When deleting or editing a folder or file situated in a folder structure you may encounter an error saying that the “Path too long”. This is due to the fact that the whole path to the folder or file is too long and Windows cannot process it. Yeah I know what you’re saying, why does Windows let you create a path that long in the first place.

Well, a quick fix to this is to rename all folders in the structure to a one letter folder. This way you will be able to remove the folders or files to a normal structured location and the Windows will not argue with the path being too long.

Example:

C:
– A
– A
– A
– A

etc. etc.

Sometimes you might end up waiting for more than 30 minutes or more to stop the DHCP server on Windows 2008 onwards. Sometimes waiting for much longer. Well to manually kill the process you will need to first find the PID of the process DHCP server and then kill it.

Make sure you run the command line ‘As Administrator’

sc queryex dhcpserver

this will give you the information on the DHCP server process including the PID number. Keep note of this and then run:

Taskskill /F /pid (PID number)


If you try to make a server backup with Microsoft’s SBS 2011, you will surely get an instant error saying:

“A Volume Shadow Copy Service operation error has occurred: (0x800423f0). The shadow-copy set only contains only a subset of the volumes needed to correctly backup the selected components of the writer”

This can be solved by opening a command-line as administrator and going into the folder:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN

and running:

PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

After completing, the backup will work like a charm.

Click here to read more on the matter.

Open a command prompt or set this up in a batch file to run when users log in the system and have the following set.

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /update
net stop w32time
net start w32time

This will synchronize the time of the machine to point to the domain controller which is configured on the machine. If the machine is joined to domain X it will inherit the time setup from domain X, irrelevant if there are multiple domain controllers in domain X. This is the new format which has taken place of the NET TIME which was used by Windows XP downwards.

The new FREE application from Microsoft will let you import any PST file into an Exchange 2010 mailbox. This is fairly easy to use and if you want a quick way to import a PST file into an Exchange mailbox here’s how.

First of all download the PST Capture from here.

Secondly you have to have the followin pre-requisits before installing and using this product, which are:

– Outlook 2010 64bit version installed *
– Logged-in user being in the Active Directory group “Organization Management” group
– Logged-in user being in the Active Directory group “Administrators”
– Logged-in user being in the local administrators group

Once you install the product see the list below for the possible problems/solutions:

Error: RPC error from Exchange
You possible have mailbox size restriction and it exceeded during import

Error Openinng Mailbox
You don’t have the Outlook 64bit installed and possible have the 32bit

Error: Outlook installation not found
You Haven’t installed Outlook

After changing the password of the SA or the user which is in charge of running jobs on the SQL server, the jobs will not work and you will not be able to delete the jobs with the error ‘Login failed for user SA‘. This can temporary solved by changing the SA or the user used password back to it’s original state and delete the job, but still you will not be able to run the job.

To solve this permanently you have to open the ‘Management Studio’, right-click on the job and select ‘Modify’. Click on the ‘Manage Connections’ and replace the username and password on each connection if you have more than the default one using the new password that you have recently changed.

This modification you have to do it for every-time you change the password of the ‘sa’ or user you use to run the jobs in the Manage Connections.

You may notice that all of a sudden you can recieve mails but cannot send. Outlook will popup a message saying ‘Outlook data file cannot be accessed (error 8004010F)‘.

Thou the PST files are there and accessible, the only way to fix this is to re-create your Outlook Profile from the Control Panel by:

Open Control Panel
Open Mail 32-bit
Click on Show Profiles
Select the profile in question
Click Remove

Now open Outlook and reconfigure the account. This should fix the problem

To Backup a database from command-line and using SQL 2000 MSDE version, you must use the SQLMAINT.EXE file situated in the ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn’

The backup cannot be done for all databases at once and it must be done individually. This can be done by the line below and then just duplicate it for multiple databases.

Create a batch file and run the following:

CD "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn"
sqlmaint -D "MyDB" -BkUpDB "X:\Backups\Data" -Rpt "X:\Backups\Reports\MyDB.txt" -BkUpMedia DISK


Sometimes when you need to automate some stuff from the SQL server you need to create a batch file and run it in the Task Scheduler. This way you can run the jobs you need to do and then run the executable or batch file you need from a Stored Procedure.

Firstly you need to make sure that the XP_CMDSHELL is enabled. This will allow you to execute the files from SQL.

This can be easily done from the Surface Area Configuration tool or by executing the following code:

EXEC master.dbo.sp_configure ‘show advanced options’, 1
RECONFIGURE
EXEC master.dbo.sp_configure ‘xp_cmdshell’, 1
RECONFIGURE

This should enable the XP_CMDSHELL. Now to execute a file you need to add the following SQL code to your present Stored procedure:

DECLARE @myfile varchar(200)
SET @myfile = ‘C:\sysfiles\copytootherserver.bat’
EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @myfile

For Windows Vista and 7. This might have happen to most of us. When you log in your profile, you get a popup on the bottom right that says ‘You have been logged on with a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and files created in this profile will be deleted when you log off. This sometimes happens when the username has either been changed or the folder of the profile has been deleted. So Windows will continue to look for it and leave you with a temporary profile. To fix this you need to make the following to restore the folder.

:: Log on the machine as an Administrator
:: Click on Start and type regedit
:: Find the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
:: There are a lot of folders in the key. Find the ones with the .BAK at the end
:: Delete the profiles in question with the .BAK extention (Make sure you take a backup of the registry first)
:: Close Regedit
:: Restart PC

After you log into the computer, the profile folder you are having problems with is re-created.