TechNet Magazine May 2008

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Remove Unwanted Toolbars and Fix Settings in Internet Explorer

Problematic add-ons. Changed browser settings. A new homepage. Find out how you can troubleshoot and fix persistent, unwanted changes. ...

Once you’ve thoroughly researched and planned your implementation of Failover clusters, you’re ready to actually create the cluster. The mechanism to create and manage Failover clusters is the Cluster Administrator application, part of the Administrative Tools folder. Here are the 12 easy steps! ...

No other factor matters more to the way a user perceives your server’s performance than the network that connects your server to the user’s computer. The delay, or latency, between when a request is made and the time it’s received can make all the difference. To determine the throughput and current activity on a server’s network cards, you can check these counters. ...

Group Policy settings typically require users to periodically change their passwords. Sometimes, you may have to ensure that a user changes her password the next time she logs on; to do so, follow these simple steps. ...

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Configure Remote Server Connections

Connections from other servers are handled differently than user connections. Learn to quickly configure remote connections for SQL Server 2008. ...

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Popular Articles

Microsoft Office: Getting Started with Project Server 2007

Project Server 2007 delivers significant enhancements, not only to the features and functionality for users but also for administrators. Alan Maddison explores some of the most significant new features and walks you through the installation and configuration of Microsoft Office Project Server 2007.

Alan Maddison

TechNet Magazine January 2009

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The upcoming release of Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager “2” offers many new features and enhancements. Explore the new portal experience and find out how you can cut costs with self-service tools, increase security compliance with business process modeling, and reduce development time with simplified development tools.

Aung Oo

TechNet Magazine January 2009

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The introduction of Hyper-V makes virtualization an even more compelling solution for IT environments. Get an overview of today’s virtualization market and see how Hyper-V improves the manageability, reliability, and security of virtualization

Rajiv Arunkundram

TechNet Magazine October 2008

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Toolbox: New Products for IT Pros

Greg Steen discusses recovering from system crashes with Replay RA - Recovery Accelerator, managing compressed archives with WinRAR, using TortoiseSVN to simplify source control, measuring disk I/O with Iometer, as well as rebooting servers remotely with the APC Switched Rack PDU, and looks at the book "Windows Group Policy: Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista".

Greg Steen

TechNet Magazine January 2009

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The Desktop Files: Windows Won't Start!

Drivers fail, files get corrupted, disks crash--there are numerous uncontrollable reasons why Windows might fail. But all is not lost. Wes Miller explores the kinds of things that can go wrong in a Windows system, and explains how you can troubleshoot them to get your system working again.

Wes Miller

TechNet Magazine January 2009

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Our Blog

Geek of all Trades: Control Network Access Using DHCP Enforcement

NAP monitors the health of specified computers when they attempt to connect to a network and includes a number of mechanisms to enforce health requirements. In this article, Geek of All Trades Greg Shields gives readers an overview of these enforcement mechanisms and, as an example, takes a closer look at setting ...

Use Windows PowerShell to Manage Virtual Machines Here are a few examples of how you can use Windows PowerShell scripts to manage virtual machines running on a Server Core installation. Note that these scripts are presented as samples and may need to be customized to work in your environment.

Create a New ...

Disabling an Unused Part of Group Policy Objects One way to disable a policy is to disable an unused part of the GPO. By disabling part of a policy that isn’t used, the application of GPOs and security will be faster.

Administer Windows Server 2008 Server Core from the Command Prompt ...

In the August 2008 issue of TechNet Magazine, Paul Randal wrote an article Top Tips for Effective Database Maintenance. It was geared toward "involuntary DBAs" (IT pros who inadvertently wind up responsible for a SQL Server instance). The article had a great response from our readers so Paul has written another ...

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Forefront Security

Microsoft Forefront is designed to deliver an integrated security solution that makes it much easier to deploy and manage security across an organization’s IT infrastructure. In this, our annual security issue, we feature two articles that describe how Forefront Security protects instant messaging and e-mail.

Protect ...

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May 2008

Windows Administration: Active Directory Backup and Restore in Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 and the new Windows Server Backup utility bring many changes and welcome enhancements to backing up. Here is an in-depth guide to backing up and restoring Active Directory in the new server OS. Gil Kirkpatrick

Windows Administration: Designing OU Structures that Work

Too many administrators underestimate the importance of having a well-designed Organizational Unit structure. Find out why having a sound OU strategy is important and determine the best OU structure for your organization. Ken St. Cyr

Windows Administration: Extending the Active Directory Schema

Many applications that rely on Active Directory define their own changes to the schema. But it's important that these changes don't impact other applications. Get an overview of extending the Active Directory through the classSchema and attributeSchema objects. Vikas Malhotra

System Center: Introducing System Center Mobile Device Manager

The new System Center Mobile Device Manager provides a complete set of tools for managing Windows Mobile devices through an MMC snap-in or via Windows PowerShell. Find out how this vital tool will allow you to manage mobile devices, increase security, and deliver mobile VPN capabilities. Matt Fontaine

System Center: What's New in System Center Essentials SP1

Service Pack 1 introduces significant enhancements for System Center Essentials 2007. Explore some of the key changes that will improve the user experience and streamline administration. Pete Zerger

Columns

From the Editor: A Warm Welcome to "Inside SharePoint" Joshua Hoffman	Sustainable Computing: Putting IT on a Diet As the environment becomes a topic of increasing attention, many IT departments are looking for ways to reduce their energy consumption. In the first installment of our new online Sustainable Computing column, Dave Ohara discusses ways you can start to cut down on the amount of energy your organization consumes. Dave Ohara	Sustainable Computing: Imagine Cup 2008: Competing for Change For the 2008 Imagine Cup, students have been challenged to use technology to enable a sustainable environment. Finalists in the U.S. competition recently presented their solutions in Los Angeles, and TechNet Magazine was there to see the innovative ideas participants have come up with. Mitch Irsfeld
Sustainable Computing: Sleep or Hibernate? Leaving your computer on when it's not in use is a waste of energy. Features like Sleep and Hibernate make it easy to power down your system when you're not using it, and these features are more reliable now than in previous versions of Windows. Here's a look at the differences between these features and some best practices for configuring them. Mark Aggar, Megan Morrone, and Michael Walsh	Sustainable Computing: Conserving Energy with Group Policy Enforcing a power management strategy on the systems throughout your entire organization can add up to substantial savings. And Windows Vista includes 35 power management settings that you can configure and enforce with Group Policy. Here is some guidance for configuring some of the more common settings. Mark Aggar, Pat Stemen, and Michael Walsh	Letters: Readers Speak Out
Toolbox: New Products for IT Pros Greg Steen	Exchange Queue & A: Exchange 2007 SP1 Deployment In this installment, we provide answers to your questions about Exchange Server 2007 SP1. Nino Bilic	Utility Spotlight: SharePoint Capacity Planning Explore the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool and see how you can design a topology for deploying SharePoint and then revise that topology after running load and usage simulations. Peter Skjøtt Larsen and Satish Mathew
Inside Sharepoint: Building Your SharePoint Infrastructure SharePoint is powerful, but its complexity can make deployment quite challenging. Our new SharePoint column can help. In this first installment, we give an overview of the SharePoint architecture and show you how to set up a basic SharePoint infrastructure with WSS 3.0. Pav Cherny	Windows PowerShell: Automating Directory Management Version 1 of Windows PowerShell offers less than impressive Active Directory management capabilities. Find out how you can use add-ins to get more powerful ways to work with Active Directory objects from within Windows PowerShell. Don Jones	Hey, Scripting Guy!: Raising Eyebrows on Regular Expressions The scripting guys visit the Louvre, take up art criticism, and show you how to use regular expressions in a script to do a search and replace. The Microsoft Scripting Guys
Security Watch: Principles of Quantum Security Find out how the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and other elements of quantum physics can shed light on evolving security strategies. (Note: No cats were harmed in the writing of this article.) Jesper M. Johansson	The Desktop Files: Leaving the Administrator Behind Why is everyone running as Administrator? Wes Miller looks at the risks of running as Administrator and explores the benefits of transitioning your users (including yourself) to running as Users. Wes Miller	Field Notes: Multiple Mice, One PC What do you do when students outnumber the computers available in a classroom setting? Microsoft Research India has developed a solution, termed MultiPoint, that allows multiple mice to be used simultaneously on one computer. Kentaro Toyama
Windows Confidential: 16-Bit Icons Are So Passé Raymond Chen looks at why Windows Vista doesn't support 16-bit icons, and wonders whether anybody has even noticed. Raymond Chen