Ever get tired of having seperate windows for Active Directory, DHCP, Group Policy etc etc???
Sick of trawling through Administrative Tools & browsing to your Company website/intranet???
This post details how to create your own custom Admin Toolbar complete with snap-ins that will manage a wide array of your day to day IT administrative duties. You can even embed frequently visitied URL’s such as your Spam filter.
Step 1:
Go to Start>Run>mmc.exe
This opens a blank Windows management console that is ready to be customized
Step 2:
Click File>Add/Remove Snap-in
You can now add items to view on your toolbar I tend to add my frequently accessed stuff rather that everything from Admin Tools as this defeats the point.
Step 3:
Click File>Save As MyAdminPack.msc
I tend to add the file into my Startup folder so it launches first thing in the morning and leave it open throughout the day then there is no need to go trawling through menus each time you want to use Active Directory or check your Spam filter
You will find that this tool saves a lot of time through the day – why not email your Admin Pack to the rest of your IT department so you can all use it?!
Enjoy
Posted in Apps, Tools
In previous versions of Windows, we could install the Windows Server 2003 administration/management tools in order to perform administration tasks on remote servers from your workstation. With Vista these tools kind of install, but don’t fully work. Luckily with Vista SP1 Remote server administration tools (RSAT) is now available as a MS download.
RSAT – 32-Bit version (KB941314)
RSAT – 64-Bit version (KB941314)
Once installed, you won’t see anything new on your system… All the installer does is add some new entries in the windows features list. To fully enable them goto ‘Control panel’ > ‘Programs and features’ > ‘Turn windows features on or off’… You should hopefully see an entry in here that you can tick to install them.
I don’t understand why the isntaller doesn’t just automatically turn the feature on if you’re installing it anyway, but it doesn’t bother me that much – it’s not like i’m rolling this out to hundreds of users!
Posted in OS, Tips, Tools
I had a problem today with one of our FTP servers… We have a client that has an automated process set up that uploads data to our server, which is then processed by us.
I had to recreate the account used for this, but then realised I didn’t know the original password, and getting the client to find it wouldn’t be an easy option!
After a bit of digging for a packet sniffer, I came accross Smartsniff and was instantly impressed!
It’s one of those tools that you can pick up and start using right away, without having to spend ages installing dependancies or figuring it out, and it’s just a single exe, so very portable. I also really like the fact that it assembles certain TCP communications into a readable conversation (See above) – very easy to recover a saved FTP password that you don’t know!
Get it from nirsoft.net, along with a whole stack of other neat tools!
Posted in Networking, Tools
