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So I had this brought up at a meeting today, and I didn't know the answer: if I have an Active Directory Domain, and the DNS records for all of the Domain Controllers and Member Servers are correct, what will the effect be if the client workstations don't have host records ie: dynamic updates were disabled and there wasn't a host record created for it manually or by the DHCP server? I know that you won't be able to access the machines remotely except by IP, and alot of things like SMS won't work... but is there anything else?

I've got a couple machines with Vista, Office 2007, and Visio 2003 on them. On every one of these machines Visio 2003 is basically broken: you can't make non-straight line connectors, and if you open a file with non-straight line connectors it breaks the connector and turns it into a right angle connector. I've tried the various compatability modes, nothing seems to fix it. Any ideas?

I've got a lab of 100 or so machines that I need to monitor usage on. They're all running Windows XP, are on a Domain, and are managed by SMS 2003. I need to find a way to monitor "active" usage on the machine, so when someone is actually sitting at the machine doing something. More specifically, i just need each instance of when this occurs. Previously they had been using a screen saver that contacted an SQL server when it was turned off, but that no longer is a viable option. I'd like to do it with SMS so that I could combine it with the other software metering data that I collect. I tried setting Software Metering to track the screen saver on the system, but it doesn't look like SMS is going to play that game. Any ideas?

Unfortunately we have limited funding, so we're reusing servers. We have the money to do a front-end/back-end Exchange setup or do a NLB cluster of two servers and have a spam/antivirus device on the "front" doing the SPAM/ AntiVirus. We had a Barracuda box here for the last 30 days to evaluate, but weren't that impressed with it... especially considering how much they want for it. Right now we have a pair of Exchange 2k3 servers running for one of our Child domains but sitting at the parent domain level. 99% of our mail is going to the Lotus servers on that parent domain. So I'm stuck coming up with someway to either demo IMF, MailEssentials, and/or something else with the caveat that it has to work with our Lotus system: nothing beyond tagging subject lines and blocking obvious spam, but outside the comfort of Exchange & Outlook. Next year we're going to swap it out for a Exchange 2007 and at that point we also have a big chunk of change to spend on new servers, so I'll get a "proper" setup.

Microsoft SMS does a good job, but you're not going to like the pricing.

Here's my situation: we currently are running Lotus Domino and are looking to move to Exchange in the next 3 months. We are also looking at using Exchange IMF to filter out SPAM to replace the Linux MXs running SPAM Assassin that were are currently running. The question is, if we move our MX records over to the Exchange servers, will the IMF run before it relays the messages to the Lotus Domino server or will it simply foward all email? Microsofts documentation doesn't say one way or the other.

Here's the scenario: I have a lab of computers that all need to print. They all print to the same print queue hosted on a Windows Server 2003 box, which is deployed through Group Policy. The issue is that they need to pause the print job in the queue until they are ready to actually print it out, at which point they will walk over to the print station, choose their job, and then hit print. I've got everything all setup, except that I can't get the jobs to automatically pause in the queue... they either go straight through or fail. And I if i just pause the whole queue, then no jobs go through, paused or not. So is there any way to have the job automatically pause itself in the spool queue until the user un-pauses it?

Is there any way that you can specify the default "Log On To" select through group policy? We've recently rolled out a second child domain, and are having a bunch of users trying to log onto it. In a perfect world there would be a magic GPO to only list a single login destination, but I'm not betting on that.

Slow morning here at work, so I created a version of the welcom.osc file that has clippy on it. Like I said, slow day. Here's a jpg of the screen: Here's the source. Save it in a file named welcome.osc and save it in \RemoteInstall\OSChooser\ <OSCML> <META KEY=ENTER HREF="LOGIN"> <META KEY=F3 ACTION="REBOOT"> <META KEY=ESC HREF="LOGIN"> <META KEY=F1 HREF="LOGIN"> <TITLE> Client Installation Wizard Welcome</TITLE> <FOOTER> [ENTER] continue </FOOTER> <BODY left=5 right=75> <BR> <BR> <BR> &nbsp__<br> / \ ___________________________________________<br> | | / Welcome to the Client Installation wizard.\<br> | | | This wizard helps you quickly and easily |<br> @ @ | set up a new operating system on your |<br> || || <--| computer. You can also use this wizard to |<br> || || | keep your computer up-to-date and to |<br> |\_/| | troubleshoot computer hardware problems. | <br> | | | |<br> \___/ \____________________________________________/<br> <BR> </BODY> </OSCML>

Basically what we have is the single user setup on the laptop that's always logged in, and then we need the user to be able to access this network share using their credentials while still logged in as that user. I think I've got a solution worked out... I have a VBS script that executes and opens up an IE window to get thier user name and password. It then opens up the network share, and opens up an IE window that has a button for them to click to log them out of the network share. Its a bit complicated, but its the only solution I could come up with. Here's the VBS Code: ' COMMENT: Gets a user's login name, then executes a RUNAS on the command prompt ' that opens up Documents on Lexus with that user's credentials. For the ' ' ' ' ' ********************************************************************************** ' Variable Declerations ' ********************************************************************************** On Error Resume Next Dim WShell, strCommand Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") ' Open up Internet Exporer to get user input Set objExplorer = WScript.CreateObject _ ("InternetExplorer.Application", "IE_") objExplorer.Navigate "file:///C:\Conference\Password.htm" objExplorer.ToolBar = 0 objExplorer.StatusBar = 0 objExplorer.Width = 400 objExplorer.Height = 350 objExplorer.Left = 300 objExplorer.Top = 200 objExplorer.Visible = 1 ' Loop while waiting for IE to close Do While (objExplorer.Document.Body.All.OKClicked.Value = "") Wscript.Sleep 250 Loop ' Take in the input from IE strUsername = objExplorer.Document.Body.All.UserName.Value strPassword = objExplorer.Document.Body.All.UserPassword.Value strButton = objExplorer.Document.Body.All.OKClicked.Value objExplorer.Quit Wscript.Sleep 250 'Add the domain to the user name strUsername = strUsername & "@<FQDN>" 'If the user clicked cancel, then end the script, if not open the server share If strButton = "Cancelled" Then Wscript.Quit Else ' Setup the path to the server using the user's input credentials strCommand = "net use \\<server>\<share> " & strPassword & " /USER:" & strUsername ' Wscript.Echo strCommand WshShell.Run strCommand,0,True ' Open up an explorer window to the network share strCommand = "explorer.exe \\<server>\<share>\" ' Wscript.Echo strCommand WshShell.Run strCommand,3,True ' Open up Internet Exporer to get the user to logout Set objExplorer = WScript.CreateObject _ ("InternetExplorer.Application", "IE_") objExplorer.Navigate "file:///C:\Conference\Close.htm" objExplorer.ToolBar = 0 objExplorer.StatusBar = 0 objExplorer.Width = 400 objExplorer.Height = 350 objExplorer.Left = 300 objExplorer.Top = 200 objExplorer.Visible = 1 ' Loop while waiting for IE to close Do While (objExplorer.Document.Body.All.OKClicked.Value = "") Wscript.Sleep 250 Loop ' Log the user out of Lexus strCommand = "net use \\<server>\<share> /delete" ' Wscript.Echo strCommand WshShell.Run strCommand,0,True End If Here's the first IE Window (Password.htm) Sub RunScript OKClicked.Value = "OK" End Sub Sub CancelScript OKClicked.Value = "Cancelled" End Sub </SCRIPT> <BODY> <font size="2" face="Arial"> Username: </font><font face="Arial"> <input type="InputBox" name="UserName" size="40"></font></p> Password: </font><font face="Arial"> <input type="password" name="UserPassword" size="40"></font></p> <input type="hidden" name="OKClicked" size = "20"> <input id=runbutton class="button" type="button" value=" OK " name="ok_button" onClick="RunScript"> <input id=runbutton class="button" type="button" value="Cancel" name="cancel_button" onClick="CancelScript"> </BODY> And here's the second (Close.htm) <script LANGUAGE="VBScript"> Sub RunScript OKClicked.Value = "OK" End Sub Sub CancelScript OKClicked.Value = "Cancelled" End Sub </SCRIPT> <BODY> <font size="2" face="Arial"> Click the button below to log out of the network share </font> <input type="hidden" name="OKClicked" size = "20"> <input id=runbutton class="button" type="button" value=" OK " name="ok_button" onClick="RunScript"> </BODY>

I've got a computer here that needs to go into a conference room and be logged in all the time. That's easy. The catch is that it needs to be able to access the central domain network share using a given users permissions from a desktop shortcut. That user needs to be able to quickly get access to their files and open them on the computer without logging directly into the machine. I've tried doing this with both RUNAS and CPAU, and they work but the problem is that they must copy over the user's profile in order to do so... which won't work for this situation. So what I need to figure out is how to have the user be able to click a link on the desktop and it will accept their credentials and then open the network share using those without having to load the profile over. Any ideas?

We're looking to have an icon on someone's desktop that will generate a remote assistance invite and drop it to a common network share for everyone on our domain. Looking at the JS from Help Center it looks like it shouldn't be that hard, but I've just been having a hell of a time with it for some reason. So does anyone have either a nice sample or better yet the actual script that does this, or can be modified to the point that it will do it?

The only reason we don't prestage is that we move systems around a lot and this way with the simple HTA app we can RIS a machine and get it ready to go out in a very short time... and our base level student staff or even staff in their respective offices can RIS machines without needing our assistance. Our standard policy is to replace a desktop right away rather then mess with it trying to get spyware/other crap off there when they get hosed.

Okay, incase it ever comes up again here's what i did... i've got a script set to run in the ristndrd.sif file with the lines: [GuiUnattended] OemSkipWelcome = 1 AdminPassword="<REMOVED PASSWORD>" EncryptedAdminPassword=NO AutoLogon=Yes AutoLogonCount=1 [GuiRunOnce] Command0="C:\windows\system32\pris3\pris3.hta" The HTA file prompts the user for some input and then puts it in the correct OU. Here's the code for the OU moving. The login used to authenticate has the ability to create and delete computer accounts accross the domain. ' Declare all of our variables Dim objConnection Dim objCommand Dim objRecordSet Dim objOU Dim strADsPath Dim WshNetwork Dim strCurrent Dim objDSO Dim objDOU Dim objMove const ADS_SECURE_AUTHENTICATION = &h1 const ADS_SERVER_BIND = &h200 ' Make sure we keep on keeping on On Error Resume Next ' Set the scope so that it will go into all the OUs Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2 ' Connect up to Active Directory Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection") Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command") objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject" objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider" Set objCommand.ActiveConnection = objConnection ' Get the computer's current name off the Network interface Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network") strCurrent = WSHNetwork.ComputerName ' Limit the size of the page from ADS so that an bad query doesnt kill the domain objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000 objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE ' Find the current computer in Active Directory objCommand.CommandText = _ "SELECT ADsPath FROM 'LDAP://<DOMAIN>' WHERE objectCategory='computer' " & _ "AND name='" & strCurrent & "'" ' Run the query above Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute ' There should only be one entry here, but if there isnt we run it on all computer objects that match objRecordSet.MoveFirst ' Get the full CN of the computer strADsPath = objRecordSet.Fields("ADsPath").Value ' Set the destination we want it moved to Set objDSO = GetObject("LDAP:") Set objDOU = objDSO.OpenDSObject("LDAP://OU=<DESTINATION OU>, DC=<DOMAIN>", "<DOMAIN USER>" , "<DOMAIN USER PASSWORD>", ADS_SECURE_AUTHENTICATION + ADS_SERVER_BIND) 'Execute the move Set objMove = objDOU.MoveHere (strADsPath, vbNullString)

It is a 2003 Domain, but the problem is that RIS uses the computer's "old" computer account, so it doesn't create a new one and thusly uses the old account's OU.