IT Knowledge Base

It is actually very easy to get Windows 7 GPO Settings on a Windows 2008 Server. You just need to copy the %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions from your Windows 7 machine into \\YOURSERVER\C$\Windows\SYSVOL\YOURDOMAIN\Policies\PolicyDefinitions on your server. After that you start your policy editor and you will find it under the section administrative templates.

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

The easiest way to find out if the group policy is applied and really changed the right settings you can check it in registry.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

I just installed Win2k8 Core on WMWare and tried to install VMWare as usual from the menu: VM\Install VMWare Tools… but nothing happened.

So I goggled and the solution is actually very easy:
1. Filemenu: “VM\Install VMWare Tools”
2. Command prompt run: “D:\Setup.exe”

That’s it…. have fun.

After a fresh installation of Windows 2008 Server you have the handy “Initial Configurations Task” Wizard. If you have chosen “Do not show this window at logon” it won’t appear anymore. So how can you relaunch it?

Just run “oobe” from the prompt.