A geeks perspektive on desktop management
Active Directory
Building a virtual LAB that is prepared for snapshots
01 year ago
As a consultant and instructor I use my virtual labs every day for developing, testing and doing demos. My virtual lab has 2 Domain Controllers and and a member server for each role or version of a product that I need in my lab.
Most of my member servers has a lot of snapshots, so I can “travel” back and forward in time if I need to test stuff over and over again. Or if I’m testing a beta product where I get get new builds, so I don’t need to configure all the pre-requirements over and over again.
If you don’t want the member servers (the snapshots) to be locked out, you need to configure More >
Replicate Active Directory
01 year ago
From time to time I spend time on troubleshooting Active Directory and SYSVOL replication at my customers. The built in replication schedule are great, but some time it’s nice to force replication on all Domain Controllers to minimize the waiting time…
This script will force an instant replication on all domain controllers.
ReplicateAD.vbs
Option Explicit
Dim objDSE, strDN, objContainer, objChild, sCommand, WshShell
Set objDSE = GetObject("LDAP://rootDSE")
strDN = "OU=Domain Controllers," & objDSE.Get("defaultNamingContext")
Set objContainer = GetObject("LDAP://" & strDN)
sCommand = More >
Active Directory Schema Versions
02 years ago
The list of Active Directory Schema versions:
- Windows 2000 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 13
- Windows Server 2003 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 30
- Windows Server 2003 R2 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 31
- Windows Server 2008 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 44
- Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM with all Service packs = Schema version 47
Check the schema version in the Registry:
HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesNTDSParameters<Schema Version>
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions Updated
04 years ago
Multiple Group Policy Preferences have been added to the Windows Server 2008 Group Policy Management Console (which are also available through the Remote Server Administration Toolset (RSAT) for Windows Vista SP1). Group Policy Preferences enable information technology professionals to configure, deploy, and manage operating system and application settings they previously were not able to manage using Group Policy.
A few days ago Microsoft released a new version of the Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions.
Microsoft Windows XP (x86): More >
Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions are now available for download!
05 years ago
Here we are – Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions are now available for download. This is a cool thing bringing lot’s of Group Policy Power to admins around the world!
The GPP CSEs are included in Windows Server 2008 RTM, but can now be downloaded for: Windows XP SP2+ (32/64 bit) Windows Server 2003 SP1+ (32/64 bit) Windows Vista RTM+ (32/64 bit)
These are the links:GPP CSEs for Windows Vista (KB943729)GPP CSEs for Windows Vista x64 Edition (KB943729)GPP CSEs for Windows Server 2003 (KB943729)GPP CSEs for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB943729)GPP CSEs for Windows XP
More >Active Directory Explorer v1.0
15 years ago
Active Directory Explorer (AD Explorer) is an advanced Active Directory (AD) viewer and editor. You can use AD Explorer to easily navigate an AD database, define favorite locations, view object properties and attributes without having to open dialog boxes, edit permissions, view an object’s schema, and execute sophisticated searches that you can save and re-execute.
AD Explorer also includes the ability to save snapshots of an AD database for off-line viewing and comparisons. When you load a saved snapshot, you can navigate and explorer it as you would a live database. If you have two More >
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