Bret Fisher - Fishbrains

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Make Your RDS Seamless: Removing RDWeb, RDP, and RemoteApp Prompts

Steps: Use a trusted Cert for https on rds.company.com Use SSL URL for everything, not actual host name. http://morgansimonsen.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/sha1-thumbprints-for-trusted-rdp-publishers/ create .wcx file for user config on win7: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes&

New Features in Active Directory since 2003

Major new features and benefits for Sysadmins. See full list at bottom of each, but the ones listed here are what I would expect 80% of us to care about. For most/all of these you’ll need the domain/forest at the specific level. Just adding a newer Windows

Server 2012 R2 Failed SSL Certificate Binding After Import to IIS

We're not sure of the exact steps for creating this error, but If you have Windows Server 2012 R2 and are using IIS to export/import certificates around, you might eventually see then when trying to use the certificate: A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have

Apple Thunderbolt Display Hissing

For nearly a year, my monitor has has a random hissing, buzzing, and static-like noise from the bottom left side. First visit to Apple Store had them thinking it was a fan, which they couldn't find anything wrong with, despite my advice that it wasn't a fan. The sound was

Robocopy: Tips From 10 Years of File Server Replacements

I can vouch for Robocopy. I've been using it for at least a decade, and it's the ONLY way I migrate/copy file shares. I've used it for dozens of file server replacements in all sorts of scenerios. It's never let me down, even with TBs of data over slow

Reset Windows Update components RE: KB971058

KB 971058 talks about how to reset Windows Updates, which worked for me on a Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V host that was getting error 800B001 when trying to run Microsoft Updates. I've created a batch file that is much easier then the huge amount of steps/typing you'd need

Why iPhone and iOS Autodiscover Might Not Be Working

Maybe: You're using SRV records for autodiscover. iPhone only supports A/CNAME records or http redirect. Or: Your UPN domain is different then your email address domain.

windows server 2003

P2V of Windows Server 2003 using OEM License

When you P2V (Physical-to-Virtual) Windows, it will want to re-activate Windows due to hardware changes. If you're physical server was running a OEM version of Windows Server, you may not have access to the COA Label (Certificate of Authenticity). These keys from Microsoft can be used after the P2V to

windows 7

MDT Win7 Deployment with IE10 Fails

Windows could not parse or process unattend answer file [C:\windows\Panther\unattend.xml] for pass [specialize]. That's what you'll see if you try to deploy a MDT image of Windows 7 that you captured via "sysprep and capture" with Internet Explorer 10 on it, then tried to deploy. Seems

fix

Server 2012 Forcing A Reboot on Admins

If you admin Windows Server 2012 enough, and you keep auto updates on like you should, you'll eventually run into this. While logged in, Server 2012 will give you a winupdate reboot countdown that isn't easily stopped. This can happen at any time, and first few times I saw it,

powershell

Hyper-V Replica is not Automatic High Availability

I, like many, love the new Hyper-V in Server 2012. NIC teaming, concurrent live migration, SMB VM storage, and the all-new Replica. Replica solves a few problems, but it's definitely not a panacea on it's own. There is lots of info on Hyper-V Replica out there, but a few points

My Hyper-V Best Practices (win 2008-2012)

I've been using Hyper-V since 1.0 in production (and Virtual Server 2005 before it), and have my own personal list of "things to do and not do", applicable to all three versions so far. These are highly opinionated guidelines of mine, but they've worked great and small and large

windows server 2012

Can your hardware run Hyper-V 3.0 in Windows 8 and Server 2012?

Note: Learned after this post that SLAT is only *required* for Client Hyper-V on Windows 8... not Server 2012. Awesome! You may be running Hyper-V great on Windows Server 2008 R2 and want to upgrade to Server 2012, or maybe want some Hyper-V goodness in Windows 8 (finally!). But before

windows server 2012

My Take on Windows Server 2012 Licensing FAQ

Here's the licensing summary and the long official licensing FAQ, but I've tried to summarize the important stuff. I find the new licensing much easier to understand then ever before. I issue no guarantees on my ability to correctly read a Microsoft licensing document: Server 2012 only has two editions:

windows 8

TechEd North America 2012: What You Missed

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, System Center 2012, Visual Studio 2012, Windows Azure updates, and more. TechEd is about “what’s next” for Microsoft System Admins (they call us IT Pros) and Developers. It’s the biggest U.S. Microsoft conference every summer and has over 600 sessions in 5

cloud

MMS 2012: What You Missed

My post at 4sysops.com, a great Windows Admin resource.

winadmin

Why Is IIS Host Name Greyed On Site Binding Using Wildcard SSL?

Likely because your SSL Certificate Friendly Name is the field used for IIS to determine if it's a Wildcard. If your Common Name is *.domain.com and in the IIS Edit Site Binding the SSL certificate drop down shows just domain.com then that's your issue. Good news is you

windows

RDP Exploit is Coming - Patch All Windows Now

I'm posting this info to do "my part" to ensure the word gets out on this Windows OS Internet-exploitable vulnerability. I can count on one hand the times I've had to care this much about a Windows patch in the last 15 years. Please read and react. This has the

server monitoring

Current Project: Winsitter.com

This blog has seen less action over the last year due to my activities related to a personal obsession of mine: Creating a web startup to help keep Windows Servers up and running on autopilot. As a consulting engineer for various small and large organizations, I can say it is

winadmin

HRNUG Jan 2012: Developer + Sysadmin

Presentation on Improving Your System Management and Virtualization Skills Below is a summary of a talk I gave to Hampton Roads .NET User Group in January 2012. 1st Part: Tools Developers Should (but don't) Talk About Developers are usually busy being great developers and just what their systems to work.

fix

iPhone Siri Location Reminders Disabled by Exchange ActiveSync of Tasks

The title basically says it all. If you can't get Siri to set location-based (GPS) reminders in iOS 5 then it may be because you are using Exchange ActiveSync. When you setup ActiveSync on the iPhone Tasks was selected by default. When you do this it disables the location feature

planning

Lync 2010 Virtualization Support Summary

Taken from the Deployment Guide and the Server Virtualization Guide: If you decide to go virtual, Lync only supports Hyper-V R2 or ESX 4.0 platforms. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is NOT supported as "A number of enhancements that are critical for running virtualized Lync Server media workloads were implemented

wireless

Share Your Paid Wifi with Friends

Ever been in a hotel, airport, coffee shop, or some place that you pay per computer to use their Wireless Internet? Windows 7 has a new feature “Virtual Wifi” that lets you use your wireless as if it was multiple wireless NIC’s, but why do we care?

windows

Turn a laptop into a three-monitor system

Thanks to Ryan for this tip. The Matrox DualHead2Go can be had for around $200 and turns your VGA or DisplayPort on your laptop into 2 additional screens vs. the standard 2nd screen add on. After nearly a week on Windows 7 x64 with two 20” monitors it’