Posted by Ali

How can I stop Outlook 2010 from automatically mapping all my full-access mailboxes ?

In Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Exchange introduced a feature that allows Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 clients to automatically map to any mailbox to which a user has Full Access permissions. If a user is granted Full Access permissions to another user’s mailbox or to a shared mailbox, Outlook automatically loads all mailboxes […]

Exchange 2010 servers constantly showing Event ID 1069 and 1558.

If you are getting events 1558 and 1069 stating “The cluster service detected a problem with the witness resource” every 15 minutes, there is now an official fix from Microsoft. I noticed an issue like this at a previous client who had a 6 node Exchange 2010 fail over cluster with 1 file share witness. […]

How can I remove hidden network adapters from my Hyper-V / VMware Windows Virtual Machine

When using Windows based virtual machines, especially those deployed from templates, you may occasionally receive the notification “The IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter” This issue occurs if a network adapter with the same IP address is in the Windows registry but is hidden in the Device Manager (My Computer […]

Top 5 admin tools for Exchange Deployments and Migrations

Time to dig out some favourites from my browser and share the top Exchange admin tools / sites … Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator – Helps you properly design Mailbox servers for your environment, http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2009/11/09/3408737.aspx Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (ExRCA) – Provides a test system for administrators to use to validate external connectivity to Exchange. Essential for […]

How can I create / name a folder with today’s date?

This is very handy if you are using scripts to generate daily logs and would like to put them in a folder with the current date. You can, of course, tweak the commands to suit your requirements:   for /F “tokens=1-4 delims=/ ” %%A in (‘date /t’) do ( set DateDay=%%A set DateMonth=%%B set DateYear=%%C […]

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 […]

Why does my Windows 2008 server keep loosing its gateway IP?

I have come across this issue and it seems most common in virtual machines. The fix I found is: Logon to the server (using ILO or virtual console) NIC settings (and write down all settings) Open a CMD prompt with elevated permissions (“Run as Administrator”) Run the command: netsh int ip reset Reboot the server […]

How can I clean the WinSXS folder on Windows Server 2012?

WinSXS folder is the component store of Windows vista and later operating systems. Windows OS stores all its core components to WinSXS directory. The WinSXS folder is the only location that the core system components found on the system and all the system files you see in their usual locations, in the windows directory structure, […]

How can I reset my Windows 8 Administrator Password without using a 3rd party utility?

If you have forgotten your administrator password or any local account password on your machine, follow these quick steps to regain access to your machine. This process also works for Vista and Windows 7. The only thing required is a CD/DVD/USB of your Windows Vista/7/8 ISO. Start your computer with the above USB/DVD attached and […]

How can I tell if a Windows 7 disk is 32bit or 64bit?

Sometimes you have a USB boot of Windows 7 or you have a Windows 7 DVD, but how do you actually identify if its a 32bit install or 64bit! After searching around, I have found these 3 ways of doing it: Check the total size of the folders. 32bit Windows 7 is around 2.3GB, whereas […]