Write Cache Warnings on Hyper-V Guest after KB2853952

Installed a new DC as a virtual machine.  Ran a DcDiag and started getting errors about write Caching.  Did a little research and found out that the error is actually a good thing.

Here is a link to what I found.  Interesting reading.

http://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2013/10/write-cache-warnings-on-hyper-v-guest-after-kb2853952/

Force Facebook to pull latest data from your website into post.

https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/og/object/

Photography Notes

Time-lapse speeds

Clouds moving very slowly, interval of 10 seconds. 
Clouds moving normally: interval of 5 seconds. 
Clouds moving very fast: interval of 3 seconds. 
People walking down the street: interval of 2 seconds. 
Path of the sun on a clear day, interval of 30 seconds. 
Night landscapes, stars, moon, etc.: Interval of 20 to 30 seconds.

Shutter speeds for astrophotography: 500 Rule

500 / (focal length) = (shutter speed)

Full Frame Sensor with 24mm lens
500 / 24 = 20.8 - 20 seconds

APC-C Sensor with 24mm lens
500 / (24 x 1.6) = 13.02 - 13 seconds

Stacking Images

For those interested in stacking with Photoshop, here's how to do it:

Combine the separate images into one multi-layered image.

You can also combine images using a script – File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack.

Select All Layers.

(Edit > Auto-Align Layers) and select Auto as the alignment option. If Auto does not create good registration of your layers, try the Reposition option. If that fails, set all layers to the Lighting blending mode and manually align each image, this can take a bit of time but it's not too bad.

Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.

Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode and select a stack mode from the submenu. For noise reduction, use the Mean or Median, I usually use Median.

To change the rendering effect, choose a different Stack Mode from the submenu. Stack rendering is not cumulative—each render effect operates on the original image data in the stack and replaces previous effects.

Now you can stretch the histogram with your normal PS workflow

The beep that can't be turned off

I have come across a few Dell laptops that will have a CRAZY LOUD beep while doing different things.  Nothing I have come up with will turn the beep off short of cutting the speaker wire (which a lot of people have resorted to).   After scouring forums on the interwebs it appears to be a problem that is not fixable in the normal sense.  The only fix I found was to trick the beep.   Below are instructions on how to out smart the pesky beep.


1. Open the Start>Accessories>Entertainment>Sound Recorder
2. Do a File>Save
3. Name it Quiet.wav
4. Save the blank WAV file to C:\Windows\Media
5. Open the Start>Control Panel> Sounds and Audio Devices
6. Set the sound scheme to "No Sounds"
7. Assign the Blank.Wav to the [Default Beep]
8. Save your sound scheme as another name
9. Click Apply

I found the fix here

Redeploying software through Group Policy that has already been installed

I'm playing around with installing apps from group policy.  Found out that if you uninstall an application from a computer group policy it will not try to re-install it again.  You could create new GPO and only target the computers that need it OR, to have GP re-install it just delete the key that references the software you are pushing out at.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\AppMgmt\

Removing the Trojan.Poweliks virus - DLLhost.exe high CPU

I have seen two computers with this virus (Poweliks) in the last week. They both had DLLhost.exe taking up 100% of the CPU.   I have been working on trying to remove this virus for a few days now with no success but I finally found something that worked!

Norton has released a scanner specifically for this virus.  Hope this helps someone else.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v105110580_EndUserProfile_en_us

Free open source file and partition recovery software

Free open source file and partition recovery software.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Remove Passwords from protected Microsoft Word Documents

Link to the blog where I found this

There's always been a need to remove passwords from protected Microsoft Word documents when you need to make a change. My most common occurrence is with Human Resource (HR) forms. HR staff will create the MS Word document, password protect it, and then upload it to our company intranet. However, when I need to fill the form out, the only way to do so is to print the form, sign my name, scan the signed & printed form, and them email it back to them. What I would like to do, is to just paste a scan of my signature onto the form, save as a PDF, and them email them the PDF saving printing and scanning time and paper (which would then need to be shredded).

Here’s a trick that I learned a long time ago.

Make sure the MS Word document is password protected

1. Open the document in MS Word
2. Select the “Review” tab in MS Word
3. Click and Hold the “Protect Document” button to reveal more choices
4. Click “Restrict Formatting and Editing”
5. You should see a “Stop Protection” button on the bottom of the opened panel
6. Click the “Stop Protection” button

If it prompts you for a password, then let’s continue to remove the password.

Removing the Password from the MS Word document

Step 1. Convert document to RTF

1. Click “Save As…” menu option, then choose “Other Formats”
2. Select “Rich Text Format (*.rtf)” file type and provide a filename ending with .rtf
3. Close the document and/or MS Word

Step 2. Remove password

1. Open Notepad (or any text editor, I prefer Notepad2)
2. Open the RTF file (from step 2) in the text editor
3. Search for “passwordhash”. You should see text that looks something like this:
   {\*\passwordhash ########}
4. Select the text after “passwordhash” until you get to the “}” (curly bracket). Make sure to not select the “}” or “{“ characters!
5. Delete the selected text
6. The text should look something like this now:
   {\*\passwordhash}
7. Save the file and close your text editor

Step 3. Convert back to MS Word and Stop Protection

1. Open the RTF file using MS Word
2. Click “Save As…” menu option, then choose “Word Document (*.docx)”
3. Select the “Review” tab in MS Word
4. Click and Hold the “Protect Document” button to reveal more choices
5. Click “Restrict Formatting and Editing”
6. Click the “Stop Protection” button

All done! You should have an unprotected Microsoft Word document now.

Cleaning up old user and computer accounts in Active Directory

Found a great tool today for finding old user and computer accounts on the network.

AD Tidy 

With this (GUI) tool you can scan for users or computer.  Once the scan is run it generates a report view that you can then use to perform a bunch of actions like:

-   Disable account/s
-   Move to an OU
-   Delete account/s
-   Set random password for the account/s
-   Set description on the account/s
-   Set and expiration date on the account/s
-   Run external scripts
-   Add to group
-   Remove from groups
-   Clear LDAP value/s
-   Set password to never expire
-   Delete home folder
-   And a bunch more

Most of the actions can be performed on more than one computer or user at a time.

Adobe Acrobat Download Links

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=1&platform=Windows

PrivateKeyMissing when running Enable-ExchangeCertificate

Ran into an issue today where I could not get a certificate installed on an exchange server.  Was giving me "PrivateKeyMissing when running Enable-ExchangeCertificate.

I found the below instructions that fixed the issues for me.

https://support.comodo.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1188


Enable-ExchangeCertificate : The certificate with thumbprint XXXXXXXXX was found but is not valid for use with Exchange Server
(reason: PrivateKeyMissing).
At line:1 char:27
+ Enable-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint XXXXXXXXX -Services "IIS"

The above error can as a result of multiple reasons. CSR was created with IIS and attempted to be installed through the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), CSR was created in EMS on another Exchange Server, a damaged certificate, or Windows simply "forgets" where it placed the PrivateKey for the certificate. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes the error can be a nuisance.

Option #1: Repair Damaged Certificate (Windows Server 2003/2008)

1. Open MMC and add the Certificate Snap-In for the Local Computer account.


2. Double-Click on the recently imported certificate.
Note: In Windows Server 2008 it will be the certificate missing the golden key beside it.


3. Select the Details tab.


4. Click on the Serial Number field and copy that string.
Note: You may use CTRL+C, but not right-click and copy.


5. Open up a command prompt session. (cmd.exe aka DOS Prompt)


6. Type: certutil -repairstore my "SerialNumber" (SerialNumber is that which was copied down in step 4.)


7. After running the above command, go back to the MMC and Right-Click Certificates and select Refresh (or hit F5 in the MMC)


8. Double-Click on the problem certificate. At the bottom of this window (General tab) it should state: "You have a private key that corresponds to this certificate."
Note: In Windows Server 2008 there will be a golden key to the left of the certificate, so there is no need to double-click the certificate.


9. Now that the Private Key is attached to the certificate, please proceed to enable Exchange Services via Enable-ExchangeCertificate.

Option #2: Remove and Re-Install Certificate (Windows Server 2003/2008)

1. Verify the certificate doesn't have it's private key.
   In the MMC and double-click the recently imported certificate. (Be sure that you're using the Certificate Snap-In for the Local Computer account!)
Note: In Windows Server 2008 it will be the certificate missing the golden key beside it.


2. Right-Click on the certificate and click Delete.


3. Re-install the Certificate

Make a USB drive bootable

Warning this WILL DELETE ALL DATA on the drive

Format Your USB Key

1.  Run cmd.exe as administrator
2.  Type diskpart
3.  Type list disk
4.  Type Select Disk #
5.  Type Clean
6.  Type Create Partition Primary
7.  Type Select Partition 1
8.  Type Active
9.  Type Format FS=Fat32  to format the drive Fat32 or type Format FS=NTFS for NTFS
10. Type Assign
11. Type Exit

Next just copy what ever software on the drive that you want to boot to.  I use the above to format a usb drive before I copy the install files for Windows 7 or Windows 8.  This comes in handy when you need to load windows on a laptop that does not have a CD Rom drive.

BIOS Upgrade on DELL Computers WITHOUT a WINDOWS Install

I needed upgrade the bios on a Dell system that didn't have an OS installed on it yet.  Came across the below post on how to upgrade the bios without the OS installed.  This worked great for me.


Most DELL (or any other brand) of machines have BIOS updates/upgrades from time to time. There have been several projects attempting to solve the issue that arises when attempting to upgrade the BIOS of a DELL computer with no MS Windows O/S on it. However, most of them are defunct (not working anymore). 

BTW: You CANNOT upgrade the BIOS from a VirtualBox or a VMWare install - Please DO NOT try this - you need to be running an MS O/S or FreeDOS natively - i.e. on the bare metal.

Therefore, what is the solution? Here's one that I came across that is very easy and straightforward and makes use of the native *.exe BIOS file from DELL.

(This method will also work for any other brand of computer that provides it's BIOS files as *.exe format).

1) Install unetbootin from Synaptic or CLI.

2) Plug in a USB stick (it does not need to be erased, just to enough room for the FreeDOS and the bios (*.exe) file).

3) Create a FreeDOS bootable USB stick (on the USB stick you just plugged in).

4) Download the latest and greatest DELL_BIOS_MODEL.EXE file for YOUR specific machine from the DELL SUPPORT website from your Ubuntu install.

5) Transfer the DELL_BIOS_MODEL.EXE file to your USB stick.

6) REBOOT your computer and enter the BIOS options (F8 or F12 - usually).

7) Select BOOT from USB before booting from anything else. Hit .

8) Wait for the USB with the FreeDOS to boot.

***THIS NEXT STEP IS IMPORTANT***

9) DO NOT choose to install the FreeDOS - this will erase your HDD and wipe-out your Ubuntu install.

Also, do not choose any of the other special memory boot options.

Just choose boot FreeDOS with no extras.

***Dangerous Step is Now Over***

10) You will get a couple or warnings/errors - its okay to ignore them. When presented with the A:\ prompt, type C: and hit .

11) Type dir and you should get a list of all directories and files on your USB stick.

12) Type DELL_BIOS_MODEL.EXE and hit to execute the BIOS update/upgrade file.

13) DO NOT touch the power (make sure your are plugged in with an A/C adapter if your are using a laptop); follow the on-screen instructions.

14) If necessary after the update/upgrade, enter the BIOS (again, usually F8 or F12) and return the first boot device to what was before (usually the CDROM or HDD).

Original Post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1901977

Windows 7 on hyper-v Black Screen

After loading Windows 7 on hyper-v the system would only show a black screen after much searching I found this link with instructions on how to fix the issue.  This worked great for me.


http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-US/f324ff98-25ba-4732-87a6-1dada4e8b5e4/windows-7-dont-boot-after-install-hyperv?forum=virtualmachingmgrhyperv

1. Create a new Virtual Machine on your Hyper-V (Server 2008 R2).
2. Install Windows 7 from a DVD or an ISO file, whatever makes you happy.
3. On the final reboot of the install, you will, of course, get the above mentioned black screen.
4. Reboot the VM, but this time press a key to boot from the Windows 7 DVD (or boot from your ISO) so that you can get into the repair mode (recovery console/DOS prompt).
5. Type C: to go to the C (boot) drive of your Windows 7 VM.

Here's the magic:

6. Simply type the following command at the recovery console DOS prompt:

bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force

7. type EXIT and then reboot the machine.

ENJOY!

Configure L3 Management for the Ubiquiti Unifi Access Points

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/19641-configure-l3-management-for-the-ubiquiti-unifi-access-points

Scan to Email with Office 365

Fond these instructions on the internet for connecting a copier to office 365.

To configure so it sends through an Office 365 Exchange online mailbox enter these settings on the webpage

SMTP Server =outlook.office365.com
SMTP Port = 587  
Check off "Always use secure connection (SSL/TLS) 
Check off "E-mail Log-in Authentication" 
User ID =  [Your Email address]
Password = [Your Password]

To verify what your full server name is

Login into your exchange webmail at http://portal.microsoftonline.com
Access Outlook webmail
Click on "gear" 
Click on Options
Under account information will be a lint for "Settings for POP, IMAP, and SMTP access"
Verify the server listed in the popup.

Easy2Boot - MulitBoot USB Project

Program that formats a USB drive and lets you boot from ISO's stored on the drive.


Easy2Boot

Lock down Terminal Server 2008

Good link for locking down a terminal server

http://www.adshotgyan.com/2012/02/terminal-server-lockdown.html

Free MSI creator

http://www.advancedinstaller.com/

Allow remote support helpers to see and interact with UAC prompts

Everyday problem that we have here when remotely supporting Windows 7 users that do not have local admin rights.  When we remote into a workstation to help, it enviably evolves doing something with elevated privileges.  When UAC is tripped we cannot see it and have to rely on the user.  

Found this registry change that allows the remote helper to see the UAC prompt.

Reg key to enable / disable UAC prompts 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\PromptOnSecureDesktop

Change its value from 1 (default value) to 0.

After changing the above reg key remote helper can see and interact with the elevated prompts.

Setting a PDC Emulator to pull time from an NTP Server

On a domain the computers pull their time from the domain controllers and thedomain controllers pull  their time from the AD server that has the PDC Emulator role. To set the PDC Emulator to pull time from an outside NTP server follow these commands.

-  Find the PHC server: c:\>netdom /query fsmo

-  Stop the time service (w32time): c:\>net stop w32time

-  Point the server to the external NTP source: c:\>w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"0.pool.ntp.org, 1.pool.ntp.org, 2.pool.ntp.org"

-  Make the PDC a reliable time source: c:\>w32tm /config /reliable:yes

-  Start the time service: c:\>net start w32time

-  Check the configuration changes:  c:\>w32tm /query /configuration

-  Force a sync: c:\>w32time /resync

List of NTP servers:

NTP.ORG

server 0.pool.ntp.org

server 1.pool.ntp.org

server 2.pool.ntp.org

server 3.pool.ntp.org

NIST.GOV

nist1-ny.ustiming.org

nist1-nj.ustiming.org

nist1-nj2.ustiming.org

nist1-ny2.ustiming.org

Server 2012 - Change the product key

Powershell commands to change the product key in server 2012

- Run powershell as administrator
- slmgr -upk  (removes the current product key)
- slmgr -ipk "Product Key"  (installs the new key)

BPOS to Office 365 Outlook Keeps Prompting for Password

After migrating one of my clients from BPOS to Office 365 we had a few computers that would prompt for their password every time Outlook was opened.  The normal fixes did not work so after some digging I found  this BLOG Post and it did the trick.

http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/162/t/52027.aspx

Outlook prompting for password repeatedly, after password change, former BPOS acct

• Posted by David Szp  on 2012-May-04 2:01 PM

  A customer of ours has Office 365 Exchange that was migrated from BPOS a few months ago. One user had this issue up front but not others; recently after passwords expired and were changed, several other users began to get continued password prompts (relating to a RED001... server, the old BPOS server) in Outlook shortly after it opened, even though it was connected to Exchange and getting new email and such just fine. The password prompts were very annoying.

  Additionally, if I did a Repair from Account Settings, the account would fail to autodiscover one time after a timeout, but if I retried immediately it would succeed the second time (DNS was configured correctly). After the fix below, Repair succeeds with autodiscover the first time every time, and quickly.

  I tracked down a blog post where the first comment gave me an idea. I tested it and it seemed to work, so I expanded it a little into a complete solution that has solved the problem for this customer, I'm sharing it here in case it's useful to someone else:

  
  

  In order to fix the random password popups with Outlook where BPOS was previously installed, navigate to this folder in Windows Explorer(the %userprofile% text will be replaced by Windows automatically with the correct path):

  
  

  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Sign In\Config\

  
  

  Then go into the subfolder that's named after the Outlook email address.

  In that folder, rename or delete these two files:

  
  

  ConfigurationParameters.xml

  outlook-autodiscovery.xml

  
  

  Close (if open still) Outlook and then reopen it, and go to Tools menu (Outlook 2007) or File menu (Outlook 2010) and click Account Settings. When viewing the account (should only be one), click the Repair button just above the account list. Click Next to go through the wizard which should be successful all the way through, then close out of the settings, restart Outlook and the password prompts should be gone.

  I specifically tested this with Outlook 2007 but I assume 2010 would be similar. I suspect the files above are remnants of the BPOS sign-in assistant (which I think had been uninstalled, though maybe not fully. However I forgot to double-check this before disconnecting from the customer's machine).

  Hopefully that helps someone else! I was unable to find much useful information online; the link I did find above didn't have a complete solution just a suggestion in a comment I ran with.

  
  

  David Szpunar
  Lead Engineer,
  PC Help Services

Connect a Physical Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine

Updated: February 5, 2010

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

Your virtual machines can also be connected to physical hard disks on the virtualization server—not just to virtual hard disks. (This is sometimes referred to as having a “pass-through” disk connected to a virtual machine.)

The physical hard disk that you connect to a virtual machine can also be a network-attached disk, like a logical unit number (LUN) in a storage area network (SAN). A common example is an iSCSI LUN that has been mapped to the virtualization server by using Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. Because the virtualization server sees network-attached storage as local disks, the iSCSI LUN can be connected to a virtual machine.

Important
The most important limitation about having a physical hard disk connected to a virtual machine is that it cannot be connected to the virtualization server or to other virtual machines at the same time. The virtual machine must have exclusive access to the physical hard disk.

Note
For more information about connecting network-attached storage to the virtualization server by using Microsoft iSCSI Initiator, see the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Step-by-Step Guide (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=182862).

Scenario prerequisites

To test this scenario, you will need the following:

• Complete all steps in the main section of this guide. After you complete all the steps, you will have a virtualization server and two virtual machines: Base Virtual Machine (used for creating new virtual machines) and Imported Virtual Machine.
  
• Imported Virtual Machine is running, Windows Server 2008 R2 is configured, and the computer name for the virtual machine is VirtualMachine1.
  
• Make available a hard disk drive on the virtualization server that is not currently used for other tasks and can be temporarily disconnected from the virtualization server. Alternatively, use a network-attached disk or LUN that is already mapped to the virtualization server.
  

Scenario steps

The following procedure explains how to connect a physical hard disk on the virtualization server to a virtual machine.

To connect a physical hard disk to a virtual machine

1. On the virtualization server, take the physical hard disk offline by using Disk Management:
   

   Warning
   To avoid losing data, before you take a physical hard disk offline, stop all applications on the virtualization server that read or write data to that hard disk.

   1. Open Server Manager. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.
      
   2. In Server Manager, in the console tree, under Storage, click Disk Management.
      
   3. After the disks on the virtualization server are listed in Disk Management, locate and determine if the physical disk that you want to attach to the virtual machine is online. The state of the disk (Online or Offline) is listed in the small pane on the left, where the disk name, disk type, and disk size are also listed.
      
   4. If the disk is online, to take the disk offline, right-click the disk, and then click Offline. After the disk state changes to Offline, the disk is disconnected from the virtualization server.
      
      

      Note
      To perform actions on a disk in Disk Management, you must right-click the small pane on the left, where the disk name, disk type, disk size, and disk state are listed.

2. Connect the physical hard disk to the SCSI controller of the Imported Virtual Machine virtual machine, as follows:
   

   Note
   Connecting a disk to the SCSI controller of a virtual machine instead of an IDE controller enables you to perform this action without having to first shut down the virtual machine. For more information, see Connect a Virtual Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine Without Shutting It Down, in this guide.

   1. On the virtualization server, open Hyper-V Manager. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.
      
   2. In Hyper-V Manager, under Virtual Machines, right-click Imported Virtual Machine, and then click Settings. The Settings for Imported Virtual Machine dialog box appears.
      
   3. In the left navigation pane, click SCSI Controller.
      
   4. In SCSI Controller, click Hard Drive, and then click Add. A hard drive is added to the SCSI controller and is automatically selected in the left navigation pane.
      
   5. In the Hard Drive properties, click Physical hard disk, and then select the physical disk that you took offline.
      
   6. To connect the physical hard disk to the virtual machine, click OK. The physical hard disk is now available on the virtual machine, and can be accessed to read and write information.
      
3. To disconnect the physical hard disk from the virtual machine:
   

   Warning
   To avoid losing data, before you disconnect a physical hard disk from a virtual machine, stop all applications on the virtual machine that read or write data to the physical hard disk.

   1. In Hyper-V Manager, under Virtual Machines, right-click Imported Virtual Machine, and then click Settings. The Settings for Imported Virtual Machine dialog box appears.
      
   2. In the left navigation pane, under SCSI Controller, click the physical hard disk that you want to detach from the virtual machine.
      
   3. In the Hard Drive properties, click Remove.
      
   4. To detach the physical hard disk from the virtual machine, click OK.

Apps to make managing Hyper-v Core easier

vtCommander  - A GUI program that allows you to manage your guest machines from the console of your core server

Office 365 Conversion - Autodiscover still points to old exchange server

Recently ran into a problem where a client had been migrated from an in house exchange server to Office 365 email.

After the migration the outlook clients kept switching back to the in house exchange server even though there was an external DNS autodiscover record and an internal cname autodiscover pointing to the external dns record.

We fix this by removing the following two attributes from the users AD account.  homeMDB and homeMTA


After removing the account we were able to run repair in outlook and it reconnect to the correct server.

SBS Migration help

SBSMigration.com

BPOS PowerShell Commands

Grant full access, send as, and send of behalf of  permission to account.

Add-MSOnlineMailPermission -GrantFullAccess True -GrantSendAs True -GrantSendOnBehalfOf True -Identity User1@domain.com -TrustedUser User2@domain.com

 Grants User2@domain.com access to User1@domain.com account.

Office 365 PowerShell commands

As I come across useful Powershell commands to manage Office365 I'll add them here.

To manage Office 365 through PowerShell you first need to install an update to PowerShell that can be found HERE

List of  commands


1.    Authenticate with Office 365

 Connect-MsolService


2.   Get list of user accounts

Get-MSOLUser

3.   Change password to never expire.

Set-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName     -PasswordNeverExpires $true


-----------------------------------------

Connect Windows PowerShell to the Service

Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu

Topic Last Modified: 2011-12-19

After you have installed and configured Windows PowerShell and Windows Remote Management (WinRM) on your computer, you have to connect the Windows PowerShell on your local computer to the cloud-based service to perform tasks in your cloud-based organization.

When you open Windows PowerShell on your computer, you're in the Windows PowerShell session of your local computer. A session is an instance of Windows PowerShell that contains all the commands that are available to you.

The Windows PowerShell session of your local computer, called the client-side session, only has the basic Windows PowerShell commands available to it. By connecting to the cloud-based service, you connect to the Microsoft datacenter's server environment, called the server-side session, which contains the commands used in the cloud-based service.

Before you begin

Before you connect, make sure you have the correct version of Windows PowerShell and WinRM installed and configured on your computer. For more information, see Install and Configure Windows PowerShell.

Verify the account you will use to connect is authorized to connect using Windows PowerShell. For more information, see Control Users' Access to Windows Remote Management.

Connect Windows PowerShell on your local computer to the cloud-based service

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows PowerShell > Windows PowerShell.
2. Run the following command:
   
   
   

   $LiveCred = Get-Credential
   

3. In the Windows PowerShell Credential Request window that opens, type the credentials of an account in your cloud-based organization. When you are finished, click OK.
4. Run the following command:
   
   
   

   $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
   

   Note   The AllowRedirection parameter enables cloud-based organizations in datacenters all over the world to connect Windows PowerShell to the cloud-based service by using the same URL.
5. Run the following command:
   
   
   

   Import-PSSession $Session
   

   A progress indicator appears that shows the importing of commands used in the cloud-based service into the client-side session of your local computer. When this process is complete, you can run these commands.

Disconnect Windows PowerShell from the cloud-based service

When you're finished using the server-side session, always disconnect Windows PowerShell by running the following command:

Remove-PSSession 

For example, to disconnect from the server-side session that is defined by the $Session variable, run the following command:

Remove-PSSession $Session

Important   If you close the Windows PowerShell window without disconnecting from the server-side session, your connection will remain open for 15 minutes. Your account can only have three connections to the server-side session at one time.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Give an Administrator the Ability to Open and View the Contents of a User's Mailbox

Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu

Topic Last Modified: 2011-03-08

Your organization may require that Exchange Online administrators be able to open another user's mailbox and view the contents, including reading e-mail messages.

By default, Exchange Online administrators or members of the Organization Management administrator role group can access a user's Options page in the Exchange Control Panel, but they can’t open the user’s mailbox and view the contents. You have to explicitly assign an administrator the permissions necessary to open another user's mailbox.

Assign permissions to one Exchange Online administrator

Run the following command:

Add-MailboxPermission  -User admin -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All

Note   You can also allow an ordinary user, such as an administrative assistant or human resources specialist, to open another user's mailbox by specifying that person in the User parameter.

Assign permissions to the Organization Management role group

Run the following command:

Add-MailboxPermission  -User "Organization Management" -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All

Give full access to all user mailboxes in your organization

To give the Exchange Online administrator access to all user mailboxes in your organization, run the following command:

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'UserMailbox') -and (Alias -ne 'Admin')} | Add-MailboxPermission -User admin -AccessRights fullaccess -InheritanceType all

To give members of the Organization Management role group access to all user mailboxes, set the User parameter to “Organization Management” in the previous command.

Open another user's mailbox

Here's how you open another user's mailbox after you've been assigned permissions: Open Another Mailbox.