MS Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0.1 acts strange – Th1n-forefront.s ? April 20, 2008
Posted by itnsomnia in Security, Updates, Windows Server 2003, scripting.add a comment
I did a scan using mbsacli.exe with the following option /listfile c:\mbsalist.txt.
Look at the Date Modified field for the resulting files. Isn’t that strange …
If I look at the file properties it looks good. The explorer view stays the same when I copy the files.
Click on the screenshot for full details.
Unable to hibernate system, after repeated use of hibernate April 19, 2008
Posted by itnsomnia in Software Deployment, Updates.add a comment
Some weeks ago one of my users received the following error message on his Dell Latitude D830
Quicket – Unable to hibernate system. Failed to hibernate as this state is not presently supported. Do you want to enable hibernation now?
To fix this you need to install the following update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909095/en-us
SYMPTOMS
You use a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, or Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. When you try to put the computer in hibernation, the computer occasionally does not hibernate. When this problem occurs, you receive an error message that is similar to the following:
Insufficient System Resources Exist to Complete the API.
When you experience this problem, the hibernate feature is not available on the computer until you restart the computer.
This problem typically occurs when the computer uses 1 gigabyte (GB) or more of RAM.
The update can be installed silently using the following command:
WindowsXP-KB909095-x86-ENU.exe /quiet /passive /norestart
Change a domain account’s password from the command line April 8, 2008
Posted by itnsomnia in Active Directory, scripting.3 comments
For some reason my Active Directory Users and Computers MMC console refuses to start. I haven’t found the time to search for a solution to this problem yet.
That’s why I use the command line to reset domain account passwords at the moment.
Using the following command you reset user DoeJ his password to Pa$$word1!
dsquery user -samid DoeJ | dsmod user -pwd Pa$$word1!
If you use * instead of Pa$$word1!, you will be asked for a password. The new password has to adhere to the domain password policy requirements.
As you can see the command pipes the output of dsquery to dsmod.
These commands require that the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack is installed. You can find the installation file for it on any Windows Server 2003 under C:\Windows\System32\adminpak.msi
If you are logged on to a domain controller you can also use the net user command, the equivalent command in this case would be:
net user DoeJ Pa$$word1!
You can also use the net user command from your workstation:
net user DoeJ Pa$$word1! /domain
The net user command does not require that the Administration Tools Pack is installed.
More information:
dsquery on TechNet
dsmod on TechNet
net user on TechNet
Vista brings Previous Versions to the Desktop OS April 8, 2008
Posted by itnsomnia in Vista, Windows Server 2003.4 comments
UPDATE:
Previous Versions is only available in the following Vista versions:
- Business
- Enterprise
- Ultimate
If you are running any other Vista version, you just ran out of luck
A handy feature called Previous Versions, previously only available in Windows Server 2003, is now also included in Windows Vista.
Using Previous Versions it is possible to return to a previous version of a file or folder and even bring back deleted files.
In Windows Server 2003, they could only be accessed through the network, and after the Previous Versions client was installed. In Vista the Previous Versions client is already included and the Previous Versions can also be accessed locally.
ShellRunas: Run as different user shell extension for Vista April 2, 2008
Posted by itnsomnia in Utilities, Vista.add a comment
Ok, this is something that should have been included in Vista out of the box. The included run as administrator is useless when you’re on a domain. Running ADUC as local admin for example will not do you any good …
And then they’re complaining about enterprise adoption, when such basic functionalities are lacking. It’s absurd Microsoft removed this option from Vista. Luckily some people at Microsoft still use their brains.
Mark Russinovich wrote a wonderful tool called ShellRunas, which brings back the good old Run As.
You can get it here here.
P.S. I am aware you can still use “runas” from the command line but that requires more effort. 
Remove an entry from the Outlook nickname cache + "Migrate" NK2 from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 April 2, 2008
Posted by itnsomnia in Messaging, Office, Outlook.1 comment so far
While browsing through a book about Outlook 2007 today, I saw a paragraph on how to remove a single entry from your Outlook nickname cache.
It seems you just have to select the entry you want and … just press delete. I didn’t know this was so easy. Sometimes things are so simple.
I needed this a while ago, and was under the impression you had to delete the entire .NK2 file, I should stop assuming and UTFS next time!
I love it when I learn such little things
I also checked to see if you can move an NK2 file from an Outlook 2003 install to Outlook 2007, and this seems to work just fine. Just make sure you name the source NK2 file the same as the destination NK2 file (usually the name of your Outlook profile).
As you probably already know you can find this file in the following directory:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook
