Fixed some problems with the blog

Ever since I performed an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition to Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition on the server hosting this blog, I have been having problems when adding or edition content as my regular user. I would, for instance, try to create a new post or edit an existing one, the …

Specify a blank sender in SMTP communication using a Telnet client

If you ever need to specify a blank sender in the mail from command when debugging an SMTP server by using a Telnet client; use <>. For example: 220 mta.domain.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service ready at Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:21:41 +0100 ehlo 250-mta.domain.com Hello [10.10.10.10] 250-SIZE 250-PIPELINING 250-DSN 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES 250-STARTTLS 250-X-ANONYMOUSTLS 250-AUTH NTLM 250-X-EXPS …

How to reinstall Virtual Server 2005 Virtual Machine Additions

The GUI insatller (setup.exe) for the Virtual Server 2005 Virtual Machine Additions do not offer a reinstall or repair option. That means that if you ever experience any problems with any of the additions you are forced to first remove the additions, reboot, reinstall them and the reboot again. But if you use the MSI …

What are the security benefits of running a service as the Local System Account as opposed to a user account?

With the release of Windows 2000 products from Microsoft, most prominently Exchange 2000, started running their services under the Local System1 account instead of using a dedicated Active Directory User account, or what is commonly known as a service account2. The reason for this was security. As time passed more and more products adapted this …

Troubleshooting Outlook Anywhere (Outlook RPC-over-HTTPS)

This is an unordered list of tools and functionality that is handy when troubleshooting Outlook Anywhere or Outlook RPC-over-HTTPS as it was previously known. Wireshark Excellent network protocol analyzer, use it to see what Outlook and Exchange send over the wire. It is possible to configure Wireshark to decrypt an SSL stream, I will post …

Determining free space in Exchange Mailbox Databases using PowerShell

Exchange Mailbox Databases (EDB files) increase in size automatically when required, but they never decrease in size without administrator intervention. Exchange does its best to use up the free space inside the database, the so called white space, but that is not always possible. Because of this you are left with database files that just …

Turning on BitLocker on my laptop

So I decided to test BitLocker on my laptop. Here is what happened. First you need to have the correct partition layout; one 1,5 GB unencrypted system partition to store the boot manager and the Boot Configuration Database (BCD). The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool does this for you, BDPT is documented in KB933246. BDPT did …

‘Remove Exchange Attributes’ á la PowerShell

The extensions to Active Directory Users and Computers for Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 have a task called Remove Exchange Attributes that is accessible from the Exchange Tasks menu. It removes all Exhange related attributes from the objects on which it is run. This is useful when an object is in an inconsistent state, as …