Some Notes on the Machines

Good links here:

http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/14-windows-7-direct-download-links

The Windows USB/DVD Download Tool may also be rather handy.

Windows Firewall is required, if network-shared printers are to be used, in Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. See here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2123653

But there are still many instances where Windows Firewall gets in the way. In these cases, set up a Group Policy for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security:

Computer Configuration,
Policies,
Windows Settings,
Security Settings,
Windows Firewall with Advanced Security,
Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – LDAP://cn={GUID},cn=….

and Allow all connections both inbound and outbound. That way the APIs all run, but no interferences.

Something new from Microsoft:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/5927.how-to-disable-ipv6-through-group-policy.aspx

Some new steps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318378

Here’s how to replace a self-signed Exchange certificate in the Exchange Shell.

First get the list with details:

Get-ExchangeCertificate | fl

You’ll see all of the certs, with expiration dates (“NotAfter”) and thumbprints. For each one that you need to replace, do this:

Get-ExchangeCertificate -thumbprint <thumbprintcontents> | New-ExchangeCertificate

Then say Yes.

See here:

http://www.itswapshop.com/tutorial/windows-7-migrate-local-profiles-domain-profiles-5-steps-and-5-minutes-using-registry-tweak

Excellent documentation here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/09/22/how-to-recreate-the-sbsmonitoring-database.aspx

NET USE does not appear to be able to set a user’s password to non-expiring. However, we do have this:

WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='username'" SET PasswordExpires=FALSE

We have OpenedFilesView:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html

We have the System Update Readiness tool for workstations and DISM for servers:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821

For Vista/2008 SP1 and up through 8.1/2012R2 so far. One heads-up: according to this article by a Microsoft developer, it will take about 10 minutes to run, it takes the form of “checksur.exe”.