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Q: What are the different Windows Logon Types that can show up in the Windows event log?

By Jan De Clercq, 02/24/2010

Q: In Windows Server 2008, there's a feature that lets you use the Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) administrator account and password to log on to a Server 2008 domain controller (DC) at any time. What's this feature for and how do I enable it?

By Jan De Clercq, 02/17/2010

Q: How can I find the Windows Server 2008 event IDs that correspond to Windows Server 2003 event IDs?

By Jan De Clercq, 02/10/2010

Q: Do I need to upgrade to Windows Server 2008 from Windows Server 2003 to get Alternative Name (SAN) certificate support?

By Jan De Clercq, 01/20/2010

Q: Can I use a single Subject Alternative Name (SAN) certificate to secure access to multiple namespaces?

By Jan De Clercq, 01/13/2010

Q: Does Windows provide a mechanism to enforce the auditing of all file system or registry object actions that specific users or groups perform on a Windows system or domain?

By Jan De Clercq, 12/23/2009

Q: Is there a way to set and maintain a single Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) administrator password that applies to all my DCs?

By Jan De Clercq, 12/16/2009

Q: What types of disk configurations does BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE) support?

By Jan De Clercq, 12/09/2009

Q: Is certificate mapping still around in IIS 7.0?

By Jan De Clercq, 11/12/2009

Q: I want to install an enterprise certification authority (CA) on one of my Active Directory (AD) domain controllers (DCs), but it only lets me install a Standalone CA. Why?

By Jan De Clercq, 11/12/2009

Q: What's the scope of the built-in Authenticated Users group in a multi-forest Active Directory (AD) environment?

By Jan De Clercq, 11/12/2009

Q: What options does Windows provide to attach automated actions, such as sending an email alert message, to events on a Windows machine?

By Jan De Clercq, 11/12/2009

Q: Does Windows include a mechanism to show failed logon information to the user at logon time?

By Jan De Clercq, 10/07/2009

Q: Can I use the Windows Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) to harden my Exchange 2007 servers? Does the SCW come with specific security templates for the different Exchange 2007 server roles (such as Client Access, Hub Transport, Mailbox, and Edge)?

By Jan De Clercq, 10/07/2009

Q: How can I determine from the Windows security logs whether a user has logged on using a smart card?

By Jan De Clercq, 10/07/2009

What Applications Are Installed on the Computers in Your Network?

By Bill Stewart, 09/16/2009

If you often need to identify the software that's installed on the computers in your network, here's a PowerShell script you can use to easily audit one or more computers.

Q: How can I prevent my users from deleting their Internet Explorer (IE) browsing history?

By Jan De Clercq, 09/10/2009

Q: How can we relocate the event log files of our Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 file servers to a different drive?

By Jan De Clercq, 09/10/2009

Q: Does Microsoft IIS 7.0 include a feature to protect an IIS web server from Denial of Service (DoS) attacks? Does Microsoft’s ISA Server 2006 include a similar feature?

By Jan De Clercq, 09/10/2009

Q: What's the fastest, easiest way to disable User Account Control (UAC) on a Windows Vista machine?

By Jan De Clercq, 09/10/2009

Q: What is the easiest way to set up access control restrictions on the content of our intranet websites that are hosted on an IIS 7.0 web server?

By Jan De Clercq, 08/25/2009

Q: How can I configure and manage Windows user rights from the command line?

By Jan De Clercq, 08/25/2009

Q: Does Microsoft provide a mechanism to restrict which administrators can manage a particular Hyper-V virtual machine (VM)? I want to make sure that VM administrators can only manage their VMs and can't touch the parent partition.

By Jan De Clercq, 08/25/2009

PowerShell Script Lists Group Hierarchies in Any LDAP Directory

By Stefan Kowalewski, 08/18/2009

You can extend PowerShell's capabilities by taking advantage of the Microsoft .NET Framework. If you work with non-Microsoft LDAP directories, one particularly useful .NET tool is ...

What’s Your Computer Name?

By Aaron Goldrick, 07/29/2009

Create custom attributes in Active Directory to search for computer names, as well as the name of the user who last logged on, to improve security, inventory tracking, and Help ...

Q: How can I export an X.509 certificate and the associated private key from my old laptop and import it on my new one?

By Jan De Clercq, 07/08/2009

Q: Do I still need to install the URLscan tool on my Microsoft IIS 7.0 Web server to filter malicious data from incoming HTTP requests?

By Jan De Clercq, 07/08/2009

Q: Can you use a web publishing rule instead of a server publishing rule to offload SSL processing on an ISA server?

By Jan De Clercq, 06/11/2009

Q: How can I protect Active Directory (AD) objects such as organizational units (OUs) from accidental deletion by administrators?

By Jan De Clercq, 06/11/2009

App-V Streaming and Sequencing

By Russell Smith, 06/02/2009

App-V has a server component to let the client stream virtual applications on demand from a server and run apps offline. IT departments can sequence programs once and stream them ...

App-V Security

By Russell Smith, 06/01/2009

Use App-V's SystemGuard, MSI utility, and Sequencer to deploy virtual applications seamlessly in secured environments, protecting the integrity of desktops and terminal servers.

Preparing for Office Communications Server 2007

By Brien Posey, 05/19/2009

OCS can be a bear to install, so make sure you're ready before you start.

Q: How can I delegate the right to unlock locked Active Directory (AD) user accounts?

By Jan De Clercq, 05/13/2009

Q: In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, when I connect a drive to network share while running in normal user mode, I can't access it from an elevated administrator command prompt window. Is this normal? Is there a way around this?

By Jan De Clercq, 05/13/2009

Q: How can I perform a system state backup of my Windows Server 2008 system from the command line?

By Jan De Clercq, 04/14/2009

Q: Do Windows OSs include a mechanism to block malware from overwriting important system files?

By Jan De Clercq, 04/14/2009

Q: How can I prevent the Granular Audit Policies (GAPs) that I defined on my Windows Server 2008 servers from being overwritten by the audit policies that are defined in my Default Domain GPO?

By Jan De Clercq, 04/14/2009

Exchange Management with EMS: Turning Actions into Scripts

By Paul Robichaux, 03/17/2009

Learn how to construct PowerShell scripts through Exchange Management Shell to automate common Exchange Server tasks by using things such as relational and logical operators, ...

Q: Is there an easy way to back up and restore the share permissions defined on a Windows XP or Windows Vista system?

By Jan De Clercq, 03/12/2009

Q: Can I restore the Default Domain Policy and Default Domain Controllers Policy to their default states without a backup?

By Jan De Clercq, 03/12/2009

Q: Can two Active Directory (AD) accounts have identical SIDs? If so, how can I remove the duplicate account?

By Jan De Clercq, 03/12/2009

Modernizing Exchange Server Backup and Recovery

By Brien Posey, 03/03/2009

Traditional tape-based backups have problems with performance and recovery options, but disk-to-disk-to-tape and Microsoft VSS–based solutions can help you modernize your backup ...

Q: How can I change the default Active Directory (AD) location that’s used when no explicit location is specified for new user and computer accounts?

By Jan De Clercq, 02/12/2009

Q: I'm trying to find out which network ports I must open on my intranet firewalls to make one of our inhouse Windows client/server applications communicate properly. How can I list the remote network ports that a client-side application uses?

By Jan De Clercq, 02/12/2009

Q: How are Active Directory (AD) security group memberships replicated between different domain controller (DC) AD instances? Does AD handle replications differently in Windows Server 2003 than in Windows 2000?

By Jan De Clercq, 02/12/2009

How to Implement SDI Using IPSec in a Mixed Environment

By John Howie, 01/20/2009

This step-by-step guide shows you how to configure UNIX and Linux OSs to use IPSec with preshared keys so that Server and Domain Isolation (SDI) is supported for both outgoing and ...

Vista Migration: Things I Wish I’d Known

By LJ Zacker, 01/13/2009

This candid account of a Windows Vista migration can help you figure out what to expect in your own environment and how to deal with—or avoid—common mistakes.

Q: Is there an easy way to change a registry setting on specific servers?

By Jan De Clercq, 01/06/2009

Q: What is the audit policy subcategory Special Logon, and what is it used for?

By Jan De Clercq, 01/06/2009

Exchange 2007 Deployment Postmortem

By Michael Dragone, 01/06/2009

Learn from someone else's Exchange 2007 migration experiences.

4 Ways to Help PowerShell Find External Tools

By Alex K. Angelopoulos, 12/23/2008

Learn how to help PowerShell locate external tools, saving time and keeping you organized.

Little Snitch

By Jeff Fellinge, 12/04/2008

A host-based outbound firewall for a Mac? You'd be surprised what data leaks Little Snitch can reveal.

Use Group Policy to Distribute JRE With Its Automatic Update Feature Disabled

By Bill Stewart, 12/04/2008

JRE's automatic update feature can cause a lot of headaches for network administrators. Instead of taking aspirin after the fact, administrators can be proactive and prevent ...

Q: The Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) used to be available for download from the Microsoft website. It could scan Windows boxes for certain malware. Is MSRT still available for Windows Vista?

By Jan De Clercq, 12/01/2008

Q: How can I reset the default permissions on an Active Directory (AD) object?

By Jan De Clercq, 12/01/2008

Q: How can I apply different software restriction policy (SRP) rules to different user accounts on my home computer, which stands alone and isn’t part of a domain? For example, I want to restrict my kids’ Windows accounts from using certain programs.

By Jan De Clercq, 12/01/2008

Administering a Complete Message Source on POP3 Messages

By William Lefkovics, 11/25/2008

Recovering Deleted Items in .PST Files

By William Lefkovics, 11/25/2008

Printing Only the First Page of an Outlook 2007 Email

By William Lefkovics, 11/25/2008

DPM 2007: Protecting and Restoring Data

By John Savill, 11/20/2008

DPM 2007 uses Microsoft VSS to provide in-depth protection to your key Microsoft application platforms. Learn about setting up recovery points and restoring data, enabling ...