TechNet Top Questions - April 2001

Article
12/22/2008

Hiding Exchange 5.5 DL Members?

I am looking for a way to set up a "distribution list" of external Internet e-mail addresses that will not display the individual members of the list in the To: field. We use Outlook 2000 on Exchange 5.5. I do not want to create hidden recipients for these outside addresses. I have also looked at mail merging contacts, but want something that is not too difficult for users to use.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

A: " Kirrin Jones " replied with:

When you create a distribution list, there is an option on the Advanced tab that has the option Hide Membership from Address Book.

That should fix your problem.

For some caveats on the use of the "Hide Membership" option, see 176145 - XADM: Administrators Can Edit DL Members Even When Hidden from AB

IIS Authentication

Q: " Camilo Torres " asks:

Hello,

How can I authenticate a user on a site, using basic authentication but without using the pop-up dialog from the operating system? Is there any way to use the API to send the credentials captured from textboxes to a server side function that allow the user to be authenticated without seeing the Windows dialog? (Note: This is not simply for knowing if the username and password are correct.)

Thanks a lot for any ideas you may have.

Camilo

A: " Intermedia.NET Support /(VS/) " quickly replied with:

Hi,

Try this one:

"https://username:password@domain.com/page.htm"

Intermedia.NET (VS)

Microsoft Certified Solutions Provider

Providing expertise in hosting applications

More Tips at: https://www.intermedia.net/support/kb/

This one has a happy ending. Camilo followed up with:

Using this a solved my problem: my login captures the credentials and uses window.navigate to try to access a .asp

The server will validate the user and give access to the .asp, but because the username and password are exposed in the address bar, my .asp will only make a response.redirect to my destination page that is my default under the restricted directory.

Thanks a lot, Intermedia.NET!

Camilo Torres

May we suggest Microsoft Site Server and Forms Authentication?

Forms Authentication is a group of ASP pages that first prompts the user for a username and password, then it passes this information to a Verify page, which, if the username and password are found in the membership database, it then passes to a membership page. If it doesn't verify, you get a different page.

Once the user is verified, a cookie value is created. The cookie works until it expires, and it allows the user to browse the site without having to specify a username and password. As the user goes through the site, the cookie gets renewed, so while they work with the site, they don't expire.

The Site Server user gets mapped to a NT user, so NTFS permissions will work

See Microsoft Site Server Home Page

Where to Learn Commerce Server 2000

Q: " Jaime Stuardo " asks:

Hi all,

Can you recommend some good sites learning Commerce Server 2000?

Thanks a lot.

A: " Deepak K " replied:

https://www.microsoft.com/commerceserver and https://www.mscsug.com is an independent resource for all news, reviews, tools, case studies, and white papers related to Commerce Server 2000.

HTH

Deepak
Sent via https://www.mscsug.com
The site for Commerce Server 2000

Ghost in the Machine

Hi all,

I'm having problems with Ghost v6.51 and Windows 2000 Pro. It seems that if the hard drive is formatted using FAT32, I can clone an entire lab of machines without fail. However, if I format the drive using NTFS, the machines reboot endlessly before the Windows 2000 Pro logo page comes up.

I have this problem whether or not I use Sysprep. (I've also tried using the -pnp to force it to redetect all hardware with no luck). The strange thing is that I can re-image the machine that I created the image on with no trouble whatsoever, but when I try to clone an identical machine (same hardware, BIOS version, and BIOS settings), it results in the same rebooting problem.

I have had this same problem through Ghost 5.1, 6.5 and now 6.51. Each of these is said to be compatible with Windows 2000, but I can't seem to make it work. I've tried using the -fdsp switch with Ghost 6.51, which is supposed to resolve bootup failures after cloning disks on Windows 2000 computers, as well as the various ntfs related switches, all of which made no difference.

I'm also unable to find anything relevant on Symantec's support page. Surely, I'm not the only one trying to clone NTFS partitions? It must be something I'm missing or something I'm doing.

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Darren Toews

A: " Joe Morris " replied:

We've had no major problems with SYSPREP, although we have made a point of getting all the bug fixes for it (including the ones you have to call Microsoft to get).

Almost the only time we see the looping at boot time is when someone forgets to turn on ACPI in the system BIOS (or forgets to upgrade the BIOS to one that supports ACPI).

The only other time I've seen boot-time looping is when the tech tries to install a standard image to a machine that uses a HAL that's not compatible with the system on which the image was built.

Joe Morris

" Jeff Cramner " adds:

Darren,

I have not had any trouble ghosting an NTFS partition. I use Ghost 6.51. I created a boot disk with the utility that comes with Ghost. I then added my own network settings. I ghost the machine while booted up with the boot disk. I do know that one trick is to ask the machine to do a check disk just before you image it. Windows 2000 needs administrative rights to do this so it does it on the next reboot. It then will do the check disk and adjust for the disk it was just written to. I hope this helps.

Good advice. See also, 240126 - Best Practices for Using Sysprep with NTFS Volumes

Terminal Server Load Program?

Q: " Denise Sommers " asks:

Hi,

The Terminal Services Advanced Client allows you to load a program at the start of a session if you set the Secured Settings Interface on. It allows you to do this through the StartProgram method. This works fine if you are trying to load an executable, but I am trying to load an Access MDE, and I keep getting the following error:

An error(193) occurred while creating user logon.

This initial program cannot be started C:\Test.MDE

Please check the initial program in the client configuration

Is there any way to load any other type of document or application or can you only load EXE's?

Thanks a million!

Denise Sommers

A: " Peter Cresswell " nails it with this reply:

I'm afraid I haven't got the equipment to try this where I'm working at the moment, but I believe from previous experience that you should be able to accomplish it by using the executable in the command line e.g:

c:\.........\access.exe C:\Test.MDE

Remember your "" if you've got spaces in the path.

Regards,

Peter Cresswell
MCP, MCP+I, MCSE, CCNA

Office 2000 Install Source?

Q: " TopBanana " asked:

After deploying a custom Office 2000 package, every time a new user opens an Office application for the first time, Office attempts to go through a an install process and looks for the install source. While this is not an issue with networked users, remote users are not able to connect. Is there a way around this?

A: " john smith " had some good advice:

For remote users, I would give them a CD-ROM of the Administrative Installation point, and when you are creating the msi file for the Other Server(s) installation points screen, type in the CD-ROM letters D:\Office2k and E:\Office2k, or whatever you've named it, so that it will also search the CD-ROM for the Installation point. That way, it will still be able to repair itself.

John's advice will indeed keep the repair functionality intact. Keep in mind that to avoid the first time install altogether, you want to distribute a build with the entire suite of available applications already installed. The Custom Installation Wizard from the Microsoft Office Resource Kit https://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/default.htm offers a structured way to approach this.