Sunday, November 17, 2013

Small Business Server 2003 with Win7 client account lockout

I recently added a WIndows 7 Pro 64 bit client to an SBS 2003 AD domain.  After which, every time the Win7 client reboot/went into standby/screenlocked then the domain account would get locked out.

After several attempts I was able to rectify the issue by disabling SBS Account lockout policy...

Open Server Management.
  1. In the console tree, click Advanced Management, right-click Group Policy Management, and then click Add forest.
  2. In the Add forest dialog box, enter the domain name. When prompted Do you want to add this forest with this domain?, click Yes.
  3. In the console tree, under Group Policy Management, click Forest:forestname, click Domains, right-click Small Business Server (Account) Lockout Policy, and then click Edit.
  4. In Group Policy Object Editor, click Computer Configuration, click Windows Settings, and then click Security Settings.
  5. Under Security Settings, click Account Policies, and then click Account Lockout Policy.
  6. In the details pane, double-click each of the following policies, and modify settings as needed: Account lockout duration, Account lockout threshold, and Reset account lockout counter after.
  7. I SET ACCOUNT LOCKOUT THRESHOLD TO ZERO.
  8. Click Apply, click OK, and then close Group Policy Object Editor.
  9. Close Group Policy Management.
If you also need to disable Account audit... (I didn't have it set ) do the following...

  1. Open Server Management.
  2. In the console tree, click Advanced Management, right-click Group Policy Management, and then click Add forest.
  3. In the Add forest dialog box, enter the domain name. When prompted Do you want to add this forest with this domain?, click Yes.
  4. In the console tree, under Group Policy Management, click Forest:forestname, click Domains, right-click domainname, click Domain Controllers, right-click Small Business Server Auditing Policy, and then click Edit.
  5. In Group Policy Object Editor, click Computer Configuration, click Windows Settings, click Security Settings, and then click Local Policies.
  6. Under Security Settings, click Local Policies, and then click Audit Policy.
  7. In the details pane, double-click Audit logon events, and modify settings as needed.
  8. Click Apply, click OK, and then close Group Policy Object Editor.
  9. Close Group Policy Management.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Operation could not be completed (error 0x00000709)

Operation could not be completed (error 0x00000709) when trying to set default printer in Win7...

Turns out an old printer (defunct yet still in registry somehow) was still there...

Fixed by setting permissions to key...

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

To FULL.  Then renamed key ..\Windows as ..\windows.x and restarted print spooler
service.. the default printer setting then worked normally.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproinstall/thread/57d9e420-0ea2-4561-a7cc-2fd33da792ae/

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

ASUS G1Sn-x1 with T9300 and 8GB RAM


I was able to successfully and easily upgrade my ASUS laptop to an Intel T9300 Core2 Duo
CPU... was a very easy swap.. cost me 50 bucks to extend the life of this awesome gaming lappy.

Hybrid SSD is also onboard...

ASUS G1Sn-x1 also upgraded to 8GB RAM, seen in BIOS and reported by Windows 7 64bit.
Used Corsair Valueselect 8GB 2x4 kit.

Lenovo T60 Bad Option ROM PXE-E05 Error

If you are having issues with your T60 Lenovo or similar laptop with a corrupted NIC Option ROM, I was able to fix it by resetting the ROM to default.

Download Intel BOOTUTIL here...
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19186

Create a FreeDOS bootable USB using RUFUS...
http://rufus.akeo.ie

Copy the \Intel###\APPS\BootUtil\DOS\bootutil.exe file to the USB drive and boot up
the laptop with it...

Run "bootutil -CFGDEF - ALL" and then power cycle.. it will be fixed.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

SERVER 2008 R1 SLOW RESPONSE

If you are having issues with a fresh install of 2008 Server (I was using R1 64 bit)...
I found that network issues can seriously hamper performance on this operating system.

This forum entry helped me enormously in disabling the network features that were
hampering performance, eventually found to be a DSL broadband access issue.

Apparently 2008 server R1 stability is very dependent upon network stability.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/126458-very-slow-everything-server-2008-ent-64-bit/

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Win7 Domain Client accessing WinXP share

For some reason Microsoft makes it a royal piain in the ass for a Win7 domain client to attach to a
WinXP share...  I had a Win7 Enterprise client on a domain attaching to a shared WinXP Pro SP3 client on that same domain.. nothing worked.  I tried the following...

On XP shared client, disabled simple file sharing.
On Win7 attaching client, set Administrative Tools... Local Security Policy... Security Options...  Network Security LAN Manager Authentication Level to "use LM & LMNT as well as negotiate LMNTv2".  Also set Network Discovery to ON and allowed lower level encryption support.

When that all still didnt work... I did the following...

On the XP shared client, I created a new network share...
I then created a local account called shareaccess with local Administrator group priviledge and added that user to the shares access list, having with full permissions.
On the Win7 attaching client, I created a Generic Credential pointing to the IP address of the XP machine, using the shareaccess account and password I just created.

Worked like a charm.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

DELL laptop force BIOS update

Recently I needed to troubleshoot a battery charging issue with an Inspiron 1700 series dual core laptop... as the battery was no longer recognized by the laptop.  Is suspect the message "battery not recognized" also means the one of the cells is bad in the battery, moreso than it being a suspect or knockoff battery. 

Anyway, one of the troubleshooting steps was to upgrade the laptop BIOS, but thats a catch22 as the
BIOS update requires a 10% charged battery and AC power concurrent during upgrade.

There is a verified process that I found... create a DOS bootable image on USB or other bootable media, making sure of a clean boot (NO drivers or shared memory managers running),  and once booted into it... run the BIOS update with the /forceit switch.  This bypassed the power check for me.