Month: January 2016

ScreenConnect Remote Access Tool

I have had the privilege of using a new remote support tool called ScreenConnect which was recently acquired. This tool has all the major features of other remote support tools including a built in screen annotation feature and OCR capability that feeds into the built in research tool. Looking forward to training and trying all the features of this wonderful new software.

Easily Transfer FSMO Roles Between DCs

To understand the need to transfer FSMO roles it is necessary to understand FSMO. As per Wikipedia – “Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) is a specialized domain controller (DC) set of tasks, used where standard data transfer and update methods are inadequate. Active Directory (AD) normally relies on multiple peer Domain Controllers, each with a copy of the AD database, being synchronized by multi-master replication. The tasks which are not suited to multi-master replication, and are viable only with a single-master database, are the FSMOs.”

When adding a new DC to a domain it often becomes the primary DC which means that a transfer FSMO roles will need to migrate. There are several ways to get this done, but this is by far the easiest I have found. Run the following PowerShell script from the new DC:

Move-ADDirectoryServerOperationMasterRole -Identity “[New DC Computer Name]” –OperationMasterRole PDCEmulator,RIDMaster,InfrastructureMaster,SchemaMaster,DomainNamingMaster

That command came from and special thanks go out to The Lazy Admin Blog.

Fab-ulous New Software Experience

Big thanks go out to the fellows at the PodNutz Podcast for the recommendation of Fab’s AutoBackup Pro as this has been one of the best investments I have made in automating my business in recent years. I was hesistant at its expansive claims to basically grab everything from every profile on an old computer or even removed hard drive and automatically put it into the associated new profiles on a target computer. The claims are all true and really have to be experienced to be believed, so don’t do this kind of thing manually anymore as Fab’s will take care of all the heavy lifting. It will move the following:

Fab moves Personal folders:

Windows desktop’s content
Windows desktop’s wallpaper
Quick Launch toolbar’s shortcuts (for Windows XP and Vista : this tool bar has been removed from Windows since Windows 7)
Windows Start screen/menu Modern UI layout (only shortcuts, not applications)
My Documents
My Pictures
My Music
My Videos
Downloads folder (Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10)

Fab moves Web browsers:

Windows Internet Explorer favorites
Windows Internet Explorer main start page
Windows Internet Explorer settings (proxy, security zones…)
Microsoft Edge favorites
Google Chrome profile
Chromium browser profile
Apple Safari profile
Opera profile
Firefox settings : bookmarks, extensions…

Fab moves Mail:

Outlook Express messages and settings (mail accounts, rules…)
Microsoft Office Outlook PST/OST files and email accounts (messages, address book and calendar are stored in)
Outlook signatures files
Microsoft Office Outlook typed email addresses history
Windows Mail messages and settings
Windows Live Mail messages and settings
Windows Address book, used by outlook Express or Windows Mail
Mozilla Thunderbird messages and settings
PostBox messages and settings
IncrediMail messages and settings
Opera Mail

Fab moves Misc :

Windows Vista’s calendar
Sticky Notes
Screen saver settings (enabled or not, password protected or not, delay before activation)
Documents templates
Skype data and settings
Trillian data ad settings
ICQ data and settings
Windows Gadgets (installed by user)
Network drives connections
Network places
Picasa (albums and database)
BlackBerry Desktop settings
BlackBerry devices backups
Logitech SetPoint settings
Microsoft IntelliType Pro settings
Microsoft IntelliPoint settings
Apple IOS devices iTunes backups (iPhone, iPod, iPad)

Fab moves Common items:

Common documents
Common desktop
Common pictures
Common music
Common videos
Public Downloads folder (Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10)
Fonts (useful if you have installed some by yourself or bundled with software)
Microsoft Office XP, 2003, 2007 and 2010 activation files (Microsoft Office 2013 is not handled)
Modem settings file (fichier rasphone.pbk), except credentials
Intuit QuickBooks data (experimental)
NCH ExpressInvoice data
Steam (downloads)
Installed printers list

Fab moves User defined:

Additional files (manual selection or using wildcards search on selected operating system partition)
Additional folders

I cannot say enough good things about this software. Buy it and tell everyone you know about it too.

Missing Active Directory Attribute Editor Tab

Ran into this issue a couple times now while migrating Small Business Server (SBS) clients from on-premis Exchange to Office365. After setting up the DirSync tool on the server, to add an email alias to a user’s Office 365 account it needs to be setup in the Active Directory Attribute Editor tab under the proxyAddresses attribute. The easiest way to do this is add a record as follows:

Add the Active Directory Attribute Editor Tab in Small Business Server

smtp:[useralias@yourcompany.com]

into the proxyAddresses section of the Attributes tab:

Active Directory Attribute Tab

This is normally easy to do and then run a manual DirSync to add the alias to the user’s Office 365 account, but what if the Attributes tab is missing? It is time to break out the ADSIedit tool again to make the needed changes to the way these pages are displayed. Here are the steps to get it done:

open ADSIedit.msc
Right click on ADSIedit and choose “connect to”
Under connection point select “select a well known Naming context” and in that window choose “Configuration”
Under computer leave as “Default (Domain or server that you logged into)” then click OK
Expand CN=configuration, DC=[your domain], DC=local
Expand CD=DisplaySpecifiers
Click on CN=your language. (The language # can be found on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324097 for example US English is 409, so CN=409)
In the right hand window locate CN=User-Display right click and choose properties
Locate AdminPropertyPages, highlight it and click “edit” and add the line

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In the right hand window locate CN=Computer-Display right click and choose properties
ocate AdminPropertyPages, highlight it and click “edit” and add the line

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In the right hand window locate CN= Default-Display right click and choose properties
Locate AdminPropertyPages, highlight it and click “edit” and add the line

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Make sure to click on the View menu in Active Directory Users and Computers to choose the Advanced Features option if not already selected to see these newly added Active Director Attribute Editor Tab in the display.

Month: January 2016

ScreenConnect Remote Access Tool

Easily Transfer FSMO Roles Between DCs