I have decided to release a side project I have been working on. It is designed to identify what version of Windows a computer is running, identify what version of Windows exists on a CD and identify the version based on the license sticker.

For example, its easy to tell that a computer is Windows XP Professional, but its hard to tell whether the version is OEM, Retail, Corporate, Volume License or something else without the license sticker (all but OEM don’t actually put the sticker on the case).

This tool also has the ability to detect whether the currently installed version is known to Microsoft as a pirate version (nothing to do with WGA). Basically, it’ll let you know before hand whether Windows SP2 or SP3 will install as those two service packs check the product ID with Microsoft before installing.

It does detect the Vista and Win 7 version (which is less useful since they are all on one disk) but the main intention for this is to make identifying Windows XP easier. This should work on most modern mobile browsers so you can use it while onsite as well.
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The following is a paid review. However, it completely of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid.

I was recently called by a business named “Commit” to check out their software called CommitCRM. I already know that there is a good amount of the technicians reading this already know what CommitCRM is since the Technibble forum members usually mention CommitCRM this when the topic of client management software comes up. However, for those of you who don’t know what it is; CommitCRM is a client relationship manager, service management and billing solution that is aimed at the ongoing needs of small to mid-sized computer service businesses who do the following:

• Provide maintenance services
• Handle customer support calls and on-site visits
• Perform local repairs
• Manage Service Contracts and need full control over their status
• Provide outsourcing of IT support services
• Manage IT projects
• Sell hardware and off-the-shelf software
• Provide managed services (MSP)
• Track Customers’ Assets - Equipment, Software, Subscriptions
• Bill customers for labor, expenses, products and parts

I believe this would be pretty much most of the Technibble readers.
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SmartSniff is a small, freeware and portable application that allows you to capture TCP/IP packets that pass through your network adapter. You can view the TCP/IP conversations that go through your network in both ASCII mode or as a hex dump.

We have featured other packet sniffers here before such as Wireshark. Wireshark portable was even featured in our Computer Repair Utility Kit. However, both these versions needed to install the WinPcap capture driver first in order to work. Smartsniff captures data using the Raw sockets method which means this application is a truly portable packet sniffer as it doesnt need to install anything. Of course, using the raw method does have some limitations and problems such as it not working correctly on XP Service Pack 1, but other than that its a

For those of you who haven’t experimented with packet sniffing before and may be wondering why you would want to do this as a technician. Packet sniffing allows you to see what a system is sending out so you could see if there is a virus on the system sending out data to its home base, and if so, what it is sending. You can use it to capture unencrypted passwords leaving the computer (in case you or your client forgot the password but its still in the application in the **** form). You could also use it to see what legitimate applications are up to such as which update server they are using or what information they are sending back to base.
nice small, portable packet sniffer.
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Over the last few years I have been helping my clients with their Apple Macs. It has been mostly simple stuff like unboxing the Mac and setting it up, entering their email settings, migrating data and the occasional hard drive/RAM upgrade or replacement. I didn’t venture too far beyond that because I wasn’t confident with my Macs skills and didn’t want to learn on a clients computer. I have years and years of experience repairing PC’s and rarely come across a PC I cannot fix, but my Mac knowledge was limited.

I can see that Apple’s computer market share has greatly increased recently (thanks to Vista I assume) so I thought that I should look into it further and I bought myself a 13′ Aluminum Macbook. I have spent the last few months learning both the operating system/hardware sides and how to fix it. I still have a long way to go myself, but I would like to share some of it with other technicians so here are some resources for repairing Apple Macs.
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Just recently on the Technibble forums we had a young soon-to-be technician who said he thought he was “pretty freakin good” at computers. Many of us told him that he was yet to encounter a job that makes him realize that there is a lot more to learn. Its quite a humbling experience when it happens and I would like to share with you one of my own “humbling experiences”.
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Outlook is a fairly indepth program that stores a lot of data and it can occasionally become corrupted to the point where Outlook cannot be launched. Since many people use Outlook to organise their lives you can imagine how much they freak out when their information becomes corrupted.

This little tool called ScanPST has allowed me to save many stressed out clients in the past. It only does one thing but its a very important one, ScanPST will scan a Outlook data file (.pst) that you choose for corruptions and attempt to repair it.

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I recently received an email from a company called M80 that is working with Microsoft to help promote Windows 7. The email said:

“They’ve [Microsoft] created a new site to support Windows 7 and are offering IT professionals a candid look into the product decisions they’ve made, as well as genuine insight from the engineers themselves. The site will serve as an entirely new forum for Microsoft to interact with the community and actively join the conversation surrounding Windows 7. They’re looking to hear any opinions, answer any questions, and get some real insight from their users on how to make Windows 7 as good as possible. “

At the moment, the website is mostly being used as an advertising tool for Windows 7 where IT Professionals and Microsoft developers talk about how great Windows 7 is. Personally, I am not interested in seeing the commercials but what I am interested in is giving Technicians like ourselves who have seen the worst of Windows, the ability to give the Microsoft developers some feedback on Windows 7 and help make it a better product.
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EnableDisable is a small, freeware application designed to allow you to enable or disable Microsoft Office add-ins. This comes in handy when an addin is causing an Office product (like Outlook, Word or Access) to crash and you cannot get into the application to switch it off. Of course, you could always use the /safe switch for the product, find the add ins menu and disable it that way,. However, this way shows the installed addins for all of the Office products installed at once so this method is faster.
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A lot of technicians have expressed their concerns about whether they should use Google while working on a clients computer. The client called a technician because we are supposed to know something they dont know such how to fix their computer problem. Of course, its almost impossible for a computer technician to know what every single error code means and how to fix it which leads us to our problem; should we use Google in front of a customer?
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If you spend any decent amount of time working on clients machines (especially residential ones), it wont take you long until you encounter a computer with pirate software on it. This can sometimes be just a few applications like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop; or the whole operating system itself.

The question was raised in the Technibble forums about how should we deal with computers that have pirate software on them and there were many different answers. Some said they will flat out refuse to work on a computer that has pirate software on it. Others said its none of our business what a client does with their own machine and will work on it anyway.

Some said they will tell the client that they have pirated software to make them aware of it, but not lecture. Others will recommend freeware alternatives in their place.

Another issue is, what if your competitor is installing pirate copies of Windows on the computers he is selling? Should you report them since they have the price advantage and leave yourself open to revenge tactics? or just let them kill themselves off as more customers find out their copies of Windows are pirate and cannot use them once Windows Genuine Advantage is installed?

What would you do? Would you flat out refuse to work on the machine? Turn a blind eye? Tell them and work on it anyway? Is it our responsibility to tell the client?

How would you deal with a competitor who was selling computers with pirated copies of Windows? Drop us a comment.