IT Knowledgebase Articles

How can I block a Windows 2000/XP/2003 computer from surfing on the Internet but still allow it to surf to Intranet sites? As written in the previous article – Block Web Browsing with IPSec, Windows 2000/XP/2003 machines have a built-in IP security mechanism called IPSec (IP Security). IPSec is a protocol that’s designed to protect…

How do I block incoming Internet mail to specific users or groups in Exchange 2003? This tip might come in handy when you want to effectively block all incoming Internet mail traffic for a specific user or a specific group. Note: The original tip was submitted by Ade Famoti on the excellent You Had Me…

Before you begin messing with your system The registry is no child’s play Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved nor do I provide technical support for such issues if they occur….

ADSI is a set of COM objects that are used to programmatically manipulate a namespace. A namespace could be anything from the Active Directory to an application such as MS Exchange Server. Since ADSI is based on COM, it may be scripted using any language with COM bindings (any language that supports accessing the COM…

How do I backup my Exchange 2000/2003 server? One of the most important tasks for an Exchange administrator is the regular, day-by-day, backing up of all the Exchange databases. This can be easily accomplished by use of the built-in NTBACKUP.EXE software found on your Exchange 2000/2003 server. Some administrators might choose to your 3rd-Party backup…

Backing up Active Directory is essential to maintain the proper health of the Active Directory database. You can backup Active Directory by using the NTBACKUP tool that comes built-in with Windows Server 2003, or use any 3rd-party tool that supports this feature. Backing up the Active Directory is done on one or more of your…

  Windows Server 2008 has a new feature allowing administrators to create snapshots of the Active Directory database for offline use. There are quite a few scenarios for using AD snapshots. For example, if someone has changes properties of AD objects and you need to revert to their previous values, you can mount a copy…

Can I use Automatic Completion with a Command Prompt in Windows 2000/XP/2003? Yes. This article describes how to configure Windows 2000/XP/2003 to complete file and folder names automatically that you type at a command prompt. This feature works by typing a control character that invokes the feature. For example, to change to the Program Files…

Batch scripting is a powerful aspect of Windows. If you are unaware, batch scripts are files that are executed by the Command Prompt. In theory, every task that you can complete in Windows using a GUI can be completed using a batch script. This tutorial is an introduction to batch scripting in Windows Vista that…

As mentioned earlier in my “Working with Vista’s new Event Viewer" and "Working with Filtering and Custom Views in the Vista Event Viewer" articles, the new Event Viewer in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 has been totally re-designed and now offers a much wider administrative capabilities. One of the features of the new Event…