Creating Windows USB startup disk...

As written in my previous post, I would like to test a couple of USB startup disk creators for Windows (that can put our beloved Windows installer into USB device). So now, here's the result. I would say that SARDU (imho) is the best tool currently available. Bonus part, you don't even need to install. Simply extract the zip file and voila! you ready to go. Here's the step by step on how to:

1) Download the zip file from here.

2) Extract it into your D:\ drive.

3) Go to extracted folder and copy your windows installer (in .iso format) into ISO subfolder.

4) Rename the iso file based on OS like listed below:

• Windows Vista - InstallVista.iso
• Windows 7 - InstallWin7.iso
• Windows XP Home - Install_XP_Home.iso
• Windows XP Pro - Install_XP_pro.iso
• Windows XP 64 - Install_XP_x64.iso

ISO folder

5) Execute sardu.exe, notice that your Windows installer has been detected by SARDU.

Windows installers detected

6) Plug in your USB thumb/pen/whatever you may call it drive and click "Search USB" button. Make sure it's using FAT32 file system (otherwise you may need to re-format it).

USB device detected

7) Once your USB pendrive detected, click button with pendrive icon to start the process.

Processing...

8) Once completed, close SARDU and unplug your USB pendrive. Plug it into any machine that support boot up via USB, restart and press boot menu key (F12 for Dell). Select USB device and you're in.

SARDU boot menu

Note:
Tested with Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit installer.

If you just need Windows XP installer, 1 GB pendrive should be sufficient enough.

For Linux users, MultiSystem does support Windows 7 and XP installer via syslinux and grub4dos option respectively. However from my test result, it only works for Windows 7. No luck for XP.

Update (14/04/2011)
I forgot to mention that if you want to install XP on SATA hard disk, you need to slipstream the driver into the installer. This can be done via nLite. Reference to SATA drivers for XP. However, I'm still unable to make my slipstreamed installer works.

Update (15/04/2011)
It's difficult to test the slipstreamed installer on VirtualBox. Solved the first BSOD by changing disk type from IDE to SATA. Second BSOD (happened at second stage) might be due to the different type of SATA driver required by VirtualBox. Wish I could get a real machine soon.

Update 2 (15/04/2011)
Slipstreamed installer works!!! Tested on real SATA hard disk. Perfect solution for netbook (USB pendrive + XP installer + SATA drivers).

Converting XP into kiosk...

Screenshots...

Last week I've been assigned with mini project on how to setup a kiosk machine (well, sort of). Instead of spending money for the right tool (which could save time), the manager kept pushing for the free alternative route. The worst part is, company web portal can only be access via IE7+ (common case for local company) which means no Linux on the list.

The only option that I have in hand was to use Windows XP with IE8. To strip down the OS features it would be easy to use Group Policy (gpedit.msc) however the changes will affect all users. So whether I want it or not, I need to tweak the registry for kiosk user. I've set the machine with two users:

1) administrator - for pc maintenance
2) demo - kiosk user

For now, kiosk user is in admin group. Log into the machine as kiosk user and hide the icon from desktop via right click menu. Then open the registry (run -> regedit). Here's the steps:

1) Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\ and add DWORD values below (leave NoRun = 0 for now, change it to 1 once everything is done)
NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList = 1
NoStartMenuMorePrograms = 1
NoWindowsUpdate = 1
NoStartMenuMyMusic = 1
NoSMMyPictures = 1
NoFavoritesMenu = 1
NoRecentDocsMenu = 1
DisableMyPicturesDirChange = 1
DisableMyMusicDirChange = 1
DisableFavoritesDirChange = 1
NoSMMyDocs = 1
DisablePersonalDirChange = 1
ClearRecentDocsOnExit = 1
NoNetworkConnections = 1
NoStartMenuNetworkPlaces = 1
NoRecentDocsNetHood = 1
NoSMHelp = 1
NoFind = 1
NoResolveSearch = 1
NoResolveTrack = 1
StartMenuLogoff = 1
NoStartMenuEjectPC = 1
NoChangeStartMenu = 1
NoSetTaskbar = 1
NoInstrumentation = 1
NoUserNameInStartMenu = 1
NoToolbarsOnTaskbar = 1
NoViewContextMenu = 1
NoSMConfigurePrograms = 1
NoTrayItemsDisplay = 1
NoTrayContextMenu = 1
Nologoff = 1
NoSetFolders = 1
NoRun = 0

2) In the same location, change value for NoDriveTypeAutoRun to b1

3) Now add two keys (NonEnum and System) under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\. I'll have a structure like below

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
        \Software
            \Microsoft
                \Windows
                    \CurrentVersion
                        \Policies
                            \Explorer
                            \NonEnum
                            \System

4) Remove "My Computer" from Startup Menu, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum\ and add DWORD value below (don't ask me why it's been named with guid)
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} = 1

5) Disable "Task Bar" and "Lock Workstation", go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System and add DWORD values
DisableTaskMgr = 1
DisableLockWorkstation = 1

6) Disable BalloonTip, hide "Control Panel" and hide "Printers and Faxes", go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\ and add DWORD values
ShowInfoTip = 0
StartButtonBalloonTip = 0
Start_ShowControlPanel = 0
Start_ShowPrinters = 0

7) Disable "System Standby", go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ACPI\Parameters\ and add DWORD value
Attributes = 70

8) Disable "Window Key" and "F1", go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout\ and add Binary value below
Scancode Map = 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,50,E0,5B,E0,48,E0,3B,00,00,00,00,00

Reboot the machine and test the changes. Once everything okay, re-open regedit and change the value for NoRun to 1

To strip features from IE (such as SaveAs, Print etc), log into the machine as admin and set it via Group Policy (gpedit.msc). Finally, remove kiosk user (demo) from Administrators and add it into Guests and Remote Desktop Users group. Now I have a so called kiosk machine.

Welcome to my outdated world!!!

Update (18/04/2011)
After putting so much efforts into making this a reality, I've stumbled upon this link on How to Put Windows XP in Kiosk Mode. Though I haven't try it yet, but the solution is damn simple. Argh!!!! I'm pulling off my hair now...

USB startup disk creator for Linux and Windows...

Info: If you're searching for "how to create Windows USB installer", click here.

When started playing with Linux distro, I realized that I need to have a lot of blank CDs / DVDs so that I can burn the downloaded iso image and test the LiveCD on my machine (to make sure all the devices working as expected before installing). End up with a lot of cd / dvd installers that been used once and forgotten. Then, saw an option to use USB pendrive as an installer. At initial stage the process was quite tedious, but now since the technology has matured there's a lot of tools available that can do the process easily. I'll list down a few of it for reference. Some history about Live USB.

Prerequisites:

• Fat32 Formatted Flash Drive
• PC that can boot from USB

---

Name: UNetbootin
Platform: Linux / Windows

Summary:
"UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. It runs on both Windows and Linux. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list."

My comment:
The most famous one.

---

Name: MultiSystem
Platform: Linux

Summary:
"Multisystem enables a LiveUSB to do everything, ideal for exploring different Linux distributions without installing on your PC, and it seamlessly; or to install the Linux distribution of your choice on your PC much faster than via a LiveCD with fast USB 2.0 ports Essential throughout the current range of netbooks that have no CD drive."

My comment:
My favorite one. Love the ability to bundle multiple distros and had a GRUB menu as a selection to which distro to be use.

---

Name: Ubuntu Live USB creator
Platform: Linux

Summary:
"Ubuntu Live USB creator (usb-creator) is an official tool to create Live USBs of Ubuntu from the Live CD or from an iso image. The tool is by default included in all releases after Ubuntu 8.04, and can be installed on Ubuntu 8.04. A KDE frontend was released for Ubuntu 8.10, and is currently included by default in Kubuntu installations. To run the current version on Ubuntu or other distributions, enter either usb-creator-gtk or usb-creator-kde at the command line."

My comment:
First tool that I've used for the task.

---

Name: SARDU
Platform: Windows

Summary:
"Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility (Sardu) is software that can produce an ISO or an IMA anti-virus bootable CD, a comprehensive collections of utilities, the most popular distributions of Linux Lite, and the best known Windows PE. It is freeware (it is licensed as an individual ISO / IMA). Once the files are extracted Sardu creates a CD / DVD or USB bootable device with a handy menu divided into four categories: Antivirus, Utilities, Linux, and PE."

My comment:
Seems to me this is the best tool available on Windows platform. You can also have the recovery disk for XP, Vista, Seven or XP (64bit, Professional or Home) in a practical multi-boot menu. Definitely going to try with this one.

---

Name: Universal USB Installer
Platform: Windows

Summary:
"Universal USB Installer is a Live Linux USB Creator that allows you to choose from a selection of Linux Distributions to put on your USB Flash Drive. The Universal USB Installer is easy to use. Simply choose a Live Linux Distribution, the ISO file, your Flash Drive and, Click Install."

My comment:
An option for Windows user. One Distribution can be installed at any given point in time.

---

Name: MultiBoot USB
Platform: Windows

Summary:
"MultiBootISOs enables each user to create their own custom Multiboot UFD containing only the Distributions they want. New Distributions can be added to your UFD each time the tool is run."

My comment:
Same feature as MultiSystem but for Windows user. One thing that attract me to this tool was the ability to put Windows Vista / 7 installation disk into the USB. I haven't try this one yet.

Update (02/04/2011)
Tested the tools for Windows platform. Personally I would say SARDU is the best tool available for Windows.

PowerShell cmdlet aliases similar to Bash...

CmdLet	Alias	Bash
Get-ChildItem	gci, dir, ls	ls
Get-Content	gc, type, cat	cat
Get-Command	gcm	which
Get-Help	help, man	man
Clear-Host	cls, clear	clear
Copy-Item	cpi, copy, cp	cp
Move-Item	mi, move, mv	mv
Remove-Item	ri, del, erase, rmdir, rd, rm	rm, rmdir
Rename-Item	rni, ren, mv	mv
Get-Location	gl, pwd	pwd
Pop-Location	popd	popd
Push-Location	pushd	pushd
Set-Location	sl, cd, chdir	cd
Tee-Object	tee	tee
Write-Output	echo, write	echo
Get-Process	gps, ps	ps
Stop-Process	spps, kill	kill
Select-String	n/a	grep
Set-Variable	sv, set	set

Copied from Wikipedia.

Compacting/Shrinking virtual disk image...

Working on virtual machine with dynamic virtual disk gives an advantage to those with limited disk space. But after using it for a while (install/uninstall/copy/paste/delete), the actual size of your virtual disk image may have grown to nearly defined size, guest system reported that the disk usage was less than the size reported on host system. It should be fine provided if you have larger disk space. However, if that's not the case, than the best option would be to compact (known as shrink in VMWare) the virtual disk image.

In general, 3 steps are required to achieve this task
1) Disk cleanup / Defrag the hard drive on guest system

2) Execute "sdelete -c" to zero the free disk space before compressing the virtual disk image (sdelete tool was provided by Microsoft) on guest system

> sdelete -c [drive letter]

3) Compact the virtual disk image

VirtualBox user
Execute VBoxManage command on host system

$ VBoxManage modifyhd [filename] --compact

VMWare user
Shrinking needs to be done on guest system. Complete the first two steps above then:
1) Open VMWare tools by right click VM icon in system tray

2) Go to Shrink tab, under supported partitions, check the mount point checkbox

VMWare Tools Properties

3) Click "Prepare to shrink" and once ready, click "Yes" to proceed

Preparing shrink process

Ready to go

Shrinking in progress

If everything working as expected, virtual disk usage on both guest and host should be ~same

Note:
Test environment
Host: Linux Mint 10 64-bit
VirtualBox guest: Windows Server 2003 32-bit
VMWare guest: Windows 7 Profesional 64-bit

Dexpot, undoubtedly the best virtual desktop solution for Windows...

When first introduced to Linux, things that excited me most are virtual desktop and semi transparent terminal. However due to my lack of knowledge on Linux makes me a person who wish that one day these features will be available on Windows.

Fast forward nine years later. Things that makes me eager to learn Linux again was virtual desktop (this time with cube via compositing window manager) and an alternative solution to avoid virus. Now I'm a Linux user at home. For work however, I'm still bond to Windows.

Used to worked in a company that provide me desktop with dual 19" widescreen monitor makes me a happy camper for Windows. Unfortunately, at my current working place I've been given a laptop with 13.3" screen. Struggling for months adjusting my eyes to the small desktop working area.

Desperately looking for virtual desktop solution for Windows (freeware). Came across to VirtualWin and mDesktop. A powerful tools and sufficient enough to do the job. However after using it for couple of months, it felt like I'm back in 90s where 4 boxes act as a deskstop switcher.

I want something similar to modern Linux. Something with animation. Google for best virtual desktop managers and found Dexpot. Finally, a dream come true (though not officially came from Microsoft, but who cares...). Virtual desktop manager for Windows with cube and wall effect as plugins. Not as perfect as Compiz on Linux but I'm happy with it on Windows.

Desktop Cube

SevenDex

Desktop Preview

Plugins and Extras settings

The sheer number of options can be a little overwhelming, but they are all neatly organized in a way that best befits this tool. You can setup shortcuts (but the defaults of Alt-1, Alt-2, etc. are about as fast and convenient as shortcuts get).

Information
Current version: 1.5.8 Build 1434
Download size: 3.89 MB
Release date: December 13th 2010
Platform: Windows 2000/XP/2003 and Vista/2008/7 (incl. x64)

Disable Touchpad while typing in Windows 7...

For Ubuntu / Linux Mint there's a built-in function to disable touchpad while typing. Unfortunately this feature is unavailable in Windows 7, after did some googling I've found one great and handy tool called TouchFreeze. Problem solved :)

Visual Studio 2005 compatibility issue with Windows 7...

After installing VS 2005 on Windows 7, I got this error message when try to run it for the first time

"Visual Studio 2005 SP1 requires an update for Windows Vista"

Solution:
Download SP1 Update here: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6366078 and run the installer in administrator mode.

Tip:
If you are trying to debug web projects, you need to make sure that you go to the Add/Remove Windows Components in Control Panel and install the IIS6 Compatibility with IIS7 option, otherwise you won’t have much luck.

Note:
Tested on Windows 7 Professional 32bit

How to change Windows 7 logon background image (no regedit)...

Custom background

1) Go to Start menu and in the search box type gpedit.msc, then press enter

2) Once the window with title "Local Group Policy Editor" appear, on the right side panel, click Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Logon

3) Double click on "Always use custom logon background" and set it to Enabled, then click OK button

4) Now open Windows Explorer, go to C:\Windows\System32\oobe

5) Create new folder and rename it as Info

6) Create a subfolder for Info and rename it as backgrounds. You should have a structure like below

C:\Windows\System32\oobe\Info\backgrounds

7) Copy your favorite image file to this folder and rename it as backgroundDefault. Image must be in JPG format and the size should be less than 256 KB.

8) Restart your machine

Note:
Tested on Windows 7 Professional 64bit and Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit with 1920x1080 dimension image.

*NSync Linux and Robocop Windows...

A command line to copy a folder while excluding some of it subfolders
rsync (brain mapping to nsync) in Linux

    rsync -IrW --stats --exclude=.svn /path/to/project/dir/ //testsrv/whatever

robocopy (brain mapping to robocop) in Windows

    robocopy \path\to\project\dir \\testsrv\whatever /MIR /XD .svn

copied from Rizal's blog post.

Removing wgatray from Windows XP...

1) Stop the process
    - To start Task Manager you need to click on the Start button and from the Start menu select 'Run' and type in 'taskmgr' command. Hit 'OK'.
    - Now you need to click the 'Processes' tab and click on the 'wgatray.exe' process.
    - After the wgatray.exe is highlighted, you have to press 'End Process' and after wgatray.exe is closed, you can close the TaskManager.

2) Delete / Remove wgatray file from your computer
    - Go to 'My Computer' and browse to both 'C > Windows > System32' and 'C > Windows > System > dllcache' folders.
    - Locate the 'wgatray.exe', right-click it and select delete.
    - Now you need to right-click on the Recycle Bin and press 'Empty the Recycle Bin', so that wgatray.exe files are completely deleted.

3) Remove entry from registry
    - Click on Start button and select Run.
    - Type in 'regedit' and hit the OK button.
    - Go to the following registry entry : 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Winlogon > Notify'.
    - In here you have to delete the Winlogon folder.
    - Close Registry Editor and Wgatray EXE has been completely removed from your computer.

Vulnerability in the ASP.NET encryption...

The Impact of the Vulnerability
ASP.NET uses encryption to hide sensitive data and protect it from tampering by the client. However, a vulnerability in the ASP.NET encryption implementation can allow an attacker to decrypt and tamper with this data.

But what can the attacker do with this capability? Part of the answer depends on the ASP.NET application being attacked. For example, if the ASP.NET application stores sensitive information, such as passwords or database connection strings, in the ViewState object this data could be compromised. The ViewState object is encrypted and sent to the client in a hidden form variable, so it is a possible target of this attack.

If the ASP.NET application is using ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 or above, the attacker could use this encryption vulnerability to request the contents of an arbitrary file within the ASP.NET application. The public disclosure demonstrated using this technique to retrieve the contents of web.config. Any file in the ASP.NET application which the worker process has access to will be returned to the attacker.

How the Vulnerability Works
To understand how this vulnerability works, you need to know about cryptographic oracles. An oracle in the context of cryptography is a system which provides hints as you ask it questions. In this case, there is a vulnerability in ASP.NET which acts as a padding oracle. This allows an attacker to send chosen cipher text to the server and learn if it was decrypted properly by examining which error code was returned by the server.

By making many requests the attacker can learn enough to successfully decrypt the rest of the cipher text. The attacker can then alter the plain text and re-encrypt it as well.

The Workaround - Silencing the Oracle
The workaround for this vulnerability is to use the customErrors feature of ASP.NET to configure applications to return the same error page regardless of the error encountered on the server.

By following the steps in the advisory to map all error messages to a single error page, you make it difficult for the attacker to distinguish between the different types of errors, effectively limiting access to the oracle.

How to Detect Vulnerable ASP.Net Applications
Script can be obtain from the original article.

Note:
Text copied from blogs.technet.com.

The vulnerability affects all versions of .NET Framework. Click here for detail.

Subversion: the simplest way, cheapest and reliable source control solution on Windows platform...

It's challenging to work in an IT department for a non IT company when there's no proper software development process. "Best practices" would be listed as a low priority item in the list.

The first thing that I would look for before I start coding is a source control. Without it, we're in a risk of loosing the code or spending more time to undo changes that we did which had caused the application to broke.

Since it's a non IT company, requesting budget for software purchase might not take you to the smooth path journey. So, with only 3 options I have in hand and mind which is:

1) Visual SourceSafe 6.0d - unreliable and an obsolete product
2) Perforce - love it, unfortunately the license fee is damn expensive
3) Subversion - it's free but never use it, learning curve needed

Since Subversion is the only option left for me, did some googling and I was overwhelmed with the information. There are so many tools can be use to work with Subversion. To make my life easier, I've listed the best free 4 (at least for me) tools.

VisualSVN Server Standard Edition
Server side tool which is available freely for commercial use. Check out the difference between Standard and Enterprise editions here.

TortoiseSVN
A windows shell extension for Subversion. It is not integrated to any specific IDE and can be use with whatever development tools you like.

AnkhSVN
A Subversion Source Control Provider for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010.

SVNMonitor
A tool to monitor changes made to the repository.

Update (27/07/2010)
I've tried SVNMonitor and it's a great tool for monitoring changes made to the repository. Unfortunately all the svn action will be disable if you monitor the source via URL.

Recovering partition table...

There's a tool call TeskDisk. To make your life easier simply download latest GParted LiveCD, TestDisk is included in it. TestDisk executable file also available for DOS, Win32, MacOSX and Linux. Executable TestDisk will run on top of the OS, but there's an disadvantage especially for legacy Windows OS.

By using TestDisk from GParted LiveCD you don't even need to bother about the OS and all other craps like below.

Windows 2000 SP3 added support for 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA), which allows the OS to access hard disks larger than 137 GB. But, 48-bit LBA support must be 'enabled' in Windows 2000 SP3 or above! To do so, the EnableBigLba value must be defined and set properly in the Windows Registry. (text copied from http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/OS_Notes#Windows_2000_and_48-bit_LBA)

Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) adds support for 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA), which allows you to access hard disks larger than 137 GB. (text copied from http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/OS_Notes#Windows_XP_and_48-bit_LBA)

Windows 7 "endless reboot"...

So now we have new terms for Windows, dubbed as "endless reboot". It seems like it happen to Vista users attempting to upgrade to Windows 7. Also another issue known as "62% bug", which finds the Windows 7 installation stalling at 62% complete. Microsoft’s support forums are rapidly filling with users reporting both issues.

If my memory serve me correctly, including these two now we have

• Blue screen of death
• Green ribbon of death
• Endless reboot
• 62% bug

What's next?

To Linux user, don't be so happy. It still have "kernel panic" problem sometimes.

Moral of the story.
There's no such thing as "Perfect OS". From the software development point of view, there will always be a bugs. If someone said that it's perfect that means it's bullshit, marketing people tends to say this by sweeping the truth under the carpet...

MultiGet Download Manager...

Finally I've found a good download manager for Linux. All this while I'm using D4X and had thought that it's the only available download manager for Linux. Yes, I know wget, curl etc. I'm talking about something with GUI instead of command line. MultiGet does the job for me now. Great thing about MultiGet is that it can run on Windows 2000/XP, almost all Linux desktops, MacOs and BSDs.

Features

• Multi-task/multi-thread/multi-server usage
• User-friendly interface (resembling Flashget)
• Multiple language support
• Proxy support
• Extension ignoring/capture
• FTP anonymous pass
• Panel icon

MultiGet is available in Ubuntu Universe repository. To install, open terminal and type

    $ sudo apt-get install multiget

For the list of download managers available for Linux, you can refer to this blog.

Recovering GRUB after installing Windows...

1) Download Super Grub Disk

2) Burn the image to a blank cd and reboot your machine

3) Boot into your Linux (0.9598 and 0.9799 menu options are slightly different)

4) Once in, open terminal and type

    $ sudo fdisk -l

5) You will see an output like this. For this case /dev/sda4 is my /boot partition

    Device    Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1   *          66        5222    41423602+   7  HPFS/NTFS
    /dev/sda2            5223        6266     8385930   83  Linux
    /dev/sda3            6267       30401   193864387+   5  Extended
    /dev/sda4               1          65      522081   83  Linux
    /dev/sda5            6267        6527     2096451   82  Linux swap / Solaris
    /dev/sda6            6528        9138    20972826   83  Linux
    /dev/sda7            9139       24803   125829081   83  Linux
    /dev/sda8           24804       30401    44965903+  83  Linux

    Partition table entries are not in disk order

6) Mount the partition. Change xxx into your partition number (Since I've already boot into my Linux and /dev/sda4 is mounted to /boot, I'm not sure whether this step is still required)

    $ sudo mount /dev/xxx /mnt

7) Install GRUB to the MBR

    $ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt hd0

If step #6 is not required, I'm assuming the command would be (I need to check this with Ady)
Update 2009/10/13: Step #6 is not required if you booted into your own Linux instead of LiveCD.

    $ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/ hd0

8) I didn't make any changes to my existing /boot/grub/menu.lst file

Note:
Steps tested on my wife's machine with Linux Mint 7 after I'm installing Windows Server 2008. SGD version 0.9598.

An easiest way from Ubuntu wiki
1) Download Super Grub Disk

2) Burn into a cdrom

3) Boot from it

4) Select: GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! (>2) MANUAL |8-)

5) Select the Linux or Grub installation you want to restore.

6) You'll see the message: SGD has done it!

7) Reboot

Note:
I haven't try the second option yet.

Windows Server 2008...

check out the cpu usage

I've installed Windows Server 2008 as a guest OS on my machine. Expecting the installation time will take about 45 minutes to an hour. This time, I'm wrong. After 20 minutes, installation complete. Read a lot of news/blogs/forums, people claims that Window Server 2008 has a great improvement on performance. Haven't got a chance to play around with the OS yet but I'd love to use it at my office if available. That's my first impression.

Windows 7 is going to be release soon. Lots of good response from testers. Let's wait for the final product to come...