Resetting Outlook's Auto-complete Feature
In Outlook, when typing in an email address, if you have used it before, Outlook remembers it and fills it in for you. This auto-complete feature can be very handy, but it can also be very annoying if the email address for that person has changed as it can auto-complete with the old email address.

There are two ways to fix this. You can delete the individual incorrect entry or you can delete all the cached email addresses in one go.

1. Delete an individual incorrect auto-complete entry.
Begin typing the name in the To or CC field. When the incorrect auto complete entry or entries appear, select the one you want to get rid of using the up and down arrow keys and press the Delete key.

2. Delete all cached auto-complete entries.
Close Outlook
Delete or rename the following file:
c:\Documents and Settings\ username \Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.nk2

Stop modem hanging up when logging off 2000 or XP
If you have a 2000 or XP box and which to be able to log on and off with differnet users, but not have the modem drop it's connection each time you logoff, try the following registry hack.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Add a string key called KeepRasConnections with a value of 1.

Have Num Lock automatically turn on
By default Windows 2000 server does not turn on Numlock for security reasons. The NumLock not on at boot can be fixed with a registry change - set the following: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard to 2. Setting it here controls it at the CTRL+ALT+DEL logon screen.


Never Reactivate Windows XP again
If you have to reinstall Windows XP you normally will have to reactivate it too. Well not anymore. Just backup the Wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files after you activated the first time. They are located in the System32 subfolder. Now if you reinstall Windows XP, start the PC in safe mode, copy the files back, reboot and you're up and running again. Here's how to check if your copy of XP is Activated. Go to the Run box and type in: c:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe /a and hit OK. There's your answer.

Stop XP from restoring deleted My Documents subfolders
To ensure that files are backed up, many network administrators prefer that their users store work-related files in their network home directories by default, rather than in their local My Documents subfolders. However, you can't simply delete subfolders in My Documents from a local computer; Windows XP will just recreate them. You can, however, stop XP from restoring deleted My Documents subfolders by following these steps:
1. Open a command prompt window.
2. Enter the following command to unregister the DLL that maintains the My Documents subfolders:          regserv32 /u mydocs.dll
(To reenable the DLL, enter the command regserv32 mydocsdll.)
3. You'll then see the message "DllUnregisterServer in mydocs.dll succeeded". Click OK.
4. You can now delete My Documents subfolders without XP restoring them.

Files to Exclude on Windows Servers from Virus scanning
If you are running Exchange 2000, by default it creates an M: drive which gives you access to files in the exchange database. Having this virus scanned, either on-demand or on-access can cause big problems with Exchange.
Exclude the M: drive from any virus scanning activity.

I recommend also excluding the following of both on-access and on-demand virus scanning
The whole exchange folder: default of c:\program files\exchsrvr

A general exclusion of *.edb *.stm and *.log on a server running Exchange

The exchange IFS drive: defaults to M: on Exchange 2000. Unless you really need the M: drive, it is recommended to disable it.

%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv

This information was from the following Microsoft KB articles
  support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328841
  support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=db;EN-US;298924

Stop MSN Messenger starting for a particular user.
While logged on as the user, do the following:

1. Launch the registry editor.
2. Open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run subkey.
3. In the right pane, delete the value MSMSGS.
4. Close the editor.

Folders to exclude from virus scanning.
There are various Microsoft KB articles explaining to exclude the following directories from on-access virus scanning.
Your Exchange Server directory. (c:\program files\exchsrvr in my case)
%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv (c:\winnt\system32\inetsrv in my case)
If you don't want to exclude all of the Exchange directory, exclude *.stm & *.edb

I have also found with some anti-virus solutions that DHCP cracks the sads if it's files are scanned on-access. I found that excluding %systemroot%\system32\dhcp fixes the problem

Top stop certain errors in the eventlog
in HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\parameters
Add Key DisableDHCPMediaSense DWORD 1

Norman AV and Windows XP SP2.
If you are using the norman NDESK utility to look after a network of PC's running Norman
antivirus and install Win XP SP2, you will need to poke a few holes in the XP firewall.
To remotely install Norman, the "file and printer sharing" exception needs to be enabled.
To enable ongoing remote access from NDESK, you need to open up TCP port 2868

Can't logon after getting rid of spy-ware.
There is some spyware out there that will make it so you can't logon to your Windows XP system after you get rid of that spyware. If that happens, try this.

Boot from your XP CD. When prompted, enter R for the Recovery Console.
Enter the Admin password to get to the command prompt.
At the command prompt:
    cd \windows\system32
    copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe
    exit       (reboot the PC)

You should now be able able to logon.
Run regedit
Go to \HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon
Change the userinit key to read c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe

Exchange 2000 Database recovery.
Summary of steps that have worked for me in reparing an Exchange 2000 database.

Assume that the database files (.edb and .stm) are both in c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata
Also assume that the current working directory of your command prompt is in the mdbdata directory as well.
You can also put c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin in your PATH to stop having to preceed all the commands with ..\bin\

The Exhange System Attendant service needs to be started for ESEUTIL to work.

Make a copy of the database files before doing anything
Run ESEUTL in repair mode (current working dir is c:\program fiiles\exchsrvr\mdbdata)
        ..\bin\eseutil /p priv1.edb
        ..\bin\eseutil /p pub1.edb     do this for all the stores you have.

Run ESEUTIL in offline defrag mode.
        ..\bin\eseutil /d priv1.edb
        ..\bin\eseutil /d pub1.edb

Start the Exchange Information Store service. In the Exchange manager, mount all the stores, then dismount them.

Run ISINTEG to fix any database inconsistancies.
        ..\bin\isinteg -s server -fix -test alltests

If you don't do the step of mounting then dismounting the stores first, you'll see the following error from ISINTEG
         Isinteg cannot initiate verification process.
        Please review the log file for more information.

Hopefully this all works. Mount the databases via the Exchange System Manager and be happy.

Some additional info and explainations on how and why this works.

You run a defrag after the repair as the repair may leave index and space allocation problems in the database. Along with compacting the physical size of the file as much as possible, defragmentation also throws away and rebuilds the indexes and space trees (structures that track space in the database).
To defragment the database, you need space equivalent to the compacted size of the database, plus 10% for good luck. Microsoft PSS will use a rule of thumb that you need space equivalent to the original size of the database plus 10%, since they don't want to guess wrong about the ultimate shrinkage of the database.

You can get a very good idea of how much the database will shrink (and how much space you'll need for the resultant copy of the database file) by running Eseutil /MS to do a "space dump" of the database.
At the top of the output, you will see a section labeled SLV Space Dump. Look for the Free total and multiply that by 4096. That's approximately how many bytes you can expect the .STM file to shrink by from defragmenting it. At the bottom of the output in the lower right corner, you will see another total number. Multiply that by 4096, and that's approximately how many bytes the .EDB file will shrink by. Subtract those numbers from the sizes of the database files, add 10% and that's how much space you really need to do a defragmentation.

As with repair, you can redirect the temporary file to a different drive if necessary, but that is going to cost you significant time. The way defrag works is that it creates a brand new database, and pumps all the old data into it. At the end of the process, the new database is copied back over the old one. If both are already on the same drive, this takes a split second. If on different drives, it takes however long it takes you to copy an X gigabyte file between your drives.

Isinteg is the only repair utility that understands the Exchange database as an Exchange database. That statement probably deserves some explaining.
ESE is a generic database engine that can be used by different applications, with Exchange happening to be one of them. Active Directory is another. Eseutil looks at the database as just another ESE database, and sees it's contents as a bunch of tables and indexes. It doesn't know or care whether this table holds a mail folder or that table has attachments in it. It just fixes up the tables so they are valid ESE tables once again. Eseutil doesn't understand that this database holds folders and messages--it just has tables and records.

Isinteg understands the relationships between those tables and records that turn them into folders and messages. If Eseutil had to delete a record that was a message, Isinteg knows how to decrement the count of messages for every folder that had a copy of that message. If you don't run Isinteg, clients will likely see strange things--like message counts that are off, messages that appear in the Inbox but can't be read, and so on.

When you run Eseutil, you can move database files to temporary locations to make repairs. But to run Isinteg, you must put the database back in the location from which it is normally mounted. The reason for this is that Isinteg actually mounts the database in order to read it through the Information Store process, while Eseutil reads databases as raw files.

One thing that has worked for me, but be warned. I havnen't seen this recommended it anywhere else and was just a last ditch attempt as getting a corrupt store to mount.
The stores were checking out ok with eseutil /g, but they wouldn't mount saying that the database was corrupt.
I stopped the information store service, deleted every single file in the MDBDATA folder except the *.edb and *.stm files, started the store service and found that the stores would mount.

Printer connection cannot be removed.
The other day I was trying to delete a network printer from a Win 2K machine and got the error:
     Printer connection cannont be removed.
     Operation could not be completed.

I read somewhere that if you pull out the network cable, you can then delete it.
I was too lazy to climb under the desk, so I just disabled the Network Card in "My Network Places", deleted the printer successfully, then enabled the network card.

A complete list of all Windows Services and the ports they use.
Microsoft have a KB article that lists all the services that are in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003. It contains a description of each service and a list of all the ports that the service uses. It also contain a lot of useful links to other resources mainly to do with ports and security.           support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;832017

Backing up to DVD with the command line using the Nero.
Obviously you need Nero installed first.
I found the command line version quite lacking in documentation, so it took a few attempts to get it working. The following probably could be better, but it works for me.
It assumes your DVD burner is drive E and that you want to backup all the files and folders under "c:\folder to backup"

"c:\program files\ahead\nero\nerocmd.exe" --write --drivename e --real --speed 1 --media_type media_dvd_any --iso Backup --iso-mode2 --underrun_prot --relax_joliet --recursive --create_iso_fs "c:\folder to backup"

Zapping drives on Adaptec RAID controllers..
The adaptec doco that comes with their RAID controllers advises to Zap any drive that you are adding to an array, but it doesn't tell you how. Their web site only states to contact their support to find out how.
When starting up the computer, press Ctrl-A when it tells you to get into SMOR (the raid cards bios). You'll notice there is no ZAP option.
Press Alt-F10-z. Go back into the Action menu and there should now be a Zap option.
No need to Zap each drive. Zap the controller and it zaps all drives under it.

Trend Micro SMB/Messeging suite not communicating with XP clients properly.
When using the Trend Micro Client/Server SMB Messeging suite, sometimes it won't talk to XP clients. It turns out to be a firewall problem with XP SP2, but I have found that the problem is inconsistent. On the same network, some PC's need the holes in the firewall, while some don't ??

Go to the client PC go to the OfficeScan folder, which for me is:
              C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client
In the file ofcscan.ini, look up the values for the following parameters.
      master_domainport
      client_localserver_port

Include these two ports in XP's firewall exclusion list

Sophos Anti-Virus
When using Sophos AV with Windows XP SP2, open up the following holes in the firewall.
Ports 8192, 8193 & 8194

Changes to the GAL (Global Address List) not being seen
Verify that the GAL is up to date on the server

In Exchange system manager, go to Recipients, All Global Address Lists
Right click on Default Global Address List and select properties
On the first tab is a Preview button. Click it and it will show you the complete GAL

If your entry is listed, the the GAL on the Exchange server is up to date.

Getting the GAL to the clients.
Outlook 2003 Cached mode and Offline folders in older versions of outlook use the offline address book (OAB). This is downloaded from the exchange server

If outlook is running al the time, it is downloaded every 24 hours. (this can't be changed)
It is also downloaded when Outlook is started.

If you want the changes to be seen more quickly, do the following:

Rebuild the Address Book
Open Exchange System Manager then Expand Recipients, Offline Address Book
Right clik on the default and choose Rebuild. This could take while if your GAL is large.

In Outlook, manually download the address book:
Click on Tools, Send/Receive, Download Address Book.

SBS 2000. Constant Perflib errors appearing in event viewer.
I had installed Microsofts WSUS on a number of SBS 2000 boxes and noticed that after doing so, the Application log in the Event Viewer would fill up with a reaccuring message.

Source: Perflib. Event ID: 1008
The Open Procedure for service "ASP.NET_2.0.50727" in DLL "C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_perf.dll" failed. Performance data for this service will not be available. Status code returned is data DWORD 0.

WSUS needs .NET 2.0, and installing .NET 2.0 is the cause of all these messages filling the log.

Using the exctrlst.exe programs that comes with the Windows 2000 Server resource kit.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7ff99683-b7ec-4da6-92ab-793193604ba4&displaylang=en

In the middle text box, scroll down and I found three counters that point to:
c:\winnt\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_perf.dll

Select each one you find, then untick "Performance Counters Enabled."

I also found that WinMgmt.exe had a memory leak that and that doing this not only stopped the flood of message in the Event Viewer, but stopped the memory leak in WinMgmt. Restart the "Windows Management Instyrumentation" or alternatively reboot the server to free up the RAM taken up by WinMgmt..

Sophos slows down workstations
Sometimes Sophos seems to slow things down a bit too much.
Excluding the following files seems to help:

%systemroot%\system32\
     authz.dll
     drivers\srv.sys
     es.dll
     netman.dll
     oakley.dll
     pstorsvc.dll
     rasadhlp.dll
     regsvc.dll
     winipsec.dll