indexing, as the cache would quickly become stale. My recommendation was to do nothing. There is adequate free space in the system partition (C: drive) and machine performance is reported to be good.

Follow up question: Why do I need indexing?

A – Members gave the example of when you misplace a file on that terabyte hard drive; Windows Search will find it on any partition and can search for content in a file in case you forget the file name. In Windows 7, the indexing even works on external hard drives. When Windows Search is working, you can type words that you know are in a file (filename or contents) and the search results will narrow as you type.

Q – Does anyone know of a utility to move applications from one disk drive (a physical or logical disk) to another in Windows 7?

A – While such products undoubtedly exist, no one knew of one. The focus of such programs seems to have changed to migrating user data and programs from one machine to another, generally to a new version of Windows.

Q – At a meeting some time back, the consensus was to wait to see if Windows 7 was worthy of an upgrade. What is the feeling now?

A – Most people feel that Windows 7 is far superior to Vista and is now the preferred version of Windows. One member stated that he finds no performance issues on a laptop that is “not exactly new”. Windows 7, while different from XP is easier to use than Vista. A member suggested PC Mover offers a $20 version [correction: $30] that will do an in-place upgrade from WinXP to Win7. The $40 version will upgrade between PCs, drives or partitions.

Q – My home computer died. [Collective sigh from the audience.] In the interim while shopping for a new computer, how can I make some of my own programs available when I use a public computer at the library? I particularly need a graphics editor and viewer.

A – For graphics, one member suggested Irfanview. Irfanview is a graphic file viewer for images and video with many plug-ins that add functionality. It is a portable program that can be run from any drive including a USB drive.

For other tasks, many programs offer portable version that can run from a USB thumb drive without any install to the public computer. Some of these programs include the Firefox browser (so you can keep all your favorites available), Thunderbird for email, RoboForm (to securely store passwords), etc. Web-based email like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL/AIM email or Hotmail is an obvious solution. For word processing and other office documents, the cloud-based services like Google Docs, Zoho Office and ThinkFree Office all offer document storage as well as replacements for office productivity programs. (Hmm, where have I heard about these programs before? Oh yes, here!

Q – Is there an easy way to synchronize two computers? I would like the two computers to functionally mirror each other including data and applications. Would the duplication give me a backup?

A – Ignoring the licensing issues involved with installing applications on more than one computer, this is an interesting question. When you include the word “easy” in the question, the simple answer is “No.” However, if you are willing to install all of your applications on both computers, the problem becomes one of synchronizing the data, which is an easier task. One member suggested Microsoft SyncToy which will keep two folders on different computers and all of the contents and sub-folders synchronized, including when a file is deleted from one computer. Version 2.1 seems to be current and requires that .NET Framework 2.0 is installed. SyncToy 2.1 uses something called the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 which certainly sounds robust and likely to do the job. I mentioned Dropbox (dropbox.com and tinyurl.com/2f9n9d9) and box. These competing web-based file sharing and synchronization solutions would include off-site backup as part of the solution. Both can work across platforms, including the iPhone and iPad. Both are free for a limited amount of data storage.

On the issue of backup, for Windows and the applications, one computer could not be considered a backup of the other, as you could not restore one computer from the other unless the two computers were identical, using all the same device drivers. For the data, the two synchronized computers would be good backups except if you need to restore a file that was deleted prior to the last sync.

Q – I have a client who used to have a network with a Windows Server running Active Directory. After he shut down the server, he can no longer access shared folders between workstation computers across his network. Is there a way to regain access to these shares?

A – Unfortunately the answer is no. Active Directory is the Microsoft facility on a server that manages a “Windows domain,” and stores all of the authentication mechanisms used by Windows to maintain network security. The workstation machines become domain members and all user accounts are also domain members. Without Active Directory it is nearly impossible to configure a secure Windows network. There are two possibilities: the best solution is to restore the original server to the network so that the workstation machines and the current user accounts can authenticate to the server which will then allow access to network resources like the shares. Both the machines and the users must be able to authenticate. A complete backup of the old server could be restored to a new computer. The backup must include a backup of the “System State.” Creating a new server with the same name and domain name will not work because the SIDs (security identifiers) are unique to every machine and the existing workstations will not recognize such a replacement server. Current users are logging into the workstations using cached credentials. These will eventually expire and the current user accounts will become inaccessible and useless.

The second solution is to create new local user accounts on each machine and set up permissions to new disk shares on each workstation. Apparently the workstations are configured such that the current users cannot create new local machine accounts. This is likely set by group policy and is another side effect of the fact that the machines cannot authenticate. If local machine user accounts had been created before removing the server, it is likely that access to the shares could have been maintained. However, the new user accounts would not include any of the configuration information (called the “user profile”) from the current domain-member accounts.

A third possibility, not mentioned at the meeting, would be to try removing each computer from the Windows domain. In WinXP this is done on the Computer Name tab of System Properties. This should be tried only after backing up data and logging into the local machine Administrator account. Be warned that doing this will totally invalidate the current domain user accounts. If this option is not locked by group policy and the change works, this will still not remove the orphaned group policies and some functions may remain locked even to the local machine Administrator.

I fear that the client is screwed and the only real solution is to back up all data, wipe the workstations and reinstall Windows from scratch. It is amazing how secure Windows can become when you wish it were as insecure as its reputation would imply.

Questions for the upcoming meeting can be emailed to askdacs@dacs.org.

Disclaimer: Ask DACS questions come from members by email or from the audience attending the general meeting. Answers are suggestions offered by meeting attendees and represent a consensus of those responding. DACS offers no warrantee as to the correctness of the answers and anyone following these suggestions or answers does so at their own risk. In other words, we could be totally wrong!