Browse by Tags

Hello sports fans! So this has been a bit of a hectic time for us, as I'm sure you can imagine. Here's just some of the things that have been going on around here. Last week, thanks to a failure on the time servers at USNO.NAVY.MIL, many customers experienced a time rollback to CY 2000 on their...

My time is up. It’s been eight years since a friend suggested I join him on a contract at Microsoft Support (thanks Pete). Eight years since I sat sweating in an interview with Steve Taylor , trying desperately to recall the KDC’s listening port (his hint: “German anti-tank gun”). Eight years since I...

Hi all, Ned here again with that thing we call love. Blog! I mean blog. I have a ton to talk about now that I have moved to the monthly format, and I recommend you switch to WIFI if you’re on your phone. This round I answer your questions on: Reattaching DCs in Windows Server 2012 DFSR...

Hello AskDS Readers. Mike here again. If you notice, Ned posted one of our first Windows Server 2012 RTM blogs a while back ( Managing RID Issuance in Windows Server 2012 ). Yes friends, the gag order has been lifted and we are allowed to spout mountains of technical goodness about Windows Server 2012...

Hey folks, Ned here again to tell you what you probably already know: Windows Server 2012 is now generally available:   Understand the vision Visit the launch page and learn what’s new Download the trial Go deeper in TechNet Visit the full family of Microsoft Windows Server blogs I don’t often recommend...

Heya folks, Ned here again. Rather than continue the lie that this series comes out every Friday like it once did, I am taking the corporate approach and rebranding the mail sack. Maybe we’ll have the occasional Collector’s Edition versions. This week month, I answer your questions on: The semi-myth...

Hey all, Ned here with some new troubleshooting tool love, courtesy of the ADREPLSTATUS team at Microsoft. I’ll let them do the talking: The Active Directory Replication Status Tool (ADREPLSTATUS) is now LIVE and available for download at the Microsoft Download Center . ADREPLSTATUS helps administrators...

Hey all, Ned here again with a quick advert: Robert Deluca from our Partner and Customer team just published a blog post on Dynamic Access Control. He walks through the configuration of “document quarantine” to protect sensitive data on file shares and automatically clean up files that...

Hi all, Ned here again to talk further about managing your RID pool . By default, a domain has capacity for roughly one billion security principals, such as users, security groups, managed service accounts, and computers. If you run out, you can’t create any more. There aren’t any domains with that many...

Windows 8 RTM Windows Server 2012 RTM IT Pros Store Build Dates Prizes - Ned "terse" Pyle

Hi all, Ned here again. After a few months of talking about Windows Server 2012 to other ‘softies from around the globe, I’m back with the sack. It was great fun – and not over yet, it turns out – but I am finally home for a bit. The only way you don’t know that the next...

Hey all, Ned here again with one of my rare public service announcement posts: In August 2012, Microsoft will issue a software update for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. The update will block the use...

Hey all, Ned here again. After a few months of training room huffing, airline food loathing, and PowerPoint shilling, I’m back in Charlotte. I’ve got a backlog of legacy product posts to share from colleagues, and with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 nigh , more new goo coming your way from me and...

Hey all, Ned here. Mike and I start teaching Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 DS internals this month in the US and UK and won’t be back until July. Until then, Jonathan is – I can’t believe I’m saying this – in charge of AskDS. He’ll field your questions and publish… stuff. We’ll make sure he takes...

Ned here. Go there: Download Windows 8 Release Preview ISO images Download Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate Datacenter (ISO and VHD images) Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8 Release Preview (includes USMT 5.0) Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 Release Preview...

Hi all, Ned here. Our friend Nir has another new DAC-related post up , this time on the File Cab blog: Getting started with Central Access Policies - Reducing security group complexity and achieving data access compliance using Dynamic Access Control If you need a reason to go read this, consider...

Hey all, Ned here. The Building Windows 8 blog recently posted a new article from Chris Clark that you might have passed over due to the title, which sounds like another article on boot performance: Designing for PCs that boot faster than ever before Don’t skip it! A more descriptive title would have...

Hey all, Ned here with a quick “xerox” post: the Dynamic Access Control developers have released a good intro on their octo-feature through the Windows Server Blog: Introduction to Windows Server 2012 Dynamic Access Control It’s written by Nir Ben-Zvi, a Program Manager on the Windows Server development...

Hi folks, Ned here again. It’s been a little while since the last sack, but I have a good excuse: I just finished writing a poop ton of Windows Server 2012 depth training that our support folks around the world will use to make your lives easier (someday). If I ever open MS Word again it will be...

Hi all, Ned here again. We get emailed here all the time about issues involving delays in user logons. Often enough that, a few years back, Bob wrote a multi-part article on the subject. Taking it to the next level, some of my esteemed colleagues have created a multi-part TechNet Wiki series on understanding...

Hi all, Ned here again with an actual back to back mail sack. This week we discuss: Running out of USNs and Versions DFSR RDC LAN WAN FWIW AOK NPS and dotted NetBIOS domain names USMT and the case of the failing sourcepriority Revisiting NIC teaming Weird DFSR files MaxConcurrentAPI...

Hi all, Ned here again. I have worked many slow boot and slow logon cases over my career. The Directory Services support team here at Microsoft owns a sizable portion of those operations - user credentials, user profiles, logon and startup scripts, and of course, group policy processing. If I had to...

Hello all, Ned here again with our first mail sack in a couple months. I have enough content built up here that I actually created multiple posts, which means I can personally guarantee there will be another one next week. Unless there isn't! Today we answer your questions around: Detecting...

Hi all, Ned here again. Frequent readers know that I’ve written many times about the User State Migration Tool; it’s surprising to some, but the Directory Services team owns supporting this tool within Microsoft in the United States (our European colleagues wisely made sure the Deployment...

Hi all, Ned here again with a public service announcement: On April 8 th 2014, Windows XP support ends For the temporally challenged, that’s exactly two years from today. Hopefully, some of you don’t care because you’ve already gotten off XP. After all, Windows 7 has a 41...