Test Layout

The best and fastest way to repair startup in Windows 7 is to use the Startup Repair tool available on the install DVD. This tool automatically scans your system, finds the cause of the problem, and repairs the problem without user interaction. I've only ever had to run this tool once to repair a system, but I've read in some blogs that depending on the exact nature of the problem, it may take up to 3 Startup Repair attempts to completely fix the problem. Generally speaking, if Windows 7 won't start, it is likely this tool will help. It can perform tasks such as: replace missing boot files update the master boot record update the boot sector repair the boot configuration database (BCD) Things this tool will not do: repair driver issues remove invalid operating system files added by malware remove faulty services To access Startup Repair, you need to: Boot from the Windows 7 DVD Click Repair your computer . Click Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windo...

If you are reading this post, I assume that you are experiencing error 0x8004010f in Outlook when syncing the address book to Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010. This is a result of the client computer not being able to contact the web service providing the offline address book. The most common reason this occurs is that autodiscover is not configured properly. If autodiscover is not configured properly then the URL for the offline address book is never passed on to non-domain joined clients. This error is not typically an issue for domain joined computers because they locate an SCP object for autodiscover in Active Directory and the query the autodiscover service for the correct configuration information. Non-domain joined computers locate the autodiscover service based on a DNS name or SRV record. The two URLs used for locating autodiscover are: https://myemaildomain/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml https://autodiscover.myemaildomain/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml Using either one of these ...

One of the ongoing pain points in implementing Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 is the need for a SAN certificate with multiple names in the certificate. Exchange 2007/2010 has web-based services for free/busy searches, offline address book downloads, and autodiscover. By default it is assumed that the name used internally is different from the name used externally. This results in the need for a certificate with multiple names. From a technical perspective, this is fine. From a cost perspective this is less desirable. A SAN certificate costs in the range of about $350 per year from a Microsoft supported vendor or about $80 per year from GoDaddy. If you want to use an existing single name SSL certificate, you can. You just need to change the names for the URLs to all match. First, install your certificate in IIS for the web site hosting the Exchange services. In a standalone install of Exchange Server 2007/2010, these are in the default web site. In SBS 2008, it is  a site named SBS...

For years, Microsoft has had iSCSI target software that lets a Windows Server act as shared storage for clustering. However, this software was only available as part of the Windows Storage Server and you couldn't use it in production environments (unless using an actual Windows Storage Server). As of April 2011, the target software is now available for free and supported in production use! You can use this for: highly available VMs clustering of file and print services testing environments I know I'll definitely be using this in classes where we do high availability of VMs. Not sure about the production side yet. Check it out: http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/2011/04/05/the-microsoft-iscsi-software-target-is-now-free.aspx

I'm not sure if there is any real world relevance to this because I created my problem as part of messing around while creating a lab activity. But on the off chance it's useful to anyone..... Steps to force a user to have a temporary profile: Log on as an Administrative user. Delete profile folder for user from C:\Users Basically, we manually deleted the profile without informing Windows. So, Windows still thinks the profile is there. You should delete a profile from the System Properties Advanced tab. However, if you try to use this now, the deleted user profile is not listed. To resolve the issue, use Regedit. The list of profiles is maintained in: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList Each profile has it's own key based on the SID of the user. To identify the key for the failing profile to delete look at the ProfileImagePath value. This value is the file path to the profile and contains the name of the user. After you've identified the correc...

I have a friend with an office that is prone to flooding in the springtime. This year, she has moved her office before the flood hits, just in case. She uses a POP account with a third party, not her ISP. However, she uses the SMTP host of her ISP. Basically, she downloads messages from the mail provider and then sends them out through her ISP SMTP host. One of her clients has been kind enough to provide temporary office space for the next month or so. Unfortunately the ISP servicing this office does not allow anonymous relaying. So, I offered to setup relaying for her on our Exchange 2007 server. Initially I though it would be as easy as creating a mailbox to allow for authentication. It was a bit more complex than I expected. Here are the steps that were required: Create an exchange mailbox for authentication of her traffic (we'll call it EXTERNAL). The POP client authenticates outbound traffic with this username and password. The email address of the account is never used, but ...

I recently ran into an issue where my laptop running Win7 would not properly connect to a terminal server. The TS is load balanced with some Win2008 servers and some Win2003 servers. Regardless of the server I was directed to, I got the following error: The remote computer disconnected the session because of an error in the licensing protocol When you do Google searches, many of them talk about removing a licensing key in the registry. However, this did not work. The eventual fix was to run Remote Desktop as Administrator . Then it connected fine. I can only assume it needed the elevated priviledges to modify the necessary registry keys. However, that is an assumption and I have no facts to back that up.