Find Windows , SQL or Office Product Key

Posted on May 20th, 2009 in Microsoft, Office 2007, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky

 

If you’re planning reinstall of your Windows Vista\XP\Server 2000\2003\2008  you’ll need to locate your copy of your product installation key.

An easy way is to use Product Key Viewer utility to find forgotten Windows Office or SQL Product Keys.

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How to Change and set Default Windows Installation Path

Posted on April 19th, 2009 in Microsoft, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky

Unusually Operating System is installed on C drive and whenever you install new program it goes to C:\Program Files\program name

I is because the default suggested installation path is C:\Program Files.
It can cause a problem when C drive is been wrong partitioned and the size of C drive is small
You can use registry to change the default application installation path to for example install in D:\Programs,
To set different default installation path, follow the steps bellow:

  1. Pres on start
  2. Type in run regedit
  3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion.
  4. At the right panel, loacate ProgramFilesDir.
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  5. Double click on it to change the value to your desired path. For example, change the value from C:\Program Files to D:\Programs.
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Move Domain Controller to other site – PowerShell

Posted on April 6th, 2009 in Active Directory, Microsoft, Scripts, Server 2008 by Gil Kreslavsky

$dcname = <DomainDNSName>
$newSite = "NewSite Name"
$context = New-Object
System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.DirectoryContext(‘DirectoryServer’, $dcname)
$dc =
[System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.DomainController]::getDomainController ($context)
$dc.MoveToAnotherSite($newSite)

 

Where DomainDNSName – Enter your DNS domain name

Delete Windows User Profile in Registry

Posted on March 30th, 2009 in Microsoft, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky

To clear user local profile via registry :

  1. Press on Start > Run >Regedit
  2. Navigate to the following registry key :“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”
  3. Under ProfileList navigate to  binary key’s like this :S-1-5-21-3656904587-1668747452-4095529-500
  4. On the right side under  ProfileImagePath you’’ll see the username and profile path.
  5. Chose the one with the desired user and delete the long reg key like :“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”

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Note:The following method works on all of these operation systems:Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008 and Windows 7.

Folder Redirection to NTFS share Permissions

Posted on March 30th, 2009 in Active Directory, Microsoft, Security, Server 2003, Server 2008 by Gil Kreslavsky

If you want to redirect domain user folders to NTFS or Storage share, you need to set the permissions like in the list bellow:

Creator Owner => Full Control on “Subfolders and Files Only

Security group of users needing to put data on share => List Folder/Read Data, Create Folders/Append Data  on “This Folder Only

System =>  Full Control, on “This Folder, Subfolders and Files

In addition you can add Domain Admins security group to have permissions on user folders:

  • Open Group Policy Management
  • Navigate to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>User Profiles
  • Set “Add the Administrator security group to the roaming user profile share” to enabled

Prevent users from deleting start menu items via GPO

Posted on March 29th, 2009 in Active Directory, GPO, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky
  • Open Group Policy Editor:
  • Link Policy to relevant OU
  • Navigate to User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Start menu and taskbar.
  • Edit “Prevent Changes to Taskbar and Start Menu Settings”
  • Set it to enable
    Prevent Changes to taskbar
  • Pres OK

Note: To enforce group policy: Navigate to Start>Run type gpupdate /force and hit Enter

Desktop Icon Disappeared? Learn how to restore.

Posted on March 26th, 2009 in Microsoft, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky

If you Windows Desktop icon is disappeared , there is a quick way to restore it.
Follow the steps bellow:

  • Open Notepad
  • Paste the text bellow
  • [Shell]
    Command=2
    IconFile=explorer.exe,3
    [Taskbar]
    Command=ToggleDesktop
  • Save the file as Desktop.scf and drag it to your Quick Launch bar

Note: If you can’t place it you Quick Launch bar may be locked.
To unlock it :Right click on it , and remove selection from “Lock The Task Bar”

Manage services from command prompt in Windows XP,Vista,2003,2008

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 in Microsoft, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky

list of available commands for service management in Windows

  • Net pause : Pauses service
    Usage : net pause servicename
  • Net continue : Continues a service that has been suspended by net pause
    Usage : net continue servername
  • Net stop : Stops running service
    Usage : net stop service name
  • Net start : Start stopped service
    Usage : net start servicename
  • Sc:A command line program used for communicating with the
    Service Control Manager and services. Usually used in scripting
    Usage : type sc in command prompt to see command reference
  • Tasklist : Displays list of running tasks
    Usage:type tasklist in command prompt
Note: You can find the service name in Control Panel, Services.
Or by running services.msc command
To Open Command Prompt : type in run cmd

Mstsc /console switch is replaced in “Windows Xp+sp 3 – Vista+sp1 and Windows 2008 ” by mstsc /admin

Posted on March 15th, 2009 in Microsoft, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows XP by Gil Kreslavsky

Starting from Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 the “mstsc /console” switch was been replaced by “mstsc /admin” In both Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, the Remote Desktop Program has been updated to version 6.1 (6.0.6001)

Since there is no longer the ability to connect to Session 0, the /console switch is no longer required. But, what if I want to connect to Session 0 on a Windows Server 2003/XP or previously machine making the most of RDP 6.1?
Let’s see how we can do it.

If you use “mstsc /v:servername /console” in a script file then the /console will be ignored (with no warning) and you will be connected to a normal session that is not the server console.
If you specify the /console switch in the RDC GUI connection dialog then it will tell you “an unknown parameter was specified in the computer name field”.
If you want to connect to the old console session in Windows 2008 and Vista SP1 use the “mstsc /admin” switch

Another workaround is to replace the mstsc.exe file with one from older system (Windows XP ) for example.

Example

mstsc /admin savedsession.rdp

Terminal Server 2008 Easy Print Feature

Posted on January 20th, 2009 in Microsoft, Server 2008 by Gil Kreslavsky

Terminal services 2008 easy printing is a new feature announced in windows 2008 server.

It enables remote users to print from a Terminal Services session to the local connected printers without the need to install drivers on the Terminal Server.

User will see the full printer properties of the local printer in the session and have access to all printer functionality. The Easy Print universal driver acts as a proxy and redirects all User Prints to local device

To use the Terminal Services Easy Print feature in Terminal Services on Windows Server 2008, remote clients must run RDP (RDC) 6.1 client and have.NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 installed. Both included with Windows Server 2008 and will be available for download for Windows Vista.

For full guide on how to use Terminal Services 2008 Easy print feature follow MS tech net article here

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