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Month: October 2015

Share Users Office 365 Calendar

The old way to accomplish Exchange calendar sharing between users was to either connect to each individual users workstation to right click and share the calendar to users in the Global Access List (GAL) or to install their profile on your system and do the same. There have been some wonderful advances since the advent of Powershell that allow Office 365 calendar sharing permissions to be set remotely as follows:

How to share Office 365 Calendar via Powershell

1. Make sure the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell is installed properly

2. Open Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell as administrator

3. Type in the following to run signed scripts for Exchange Online:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

4. Type in the following to enter the administrative credentials for Office 365:

$creds = Get-Credential

5. Enter the Office 365 Administrator credentials then click "OK" button. 6. Type in the following to connect to Office 365 via PowerShell:

Import-Module MsOnline

Connect-MsolService -Credential $creds

7. Type in the following to connect to Exchange Online via Powershell:

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $creds -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $Session

8. Type in the following command to change the calendar permissions:

Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity sharinguser@domain.com:\calendar -User recipient@domain.com -AccessRights Editor

Once this command has been executed for each individual recipient that will access the sharing users calendar, then you can have them right click to add the shared calendar in their Outlook. For a list of possible Access Rights see this great page by the University of Wisconsin. If your company is using Office 365 Calendar and needs help sharing them, then contact us for assistance.

Scheduled Windows Server Restart

There have been innumerable times that I have had to schedule a Windows Server restart for after hours so that I don’t have to log back in after hours to do this manually. So here is a quick command to schedule a reboot at 11:59 PM (copy & paste for greater degree of simplicity):

schtasks /CREATE /SC once /TN “Windows Server Restart” /TR “shutdown /r /t 0 /f” /ST 23:59 /RL highest

This should be done within an administrative command prompt. Leave the server logged in for it to complete successfully (this is highly recommended not to do) or change the one setting in the Task Scheduler to run the Windows Server Restart task as a particular user.

Setup Microsoft Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Recently had some issues where another tech company was unable to properly setup MDM for their clients, so reviewed the documentation and their current efforts then came to the conclusion that they had skipped a couple steps in the initial setup that were causing the issue. Here is the proper initial setup steps:

Activate Mobile Device Management in Office 365

1. Sign in to Office 365 as an administrative user
2. Click on the Admin pane
3. Click on Mobile Management on the list to the left hand side
4. Click on the “Get Started” button
5. Wait awhile (5 minutes to 2 hours) for the setup to complete

Configure Initial Domain DNS Settings

1. Back in the Mobile Management section, look for the red x circle and click on “Manage settings”
2. First to configure custom DNS needed for automatic configuration, click on the “Set up” next to “Configure domains for MDM”
3. Click on the primary domain used for Autodiscover, etc. then click on “Domain settings”
4. Under “Domain purpose” click on “Change domain purpose”
5. Put a check next to “Mobile Device Management for Office 365” then click on “Next”
6. Take note of the following cname records:

enterpriseregistration enterpriseregistration.windows.net 3600
enterpriseenrollment enterpriseenrollment.manage.microsoft.com 3600

7. Enter these into the customers custom DNS records along with any others that are listed on that page which weren't entered previously.
8. Return to this page to confirm that the DNS settings have changed properly.

Configure Apple Push Notification (APN) Certificate

1. Back in the Mobile Management section, look for the red x circle and click on “Manage settings”
2. Click on “Set up” next to “Configure an APNs Certificate for iOS devices” to request the needed certificate to manage Apple devices.
3. Click on “Download your CSR file” to save the file locally then click “Next”
4. Click on “Apple APNS Portal” to open the Apple Push Certificates Portal
5. Sign in with a valid (hopefully domain associated) Apple ID
6. Click on the “Create a Certificate” button
7. Agree to the Terms of Use
8. Upload the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) that was save locally earlier
9. Download the new Mobile Device Management certifcate and save it locally
10. Go back to the “Install Apple Push Notification Certificate” page and click “Next”
11. Upload the new Mobile Device Management certifcate tjat was saved locally from Apple

Configure Basic Mobile Device Management Policy

1. Create a Security Group in Active directory that will be used to apply the MDM policy and run DirSync manually.
2. Back in the Mobile Management section, click on “Manage device security policies and access rules”
3. Click on the + to add a new policy
4. Give the policy a name and click “Next”
5. On the pop-up page leave the defaults and check next to “Require managing email profile (required for selective wipe on iOS)”
6. Also select “Block access and report violation” to keep users off the network until they comply with the new policy then click “Next”
7. On the following page there are additional option that give additional security but are not required, when done click “Next”
8. Change selection to “Yes” and chose the Security Group in Active Directory that will be used for MDM enforcement then click “Next”
9. Click on “Finish” to begin enforcing this new policy

The next time any user opens an associated Office App on their supported devices it will ask them to start the enrollment process which goes through a compliance check which usually requires them to delete their current Exchange Active Sync profile to continue.

Special thanks to the guys at ExchangeServerPro.com for their blog entry with the basics. Also a thanks to the Microsoft Office Blog Team for their detailed look at MDM policy setup.
If your company is using Office 365 or has a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy which need mobile device management, then contact us for assistance.

Create Office 365 Shared Calendars

Often when migrating a client from on-premise Exchange server to the Office 365 platform, the company will have an Exchange pubic folder shared calendar or two that are used for various reasons. Here is the steps for creating the new kind of Office 365 shared calendars:

Creating a Public Folder Mailbox

1. Open the Office 365 portal with an administrative user
2. Open the Admin panel
3. Open the Exchange Admin panel
4. Click on Public Folders, then on the Public Folder Mailboxes
5. Click on the + symbol then give the new Public Folder Mailbox a name and click Save

Creating the Root Public Folder

1. Still in the Public Folders section click on Public Folders at the top
2. Click on the + symbol then give the new Public Folder Mailbox a name and click Save
3. Click on the new Public Folder then on the right hand side click on Manage under Folder permissions
4. Add all administrator users to the Folder Permissions

Creating the Shared Calendar Public Folder

1. Open Outlook on administrative users workstation who will be the "Owner" of the folder
2. Click on Folders at the bottom and expand into the new root Public Folder
3. Right click on the root and choose Add New Folder
4. Give it a name and choose Calendar Items under folder contains then click OK
5. Right click on the new Public Calendar click on Properties then on Permissions tab
6. Add all users who will be accessing the calendar and appropriate permissions for them

Adding the Calendar folder to Outlook

1. Open Outlook on each users workstation
2. Click on Folders at the bottom and expand into the new Public Calendar
3. Right click on the Public Calendar and choose Add to Favorites which then makes it listed under their calendar tab.

If your company is migrating from on-premise Exchange to Office 365 or are in need of an Office 365 Shared Calendars setup, then contact us for assistance.

Network Ransomware Infection Best Practices

After several clients have faced this issue, it time to write out some best practices for how to immediately deal with an infection from one of the Cryptolocker / Cryptowall network ransomware infection variants. These usually infect a single workstation on the network, encrypt all local files, encrypt all network file shares and leave an instruction file on how to pay for the decrypt key in every folder. A good backup of the network file servers is key for this network ransomware infection not to do devastating damage to a company.

Steps for cleaning up after the network ransomware infection:

1. Login to file server and find one of the instruction files (usually HELP_DECRYPT.txt or decrypt_instruction.html) on the affected network share.
2. Right click on the file, chose Properties and click on the Details tab. The Owner listed is most likely the username for the person using the only infected computer on the network.
3. Isolate this machine from the network, deep virus clean or wipe / reload the operating system to get rid of the infection.
4. It is also good to run basic virus scanning on all workstation and servers on the network to determine if further infection has happened. Clean as needed.
5. It is good to know all the infected files on the file server, so here is a Powershell script to do so (change the instruction file as needed):

get-childitem [local path of file share] -include HELP_DECRYPT.* -recurse | select fullname >> C:\TEMP\InfectedFiles.txt

6. Send a copy of an encrypted file and of one of the instruction files to your Antivirus vendor because obviously they missed something.
7. Next comes the cleaning of the instruction files, so more Powershell to automate this (change the instruction file as needed):

get-childitem [local path of file share] -include HELP_DECRYPT.* -recurse | foreach ($) {remove-item $.fullname}

8. Use backup software to restore affected file shares to an alternate location.
9. Copy / replace files into their original location from the alternate location.
10. Test to make sure that users are able to get back into their files.

If your company has been infected with a network ransomware infection or would like to be proactive about protecting your important company files from disaster, then contact us for assistance.

Event ID 1000 Faulting Application spoolsv.exe

Had a users who had their printers disappearing and even after reboot or Print Spooler Service restart the printers would vanish after only a few seconds. After much research found this article from Chicago Tech that explains in detail how to troubleshoot this Faulting Application spoolsv issue. Here are the three steps that fixed the issue for this domain user:

Step 1: Clear the print caches to fix Faulting Application spoolsv

1. Open “Computer” and browse to the folder “c:\windows\system32\spool\printers” and delete all the files in the folder.
2. Do the same to clear the content in the folder “c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86”

If the above step doesn’t work, please perform the next one.

Step 2: Reset the printer spooler to fix Faulting Application spoolsv

1. Open command prompt as administrator
2. Type “Net stop RPCSS” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type “sc config spooler depend= RPCSS” (without quotation marks and note the spacing) and press Enter.
4. Type “Net start RPCSS” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
5. Type “Net start SPOOLER” (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
6. Delete the printer and reboot the computer to allow Group Policy to re-install printer.

If the issue persists, please go on to Step 3 since the issue can be caused
by some corrupted printer drivers on the computer.

Step 3: Remove Printer Drivers to fix Faulting Application spoolsv

1. open RegEdit as administrator
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print, click Registry->Export Registry File on the menu, and export the current key to a REG file for backup. (Note: You may double click on the REG file in Windows Explorer to restore the original settings)
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86\Drivers, remove both the Version-2 and Version-3 keys if they exist.
4. Remove all sub keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers. (Do not remove the Printers key.)
5. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86\PrintProcessors, delete any processor that is not the following:

winprint

6. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Providers, delete any provider that is not one of the following:

Internet Print Provider
LanMan Print Services

7. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors, delete any monitor that is not one of the following:

BJ Language Monitor
Local Port
PJL Language Monitor
Standard TCP/IP Port
USB Monitor
Windows NT Fax Monitor
AppleTalk Printing Devices
LPR Port

8. Exit the registry editor.\

9. Remove all files from the following directories if they exist:

C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\2
C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3

10. Reboot to let Group Policy install the printer drivers again. This will take extra time for this one reboot.
If your company is uses Group Policy to deploy printers or just needs help troubleshooting network printer issues, then contact us for assistance.

Office 365 Email Distribution Group

Had a client that was using Office 365 Directory Synchronization (DirSync) to manage their users / groups in Office 365 via the local Active Directory which meant that there was not end-user manageability of those groups. A user asked to have a new email distribution list created that they could manage, so performed the following to make that happen:

Create an Office 365 Email Distribution Group

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Navigate to where in the hierarchy that the Distribution Group will be created.
3. Right click on the Organizational Unit where it is to be created and choose New then Group.
4. Give the Group a name and leave the default Group scope of Global and change Group type to Distribution then click OK button.
5. Double click on the new group to open it. Type in the email address to use then click on the Attribute Editor tab.
6. Scroll down and double click on the proxyAddresses item. Add the email in the format SMTP:[username@domain.com] then click on the Add button and OK button.
7. Click on the Managed By tab and click on the Change button to search for the user who will be the group administrator.
8. Click OK button then run a manual DirSync to send the changes to the cloud.
9. Open the group administrators Outlook.
10. Click on the Address Book button.
11. In the Address Book drop down list choose the Global Address Book (this may take some time to download the update).
12. Find the newly created Distribution Group and double click to open then click on the Modify Members button to add users.
If your company is using Office 365 and needs end users to manage their Office 365 Email Distribution Group, then contact us for assistance.

Exchange User Calendar Adding Permissions

Had a request to allow all users access to the new hires Exchange user calendar and some researched determined that this was not a job for the Exchange Managememt Console GUI. Instead it required a bit of PowerShell scripting to get the job done. It is best to run Get-MailboxDatabase before editing the script to retrieve the [Database Name] and [Username]. Here is the final product for accomplishing this task:

Add Exchange User Calendar Permissions via Powershell

$mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -Database “[Database Name]”
$AccessRights = “Reviewer”
$newusername = “[Username]”

foreach ($mailbox in $mailboxes) {

$calendar = (($mailbox.SamAccountName)+ “:\” + (Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity $mailbox.SamAccountName -FolderScope Calendar | Select-Object -First 1).Name)

Write-Host “Updating calendar permission for $mailbox…” -ForegroundColor Yellow

add-MailboxFolderPermission -User $newusername -AccessRights $AccessRights -Identity $calendar

}

If your company is using on-premise Microsoft Exchange User Calendar or needs any help migrating to Office 365, then contact us for assistance.

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“They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:8-10