Microsoft's official enterprise support blog for AD DS and more
Hey all, Ned here again. Still no ETA on Win8 word, and we've already discussed everything else on Earth ( ;-P ) so now I will share with you some insider knowledge of working in Microsoft Charlotte: the quarterly "PC Recycle Day". Here's an example of what I just saw on my way to get some coffee.
A couple of these are fairly hard to identify unless you are as old as Jonathan. Take a stab at them in the Comments, if you dare to date yourself. If you've used them all, give yourself a pat on the back - you are really close to retirement.
Update: Woo, a particularly crusty late arrival from the Networking team! They may upset the perennial Setup team favorites here and win it all this year, folks.
Update 2: a funeral pyre for once-dominant protocols
Have a nice weekend,
- Ned "spring chicken" Pyle
Hi, David here to tell you about a thorny little problem that a few of our customers have run into during their testing for the upcoming Daylight Saving Time changes. For reference, the US enters DST this weekend, and parts of Europe enter DST on March 25th. (For a list of all the various Daylight Saving Time changes, click here)
What you need to know
If you have the following registry key implemented on any Windows systems, and your system clock is running faster than your CMOS clock, that computer will become unresponsive at the DST change. This unresponsiveness will persist until the CMOS clock catches up with the DST changeover time. For example, if the CMOS clock is set to 3/11/2012 6:55 AM UTC and the OS time is set to 3/11/2012 1:59 AM EST, when the system clock reaches 2:00 AM EST, the CPU will spike to 100%, and will remain pegged for 4 minutes until the CMOS clock reaches 7:00 AM UTC.
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformationValue: RealTimeIsUniversalType: REG_DWORDData: 0x1 (default: 0x0)
We recommend the following steps:
1. Don’t use the undocumented and unsupported RealTimeIsUniversal registry key! If you have it set, delete it and reboot that computer. Make sure it doesn’t return via automation, like Startup Scripts or Group Policy Preferences
2. Check CMOS clocks on your systems and make sure that they are set to the correct time (yes, we know this requires a reboot).
See this KB article:
268725 - System may be unresponsive around Daylight Saving Time (DST) change when RealTimeIsUniversal is Set
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2687252
David “What’s a TARDIS?” Beach
Hi all, Ned here. For those who spent the day in a coma, Windows Server “8” Beta and Windows 8 CP are out. Make sure you start by visiting Bill Laing’s announcement on the Windows Server Blog. This morning he formally announced the availability of Windows Server “8” Beta and outlined some of the design philosophies in a brief post.
Next, we have a new kind of document we call the “Understand and Troubleshoot” guides, which are designed to explain the inner workings of new features and how to troubleshoot them. You may recognize some of the authors (you know I hate link lists, but in this case I’ll make an exception).
There are also “Test Lab Guides” and TechNet docs that introduce and demonstrate features, as well as assist with deployment.
And a reminder - send all your IT Pro feedback to the links below. People are definitely listening.
I know some of you are looking forward to the typical in-depth and honest AskDS beta content you’ve read for the past five years - you’re IT professionals and chomping at the bit to start learning about all the new enterprise features. Well, we’re still muzzled here and not allowed to discuss anything. Hang in there; I’m hopeful it won’t be too much longer.
- Ned “the gimp” Pyle