IT Knowledgebase Articles

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…

When you first install and run Windows Vista, it will calculate your Windows Experience Index score to evaluate your computer’s speed and graphics capabilities. Microsoft defines the Windows Experience Index as the following: “The Windows Experience Index is a new feature built into Windows Vista that is designed to help you better understand how well…

How can I archive the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) Spam Confidence Level (SCL) rating of messages in Exchange 2003? Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter is a product developed by Microsoft to help companies reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), or spam, received by users. You can read more about IMF on the Block Spam…

Background By default, anonymous LDAP operations, except rootDSE searches and binds, are not permitted on Windows 2003 domain controllers. This means that when trying to perform unauthenticated search in Active Directory, you can query for attributes of the RootDSE object only – any other query will result in domain controller requesting authenticated bind to LDAP…