The problem: Many admins need to perform bulk operations on users and other objects and many of us are fine with using scripts or command line tools.  What do you do when you aren't good at scripting or you are intimidated by the command line syntax for some command line tools?  Have no fear, one of the hidden treasures of AD is to be able to perform batch processing of users from within the Active Directory Users and Computers GUI.   So how is this done? Example Let say w... [More]

By default Active Directory Users and Computers only allows you to display specific columns for any given object within Active Directory.  A popular request is to be able to see the Employee Number, but it isn't available by default.  As you can see from the screenshot below, it can be available, but some modifications need to be done.    So how is this done?  First let's discuss how the AD users and computer MMC works.  When the MMC displays the objects for any g... [More]

Do you ever find you can't open more windows within Windows.  Nice oxymoron.  I find now and then when I have lots of windows open or ones that consume lots of memory, windows won't open any more windows until I close a few.  I found adjusting the SharedSection data in the Windows value at the following location in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems I increased SharedSection=1024,3072,512  to SharedSection=... [More]

Today I seen a bizarre problem with the search function of Windows XP SP3.  Regular users couldn’t use the search function from the Start menu.  When selected, it wouldn’t do anything.  However, it would work from an Explorer window.  Users with Admin access always worked.  Fortunately it would register an error in the System event log each time the the user tried to do a search.  The unfortunate part was that event log error wasn’t obvious.  ... [More]

In Windows Server 2008 R2 they've finally implemented something that should have been done long ago.  Managed Service Accounts.  This is a great idea and it will make administration of service accounts much easier.  I work in an environment where NERC regulations require us change our passwords on everything at least every year, including service accounts.  How many of us just set service accounts to password never expires and never attempt to change it because we d... [More]