miscITfinds: August 2007

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

ms-access notes and tips

Access Query and Filter Criteria
http://www.fontstuff.com/access/acctut06.htm

Microsoft Access Query Tips and Techniques
https://www.fmsinc.com/tpapers/queries/index.html

How-To's

VBA For MS Access

Saturday, August 25, 2007

pc remote control

CrossLoop

LogMeIn

new collaboration interface
msShareView

Friday, August 24, 2007

802.1x

microsoft.public.win2000.security 802.1x settings - GPO Script - long, but I have a solution! Best bet
A Windows XP-based wired client computer will not obtain a valid IP address from a guest VLAN or from an Authentication failed-VLAN
802.1x Enables Comply or Deny For PCs - Technology Roadmap - Network Computing
802.1X Authenticated Wired and Wireless Access

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

pretty good windows tips site

Windows NT® / Windows 2000® / Windows XP® / Windows Server 2003® Tips and Tricks

cataloged here http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowsnt20002003faq/

Find fast answers to frequently asked questions about Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Longhorn, Internet Explorer (IE), SharePoint, SQL Server, and other Microsoft products. This FAQ provides technical explanations of key Microsoft products, tools, and technologies for IT systems and network administrators. Get tips and tricks for troubleshooting, interpreting errors and event logs, and working with the registry. Find workarounds for common deployment, security, networking, systems management, AD, Group Policy and GPO issues, file-and-print, and scripting issues (whether from the command line, a scripting language, or the new Windows PowerShell). Solve problems with DNS, DHCP, WINS, TCP/IP, and other protocols.

reporting services links

links about reporting services available here mike mccafferty reporting services

Thursday, August 16, 2007

make your own restore partition

What is ImageX
Windows Vista Disk Imaging with ImageX and Windows Imaging Format (WIM)
Windows Vista Deployment Step by Step Guide
september 2007 technet magazine
WindowsDevCenter.com -- PC Deployment with ImageX
more 2 come

lua bugLight

LUA Buglight public [pre]-release

Problems of Privilege: Find and Fix LUA Bugs

MSDN Webcast: Identifying Least-Privilege User Account (LUA) Bugs with the LUA Buglight

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

sql joins

SQL Joins and Keys
Understanding SQL Joins
Getting the Right Data with SQL Joins
How IT Works A Primer On SQL Joins -- TechNet Magazine, Spring 2005
SQL joins - multi-table queries

SQL Server Service packs and Versions

http://vyaskn.tripod.com/sqlsps.htm

Windows servers: Tips to keep them humming

Administrators working with Windows servers should know about all the shortcuts and workarounds that can make their lives easier, as well as some of the less well-known features related to their Windows operating systems. The editors of SearchWinComputing.com recently combed the site and compiled this list of tips that can help you maintain the performance of your server.
First of all, if your server has a performance problem, you have to figure out what it is. Here are three tips related to logging and monitoring that will help you do that:
Resolving startup issues on Windows Server 2003When you have problems starting a system, think about what has changed recently. If you keep a change log, access the log to see what has changed on the system recently. A new device driver might have been installed or an application might have been installed that incorrectly modified the system configuration.
When Performance Monitor yields unexpected results The Performance Monitor tool built into Windows can give you a wealth of information regarding what's going on with your system. But sometimes it behaves strangely. This tip sheds some light on a few of this tool's eccentricities.
Performance Advisor adds reporting functionsVersion 2.0 of Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 Performance Advisor added customizable reporting functions. For instance, you can produce reports on specific subsystems, such as one that concentrates on the performance of SQL Server or on low-level functions like CPU and physical memory usage.
Another way to accelerate server performance is to automate some of the tasks it has to perform regularly. Here are three tasks you can do that will make the server run better and make your life easier.
Automating disk defragmentationAfter you install a lot of applications on a server, systems administrators should run Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis. However, that may be difficult to do on a timely basis. However, today it's possible to put an end to disk defragmentation as a manual process by scheduling disk defragmentation via the Windows Task Scheduler.
Managing DNSAdministering DNS isn't always a set-it-and-forget-it operation. The less manual work you have to do with zone files or the DNS interface, the better, and there are a bunch of tools (some free, some commercial) that will automate most of the process of dealing with DNS.
Clean up Active DirectoryIn a busy environment, Active Directory can come to resemble that garage full of junk that never gets cleaned out. Expired users, nonexistent machine references and many other kinds of clutter fill it up and can lead to performance and manageability problems. Tidying up manually isn't much fun, and eats up time that could be put to more productive work. But there are a number of tools that automate a good deal of the work involved in keeping AD tidy.
We know that many of you have either started on or are getting ready to do a major server consolidation. Here's a tip on a key piece of the server consolidation puzzle: calculating CPU utilization.
Any good technician carries a toolbox. Here are four tools and utilities you'll want to have in yours.
Tools give you a heads-up to server problemsToday you have various server management tools at your disposal that will help you anticipate problems before they occur. This tip looks at some of these tools.
Solving the named pipes puzzleMany Windows server products, such as SQL Server (and Windows itself) use named pipes for communicating with other servers and processes. Pipes are usually invisible and silent; you don't interact with them. But that can be a drawback, if for instance you inherit someone else's server and don't know which services are opening named pipes, which could constitute an attack vector. It can be difficult to find out the available permissions on a named pipe. Here's a utility to get to the bottom of the puzzle.
Easing the pain of shared folder migrationMany administrators upgrading to Windows 2003 Server encounter difficulties with migrating and consolidating shared folders from their older server platforms. Part of the problem is due to changes in conventions and technology. Administrators may want to migrate older Universal Naming Convention (UNC) network paths to newer DFS shares where possible, but copying everything by hand over to the new servers isn't the way to go. Try using Microsoft's File Server Migration Toolkit.
The Windows 2000 Configure Your Server toolGiven the often bewildering number of administrative tools and Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins available, it's crucial to have an organized and central location from which to access all of your important server tools, such as Active Directory, DHCP, DNS and WINS. You don't actually use the Configure Your Server tool to perform many actions, but it serves as an interface for launching the various MMC snap-ins that you use to accomplish your tasks.
Now what about those shortcuts and workarounds mentioned at the outset? Here are five tips that fall into that category, as well as some of the less well-known features related to their Windows operating systems.
Disable DNS client screening on multi-homed Windows Server 2003 machinesThere are times you might want to disable the DNS feature in Windows Server 2003 called client screening, which allows the server to determine and remember if a given DNS server is accessible. Here's how to do that.
Hot add memory sometimes hangs Windows Server 2003One new feature in Windows Server 2003 is the ability lets you add memory without rebooting the computer. This hot add feature is a boon for administrators – that is, when it's available and when it works. But sometimes it hangs the system. Here's what to do if that happens.
Shadow copies of shared folders carry a server performance penaltyIf that penalty is sever, you may want to modify your storage architecture. Shadow copies use a copy-on-write algorithm to update the volume image. This incurs a performance cost since information has to be written twice to disk, increasing the I/O load on the system. In the case of a heavily loaded server, the cost of the additional write can noticeably affect system performance. You can reduce the performance penalty by dedicating a separate hard disk to the shadow copy.
Improve Network File System performanceMicrosoft Services for Network File System in Windows Server 2003 performs well out of the box, but you can make storage performance improvements with some registry tweaks. Here are three ways to do this if you use both Windows Server 2003 and Unix.
Analyze your directory namesYou have tens of thousands of files stored on your Windows systems. Performance isn't meeting your expectations. By changing your directory structure and analyzing your directory names, you can improve system performance. Here are some suggestions on how you can make your systems hum along at a quicker pace.

Acctinfo.dll Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools

Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools are a set of tools to help administrators streamline management tasks such as troubleshooting operating system issues, managing Active Directory, configuring networking and security features, and automating application deployment. This segment of my in-depth review of these tools will explore the one listed first alphabetically: AccountInfo.dll, aka Acctinfo.dll.
Acctinfo.dll is actually a DLL. If you don't consider DLLs to be tools, you're probably wondering why it's in the kit at all. The reason is that it adds to the functionality of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, a tool for managing your users, groups and computers.
Once you register the DLL, you'll get another tabbed option when looking at a user's account properties. On the tab, you'll find the following:
General Account Info, including: Lock Out status, Domain Password Policy being applied, Password Last Set date and Password Expiration date
Logon Information, including: Last Logon attempt, Logon Count, Last Logon and Logoff, Last Bad Logon Time, Bad Password Count
Active Directory account attributes, including: User Account Control, SID and SID History, GUID, User-DN-Site-Domain Controller (e.g., the account's Active Directory path). Warning: See the section below on issues regarding the "Set PW On Site DC" button.
System requirements for Acctinfo.dll
Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server operating system
You must be an Administrator to install Acctinfo.dll.
Acctinfo.dll must be registered on each computer on which Active Directory Users and Computers is employed to access user account information.
Installation of Acctinfo.dll
To install and register Acctinfo.dll, perform these three steps:
1. Copy the file Acctinfo.dll to the %windir%\system32 folder.
2. Start-->Run-->type: cmd
3. In the command window, type regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\acctinfo.dll. You should receive a dialog box that states the registration was successful.
To uninstall Acctinfo.dll, type regsvr32 /u c:\windows\system32\acctinfo.dll.
General use
The primary purpose of the Additional Account Info tab is to display account information. But it also allows you to change a user's password and unlock an account. Normally, an administrator would have to tab around to get to this information, which is likely the most commonly used functionality in your Active Directory network for managing user accounts. For many systems administrators, the tab basically becomes a one-stop shop for most of their daily user account administration needs.
Issues with Acctinfo.dll
The readme.htm file included with Acctinfo.dll lists five issues to be considered.
1. In some cases, the information is not actually stored in Active Directory, but is calculated only when needed. For example, the date that a user's password will expire is not stored in Active Directory. Active Directory stores the date that the password was last set and the maximum allowed password age (for example, passwords must be set every 60 days).
To determine the actual date that a password expires, you typically have to use scripts to retrieve this information and calculate the expiration date. Acctinfo.dll performs these calculations for you.
2. In some cases, information is stored locally rather than in Active Directory. For example, last logon and last logoff times are stored on each individual domain controller and are not replicated throughout the domain. Acctinfo.dll enables you to determine the last time a user logged on or logged off from a specified domain controller. If users are typically authenticated by the same domain controller, this will tell you when these users last logged on to or logged off from the domain. If users are authenticated by multiple domain controllers, you'll need to install Acctinfo.dll on each of these servers and check the account information on each one.
3. You can unlock a user account using this tab, but you must also change the password to do it.
4. If you click on the "Set PW On Site DC" button, be sure that you do not click the OK button when closing, as you may inadvertently set the user accounts password to blank. Just click Cancel.
5. When using the Find option to locate an account in the AD Users and Computers snap-in, the Additional Info tab does not appear when you display the properties of the account from the search window.
More information on this topic:
Tip: Guide to the Windows Server 2003 Windows Resource Kit Tools
Topics: Admin toolsSign up for our RSS feed to receive expert advice every day.

Creating Altiris or Microsoft Web Reports Queries

1. Create a functional query in SMS MMC to return desired data.
2. Start SQL profiler & create a new trace... add the SMS_Provider component.
3. Run the SMS query in MMC - Profiler captures actual SQL code issued via SMS_PROVIDER.
4. Copy SELECT statement from Profiler's Trace tool.
5. Paste SQL statement into SQL Query Analyzer as a new query
6. Do a little SQL syntax cleanup in Analyzer... SMS Profiler captures SQL statement's values using double-quotes; Query Analyzer requires single-quotes... edit where necessary (tip: When you parse the query in Analyzer, it'll return a syntax error referencing the first occurrence of the offending text - look for that text in the statement & you'll find the double-quotes, displayed in gray. Replace the double quotes with single, and the value will change to red text, indicating correct syntax).

from http://www.myitforum.com/articles/5/view.asp?id=190