How can I pre-cache the Microsoft Office 2007 installation files?

General, Scripting, Vista, Windows XP 1 Comment »

Office 2007 uses the MSOCACHE folder as part of its core installation and functionality process. The folder is typically populated during the Office 2007 installation. However, to avoid network activity during installation, you can accomplish a pre-cache by performing the following steps. (Use caret brackets in place of the square brackets.)

1. From the network installation point, use Notepad to open the config.xml file, which is located in the core product folder (e.g., Pro.WW for Office Professional 2007).
2. Find the [LIS] element, and uncomment the line by deleting the opening [!-- and closing --] tags.
3. Set the [CACHEACTION] attribute to “CacheOnly”. The line in Config.xml should look like

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What’s the new transaction log size in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007?

Exchange, Windows 2003 No Comments »

The transaction log size in Exchange 2007 is now 1MB instead of 5MB, which was the transaction log size for Exchange 2003. The reason for the size reduction is related to the new log shipping clustering technologies in Exchange 2007. The smaller the log file means a smaller amount of data loss because you can’t ship a transaction log until it’s closed and it needs 5MB of data written before you can close. With Exchange 2007, you only need 1MB of data written. In addition to the reduction of size of the transaction logs the naming scheme has been changed from E<2 digit storage group identifer><5 hexidecimal digits> to E<2 digit storage group identifer><8 hexidecimal digits> which means even though there will be five times the number of transaction logs the number of transaction logs you can have in total is over two thousand times the number of transaction logs you could previously have under Exchange 2003 (you don’t go all the way up to ffffffff, rather 7fffffec).

Extracting the SMS Installer Download on a Workstation

General, SMS, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 1 Comment »

Extracting the SMS Installer-ISU integrated download (or, just the standard SMS Installer) requires that a SMS site server be present on the network connection. When the extraction intiates is asks for a valid server name and will check to see if its available.

Say, you downloaded SMS Installer from home on a dial-up connection, what do you do then? Wait until you are in the office?

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I’m performance testing a proposed server configuration. To save disk space, I turned on circular logging and started running the Exchange Server Load Simulator (LoadSim) 2003 against my test servers, but I ended up with several dozen log files on each server. Why isn’t circular logging working?

Exchange, General No Comments »

If you read the Microsoft article “XADM: How Circular Logging Affects the Use of Transaction Logs” (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=147524) carefully, you’ll see that circular logging is working just fine. When it’s enabled, Exchange can reuse log files instead of creating new ones. Under typical circumstances, Exchange will create no more than five logs when you enable circular logging; however, Exchange will create additional log files, if needed, during surge conditions of high activity–such as when you run LoadSim to create a bunch of sessions and messages. After Exchange creates those log files, Exchange won’t delete them until you purge the files by doing a full backup with an Exchange-aware backup utility. Exchange will reuse the first log files, but they’ll stay in place across reboots until you purge them.

How can I prevent someone from accessing event logs on my server through the network?

General, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP No Comments »

Windows automatically limits access to the Security log to only those users who have the Manage auditing and security log user right. However, guests can access the System and Application logs. To disable guest access to these logs, open a Group Policy Object (GPO), go to Computer\Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Event Log\Settings for Event Logs, and enable Restrict guest access to system log and Restrict guest access to application. In Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, these policies are named Prevent local guests group from accessing system log and Prevent local guests group from accessing application log, respectively. Other users will still be able to view these logs provided they possess the Access this computer from the network user right. Windows doesn’t offer a more granular way to control access to the logs.

Can you give me a good explanation of the differences between assigning someone as a delegate and giving him or her permission to a folder?

Exchange, General 1 Comment »

The main difference is that using Tools, Options and setting permissions on the Delegates tab also grants the delegate Send On Behalf Of permission on the mailbox in Active Directory (AD). The user can then send messages as if he or she were the mailbox owner, and the From line on such messages will read From <sender> on behalf of <mailbox owner>. If you want to allow only folder access, without letting the user send on behalf of the mailbox owner, right-click the folder, choose Properties, and set access on the Permissions tab. You also need to use the Properties dialog box when you want to allow access to any folders other than Inbox, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Journal, or Notes.

When I open Windows Explorer, it takes a few seconds before it displays information. How can I eliminate that delay?

General, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP No Comments »

I fixed this problem by simply removing invalid entries from my system path. When Windows Explorer starts, it traverses the PATH variable, and invalid entries can extend the time necessary for Windows Explorer to initiate. To solve the problem, you need to ensure that each item in your PATH variable exists. To do so, open the Control Panel System applet, and access the Advanced settings (on the Advanced tab). Click the Environment Variables button. Under System Variables, view the PATH variable and check each entry that makes up the path. (Entries are separated by a semicolon.) Remove any incorrect entries, and click OK. Click OK on the main Environment Variables dialog box.

How can I quickly check whether a folder contains a certain type of file?

General, Scripting No Comments »

You can pass the test-path cmdlet a wildcard expression to see whether any matching file exists. For example, to see whether a folder has any MP3 files, you can use

test-path d:\temp\*.mp3

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