Windows Server Core is a stripped down version of 2008. It has no explorer, and most GUI functionality is removed.

A great solution when you don’t want any extra software running on a production server.

Soo much is missing that it can get frustrating when you just want to make a few changes before you put the server into production.

When you boot, it simply launches a command line:

With the latest version, it has improved…they do include a console interface to make configuration changes:

Still, that is too limited, and leaves you frustrated

You end up having to go through a lot of hoops to even make simple changes.

There is an answer to this – The Windows 2008 Server Core Configurator.

It comes in the form of an ISO, so you can burn it to a CD or add it to your VMWare storage.

Once you mount the ISO, or pop in the CD, you can launch it from the command line like this:

start_coreconfig

The first time you run it, it will check to make sure it has all of the software needed to run…namely powershell.

Once it is done, it launches – then you can easily make your configuration changes:

You can change network settings

Firewall

Remote Desktop

Services

And much more. The best part is, you make your changes pop out the CD and it leaves nothing behind.

You can download it for free from here:

http://coreconfig.codeplex.com/

It is that time again. Microsoft is getting close to releasing IE 9 in its final form. According to my sources, it will be released on Monday, March 14th.

This also means it will show up in automatic updates as an “Important Update”

If you want to prevent this from happening, you can setup a registry key that will block it.

The key is under this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Setup\9.0

You will need to create the key above. Once you do that, add this DWORD value:

DoNotAllowIE90

Set it to 1 to block, Set it to 0 to unblock.

We also have updated the free version of Network Administrator to set this key for you – that way you don’t have to mess around with the registry by hand:

Download a free copy from here

One final note – keep in mind this will only prevent it from showing up in Automatic Update. Users can still install IE 9 by hand if they wish.

I was digging around to find a way to get an email when someone logged on to our source control server. It is a pretty important server, so I want to make sure people are only logging into it when they are supposed to.

When I first started working on this idea I was going to write a custom application, and use that along with blat. Blat is an email sending program that can be used from the command line.

I was surprised that I could get exactly what I wanted, without any third party application. This works for 2008, Vista, and Windows 7 – if you are still running Windows 2003 you will need to cobble together a collection of apps that will accomplish this (Sorry)

Start out by opening the event viewer. Right click on the security log on the left hand side. Click on the menu item that says “Attach a task to this log”, and a task wizard will be displayed.

Type in a description for your task:

This page is annoying. I have not had time to test on other systems. But on mine all the fields are disabled. It would be nice if I could enter the info I wanted here. Instead we will need to go into the advanced settings of the task – more on that in a little bit. Just click next.

See. There is our option. Send an email. You could launch a program too, or have a message pop up for a specific user

Fill out your email settings. I pointed it at our internal exchange server:

Very important Don’t miss this one. Make sure you check the option to open advanced properties. Otherwise you will get an email message for every entry in the security log:

Click finish, and the advanced properties are displayed. Set the task to always run. Otherwise it would only run while you are logged on – and that would be silly

Go to the “Actions” tab, and double click on the only action listed

Set your source as “Microsoft Windows security auditing.” And your event ID number as 4624 (You can use 4634 for logoff)

Click OK and you are done. When someone logs on to your system, you will receive an email notification with all of the event info.

The best part about this tip is that you don’t need any third party apps – it is all built into Windows.

When I first came across Windows 2008 Core, I was happy. Finally, a version of windows you could chisel down to just the base components that you needed.

Microsoft did such a good job – that it is hard to configure it with the default settings

No graphical tools are provided (Well there are a few…but not many). When you logon, you are welcomed with a command line window that sits in the middle of the screen:

The frustration level increases exponentially when you want to get something done.

For security reasons, remote administration is disabled by default. Remote Administration – not to be confused with Remote Desktop is the file and printer sharing component that allows you to remotely use computer management, event viewer, service manager, or third party tools like our Network Administrator

To remove the firewall restrictions that block its use, simply type this at the command line:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Administration" new enable=yes

After that command, some remote services will work. For example, you can remotely reboot or shutdown the machine using Network Administrator

But…if you want to manage services, add/remove/edit users using computer management, or look at the event log remotely…you will still get access denied messages.

You need to tell Core 2008 what users are allowed to connect. You can do this by typing this at the command line:

cmdkey /add:ServerName /user:UserName /pass:password

Where ServerName is the name of the local server, and the username and password are for an administrator account.

That is all there is to it. After those two commands you can remotely manage your 2008 core server with ease.

I have been playing with Windows 7 again. While reading through a few Windows 7 blogs, I came across an article that described how to change the Logon background in Windows 7.

If you have not had a chance to see Windows 7, this is what the default logon background looks like:

Very similar to the layout in Vista, but, in Windows 7 you can change it.

Microsoft has added this feature for OEMs…so in the future I would imagine the logon screen will be filled with Dell, HP, ASUS, etc.

Before I talk about our free utility, let me explain what needs to be done if you want to do this yourself without our free program.

To make the change you need to first open regedit, and create this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background

Then once you have created that key, add a new DWORD Value named OEMBackground and set it to 1

Now, you need to place the image file (It must be a jpeg) in the following folder (You may need to create some of these folders along the path)

%windir%\oobe\info\backgrounds

The file must be named backgroundDefault.jpg – and very important – it must be under 256KB in size, or windows will ignore it.

Sound like too much trouble to change the background pic? Then you can use our free utility:

The program will take care of the registry changes…and better yet it will reduce the image size to fit into 256 KB. It makes it very easy to change the background.

Here is the download link:

W7BackgroundUpdate.exe

As always – no spyware, adware – only freeware goodness