Ask the Directory Services Team

Microsoft's official enterprise support blog for AD DS and more

AskDS Is Moving!

Hello readers. The AskDS blog, as with all the other TechNet and MSDN blogs, will be moving to a new...

Author: Ryan Ries [MSFT] Date: 03/26/2019

TLS Handshake errors and connection timeouts? Maybe it’s the CTL engine….

Hi There!  Marius and Tolu from the Directory Services Escalation Team.  Today, we’re going to talk...

Author: Ryan Ries [MSFT] Date: 04/10/2018

Introducing Lingering Object Liquidator v2

Greetings again AskDS! Ryan Ries here. Got something exciting to talk about. You might be familiar...

Author: Ryan Ries [MSFT] Date: 10/09/2017

Active Directory Experts: apply within

Hi all! Justin Turner here from the Directory Services team with a brief announcement: We are...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 07/26/2017

Troubleshooting failed password changes after installing MS16-101

Hi! Linda Taylor here, Senior Escalation Engineer in the Directory Services space. I have spent the...

Author: Linda Taylor (Microsoft GBS UK) Date: 10/13/2016

Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) Troubleshooting (part 2 of 2)

Hello everyone! Hubert from the German Networking Team here again with part two of my little Blog...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 09/21/2016

Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) Concepts (part 1 of 2)

Hello everyone, Hubert from the German Networking Team here. Today I want to revisit a topic that I...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 09/01/2016

Deploying Group Policy Security Update MS16-072 \ KB3163622

My name is Ajay Sarkaria & I work with the Windows Supportability team at Microsoft. There have...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 06/22/2016

The Version Store Called, and They’re All Out of Buckets

Hello, Ryan Ries back at it again with another exciting installment of esoteric Active Directory and...

Author: Ryan Ries [MSFT] Date: 06/14/2016

Setting up Virtual Smart card logon using Virtual TPM for Windows 10 Hyper-V VM Guests

Hello Everyone, my name is Raghav and I’m a Technical Advisor for one of the Microsoft Active...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 05/11/2016

Previewing Server 2016 TP4: Temporary Group Memberships

Disclaimer: Windows Server 2016 is still in a Technical Preview state – the information contained in...

Author: Ryan Ries [MSFT] Date: 03/09/2016

Speaking in Ciphers and other Enigmatic tongues…update!

Hi! Jim Tierney here again to talk to you about Cryptographic Algorithms, SCHANNEL and other bits of...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 12/08/2015

Using Repadmin with ADLDS and Lingering objects

Hi! Linda Taylor here from the UK Directory Services escalation team. This time on ADLDS, Repadmin,...

Author: Linda Taylor (Microsoft GBS UK) Date: 11/06/2015

“Administrative limit for this request was exceeded" Error from Active Directory

Hello, Ryan Ries here with my first AskDS post! I recently ran into an issue with a particular...

Author: Ryan Ries [MSFT] Date: 10/29/2015

SHA1 Key Migration to SHA256 for a two tier PKI hierarchy

Hello. Jim here again to take you through the migration steps for moving your two tier PKI hierarchy...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 10/26/2015

Manage Developer Mode on Windows 10 using Group Policy

Hi All, We’ve had a few folks want to know how to disable Developer Mode using Group Policy, but...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 09/22/2015

Windows 10 Group Policy (.ADMX) Templates now available for download

Hi everyone, Ajay here. I wanted to let you all know that we have released the Windows 10 Group...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 08/07/2015

Troubleshoot ADFS 2.0 with these new articles

Hi all, here's a quick public service announcement to highlight some recently published ADFS 2.0...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 05/06/2015

A Treatise on Group Policy Troubleshooting–now with GPSVC Log Analysis!

Hi all, David Ani here from Romania. This guide outlines basic steps used to troubleshoot Group...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 04/17/2015

DFSR: Limiting the Number of Imported Replicated Folders when using DB cloning

Hello! Warren here to talk about a very specific scenario involving the new DB cloning feature added...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 02/12/2015

Understanding ATQ performance counters, yet another twist in the world of TLAs

Hello again, this is guest author Herbert from Germany. If you worked an Active Directory...

Author: Justin Turner [MSFT] Date: 10/24/2014

Managing the Store app pin to the Taskbar added in the Windows 8.1 Update

Update 9/9/2014 Warren here yet again to update this blog to tell you that the GP to control the...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 09/09/2014

It turns out that weird things can happen when you mix Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controllers

UPDATE: The hotfix is now available for this issue! Get it at...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 07/23/2014

An Update about the Windows 8.1 Update

Hi everyone, David here. Today over at the Springboard series blog we announced some important news...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 04/16/2014

Options for Managing Go to Desktop or Start after Sign in in Windows 8.1

Hi, David here. Over the past year we’ve gotten a lot of feedback from our customers about the...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 04/07/2014

Our UK Windows Directory Services Escalation Team is Hiring – Support Escalation Engineers.

Hi! Its Linda Taylor here again from the Directory Services Escalation team in the UK. In this post,...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 02/17/2014

Adding shortcuts on desktop using Group Policy Preferences in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Hi All! My name is Saurabh Koshta and I am with the Core Team at Microsoft. Currently I work in the...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 02/17/2014

An update for ADMT, and a few other things too.

So, we’ve been quiet for a few months, which is extraordinarily embarrassing after I basically...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 12/13/2013

Important Announcement: AD FS 2.0 and MS13-066

Update (8/19/13): We have republished MS13-066 with a corrected version of the hotfixes that...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 08/15/2013

MD5 Signature Hash Deprecation and Your Infrastructure

Hi everyone, David here with a quick announcement. Yesterday, MSRC announced a timeframe for...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 08/14/2013

DFS Replication in Windows Server 2012 R2 and other goodies, now available on the Filecab blog!

Over at the Filecab blog, AskDS alum and all-around nice guy Ned Pyle has posted the first of...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 07/31/2013

Roaming Profile Compatibility - The Windows 7 to Windows 8 Challenge

[Editor's note: Everything Mark mentions for Windows 8 clients here is also true for Windows 8.1...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 07/31/2013

Because TechNet didn't have enough Active Directory awesomeness already

Time for a quick lesson in blog history. There'll be a quiz at the end! Ok not really, but some...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 07/15/2013

Interesting findings on SETSPN -x -f

Hello folks, this is Herbert from the Directory Services support team in Europe! Kerberos is...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 07/01/2013

Windows Server 2012 R2 - Preview available for download

Just in case you missed the announcement, the preview build of Windows Server 2012 R2 is now...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 06/25/2013

Two lines that can save your AD from a crisis

Editor's note: This is the first of very likely many "DS Quickies". "Quickies" are shorter technical...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 06/04/2013

Back to the Loopback: Troubleshooting Group Policy loopback processing, Part 2

Welcome back! Kim Nichols here once again with the much anticipated Part 2 to Circle Back to...

Author: David Beach - MSFT Date: 05/21/2013

AD FS 2.0 Claims Rule Language Part 2

Hello, Joji Oshima here to dive deeper into the Claims Rule Language for AD FS. A while back I wrote...

Author: Jonathan Stephens, MSFT Date: 05/07/2013

Circle Back to Loopback

Hello again! Kim Nichols here again. For this post, I'm taking a break from the AD LDS discussions...

Author: Jonathan Stephens, MSFT Date: 02/08/2013

Distributed File System Consolidation of a Standalone Namespace to a Domain-Based Namespace

Hello again everyone! David here to discuss a scenario that is becoming more and more popular for...

Author: Jonathan Stephens, MSFT Date: 02/06/2013

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