home




Windows Server Networking & Active Directory


Windows Networking can be tricky sometimes. Particularly when you have all this flexibility and power within Active Directory, it also means it can be very challenging to fix problems or diagnose effectively.

Guru Guy knows the ins-and-outs of Server Networking and is happy to share the ever-increasing knowledge that comes with running a busy and complex network.

Related Guides:



Group Policy Settings & Logon Scripts

Timezone Daylight Savings
Ever wanted to enable or disable Windows Time-Zone's Daylight Savings via a script or registry file? Well, the cool thing is, you can. What's even greater, if you can insert custom registry settings into Group Policy, should the default options not be of assistance!

Under the registry tree, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation,  the value "DisableAutoDaylightTimeSet" will disable or enable the Daylight Savings feature. If it is visible, its value should be 1 to disable Daylight Savings. If it is 0 or not visible, it is enabled. Otherwise, download the registry files to enable or disable them! You can install them silently on clients via command line:
regedit /s "xxx.reg"


Set Timezone via script
Fancy setting the client's time-zone via a login script? Well you can, and its easy, run the following command:
RUNDLL32.EXE SHELL32.DLL,Control_RunDLL TIMEDATE.CPL,,/Z (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time
The last item in bold is the time-zone. This can be any time-zone your PC offers, so it can be Cairo, Minsk etc. Just specify it as it is written on the regional control panel list!


Group Policy Updates
Once Group Policy updates have been made/changed, they typically take 90 minutes to deploy, or until next computer reboot. So Workstations can benefit from your changes immediately, run via command-line the following:
gpupdate /force

Learn more about Group Policy Scripts and how to map drives and printers based on Active Directory Group Memberships.



WSUS (Windows Server Update Services)

WSUS clients will report in every 6 hours (Group Policy default) dependant on your domain settings. However, if you wish to have your workstations report in now, run the following commands (via batch script or remotely) by running:

wuauclt /ResetAuthorization
wuauclt /detectnow
wuauclt /reportnow
wuauclt /updatenow

Or, you can deploy the following registry file (modify before doing such) which will update the client to point to your WSUS server and check/download updates at whatever given interval. If you really want to get fancy, deploy this Visual Basic Script that will keep the user notified of what updates it is downloading and installing. You can use this to automate Windows Updates download & installation in one session, but it is not suitable for a script.


Terminal Server & Terminal Services Tips

If an installation is being attempted on a server running Terminal Services, use Terminal Services Installation Mode which captures the installation registry and install routines, to make sure the installed program works for all Terminal Users:
  1. Open a command prompt (Start->Run->CMD) and type:
    change user /install 
  2. Run the installation by navigating to the setup.exe in the install folder;
  3. After the setup is complete, exit install mode typing at command prompt:
    change user /execute
  4. Close the window for the Command Prompt

Is your Terminal Server nagging Terminal users to restart the computer after Windows Updates are installed, to which the users cannot being that it is a server? (You only get "Restart Later" as "Restart Now" is greyed out). Well, the answer is simple:
  1. Make a textfile and save it as "Stop Windows Update Service.cmd". Note the .cmd part. Make sure you save it as a command file, not .cmd.txt or anything silly like that;
  2. Edit the file - it should have:
    sc stop wuauserv
  3. Now, whenever you install windows updates, if you are not ready to reboot the Terminal Server at that time, just disable the Windows Update Service (wuauserv) which will then disable restart notifications! Just reboot in your own time without your users being nagged every 10 minutes to reboot! (Just don't forget either)!


Hide 'My Computer' Drive Letters via Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

Do you have a Terminal Server in which you'd like to hide the Server's own C and D Drives from users? Perhaps you have other drives that need hiding such as CDROM, Memory Sticks and Partitioned Hard Drives?

Whether you need this for your terminal server or for your Workstations, this guide is for you! 

Introduction

Windows assigns a drive letter with a numeric value. This is based on numbers to the power of 2. So, knowing each letter in the alphabet has a number starting from A, here are your typical values: A =1, B=2, C=4, D=8, E=16.

To tell Group Policy which drive letters to hide, you enter a single numeric number which equates to the drive letters it has to hide.

For example, to hide Drive A, B and C = 7
To hide Drives A, C and E = 21.

Instructions

To give Group Policy this capability, you need to make your own ADM file which specifies the values with pre-set options so that you can choose the drive letters to hide from a list within Group Policy. ADM files should be edited with Notepad so you don't include formatting etc.

Here is a ready-made ADM file which specifies a number of options for you to utilise. This may well be all you need since it specifies options to hide drives A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. However, for more options, just open up the file and use the reference list below to customise your options!

Drive letter        Numeric Value
A                    1
B                    2      
C                    4      
D                    8      
E                    16      
F                    32      
G                    64      
H                    128      
I                     256      
J                     512      
K                    1024      
L                    2048      
M                   4096      
N                   8192      
O                  16384      
P                   32768      
Q                  65536      
R                  131072      
S                  262144      
T                  524288      
U                  1048576      
V                  2097152      
W                 4194304      
X                  8388608      
Y                  16777216      
Z                  33554432      
ALL               67108863      



Like what you've read? Was this of help? Contact Guru Guy to let him have your feedback!

Now why not visit Guru Guy's Vintage Computer Webshop to grab classic Vintage Computer Server Software!
 
  Copyright © Guru Guy 2009. All Rights Reserved. SITEMAP | DISCLAIMER