Lessons Learned Forum at Lancaster

Please follow the link below to the Windows Vista Migration Step by Step Guide.  While reading the article please pay close attention to the two different tools (Easy Transfer Wizard and User State Migration Tool) used to migrate accounts and settings and then post 6 or 7 sentences on what you have learned about scenarios for using each tool. There are also some very interesting links from that page providing more in depth information.  Please remember that your responses can be seen and commented on by all students at Computertraining.Com at Lancaster, PA as well as viewed by the rest of the world.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748915.aspx#BKMK_M1

This weeks article continues with the Active Directory theme. Global Catalog servers play an important role in locating objects in the forest and also in the authentication process for users. This article gets a little deeper into how a Global Catalog server functions and the technical aspects of how it works.  After reading the article please provide a brief 5 to 7 sentence summary of what you learned from the article. Please remember that your responses can be seen and commented on by all students at Computertraining.Com at Lancaster, PA as well as viewed by the rest of the world. The assignment is due by Monday at 6:00.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc728188(WS.10).aspx

In this weeks postings we are continuing with the subject of Active Directory. The article this week is about the physical components of Active Directory which is comprised of Domain Controllers and sites or geographic locations. The article discusses using Active Directory sites to control replication traffic between domain controllers in different sites. After reading the article please summerize what you learned in 5 to 7 sententses. Please remember that your responses can be seen and comment on by all students at Computertraining.Com at Lancaster, PA as well as viewed by the rest of the world. The assignment is due by Monday at 6:00.

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=26866

Welcome to your first week at ComputerTraining.com in Lancaster. To get off to a start I would like you to  let me know in 5 or 6 sentences what you have taken from some of the workshops you have attended and how you have been able to put that to use already. Please remember that your responses can be seen and comment on by all students at Computertraining.Com at Lancaster, PA as well as viewed by the rest of the world.

As promised in class the following links go into more detail on using policies to install software on remote computers. The first link gives an overview of the options for installing software and the second link gets a little more into the technical aspect of setting up the policies. After reviewing the articles please provide a summary of what you learned from the articles. Please remember that these comments can be viewed and commented on by your fellow classmates at ComputerTraining.Com, Lancaster, PA.  Postings are due by Monday at midnight.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738858.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816102

In class you have heard several references to group policy and have even had the opportunity to configure some of the basic settings such as password policy and account lockout policy. All told there are over 1400 settings that can be configured with policies. Group policy is a very powerful feature that can be used to control almost any setting and flexible enough that different users on the same computer could potentially have different settings. The following link offers a more detailed introduction than we have gone over in class up to this point and should start to give you a glimpse of the power of using policies to help configure and control an Active Directory environment. After you have finished reading the article please post a summary of your thoughts on group policy. Please remember that these comments can be viewed and commented on by your fellow classmates at ComputerTraining.Com, Lancaster, PA.  Postings are due by Monday at midnight.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776182(WS.10).aspx

This week I would like to focus on a more specific task in Active Directory. Part of what we do as network administrators is to create and manage user accounts within Active Directory. The links below descibe the purpose of user accounts and methods to create them. Please review both articles and also considering following a couple of the links at the bottom of each article. After reading the articles please post a 3 or 4 sentence summary of what you learned from the articles. Please remember that these comments can be viewed and commented on by your fellow classmates at ComputerTraining.Com, Lancaster, PA.  Postings are due by Monday at midnight.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759279(WS.10).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784390(WS.10).aspx

The topic for this week is Active Directory. After the Active Directory primer in class on Monday evening and having the chance to install Server 2003 and Active Directory I thought it would be benificial to get a little more insight on the subject. I know this is a rather lengthly article but it seemed to provide a very good overview of Active Directory with some good screen shots to help reinforce what you did in class. After reviewing the article please post a five to seven line comment about what you took from the article. Please remember that these comments can be viewed and commented on by your fellow classmates at ComputerTraining.Com, Lancaster, PA.  Postings are due by Monday at midnight.

http://www.learnthat.com/Software/learn/1295/Introduction-to-Active-Directory/

With spyware being an ever increasing threat to the security and performance of computers Microsoft has introduced Windows Defender and included it in the Vista operating system. The following link contains information about Defender that I would like you to read and then compare to other anti-spyware applications you may have used in the past and describe the advantages or disadvantages of using Defender over a third party solution. Please remember that these comments can be viewed and commented on by your fellow classmates at ComputerTraining.Com, Lancaster, PA.  Postings are due by Monday at midnight.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/defender.aspx?tabid=1&catid=5

There are many people with computers that are less than 2 years old with significant hardware resources that are not getting near the potential of the computer. I have heard of more than one person that just went out and purchased a new computer because of the lack of performance and the frustration of a slow computer. While these tips will not work for every computer there are some great ideas for improving performance and reducing the frustration of having to wait an eternity for an application to load or a page to display. This week after reviewing the information found in the link below see if you can use it to improve the performance of your computer or a family members and then post what you did and any performance gains you noticed. Please remember that these comments can be viewed and commented on by your fellow classmates at ComputerTraining.Com, Lancaster, PA.  Postings are due by Monday at midnight.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/83ec0ffe-ee04-4d53-8b87-25d1f05c954e1033.mspx