I came across this great error today at a customer site: Event Type: Error Event Source: SAM Event Category: None Event ID: 12294 Date: 3/3/2003 Time: 9:42:55 AM User: (USERNAME) Computer: (COMPUTERNAME) Description: The SAM database was unable to...

I was messing today with a small script to read the UserAccountControl flags of an Active Directory domain's user account base, and was tryng to find the correct values that are present there. I ultimately stumbled upon a KB article http://support.microsoft...

When using MBSA in an offline mode, it is sometimes required to download the catalogue file manually (due to firewall restricitions on some PCs etc) The below link will enable you to download it. I hope you will find this useful as I can never remember...

So I was on a customer site, troubleshooting a Group policy Client Side extension issue and could not quite figure out all of the Client side extensions that were in use just by GUID. I was reviewing the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft...

If you like the userenvlog from Windows XP, you may want to know how to get more information from the GPSVR service in Windows 2008/Visa/Win 7. If so then try this: How to enable logging in the Gpsvc.log file To enable logging in the Gpsvc.log file...

I had an interesting challenge last month and figured that this is a great one for my blog. Being based in England, I had never come across this issue before so it was very interesting. I arrived on a customer site to help perform a Windows Server...

Hi all, This month, I ran into an interesting challenge to do with group policies. Specifically, I was trying to figure out why a client was not getting a specific setting. While it is was the Group Policy Object (GPO) and it the version of the GPT...

Hi All, I have been working on some servers recently with my good friend Mohnish and we came across an interesting error with the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) Service Pack 1 (specifically). It seems that every time the administrator tries...

Hi all,       I have been playing with Network Access Protection (NAP) recently and have a few pointers that may help you all out :) Event ID 204 on the NAP server is raised when clients do not meet policy requirements Event ID...

I was looking into AGPM v3 recently and thought that it would be good to put a reference to it on my Blog. The challenging thing is, this is a great tool but you have to know about it first to then realise it!. If you like Group Policies, then you...

Hi, Having played with FGPP's recently at Teched, I figured that it would be good to publish the attributes that are required to create one and their value types. The attributes required for creating a fine grain password policy. msDS-PasswordSettingsPrecendence...

Hi, I was installing WSUS v3.1.6001.65 and the installation kept failing just as it was copying files, the error I was getting was quite a strange one in the installation logs: An exception occurred during the Install phase. System.FormatException...

Hi all, I know this is an old tip but I needed it last week and figured that I should keep it on my blog. I was trying to change the default port of my terminal services so that I could make it a little harder for my users if they try and bypass my web...

Hi all, My good friend and colleague Jane is off to Madagascar for a charity cycle ride, please support here by clicking on the following link: https://secure.justgiving.com/rss/GetFundraisingBadge.asp?eventgivinggroupid=1336885&from=UKSponsorExit...

If you are feeling a little limited in information about Windows 2008, check out the following featured components: · AD DS: Restartable Active Directory Domain Services Windows 2008 introduced new capabilities to start or stop directory services...

Hi All, I have started collecting a list of whitepapers based upon virtualisation of domain controllers and services, I just figured that you may find these of use! KB897615 Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware...

Hi all, I manage a local schools infrastructure in my spare time and they had this strange little issue: After a power outage, the information store on my Exchange 07 SP1 server (running Windows 2008) would not start. All other services were running...

Hi All, I had a question today that I wanted to get to the bottom of, it is an old question but as I obviously forgot the answer in detail, I had to find it. :) The queston was "How can I tell if a connection object is manual or not?" The first...

Hi all, I have installed a Windows 2008 server into my Windows 2003 domain, I then enabled RDP on my Windows 2008 server verified that I could connect from my Vista client on the network. While working from home, I quickly found out that I could not...

This month I have been setting up my first Windows 2008 core server to go into a production environment. It has been a very interesting experience as I was expecting a straight forward process but ran into a few challenges. What with some vendor specific...

If you have ever run into an issue where you have set up a server but forgot to put the tick in the box to enable remote desktop, then read on! Many times I have done this and then had to go all the way over to the server (sometimes in different offices...

If you are trying to perform a manual offline update to the MBSA tool but can't find the latest version of the database on the internet (as I struggled too), just click on the following link and download it. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=74689

I came across this today and figured that you may all want to hear about it. Are you a registered student? do you want to start demonstrating your programming skills but can't afford products like XNA game studio or Visual Studio.. Well look no further...

Hi all, Ever wanted a change in decor in your house? rather than boring old patterned wallpaper, what about getting some great posters with core components of specific technologies to put in their place... amaze your friends, impress your spouse.....

Microsoft have created a "Book of Longhorn" that covers all the c hanges in functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008. I really recommend having a look at this one... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid...