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Sysinternals Free A.D. Tools

Active Directory Explorer (AD Explorer) is an advanced Active Directory (AD) viewer and editor. You can use AD Explorer to easily navigate an AD database, define favorite locations, view object properties and attributes without having to open dialog boxes, edit permissions, view an object’s schema, and execute sophisticated searches that you can save and re-execute. AD Explorer also includes the ability to save snapshots of an AD database for off-line viewing and comparisons. When you load a saved snapshot, you can navigate and explorer it as you would a live database. If you have two snapshots of an AD database you can use AD Explorer’s comparison functionality to see what objects, attributes and security permissions changed between them.

ADInsight is an LDAP (Light-weight Directory Access Protocol) real-time monitoring tool aimed at troubleshooting Active Directory client applications. Use its detailed tracing of Active Directory client-server communications to solve Windows authentication, Exchange, DNS, and other problems.

AdRestore — Windows Server 2003 introduces the ability to restore deleted ("tombstoned") objects. This simple command-line utility enumerates the deleted objects in a domain and gives you the option of restoring each one. Source code is based on sample code in the Microsoft Platform SDK. This MS KB article describes the use of AdRestore: 840001: How to restore deleted user accounts and their group memberships in Active Directory

Some Value-Add (Free) Tools for Managing OS Lifecycle – Solution Accelerators

Microsoft provides a number of pre-packaged tools & guidance which are free and fully supported. We call them Solution Accelerators. Here’s a pictorial example of a lifecycle solution for Windows Server 2008 R2 using only the Solution Accelerator toolsets. [*** proper lifecycle support comes through a holistic operational approach. This is a representation of no-cost value-add Microsoft tools and this example uses only a sub-set of all available tools.]

iCalendar Sports Calendars for Outlook

Love to have events in Outlook? You can import iCal formatted files and overlay them on your Outlook calendar. Simply search BING for something like “ical schedule [team name] 2010”

NFL – http://www.southendzone.com/ics/ 

Manchester United – http://www.dnngarden.com/Manchester-United-fixtures.T109.aspx

Listing of the Microsoft Visual Technology Posters

 

Featured Poster	Product
Windows Server 2008 R2 Feature Components Poster Windows Server 2008 R2- Hyper-V Component Architecture Windows Server 2008 Component Posters Getting Started with Windows Small Business Server 2008 (poster)	Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 Small Business Server 2008
2006 TechNet Magazine Active Directory Component Jigsaw Poster	Active Directory
IT Pro poster stencils (Visio Shapes)	General (Visio Shapes)
Exchange Component Architecture PosterMicrosoft Exchange Server 2010 Transport Server Role Architecture Diagrams	Exchange 2010
OCS 2007 R2 Workload Architecture Poster	OCS 2007 R2
64-bit Client Installation of Office 2010   Deploy Multilanguage Packs for Office 2010 Deployment Options for Office 2010 Volume Activation of Office 2010 PowerPivot Client Server Poster Outlook 2010- MAPI Reference	Office 2010 Outlook 2010 PowerPivot for Excel 2010
2007 Office System Document- Open XML Developer Map Office 2007 IW Excitement Posters	Office 2007
Guide for IT Pros for Project Server 2010	Project Server 2007
SharePoint 2010 Series — Each bullet below has a corresponding PDF, XPS or Visio drawing that can each be downloaded separately.  All are linked directly from here. [Best Practice = you can customize to your environment by downloading the Visio and editing] Design Sample: Corporate Portal with Classic Authentication Design Sample: Corporate Portal with Claims-based Authentication Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010 SharePoint 2010 Products DeploymentServices in SharePoint 2010 Products Cross-farm Services in SharePoint 2010 Products Extranet Topologies for SharePoint 2010 Products Hosting Environments in SharePoint 2010 Products Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products Search Environment Planning for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Design Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Business Connectivity Services Model Content Deployment in SharePoint Server 2010 Getting started with business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010 Databases That Support SharePoint 2010 Products SharePoint 2010 Products: Virtualization Process Governance for SharePoint Server 2010	SharePoint 2010
SharePoint 2010 Series (contd.) — The following is a continuation of the SharePoint 2010 series above, but I’ve separated these drawings as they are related to upgrading only. [Best Practice = you can customize to your environment by downloading the Visio and editing] Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Planning Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Approaches Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Test Your Upgrade Process Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Services Upgrade Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Upgrading Parent and Child Farms	SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Planning
Choosing a Cloud Computing Services Provider- Data Privacy and Security Questions for IT Professionals	Cloud
IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Application Lifecycle Management IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Business Intelligence & Search IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Collaboration and Enterprise Content Management IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Microsoft Web Platform IT Manager: Platform Solution Blueprint – Security IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Service Oriented Architecture and Business Process Management IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Unified Communications IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint – Virtualization IT Manager- Platform Solution Blueprint by Advaiya	General IT Subject Matter
Defense Transformation Poster	Government Defense
BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0 Interactive Poster BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Scale-Out Configurations BizTalk Server 2009 BAM Interactive Poster BizTalk Server 2009 Scale-out Configurations Interactive Poster patterns and practices Application Architecture Guide v2.0 Poster NET Namespaces Poster Visual C# 2008 Poster Visual Basic 2008 Keybinding Poster	Development BizTalk
Which path would you take for a career in Microsoft Technology? Find the right direction to enhance your IT Professional career with the ICT Curriculum Roadmap. See the full-sized roadmap Download PDF file (225 KB)	General

Great Security Resources for Windows Server 2008 & R2

Using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 – Controlling Communication with the Internet This document provides information about the communication that flows between the features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and sites on the Internet. It describes steps to take to limit, control, or prevent that communication in an organization with many users. This document is designed to assist administrators in planning strategies for deploying and maintaining Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 in a way that helps provide an appropriate level of security and privacy for an organization’s networked assets.

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server System

This article discusses the essential network ports, protocols and services that are used by Microsoft client and server operating systems, server-based programs and their subcomponents in the Microsoft Windows server system. Administrators and support professionals may use this Microsoft Knowledge Base article as a road-map to determine what ports and protocols Microsoft operating systems and programs require for network connectivity in a segmented network.

Security Audit Events for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

A list of all security audit events for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

Using Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 – Controlling Communication with the Internet

This document provides information about the communication that flows between the features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and sites on the Internet. It describes steps to take to limit, control, or prevent that communication in an organization with many users. This document is designed to assist administrators in planning strategies for deploying and maintaining Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 in a way that helps provide an appropriate level of security and privacy for an organization’s networked assets. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=00345a67-a86a-4294-8ea2-52124f565767

 

Windows Server 2008 Security Baseline

The Security Compliance Manager provides centralized security baseline management features, a baseline portfolio, customization capabilities, and security baseline export flexibility to accelerate your organization’s ability to efficiently manage the security and compliance process for the most widely used Microsoft technologies.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc514539.aspx

• Centralized Management and Baseline Portfolio: The centralized management console of the Security Compliance Manager provides you with a unified, end-to-end user experience to plan, customize, and export security baselines. The tool gives you full access to a complete portfolio of recommended baselines for Windows® client and server operating systems, and Microsoft applications. The Security Compliance Manager also enables you to quickly update the latest Microsoft baseline releases and take advantage of baseline version control.
• Security Baseline Customization: Customizing, comparing, merging, and reviewing your baselines just got easier. Now you can use the new customization capabilities of the Security Compliance Manager to duplicate any of the recommended baselines from Microsoft—for Windows client and server operating systems, and Microsoft applications—and quickly modify security settings to meet the standards of your organization’s environment.
• Multiple Export Capabilities: Export baselines in formats like XLS, Group Policy objects (GPOs), Desired Configuration Management (DCM) packs, or Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) to enable automation of deployment and monitoring baseline compliance.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.1.1 (for IT Professionals)

The Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer provides a streamlined method to identify missing security updates and common security misconfigurations. MBSA 2.1.1 is a minor upgrade to add support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Office 2010 Deployment

Downloadable content can be found several places. I’ve placed some great content on my SKYDRIVE.

Here’s information from TechNet (downloadable and TechNet): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178979.aspx 

FREE Synchronization Tools

I’m going to list a number of FREE Microsoft synchronization tools to you. There are plenty out there in the shareware universe, but I’m confining this to Microsoft tools. None of these have ads behind them, nor does any of them try to get you to purchase a “full” edition. They are totally free. The first 5 tools are consumer tools, though I use them for everyday work. ROBOCOPY and RICHCOPY are Network Administrator Type of Tools.

• LiveMesh – www.mesh.com I love this tool. You can access your files from anywhere with your virtual desktop—as well as sync your files.

• LiveSync (Wave 4 beta) – http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta = Keep your documents, photos, and other files up to date on all your computers, whether PC or Mac. Connect to your computers remotely – Leave your PC online and run its programs or get to all its files from another computer. Keep your Windows Internet Explorer favorites and Microsoft Office settings up to date on all your PCs.

• Sync (older version which I still use) http://www.foldershare.com/ This program is being updated with the new wave of Microsoft Live Services, however, it works just fine. I’ve used it for years. This tool came from an acquisition we made a couple years ago from a popular tool called FolderShare.

• SKYDRIVE is cloud based storage and document editing tool that you can keep files in and access them from anywhere. You can even create, use and edit Microsoft Office files FREE. You do not need Microsoft Office installed on the machine to use this tool. Note: This is not actually a synchronization tool, just an anywhere access service with cloud-based storage. http://skydrive.live.com/ and http://office.live.com

• SyncToy – manual synchronization tool. Great to compare photos or docs between computers or external storage so that you only copy what you need. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52&DisplayLang=en

• ROBOCOPY – admin tool for your network. I’ve used this tool many, many times for manual backups and migrations. By default this tool only copies over what changed (the deltas) from the folders you pick. There is a GUI counterpart to this tool.

• here’s the article about it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx 

• here’s the code: UtilitySpotlight2006_11.exe

• RICHCOPY – multi-threaded tool that is highly configurable to pull down very large folders quickly—especially over slow links. You can pause and resume copying and it will pick up from where you left off should there be a network interruption. It features a little more granular control than ROBOCOPY.

• Here’s the article about it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx?pr=blog 

• Here’s the code: HoffmanUtilitySpotlight2009_04.exe

• DFS-R – The Distributed File System (DFS-R). This is automated synchronization file services tool in Windows Server 2008 & W2K8 R2 that provides block-level transfers of files/folders across as many servers as you choose. Block-level x-fers versus file-level x-fers provides uses WAN/LAN traffic. This capability is free if you own Windows Server 2008 or higher—and, of course, the corresponding Windows CALs.

• Documentation on DFS-R : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753479(WS.10).aspx 

• Here’s a webcast on it: http://edge.technet.com/Media/Screencast-File-Services-in-Windows-Server-2008-Part-2/ 

Verbose SharePoint Resources

AMAZING collection of just about every single SharePoint Resource you can think of:

• SharePoint 2007 (MOSS = Microsoft Office SharePoint Server)
• SharePoint 2010 Resource Guide

Running Users as Non-Admin

FREE ScriptLogic Privilege Authority Tool

I find that ScriptLogic is one of the least known set of IT Administrator tool solutions. You would be doing yourself, and your family, a disservice by not checking them out and possibly saving you hundreds of hours of work per year. ScriptLogic is a part of Quest Software now. Directly from the words of the good people at Quest:

We are pleased to announce the release of Privilege Authority. Privilege Authority is a FREE, ad-supported, privilege elevation tool that allows admins to restrict user rights, but still elevate any applications, features and ActiveX controls so users can get their jobs done. In a way, releasing Privilege Authority as a free tool takes ScriptLogic back to its roots. We got our start providing helpful tools like this to administrators, often for free. This time, we’ve taken it a step further. Privilege Authority u

ses elevation ‘rules’ to define what needs to be elevated, and what account will be used. The community Rules Exchange, on the community site, lets admins share rules they’ve created, find rules created by other users and comment and rate rules for the community. Customers can find product information at: http://www.scriptlogic.com/products/privilegeauthority/. The Privilege Authority community can be found at http://PrivilegeAuthority.com/.