str[bits]

How to back up Active Directory to tape or disk?

1. Go to Start –> All Programs (or Programs for Windows 2000) –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Backup.

2. Click the Advanced Mode link.

3. Click the Backup tab.

4. Check the box beside System State.

5. Check the box beside any other files, directories, or drives you would also like to back up.

6. For Backup destination, select either File or Tape depending on where you want to back up the data to.

7. For Backup media or file name, type either the name of a file or select the tape to save the backup to.

8. Click the Start Backup button twice.

Similarly with Linux’s sudo or su commands; you can also elevate privilege in Windows Server by using runas command.

runas /user:administrator@company.com /netonly "mmc.exe"

This was taught to me by Sir Joel when I was still in Acer Philippines (now Wistron Philippines) – how to turn Plug and Play (PnP) in Windows NT 4.

As we all know, Windows NT doesn’t officially support the Plug and Play (PnP) technology, which allows a computer to automatically recognize and configure cards and other hardware devices.

However, the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Plug and Play driver, located in the NT 4 Server and Workstation CD-ROMs, provides partial support for some PnP features.

To install the driver, navigate to the DRVLIB\PNPISA\X86 folder within the CD-ROM. Open the folder, click Pnpisa.inf, and select Install.

After rebooting, the PnP service will appear in the Service applet within the Control Panel. While this allows NT to detect some PnP devices, some settings may still need to be configured manually.

Note: Do not install this PnP driver if you have another Creative Labs Sound Blaster sound card installed on your system.

How many of you installed and use Windows XP?This is a very very important information.

In order to minimize the likelihood of piracy, Microsoft has included Product Activation technology within Windows XP.

The following are twelve facts that you should know about activation:

* Activation is mandatory.

* Activation is anonymous.

* Activation and registration are two different things.

* After you install Windows XP, you have 30 days to activate it. If you fail to do so, you will not be able to use it.

* You can activate either over the Internet or with a phone call.

* You can activate Windows XP on only one computer at a time.

* You can activate Windows XP an unlimited number of times on a given computer.

* If you install the same copy of Windows XP on another computer, you’ll need to remove the copy from the first system and use the phone activation.

* Substantially changing your hardware might require that you reactivate Windows XP. In such cases, you’ll need to call Microsoft and explain the situation.

* Windows XP is not the only Microsoft program that uses activation. Office is another application.

* Microsoft is not the only company that uses activation in its products.

* If you buy several copies of Windows XP, you can get the version without the product activation code. In other words, anyone can purchase versions that don’t require activation.

By default, Windows NT creates so-called administrative shares that are accessible to domain administrators and allows them to remotely retrieve all the files on a computer. And these shares are re-created each time the system reboots.

To access administrative shares, type \computer\c$ in the Run box, where computer is the name of the remote computer, c is the partition you want to access, and the dollar sign ($) indicates that the shares are hidden. All shares on the computer–administrative and other–can be viewed by typing net share in the Command Prompt. If there’s only one partition, four default shares will be visible: IPC$, C$, PRINT$, and ADMIN$.

Administrative shares are useful for administrators but can also pose a security risk. Unless they’re needed, consider disabling them by performing this registry edit:

1. Open the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe).

2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Paramaters.

3. Set both AutoShareServer and AutoShareWks values to 0. If these values don’t exist, create them by clicking Add Value from the Edit menu and use REG_DWORD as the type.

4. Close the Registry Editor.

To reenable the shares, simply change the two values back to 1.