http://exchangeserverpro.com/restore-individual-mailbox-exchange-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ExchangeServerPro+%28Exchange+Server+Pro%29

How to Restore an Individual Exchange 2010 Mailbox with Windows Server Backup

In this tutorial I’ll demonstrate the step by step process for recovering individual mailbox items for an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox using Windows Server Backup.  This procedure has the following stages:

• Backing Up the Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Database
• Restoring an Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Database to an Alternate Location
• Bringing the Restored Database to a Clean Shutdown State with ESEUtil
• Creating an Exchange Server 2010 Recovery Database
• Restoring Mailbox Items from a Recovery Database

The mailbox user “Alex Heyne” is being used for this tutorial, and he has the following items in his inbox.

Exchange 2010 Mailbox User

Backing Up the Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Database

The mailbox server was backed up using Windows Server Backup.  You can refer to this tutorial for the exact steps to perform Exchange Server 2010 mailbox server backups with Windows Server Backup.

• Exchange 2010 Mailbox Database Backup and Restore with Windows Server Backup

In this scenario the user has deleted the mail items and they have since been purged from the recoverable deleted items folder as well.  Because the mailbox database is still in production we’ll need to use a Recovery Database to restore the backup.

Restoring an Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox Database to an Alternate Location

The first step is to perform a restore of the mailbox server backup, redirecting the restore to an alternate location on the server.  Start by launching Windows Server Backup, and then in the Actions pane click on Recover to start the Recovery Wizard.

Launch the Windows Server Backup Recovery Wizard

Choose the location of the backup you wish to restore from, and click Next to continue.

Choose the Backup Location to Restore from

Choose the backup date and time to restore from, and click Next to continue.

Choose the Backup Date and Time to Restore from

For Exchange Server 2010 mailbox database restores choose Applications as the Recovery Type.  Click Next to continue.

Choose the Recovery Type of Applications

Choose Exchange as the application to recover, and check the box to not perform a roll forward of the database.  Click Next to continue.

Select Exchange as the application to recover

This step is very important.  Select Recover to another location and enter the path to a folder that is different to the location of the live mailbox database or log files.  Click Next to continue.

Select Recover to Another Location

At the confirmation screen if you are happy with the selections you’ve made click on Recover to start the restore.

Click on Recover to start the restore

When the restore has completed successfully you can close the Recovery Wizard.

Close the Recovery Wizard when the restore is complete

On the Exchange Server 2010 mailbox server where the database files were restored open Windows Explorer and look at the folder where the restored files are located.  Notice how the recovery process has created the original folder structure for the data under the D:\Recovery folder.

Those restored paths are important for the next steps.

Bringing the Restored Database to a Clean Shutdown State with ESEUtil

The restored database file will be in a state known as “dirty shutdown”.  You can confirm this by running the following ESEUtil command, specifying the path to the restored .edb file on your server.

[PS] D:\>eseutil /mh 'D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb

Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server
Version 14.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Initiating FILE DUMP mode...
         Database: D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb

DATABASE HEADER:
Checksum Information:
Expected Checksum: 0x1d0abd9b
  Actual Checksum: 0x1d0abd9b

Fields:
        File Type: Database
         Checksum: 0x1d0abd9b
   Format ulMagic: 0x89abcdef
   Engine ulMagic: 0x89abcdef
 Format ulVersion: 0x620,17
 Engine ulVersion: 0x620,17
Created ulVersion: 0x620,17
     DB Signature: Create time:12/03/2010 21:20:08 Rand:715244149 Computer:
         cbDbPage: 32768
           dbtime: 21550 (0x542e)
            State: Dirty Shutdown
     Log Required: 143-143 (0x8f-0x8f)

Next check the state of the log files with the following ESEUtil command, specifying the path to the restored log files. Note the end of the path is the log file prefix, in this case “E00″.

[PS] D:\>eseutil /ml D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E00

Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server
Version 14.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Initiating FILE DUMP mode...

Verifying log files...
     Base name: E00

      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000007B.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000007C.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000007D.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000007E.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000007F.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000080.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000081.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000082.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000083.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000084.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000085.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000086.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000087.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000088.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000089.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000008A.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000008B.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000008C.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000008D.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000008E.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E000000008F.log - OK
      Log file: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201\E0000000090.log - OK

No damaged log files were found.

Operation completed successfully in 0.922 seconds.

Now we can run ESEUtil in recovery mode to bring the database into a clean shutdown state.

[PS] D:\>eseutil /r E00 /i /l D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201 /d 'D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb'

Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server
Version 14.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Initiating RECOVERY mode...
    Logfile base name: E00
            Log files: D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201
         System files:
   Database Directory: D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb

Performing soft recovery...
                      Restore Status (% complete)

          0    10   20   30   40   50   60   70   80   90  100
          |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|
          ...................................................

Operation completed successfully in 0.985 seconds.

Now run ESEUtil to check the database state again.

[PS] D:\>eseutil /mh 'D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb' | findstr "State:"
            State: Clean Shutdown

Note: if the database is still in a dirty shutdown state you can try a repair using ESEUtil /p instead.

[PS] D:\>eseutil /p 'D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb'

Extensible Storage Engine Utilities for Microsoft(R) Exchange Server
Version 14.01
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Initiating REPAIR mode...
        Database: .\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb
  Temp. Database: TEMPREPAIR1492.EDB

Checking database integrity.

The database is not up-to-date. This operation may find that
this database is corrupt because data from the log files has
yet to be placed in the database.

To ensure the database is up-to-date please use the 'Recovery' operation.

                     Scanning Status (% complete)

          0    10   20   30   40   50   60   70   80   90  100
          |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|
          ...................................................

Integrity check successful.

Note:
  It is recommended that you immediately perform a full backup
  of this database. If you restore a backup made before the
  repair, the database will be rolled back to the state
  it was in at the time of that backup.

Operation completed successfully in 3.547 seconds.

Creating an Exchange Server 2010 Recovery Database

The next stage of the recovery process is creating the Recovery Database.  Launch the Exchange Management Shell.  Run the New-MailboxDatabase cmdlet with the following parameters:

• -Recovery:$true (specifies that the database will be a Recovery Database)
• -EdbFilePath (the path to the restored mailbox database file)
• -LogFolderPath (the path to be used for transaction log files, which must be an empty folder)
• -Server (the server that the recovery is being performed on)

In this example the following command is run.

[PS] D:\>New-MailboxDatabase RecoveryDB -Server EX2 -Recovery:$true -EdbFilePath 'D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb' -LogFolderPath 'D:\Recovery\E_\Logs\EX201-RecoveryDB'

WARNING: Recovery database 'RecoveryDB' was created using existing file
D:\Recovery\D_\Data\EX201\Mailbox Database EX2 01.edb. The database
must be brought into a clean shutdown state before it can be mounted.

Name                           Server          Recovery        ReplicationType
----                           ------          --------        ---------------
RecoveryDB                     EX2             True            None

Note the warning about the database not being in a clean shutdown state. Since we’ve already brought the database to a clean shutdown state we can now mount the recovery database.

[PS] D:\>Mount-Database RecoveryDB

Restoring Mailbox Items from a Recovery Database

With the recovery database mounted we can now proceed with mailbox item restores.  You can see the available items to restore by looking at the mailbox statistics for the recovery database.

[PS] D:\>Get-MailboxStatistics -Database RecoveryDB

DisplayName               ItemCount    StorageLimitStatus
-----------               ---------    ------------------
Alex Heyne                11                   BelowLimit
SystemMailbox{f13446dd... 1                    BelowLimit

To restore all mailbox items into a sub-folder of the existing mailbox so that they can be inspected use the following command.

[PS] D:\>Restore-Mailbox -Identity "Alex Heyne" -RecoveryDatabase RecoveryDB -RecoveryMailbox "Alex Heyne" -TargetFolder Restore

Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Recovering mailbox content from mailbox 'Alex Heyne' in the recovery database 'RecoveryDB' to the mailbox for 'Alex
Heyne (Alex.Heyne@exchangeserverpro.net)'. This operation may take a long time to complete.
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y

The restored items will now be visible in the mailbox.

Restored Individual Mailbox in Exchange Server 2010

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2009/01/07/using-group-policy-preferences-to-map-drives-based-on-group-membership.aspx?Redirected=true

Using Group Policy Preferences to Map Drives Based on Group Membership

7 Jan 2009 3:33 PM

Hello AskDS Blog Readers, Mike here again! A common request we hear is how to automatically connect specific network shares to drive letters based on group membership. Mapping network drives based on group membership requires some programming knowledge– either VBScript or command shell (batch files). VBScript based logon scripts can require hundreds of lines of code to provided a complete solution. And batch files require the assistance of helper applications such as IFMEMBER.EXE and NET.EXE, and introduce many challenges with controlling how Windows processes the script. But Group Policy Preferences removes the programming requirement and awkwardness of scripting mapped drives based on group membership. There are many scenarios in which you may want to map a local drive letter to a specific network share to include public drive mappings, inclusive group drive mappings, and exclusive group drive mappings.

Public drive mappings typically do not require membership to a particular group. However, sometimes public drive mappings do not provide enough granularity. Most organizations have data specific to business units such as accounting, marketing, or human resources.. Inclusive Group Drive mappings solve this problem by allowing a configuration that maps a specific drive letter to a specific network share based on the user being a member of a particular group. This ensures members of the accounting unit receive drive letters mapped for accounting and members of human resources map their respective drives. Exclusive drive mappings are not very common; however, they do provide the flexibility to prevent a user from mapping a particular drive letter to a network share if they are not a member of a specific group. A good example of exclusive drive mappings is to prevent the CIO or other executives members from mapping a drive letter in which they are likely to never use. Let us take a closer look at these scenarios

Public drive mappings

Producing a Group Policy Preference item to create public drive mappings is simple. The GPO containing the preference item is typically linked to higher containers in Active Directory, such as a the domain or a parent organizational unit.

Configuring the drive map preference item.

Figure 1 Configuring mapped drive preference item

Newly created Group Policy objects apply to all authenticated users. The drive map preference items contained in the GPO inherits the scope of the GPO; leaving us to simply configure the preference item and link the GPO. We start by configuring the drive map preference item by choosing the Action of the item. Drive map actions include Create, Replace, Update, and Delete. These are the actions commonly found in most preference items. Create and Delete actions are self-explanatory. The compelling difference between Replace and Update is that Replace deletes the mapped drive and then creates a new mapped drive with the configured settings. Update does NOT delete the mapped drive– it only modifies the mapped drive with the new settings. Group Policy Drive Maps use the drive letter to determine if a specific drive exists. The preceding image shows a Drive Map preference item configure with the Replace action. The configured location is a network share named data; hosted by a computer named hq-con-srv-01. The configured drive letter is the G drive. All other options are left at their defaults. This GPO is linked at the contoso.com domain.

The results of this configuration are seen when using Windows Explorer on the client computer. The following picture shows a user’s view of Windows Explorer. We see there is one network location listed here, which is the G drive that is mapped to \\hq-con-srv-01\data.

Figure 2 Public drive map client view

Later, we’ll see how to use exclusive drive mappings with public drive mappings as a way to exclude public drive mappings from a subset of users.

Inclusive drive mapping

Inclusive drive mappings are drives mapped to a user who is a member of (or included) in a specific security group. The most common use for inclusive drive maps is to map remote data shares in common with a specific sub set of users, such as accounting, marketing , or human resources. Configuring an inclusively mapped drive is the same as a public drive mappings, but includes one additional step. The following image shows us configuring the first part of an inclusive drive mapping preference item.

Figure 3 Inclusive drive mapping

Configuring the first part of an inclusive drive mapping preference item does not make it inclusive; it does the work of mapping the drive. We must take advantage of item-level targeting to ensure the drive mapping items works only for users who are members of the group. We can configure item level targeting by clicking the Targeting button, which is located on the Common tab of the drive mapping item. The targeting editor provides over 20 different types of targeting items. We’re specifically using the Security Group targeting item.

Figure 4 Security group targeting item

Using the Browse button allows us to pick a specific group in which to target the drive mapping preference item. Security Group targeting items accomplishes its targeting by comparing security identifiers of the specified group against the list of security identifiers with the security principal’s (user or computer) token. Therefore, always use the Browse button when selecting a group; typing the group name does not resolve the name to a security identifier.

Figure 5 Configured inclusive security group targeting item

The preceding screen shows a properly configured, inclusive targeting item. A properly configured security group targeting item shows both Group and SID fields. The Group field is strictly for administrative use (we humans recognize names better than numbers). The SID field is used by the client side extension to determine group membership. We can determine this is an inclusive targeting item because of the text that represents the item within the list. The word is in the text "the user is a member of the security group CONTOSO\Management." Our new drive map item and the associated inclusive targeting item are now configured. We can now link the hosting Group Policy object to the domain with confidence that only members of the Management security group receive the drive mapping. We can see the result on a client. The following image shows manager Mike Nash’s desktop from a Windows Vista computer. We can see that Mike receives two drive mappings: the public drive mapping (G: drive) and the management drive mapping (M: drive).

Figure 6 Client view of inclusive drive mapping

Exclusive drive mapping

The last scenario discussed is exclusive drive mapping. Exclusive drive mappings produce the opposite results of an inclusive drive mapping; that is, the drive map does NOT occur if the user is a member of the specified group. This becomes usefully when you need to make exceptions to prevent specific drives from mapping. Let’s add an exclusive drive mapping to our public drive mapping to prevent specific members of management from receiving the public drive mapping.

Figure 7 Configured exclusive drive mapping

The preceding image shows the changes we made to the public drive mapping (from the first scenario). We’ve added a Security Group targeting item to the existing public drive mapping preference item. However, the targeting item applies only if the user IS NOT a member of the ExcludePublicDrives group. We change this option using the Items Options list. The client view of manager Monica Brink shows the results of applying Group Policy.

Figure 8 Client view of exclusive drive mapping

This client applies two Group Policy objects; each containing a drive mapping preference item. One item contains our public drive mapping with an exclusive security group targeting item. The other GPO contains the management drive mapping with an inclusive security group targeting item. The client processes the public drive mapping GPO; however, the exclusive targeting item verifies that Monica is a member of the ExcludePublicDrives group. Monica is also a member of the Management group. Therefore, Monica’s group memberships prevent her from receiving the public drive mapping and include her in receiving the management drive mapping.

Summary

Drive mapping preference items do not require any scripting knowledge and are easy to use. Leveraging targeting items with drive mapping items increases the power in which to manage drive mapping to users and computers. Public drive mappings are typically linked at higher levels in the domain and generally apply to a large subset (if not all) users. Inclusive drive mappings associate as specific subset of data with a specific group of people, often times mapping to logical divisions within an organization such as accounting, marketing, or human resources. Exclusive drive mappings invert the principals of inclusive drive mappings. The user must not be a member of the specified group for the drive mapping to occur.

Best practices

Be sure to link GPOs high enough in Active Directory so the scope of the drive mapping effects the largest group of user accounts. Obviously, not every GPO should be linked at the domain; however, if there is an accounting organizational unit with three child OUs– then linking at the Accounting OU effects that largest amount of users. Allow your inclusive and exclusive targeting item to do the bulk of your work. GPOs hosting inclusive drive mappings are best used when the number of user needing the drive mapping are fewer than the number who do not. Exclusive drive mappings are best used when the number of user not requiring the drive mapping are fewer than the number that do. These rules help prevent users from becoming members of too many groups and increasing the cost of managing drive mappings within the organization.

– Mike “Play Some Skynyrd!’ Stephens

Found it! just use command prompt with administrator account:

takeown /f "C:\System Volume Information" /R /A

then

cacls "C:\System Volume Information" /T /C /E /P Administrators:F

and now just delete it by a simple command

del "C:\System Volume Information\Sample File.txt"

that’s it!

http://www.freecontactform.com/email_form.php

Link to Technet article

There are several reasons to use UEFI instead of BIOS. I won’t go into details regarding that. But there are some cases when you already have a fully functional Windows installation running on BIOS and you don’t want to start all over again. Sadly, there are no tools that performs this job. And I found there is not too much documentation regarding how this can be performed either, or even how this should work. Since after some digging and trial-and-error I was able to perform the operation, I will post the instructions for anyone who needs it.

If you have any doubt, feel free to contact me. I will answer whatever (and whenever) I can.

Goal:

Convert a Windows 7/8 BIOS (MBR) installation to UEFI (GPT) without moving, copying or loosing data.

Prerequisites:

1. A computer able to boot UEFI. You can check that on your computer manufacturer. Also in the BIOS setup should display UEFI boot options.
2. Windows 7/8 x64 (I’m not sure if x86 supports it or how).
3. A computer able to boot from USB or memory card (only for this process).
4. A pen drive or memory card with at least 4GB. Or a Windows installation disc.
5. BitLocker TURNED OFF. If you have BitLocker enabled on your hard drive, it will have to be TOTALLY turned off for this procedure. After the procedure is performed, BitLocker can be turned on again.
6. A "standard" Windows installation. This means, the disk where Windows is installed has to contain the System Partition (something above 200MB) and then the OS Partition. This is because Windows will require some space at the beginning of the disk to create the new boot partitions, and we will use the previous System Partition. To verify this you can follow Instructions steps 8 through 11. If there isn’t enough space at the beginning (the primary small partition is under 200MB), partitions may be resized using some tool like Easus Partition Master or such. Don’t continue the operation until you have done so because you may not be able to finish it.

Warnings:

1. As usually, I won’t take any responsibilities if data is being lost, your computer doesn’t boot up anymore, or some gremlins attack your family. You are doing this at your own responsibility. 🙂 This is not a documented feature at all.
2. After this procedure, old versions of Windows probable won’t be able to boot from this disk drive since it has to be converted to GPT.

Recommendations:

1. Is VERY recommended for you to perform a backup of your data. If you have a second disk drive big enough, you can simply create a system image and able to recover the full installation as it was before you started this procedure if anything goes wrong.
2. Download this guide to another computer or print it out, since you will have to make some operations without Windows working.
3. These procedures are likely to render your on-board Recovery partition unusable. Thus, a backup of your Recovery partition onto a USB device is highly recommended if your PC came with Win 8 preinstalled or you don’t have your Windows installation media. Once created, this bootable Recovery USB can optionally be substituted for the System Repair disc in the steps below. For a creating the Recovery USB, see the following: (http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/create-a-recovery-drive-in-windows-8/7261

Notes:

Steps were performed on Windows 8. Some steps in Windows 7 may have different menus, but the options and results are the same.

Instructions:

1. Create a system repair disc (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Create-a-system-repair-disc ). You can skip this step if you have a Windows installation media. Is a good measure to reboot and verify you can start your system from this disc.
2. Identify which disk you want to convert (usually is #0). This can be done by looking at the number in the Windows Disk Management.
3. Download gptgen from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptgen . This tool will allow you to convert your MBR disc to GPT with the data included.
4. ATTENTION: After this step, you won’t be able to boot into Windows the whole process is completed. There is no turning back!
   Unzip gptgen and then run CMD with elevated privileges. (replace the 0 with the identified disk number).
   This *will* result in a BSOD shortly after and it’s to be expected:
     gptgen.exe -w \\.\physicaldrive0
5. Boot using your Windows installation or previously generated system repair disc.
6. Choose language and preferences, and then select Repair Your Computer -> Troubleshoot -> Advanced options -> Command Prompt
7. We will need the disk partitioning tool. With this, we will recreate the boot partitions. Type:
     diskpart
8. Identify the boot disk where Windows is located, typing:
     list disk
   Something like this should appear:
         Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
         ——–  ————-  ——-  ——-  —  —
       * Disk 0    Online          128 GB      0 B        *
9. Once identified, select the disk (replace with the correct number):
     select disk 0
10. Verify the partitions:
      list partition
11. Something similar at the info below should appear.
           Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
           ————-  —————-  ——-  ——-
           Partition 1    Primary            350 MB  1024 KB
           Partition 2    Primary            126 GB   350 MB
12. Delete the previous system partition:
      select partition 1
      delete partition
    
13. Create the new boot partition, Microsoft reserved partition:
      create partition EFI size=100 offset=1
      format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
      assign letter=S
      create partition msr size=128 offset=103424
14. If you list the partitions again, you should have ended up with something like this:
           Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
           ————-  —————-  ——-  ——-
           Partition 1    System             100 MB  1024 KB
           Partition 2    Reserved           128 MB   101 MB
           Partition 3    Primary            126 GB   229 MB
15. Ensure that your Windows installation is mounted, replacing 3 with the volume number of the Windows installation (usually 1):
      list volume
      select volume 3
      assign letter=C
16. Exit diskpart:
      exit
17. Generate boot partition data, replacing C: with the letter of the Windows installation (usually C:):
      bcdboot c:\windows /s s: /f UEFI
18. Cross your fingers and then restart your computer!

Final tasks:

1. BitLocker can be enabled again.
2. If Hyper-V was installed before this procedure, it may not work. To fix it, just remove the feature, restart your PC and then enable it again. No VM is lost.
3. In Windows 8 and if the computer supports it, Windows 8 Secure Boot can be enabled inside the computer BIOS. This will improve the computer security by some degree and maybe reduce boot time. Refer to information from your system manufacturer and/or http://communities.intel.com/community/vproexpert/blog/2012/06/26/microsoft-windows-8–enabling-secure-boot

http://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-8-genuine-product-key-doesnt-work-for-windows-8-1-clean-installation/

Now Windows 8.1 RTM has been released and people can download Windows 8.1 ISO files for clean installation as described here but when they try to install Windows 8.1 and it asks to enter a valid product key, the entered Windows 8 product key doesn’t work. Even if its a genuine Windows 8 product key, you get incorrect or invalid product key error message.

The reason is unknown but it seems Microsoft did it intentionally. Microsoft didn’t want to release offline ISO files of Windows 8.1 to Windows 8 users, that’s why they programmed it to not accept Windows 8 product keys at the time of installation. Microsoft wants you to update Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 through Windows Store which doesn’t ask any product key as its just upgrading the OS and not performing a clean installation.

Although there are workarounds available for this particular problem. The best workaround is that install Windows 8.1 using a generic product key. Some of you may ask what is a generic product key? Generic product keys can be considered as a dummy key which can be used to install an operating system but it can’t be used to activate the OS. These generic keys are legally distributed by Microsoft and you can find such keys on Microsoft website as well as inside Windows setup folder.

You can get a generic product key for Windows 8.1 from following official Microsoft page:

KMS Client Setup Keys for Windows Operating System

Now you can enter this generic key in Windows 8.1 installation wizard and it’ll accept the product key without any problem.

Once Windows is installed in your computer, you can activate your Windows using your own genuine Windows 8 product key by going to System Properties and clicking on change product key option. Although this product key didn’t work at the installation time but it’ll work at activation time. Windows will activate successfully with the help of your Windows 8 genuine product key. Thus you can install Windows 8.1 using your Windows 8 product key…

Under user profile, dial-in Select Allow for network access

And under the client VPN profile, allow the other options on the bottom of the security tab

http://www.leinss.com/blog/?p=1598

Recently, I was tasked with transporting Windows 7 installed one piece of hardware to another. Not a trivial matter, considering the driver and activation issues.  I used Acronis Trueimage 2013 with the Universal Restore feature to accomplish this task and it worked quite well.  I was able to take an installation of Windows 7 x64 installed on a Dell Optiplex 390 and transport it safely to a Dell Latitude e6430.  The normal barrier for bringing up Windows on different hardware is usually the mass storage drivers.   If we can somehow inject the correct drivers offline, we can get into Windows and load the other drivers on an as needed basis.

I set out to do this for free and found this thread: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24245.  If the web site is down, you can grab the file from my web site here. Essentially, this VBScript code does just that by invoking the powers of DISM.  The first thing you will need is a Vista or later based WinPE disc.  You can do this cheaply by tapping the F8 key and picking “Repair my Computer” and then breaking out to a command line.  Or you can use Liveboot 2012 from Wondershare.  This program is definitely worth the $60 for everything that it can do.  Here’s one cool trick you can do with WinPE (unrelated to Universal Restores, but cool none-the-less).  Install TightVNC server on a PC.  Copy the files screenshooks32.dll and tvnserver.exe from the Program Files directory to a USB key.  Now you can run that executable from with-in WinPE.  A “V” will appear in the taskbar.  Right-click this icon, go to properties and set a password.  Now you can VNC into your WinPE boot media!

Run cscript fix_7hdc.vbs from within WinPE.  It will ask for the Windows 7 drive: pick C:.  It will then ask for the folder containing the mass storage drivers.  Drill to that.  It will now inject those drivers into the offline Windows 7 install and produce a report afterwards:

Viola: Universal Restore for free!  What if we didn’t know what mass storage drivers we need?  Well, within WinPE, we can run AIDA64 and click on the PCI Devices tab to get the vendor and device IDs.  If you are cheap and don’t want to spend the $40 for AIDA64, you can also use SIV32:

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2013/10/01/got-a-large-sharewebdb-log-ldf-file.aspx

My ShareWebDB_log file was huge on my SBS 2008 server.

So I fired up the SQL 2005 management express (run as admin)

Choose the ShareWebDB

Clicked on new query and did this:

USE ShareWebDb
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE(ShareWebDb_log, 1)
BACKUP LOG ShareWebDb WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE(ShareWebDb_log, 1)
GO

Now that file is much smaller

http://rdpcit.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/how-to-enable-remote-desktop-via-domain-group-policy-windows-server-2012-2008-r2-2008/

I deployed a small domain to a real state office and I completely forgot to enable remote access to the client computers, so I had to enable remote desktop via domain group policy.

Here’s what you need to enable Remote Desktop remotely:

Open the Group Policy Management and create a new GPO, and edit.

1 – Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connections > Windows Firewall > Domain Profile > “Windows Firewall: Allow Inbound Remote Desktop Exception”

2 -  Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Connections > enable the policy “Allow Users to connect remotely using Remote Desktop Services” Note: this used to be  > Windows Components > Terminal Services > “Allow users to connect remotely using Terminal Services”

All admins will be able to RDP to applied computer group.

Enable both of those options and you’ll be Remote Desktop-ing into PCs by the next day (or rather, until your Domain clients refresh their Group Policy settings )