Remote Desktop connection: "the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified"

2009-08-18T07:21:00Z

Problem:
Trying to establish a remote desktop connection from a Win2008 Server (SP2) to other Win2008 Server (SP2) fails with the following error message "The connection cannot continue because the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified".

Solution:
This might be caused by incorrect time on one of the Win 2008 servers. Correct the time or activate automatically time synchronization for each server.

An additional Workaround:
If the described time correction has not solved the problem, then you may try to use the IP address instead of the host name to establish the connection.

Use Robocopy to backup changed files

2008-02-28T15:35:00Z

Robocopy.exe is the new copy tool delivered with Windows Vista. The previous windows copy tool XCOPY is marked as deprecated in Vista.
Robocopy is also delivered in the Resource Kit for Windows Server 2003 for free and works fine under Windows NT, 2000 and XP.
Following line performs intelligent backup of all files and subfolders contained in the source folder "data".

robocopy c:\data f:\backup /MIR

The option /MIR causes mirroring of the folders, which means only the files changed after the last run of the robocopy command are going to be copied to the backup folder. Subfolders and files created in the source folder after the last executing of the robocopy command will be also copied to the backup folder. And at least, all files deleted from the source folder since last run of the robocopy will also be deleted from the backup folder.

Robocopy is very fast and therefore it can be used to move large amount of data to the backup folder.

Since Vista's "Backup and Restore Center" doesnot allow backup of single directories, this tool might be very usefull to perform intelligent backup of single directories with no or very small effort.

/MIR is only one of all in all about 200 different switches supprted by robocopy. Call robocopy /? to see more details about robocopy options.

"side-by-side configuration is incorrect" error in VS2005 on Vista

2008-02-09T00:18:00Z

Trying to build a VS2005 project on Vista causes following error:

Error 39 The specified task executable could not be run. The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail

This error does not occure in all VS2005 projects. But it occures in all projects having more then one *.resx file (multi language projects for example).
VS2008 is also installed on this PC as well as VS2005 SP1 and VS2005 SP1 Update for Vista.

Following error can be found in the event log:

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\AL.exe". Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.10714.44800" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

Following instructions from the event log, I have started Sxs tracing with the following command:
C:\Windows\system32>sxstrace Trace -logfile:C:\temp\sxs.ell (must execute cmd as administrator to be able to start tracing)

Starting build of VS2005 project again and parsing of the generated binary trace log to the text format with the following command:
C:\Windows\system32>sxstrace Parse -logfile:C:\temp\sxs.ell -outfile:C:\temp\sxs.log
results with the following informations in the generated log file:

=================
Begin Activation Context Generation.
Input Parameter:
Flags = 0
ProcessorArchitecture = x86
CultureFallBacks = en-US;en
ManifestPath = C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\AL.exe
AssemblyDirectory = C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\
Application Config File = C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\AL.exe.Config
-----------------
INFO: Parsing Application Config File C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\AL.exe.Config.
INFO: Parsing Manifest File C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\AL.exe.
INFO: Manifest Definition Identity is al,processorArchitecture="X86",type="win32",version="1.0.0.0".
INFO: Reference: Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.10714.44800"
INFO: Resolving reference Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.10714.44800".
INFO: Resolving reference for ProcessorArchitecture x86.
  INFO: Resolving reference for culture Neutral.
   INFO: Applying Binding Policy.
    INFO: Find publisher policy at C:\Windows\WinSxS\manifests\x86_policy.9.0.microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.21022.8_none_60a5df56e60dc5df.manifest
    INFO: No binding policy redirect found.
   INFO: Begin assembly probing.
    INFO: Did not find the assembly in WinSxS.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\9.0.10714.44800__1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.DLL.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.DLL.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.MANIFEST.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.DLL.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.MANIFEST.
    INFO: Manifest found at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.MANIFEST.
   INFO: End assembly probing.
INFO: Resolving reference Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui,language="*",processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.10714.44800".
INFO: Resolving reference for ProcessorArchitecture x86.
  INFO: Resolving reference for culture en-US.
   INFO: Applying Binding Policy.
    INFO: No publisher policy found.
    INFO: No binding policy redirect found.
   INFO: Begin assembly probing.
    INFO: Did not find the assembly in WinSxS.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui\9.0.10714.44800_en-US_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui.DLL.
    INFO: Did not find manifest for culture en-US.
   INFO: End assembly probing.
  INFO: Resolving reference for culture en.
   INFO: Applying Binding Policy.
    INFO: No publisher policy found.
    INFO: No binding policy redirect found.
   INFO: Begin assembly probing.
    INFO: Did not find the assembly in WinSxS.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui\9.0.10714.44800_en_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui.DLL.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\en\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui.DLL.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\en\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui.MANIFEST.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\en\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui.DLL.
    INFO: Attempt to probe manifest at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\en\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.mui.MANIFEST.
    INFO: Did not find manifest for culture en.
   INFO: End assembly probing.
INFO: Parsing Manifest File C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.VC90.CRT\Microsoft.VC90.CRT.MANIFEST.
INFO: Manifest Definition Identity is Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.21022.8".
ERROR: Component identity found in manifest does not match the identity of the component requested. Reference is Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.10714.44800". Definition is Microsoft.VC90.CRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.21022.8".
ERROR: Activation Context generation failed.
End Activation Context Generation.

For any reasons, the version of the AL.exe in my .NET 2.0 folder (C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\) was pretty old (9.0.11209.0). Fortunately, I found some newer version (9.0.21022.8) in the folder "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin" of my PC. Replacing of the old version with the new one has resolved my problem.

Edin Mulic

Remote Desktop connection: "the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified"

Use Robocopy to backup changed files

"side-by-side configuration is incorrect" error in VS2005 on Vista