AppDelivery

Just passed exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring, with a score of 978/1000.

If you want a good score, you would especially want to study these following topics, as they were the main areas covered in the exam;

• BitLocker
• DirectAccess
• BranchCache
• User State Migration Tool 4.0
• AppLocker – Application Control Policies
• Internet Explorer 8.0
• WSUS
• System Protection / Shadow Copies
• Windows PE
• BCDedit
• Windows Automated Intallation Kit (WAIK)
• Know your CLI in Win7 (WinPE, Remote Management, USMT..)

Next exam is PRO:70-647, Enterprise Administrator….

Relevant study links;

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/enterprise/products/windows-7/features.aspx

BitLocker

http://www.petri.co.il/bitlocker-in-windows-7.htm

http://4sysops.com/archives/review-windows-7-bitlocker/

Direct Access

http://4sysops.com/archives/windows-7-directaccess-features/

BranchCache

http://blog.augustoalvarez.com.ar/2009/07/26/windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-branchcache/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd425028.aspx

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An often task in every administrators daily job, is to migrate users files and folders f.x users home directories from one fileserver to another.

A great tool who most of the windows sysadmins is aware of or should be aware of, is called Robocopy.

Here is a simple command / script to accomplish a file server migration, keeping NTFS perssions etc. in tact;

“%~dp0\robocopy.exe” SOURCE DESTINATION /E /SEC /COPYALL /ZB /V /ETA /TEE /LOG:”%~dp0\FileMigration.log”

A little output of some of the many parameters you are able to apply to robocopy;
I used these for a simple User Home Directory migration from one fileserver to another.

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Daniel Petri wrote a good article about “How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)?”

The article covers some best practices on RAM, Virtual Memory and some Memory tweaking….

Read it here;

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Auditing a File server can be a critical requirement for organizations. Accidental and unauthorized changes in files, folders, permissions and other objects can have great impact on the infrastructure by means of security and instability issues.
Tracking down what was changed, who did it and when did it occur, can be a difficult task with the default auditing system available in windows servers today.

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If you come into a situation where you need to compare the settings of two Group Policy Objects without having to go through each screen one by one, then take a look at the following option to accomplish this.

Pre-reqs.;

• Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
  www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0a6d4c24-8cbd-4b35-9272-dd3cbfc81887&displaylang=en
• XML Notepad / XmlDiff
  www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=72d6aa49-787d-4118-ba5f-4f30fe913628&displaylang=en

Steps;

1. Open GPMC.msc
2. Find the GPO´s you want to compare, right-click the GPO’s and save reports as XML
3. Launch XML Notepad and open the first GPO.
4. Then click “View” > “Compare XML files…” select GPO to compare with.
   ´
   Then all settings which differ is marked with green.

Besides the above approach, I am currently only aware of 3rd party vendors who enables you to compare GPO´s, unless you use Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM) Which is a component of MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack). But if you know a smarter method for doing this in a 2003 environment please drop a comment