Saiweb

So you have domain admin rights, but that server just wont play with remote desktop … you suspect a hung process what do you do?

Have someone log into the console (if they can) ?

Or surely there is another way …

Windows XP (Surprisingly) has a command line tool set for just such an event, in this case the two commands. (Via command line Start > Run CMD)

“TASKLIST”

and

“TASKKILL”

Just run off the list of processes using TASKLIST and kill the “offending” process with TASKKILL, if you can not figure out how to do that by reading the documentation via the links above, then I really do not recommend you use this method.

This one comes via Kerm.

We have an Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 server working side by side, with the 2003 server on the PDC (Primary Domain Controller).

Due to this when creating a new AD account from the PDC, even if you set the mailbox as being on the 2007 server, the mailbox will still show as “Legacy Mailbox”, to correct this you will need to launch the Exchange management shell and run the following command line:

set-mailbox -identity “mbox_alias” -ApplyMandatoryProperties

et voila job done.

Outlook is one of those programs we all love to hate at some point in time, particularly when it does something completely random like say _lose_ that selection of emails you were trying to move to another folder, if you can find these emails i.e. one was flagged and showing up under “flagged for follow up”, the in folder field displays IPM_SUBTREE.

Let’s start with some _conceptual_ background (In that this is how I logically see this working due to the errors that have occurred).

Your exchange mailbox is effectively a database, however in the more traditional sense of a “Containers” model.

i.e.

Grandparent > Parent > Child is a standard logical representation of programmatic relationships, in this case however it is more relevant to think of the structure as if it were a file system, with folders (containers).

i.e.

C:\Grand_Parent\Parent\Child

Ok so that’s the “container” concept out of the way, now for the moving procedure, from what I can tell all mail is stored within the IPM_SUBTREE, this essentially is the CHILD object which contains a subset of further folders, inbox etc … (Grandchildren)

When copying / moving email to a folder in outlook (Grandchild object), the email is first copied / moved to the IPM_SUBTREE (Child) folder, if an error occurs for any reason however that is where it stays!

The IPM_SUBTREE and higher up folders / containers are not visible in outlook, so to the end user these emails are lost.

To the sys admin however you now know they are simply “misplaced”, to recover these you need a program that can see the IPM_SUBTREE, this is available from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=887724 “MFCMAPI_BIN.exe”

You will need to run this from the computer that is having problems, the user will also most likely need local administrative rights on that machine, alternatively as a Domain Administrator, set yourself with full rights to the problem mail box, and create a new outlook profile.

After downloading the .exe you will be prompted to extract the program, i.e. to C:\MFCMAPI, now run it:

C:\MFCMAPI\MFCMapi.exe

Once started Click Session > “Logon and Display Store Tables”

You will them be prompted for a profile to use (Default: Outlook)

The top line in the Display Name field should read: “MailBox - Username”, click to select this line and right click to bring up the context menu, now click “Open Store”

You will be presented with a new window, on the left there will be a tree navigation displaying “Root - Mailbox”, expand this list and click on IPM_SUBTREE, right click and select “Open Contents Table”, again you will get a new window, ideally with nothing listed, if items are listed, select them and right click copy messages.

Now close the window, right click the destination folder i.e. inbox, and “Open Contents Table”, in the new window right click anywhere in the list and select “Paste Messages”, you may also be prompted to choose whether to move or copy the messages.

Follow the prompts and once complete the messages will be in the destination folder.

Any problems leave a comment.

Oh dear oh dear, MS at it again.

Accoding to this story: here

SP3 has caused a huge rollout headache including screwing MS’s Point Of Sale application …

See now this is what happens when you FORCE users to have to install SP3 before they can get any more updates ><

Admitedly the users experiancing the problems all using Automatic Update …

So my advise is to grab the complete Network distribution (about 319mb).

Update if you are having problems and are using an AMD machine read this: here

Well it’s finally here!

And I get the fun task of testing this service pack and then rolling it out over a few hundered laptops located all over the place!

Oh well, I’m using my laptop as the test subject at the moment (poor thing), I’ll post updates with any problems I run into along the way.

UPDATE:

Well I realy do suggest you set aside a good hour per machine for this update (bare in mind I am using the Netoork rollout pack 316mb), especially if the client machine has windows live messenger installed, which seemed to need some sort of update entailing 30 minutes of wasted time.

If you have an antivirus running during the install it will take even longer.

Other than that _thusfar_ I have had no problems with SP3. Post a comment if you get stuck though.