ITidiots open forum > Handy tool for profile migration
nice one.
The tool that i have found useful recently is spiceworks a complete MSP package. I recently took over a small network at a charity and used this tool to get a basic innovatory and health stats to work from in a very short time. Just had to change a few GPO's to get it working ie allow the remote administration exception for the windows firewall and set its scope to that of the spice box.
Supernova
Network Neighborhood (or My Network Places), I know it is not really a third party piece of software, but it is possibly one of the most useful tools you will use to find other computers / shares...
Jamie
The group policy management console. Without this, group policies would be a bit tedious...
Also, VirtualBox... it is getting much better and is a great (now stable) alternative to VMware... you can now have more than one CD/DVD drive mounted, and it supports EFI...
Jamie
@jamie group policy management console is the de facto method, unless your server 2003 SP1 or below that would still have the obsolete interface and would require manual installation of gpmc. Then i would have to question why on earth you haven't upgraded to SP2
Supernova
@ My Network Places? never use it.... I always search AD . besides its built-in
Supernova
AD to find shared folders... (hmm...)
Also, I still have to install GPMC (with SP1) with Windows Server 2003 R2... hmm...
But yer, the one I have doesn't work in 2000...
Also, My Network Places is great for Workgroups...
Jamie
@jamie
1. Yes that is correct if you publish shares in AD they become searchable
2. Yes you have to install it still. But it is the standard methos to manage GPO's. Windows Server 2003 R2 = windows server 2003 sp1 (Cd 1) + R2 components (cd 2). You still have to install sp2,not so sure that SP2 installs GPMC by default now cant remember... not important anyway everyone installs GPMC.these days. It also comes in the remote administration tools pack.
3. GPMC does work in 2000 environments you may have to update the AD schema
4. "My Network Places is great for Workgroups." true, however, use Net.exe far quicker
Supernova
Ah, I have never really noticed how to publish Shares in AD...
But hey, I've changed my career plan now... I will become a commercial airline pilot and use IT as a backup in case all that fails...
But 2000 will not let me install GPMC, it says "You need SP4..." when I have installed SP4... maybe you're right, a schema update might be the option...
Jamie
good luck with that.. when to you start learning to fly?
yeah i always presume that you have latest SP's and hotfixes running.
schema update is only really to get missing GPOS eg vista and windows 7 specific GPO's
eg ou can update the schema of 2003 to 2008 using ADPrep without actually adding a 2008 dc
Supernova
I will probably start actually learning to fly (in real life, not in flight simulator) either after Sixth Form (college) or after GCSEs... I would prefer to get all the theory and exam stuff out of the way beforehand and then start flying small props, pass an exam in that and build up from there and then I will go and work for some British airline. The only problem is that I don't have a.) A stuffy posh accent, b.) An east London accent (bmi) so I could be like a pioneer of being a pilot without a weird accent (I have just a simple plain British one with no poshness, northernness or southerness or courntryness about it, probably because I have lived all over Britain)
As for GPOs, I can control the GPOs of an AD network on a 2000 machine after doing a schema update and installing the GPMC on a client machine, not a server...
For the moment, I am just playing around in VirtualBox (I keep switching between VMWare and Virtualbox, at the moment VirtualBox has some neat features, like specifying diffferent controllers and having more than one Floppy, CDROM drive etc... ((VMware does this I know...)) and I think it has EFI support...) and then plugging in my joystick (no pun there) and flying on Microsoft Flight Simulator X... It all depends on which mood I am in... (again, no pun).
Jamie
"As for GPOs, I can control the GPOs of an AD network on a 2000 machine after doing a schema update and installing the GPMC on a client machine, not a server.."
you only need to update the scheme if you adding newer tech eg 2003 network and you add vista clients or a 2008 server dc. For example vista had 800 new GP settings i believe
You normally use a remote admin pack on a client to remotely manage GPO's, it would seem that even "Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack cannot be installed or run on Windows 2000-based computers" i didnt know this . However, i haven't used 2000 for years . Best bet would be to use RDP and do it from there.
looks like 2000 is no longer a option
Supernova
example
if i were to update my 2003 server and xp based network by adding new vista clients and a new domain controller. I would do the following.
1. Add my new 2008 DC
2. Adprep my existing 2003 based domain/forest
3. Add new Vista Clients
4. Install "Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions" on my XP/2003 clients
5. Download latest Remote Administration Pack(s) to mange network from a XP or Vista client
Supernova
I think you should have used Windows 7 as an example, but yer, I understand that now. I sort of built up my knowledge of Windows Networks from NT4 upwards, so I had a go with Windows 2000. So now I try various different upgrade examples in VirtualBox, NT4 - 2003, 2000 - 2003 - 2008 etc... Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows Vista ISO image, so I will use my newly downloaded Windows 7 Enterprise ISO.
Also, I have downloaded the 90 day trial version of Windows 7... do the 90 days start from when I downloaded it or when I install it (sounds stupid I know, but they have the technology these days...)
Jamie
hee .. yeah i dont know why.. but when i explain stuff i tend to pair the servers and clients as follows 2003/xp, 2008/vista, 2008 R2/Windows 7 and i have'nt gone in to *great* depth on the latter yet as i havent had the time with all the other areas of tech i am involved with and interested in
Supernova
fair enough. Off topic, where would you (or anyone) suggest that I get Windows 7 Home from? I am in the uk at the moment, so suggestions welcome...
Jamie
I don't think that I would ever buy the home version of any client OS. It's far too limiting. With Windows 7 Pro you also can download the Windows XP Mode which is essentially a Virtual Machine.
Greg Fyn
It is for a home laptop. Plus I have no requirement for XP Mode, the laptop was running Vista, all the software, drivers etc... all worked fine, it was just a bit slow...
Jamie
Hi folks, Once in a great while I am tasked with having to migrate user profiles when there has been a domain change. I try my best to keep the change factor down to a dull roar for the end user. For some strange reason, users have an affinity for how the furniture is arranged, like the placement of icons, their favorites just to name a couple. Administrators could move user's files into the newly created profile manually, but the profile is never quite the same as it was.
To make life easier for me, in smaller networks I found this free tool called the User Profile Wizard 3.0. It migrates an old domain or local profile to one for the new domain. It changes all the permissions for the new account and does this very quickly. More info can be found at: http://www.forensit.com/downloads.html.
There is a pay version of the User Profile Wizard that automates many of the processes, but for most of my domain modifications the computer count has been pretty low and I had to touch each of them for other reasons anyways....
Do you have a favorite networking tool in your bag of tricks?
P.S.To our ITidiots.....Miss you guys what are you working on?
Greg