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1. Basic disks use the original MS-DOS-style master boot record (MBR) partition tables to store primary and logical disk partitioning information. Dynamic disks use a private region of the disk to maintain a Logical Disk Manager (LDM) database. The LDM database contains volume types, offsets, memberships, and drive letters of each volume. The LDM database is also replicated, so each dynamic disk knows about every other dynamic disk configuration. Performing FIXBOOT and FIXMBR in the recovery console of a system configured with Dynamic disks has no affect on the health of the LDM.
2. Never break a healthy system disk or boot dynamic mirrored volume and expect the mirrored drive to replace the original primary drive if it fails. The manually broken mirrored drive is assigned the next available drive letter, and this is updated to the permanent record in the LDM database. This means that regardless of what position that drive takes in the boot process, it is assigned the new (and incorrect) drive letter, so the operating system cannot function correctly.
3. If you want to replace a failed disk in a dynamic disk-based volume, shut the system down just like normal. Do not break the mirror or change the volume properties in preparation for the removal. Once the system is down, replace the bad drive and reboot. It may be necessary to place the secondary drive at the same SCSI ID as the primary before reboot if you are replacing the primary drive in a mirrored set.

MANY other helpful hints are available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816307.

When making registry changes, it is a good practice to export the key first.  But many times, we are adding new items and not just modifying values on existing items.  So if you import from the file you exported to, it does not remove the new items that were added.  To do that, add a line at the top of the registry file with a minus in front of the key, like this, for example:

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones]

This will cause this key, all it's subkeys, and items to be removed first, then the rest of the information will be added back.  If the key does not exist, then no error occurs.  This is probably a good practice to follow when putting together a .REG file to deploy so that nothing else will be under that key.

I have a two computers on my desk that I use regularly.  My desktop, which is my main computer, and a laptop.  Whenever I'm doing work on both, burning CDs, downloading updates, etc., I find it a pain to switch between a mouse and a full-size keyboard to a trackpad and mini-keyboard.

Thankfully, there is a program that solved my dilemma.  The solution I found is an open source project named Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/).  It even lets you share between computers with different operating systems, so you could share the same mouse and keyboard between computers running Windows, Linux, and a Mac. [more]

From the Synergy website:

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

While working on a task to upgrade the hard drives on a Windows 2002 SBS machine. I installed Acronis in order to create an image of the C & D drive then recover it to the new larger hard drive. I recovered the image to the new drives and finished getting everything back online.

I decided to uninstall Acronis which showed to uninstall just fine using it’s uninstall. After backup ran that night it had Volume Shadow Copy errors. I checked and found that the Microsoft VSS writers where not accessible. I ran “VSSadmin / list writers” which showed there was no writers available. After researching I found that others who uninstalled Acronis 9.1 had the same issue. I could not find a solution that worked for anyone. I found an article (linked to below) that has a list of DLL’s that Micrisoft Premier Support recommends to reregister. I reregistered the DLL's and after a reboot there were still no VSS writers available.  [more]

I then decided to run System File Checker which is built into Windows XP and Server 2003. I used “sfc.exe /scannow” and let it run. After which I reregistered the DLL’s like before. This time when I ran “VSSadmin /list writers” all the writers were listed. I went back to Backup Exec and was able to select “Shadow?Copy?Components” and “System State”, which I could not before.

Link to information about SFC.exe   -   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747
Link to list of DLL’s to reregister  -   http://backupassist.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=28

I was working on a server that was running low on disk space on the system (C:) partition.  I was able to free up some space rather quickly (by removing the Automatic Update downloads), but when I checked the Event Logs, the Application log was filling up with errors from SMS for Exchange.  The message was that the virus definitions were corrupted.  It appeared that the XDB down script had run around lunch time and updated the virus definitions, but wasn’t able to complete the install due to low disk space.  Despite the partial install, SMS for Exchange appeared to be trying to use the corrupted definitions.  When I tried to run LiveUpdate (as recommended by the Event Log message), LiveUpdate said everything was current.  People were starting to have problems with their e-mail (and for some reason the server was beeping irregularly on site).  I stopped the SMS for Exchange service (which fixed the e-mail and the beep), but the service wouldn’t restart.  I tried restarting the main Antivirus service as well, and it would not restart (also because of corrupt virus definitions).  I had to manually stop all the Symantec services, remove the partially installed virus definitions from the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\VirusDefs folder, manually edit the USAGE.dat file (which tells the Symantec products which defs to use), then restart the services.  Once the services were up and running on the previous virus defs, I was  able to re-run the XDB down script and let it update the defs to the most current.

When running dcdiag.exe from the Windows Support Tools against a x64 domain controller, make sure you are running the x64 version of dcdiag.exe. If you try to run the x86 version of dcdiag remotely against an x64 domain controller, the tool may report errors when there really isn’t anything wrong. In my case, I could not get the x64 domain controller to pass the Kerberos and DNS tests when running dcdiag.exe against it from a remote x86 server; however, when I installed the x64 version of the support tools locally on the domain controller, everything passed without error.

The Out of Office Assistant in Outlook 2007 is a bit more helpful in letting people inside the company know where you are. Microsoft has included a “Inside My Organization” and “Outside My Organization” message area. For example, if I were to set an Out of Office message for both internal and external, it would look like this: [more]

Notice how I can also set the time range that the Out of Office Assistant is running.  This is a pretty nifty new feature for Outlook 2007.

Over the past several days AT&T customers have reported a drastic increase in the number of non-spam messages being rejected by AT&T SPAM filters.  [more]

The sender may receive a message such as "An error occurred while trying to deliver this message to the recipient's e-mail address.  The following organization rejected your message: att.net", and the receiver might view a log with a message similar to "550 Error. Blocked for abuse".  However, many of the messages are from legitimate users or companies.

To get the sender off of the "SPAM" list, you can either call AT&T or submit appropriate information into the form on the following website provided by AT&T, http://worldnet.att.net/general-info/mail_info/block_admin.html

To read more, visit http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080325/002950640.shtml or http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/24/aggressive_att_spam_filters/

In a security advisory, Microsoft states it is investigating reports of targeted attacks using a vulnerability in the Microsoft Jet Database Engine that can be exploited through Microsoft Word.

According to the advisory, customers running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 are not vulnerable to the buffer overrun being attacked, as they include a version of the Microsoft Jet Database Engine that is not vulnerable to this issue.  However, customers using Microsoft Word 2000 Service Pack 3, Microsoft Word 2002 Service Pack 3, Microsoft Word 2003 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Word 2003 Service Pack 3, Microsoft Word 2007, and Microsoft Word 2007 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 are vulnerable to these attacks.

To read more visit
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143749-pg,1/article.html

For the original Microsoft advisory visit
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/950627.mspx