First, let me thank everyone who participated in our PFE Live Chat on Monday 26 November. It was a great opportunity to talk about technology and its impact in real-world cases, for real-world customers. For those of you who missed the opportunity, let...

Hey y’all, Mark back again with some more detail around what to when the system time rollback to November 19 th 2000, caused Active Directory replication and other time-sensitive operations to fail in your environment. This post contains guidance...

Hey y'all, Mark here providing an AskPFEPlat late night PSA. We are seeing some reports that some Active Directory Domains times reverting to November 2000. So what just happened? I thought the Mayans said this type of stuff didn’t happen until...

(dsymalla Posting on Behalf of Roger Osborne) Update : A Server 2012 version has been posted here . Have you ever had someone – either a customer or colleague – build a mission critical server without taking time, up-front, to ensure...

Hey y’all, Mark here again. We thought we’d try something new with our readers. We write this blog for you guys, the community. We love hearing from you! We read all the comments, seriously we do. Not enough of you utilize the contact function...

Hi dudes and dudettes! Adrian Corona here. I'm a transactional PFE at Microsoft and I'm really excited because this is my first blog post ever, it's a doosey so I hope you're not limited on your data plan. I'll be adding to the MCM (Microsoft Certified...

With Windows Server 2012, there are tools, features and functions that are available from the first member server (or Win8 PC with the RSAT pack - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972 ). ** You don't need a schema extension...

My last installment about how Windows Server handles processor cores discussed Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is out and the editions available differ somewhat from prior Windows operating system releases. With the...

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Windows 8 We’ve been giving a lot of love to Windows Server 2012, but with the release of Windows 8, I figured one of us PFEs had to write a blog on Windows 8. So hear it goes. My ten most loved Windows 8 feature...

As mentioned in my prior post about Storage Spaces, Windows Server 2012 contains many new capabilities. The integrated iSCSI Target happens to be one of those. Many have used the downloadable iSCSI Target for Windows Server 2008 R2 from Microsoft since...

Rick Bergman here with a post on gathering hotfixes from multiple node failover clusters ranging in OS version from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012. Recently, I reviewed a number of failover clusters for my customer and it was identified...

Windows Server 2012 introduces many, many, many new features.  Just in the realm of storage it would be difficult to cover all storage features in appropriate detail within a single blog post.  This post is just one installment about Windows...

You’re probably asking yourself… What is FixIt Center Pro (FICP) ? How is it going to save me time ? These are GREAT question you ask! Well Microsoft is always looking for ways to improve the customer experience through innovation of its...

Tom Moser here with a post on one of the new ADDS features in Windows Server 2012; Virtual Domain Controller Cloning. Until now, cloning, snapshotting, copying, or pretty much doing anything but rebuilding from scratch to a virtual domain controller...

With the increase in concern over data privacy and security, one of my customers recently asked about securing Active Directory data while stored on disk and what could be done in relation to network traffic. My first thoughts were BitLocker and IPSEC...

Hey y’all, Mark here again with another real world WDRAP ( Windows Desktop Risk Assessment Program) case. I’ll be spending 6 of my next 8 weeks performing WDRAPs, and it seems these blogs are helping my customers look deeper into Windows client...

  Hello, Rick here to talk about how you can use the new PowerShell Web Access (PSWA) feature in Windows Server 2012 to allow remote administrative access to a set of servers in your IT infrastructure. Furthermore, you can granularly delegate access...

Volume Snapshot Services (VSS) was and remains a good addition to the Windows OS. Without going into a lot of detail, this technology coordinates various components to ensure stable point-in-time backups even while applications may be running. Typically...

Following up on Greg Jaworski’s great post from last week where he talked about how to promote a domain controller in Windows Server 2012, today we will cover some thoughts around where to place your first Windows Server 2012 DCs and how many to...

Welcome to part two of this blog where we discuss promoting a Domain Controller with Windows PowerShell. We also discuss how you can do the prerequisites checks before introducing the first Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller. Promoting a Domain...

**Update – Before you introduce that first 2012 DC view our new series on AD upgrades** Upgrading or Migrating Active Directory to Windows Server 2012 – Build Your Roadmap Now Upgrade Active Directory to Windows Server 2012 - Phase 1: Assessment  ...

Well, another summer has passed, kids are back in school and the folks here at Microsoft have been reeeeeeally busy getting the final touches on many, many new products. One of those new products is our newest server Operating System – Windows...

Fellow PFE and blogger Michael “Hilde” Hildebrand makes a great case for being able to inventory the IP configuration of your hosts – especially those that have static IP configurations (like most of your servers). For example, audit...

Hey y’all, Mark here again with a quick post. Did you attend Tech Ed this year but miss a chance to see Xperf stealing the show? Great news, the session is online along with many others! This is a great session led by Stephen Rose (...

Hey y’all, Mark here again with an interesting “Real World” XPerf trace from the depths of a WDRAP (Windows Desktop Risk Assessment). If your infrastructure hasn’t had a WDRAP yet, or it’s been a while, work with your Technical...