Monday 25 October 2010

Using dsget and dsrm to delete users who are a member of a group from active directory.

I use the “DS” set of commands almost daily, they are a very powerful set of tools, which allow the output to be piped between them.

In this example, we are going to use the dsget command, to retrieve a list of users from a security group, then pipe the result into dsrm to delete them.
This can be useful in an educational environment where lots of users leave at once, and hundreds of accounts need removing. Or in the current corprate climate, when an entire department disappears!


Before jumping in at the deep end, I recommend seeing what results you are going to pipe into a dsrm, so run the dsget command on its own.

Dsget group “cn=year13,ou=groups,ou=myschool,dc=domain,dc-suffix –members -expand

This will return the members of a group called “Year13” which is in an OU called “Groups”, which is within an OU called “myschool” which is in the domain domain.suffix.




You are telling the dsget command that it is looking at a group by specifying “group” after dsget. the switches at the end are also important.


-members tells dsget to return the members of the group
-expand returns all members of the group, if this isn’t used it is limited to 100

If you are happy with the results returned, you can pipe the results into DSRM. Piping is just like typing something into a command yourself, only you’re letting the previous command do the work.

To get the pipe character, hold shift and press your backslash key

Dsget group “cn=year13,ou=groups,ou=myschool,dc=domain,dc-suffix –members –expand | dsrm –noprompt

The –noprompt commant prevents dsrm from asking you to confirm before deleting each object. If your deleting a large amount of objects this well worth using (as long as you are confident the results being outputted by dsget are correct)

Friday 8 October 2010

Error code 0xC004C020 when activating windows

When activating windows using a MAK key, if you receive the error code 0xC004C020 it means you have ran out of activations using that key.

You can login into the Microsoft licensing website to check how many activations you have remaining on your MAK keys, and also find the contact information to get additional keys if required.
https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/

Further information on activation error codes can be found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938450

Monday 4 October 2010

Implementing AppLocker – some important steps before you start!

AppLocker is a feature within Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 which uses rules and properties of files to provide access control for applications.
In an environment where you want to prevent the use of certain applications, or even to deny all applications and only allow the applications you name, AppLocker is the solution for you.


Before you get started, there are some pre requisites which aren’t so obvious. Without configuring the prerequisites detailed in this article, although your be able to configure AppLocker policy’s, and a gpresult will show them as being applied, they will not be.

The first step is to enable AppLocker Rule enforcement. To do this, edit the group policy object which you wish to use to apply the AppLocker policys, and navigate to

Computer Configuration | Policies | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Application Control Policies | Applocker

Select “Configure rule enforcement



Select all three configured boxes (ensuring that enforce rules is selected from the drop down boxes) and click ok. This now means any policies you put in place will be applied for executable applications, windows installers and scripts.




The next stage is to ensure the “application identity service” is running
This can be done manually on all your workstations, as part of a generic build or via group policy preferences. Group policy is by far the most effective way of doing this so it is detailed here.


Edit the group policy object which you want to use to configure the service, this GPO must apply to all computers you wish to have AppLocker policies applied on

Services can be configured by using Group Policy Preferences, to configure this navigate to:
Computer Configuration | Preferences | Control Panel Settings | Services
Right click ion services and select New | Service

Modify the start-up to be "Automatic" and browse for the service named “Application Identity” ensure the service action is “Start Service” then click ok



Because these are all machine policies, the workstations may need to be rebooted twice for them to take effect.