I have seen quite alot of Windows 2003 Active Directories recently where all the Domain Controllers are Windows 2003 and all the Domain Functional Level are set to Windows 2003. However one key part has been overlooked that is the FOREST Functional Level. This is often been left at Windows 2000 mixed. So what is…
Tag: Active Directory
I see this time and time again
Hi. I get out to a lot and I mean a lot of customer sites. I also see many Active Directories. Some of them well maintained and some of them facing challenges :). However consistently across these environments there is always a similiar issue that raises its head. This being Site Configuration and subnets NOT…
Some Useful Links to Share around ADGMP
I thought I would share a few of the useful public links I have come across in my further research around Advanced Group Policy Management, which is available as part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. Please see below for the links. I will post more and share some others if you have found some…
Post Teched and Stuff
Well I had a fantastic Time @ Teched IT Forum Last week working on the Ask the Expert Stands with my colleagues from PFE. Myself and Wayne Richards were working on the Server Core Stand alongside Andrew Mason Senior Program Manager of Server Core. There is an excellent Technet Spotlight Presentation here I also managed…
Welcome to the Blogosphere
A good friend and colleague Mark Empson has entered the Blog Community. He is to be found here http://blogs.technet.com/mempson/. His main areas of technology will be Platforms and Active Directory. But I happen to know he is an guru on Windows 2008 so keep a close eye on some really excellent blog entries over the…
Info on Visio ADMAP Plugin – available for download
Well I am back …whether you want me here or not. I know I have been really lazy at blogging recently….my excuse….work and catching the a series of ailments from my children. Anyway back I am . During my day job I use a really useful tool to map out customers environment from the perspective…
Audit Changes to Group Policies
An Interesting question came up at work this week. That was How do you Audit the fact that someone has modified a Group Policy ? Well the general concensus was the following; Check out the following excellent blog article Windows Security Logging and Other Esoterica : Monitoring Group Policy Changes with Windows Auditing http://blogs.msdn.com/ericfitz/archive/2005/08/04/447951.aspx Useful…
Modifying DisplayName Firstname Surname in Active Directory Users and Computers
Well I was only aware of one particular way to modify the displayname in the Active Directory, and then this only worked for New users. How to change display names of Active Directory usershttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/250455/ Well a colleague of mine pointed me in the direction of some really useful utilities which make this a whole lot…
Adexplorer – new tool this month from Windows Sysinternals
I have been informed by a colleague John Gregson of a cool new tool available for download from Windows Sysinternals. This is the Adexplorer tool. Some of the great new features are; Introduction Active Directory Explorer (AD Explorer) is an advanced Active Directory (AD) viewer and editor. You can use AD Explorer to easily navigate…
Great new Updated Group Policy Book
I was lucky enough to attend this gentlemens session at Teched this year. It was excellent. You can get hold of the new updated book from here