What you’ll need:

• Microsoft SyncToy 2.1
• A Windows XP or higher computer

Grab yourself a copy of SyncToy and get it installed. Once you’ve installed, you can launch the application from your All Programs menu. Upon first use, you’ll be asked to create your first folder pair. Before you do, there are a couple of options to consider.

Synchronisation can be performed in a number of ways, each with different effects. Below is a description for each method.

Syncronize

Files in the left and right folders are mirrored. This ensures files remain syncronised even if you edit the file on your remote storate. Deletions will also be mirrored.

Echo

Files in the left folder will update to the right only. Assuming you set your right folder to the remote storage, changes in the remote storage will not be copeid to your left folder. Deletions on the left will delete to the right.

Contribute

Files created and modified on the left will copy to the right. Deletions will not effect the right folder.

Once you’ve picked your chosen sync method, go ahead and specify your left and right folders. In my case, I set the left folder as my local data storage, and the right folder as my remote storage. Click Next and you’ll be asked for your sync method. Select your chosen method and click Finish. Your folder pair is now created.

There are a few other options to consider, such as file exclusions, but I’ll leave that to your discretion.

Now the good part. It’s all very well having folder pairs, but as it stands, we can only sync manually by clicking the Run button. With a little bit of scripting and Group Policy modification, we can set SyncToy to sync all folder pairs on log off. Very handy.

Open your local Group Policy Editor (Start > Run > gpedit.msc) and browse the tree to User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts.

Double click on Logoff and you will be presented with the Logoff Properties window. Create the following script somewhere on your local machine.

CD "%ProgramFiles%\SyncToy 2.1\"
SyncToyCmd.exe -R

Now in the Logoff Properties, add the script you just created by clicking the Add button and browsing to the file. The script should now appear in the Logoff Properties window. Click OK to accept this and close the Group Policy Editor.

The script should now execute on logoff. Test it out by creating some local files and logging off. Windows should say Running Logoff Scripts for a little longer that usual. This is a good indication that it is running. Log back on a voilà. Your files should magically have copied up to your remote storage.

Not the most elegant of solutions, but it works, and its free. No complaints from me.

After much research, I found out that I didn’t actually need anything else at all! With the help of this nifty bit of software, you can ‘remux’ a MKV video into something the XBOX360 will decode straight out of the box, the trusty MP4 video format.

The software is called XenonMKV. Readers of my blog will probably know I’ve written about this software before. I have much love for it. It’s simple to use, pretty quick, and gets the job done. Seeing as all the software is doing is stripping the video and audio out of it’s MKV container, it’s far, far quicker than conversion.

Sadly, there is a downside, although strictly the fault of Microsoft, not XenonMKV. All video files (besides WMV) are restricted to a 4gb maximum file size. Though XenonMKV caters for this by offering the option to break movies down into 4gb bite site nuggets, it’s still a royal PITA. The other downside is that audio is reverted to 2.1 stereo. Bye bye DTS track. The optimist inside of me wonders if Microsoft will ever unblock these features. The realist inside guesses probably not.

The trouble with Adobe Reader updates is that they aren’t particularly easy to distribute. Sure, you can download the MSI installer from Adobe’s website and use the Adobe Customisation Wizard to create a neat little MST file to transform the install with all your company’s standard settings, but have you ever tried installing the new MSI over a previous version? Not so easy now huh.

For some unknown reason, Adobe engineer their Reader installations in such a way that simply deploying the new MSI isn’t enough. For instance, you can’t simply push out Adobe Reader 9.3.3 and hope that it updates all the previous 9.3.2 installations. You first have to uninstall all previous versions.

Adobe updates usually come in the form of MSP files. These files are designed to patch your existing installation points. It’s important to note that this is only the case for quarterly updates. Security updates cannot be used to patch your administrative installation point.

For this example, I’m going to patch my Adobe Reader 9.3.0 administrative installation point with the MSP for 9.3.3.

Oh but wait, another fly in the ointment. You can’t patch a 9.0 administrative point with 9.3.3 directly. You must follow this order of patching:

9.3.0 > 9.3.2 > 9.3.3

Start by downloading all of your files. You’ll need:

• Your 9.3.0 administrative point
• AdbeRdrUpd932_all_incr.msp
• AdbeRdrUpd933_all_incr.msp

Slipstreaming Updates into the Administrative Installation Point.

Fire up a command line window, and run the following. This command will integrate your MSP with your installation point.

msiexec.exe /a "path to acroread.msi in admin point" /p "path to AdbeRdrUpd932_all_incr.msp" /qb

You’ll notice the installer wizard configuring your computer. Note that this is actually configuring your installation point, not your computer.

Repeat the above with the AdbeRdrUpd933_all_incr.msp file. You will now have an installation point with Adobe Reader 9.3.3 ready to roll.

Deploying the Updated Version.

If like me you have Microsoft System Center Configuration 2007 at your disposal, you can make use of my batch file script that I have created to remove all previous versions of Adobe Reader prior to installing the new 9.3.3 version. Simply set the script to run before the installation for Adobe Reader 9.3.3 and you should find the install takes place with no errors.

For the script to work fully, you’ll need to add the MSIZap executable into the same folder as the script. This can be downloaded for free as part of the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility (found here…). You only need msizap.exe for the script to work, forget about the other files. MsiZap is a very useful tool. Check out the command line syntax I use and experiment to your hearts content.

If you only have Group Policy at your disposal, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to modify the script to call the install after the uninstalls have taken place. Hope this helps!

REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 6
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A00000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 7
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A70900000002} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.0
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A80000000002} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81000000002} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1.4
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81300000003} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.0
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.1
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A91000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A92000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** MSI Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.3
msiexec.exe /x {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A93000000001} REBOOT=Supress /qn
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 6
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A00000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 7
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A70900000002}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.0
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A80000000002}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81000000002}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1.4
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A81300000003}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.0
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.1
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A91000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A92000000001}
REM *** Zap Uninstall Adobe Reader 9.3
"%~dp0msizap.exe" TW! {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A93000000001}