The Vmware ESXI Upgrade Process Vmware ESXi has a simple upgrade process that can be carried out either from a CD or USB Memory Stick. As i had never upgraded ESXi since my original install i decided to do a quick blog showing how the Vmware ESXI upgrade process should go. I will presume you either have ESXi on a CD or USB memory stick, however if not the latest version can be downloaded here. to start the Vmware ESXI upgrade process boot off either the CD or USB drive, then select the drive which contains your ESXi install. In the screenshot below i’m running the ESXi upgrade from a USB Memory stick, my ESXi is installed on another USB Memory Stick which i have selected to be upgraded. You have the choice to carry out a new install or upgrade an existing installation, here I am upgrading my existing install. The installer confirms that ESXi can be upgraded from 5.1.0 to 5.5.0 The upgrade process will start and take a couple of minutes to complete All been well you should be informed that the ESXi has been upgraded successfully After the reboot the Vmware ESXI upgrade process had been compleated, ESXi 5.5…

Why enable SSH Two-Factor Authentication on your server? SSH Two-Factor Authentication add’s an additional layer of security to your server / network. If your anything like myself you probably have your network locked down from the outside world, with just an SSH server accessible from the internet. Once I’m authenticated and logged in to SSH i can then open a secure tunnel to browse the web at a remote location, or even forward a port and connect to another service, or PC via remote desktop. I have always used a long but complex password I had memorised. It has always been at the back of my mind that I should try and increase the security on the server. given its the only way in to my network from the outside world. When I log in to Dropbox, My Windows Live, Google, Facebook and Steam account I have Two-Factor Authentication enabled, basically meaning I get a text message with a code I have to enter to log in. Even if someone was to finds out my password, that alone is useless without an authentication code which is constantly changing. For my Windows Live and Google accounts i use Google Authenticator to generate a login code.…

The 1997 blockbuster Half Life has been ported to Windows RT, meaning it owners of ARM based Windows RT tablets, such as the Surface RT can play Half Life. In order to play Half Life your tablet will need to be jail broken as third party desktop applications are not allowed to run as standard on Windows RT. The Half Life for Windows RT port was created by S1yRuleZ over at XDA-Developers Presuming you have a Jailbroken Windows RT device you can do the following to play: Download Half-Life for Windows RT Unzip the files Copy the Pak0, Pak1, Pak2 .PAK files from an install of the origional Half-Life in ID1 folder contained within the files you unzipped Start the game from “Run Half-Life.bat” Note: You need to obtain the  Pak0, Pak1, Pak2 .PAK files from an original copy of Half-Life, not the steam version or demo of the game. Half Life RT Controls: W,A,S,D = walk F = use LMOUSE = fire SPACE = jump N = noclip P = console 0 = change weapon So there we have it, some glassic gaming on Windows RT for people who want something more than modern apps.

An apps button has recently appeared in my bookmarks bar on Google Chrome, linking to chrome://apps/. I personally don’t use any apps on Chrome and find its presence in my bookmarks bar a bit annoying, luckily however you can remove the apps button despite the delete option been inactive when you right click it. Google Chrome Apps Button Removal To remove the button you first need to right click it, then simply look near the bottom of the menu and un-check the “show apps button” menu item to remove the new button. That’s it, your day can now go on as normal. I must admit it took me a good half a minute to realise how to remove the button from Chrome, however that was at 6am, before my morning cuppa tea, so my excuse is I was half asleep at the time!

Outlook.com (Hotmail) setup with IMAP in the Apple OSX Mail App. By default if you want to access your Outlook.com / Hotmail or MSN email account in the OSX Mail app you had to do it with POP. Using POP is not ideal as it simply downloads the massage from the Outlook servers. You can not organise your email and sync changes back to Outlook, and between devices such as your desktop pc, laptop and mobile. Although not as good as Exchange Active Sync which is supported by most smartphone and Outlook 2013 on Windows, Mac OSX users can now use IMAP to sync mail to OSX. Outlook.com IMAP settings: Incoming IMAP Server: imap-mail.outlook.com Server port: 993 Encryption: SSL Outgoing SMTP Server: smtp-mail.outlook.com Server port: 587 Encryption: TLS Setting up OSX Mail using IMAP for Outlook.com: Open Mac Mail, from the File menu, choose Add Account then enter your Hotmail, Outlook or MSN email address and password, finally clicking continue. The account type you need to select is IMAP, you can enter anything you like for the description. The username is [email protected], your password is the password you usually use to sign in to outlook.com unless you have two factor…