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.NET Framework Offline installers for all supported Windows versions
edited by on June 19th 2015, at 09:40
This article contains a list of download links for the offline/standalone installers for .NET Framework. Each major version is listed, along with the OSes supported by that version.

To install, open the main download for the desired version, select your language, download the main file and run the installer.

For releases that have separate language packs: first download and install the main file. After the installation, click the download link for the language pack, select the preferred language, then download and install that file. You can install more than one language pack on a MUI system.

Version Download links OS requirements .NET Framework 4.6 RC   ...
 
Setting Out-of-Office for another user on Exchange 2003
edited by on June 16th 2015, at 09:22

The attached VBScript allows you to set an Out-of-Office reply for another user on an Exchange 2003. You'll need the required permissions on the Exchange server to set a user's out-of-office (either Mail Recipients or User Options Management roles).

I found the script in the comments section of this Technet blog article. Special thanks go to the author (Bill Prentice) for sharing.

This script is only for Exchange 2003. Starting from 2007, the Powershell cmdlet Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration is available.

 
Conditional adding of Powershell snap-in to a script
edited by on June 15th 2015, at 11:54
When running multiple scripts in a session, which use and add the same snap-in using Add-PSSnapin, only the first one succeeds. Subsequent attempts to add the same snap-in will result in an error:

Error
Cannot add Windows PowerShell snap-in My.SnapIn because it is already added. Verify the name of the snap-in and try again.

You can resolve this issue by enclosing it in the following if-statement:

if ( (Get-PSSnapin -Name My.SnapIn -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null ){ Add-PsSnapin My.SnapIn}

It (silently) checks the presence of the requested snap-in. If it does not exist (i.e. the check returns $null, then it loads the snap-in.

Note: replace My.SnapIn with whatever snap-in you   ...
 
Configure Internet Explorer (and Chrome) proxy settings through VBScript
edited by on June 12th 2015, at 13:14
Attached to this article are scripts to configure proxy settings for Internet Explorer (all versions). As Google Chrome uses the IE settings for their proxy settings, it can be used for that browser as well. I know there are other, far better methods for configuring proxy settings for clients, but continue your read to see why they were not usable in this particular case.

I ran into a customer where they were still using Internet Explorer Maintenance in their group policies to configure proxy settings for their clients. As a result, all users who got more recent computers did not get the proxy settings, as they were running Internet Explorer 10 or newer. Starting from IE10, configuration of  ...
 
Convert Exchange mailbox to another type
edited by on June 11th 2015, at 15:09

You can easily convert an Exchange mailbox from one type to another through the Exchange Management Shell.

Set-Mailbox -Identity user.name -Type Regular

There are four types you can use to convert to:

  • Regular (User mailbox);
  • Shared
  • Equipment
  • Room

The Equipment and Room types are used for reservations of meeting rooms and equipment (DLP).

 
NETLOGON wait operation timed out when demoting a 2003 domain controller
edited by on June 10th 2015, at 16:04

When demoting a 2003 domain controller using dcpromo, you may run into the following error:

Error
The operation failed because:

Failed to configure the service NETLOGON as requested

"The wait operation timed out"

The error message is quite misleading as the real cause has got nothing to do with NETLOGON, but is in fact a DNS issue. You will most likely have the server's primary DNS pointing to itself using loopback address (127.0.0.1) or its own IP address.

You can correct the issue by having the DNS point to remaining domain controllers, and remove any DNS pointing to itself (i.e. loopback address or any other IP owned by the server being demoted).

 
Find certificate authority servers in your Active Directory (AD) domain
edited by on June 10th 2015, at 14:29

There are two ways to see which Certificate Authority servers exist in your AD domain.

1. Check the Cert Publishers group

The AD group Cert Publishers contain the servers that are permitted to publish certificates to AD. As a consequence, this gruop will contain all servers that are CAs.

2. Use certutil

You can use the certutil command to view (and select from) a list of CAs in the current AD domain:

certutil -config - -ping

Note: type the command as-is, including all spaces and hyphens.

A window will appear, listing the CA name and the server it runs on.

 
An error (1301) occurred while enumerating the groups. The group's SID could not be resolved
edited by on June 10th 2015, at 14:20
After migrating AD from 2003 to 2012, I ran into this issue on a RADIUS server running 2008 R2, used for authentication. When attempting to retrieve AD information for a particular user, the following error appeared:

Error
An error (1301) occurred while enumerating the groups. The group's SID could not be resolved.

The solution (at least for Windows 7 and 2008 R2), is to install hotfix 2830145.

The hotfix is only available by request through e-mail.

When attempting to log on to a 2012-based domain controller, the following SIDs are unmappable:

S-1-18-1 : Authentication authority asserted identity

S-1-18-2 : Service asserted identity

2012 introduces two new securit  ...
 
About Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK)
edited by on June 9th 2015, at 10:47

It has always been a bit tedious to manage and customize Internet Explorer through group policies, especially when your network has different versions of Windows and/or different versions of Internet Explorer.

To reduce complexity of maintaining Internet Explorer in a network, since long, Microsoft has made available the Internet Explorer Administration Kit. This tool allows you to exert more control over Internet Explorer, its settings and its behaviour.

More information and downloading the IEAK: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/bb219517.aspx

 
Unauthorize Windows DHCP server error
edited by on June 8th 2015, at 10:36
Upon unauthorizing a Windows DHCP server, you may get the following error:

DHCP
The parameter is incorrect.

Most commonly, there are two reasons for this error to occur.

If you have just unauthorized a DHCP server, it may take a while for AD to replicate the change to other domain controllers. As a result, the DHCP server may still think it's authorized, whereas it is not. Either wait for, or trigger AD replication throughout your network.

Another reason for this error to occur is the presence of another DHCP server in AD that no longer exists. You can check this with the netsh dhcp command, available on any server with the DHCP server role installed:

netsh dhcp show server

Run the com  ...
 
Difference between index rebuild and reorganize on SQL Server
edited by on June 8th 2015, at 09:47
Maintaining indexes on your table is an important part of keeping your database healthy and its performance adequate. There are two maintenance operations for any index: rebuilding and reorganizing. Both operations were designed to get rid of index fragmentation, but differ in how this is done.

 RebuildReorganizeWhat it doesDrops the existing index and recreates it from scratch.Physically reorganizes the leaf nodes of the index.When to useIndex fragmentation >= 40%Index fragmentation >= 10% and < 40%Impact on systemHigh.

Database will be offline during process, unless you have Enterprise Edition and have enabled the ONLINE option. Online rebuild requires more resources than o  ...
 
New look for Office365 OWA with Gmail-style avatars
edited by on June 5th 2015, at 15:04

Office365 Outlook Web Access (OWA) has been updated with a new look. Most notable is the presence of Gmail-style avatars for the contacts:

 
No logon servers available in a inter-domain trust
edited by on June 5th 2015, at 10:40
If your inter-domain trust is down, and the eventlog reveals the following error:

Error
There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request. (0x51F)

Then check the following:

Check whether you can still access the DNS servers at the other side: try using the name first, then try through IP. If DNS does not work, there's an issue with your DNS.

Check whether the DNS zones for the domain are still in place. If it exists, try performing a reload from master. If this fails, you either have connection issues, or the other side has removed the required zone delegation, preventing you from retrieving the zone information.

If you can neither connect through DNS or IP, ch  ...
 
Enable SMB 1.0 on Server 2012R2
edited by on June 3rd 2015, at 16:08
On Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2, SMB 1.0 (aka CIFS) is no longer enabled by default. This means clients that don't support at least SMB 2.0 (for Windows: everything predating Vista/2008) can no longer directly connect to a 8.1/2012R2 server, and instead, are presented with an error if they attempt to do so:

Error
The specified network name is no longer available.

You can re-enable SMB 1.0 support by installing the SMB 1.0/CIFS support feature on your server.

Some users reported that even after enabling this feature, they could not access shares on the server. Apparently, the SMB 1.0 driver is not loaded properly, because of a missing dependency on the Server service (aka LanmanServer).
  ...
 
NT4 workstations in a 2008 R2 domain
edited by on June 3rd 2015, at 15:47
As long as there are 2003 domain controllers in your network, your old NT4 workstations will be able to authenticate against your domain. As soon as you migrate those 2003's out of the network, you'll run into trouble. By default, Server 2008 R2 no longer accepts authentication requests from NT4 because they use cryptography that's too old and unsafe.

The best solution is to get rid of those NT4 machines, but if that's not possible, you can re-enable support for cryptography on your DCs through GPO.

Either edit the Default Domain Controller Policy group policy, or create a new GPO in the Domain Controllers OU.

Edit the GPO and navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templa  ...
 
Exit Windows Explorer from the taskbar
edited by on June 3rd 2015, at 11:49

A bit of a hidden feature in Windows 8: you can actually "quit" Windows Explorer.

Right-click the (empty) taskbar while holding down Ctrl+Shift to reveal Exit Explorer as an additional menu item. Clicking it will then end Windows Explorer, leaving you with a blank screen, same as ending explorer.exe from the task manager.

You can then call up task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), and start Windows Explorer again (File > Run > explorer.exe).

 
Cachestore flush messages in SQL Server's ERRORLOG
edited by on June 2nd 2015, at 12:12
I got these messages in the error log of a SQL Server instance:

SQL Server has encountered 1 occurrence(s) of cachestore flush for the 'Bound Trees' cachestore (part of plan cache) due to some database maintenance or reconfigure operations.SQL Server has encountered 1 occurrence(s) of cachestore flush for the 'SQL Plans' cachestore (part of plan cache) due to some database maintenance or reconfigure operations.SQL Server has encountered 1 occurrence(s) of cachestore flush for the 'Object Plans' cachestore (part of plan cache) due to some database maintenance or reconfigure operations.

I also saw messages about starting a certain database, even though the instance itself remained running. T  ...
 
E-mail signature with images in Office365 OWA
edited by on May 29th 2015, at 14:43
You can set up an e-mail signature in Office365's OWA (also works with on-premise Exchange 2013 OWA) quite easily. While it's no problem to apply any kind of formatting to your signature, you'll find out that adding images is not as straight forward.

To set up an e-mail signature, follow the steps below.

For best results, use either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Google Chrome has some (minor) issues with OWA.

Log onto OWA. For Office365, this is https://outlook.office365.com/.

Click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner, and choose Options.

In the left tree, follow Mail > Layout > Email signature.

Edit your signature, or copy/paste it from another source (e.g. Word).
If you   ...
 
Decommission an enterprise Certificate Authority from your environment
edited by on May 28th 2015, at 14:19
 
Can't log on after changing machine account password in mixed 2012R2 and 2003 AD
edited by on May 28th 2015, at 10:46

When attempting to log on with a domain account on a computer joined to a domain that has both 2012R2 and 2003 domain controllers, you may encounter the following error:

Error message
unknown username or bad password

Additionally, an Event ID 4 on Source: Kerberos is logged. You can only log on using local accounts.

Solution

Mixed 2012R2 and 2003 AD environments require hotfix 2989971 to be installed on every 2012R2 DC. See the KB for a full explanation.

The hotfix requires Update 1 (2919355) to be installed first. The hotfix is also included in update rollup 2984006.

 
showing posts tagged with 'microsoft'
 
 
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