ESXi 5 Add USB to VM (USB passthrough)

I need to set up my ESXi 5.0 server to allow USB passthrough to the virtual machines.  In short I want to attach a USB hard drive to the physical ESXi server and have it show up in the Virtual machine as a mounted usb hard drive.

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To do this first make sure your CPU and hardware support intel VT-d technology.  I have a CPU that has VT-x which does help with Virtual machines but you need VT-d to get I/O support to your virtual machines.   The particular machine I am working on has a xeon E5530 processor which if you go to its product page http://ark.intel.com/products/40200?wapkw=E5520 [1] and look around you will find this.

Which shoes it does have this technology

Also just to help out here is intel’s page that show all the CPUs they have that have this technology http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?VTD=true [2]

This feature must be turned on in the bios.  In my particular case that is how the machine was already set up.  If your’s is not you need to boot up into the bios and enable this.  Intel has a how to page on this http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2009/02/24/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-enable-vt-d-and-perform-direct-device-assignment/ [3]

Configure your ESXi server

Now that you have vt-d enabled open up VSphere Client.

Click on the Configuration tab then select Advanced Settings on the left hand side and finally click on the Configure Passthrough.   If for some reason the “Configure Passthrough” link is not working and grayed out this may mean that you do not have vt-d enabled.

Check box all the USB controllers and click OK.

Now you should see all the USB controllers show up.

Adding USB drive to VM

After that is done, you may need to do  reboot, I did not.  At any rate after that is done I want to attach this USB drive to a Win-7 Virtual machine I have running on the ESXi 5 server.

Select the server then click on “Getting started” tab and select Edit the virtual machine.

In the hardware section click “add”

Select USB Controller and click next.

Select EHCI+UHCO and click next.

Click Finish.

Now click Add again.

Select USB Device and click Next.

Any available usb device will show up.   Here I attached a small hard drive.  Select the usb device you want and click next.

Click Finish.

Click OK.

And since it was a USB hard drive it quickly show up as a mounted hard drive and is usable!

theo: http://www.whiteboardcoder.com

Prevent cut, paste, copy, delete, re-naming of files & folders.

(chống ghi, xóa, đổi tên file trong windows)

We are pleased to release Prevent v 1.0, a freeware app which runs on all Windows. If you don’t want anyone deleting or renaming or messing around with your data, maybe your younger sibling, then Prevent may be able to help you.

The downloaded zip file consists of:
1. Prevent.exe
2. Pre_1
3. Pre_2
4. Read Me file.
5. Uninstall

Run the Prevent installer setup. The installer only places the Prevent folder in the system Program Files folder. A desktop shortcut will also be created. To run the program, click on Prevent. Set your Hot key to stop Prevent. You may set it as Ctrl+P if you wish. Hotkeys Win+F8 kills Pre_1 and Win+F9 kills Pre_2, too. But the single hotkey set by you will kill all Prevent processes at the same time.

Prevent :
1. Stops Cut
2. Stops Paste
3. Stops Copy
4. Stops Delete
5. Stops Copy To
6. Stops Move to
7. Stops Send To
8. Prevents renaming
9. Disables Task Manager’s End Process button. Also it doesn’t allow you to right click on process name and click on end process. It also grays out the context menu items, disable Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V and/or stops the process.

To uninstall or remove Prevent, use the Uninstaller situated in the Prevent folder, or uninstall it via the Control Panel or simply delete its Program folder.

theo: http://www.thewindowsclub.com

Logon with a Picture Password

Picture Passwords are one of the more innovative new features in Windows 8 that enables you to logon by touching or clicking specific parts of a picture to authenticate.  Any picture in your library can be used as a reference to help you remember where the three parts of your picture password are located. Basic gestures such as dragging your finger or mouse along a specific part of the picture can also be used in your password.

How to Boot directly to the Desktop

One of the most controversial changes in Windows 8 is the new sign on behavior that takes users right to the new Start Screen instead of the classic Desktop. This is very annoying for many desktop users that want to stay in the classic Windows environment as much as possible.  In the final build of Windows 8 Microsoft added fuel to the fire by blocking a popular tweak that allowed users to bypass the Start Screen and boot directly to the desktop. A new work around was eventually found, in fact a number of them. This article will show you multiple methods that will bypass the Start Screen and boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop.

Ultimate Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcut Guide

Keyboard shortcuts in Windows 8 allow you to navigate around the OS quickly and efficiently.  Throughout the classic desktop and modern metro interfaces, Microsoft created keyboard shortcuts for almost every common task.  This guide will show you the most useful keyboard shortcuts to improve your Windows 8 experience.