If you ever run into a situation, where you need to sync two different directories and need to do that in a batch mode, try using FTPSync.
FTPSync is a freeware tool written by Kristof Gajsek. The tool has a bunch of options, like being able to operate in GUI and batch mode. Also good automated sync capabilities.
Only limitation is that it is windows based.
I came to know this method, when I saw one of the IT techs use it to troubleshoot some Internet connectivity issues.
To clear any saved username/passwords (i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer etc) in Microsoft Windows, do the following
control keymgr.dll I tried this on Windows XP and Vista.
If you are using the free version of AVG Anti-virus by AVG Technologies (Formerly GRISoft), you might have noticed an annoying message that the software inserts in all the e-mails it checks.. The message looks like this
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG – http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.4/1567 – Release Date: 7/22/2008 4:05 PM
I really appreciate the free service that AVG provides for home users, but I don’t want to be reminded or advertise to the world regd the anti-virus I use in every e-mail.
You can disable this message by doing the following in AVG 8.0
While, I am writing about couples smooching over each other!! 
, my buddy Ray is writing something meaningful. As he states, Microsoft is planning on ending sales of Windows XP on June 30 2008. While Vista, has a lot of cool features, none of them are compelling for businesses to make the expensive migration. Not only does the new operating system require extensive planning for the migration and training for the tech support teams, but businesses also have to consider the expense of training end users because the interface has changed so much.
And not to mention the 100 different (I am exaggerating!! ) flavors of Vista that Microsoft has come up with to make the decision even tougher.
Sign the petition here . [UPDATE : Link has been corrected.. Thx Ray for pointing this out.]
SysInternals, a company founded by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, and later acquired by Microsoft, produces some of the well known “must have” tools for a system administrator. Top on my list would be
If a sys admin (esp Windows admin) says that they don’t know these tools.. don’t hire them .
I am planning on sharing some of the “Ahh.. we should have thought of that” moments on this site as I run into them. First is to remind of me of my past mistakes, so that I can avoid them in future, and two is help other folks out. Here’s my first one..
We decided to change the password parameters in our companies group policy recently. The password expiration was changed to 60 days from 120 days and password complexity was enabled. We thought this was a pretty straight forward change and wouldn’t get the helpdesk swamped with calls, since the new policy will take affect as the current passwords expire..
Wrong!!! AD checks the last time your password was changed and compares it to the password expiration time frame in group policy. And you could just imagine, the look our helpdesk folks gave the engineers when they got swaped with people calling them that they are being forced to change passwords and all the ones they used before don’t work.
Morale : Decrease the password timeout in intervals. i..e in our case, we should have decreased the expiration date 10 days at a time. That way, you minimize the impact the change.
I use a T-Mobile Dash as my phone and mobile messaging platform. For those that are not aware, you pull e-mail from any Exchange 2003 server with SP2 from a Windows Mobile device over the air, using direct connect. The management features are not as robust as Blackberry for managing Windows Mobile devices, but it is a free feature .
I have been trying to figure out for the last few weeks, how I can switch the exchange server that my DASH has been configured for. Finally, a lot of googling revealed the following steps.
On your mobile device,
NOTE : This will delete all your e-mail, contacts and calendar entries that were synchronized using the old exchange server.
I always keep forgetting this and finally want to document it. The command to clear your screen when using the command prompt in Windows is “cls“.
I knew that you could get the MAC address of a network interface in Windows, by using “ipconfig /all“. Just discovered, this new command (that only works in Windows XP) “getmac“.
If you are trying to troubleshoot an issue with Microsoft Exchange 2003 and need more verbose logging, you can get additional logging by
1) Launch Exchange System Manager
2) Drill down to the server in the Administrative Groups
3) Right click on server and click on properties
4) Open the “Diagnostic Logging” tab and enable logging on any of the exchange modules
You can check the logs from the event viewer.