Neal's Admin.Notes.

Automatically Send To from a Shortcut

To create a Send To shortcut that displays a message to a particular person, create a Windows shortcut in the SendTo folder that uses as the target the command
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11" /c ipm.note /m me@adminconfessions.net where the path to outlook.exe is adjusted to fit your system and you replace me@adminconfessions.net with the actual name or address of the person you want to send to. If the name or address contains spaces, enclose it within quotation marks. The shortcut lets you generate a mail message by right-clicking any file, choosing SendTo, then selecting your shortcut. Or you can simply add this shortcut on your desktop, doubleclick it whenever you want to send to that particular person or group.

Administering a Windows 2003 network with an Apple G4 / G5

Its been 1 week now since I've gotten my sup'ed up PowerBook G4, will all the bells and whistles.The G5 ( also sup'ed up) , I had at home was a motivating factor on getting me this . Anyways, my goal now it to be able to fully administer all my servers, from this PowerBook. One of the greatest feature I've found was the Remote Desktop Application for mac. Now I can do administrative terminal services on all my servers from anywhere in the world, as long as I'm VPN'd into my work. Some servers , because of security restrictions cannot be remotely administered, I have a Windows XP workstation Virtual PC installed on the G4 that has all the .NET administration tool, and this works flawlessly. My biggest problem so far is accessing MAPI accounts from OS X. I'm not a fan of IMAP4 so I use the Outlook 2003 installed on my Virtual PC.
I choose Apple computers for a few reasons. There are some critical users at work that are heavy apple users and there is no in-house support for them. I also like the stealth of these things...blazing fast, the dual processor G5 blew away the dual XEON processor XP workstation I have at home. Photoshop runs on the G5 as if was a simple text editor, flawless to say the least. The PowerBook is faster than any laptops I've gone though, an it just works...plain and simple. I wouldn't deny I'm going though some Windows Withdrawal, missing the layout of everything, but I'll get thought it. Besides I haven't totally rid myself of XP, I have an XP Workstation at home and at work , and don't forget the VPC and Remote Desktop are great subsititutes when I'm mobile.

Adding IMAP4 to Exchange 2003 Cluster

This is a simple task, just remember a few things.

The IMAP4 and POP Virtual Servers are not installed as a default resource in Exchange 2003 Cluster. Because of this, you need to change the IMAP Service from "Disabled" to "Manual" on the Services Menu ( under Computer Management -> Services ) of each node.If you do not change the service's properties and tried adding the resource , your Exchange Group will fail...and fail miserably. Anyways..from this point you can go ahead and add you IMAP Viirtual Server, with its dependancies. I use a geographically dispersed cluster, and my dependancies were only the System Manager and the Drives. Enable the resource when you're all done and you can IMAP ! The same process applies to POP service, if you want to add that to you cluster resource that it.

How to Avoid "Read Receipts" for Mail-Enabled Groups

Sometime you don't want that Exchange sends "read receipts" to message originator. This is espesially necessary when the e-mail has been sent to a distribution list. You can disable this by following the instructions: - Start "Activ Directory Users and Computers" - Find the distribustion list you want to configure - Choose properties - On the Exchange Advanced tab of a mail-enabled group's properties, you have the following three options for delivery reports: - Send delivery reports to group owner - Send delivery reports to message originator - Do not send delivery reports If you select Do not send delivery reports, you also disable the sending of read receipts.

Secret Command Window Key

That which separates uber-geeks from neophytes is knowledge of the command line. Pressing F7 in a cmd (not command) window in 2000/XP will bring up a list of previously entered commands that can be scrolled through. Amaze your friends!

Folder Size Information in the Windows EXPLORER Detail View

In a day to day life when one wants to know the size of the folder, you have to right click on the folder name and has to choose the properties. Using this DLL one can view the folder size as one of the column of the Explorer as shown in the image. You can download the DLL ( its zipped ) and register it using the command "regsvr32 Path of the unzipped DLL". e.g., Regsvr32 c:\DirSize.DLL, if the DLL is present in C:

This DLL is courtesy of Sharan Basappa

Linux Switch Parody

This is some funny stuff !

SenderBase.org

The number of end user systems on the major networks that are running some sort of malware mail transfer agent is astounding in some ways. SenderBase does a pretty nice job of wrapping the available information and making it easily available.

New York Times weblog link generator

Articles in the New York Times disappear in a pay-per-view archive after a month. But there’s a way to link to free copies from weblog articles, because of an arrangement between the Times and Dave Winer’s Userland company. The simplest way to generate those weblog-safe links is through the New York Times Link Generator, written by Aaron Swartz.

30 Hornets vs 30,000 Honey Bees

Amazing footage of 30 giant hornets slaughtering 30,000 bees in order to get their honey.
Courtesy of Madville.