Category Archives: Windows

Microsoft, Powershell, Windows

How to: Find the installation date of an operating system

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Sometimes I would need to find the date when the operating system was installed. Thou it’s difficult to have everything in shape with your inventory, if you have missed this part when an Operating System was installed, here’s a PowerShell solution to that.

Open PowerShell as admin
Type $osdate = get-wmiobject win32_operatingsystem
Type $osdate.ConvertToDateTime($os.InstallDate) -f "MM/dd/yyyy"

This will give you the date when the Operating System was installed

On the other hand, if you wish to go through registry yourself, browse to the location below

HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\InstallDate

The result is in timestamp, so you need to convert it with this link.

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Azure, Microsoft, Windows

How to: Add AzureAD user as local admin

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After joining a computer to AzureAD you will login with a user and will be automatically added as a local admin. The trouble is when logging with other users. These users will automatically set as users to the computer. From the Computer Management Console there is no way to add an AzureAD as when you click on Add and Locations, there is no location for the AzureAD. If you look at the current AAD user in the Computer Management and Local Users and Groups you will find the current user as AZUREAD\noel.pulis.

Luckily there is a way to add an additional AzureAD user as a local admin.

– Open CMD (Command Prompt) as Admin
– Type NET Localgroup Administrators AzureAD\additionaluser /add

Once this is ready, open the Local Users and Groups and you will find the AzureAD user part of the local Administrators Group.

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Exchange, Windows

Fix: No Suitable Directory Servers Found when accessing OWA and ECP

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When accessing ECP or OWA on your Exchange server you will be the below Server Error saying that No Suitable Directory Servers Found in Site and connected Sites. On the Event Viewer you will get the error 0x80040a02 (DSC_E_NO_SUITABLE_CDC).

The below solution if for Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013. Open the Domain’s Group Policy Management and edit the Default Domain Controllers Policy or your server policy as below.

Computer Configuration
Policies
Windows Settings
Security Settings
Local Policies
User Rights Assignment
Mange auditing and security log
Add ‘Exchange Servers‘ or ‘Exchange Enterprise Servers‘ to that policy.

Restart the Exchange server to apply the computer configuration.

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Microsoft, Windows

Fix: Cannot demote server Access is denied

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When demoting a server from an existent Active Directory you will be prompted for the credentials with an error saying

The Operation failed because: The attempt at remote directory server to remove directory server was unsuccessful. “Access Denied”.

This issue is due to the fact that the object is set with Protect object against Accidental Deletion

To fix this open Active Directory Sites and Services. Find the server which you are trying to demote and expand it. Right click on NTDS Settings and click on Properties. Click on the Object tab and un-tick the Protect object from Accidental Deletion.

Retry the demotion and it will work. If it doesn’t then check the Active Directory Users and Computers and check if the computer account has the Protect object from Accidental Deletion enabled. Make sure to click on Advanced Features.

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Azure, Microsoft, Windows

Fix: Azure AD Connect unexpected error on sign in

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You setup the domain, verified and you are in the process of configuring the Azure AD Connect Tool, you will be asked to enter the username and password for the tool to connect to the Azure AD.

The connector immediately stops with an error at the first step under the Express/Custom settings page titled “Connect to Azure AD” with the below error.

Unable to validate credentials. An unexpected error has occurred

unexpectederror1

This error most probably will show because you are using a user which ends with @outlook.com and the connect tool will not work with an service-bound Outlook username. To fix this issue and work successfully simply create a new ‘Global Admin’ user on the AD which ends @yourdomain.

In my case this worked like a charm.

 

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Microsoft, Windows

Fix: Windows Server Backup The process cannot access the file

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When running Windows Server Backup to another location and you get the error “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process”.

Capture

To fix this you would need to look on the backup logs from the location %windir%\logs\windowsserverbackup.

In the error log file you will find

Error in deletion of [C:\System Volume Information\001.dat] while pruning the target VHD: Error [0x80070020] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

In my case, what I have done is that I deleted all the files in the target folder of the backup, re-run the backup and it worked.

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Windows

How to: Move all FSMO roles on a domain controller

When moving roles, the right way to do it is to view exactly where the roles are at the moment. Firstly to check this one can open the command prompt and use the following command.

Netdom /query FSMO

This will show the roles and who is the owner like below.

C:\Users\Administrator.dom>netdom /query fsmo
Schema master     srv01.mydomain.com
Domain naming master     srv01.mydomain.com
PDC     srv01.mydomain.com
RID pool manager     srv01.mydomain.com
Infrastructure master     srv01.mydomain.com
The command completed successfully.

Now, to change the FSMO owner one must change the settings in the Active Directory Users and Computers, Active Directory Domains and Trusts and Active Directory Schema. This operation would be best to be done on the new server to transfer to.

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers and right click on the domain name node, in my case mydomain.com and select Operations Master. Make sure that the entry is the old server on the top dialog box and the new server on the bottom dialog box. Click on the Change button. Switch to the PDC tab and Instrastructure and do the the same operation.

2. Open theActive Directory Domains and Trusts. Right click on the root of the node and select Operations Master. Make sure that the entry is the old server on the top dialog box and the new server on the bottom dialog box. Click on the Change button.

3. Open a command prompt as Administrator and type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll to register the schema DLL file. Open MMC.EXE and click on File/Add remove Snap-in. Now find the Active Directory Schema from the list. Click on Add and OK. Right-click on the Active Directory Schema node and select Change Active Directory Controller. Select the new server, in this case srv02.mydomain.com. Right-click on the Active Directory Schema node and select Operations Master. Make sure that the entry is the old server on the top dialog box and the new server on the bottom dialog box. Click on the Change button.

If you will run below command, Netdom /query FSMO, you will notice that the roles are now pointing to the new server i.e. srv02.mydomain.com.

 

 

 

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Windows

Fix: Blurry text while scrolling on Firefox

One day I have noticed that some text gets blurry while scrolling on Firefox. I have managed to fix this by disabling a feature in Firefox.

Open Firefox
Open a new tab
Enter about:config in the address bar
Click on the “I’ll be careful I Promise” button
Find gfx.content.azure.enabled
Double click on it to set it as false

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