Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory Blog
The Windows updates that Microsoft released on 11.01.2022 are causing some problems on Windows servers. In the meantime, there are increasing reports that domain controllers keep restarting after January CU has been installed. Some other problems seem to increasingly affect Windows Server 2012 R2. After installing the update, Hyper-V no longer starts and ReFS formatted ... Read more
Sometimes it may be necessary to subsequently change the IP and host name of a domain controller, for example if a new domain controller replaces an old one and is to be accessible under the same IP and name. Changing the IP address of a domain controller is normally possible without any problems, changing the host name of a domain controller ... Read more
I admit it. In one of my test environments, I've now been caught out too. I've forgotten the password... But it's actually a good thing, because I can see if the good old workaround via "Utilman" still works. The good news: Yes, it still works! Here again the way how ... Read more
Foreword The following article describes a way for Active Directory users to change their password on a website. The Windows feature "Web Access for Remote Desktop" is somewhat misused for this purpose. A complete installation and configuration of the Remote Desktop services is not required for this. Note: The method described here is only suitable for changing the known Active Directory ... Read more
The DXXD ransomware apparently attacks Windows servers directly. Like other ransomware, DXXD encrypts files and appends the extension .dxxd to the encrypted file. Up to now, an attack on Windows servers has usually started from an infected client, which then encrypted files on network drives. In the Bleeping Computer forum, however, it is suspected that ... Read more
Since this month, Microsoft has also been distributing Windows updates as update rollups, similar to Exchange Server. Several updates are combined in update rollups. On the one hand, this has the advantage that not countless individual updates have to be installed, but significantly fewer. The disadvantage, however, is that certain updates can no longer be deselected or uninstalled individually. ... Read more
Certificate warnings are annoying, regardless of the program. In this case, a remote desktop connection (RDP) warns of an invalid certificate. Everyone is probably familiar with this message: This is a "normal" Windows server, i.e. not a remote desktop host (terminal server), RDP is only activated here for administration purposes. In the standard configuration, Windows uses ... Read more
Configuring SCHANNEL settings for SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0, for example, is possible under Windows using the registry. For a larger number of servers or computers, however, group policies are more suitable for configuration, so I have created corresponding templates that make the settings in the registry. Foreword The group policies record changes to the registry ... Read more
For a change, a small problem again today. The "Server" service on a Windows Server 2012 R2 file server could no longer be started, which meant that none of the shares were accessible. Only this warning could be found in the "Application" event log: Source: Server Event ID: 2511 The server service could not restore the share share name because ... Read more
Part 3 of the expansion of the small Exchange organization deals with the installation and configuration of the second Exchange server. Installing the second Exchange server The installation of the second Exchange server can almost be copied from this article, the configuration of the VM and the installation are completely identical: Setting up a small Exchange 2016 organization (part 2) The only ... Read more
