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March 2005 - Posts

Windows Server TechNet major update

So many announcements in one day. To coincide with the launch of Windows Server 2003 SP1, the Windows Server 2003 TechCenter (TechCentre when spelt correctly) has been significantly revamped to include all the latest information. If you haven't seen this Read More
posted Thursday, March 31, 2005 7:33 AM by jhoward | 0 Comments
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Windows Server 2003 x64 and Windows XP Professional x64 go RTM

In addition to the SP1 release of Windows Server 2003 the x64 versions of Windows Server 2003 and XP Professional have been released to manufacturing. These release are for processors including the AMD Opteron and Athlon 64, and the Intel Xeon and Pentium Read More
posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005 5:36 PM by jhoward | 0 Comments
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Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 SP1 availability

In line with the announcements for Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 today, another important announcement was made regarding SP1 for Small Business Server 2003. SP1 for SBS2003 will be available approximately 60 days from today, and will include Read More
posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005 5:36 PM by jhoward | 2 Comments
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My blog has moved - please update your links

Some of you may have noticed recent changes to the blogs.msdn.com site. In case some of you are subscribing to http://blogs.msdn.com/jhoward to read my blog, or are linking to the blogs.msdn.com/jhoward site, please can you update them to point to http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward instead. Read More
posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005 4:39 PM by jhoward | 0 Comments
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Windows Server 2003 SP1 for x86 and Itanium is now available

Just released to the web is the a significant release for the Windows Server 2003 platform in the shape of Service Pack 1 for x86 and Itanium. SP1 adds many new features and enhancements primarily in the area of security. If you haven't had a chance to Read More
posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005 3:34 PM by jhoward | 1 Comments
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Server Performance Advisor (SPA) - Provide your feedback

Following my blog entry a few days ago about Server Performance Advisor, I've just been made aware of a survey which the product team are running. If you are a current user of SPA and would like to make your voice heard as to how you use the product, Read More
posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:25 AM by jhoward | 0 Comments

Good news for popular people on MSN Messenger

I saw several threads on the Internet earlier this month regarding a change that increases the limits for the the number of contacts which can be present in your MSN Messenger contact list. The change is now official - a couple of days Read More
posted Wednesday, March 23, 2005 1:16 PM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Server Performance Advisor - the Performance Diagnostic tool for Active Directory and IIS

Following a recent Technet session, I was asked where you can download adpref.exe (an Active Directory Performance tool) from. Confession - I didn't know the answer and no amount of searching turned over any stones. It turns out that adperf was an internal Read More
posted Wednesday, March 23, 2005 10:45 AM by jhoward | 1 Comments
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Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Release Candidate is now available

Someone made a more appropriate choice of name (thankfully!) given some of the alternatives which have been on the table over the past few months. The next version of SUS (Software Update Services) will be officially called Windows Server Update Services Read More
posted Wednesday, March 23, 2005 10:32 AM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Account Lockout Tools for Active Directory

I should have posted this previously, so apologies to those who attended my recent session on AD Troubleshooting, Diagnostics and Recovery. Relating to the demonstration for registering and using the AcctInfo.dll to add a new tab to the Active Directory Read More
posted Tuesday, March 22, 2005 9:21 PM by jhoward | 2 Comments
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MIIS Alliance formed

A great day for identity management and the MIIS product!  The reason - five leading companies, NetPro, Oblix, Oxford Computer Group, PointBridge and Vintela recently announced the formation of the "MIIS Alliance" - a consortium of industry-leading Read More
posted Friday, March 18, 2005 12:40 PM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Post domain migration - removing sidHistory

After a successful domain migration, you may be in a situation where it is necessary to remove the sidHistory attributes from objects in your new domain. There are many ways to do this, and many migration tools provide that capability straight out of Read More
posted Friday, March 18, 2005 9:50 AM by jhoward | 1 Comments
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Managing your windows websites and web services

If part of your job entails monitoring and management of Windows Websites and Web Services hosted on Windows Servers and are using MOM to manage that environment, take a look at the latest version of the free management pack download "Microsoft Web Sites Read More
posted Tuesday, March 15, 2005 9:50 AM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Application Compatibility Toolkit 4.0 (ACT) released for download

The latest version of the ACT was released at the end of last week for free download. OverviewThe Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 4.0 for Windows XP, including Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2003 contains the tools and documentation Read More
posted Monday, March 14, 2005 1:42 PM by jhoward | 1 Comments
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limitlogon - new download to stop concurrent active directory logons.

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets this morning. I was discussing this very problem with some colleagues only a couple of weeks ago and pretty much concluded that this is a very difficult problem to solve easily. Low and behold though, into my Read More
posted Monday, March 14, 2005 11:53 AM by jhoward | 2 Comments
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Media Centre (MCE 2005) changing 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio and zoom mode patch

Having bought a 17" widescreen media centre PC at christmas, I was struggling to work out why the screen had reverted back to 4:3 aspect ratio and how to change it back. This was a tough nut to crack with neither the MCE help, intuition or the Internet Read More
posted Monday, March 14, 2005 11:36 AM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Active Directory diagnostic event logging in Windows Server

I mentioned at last nights "Active Directory Diagnosis Troubleshooting and Recovery" Technet session how to turn NTDS diagnostic logging on which causes the KCC to write events to the event log. All the information plus more besides is published in Knowledgebase Read More
posted Friday, March 11, 2005 8:40 PM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Active Directory Database monitoring using ESENTPRF.DLL

One of the demonstrations at last nights "Active Directory Diagnosis, Troubleshooting and Recovery" Technet session included the steps to install esentprf.dll to allow monitoring of performance counters for the extensible storage engine (ESE) database Read More
posted Friday, March 11, 2005 8:41 PM by jhoward | (Comments Off)
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Extending the Active Directory schema

There are occasions when you need to extend the Active Directory schema for applications. Besides the best practice of test, test and test again, and the alternative of using ADAM (Active Directory in Application Mode) to avoid changes to your corporate Read More
posted Wednesday, March 09, 2005 4:59 PM by jhoward | 2 Comments
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Remote access solution deployed at Microsoft

A webcast coming up on 29th March at 9AM PST (5PM GMT) caught my eye as remote access is something I quite often get asked about, and also recently setup for my home network (although probably not as securely as the Microsoft internal solution). Being Read More
posted Wednesday, March 09, 2005 4:43 PM by jhoward | 4 Comments
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Common mistakes when upgrading domains from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003

In my line of work, I talk to lots of people about the "hows" of upgrading to the latest and greatest technology. Consequently, I've referred many people to the link below which is a great source of tips and links to other information worth considering Read More
posted Tuesday, March 01, 2005 2:34 PM by jhoward | 1 Comments
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