Microsoft Exchange 2010 & Mobile Device Control

Being new to working with Microsoft Exchange 2010 I was surprised to see how much power it has over mobile devices that are connected to an Exchange server. While doing some work for an upcoming audit I found that not only can you control WIFI, Bluetooth and even camera settings on connected phones, but completely wipe the phones as well. Now when finding this out of course it had to be tested, and thankfully my boss offered up his iPhone to be the "test device". It was more just to see if it actually worked then anything and oh did it do its job.... too well. Just by clicking the "Wipe Drive" option the phone suddenly powered off and rebooted. It was stuck on the Apple logo for about half and hour and when it came back it was if he just bought the phone. We were both shocked since we just assumed it would wipe out any emails or contacts that were associated with the company but no, EVERYTHING was gone. All his apps, all his contacts... everything.

This small but powerful feature is phone to test out but gets very scary if you think about it. Someone could very easily erase an unsuspecting users enter personal phone by accident, or even on purpose if they really wanted to. It does come in handy when a phone is lost, stolen or someone is fired without getting a chance to clear out any settings. But when it comes to a setting such as a college campus where thousands of students can be connected to the Exchange database makes it very scary. Being that I used to work for a college IT department the idea that someone has the power to wipe a students phone, who really has no idea how they are connecting to the network, makes me nervous. I'm surprised we haven't seen stories about more accidental wipes happening but I'm sure the time will come when something goes kind of screwy and hundreds of phones get wiped.

Fixing the Active Desktop Recovery Error

If you live/work in an area where the power just isn't too great, possibly gets knocked out by wind say 7 times in one day or even just every now and then, you probably have seen this error. The dreaded "Active Recovery Desktop" white background with a button that SAYS it will restore your Desktop back to normal.... but never works. This can be annoying as most people think there is something terribly wrong with their machine and they've lost everything. Turns out the background just goes away and you get the wonderful white screen with a big exclamation point on it. It's an easy fix, as long as you are comfortable editing the registry. And if you're still reading this I'm pretty sure you are. So here's the fix:

1) Open up the registry by running regedit from the run box

2) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\SafeMode\Components

3) Change the value of the HTMLDesktopVersion from whatever it is currently set to to 0

4) Right click the Desktop and click Refresh

5) Your wallpaper and icons should now be back to normal

Spring Cleaning for Your Noisy/Slow PC

Recently I've been noticing one of the workstations in my house has been running very slowly and actually pretty loud as well. By "loud" I mean noisy in the sense that the fan is constantly running. Now a quick smack to the side of the case sometimes stops the noise... but it always comes back. So I've resorted to finally cleaning the thing up. First thing to do is blow out all the dust and trust me, no matter how clean your house is your computer WILL have dust in it. It's very easy to clean, just open up the case (most are easy to open these days but if you have an older computer you may run into some issues) and grab a can of compressed air. Just be careful that you don't blow any cables or random pieces out of place, maybe take a picture of the inside just in case something does get loose.

Next is actually cleaning off the software installed on the PC. This can be done through Windows built in Remove/Uninstall programs utility or by a third party. One that I've found usual recently is CCleaner. I've read about it in the past and finally decided to try it out. I found it to be extremely useful and user friendly. After launching the software you can clean out missing Registry files (be careful with this one though), clean out old internet files and also uninstall software right from CCleaner. The last is the best in my opinion as some programs not showing up in the Windows uninstaller appear in CCleaner. Not sure why but that makes it ten times better. Another piece of software I used to quiet the loud machine is Speedfan. It runs in the background and tries to keep your fans running at optimal speed. It does so by monitoring the temperature of your CPU and adjusting the fans based upon the current temperature. Last but not least is a big one. Run a malware scanner like Malwarebytes or HitManPro. Once again, be careful with what you remove but doing so will clean out the last bit of junk that could be slowing your computer down and making it noisy.

So what other options are out there to speed/clean up your PC? Please don't say calling those numbers that you hear on commercials... it makes no sense to have someone "clean up your PC" for some crazy amount of money when you can do it all for free! It just takes a little bit a work and a lot of patience.