Tuesday 29 September 2009

Windows was unable to complete the format - error message

Sometimes when you get error you recognize the solution easily, and sometimes you don't even if the solution is easy.

"Getting error like Windows was unable to complete the format l" - looks like a piece of cake, but some people had sleepless nights because of this error."

This error occurs when you format a magneto-optic disk with your windows operating system as FAT. Just remember that whether you have formated this disk earlier with any other operating system or any disk utility. If yes then reformat this disk with NTFS and then with FAT and if no then you disk needs a change.

Unable to install Printer - Error Message

My friend purchased a HP printer for his home but when he was installing the printer he got error message stating -

"Unable to Install Printer. Either the printer name was typed incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server. For more information, click Help."

He called me as usual and got the answer, which I want to share with you. The answer is this the driver which he got with HP driver set was only compatible with Windows XP and he was installing it in Windows Server 2003. So he got to download the Server 2003 drivers from HP site.

This error occurs because some HP drivers come with .inf file supported only by Windows XP.

Unable to install Windows Update

In Windows XP sometimes users get problems in installing windows updates. This is a problem of a corrupted file called IUCTL.dll

To correct this file and troubleshoot the problem follow steps as given below:-

  1. Go to your system drive (in my case C:) and open WUTEMP folder
  2. Delete all the files inside it.
  3. Go to Program files
  4. Display all hidden file and folders
  5. There will be a folder named WindowsUpdates
  6. Delete all content inside it except the V4 folder
  7. Now open V4 folder and delete all the content except iuhist.xml
  8. Start run and type
  9. Restart Windows regsvr32 /u C:\WINNT\System32\IUCTL.dll
  10. Done


Thursday 24 September 2009

Exchange Server 2007 Tutorial - New Features

Exchange Server 2007 has a lot of new features when changes when comparing it to the older versions of exchanges server like 2003, 2000 or NT 5.5. Below is a list of all features that are new to exchange server 2007.

  1. Exchange Management Console - Its the time to say good bye to exchange system manager. The lovely working days with exchange system manager are gone. Now its the time to welcome something called Exchange Management Console. This is a wonderful tool with some great looks helping us to manage the entire exchange organization just like exchange system manager
  2. Exchange Management Shell - If you are very excited to know about Exchange Management Console - here comes a bummer. You cannot create public folders in Exchange Management Console you will need powershell for that. Exchange Management Shell is a modified Powershell containing cmd-lets specially customized for Exchange Server Management.
  3. Unified Messaging - Tell me how many of you thought that unified messaging is something just associated with CISCO. I think all of you.. Now unified messaging comes to Exchange Server 2007 allowing users all over your organization to receive voice mail through various mobility devices.
  4. 64 bit only - Sorry to say but no exchange 2007 server on 32 bit from now. Only 64 bit versions of exchange server are supported by Microsoft.
  5. Availability - Gone are the days when we used to sit the entire day in the office to configure routing on exchange servers because some of our servers are down. Failover to other Exchange Servers (Hub Transport Server) is automatic.
  6. Security and Protection - Without any doubt with newer version of every Microsoft product the security is enhancing so with the case with exchange servers.
Their are additional Features of exchange server that I will be talking in future blog posts.


This post relates to Exchange Server 2007 FREE Tutorial and Training Series.

What is ADAM for beginners - Active Directory Application Mode Tutorial

Definition - ADAM or Active Directory Application mode is a mode of active directory provided by Microsoft in Windows Server operating systems to allow active directory enabled applications to work with the current Active Directory infrastructure without modifying AD schema or without storing data in Active Directory database.

Supporting Operating Systems - Windows Server 2003 -Family (except Windows 2003 web server) and Windows XP Operating System.

For Beginners: -Lets start the journey towards active directory application mode. (Before starting this tutorial it is assumed that the reader is having some knowledge of active directory).

Suppose your organization is running a domain example.com. Your company decides to implement a new application that will use active directory as the directory service and database. You tested that application and still you are not convinced about many features of that application. But still deploying that application is necessary.


Now the role of ADAM begins. You implement ADAM on a server named=appserver1 which is not connected to your domain example.com. Then you install the third party application your organization needs. The application which needs active directory as its directory service and database will now access the ADAM roll on appserver1 which will act as a Active Directory Server for the application.

ADAM
Conclusion - Because you were not convinced about the new application but you wanted to deploy it , providing access to active directory, you actually deployed the application in such a way that it interacted with the ADAM roll on appserver1 as Active Directory database. With this kind of configuration your main Active Directory Database remains unaffected when deploying any such third party or Microsoft application.