Z-Hire Active Directory, Exchange, Lync User Creation Tool

Z-Hire automates the IT account creation process for Exchange mailbox, Active Directory, Lync accounts, Office 365 cloud and SalesForce cloud deployments. With just a click of the button, your Exchange mailbox, and Active directory user and Lync accounts will be created simultaneousy. This tool can also create and set custom settings for Office 365 accounts using templates. Z-Hire serves as the platform for new hire accounts by allowing auto-creation of major IT user accounts with the option for custom scripts. Z-hire will increase your new hire user account deployment time by 600%, without the need for complicated and expensive identity management solutions. This tool makes creating Active Directory users a breeze. Some of the features include:

– Environment Auto detection (AD/Exchange/Lync/Office 365/SalesForce)
– Copy existing Active Directory User to Z-Hire Template (new in version 4.8.1)
– Support for Active Directory user, Exchange Mailbox, Lync 2010, Office 365 user and SalesForce user accounts
– Template based deployment (allows consistency for all user accounts)
– Office 365 account creation with major attributes
– Active Directory user account creation with major attributes
– Active Directory group selection
– Active Directory user duplicate SamAccountName verification
– Lync 2010 account creation supporting all policies
– SalesForce user creation support all major attributes
– Faster performance (compared to previous version)
– Best of all, this AD User Creation Tool is free!

System Requirements
– Windows 7 X64 w/ .NET 3.5 (Domain Joined)
– Windows Server 2008 X64  w/ .NET 3.5 (Domain Joined)
– Windows Server 2008 R2 X64  w/ .NET 3.5 (Domain Joined)

Permission Requirements
– Ability to create Active Directory user
– Ability to create Exchange Mailbox
– Ability to create / enable Lync user

Supported Environments
– Active Directory (all versions)
– Exchange 2007 (all versions)
– Exchange 2010 (all versions)
– Lync 2010 (both Standard and Enterprise versions)
– Office 365 Cloud
– SalesForce CRM Cloud

Download Z-Hire tool on Microsoft Gallery

How to: Remove the personal folder from the dekstop within Windows Server 2008 R2

Default within Windows Server 2008 R2 there’s a shortcut available on your desktop to the users personal folder. When you’re using a mandatory profile with folder redirection, the links to the personal folders are wrong and the users are getting an error message!

In this blogpost I’m using RES Workspace Manager 2012 to solve this problem. You can also use an script that changes the specific registry key.

1. ) Open the RES Workspace Manager 2012 Console
2.) Navigate to Composition / Actions By Type / User Registry
3.) Create a new Registry setting and import the right registry key.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum]
“{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}”=dword:00000001
4.) Now logoff the user and login again. As you can see, the shortcut to the personal folder has gone.

       

       

   

Create dummy files for testing your network throughput

When you’re performing a file server migration for example, it is very usefull to see what your everage network throughput is when you’re copying some files with robocopy or something. To create some testfiles or dummy files, you can use the tool FSUTIL.exe. This tool is default available in Windows 2003 and later. In my testlab I’ve created some testfiles. The size of an dummy file is calculated in bits, so to create a file of 1 GB or 5 GB looks like:

1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1 or 5 (or another size in GB). So first you’ll get the Bits, then Bytes, then Mega Bytes, then Giga Bytes.
1 GB = 1073741824
5 GB =  5368709120

C:\Windows\System32\fsutil file createnew E:\Dummy\dummy_1GB.file 1073741824
C:\Windows\System32\fsutil file createnew E:\Dummy\dummy_5GB.file 5368709120

       

How to: Disable Encrypted File System (EFS) on Windows 2008 R2

Whitin Windows you can use the Encrypted File System (EFS) feature. Encrypting File System (EFS) is a core encryption technology that enables you to encrypt files stored on NTFS volumes. When you want to disable this feature for your endusers, you can configure this through a group policy. To disable EFS on your Windows fileserver(s), configure the following GPO:

1.) Create a new GPO, for example Disable EFS
2.) Navigate to the following location:
Computer Configuration \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Public Key Policies \ Encrypting File System
3.) Right-click on Encypting File System and select Properties
4.) Select Don’t allow
5.) Link the new GPO to the organizational unit where your fileserves are placed into
6.) Run the gpupdate /force on the specific fileserver

When you’re now trying to select the encryption of a file of folder, this is possible! But when you hit the Apply button, you’ll receive an error “This machine is disabled for file encription”.

       

How to: List all enabled features using the command prompt in 2008 R2 Core

When you’re using Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Core Edition, you only have an command prompt available within a console session. For some sysadmins it’s a no go. When you know what tools are available by default whitin the command prompt, it’s no big deal to manage some basic things through the command prompt.

For example, when you want to view all the available features in the Core Version, you can use the command:
dism /online /get-features /format:Table
dism /online /get-features /format:List

   

How to: Remove the VMware Tools tray icon

When you’ve installed a Remote Desktop Services or XenApp servers on your VMware environment, you don’t want to enable the VMware Tools tray icon. By default there’s an tray icon for all your users. Using the following registry key, the tray icon will disappear.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools]
“ShowTray”=dword:00000000

Now the VMware Tools tray icon is gone for all the users! 😉

How to: Migratie Windows 2003 RADIUS to Windows 2008 R2 NPS

Today I had to migrate the configuration from Windows 2003 RADIUS to Windows 2008 R2 NPS server. With the following steps, it’s just a few mouse clicks 😉

1.) Mount or extract the Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 DVD in your Windows 2003 server (the RADIUS server)
2.) Browse to the following directory
D:\Sources\dlmanifests\microsoft-windows-iasserver-migplugin
3.) Copy this folder to your C: drive of the Windows 2003 server
4.) Open a command line box
5.) Run the iasmigreader.exe
6.) This tool will read your IAS configuration and exports it to C:\Windows\System32\IAS\IAS.txt
7.) Copy this file to your new Windows 2008 R2 NPS server (In my example C:\_IAS)
8.) Open a command line box on your Windowws 2008 R2 NPS server
9.) Enter the following command
netsh nps import filename=”C:\_IAS\IAS.txt”
10.) The configuration will be imported now
11.) Don’t forget to register your NPS service in AD or configuration settings be damned, NPS will just not work.

       

       

How to: Prepare your 2003 domain for an upgrade to 2008 R2

When you want to upgrade your Windows 2003 domain to 2008 R2, there’re a few steps you’ve to take.

1.) Login on a Windows 2003 domain controller
2.) Insert the Windows 2008 R2 DVD or attach the ISO
3.) Open a command prompt CMD
4.) Browse to the following map of the Windows 2008 R2 DVD
x:\Support\Adprep
5.) First you’re going to prepare the forest with the new schema extensions
adprep32.exe /forestprep
Note!
Because Windows Server 2003 is a 32 bits platform, you’ve to use adprep32.exe. If your’re using adprep.exe, you’ll receive the following error: “The image file adprep.exe is valid, but is for a machine type other than the current machine.” Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64 bits.
6.) Make sure that all the domain controllers are replicated
7.) The next step is to prepare the domain and the GPO’s
adprep32.exe /domainprep /gpprep
Note!
When you want to add a Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) to your environment in the future, you’ve have to execute another command.
adprep.exe /rodcprep
8.) Your domain is now ready for installing the new Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain Controllers.
9.) Run the command DCPROMO on the new Windows Server 2008 R2 machines