Here is a great article on how to install Windows 7 or Vista from a USB flash drive. It actually works as described.

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

We recently implemented a new SBS 2008 server for one of our clients.  A user was going to be working from home and wanted to utilize thier corporate office desktop to get some tasks done.  They were able to authenticate to the Remote Web Workplace webpage successfully,  but were unable to connect to their Windows 7 desktop computer.  Every time they attempted to do so, their account was rejected with an error message: “The logon attempt failed”

I discovered the problem was due to an incorrect setting within IIS.

Here’s what I did to correct the problem:
I went to IIS Manager → Sites → SBS Web Applications → Rpc → Authentication.  There I found only “Basic Authentication” was enabled.

Enabled “Windows Authentication” then ran an IIS reset. When IIS came back online, I was able to connect via TS Gateway to the server and at least one workstation. I connected and disconnected multiple times and it had no problems. The end user verified they were also able to authenticate without error, and gained remote control of their Windows 7 computer.

When running WSUS on a Small Business Server, the default location is the C:\ drive, when that drive gets full you need to move the content and the SQL database. Below are the steps to move the SQL database to another location.

1. Open command prompt and type: net stop “update services”

2. Next, at the command promt type: net stop w3svc (if it is SBS 2008 it will also stop the Terminal Services Gateway, remember to restart)

3. Open Microsoft SQL Express Management Studio (if you don’t have this, go to http://tinyurl.com/ynl9tv to download) and connect to the MICROSOFT##SSEE database, which is the WSUS database and the SharePoint databases in SBS 2008. You can’t just connect to the database normally, you need to type this in server name area:   \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query

 4. Detach the SUSDB database, move the SUSDB folder to the new location and attach the database again with Management Studio

5. Restart the services: “update services”, “w3svc”, and “Terminal Services Gateway”

While going through a vulnerability scan for PCI compliancy, the report noted that IIS 7 on a Small Business Server 2008 was still using SSL v2.0 instead of SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0. To disable SSL v2.0:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32 or type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate the following registry key:HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value.
4. In the Data Type list, click DWORD.
5. In the Value Name box, type Enabled, and then click OK.Note If this value is present, double-click the value to edit its current value.
6. Type 00000000 in Binary Editor to set the value of the new key equal to “0″.
7. Click OK. Restart the computer.

IIS negotiates the encryption with the client browser. An attacker could use a tool that tells the server it has only sslv2 (which is weaker) available. If you disable sslv2 it only uses v3 or tls, as requested by browser. A browser only supporting sslv2 would fail.

 This applies to Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008, and both versions of SBS.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;187498

I ran into an issue with a Hyper-V server with 6 NIC’s, some of the NIC’s in Network and Sharing center were being categorized as ‘unidentified network’ and giving the public designation. I could change it to private, but every reboot it would revert back. The issue with public network was that network discovery and file sharing was turned off, so even the NIC that was joined to the domain had little connectivity. Below fixed the issue.

You can change the security setting so that the network is not made public in the first place.

To do this on your local server or Vista/Windows 7 desktop , follow these steps:

1. Start –> run –> MMC –> press enter

2. In MMC console , from menu file select Add/Remove Snap-in

3. Select Group Policy Object editor –> Press Add –> select Local computer –> press OK –>press OK

4. Open Computer configration –>Windows Settings –>Security Settings –>select Network list manager policies
on the right Side you will see options for :

double click –>Unidentified networks

  Then you can select the option to consider the Unidentified networks as private and if user can change the
location

To find out what Microsoft/Windows Updates have been installed, open command prompt and type:

wmic qfe list

This will work in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. You can also pipe it a text file if you needed to print it off or document it.

Check out this month’s newsletter from Kazmarek Technology Solutions, Inc.

From The Wild Wild Web article by Danny Kazmarek:

According to the latest issue of SC Magazine, phishing attempts are on the rise and nearing 20,000 new scams per month.

For more useful articles, sign up for our monthly email newsletter.

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You run into issues installing Exchange 2007 SP2 on SBS 2008 until you add the following key and DWORD to the registry.

To create the E12SP2READY registry value, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Exchange

   Note If the Exchange subkey does not exist, you must create it. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Right-click SmallBusinessServer, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
   2. Type Exchange and then press ENTER.
3. After you select the Exchange subkey that is specified in step 2, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type E12SP2READY, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click E12SP2READY, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
7. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Full article at Microsoft - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973862

It’s possible to create a USB pen drive that you can use as a boot device. This can be useful when you have a Windows computer that refuses to boot correctly, or when a system is infected with malicious software that you’re unable to remove from Windows.

I prefer to use the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4WIN) for this purpose,  it includes a Windows XP PE environment with lots of useful system utilities and applications.  You can find out more information about UBCD4WIN at their website

Here are some links that cover the process of using UBCD4WIN to create a bootable USB drive in detail:
http://foribb.blogspot.com/2009/01/make-your-pen-drive-bootable-install.html
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/livecd.html

I encountered a problem affecting a Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) system,  where the Internet connection was randomly disconnected, often while downloading a large file or streaming media across the network.  The Windows network troubleshooting wizard was able to correct the issue temporarily by performing a reset of the Network Adapter (Manually doing the same also restored connectivity).  Oddly enough,  the Local Area Network connection remained active,  but the Internet link was show as disconnected.  The network troubleshooting wizard identified the problem as being that the “Default Gateway was not available” even though the Broadband router was online and working fine for other computers.

After running some searches on the issue, I discovered that there were a large number of Windows 7 users who had been experiencing a similar problem.  The common factor was often the use of an NVidia NForce onboard network adapter,  however in this case the computer in question was using an Atheros 10/100/1000base-t controller (Onboard an ASUS motherboard).

The initial recommendation provided was that affected users should acquire updated NIC drivers from the manufacturer of their network card,  however there were no update drivers available for the Atheros card.

Luckily I came across information posted by a user suffering from the same problem on a similar system using the same onboard NIC (Atheros).  The recommendation that corrected the problem permanently was to:

Open Device Manager

Locate the Network Adapter

Right click, Properties

Go to Advanced tab

Locate the Task Offload (aka TCP offload) property on the list and set it to Disabled

After setting this property and applying the changes,  the Internet connection remained stable and no longer dropped out when transferring large amounts of data.

For more information see:
http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/5787-problems-atheros-l1-ethernet-adapter-win7-x64.html
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/59bcb7f5-fcca-44a4-b1db-787b1d269825