Posted in Windows 2003

Some quick command line tools for AD

1. To quickly list all the groups in your domain, with members, run this command: dsquery group -limit 0 | dsget group -members –expand 2. To find all users whose accounts are set to have a non-expiring password, run this command: dsquery * domainroot -filter “(&(objectcategory=person)(objectclass=user)(lockoutTime=*))” -limit 0 3. To list all the FSMO role holders in your […]

Why can I not access administrative shares from Windows 7 or Windows 8 ?

Someone asked me about this recently. They had a Windows 8 laptop and a Windows 7 desktop and no matter what they tried, they were unable to access the C$ on either the laptop or the desktop. They were 100% sure they were using the correct credentials but for whatever  reason, Windows would not accept […]

How can I search for all users that have the “Network Policy” set to false using PowerShell ?

If you need to search Active Directory to find users who currently have the “Network Access Permission” set to “Deny Access” on the Dial-in tab of their user account run this Powershell command: Get-ADUser -Filter {(mail -like “*”) -and (ObjectClass -eq “user”)} -Properties msNPAllowDialin | Where { $_.msNPAllowDialin -match “False” } | fl Name, msNPAllowDialin […]

Windows Update Error 0xC80003FB

Click Start, select Run, type in: services.msc then press enter Now look for the Automatic Updates Service, right click it and choose to stop Click Start, select Run, type in: %windir%SoftwareDistribution then press enter Open the Datastore folder and delete its contents. Click Start, select Run, type in: type services.msc then press enter Now look […]

Can I still use Microsoft Virtual Server or Microsoft Virtual PC to test Windows Server 2008 clustering?

Virtual Server has commonly created a shared disk over the emulated SCSI controller to use for clustered storage. However, Server 2008 clustering doesn’t support parallel SCSI. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Server 2008 clustering supports the majority node set model, which means a cluster doesn’t need shared storage. Server 2008 […]

How can I rename a file with todays date?

You can use this simple batch file to rename a file and append today’s date: set Day=%Date:~0,2% set Mth=%Date:~3,2% set Yr=%Date:~6,4% rename c:test.log test_%Day%-%Mth%-%Yr%.log

I changed the IP address of a server running the SMTP service, but I can’t send mail to it locally. What’s the problem?

t’s common to install the SMTP service on servers that require limited mail-sending capabilities–for example, on a Microsoft SharePoint server. I recently had a problem in which the box got a new IP address, and at that point the services that used the SMTP service could no longer send email. The problem was that the […]

What’s the new transaction log size in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007?

The transaction log size in Exchange 2007 is now 1MB instead of 5MB, which was the transaction log size for Exchange 2003. The reason for the size reduction is related to the new log shipping clustering technologies in Exchange 2007. The smaller the log file means a smaller amount of data loss because you can’t […]

Extracting the SMS Installer Download on a Workstation

Extracting the SMS Installer-ISU integrated download (or, just the standard SMS Installer) requires that a SMS site server be present on the network connection. When the extraction intiates is asks for a valid server name and will check to see if its available. Say, you downloaded SMS Installer from home on a dial-up connection, what […]

How can I prevent someone from accessing event logs on my server through the network?

Windows automatically limits access to the Security log to only those users who have the Manage auditing and security log user right. However, guests can access the System and Application logs. To disable guest access to these logs, open a Group Policy Object (GPO), go to ComputerConfigurationWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsEvent LogSettings for Event Logs, and enable […]