Windows Server How ToYour Windows Server Knowledge Base

This post will show you how to change print spooler directory path in your Windows system.

It is recommended to relocate print spooler directory to dedicated disk or disk array (Raid 0) in your Print server. This will increase printing performance considerably.

By default print spooler directory is located in %systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers on your Windows computer.

To change path click Start>Settings>Printers and Faxes.

Press “File” in menu and select “Server Properties”.

Select “Advanced” tab.

Type new path for spool folder in “Spool folder:” field.

Note that new path for spool folder cannot be root of disk (for example G:) and target path must exist before relocating spool folder.

This post will show you how to manage terminal server session limits.

If you have many disconnected sessions on your Windows server 2003  and other users are complaining about this mess it is time to make some terminal server configurations.

Login to Windows server 2003 and navigate to Administrative Tools > Terminal Services Configuration.

There click on “RDP-Tcp” and select Sessions tab.

Terminal services sessions tab

Ok, here we can change session time outs and override user terminal session settings that are configured (or not) to each user manually in active directory.

In most cases i use following settings on my Windows servers:

End a disconnected session:  1 hour

Active session limit: Never

Idle session limit: 2 hours

When session limit is reached or connection is broken: Disconnect from session

This post will show you how to create new computer account in active directory using command line.

Lets say, in our scenario,  we want to create  new computer account named “TestPC1″ in default Computers container. Also note that our domain is named “testdomain.com” in this case.

To do it open command line on your Windows server 2008 and type:

dsadd computer cn=TestPC1,cn=Computers,dc=testdomain,dc=com

This quick post will show you how to delete files that are being used by system or running processes.

When you try to delete that kind of files on your Windows machine  you get error:

“Access denied”

or

“File/Folder is being used by applications. Please close the application and then try again”

To delete these “corrupted” files you can use  tool named “Unlocker”. It removes lock from file or folder and you can delete it afterwards.

You can download this tool from here .

Cheers!

This post will show how to list all Organizational Units in your domain using command line tool netdom. To list all OU in domain named “testdomain.com” type:

netdom query /d:testdomain.com OU

Note that netdom is part of Windows server 2003 support tools. They can be found on your OS CD (Support\Tools directory).

This post will show you how to check basic Exchange server 2007 health using powershell commands.

To check if all required services are running open exchange powershell on you Windows server 2003/2008 and type:

Test-servicehealth

To perform MAPI connectivity check type:

Test-MAPIConnectivity

This how to will reveal you some hidden places in your firefox browser. You can download this great web surfer from here . Next open Firefox 3.0 or greater on your Windows OS and type one of two in address bar:

about:robots

about:mozilla

Have fun!

In this post i`ll show one of many ways how to connect your users to shared printer. For that open notepad in Windows server 2003 or Windows XP and type:

REM Add Printers
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\sever\printername1
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\sever\printername2

REM Set Default Printer
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n \\server\printername2
EXIT

For example i have two shared printers on server named “Fileserver” and these printers are shared as “HPLJ1″ and “HPLJ2″. Also i want “HPLJ1″ as default printer for all users. I will type :

REM Add Printers
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\Fileserver\HPLJ1
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\Fileserver\HPLH2

REM Set Default Printer
RunDll32.EXE printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n \\Fileserver\HPLJ1
EXIT

Save this file as Addprinter.bat and place it as login script via group policy or you can deploy it to your users in any other way you prefer.

Sometimes you can encounter situation when you try to connect to Terminal server using RDP with Printer redirection enabled but printer doesn`t show in Terminal session. This problem occurs with printer port names that do not begin with COM, USB or LPT.  How to deal with that? In that case you must add registry setting to redirect all printer ports. To do that open registry on your Windows XP machine and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR

On the Edit menu select New and then DWORD value. Type FilterQueueType and press Enter. On new value right click and select modify. Type FFFFFFFF and click OK. This will enable all ports to be redirected.

That all!

Additional Account Info addon will help you gather some usefull information about your active directory users.

User properties in AD users and computers

In order to have this add on your Windows server 2003 based active directory download “Account Lockout and Management Tools” from here .
Extract contents of the package and copy “acctinfo.dll” file to %systemroot%/system32 directory.

Then press Start > Run and type:
regsvr32 acctinfo.dll

Press OK.

Thats it, now you have additional tab under user properties in your active directory.

Open Active directory users and computers snap in and check it.

Cheers !

I`ll show you two quick ways to check FSMO roles on Windows 2003 server.

1. open command line and type :

netdom query fsmo

2. copy this code to notepad and save as fsmo.vbs script :

Set objRootDSE = GetObject(”LDAP://rootDSE”)

Set objSchema = GetObject _
(”LDAP://” & objRootDSE.Get(”schemaNamingContext”))
strSchemaMaster = objSchema.Get(”fSMORoleOwner”)
Set objNtds = GetObject(”LDAP://” & strSchemaMaster)
Set objComputer = GetObject(objNtds.Parent)
WScript.Echo “Forest-wide Schema Master FSMO: ” & objComputer.Name

Set objNtds = Nothing
Set objComputer = Nothing

Set objPartitions = GetObject(”LDAP://CN=Partitions,” & _
objRootDSE.Get(”configurationNamingContext”))
strDomainNamingMaster = objPartitions.Get(”fSMORoleOwner”)
Set objNtds = GetObject(”LDAP://” & strDomainNamingMaster)
Set objComputer = GetObject(objNtds.Parent)
WScript.Echo “Forest-wide Domain Naming Master FSMO: ” & objComputer.Name

Set objDomain = GetObject _
(”LDAP://” & objRootDSE.Get(”defaultNamingContext”))
strPdcEmulator = objDomain.Get(”fSMORoleOwner”)
Set objNtds = GetObject(”LDAP://” & strPdcEmulator)
Set objComputer = GetObject(objNtds.Parent)
WScript.Echo “Domain’s PDC Emulator FSMO: ” & objComputer.Name

Set objRidManager = GetObject(”LDAP://CN=RID Manager$,CN=System,” & _
objRootDSE.Get(”defaultNamingContext”))
strRidMaster = objRidManager.Get(”fSMORoleOwner”)
Set objNtds = GetObject(”LDAP://” & strRidMaster)
Set objComputer = GetObject(objNtds.Parent)
WScript.Echo “Domain’s RID Master FSMO: ” & objComputer.Name

Set objInfrastructure = GetObject(”LDAP://CN=Infrastructure,” & _
objRootDSE.Get(”defaultNamingContext”))
strInfrastructureMaster = objInfrastructure.Get(”fSMORoleOwner”)
Set objNtds = GetObject(”LDAP://” & strInfrastructureMaster)
Set objComputer = GetObject(objNtds.Parent)
WScript.Echo “Domain’s Infrastructure Master FSMO: ” & objComputer.Name

Then open command line and type:

cscript fsmo.vbs

This post will show you how to hide file in Alternate Data Streams.

ADS (Alternate Data Streams) is a “feature” of the NTFS that permit files to be completely hidden from the system.

Lets say we have  secret.txt file that contains confidential info and it is placed in C:\Test folder . We want to hide secret.txt file from unwanted eyes and hidden file attribute is too simple solution for us.

In this case we can use ADS feature to completely hide it from system. Lets fork secret.txt file to C:\Windows\Zapotec.bmp file which is one of desktop backgrounds installed by default on Windows XP.

To fork it press “Start” > “Run”, type cmd and press “OK”.

In command line window type:

type c:\test\secret.txt > c:\Windows\Zapotec.bmp:secret.txt

Press “Enter”.

Ok, you forked secret.txt file to zapotec.bmp.

Now go to c:\Test folder and delete secret.txt file. Yep, you got it right, delete it.

After that you can start windows Search and try to locate secret.txt file. No traces… it is gone…

And now the Magic moment!

Open command line and type:

notepad c:\Windows\Zapotec.bmp:secret.txt

and press “Enter”

Secret info file is there and it is hidden pretty well this time.

Well done!