Windows Server How ToYour Windows Server Knowledge Base

This post will show you how to install Active Directory schema configuration snap in for your Microsoft management console. For that you have two ways.

1. Install Windows server 2003 support tools package (supptools.msi) . It is located inyour OS CD  Support\Tools directory.

ADSI Edit will be automatically installed and registered by doing that.

2. If you want to install only ADSI Edit tool copy adsiedit.dll file from support tools into %systemroot% directory (default C:\Windows) .

Then click Start>Run and type regsvr32 adsiedit.dll

Press “OK”

This post will show you how to find Windows server 2008 with Terminal server role installed in your domain.

To perform search in domain named “Testdomain.com” domain open command line and type:

query termserver /domain:Testdomain.com

Press “Enter” and you are done !

By default Exchange server 2007 Stardart database size limit is 50Gb.

Exchange server 2007 Enterprise edition has no limit for database size.

In this post we will see how to change size for the mailbox database named “FirstDB”.

We will work with Exchange 2007 Standart “TestExchange” running on Windows server 2003.

First we need to retrieve GUID ID for “FirstDB” database, which can be found in FirstSG storage group.

To do it open exchange powershell and type:

Get-MailboxDatabase -Identity “TestExchange\FirstSG\FirstDB” | Format-Table Name, GUID

When you have GUID for your database open registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\TestExchange\Private-<database GUID>

If you can see DWORD value Database size limit in GB open it ant type your new limit for database in GB.

If value cannot be located, create new DWORD value with “Database size limit in GB” name and set value in GB.

Two days ago i have encountered following situation.

I have scheduled check disk for C: drive via command line on my Windows server 2003 because it was spitting some strange errors in event log about inconsistency of logical drive.

To check C: drive i have opened command line and typed:

chkdsk C: /f /r

to check logical disk,  locate bad sectors and recover any readable information if needed

After this i was asked if i want to schedule this procedure run after next restart as it cant perform this on running system.

I confirmed that by typing Y.

One hour after i foung buggy software that was the source of errors in event log and CHKDSK i scheduled earlier bacame needless.

After some googling i have found the way you can reset scheduled CHKDSK task.

For that you must open registry by typing regedit in command line.

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

Can you see BootExecute string in there. I bet you do!

Open it and clear all value data by leaving only autocheck autochk *

Registry editor BootExecute string

And… press OK. After this registry editing your CHKDSK sheduled task will be canceled.

Thats it !

This post will show you quick way to change license key on your Windows server 2008 or Windows Vista using command line.

Lets say we want to change our license key to AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE (Note that this is not legal license key !!!) .

To change key open command line (Start>Run>cmd) and type:

slmgr -ipk AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE

Press “Enter” and You are done !

This post will show you how to randomly reset local user password on you Windows machine using command line.

Lets say we have local user named “testuser” and we want randomly reset its password.

For this press Start>Run, type CMD and press “OK” .

In command line type:

net user testuser /random

Press “Enter”.

Password will be reseted and it will be shown to you after you pressed “Enter” button.

The output will be similar to:

Good job!

This post will show you how to edit remote access to the registry settings.

To make changes press “Start” then “Run” and type regedit.

In registry editor navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurePipeServer\winreg

Security permissions that are set on key “winreg” controls who can access registry remotely.

If you want to change current settings right click “winreg” key and choose Permissions.

In this “Permissions for winreg” window you can set who will be able to access registry remotely.

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).