Aug
18

Installing and Configuring Windows Server Update Services 3.0 w/SP2

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a free component for Windows Server that allows you to create your own mirror for Windows Update and control every aspect of how updates are distributed on your network. (Download it here.) Prerequisites: Windows Server 2003 or later (or SBS) IIS 6.0 or later .NET Framework 2.0 or later …

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Aug
12

Microsoft Security Essentials Bug + Fix

Sent in by MF: I have had this problem happen quite a few times with Microsoft security essentials . Basically after installing MSSE upon reboot the program either doesn’t start up or MSMPENG.EXE just spikes the CPU. The fix is this: In MSSE Settings go to Excluded Files & Locations and Add the following to …

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Jul
16

Crazy DHCP Server Rootkit

A quick informal story: One of my clients has a bunch of employees that are in and out of the office on different days with their laptops.  A couple of them always seem to get a little bit o’ spyware.  Well, over the past week or so their “server went down” several times randomly and …

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Mar
17

Useful Environment Variables

Here is a list of some useful environment variables. %USERPROFILE% %WINDIR% or %SYSTEMROOT% (basically interchangable) %PROGRAMFILES% %APPDATA% %TEMP% %USERNAME% %USERDOMAIN% %COMPUTERNAME% %DATE% %TIME% Example: Let’s say Active Directory is getting full of unused user and computer accounts and you want to do an inventory to see who is using what. Add something this to the …

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Mar
17

How To Determine A User’s Profile Path

Problem: You have a computer with several user accounts and several profiles, but they don’t all match up.  You need a quick way to determine where the currently logged on user’s profile lives. Solution: Open a command prompt and type the following: echo %userprofile% The command will return a single line that is the current …

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Mar
16

Rename A Computer That Is A Domain Member

Problem: A computer (or several computers) on your domain need to be renamed quickly and reliably without making a mess of Active Directory. Solution: Use the NETDOM utility that comes with the Windows Server Support Tools (SupportTools.msi on the Windows Server media). If it is not already installed, you will want to install the SupportTools.msi …

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Mar
16

How To Migrate A Sub-domain To A Parent Domain In Active Directory

Problem: You need to restructure Active Directory to accommodate changes to your organization,  changes in IT needs, to correct errors that occurred when planning your Active Directory schema. Solution: Use the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT).  The tool can be found here and documentation can be downloaded here: ADMT Documentation -n

Mar
15

How To Run Two Instances of QuickBooks at the Same Time

Problem: A user wants to run two copies of QuickBooks concurrently in order to look at two company files at once. Solution: Install a virtual machine such as Microsoft VirtualPC, VMWare, Sun VirtualBox, etc.  Install Windows and Quickbooks on the new virtual machine. -Nick

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