Delete “Account Unknown” Local User Profiles

Issue:

On Windows XP or Server 2003, under Control Panel / System / Advanced / User Profiles / Settings, there are some “Account Unknown” user profile, but the Delete button is grayed out.  And when try to delete the profile from “c:\documents and settings” folder, the error message is “Cannot delete NTUSER.DAT: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.”

Solution:

1. Install “User Profile Hive Cleanup Service” (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=6676)
2. Run uphclean.exe
3. Then the “Delete” button becomes available

Note: the User Profile Deletion Utility (delprof.exe) (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5405) cannot delete the “Account Unknown” profile, but it is useful to clean up the normal user profile when their account is still active. (delprof.exe /p /c:\\servername)

Microsoft Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard

Another useful tool to create the SPF record

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/

Get-ADUser

Get-ADUser can get one or more Active Directory users; it’s part of Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell.  It’s similar to Get-QADUser in Quest’s ActiveRoles Management Shell (However, ActiveRoles Management Shell can be installed on the older operating system)

Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell is part of the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) feature on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server; and it’s part of the RSAT feature on a Windows 7 computer (download).  However, it’s not available to install on any older operating system, including Windows Server 2008.

Basic usage of Get-ADUser

• Get-ADUser –Filter { } or Get-ADUser –Filter *
• Get-ADUser –Filter { } –SearchBase “DC=xxx,DC=com”
• Get-ADUser –Filter { } –Properties * | Get-Member   # to get all the properties; be aware of the property name is different than Get-QADUser cmdlet.
• Get-ADUser –Filter {} –Properties <propertyname1,propertyname2>  # to get the non-default properties to the pipeline

Exchange Server 2003 Public Folder Mail Enable or Disable Option

In Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, all public folders were mail-enabled and hidden by default. In Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003, folders can be mail-enabled or mail-disabled, depending on whether the Exchange Server organization is in mixed mode or in native mode.

If Exchange Server 2003 is in mixed mode, the Mail Disable is not available when right-click a public folder / All Tasks in Exchange System Manager, only the Mail Enable option is available (even the public folder is already mail enabled).

To access the Mail Disable option, change Exchange Server 2003 to native mode.

Reference:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124684(v=exchg.65).aspx
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270143
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327779

PowerShell Credential Input

$cred = Get-Credential

will prompt the user entering the credential that can be used in other PowerShell script.

Or $cred = Get-Credential –Credential domain_name\user_name

to fill in the default user name.

Use $WhatIfPreference in PowerShell to Prevent Accidents

• The default value of $WhatIfPreference variable is $false.
• Adding “$WhatIfPreference = $true” to a script or the PowerShell profile
• Now every cmdlet that supports a whatif switch will execute as the whatif switch is on
• To overwrite the setting in a particular cmdlet, add –whatif:false in the cmdlet

PowerShell ExecutionPolicy Bypass

Windows PowerShell v.2 supports a bypass execution policy.  It can be used to overwrite the computer execution policy setting in batch script.

The computer execution policy is restricted.  A PowerShell script can not be executed.

With the bypass option, the script is able to execute.