It Is What It Is

After purchasing an iPad, I set up VirtualBox and installed iTunes to do my syncing. The plan was that I would share my music from my Ubuntu box to the Virtual Machine. Two problems immediately presented themselves: I could not charge my iPad and the sync speed was very slow.

So I changed the plan and recycled an old computer and installed Windows XP.  I don’t want to have multiple keyboards and mice on my desk.  Nor do I want to have to stop what I’m doing and switch screens should I need to make a change on the XP box.  To get around this, I set up Remote Desktop and went back to Ubuntu and tried to log in.  The connection was fine, however I received a message “Unable to log you on because of an account restriction.”  Specifically, this Microsoft KB covers the details:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303846

The account restriction specifically relates to a security setting in XP that requires accounts using Remote Desktop to have a password.  In short:  No password, No Access.  I’m not one to complain about good security, remote access with no password is a bad idea – regardless of the OS you are using.  I switched screens and did the usual CTRL-ALT-DELETE to change the password.  Since the computer is not on the domain, I did not get a password change box.  The next attempt was to use the Control Panel, since I did not have a mouse connected I was not able to change the password there either.  Last stop:  Command Prompt!  Microsoft includes a great set of command line tools that can be used to replace many of the graphical wizards they provide.  In this case the net utility will do the job.

net user <username> <newpassword>

Once my password was reset, I was able to connect my remote desktop, no problems.

Now I need to do Windows Updates, here’s the count as of today:

72 Post Service Pack 2 Updates
Service Pack 3
24 Post Service Pack 3 Updates (including IE8)
3 Post IE Updates

All told, probably about 3 hours of downloading, installing and rebooting.  I am now very glad that I don’t have to switch screens to check on it every 20 minutes.