How to remove non-present devices from VM’s
Many times when you a do a physical to virtual (P2V) migration on a windows machine to a virtual environment like VMware it doesn’t pick up and remove all redundant hardware devices. Sometimes this circumstance can lead to performance or stability issues for the virtual machine (VM). Note, this primarily relates to network adapters, see Microsoft KB Q269155.
A good sign that this has happened is if you get the following message when you try to adjust the TCP/IP settings on you new NICs:
The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter Name of adapter. Name of adapter is hidden from the network and Dial-up Connections folder because it is not physically in the computer or is a legacy adapter that is not working. If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they become active, only one of them will use this address. This may result in incorrect system configuration. Do you want to enter a different IP address for this adapter in the list of IP addresses in the advanced dialog box?
The process to find and remove these devices is pretty easy follow the process below and it will get you on your way
1. Within the VM, start a command prompt, eg: Start => Run => cmd.exe
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type devmgmt.msc, and then press ENTER.
4. Within the console that appears click View, and then select Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree and uninstall the ghosted devices.
WordPress 2.6.2 Security Release
Time to upgrade your WordPress installation. An exploit has been discovered with the version of Suhosin that is used in the previous versions of WordPress.
Stefan Esser recently warned developers of the dangers of SQL Column Truncation and the weakness of mt_rand(). With his help we worked around these problems and are now releasing WordPress 2.6.2. If you allow open registration on your blog, you should definitely upgrade. With open registration enabled, it is possible in WordPress versions 2.6.1 and earlier to craft a username such that it will allow resetting another user’s password to a randomly generated password. The randomly generated password is not disclosed to the attacker, so this problem by itself is annoying but not a security exploit. However, this attack coupled with a weakness in the random number seeding in mt_rand() could be used to predict the randomly generated password. Stefan Esser will release details of the complete attack shortly. The attack is difficult to accomplish, but its mere possibility means we recommend upgrading to 2.6.2.
In the unlikely event that you have already updated your version of Suhosin, you are protected. I would still upgrade to take advantage of the many bug fixes that have been released.
Download the latest version of WordPress.
WordPress 2.61 Available for Download.
If you have been waiting for a “dot one” version release before upgrading WordPress, now is your time. WordPress has made version 2.6.1 available for download. With 2.6.1, WordPress continues their trend of releasing a maintenance update shortly after a major release in order to fix bugs that always follow a “dot zero” release. This is not a security release so you don’t have to upgrade if you are already running 2.6.0 and are happy with it.
Check out the full list of over 60 fixes to see if 2.6.1 has something to offer you. If you’re still using WordPress 2.5 because you were waiting for the dot one release of 2.6, then now is the time to upgrade.
