While trying to commit files to my SVN repository using eclipse I was constantly receiving errors about "access denied on .svn/tempfile.tmp". This specifically seems to happen when committing the ROOT folder of a project,

This problem turned out to be caused by my anti-virus product, and a google search showed others having similar problems, and their solution was to disable their anti-virus when committing. This of course is not a very secure solution as you really do not want to be disabling your anti-virus if you don't have to as you will be vulnerable during that time. The better solution is to stop your AV from causing the problem in the first place. I determined that the problem must be due to my AV putting a lock on the tempfile while it performed its real-time scan of any IO activity which was causing eclipse to timeout, so I added eclipse to my list of trusted applications and set it not to scan network traffic and this resolve dthe problem.

In my case my client tool is eclipse with the subclipse plugin and my AV product is Kaspersky Internet Security, so I will provide details of how to do this with those products. If you use a different AV product then you will need to figure out how to do the same with your product, and simply apply the rule to your own SVN client instead of eclipse, whether it be tortoise SVN or another application.

1. Open your Kaspersky Internet Security, and click the "SETTINGS" button

2. now choose "Threats and exclusions", and click the "trusted zone" button

2. Now select the "Trusted applications" tab

3. Click the "Add" button to add your application

Now simply browse to your SVN client tool and check the bot "Do not scan network traffic" then click "ok" on each window to accept the settings.

If you are still having problems, go back to step 3 and check more of the property boxes to exclude other scans. You may also want to check that your application is not being blocked by your firewall rules. To check this do the following.

4. On the settings page from step 2 above, select "Firewall" and then "Settings"

5. Now on the "Rules for applications" tab, find your application and edit its settings

6. Make sure all required activity is allowed and is not impeded by any rules

The IIS team at Microsoft has released another set of updated IIS Extensions this month, including the final RTW version of URL Rewriter. These Extensions offer additional functionality for IIS 7.0 while being fully supported and integrated with Windows Server and IIS. Learn more about IIS Extensions.

URL Rewriter enables Web server administrators to create powerful rules to implement URLs that are easier for users to remember and easier for search engines to find. By using rule templates, rewrite maps and other functionality integrated into IIS Manager, administrators can easily set up rules to define URL rewriting behaviour based on HTTP headers and server variables, or to perform redirects, send custom responses, or stop HTTP requests based on the logic expressed in the rewrite rules. URL Rewriter offers many benefits, including:

• Easily define rules that match URLs or HTTP headers to generate more friendly and consistent URLs
• Protect content and assets from unauthorized linking and scanning
• Integrate with existing IIS features to improve management, performance and troubleshooting

Some of you may already have this functionality via ISPAI_REWRITE from Helicon Tech, which is based on MOD_REWRITE for Apache, and in fact version 3 now uses the MOD_REWRITE .htaccess file format so that settings are easily transferable between systems. So if you are already using this then the URL Rewriter extension may pale in comparison, after all it is only the first release, but for those looking for a quick, simple and most of all FREE solution for URL rewriting, then the URL Rewriter extension for IIS7 may be just the ticket.

Have you ever found yourself in the predicament of having a dead PC and no backups of any of your personal data and needing to get at this data before re-installing? then read on.

I recently had this predicament with my wife's laptop after her hard disk died and windows would no longer boot. Of course she had not been backing up her data, so I needed to try and recover all her data before installing a new hard disk. Windows repair or any kind of disk repair couldn't help in this case, as the disk was far too corrupted to get windows working again. So I tried my trusty old BartPE CD, but alas this couldn't help me either as it did not have the correct drivers to recognise the network card or USB devices, so I could not copy the data anywhere. So I went looking for another solution and came across Ultimate Boot CD for Windows.

UBCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem. Almost all the software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. Some of the tools included are "free for personal use" copies so users need to respect these licenses. A few of the tools included in UBCD4Win are paid for and licensed software owned by UBCD4win. 

UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE. Bart's PE builds a Windows "pre-install" environment CD, basically a simple Windows XP booted from CD. UBCD4Win includes network support and allows you the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, scan hard drives for viruses, etc.

All you need is another working PC with a CD burner and your original Windows® XP CD, with at least Service Pack 1 (SP2 is highly recommended). If your CD does not have SP1 or SP2 included on it you can easily "slipstream" a Service Pack using a program called AutoStreamer.

Once you have created your boot CD, you then simply boot from this CD on your FUBAR pc (or laptop) and you are ready to rock.

I simply plugged in my USB external hard disk and backed up all my wife's personal documents, music, pictures, etc using the file explorer utility, thankfully most of them were not on the corrupted part of the disk. For those files that were corrupted and would not copy, I simply used the included file recovery tool to copy them from the laptop to the external hard disk where possible. In most instances this worked like a treat, even with the Outlook pst file, although the resulting pst file was itself still corrupted so that outlook could not read, so I still need an outlook pst repair tool. Unfortunately I as yet have not found a free one, and the commercial ones are far too expensive, and the emails are not worth that much to my wife.

I have thought for a long time that Microsoft really ought to include free anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware protection with windows as standard to protect the average PC owning numpty who has no clue about such things, like most peoples parents for example, not only for their protection, but also for everyone else's. Is it the average clueless numpty that invariably gets infected with viruses and trojans and then unwittingly unleashes them on everyone else.

And with the huge bloated size of Vista, I kind of expected this to be the case, but it was not. Sure there is Windows Live OneCare, which is not free, and reviews have shown it to be pretty pants, so I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it.

Well Microsoft today announced plans to kill its Windows Live OneCare PC care and security suite and replace it with a free anti-malware utility.

The new product, code-named "Morro" will be designed for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs, Microsoft said its surprise announcement.

Retail sales of Windows Live OneCare, which offered non-security PC care features such as printer sharing, data backup and automated PC tune-up, ends on June 30, 2009.

The company said "Morro" will be available in the second half of 2009 and will feature standard anti-malware capabilities to detect viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Morro will use the same home-built malware protection engine that powered Windows Live OneCare.

The new solution will deliver the same core protection against malware as that offered through Microsoft’s enterprise solutions, but will not include many of the additional non-security features found in many consumer security suites.

The freebie will be available as a stand-alone download and offer malware protection for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

This isn;t exactly new news, but was new to me, so I thought it worth blogging as it may have slipped by others too. According to the CF 8 EULA change the ColdFusion license changed in v8.01 and it now allows you to have a copy of CF installed for backup and recovery purposes.

Key paragraph From the ColdFusion 8 EULA (PDF):

 2.3 Backup and Disaster Recovery. Licensee may make and install a reasonable number of copies of the Software (ColdFusion) for backup and archival purposes and use such copies solely in the event that the primary copy has failed or is destroyed, but in no event may Licensee use such copies concurrently with Production Software or Development Software. Licensee may also install copies of the Software in a Disaster Recovery Environment for use solely in disaster recovery and not for production, development, evaluation or testing purposes other than to ensure that the Software is capable of replacing the primary usage of the Software is case of disaster.

This is great news for companies that want to have a hot backup server that they can easily switch live if their production server bombs out.