Category Archives: Reference

Short references for personal… reference. Basically a howto for the tech-savvy.

Figuring out which session is blocking a query on Microsoft SQL Server (query suspended)

I was recently debugging a case where a customer’s installation was hanging due to a database lock. The issue turned out to be that the database was not set to a default transaction level of READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT, which the product expects. Regardless, while troubleshooting the issue, I stumbled upon a very useful SQL query […]

Installing Windows XP on the Dell Vostro 1700

This is basically the same procedure as installing Windows XP on the Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo u9200, in that it needs custom SATA drivers to find the harddisk during install, as well as a bunch of other ones. For this install, I decided to actually create a driver disk, and use a real floppy drive. I […]

Windows Volume License Keys (VLK)

I keep having to look these up, especially the “Upgrade Key” at the bottom. So I stored them here. Windows Server 2022 Operating system edition KMS Client Setup Key Windows Server 2022 Datacenter WX4NM-KYWYW-QJJR4-XV3QB-6VM33 Windows Server 2022 Standard VDYBN-27WPP-V4HQT-9VMD4-VMK7H Windows Server 2019 Operating system edition KMS Client Setup Key Windows Server 2019 Datacenter WMDGN-G9PQG-XVVXX-R3X43-63DFG Windows […]

My tweaks to Kali Linux (note to self)

Here are some of the things I did to make Kali Linux 2016.1 suit my taste, mostly intended as a note to myself, but posted here in case it helps anyone else. General checklist Install aptitude and update everything Add settings icon to left panel Enable mouse tap to click in “Settings => Mouse & […]

Enabling Quick Launch in Windows 10

I have my taskbar set to “Use small taskbar buttons” and “Never combine”, probably as much out of habit as anything else. This means that when I pin programs to the taskbar, opening one of them, suddenly making it display a title for one or more windows, will push any pinned programs to its right […]

Find and kill long running MS SQL Server queries

I have to admit this is cargo cult SQL to me, but here’s how to find running queries, sorted by their total elapsed time: SELECT [sqltext].[TEXT], [req].[session_id], [req].[status], [req].[command], [req].[cpu_time], [req].[total_elapsed_time] FROM [sys].[dm_exec_requests] [req] CROSS APPLY [sys].[dm_exec_sql_text](sql_handle) AS sqltext ORDER BY [req].[total_elapsed_time] DESC To kill a given query, use: kill <session_id> ..without the brackets <>, […]