IT Knowledge Base

Command Prompt Command:
> Vssadmin List Providers

In the registry you will find them here:
HK\LM\System\Currentcontrolset\services\VSS\Providers

I had some trouble with our Backup System today and noticed that that another VSS was installed. After removing the Acronis Registy entry it worked like a charm.

Open Command Console and type:
nslookup
set type=mx
google.com

wuauclt /detectnow

Today I want to introduce to you a great tool with which you can make disk images during the time your OS is running. It is just about 250 KB big and you don’t even need to install it. It’s a dream. It belongs to all administrators pocket.

The name of the program is snapshot and can be downloaded here:
http://www.drivesnapshot.de/

If you believe or not I we still use Windows 2000 Server in our environment and today I faced the famous 128 GByte problem. Windows 2000 until Service Pack 2 just detects maximal 128 Gbyte HD Space. To solve this you need to make changes to the registry.

Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters

Create a DWORD key:
EnableBigLba

Set value to:
1

I didn’t know before that actually every authenticated user can add up to 10 computers to the domain  by default. This is a security issue and should be prevented.

Follow the steps to do so:
1. Open ADSI Editor
2. Click with the right mouse button on ADSI Editor and make a default connection
3. Click with the right mouse button on the domain / properties
4. Change the value for ms-DS-MachineAccountQuota to 0

When somebody adds a computer to the domain it usually goes into the CN=Computers,DC=Domain. If you want to choose another OU as the default container, you can do this with the redircmp “DN of the OU”.
By the way you can do the same for the users with the command redirusr “DN of the OU”.

1. Start/Settings/Control Panel
2. Add Remove Programs
3. Add/Remove Windows Components
4. In the Windows Components Wizard disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration

Windows PowerShell is a new feature which comes with Windows 2008 server. It need to have the .Net Framework installed and can also be installed on Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP-Vista.

Create a textfile “NewUser.ps1” with following content:
$objOU=[ADSI]LDAP://OU=Users,DC=test,DC=com

$objUser = $objOU.Create("user", "CN=Test1 User")
$objUser.Put("sAMAccountName", "Test1.User")
$objUser.SetInfo()

$objUser = $objOU.Create("user", "CN=Test2 User")
$objUser.Put("sAMAccountName", "Test2.User")
$objUser.SetInfo()

Important: To run this scripts in PowerShell you need to first active it:
set-executionpolicy remotesigned

Go into the directory where the script is located and run it like this:
./NewUser.ps1

Get users samid:
dsquery user -name "*User" | dsget user -samid

Examples:
dsadd user “cn=Todd Test,ou=Users,dc=mist,dc=com” –samid ttest –upn ttest@mist.com
dsadd group “CN=Marketing,OU-Groups,DC=mist,DC=com” –samid Marketing –secgrp yes –scope g
dsget group “CN=Marketing,OU-Groups,DC=mist,DC=com” –members -expand
dsget user “cn=Todd Test,ou=Users,dc=mist,dc=com”
dsrm “cn=Todd Test,ou=Users,dc=mist,dc=com”
csvde –i –f NewUsers.txt
ldifde -i -f NewUsers.ldf