Yes, it is official, the DHCP Client service can make you pull your hair out. Why? Let me explain. Recently I was involved in setting up several Exchange 2007 SP1 CCR clusters on Windows Server 2008. Several days into the build it was observed one of the clusters was experiencing problems. Clusters resources would not […]

I was working with a client on enabling SCOM 2007 to send SMS (text) messages to cell phones and pagers. There was an excellent blog located at this link which we used as a basis for our configuration. However, we were running into some major problems with our ‘MultiTech Systems USB GSM_GPRS Wireless Modem’. As […]

During a recent engagement my client had a requirement for a high-availability Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 environment. This entailed configuring an active/passive Root Management Server cluster. The question came up, can we use a SAN-free File Share Witness (FSW) like Exchange 2007 CCR or must we use a shared SAN quorum disk? As it […]

As trusted advisors to our clients, it is not uncommon for them to ask advice on desktop or server anti-virus products. Given the increased malware threat to computers, the exploding number of vulnerabilities in desktop applications, protecting against malware is a top concern in a lot of companies. Last year Microsoft released their ForeFront Client […]

Every so often when I am engaged in an Active Directory project the topic of password security comes up. Many IT people have strong feelings about password policies which may not align with current best practices or real-world threats. As such, sometimes policies are implemented which unnecessarily increase helpdesk calls or frustrate users yet do […]

The other day I was trying to modify some logon scripts in SYSVOL using Windows Explorer on Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 with IE 7. Whenever I tried to right click and "Edit" the batch files, I got "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to […]

Disclaimer: This blog is not an attempt to teach people how to hack systems, or access unauthorized data. Such actions are very likely illegal and subject to stiff criminal penalties, and could/should get you fired if you attempt these at your place of employment. However, the information described below is in the public domain and […]

Through various acquisitions, Microsoft has enhanced their portfolio of tools to manage group policy. The tools are bundled together as the "Desktop Optimization Pack". The pack consists of: -Softgrid Application Virtualization -Asset inventory service -WinInternals diagnostic tools -Advanced Group Policy Management -System Center desktop error monitoring I will focus on the advanced group policy management […]

Another major enhancement that is coming to Windows Server 2008 is the Microsoft hypervisor. Microsoft has stated the hypervisor will be released within 180 days of RTM, so we won’t see it until the middle of 2008. As you are probably aware, there are a number of virtualization products on the market. Vmware probably comes […]

The following are some useful csvde queries that I’ve used with various customers. Depending on your requirements, they can be easily modified to suite your needs. You may need to use the "-s" csvde option to point to an AD server. If you want to limit the search to a specific OU, you can use […]

For quite a while I’ve been working with a large customer and involved with a lot of AD delegations. Delegation is a common requirement within AD, and I found a model that works pretty well. Many times you have different groups or software within a company that need to modify certain sets of properties for […]

A couple of weeks ago I got my Samsung Blackjack from Cingular, which is a Windows Smartphone device. I’m also running Windows Vista RC2 on my computers. Since Vista is not officially supported by Samsung/Cingular, I had to research how to get everything working. The first thing I wanted to do was get ActiveSync working. […]