Archive for Microsoft Windows

Sharepoint Search 2007: Your License for Office Server Search has expired.

By | Published April 6, 2010

Just been fixing the problem mentioned above. Lets set the scene here: Walk in this morning, coffee, boot up. Open up IE, need to update a record on our asset log. Enter the asset ID into the search bar, press enter. Easy day ended. 9:10am.

‘Your license for Office Server Search has expired’

We have recently upgraded from SharePoint standard to SharePoint Enterprise (recently being the middle of last week). It seems that whenever a configuration change (i.e change of license, installation of a language pack) occurs on a SharePoint server, some of the permissions that SharePoint require are changed on the server. These settings are then reset to their correct values by running the ‘SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard’. When running the wizard, ensure you select the options that leave your topology in the same configuration as it is now. (Assuming that you don’t want to change anything.) Afterwards, you should be able to search. Took a couple of refreshes in the browser, but all working.

I did find that straight afterwards, search performance was not as I expected. About 15 minutes later, performance resumed. On our system it started a crawl as soon as the wizard completed (which completed around 10-15 mins later). Not sure if this is a feature that happens on all installations or not. Might be a warning if you have a larger topology, and a crawl might negatively affect your performance. It may mean that you run the wizard afterwards.

So, today’s early morning lesson is: Runthe Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard after any change to the SharePoint server.

Now, asset updated, and back to the coffee.

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Posted in Server 2008, SharePoint | Tagged | 3 Comments

Office 2007 – Quick Access Toolbar not saved in Roaming Profile

By | Published March 12, 2010

Just had a request from a user, who was complaining that everytime that she logs into a computer, she has to customise the Quick Access Toolbar in Word and Excel. (The few buttons to the rights of the Office Button.)

Turns out that the QAT is not stored in the roaming part of the user profile, but the local part. As profiles are deleted when a user logs off, and the user accesses a couple of different computers, the settings were not following her.

When a user customises the QAT, a new file is created in C:\Documents and Setting\%username%\Local Settings\Microsoft\Office\ called word.qat, for Word or excel.qat for Excel.

This default location can be changed by amending a registry entry, after applying a hotfix. The location of the key is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars

You need to create a new DWORD value called QuickAccessToolbarRoaming and give it a value of 1.

As this was a user policy, we created an ADM file and deployed the changed using Group Policy. The ADM file contains the following:

CLASS USER
CATEGORY "Office 2007 Quick Access Toolbar"
 
    POLICY "Include Quick Access Toolbar in Roaming Profile"
    KEYNAME "Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars"
                VALUENAME QuickAccessToolbarRoaming
                VALUEON NUMERIC 1
                VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
    END POLICY
END CATEGORY

To use this:

  1. Copy the above code into Notepad
  2. Save the file with a .adm extension, e.g qat.adm.
  3. Open Group Policy Management and then the desired GP.
  4. Right click Administrative Templates -> Add/Remove Templates
  5. Add in the template that you saved  in step 2.
  6. Go to View –> Filtering and then untick the box labelled Only Show Policy Settings that can be Fully Managed
  7. Expand ‘Office 2007 Quick Access Toolbar’
  8. Amend the ‘Include Quick Access Toolbar in Roaming Profile’ setting to Enabled.
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Posted in Office 2007, XP | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Backup Exec 12: Remote SharePoint Agent – Access Denied

By | Published February 17, 2010

Just coming to the end of fixing a very frustrating problem with Backup Exec 12, and backing up our SharePoint 2007 farm. After over 8 hours on the phone and extra work done by email with Symantec engineers, I have a solution.

Here’s the basic information:

SharePoint Server:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard x64
  • SharePoint Server 2007 Standard x64
  • Backup Exec Remote Agent for SharePoint

    • A second server runs the Backup Exec program, and a third dedicated database server hosts the Backup Exec database.

    The main problem is described well in the following Symantec document (which is what they keep referring me to) http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/300675.htm

    After going through a number of fixes, mainly checking that you have actually given permissions to all of the necessary areas (I can’t say exactly what you need at the minute, I still have some very sweeping permissions in place from testing) and creating the SPSWrapperV3.exe.config files, we still weren’t getting anywhere.

    After fixing another program (on Vista this time) which had issues relating to User Account Control, gave it a try.

    On Windows Server 2008, go into Control Panel -> User Accounts then select Turn User Account Control On or Off.

    After a restart backups start working!!

    Not sure who I am more frustrated at right now: Symantec for not making software that works with UAC, but is supposedly designed for Server 2008, or Microsoft for putting the feature in. Totally see why it exists, and most of the time I like it’s existence. Some of the time it is a total pain.

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    Posted in Server 2008, SharePoint | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

    Windows Vista Failed to Start… Status: 0xc000014c

    By | Published February 8, 2010

    I am sure this solution is posted somewhere on the Internet, but as I have not found it yet and instead went exploring on my own, I thought I would post it here.

    Status 0x000014c seems to point to a multitude of errors, so, this fix is only for the one detailed below – it may work for others, I’m just not saying it will.

    Windows Boot Manager

    Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the Problem:

    1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.

    2. Choose your language settings, and click “Next.”

    3. Click “Repair your computer.”

    If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

    File: \Windows\system32\config\system

    Status: 0xc000014c

    Info: Windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing, or corrupt.

    ENTER=Continue ESC=Exit

    The fix below is very simple, and only takes a couple of minutes to complete:

    1. Boot your machine into WinPE.
    2. Type: cd c:\Windows\system32\config
    3. Type: ren SYSTEM SYSTEM.BACKUP
    4. Type: copy regback\SYSTEM SYSTEM
    5. Reboot your machine and it should boot normally.

    If your feeling particularly brave, then you could omit step 3, and have the original file overwritten – personally I like the security of being able to go backwards and undo this change if it doesn’t work.

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    Posted in Vista | Tagged | 18 Comments

    70-294 – Passed!

    By | Published January 15, 2010

    1 more exam under my belt. Only 1 more to go to complete my MCSE. Got a score of 930/1000 – which I am very pleased with.

    70-297 booked for week after next. Failed this once before (for a number of reasons – forgetting the date of the exam until the actual day being the main one). Going to have a bit of a cram session over the next two weekends. Don’t think there is much in the course that I don’t know, just need to try and get my head around how they mark the exam, and make sure that I complete all of the questions in the allocated time.

    Already been having a look at what I need to do to then make my MCSE (as will be) up to Windows Server 2008 standard. Looks like I have to upgrade the course to become a Windows Server 2008 Technology Specialist. Think I will have to do exam 70-649 Upgrading you MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 Technology Specialist. From what I can see this gives me most of what I need to become a MCITP: Server Administrator. Link below.

    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-649&Locale=en-us

    Going off now. I am now confused with the Microsoft upgrade paths and what is best. Might need to find someone to talk to.

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    Posted in Certification, Server 2003 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

    Editing the Active Directory Schema

    By | Published January 14, 2010

    I am currently studying for Microsoft exam 70-294 (hence a bit quite on the posts) and can across the very short section about how to access the schema.

    This got me round to thinking, ‘How do you edit the schema, and how difficult can it be really?’. It turns out that it is not that difficult at all.

    It is something that I had thought about at work, to be able to store information from SIMS about our students in the directory, like their admission number to give them a unique reference when creating and deleting accounts automatically.

    I found the following two articles to be very useful. The MS article gave a good background, but the Depicus article filled in the gaps and provided you with sample scripts to get you going. These are easy to edit and I was quickly able to add in another field which stored the SIMS Admission Number in the directory.

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727064.aspx#EBAA

    http://www.depicus.com/articles/extending-the-active-directory-schema-for-enterprise-printer-support.aspx

    Just to re-iterate before anyone does anything accidental – changes to the schema cannot be reversed. Make sure you thoroughly test anything that you want to change on a lab forest first, as changes to the schema cannot be deleted, only marked as inactive. You have been warned!

    Back to messing around with Windows Server 2003 in preparation for the exam tomorrow.

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    Posted in Microsoft Windows, Server 2003 | Tagged , | 1 Comment

    802.1x User Authentication with Mandatory Profiles

    By | Published October 1, 2009

    Just been working on 60 new Asus Eee netbooks that we have bought for student use in the college. Mainly, testing thoroughly that the wireless was going to work flawlessly.

    We got everything working for ourselves using Network Policy Server, HP Procurve 420 AP’s and PEAP. Only problem – when a student logs in, the authentication fails.

    Did some checks to make sure that there wasn’t any user group filters or GP settings that were blocking the authentication. In a last ditch attempt we dropped the mandatory profile, and the authentication worked.

    Having never had this problem before (all staff have roaming profiles), started looking up the problem.

    Found that some changes in Windows XP SP3 stop user authentication using 802.1x. You can still use machine authentication, but this didn’t meet our requirements.

    Turns out Microsoft released a hotfix for this. Works great – now integrated into our RIS installations. Link below:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969111

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    Posted in XP | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

    Group Policy Client Service Failed the Login: Access is Denied

    By | Published September 28, 2009

    This error has been annoying me for nearly 4 hours now.

    We have a terminal server for students. All students use a mandatory profile, located on a share so that it can be accessed by all of the servers in the farm.

    I thought this would be easy to set up, so I did the following:

    1. Log in as a user (that does not have the profile path set) to create a local profile on the machine.
    2. Configure the profile as you require and then log off.
    3. Log on as an administrator.
    4. Open up System Properties –> Advanced –> User Profiles
    5. Select the profile that you created in steps 1 -3 and select Copy To.
    6. Specify the location and a security group and the intended user. Click OK and verify that the folder exists in the new location.
    7. Go to the location and rename NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAN to make it mandatory.
    8. Set the user profile location for all your desired users.
    9. Log in and test.

    All was going well. I was at step 8, and failure struck. Group Policy Client Service Failed the Login: Access is Denied.

    Check the following first, as simple solutions:

    • The user has read access to the share.
    • The user profile is owned by the DOMAIN\Administrators group.
    • Ensure the desired group has got read access to the entire profile (you can replace all permissions).

    After checking this and repeating the whole process twice, I started looking at something else. The NTUSER.DAT file is a registry hive, which contains keys with their own security on them. So:

    1. Open up Registry Editor
    2. Select HKEY_USERS and then rtight click and Load Hive
    3. Browse to the location of the profile and open NTUSER.MAN
    4. Give the key a temporary name. e.g Profile.
    5. Right click the name you just gave and choose permissions.
    6. Make sure the desired group is listed and has Full Control permissions.
    7. Propagate all these permissions to all child objects.
    8. Unload the hive and close Registry Editor

    This cured the problem for me. Now all of the intended users can pick up the profile and work as desired.

    I understand from my Googling that this is a problem with some Vista users to. I have not tried this as a solution for them, but would be interested to hear if it does solve it.

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    Posted in Server 2008, Thin Client | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

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