Windows default behaviour is to write to the disk signature of basic disks when they are attached/detected by windows. This can cause merry hell with iscsi volumes, especially those with existing setups. Start diskpart interactively and put in the following: automount disable Then: automount scrub The first setting disables automounting and the second resets any past configs for disks that have been previously attached.

Try: wmic /node:machine_name product get name,version,vendor Where machine_name is the computer you are interested in. You will need the correct permissions to get to the remote machine. This example just returns installed software.

Hold down shift when you right click a folder to get some quite useful options: If you choose ‘Open a command window from here’ and you are in a network location it will automatically mount a drive for you.

It is a good idea to keep track of these folders as they can get out of control quite quickly. This powershell command quickly highlights if you have any build up going on. Look out for large numbers of files: Get-ChildItem “c:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\inboxes” -recurse | Where {!$_.PSIsContainer} | Group Directory | Format-Table Name, Count -autosize

Once you have run a service pack on a server and you try to add a server role, often it will not accept your original source disk. In this case you need to extract the service pack files. For example in the case of Windows 2003 Server SP2, use the command prompt with /x switch to extract the files: WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe \x:c:\path-to-folder Once it has extracted the files try to add the server role, this time hopefully with success.

Right click + ctrl on the Exchange icon in the system tray:

You can use this to list the MAC address on the current machine: getmac /V It also has remote options too: getmac /S computer /U domain\user /P password This is quite usefull when you do not have any protocols attached so the MAC will not show up in ipconfig. It saves you going through the GUI for each adapter you want to check. I’m not sure how I have missed this for so long.

I’m not really sure how you are supposed to find this out (apart from google) but after installing, you are presented with a login window without specifying a password. Interesting. Well the password is: wSS2008! I am lost for words.

I’m not sure the reason for the hibernation file hiberfil.sys being enabled in a default Windows 2008 Server install, but use this to remove it: powercfg.exe /hibernate off If for some reason you need to put it back, use: powercfg.exe /hibernate on You need to use this command, as this setting is unavailable in the GUI. This also can apply to Windows 7 especially after a P2V.

When you add your third party storage drivers to a windows install (F6 if you catch it) using a USB floppy sometimes the install will fail after the format stage. At this point it is unable to communicate with the USB floppy even though it initially could. You can help it by adding the following to your ‘textsetup.oem’: id = USB\VID_03F0&PID_2001, usbstor #–HPid = USB\VID_054C&PID_002C, usbstor #–Sonyid = USB\VID_057B&PID_0001, usbstor #–Y-E Dataid = USB\VID_0409&PID_0040, usbstor #–NECid = USB\VID_0424&PID_0FDC, usbstor #–SMSCid = USB\VID_08BD&PID_1100, usbstor #–Iomegaid = USB\VID_055D&PID_2020, usbstor #–Samsung This will give windows a nudge in the right direction.