Monday, July 4, 2011

Steps to clean a computer.



1. Start/Run and type MSCONFIG (doesn’t have to be capitals).

2. Go to the Startup tab and look for anything that doesn’t belong there, especially blank entries with a checkmark beside it. Uncheck those and qttask, msmsgs, itunes stuff. Leave the ones below checked.



1. Next open Windows Explorer

2. Go to Tools Tab then down to Folder Options

3. In the new window go to View tab (2nd over)

4. Click on “Show hidden files”

5. Uncheck Hide Extensions

6. Uncheck Hide Protected Operating System files, click Ok on warning message.

7. Click APPLY and then APPLY TO ALL FOLDERS

8. Click OK to close.

Go back to Windows Explorer

Clean the dead files off the computer

1. Go to “C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\Local Settings” where USER NAME is the person who is logged on. Might even be User. In Vista go to USERS folder instead of Doc&Settings.



2. Go into TEMP folder and delete everything in there.

3. Go into Temporary Internet Files and delete everything in there or under Content.IE5 (ignore and leave index.dat file)

4. Do this for everyone in Document and Settings: Administrator, Default User, LocalService, NetworkService and any other user listed. Some may not have all the folders showing, or have anything in it.

5. Go back to the C: drive and then to WINDOWS folder. There is a TEMP folder in there. Empty that one also.

6. Right click on the C: drive, TOOLS tab and click FIX ERRORS. Select first checkbox and a warning will come about doing this upon next reboot, accept it and reboot.

If suspect a virus, go to housecall.trendmicro.com and do an online virus scan. If unable to do any of the above steps reboot, go into SAFE mode (F8) and try from there.

Run as Commands



C:\>runas /profile /env /user:tomax7\admin "mmc %windir%\system32\dsa.msc"

C:\>runas /profile /env /user:tom8\tom "%windir%\notepad.exe



C:\Documents and Settings\tom>runas /?



RUNAS USAGE:



RUNAS [ [/noprofile
/profile] [/env] [/netonly] ] /user: program



RUNAS [ [/noprofile
/profile] [/env] [/netonly] ] /smartcard [/user:] program



/noprofile - specifies that the user's profile should not be loaded.

This causes the application to load more quickly, but can cause some applications to malfunction.



/profile - specifies that the user's profile should be loaded. This is the default.



/env - to use current environment instead of user's.



/netonly - use if the credentials specified are for remote access only.



/savecred - to use credentials previously saved by the user.

This option is not available on Windows XP Home Edition and will be ignored.



/smartcard use if the credentials are to be supplied from a smartcard.



/user should be in form USER@DOMAIN or DOMAIN\USER program command line for EXE.



Examples:

> runas /noprofile /user:mymachine\administrator cmd

> runas /profile /env /user:mydomain\admin "mmc %windir%\system32\dsa.msc"

> runas /env /user:user@domain.microsoft.com "notepad \"my file.txt\""



NOTE: Enter user's password only when prompted.

NOTE: USER@DOMAIN is not compatible with /netonly.

NOTE: /profile is not compatible with /netonly.



C:\Documents and Settings\tom>cd\



C:\>runas /profile /env /user:tomax7\admin "mmc %windir%\system32\dsa.msc"

Enter the password for tomax7\admin:



Attempting to start mmc C:\WINDOWS\system32\dsa.msc as user "tomax7\admin" ..

RUNAS ERROR: Unable to run - mmc C:\WINDOWS\system32\dsa.msc

1326: Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.



C:\>runas /profile /env /user:tom8\tom "%windir%\notepad.exe

Understanding stub zones

A stub zone is a copy of a zone that contains only those resource records necessary to identify the authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) servers for that zone. A stub zone is used to resolve names between separate DNS namespaces. This type of resolution may be necessary when a corporate merger requires that the DNS servers for two separate DNS namespaces resolve names for clients in both namespaces.

A stub zone consists of:

• The start of authority (SOA) resource record, name server (NS) resource records, and the glue A resource records for the delegated zone.

• The IP address of one or more master servers that can be used to update the stub zone.

The master servers for a stub zone are one or more DNS servers authoritative for the child zone, usually the DNS server hosting the primary zone for the delegated domain name.

Stub zone resolution

When a DNS client performs a recursive query operation on a DNS server hosting a stub zone, the DNS server uses the resource records in the stub zone to resolve the query. The DNS server sends an iterative query to the authoritative DNS servers specified in the NS resource records of the stub zone as if it were using NS resource records in its cache. If the DNS server cannot find the authoritative DNS servers in its stub zone, the DNS server hosting the stub zone attempts standard recursion using its root hints.

The DNS server will store the resource records it receives from the authoritative DNS servers listed in a stub zone in its cache, but it will not store these resource records in the stub zone itself; only the SOA, NS, and glue A resource records returned in response to the query are stored in the stub zone. The resource records stored in the cache are cached according to the Time-to-Live (TTL) value in each resource record. The SOA, NS, and glue A resource records, which are not written to cache, expire according to the expire interval specified in the stub zone's SOA record, which is created during the creation of the stub zone and updated during transfers to the stub zone from the original, primary zone.

If the query was an iterative query, the DNS server returns a referral containing the servers specified in the stub zone.

Communication between DNS servers hosting parent and child zones

A DNS server that has delegated a domain to a child zone on a different DNS server is made aware of new authoritative DNS servers for the child zone only when the resource records for these new DNS servers are added to the parent zone hosted on the DNS server. This is a manual process and requires that the administrators for the different DNS servers communicate often. With stub zones, a DNS server hosting a stub zone for one of its delegated domains can obtain updates of the authoritative DNS servers for the child zone when the stub zone is updated. The update is performed from the DNS server hosting the stub zone and the administrator for the DNS server hosting the child zone does not need to be contacted. This functionality is explained in the following example.

A stub zone is a read-only copy of a zone, which obtains its resource records from other name servers. It contains copies of only three types of resource records:



1. SOA record for the zone.

2. Name server (NS) records for all name servers authoritative for the zone.

3. Host (A) records for all name servers authoritative for the zone.



These resource records are necessary to identify the authoritative DNS server for the zone. A stub zone is used to streamline name resolution, especially in a split namespace scenario.



A DNS server that is hosting a stub zone is configured with the IP address of the authoritative server from which it loads. DNS servers can use stub zones for both iterative and recursive queries. When a DNS server hosting a stub zone receives a recursive query for a computer name in the zone to which the stub zone refers, the DNS server uses the IP address to query the authoritative server, or, if the query is iterative, returns a referral to the DNS servers listed in the stub zone. A stub zone reduces the amount of DNS traffic on the network and makes DNS more efficient especially over slow WAN links.  

Using stub zones

Use stub zones to:

• Keep delegated zone information current. By updating a stub zone for one of its child zones regularly, the DNS server hosting both the parent zone and the stub zone will maintain a current list of authoritative DNS servers for the child zone.

• Improve name resolution. Stub zones enable a DNS server to perform recursion using the stub zone's list of name servers without needing to query the Internet or internal root server for the DNS namespace.

• Simplify DNS administration. By using stub zones throughout your DNS infrastructure, you can distribute a list of the authoritative DNS servers for a zone without using secondary zones. However, stub zones do not serve the same purpose as secondary zones and are not an alternative when considering redundancy and load sharing.

There are two lists of DNS servers involved in the loading and maintenance of a stub zone:

• The list of master servers from which the DNS server loads and updates a stub zone. A master server may be a primary or secondary DNS server for the zone. In both cases, it will have a complete list of the DNS servers for the zone.

• The list of the authoritative DNS servers for a zone. This list is contained in the stub zone using name server (NS) resource records.

When a DNS server loads a stub zone, such as widgets.example.com, it queries the master servers, which can be in different locations, for the necessary resource records of the authoritative servers for the zone widgets.example.com. The list of master servers may contain a single server or multiple servers and can be changed anytime.

Stub zone updates

Stub zone updates involve the following conditions:

• When a DNS server loads a stub zone, it queries the zone's master server for the SOA resource record, NS resource records at the zone's root, and glue A resource records.

• During updates to the stub zone, the master server is queried by the DNS server hosting the stub zone for the same resource record types requested during the loading of the stub zone.

• The Refresh interval of the SOA resource record determines when the DNS server hosting the stub zone will attempt a zone transfer (update).

• If an update fails, the Retry interval of the SOA resource record determines when the update is retried.

• Once the Retry interval has expired without a successful update, the expiration time as specified in the Expires field of the SOA resource record determines when the DNS server stops using the stub zone data.

Use the DNS console in Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to perform the following stub zone update operations:

• Reload. Reload the stub zone from the local storage of the DNS server hosting the stub zone.

• Transfer from master. Have the DNS server hosting the stub zone determine if the serial number in the stub zone's SOA resource record has expired, and then perform a zone transfer from the stub zone's master server.

• Reload from master. Perform a zone transfer from the stub zone's master server regardless of the serial number in the stub zone's SOA resource record.


ref:  Updated: January 21, 2005 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779197.aspx





What doesn’t work in W2K3





Zone Alarm Pro - No version works, below 3.7 won't install, version 3-7 and above install but don't run as they should.



Norton Antivirus, OO Defrag 4.0 - Need Server Version to install on 2K3. OO Defrag 4.0 Server Edition has a bug which prevents you from accessing it's MMC Plug in more than one time per boot.



TweakUI Powertoy - Need version 2.0 to install on 2K3.



Old Hardware - a friend of mine has a really old (6-7 years) Realtec combo NIC (Coaxial/RJ45) which 2K3 won't install, it doesn't have the drivers (while XP and 2K have them).



3DMark 2003 - With XP i get 10 3DMarks more than with 2K3. For anything else it is faster than XP. I think even in game play it seams faster or at least as fast as XP, maybe it's just 3DMark.



Anything else worked more than fine. With this OS I watch DivX, play games, code software (VB and C++), encode divx, listen to audio...



2K3 comes with MediaPlayer 9.0 and DirectX 9.0. Installation is faster and easier than XP installation. I played many games and ran most of the well known benchmarks.



Logitech drivers dont work. thats another thing if you have a wireless keyboard and mouse





What does run:

• Office XP

• Leadtek TV2000XP DLX

• Paint Shop Pro 8

• Dreamweaver

• Creative Labs drivers and all the other junk for the Audigy 2

• Style XP

Windows 2003 Notes and Abbreviations:



- Active Directory (AD) uses DNS as its locator service to support the various types of services that AD offers, such as Global Catalog (GC), Kerberos, and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

- _msdcs hosts only DNS SRV records that are registered. It also contains GUID of all domains in the forest and lists on the GC servers. The _msdcs subdomain also includes the globally unique identifier (GUID) for all domains in the forest and a list of GC servers. If you install a new forest on a system that runs Windows Server 2003 and let the dcpromo wizard configure DNS, Dcpromo will actually create a separate zone called “_msdcs.” on the DNS server. This zone is configured to store its records in a forest wide application directory partition, ForestDNSZones, which is replicated to every DC in the forest that runs the DNS service. This replication makes the zone highly available anywhere in the forest.

- GC (Global Catalogue) Is the first DC in the forest and you don't actually move the GC between servers. Instead, you simply enable the GC on a new server, then look for event ID 1119, and then disable the current GC. If your workstation can not find the Global Catalog server, which it needs to check the uniqueness of the UPN resolve the problem by stop and restart the Netlogon service on the GC to force registration of the GC in DNS

- Global Catalog (GC)-less logon (also known as universal group caching) Universal group caching lets Windows 2003 domain controllers (DCs) cache a user's universal group memberships in the msDS-Cached-Membership attribute of an AD user account object. To enable universal group caching, open the snap-in, select a site object, then open the site object's NTDS Site Settings Properties dialog box, and select the Enable Universal Group Membership Caching check box near the bottom.

- NTLM is a challenge/response-based authentication protocol that is the default authentication protocol of Windows NT 4.0 and earlier Windows versions. For backward compatibility reasons, Microsoft still supports NTLM in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2003 R2, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Starting with Win2K, Microsoft implements Kerberos as the default authentication protocol for the Windows OS. This means that besides an NTLM authentication provider, every Windows OS since Win2K also includes a client Kerberos authentication provider.

- Kerberos refers to several things: Kerberos is the Authentication Service (AS); the protocol that AS uses; and the code that implements AS. Kerberos version 5 authentication issues tickets for accessing services on the network. Kerberos is also an Internet standard

- LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

- Application directory partition is different from a domain partition in that it is not allowed to store security principla objects such as user accounts and is not stored in the global catalogue.

- User Principal Name (UPN) A user account/logon name) and a domain name identifying the domain in which the user account is located. The format is user@domain.com.

- Windows 2003 AD object quotas determine the number of objects that a particular security principal can own in an AD naming context (NC) or directory partition. These quotas can help prevent Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on AD domain controllers (DCs). Without them, an authorized user can bring down an AD server by creating AD objects until a DC runs out of storage space. You can specify and administer AD object quotas for each AD NC and directory partition, but you can't define them for the schema NC. You can define a default quota for every AD NC and directory partition. However, if you don't explicitly set a default quota on an NC or partition, the default quota for that NC or partition will be unlimited.

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Citrix xen App port Numbers

ICA: 1494 Session reliability: 2598 IMA: 2512 (Server to server) 2513 (Server to console) XML: 80 when integrated with IIS can be configu...