You may have spent a lot of time searching group policy for this option in Windows 2000 or 2003. You may have even gone as far as downloading the Microsoft Outlook ADM file for office 2000 XP or 2003 to try and find this option to add to group policy. If you haven’t tried these things then let me save you some time. It ain’t there! You need another way to sort this which is what I describe here.
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…Overview…
  

System administrators like myself always want the latest technologies. With Longhorn still in beta and not yet a viable option many companies using the “One operating system behind” policy are now looking at upgrading to 2003 server. This is not a system I agree with as Windows 2003 server has been stable and better than W2k since service pack 1 in my opinion. As for Windows XP, it’s been out now and stable for a hundred years hasn’t it? Anyway, with all the hype regarding Windows Vista and Longhorn alot of companies are now looking at moving from Windows NT or 2000 to Windows 2003 server. It often begs the question from people in charge of finances of these companies “Why do I need to?” If their systems have been stable for the past few years they will need some reasons for upgrading. Here are my top 10 reasons to upgrade to Microsoft Server 2003.

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…Overview…
  

The Global Catalog contains a partial replica of every object in the Active Directory. It’s what is accessed (unwittingly) by the end user and applications when searching for names, logon details, printers etc. It contains details of every object in the Active Directory but with only a small number of their attributes. In this article I describe the Global Catlogue in more detail and best practices for deploying and configuring.

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 …Overview…

Domain Controllers in NT 4.0 used to be simple. You had one PDC (Primary Domain Controller) in a domain and all the others were equal BDCs(Backup Domain Controllers). In 2000 and 2003 with the introduction of alot more features domain controllers are very similair to each other in many respects. There are certain roles however that need to be performed on certain Domain Controllers. These are called FSMO roles (Flexible Single Master Operations) and will definately come up in the MCSe exams. Here I describe what they are and some best practices in setting them up and troubleshooting.

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…Poll…
 
 This is a question that has already been asked many times but I would love to know what you guys think? With Longhorn offering many enhancements such as published applications and a web interface to Terminal Services will companies be able to justify the extra cost of Citrix Presentation Server (or whatever they call the next version)? I have included a poll for you to vote on this and the results are available for all to see. You will need to register to vote for the sake of fairness however others will not be able to see what way you voted.

…How To…
 
 Uninstalling Active Directory is usually a simple procedure which I describe here. Although this is written for Windows 2003 the procedure is almost identical to uninstall Active Directory on Windows 2000.

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…How To…
 
 In this article I describe how to install Active Directory on Windows 2003 server. It should be noted that the procedure is virtually identical to install Active Directory on Windows 2000 server. This is what Windows is all about and knowing Active Directory is something necessary for both MCSE exams and day to day running of a Windows domain. Read the rest of this entry »