Network Administration & Consulting Services

Personally, i still prefer use IPv4. In Windows Vista and Windows 2008, IPv6 is enabled by default. I've created a small script to disable IPv6. Here is a content of my DisableIPv6.bat:

@Echo off
@ECHO Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 > %TEMP%\DisableIPv6.reg
@ECHO [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters] >> %TEMP%\DisableIPv6.reg
@ECHO "DisabledComponents"=dword:000000ff >> %TEMP%\DisableIPv6.reg
REGEDIT /S %TEMP%\DisableIPv6.reg

I did a very simple script, and I run it once when I apply a new sysprep image, that imports the date, when this particular image was applied to the specific computer. Sometimes this is very important. Here is a content of my script:

@Echo Off
REM **********************************************************************************************************
REM * This script checks a date Image was deployed and import this data into the Registry as Image-Date REM **********************************************************************************************************

For /f "Tokens=2 Delims= " %%a in ('@DATE /t') do set IMG-DATE=%%a
Echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 > %TEMP%\IMG-DATE.reg
Echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WRHA] >> %TEMP%\IMG-DATE.reg
Echo "Image-Date"="%IMG-DATE%" >> %TEMP%\IMG-DATE.reg
Reg.exe import %TEMP%\IMG-DATE.reg
Del %TEMP%\IMG-DATE.reg /Q

Sometimes , the Phishing Filter can cause problems so disabling the feature can be a valuable troubleshooting step. I do this by changing the registry. Here is a content of my DisablePhishingFilter.reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter]
"ShownVerifyBalloon"=dword:00000003
"Enabled"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\PhishingFilter]
"ShownVerifyBalloon"=dword:00000003
"Enabled"=dword:00000000

If for whatever reasons you need to disable updates for Sun Java, do set the EnableJavaUpdate settings to 0. You can create a file, let say DisableJavaUpdates.reg, with following content:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy]
"EnableJavaUpdate"=dword:00000000

To control background colour on the client’s computer (XP) the custom ADM file (BGColor.adm) could be created. The BGColor.adm should be manually added to the network environment before start using it. Here is a content of BGColor.adm:

To minimize all open windows Microsoft provides “Hot Keys”, like Windows Logo Key + M or Windows Logo Key + D.  All Hot Keys was disabled by old GPO. To allow using Windows Logo Keys the following steps should be enabled through GPO:

1. Go to: Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \Windows Explorer
2. Change “Turn off Windows+X hotkeys” settings to Disable

Note: Client’s computer should be restarted to start using Windows Logo Keys.

Yesterday I passed additional MS exam, PRO: Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (70-238), this is a last exam in serial MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator.

This one was pretty similar to the previous, 70-237, but with a more details and tricks. It was a lot of questions about CCR, CSR, NLB and RAID’s. It was many question about “How to deal with multi sites organizations...” and questions like “What if..”. It was 50 questions in this exam.

The study resources I used to pass are:
Book "Microsoft Exchange Server 2007"
http://technet.microsoft.com
http://www.msexchange.org
http://msexchangeteam.com
http://exchangepedia.com
http://www.exchangeprovip.com
http://www.exchangeninjas.com
http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid43_gci1272907,00.html
http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/exchange-2007-message-queues.html
http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/understanding-back-pressure-feature-exchange-server-2007.html

I’ve just passed additional MS exam, PRO: Designing Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (70-237)!  Got 935 on it .

This one was easy that previous, 70-236. I’ve got a lot of questions about clustering, HA and multi-sites design. It was just 37 questions in this exam.

The study resources I used to pass are:

Book “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007″ http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-2007-Unleashed/dp/0672329204/ref=pd_sim_b_1/191-1807479-9996238 (yes, this book again )

http://www.msexchange.org/
http://msexchangeteam.com/
http://technet.microsoft.com/
http://www.cbtnuggets.com/

I’ve just passed my TS: Configuring Exchange Server 2007 (70-236)!  Got 100% on it.

For those of you intending to write this, even do not try to register for it if you do not have good understanding in PowerShell. I’ve got about 80% of questions about how to do things by using PowerShell. You have to answer a 53 questions in this exam and they give you 150 mins. to write the exam.

The study resources I used to pass are:

Book “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007″  http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-2007-Unleashed/dp/0672329204/ref=pd_sim_b_1/191-1807479-9996238

http://www.trainsignal.com/Exchange-Server-2007-Training-P22.aspx

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/

http://msexchangeteam.com/

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/exchange-2007-sp1-mailbox-management-part1.html

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Managing-mailboxes-Exchange-Server-2007-Part1.html

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998579.aspx

http://www.exchangeninjas.com/

http://www.exchangeinbox.com/article.aspx?i=83

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124977.aspx

If you are lazy (I’m very lazy ) you probably will want to create a script to deploy Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) on Windows Server 2008.
As a source for this scrip I really recommend to take a look on the following article: “Deploying CCR on Windows Server 2008 by Command-Line Only“

The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2.0 provides a way to automate the process of updating virtual machines running on virtual servers and Hyper-V with the latest operating system updates....

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It’s a lot of posts that explained how to detect HAL. Almost all of those solutions done in VB script. As well I’ve seen a lot of post about “problems’ running VB script under WinPE. So, one day I tried to create a batch file, that allows to detect a HAL under WinPE. I did all my tests under VistaPE 12 (I’ve used the VistaPE v.12 RC1).

Here is content of HAL_Detector.bat script: