How to remove passwords on Microsoft Word documents
Ok, so you’ve found yourself in the situation where you can’t update an MS Word document that you created years ago and can’t remember the unprotect password! D’oh! Well, don’t be drawn in by premium/commercial solutions to this problem – when you can solve it for free! Forget dictionary attacks, you weren’t silly enough to use a plain word - right?! Also, forget cracking by brute force – because you don’t have the time!
Simply follow these steps:
- Open the protected document in Word as normal.
- File/Save As…
- Select ‘Rich Text Format (RTF)’ from the ‘As Type’ drop-down list box and save it.
- Close Word
- Open Notepad (Start/Programs/Accessories/Notepad)
- Open your RTF file in Notepad
- Do a text search for ‘password’. It should return something like:
{\*\password 5edc3b9c}
(Obviously your password data will be different!) - Delete this entire section, save it and close Notepad
- Open the RTF document in Word and hit ‘Unprotect’. If you get a password dialog box – just leave it blank.
- Now, do a ‘Save As’ again – but this time save it as a regular word document.
All done!
Is this legal? Well, I’d say so. It’s your document – and not your fault that you forgot the password! I think a slap around the back of the head is due though!
Disable movie/video thumbnail preview under Windows XP
Rather annoyingly, the explorer.exe process under Windows XP can sometimes hang, stop responding, crash or just plain terminate/close itself while it tries to display video/movie thumbnails in any given folder.
The reason for this can be a multitude of issues – like a dodgy codec, etc – and seems to be rather in-discriminant as to which file type it decides to screw up with (AVI, MPG, WMV, ASF, etc).
To get around this problem though, it is possible to easily disable this feature. Either fire up a command prompt or execute this straight from the run dialog box:
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
And if you want to re-enable it again at a later date:
regsvr32 shmedia.dll
Now, the only knock-on effect is that you’ll no longer be able to see summary information in the file properties. In my opinion though, it’s a small price to pay!!
Add an email address alias to an Exchange account
Just a very quick one. Most people probably know this already – but just to show how to add/manage email address aliases:
- Fire up “Active Directory Users & Computers”
- Locate the user and look at the objects properties
- In the Email Addresses tab - you’ll have a list of various entries. All of the ‘SMTP’ type are email addresses / aliases. The one in bold is the primary account.
- To add a new alias: click New, select ‘SMTP address’, click OK and enter the desired email address.
Simples!
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more about Exchange? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
 Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Training kit |
 Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 |
 Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Training Kit |
 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for Dummies |
Adding new / Changing existing email domains in Microsoft Exchange
If this isn’t a once-in-a-blue-moon task that needs mentioning – I don’t know what is! How often do you get a new domain or rebrand your company? After Finance have done their bit and Marketing have diddled around with PR mumbo jumbo, the real work down in the IT department is to tell your Exchange server to start accepting email for a new domain. Well, it’s quite simple:
- Open Exchange Sytem Manager
- Goto Recipients -> Recipient Policies
- Right-click / Properties on your default policy
- Look under the “E-Mail Addresses (Policy)” tab
In here, you’ll have a list of domains that your exchange box accepts and sends email for. The SMTP entry in bold is your primary domain. From here, you can either editing an existing domain – or create a new SMTP ‘address’. Be aware that setting a new domain to primary (especially in large organisations) will take some time! (as it’s got to go through every AD account and set the primary domain)
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more about Exchange? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Training kit |
Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 |
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Training Kit |
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for Dummies |
Map drives based on user’s AD group membership using IFMEMBER
Login scripts are very handy – but when it comes to mapping drives (or processing other commands) based on the users active directory group membership – it can be a bit of a pain.
Thats where Ifmember.exe (part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit) comes in.
You can get this to work for you in one of two ways. The first is to have it call it from within your login script and then evaluate the errorlevel (Errorlevel 1 if they are a member or 0 if not) – which is multiline and not very tidy. The other option is to use conditional execution (executes additional commands depending on which errorlevel the command returns).
Perhaps the best way to explain this is through a few examples:
ifmember Finance || net use f: \\server\finance
Assuming that the current user *is* a member of the ‘Finance’ group – it will map drive F. Similarly, you can use && instead to process commands if the user is *NOT* a member of Finance:
ifmember Finance && net use f: \\server\someothershare
Of course, these examples both assume that ifmember.exe is in the local machines search path (or it’s being called from the same directory as the script). Another option is that you could call it through a UNC path:
\\server\tools\ifmember.exe Finance || net use f: \\server\finance
Which works quite well!
You can obtain ifmember.exe either as part of the Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit Tools from Microsoft here (which is well worth doing!):
Or you can get just the file itself from:
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
 Active Directory for Dummies |
 Microsoft Windows Shell Script Programming |
 Microsoft Windows Script Host |
 Mastering Windows Server 2003 |
Configure Outlook Exchange email account through login script
This one’s a common issue – you’ve got hundreds of users and want an efficient way of handing out Exchange email account settings to all of your Outlook users. Well, I’m going to cut through all the waffle and tell you the method I use.
I create a .prf file (Outlook Profile), store it in a shared server location, and reference it from within a login script. The problem is, I only want it to run once (when a user logs into a machine for the first time). So I check for the existence of a junk file in the users profile directory (C:\Doc & Set\user\outlookdone.dat – which incidentally also contains the date it was originally done). The resulting login batch file looks a bit like this:
if exist “%USERPROFILE%\outlookdone.dat” goto outlookdone
echo Configuring Outlook EMail profile..
“c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE” /importprf \\server\share\outlook.prf
echo %date% >”%USERPROFILE%\outlookdone.dat”: outlookdone
(NB: that this is for Outlook 2003 – OFFICE11. This method should also work for 2002 and 2007 – however it has not been tested). Finally, the all important .prf file looks a bit like this:
[General]
Custom=1
ProfileName=Default profile
DefaultProfile=Yes
OverwriteProfile=No
ModifyDefaultProfileIfPresent=FALSE[Service List]
;ServiceX=Microsoft Outlook Client
ServiceEGS=Exchange Global Section
Service1=Microsoft Exchange Server
ServiceEGS=Exchange Global Section[ServiceEGS]
MailboxName=%UserName%
HomeServer=YOUREXCHANGESERVERNAMEGOESHERE
[Service1]
OverwriteExistingService=No
UniqueService=Yes
MailboxName=%UserName%
HomeServer=YOUREXCHANGESERVERNAMEGOESHERE
AccountName=Microsoft Exchange Server[Microsoft Exchange Server]
ServiceName=MSEMS
MDBGUID=5494A1C0297F101BA58708002B2A2517
MailboxName=PT_STRING8,0×6607
HomeServer=PT_STRING8,0×6608
OfflineAddressBookPath=PT_STRING8,0×660E
OfflineFolderPath=PT_STRING8,0×6610[Exchange Global Section]
SectionGUID=13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a
MailboxName=PT_STRING8,0×6607
HomeServer=PT_STRING8,0×6608
RPCoverHTTPflags=PT_LONG,0×6623
RPCProxyServer=PT_UNICODE,0×6622
RPCProxyPrincipalName=PT_UNICODE,0×6625
RPCProxyAuthScheme=PT_LONG,0×6627
CachedExchangeConfigFlags=PT_LONG,0×6629[Microsoft Mail]
ServiceName=MSFS
ServerPath=PT_STRING8,0×6600
Mailbox=PT_STRING8,0×6601
Password=PT_STRING8,0×67f0
RememberPassword=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6606
ConnectionType=PT_LONG,0×6603
UseSessionLog=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6604
SessionLogPath=PT_STRING8,0×6605
EnableUpload=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6620
EnableDownload=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6621
UploadMask=PT_LONG,0×6622
NetBiosNotification=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6623
NewMailPollInterval=PT_STRING8,0×6624
DisplayGalOnly=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6625
UseHeadersOnLAN=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6630
UseLocalAdressBookOnLAN=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6631
UseExternalToHelpDeliverOnLAN=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6632
UseHeadersOnRAS=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6640
UseLocalAdressBookOnRAS=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6641
UseExternalToHelpDeliverOnRAS=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6639
ConnectOnStartup=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6642
DisconnectAfterRetrieveHeaders=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6643
DisconnectAfterRetrieveMail=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6644
DisconnectOnExit=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6645
DefaultDialupConnectionName=PT_STRING8,0×6646
DialupRetryCount=PT_STRING8,0×6648
DialupRetryDelay=PT_STRING8,0×6649[Personal Folders]
ServiceName=MSPST MS
Name=PT_STRING8,0×3001
PathToPersonalFolders=PT_STRING8,0×6700
RememberPassword=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6701
EncryptionType=PT_LONG,0×6702
Password=PT_STRING8,0×6703[Unicode Personal Folders]
ServiceName=MSUPST MS
Name=PT_UNICODE,0×3001
PathToPersonalFolders=PT_STRING8,0×6700
RememberPassword=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6701
EncryptionType=PT_LONG,0×6702
Password=PT_STRING8,0×6703[Outlook Address Book]
ServiceName=CONTAB[LDAP Directory]
ServiceName=EMABLT
ServerName=PT_STRING8,0×6600
UserName=PT_STRING8,0×6602
UseSSL=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6613
UseSPA=PT_BOOLEAN,0×6615
DisableVLV=PT_LONG,0×6616
DisplayName=PT_STRING8,0×3001
ConnectionPort=PT_STRING8,0×6601
SearchTimeout=PT_STRING8,0×6607
MaxEntriesReturned=PT_STRING8,0×6608
SearchBase=PT_STRING8,0×6603[Microsoft Outlook Client]
SectionGUID=0a0d020000000000c000000000000046
FormDirectoryPage=PT_STRING8,0×0270
WebServicesLocation=PT_STRING8,0×0271
ComposeWithWebServices=PT_BOOLEAN,0×0272
PromptWhenUsingWebServices=PT_BOOLEAN,0×0273
OpenWithWebServices=PT_BOOLEAN,0×0274
CachedExchangeMode=PT_LONG,0×041f
CachedExchangeSlowDetect=PT_BOOLEAN,0×0420[Personal Address Book]
ServiceName=MSPST AB
NameOfPAB=PT_STRING8,0×001e3001
Path=PT_STRING8,0×001e6600
ShowNamesBy=PT_LONG,0×00036601; ************************************************************************
; Section 7 – Mapping for internet account properties. DO NOT MODIFY.
; ************************************************************************[I_Mail]
AccountType=POP3
;— POP3 Account Settings —
AccountName=PT_UNICODE,0×0002
DisplayName=PT_UNICODE,0×000B
EmailAddress=PT_UNICODE,0×000C
;— POP3 Account Settings —
POP3Server=PT_UNICODE,0×0100
POP3UserName=PT_UNICODE,0×0101
POP3UseSPA=PT_LONG,0×0108
Organization=PT_UNICODE,0×0107
ReplyEmailAddress=PT_UNICODE,0×0103
POP3Port=PT_LONG,0×0104
POP3UseSSL=PT_LONG,0×0105
; — SMTP Account Settings —
SMTPServer=PT_UNICODE,0×0200
SMTPUseAuth=PT_LONG,0×0203
SMTPAuthMethod=PT_LONG,0×0208
SMTPUserName=PT_UNICODE,0×0204
SMTPUseSPA=PT_LONG,0×0207
ConnectionType=PT_LONG,0×000F
ConnectionOID=PT_UNICODE,0×0010
SMTPPort=PT_LONG,0×0201
SMTPUseSSL=PT_LONG,0×0202
ServerTimeOut=PT_LONG,0×0209
LeaveOnServer=PT_LONG,0×1000[IMAP_I_Mail]
AccountType=IMAP
;— IMAP Account Settings —
AccountName=PT_UNICODE,0×0002
DisplayName=PT_UNICODE,0×000B
EmailAddress=PT_UNICODE,0×000C
;— IMAP Account Settings —
IMAPServer=PT_UNICODE,0×0100
IMAPUserName=PT_UNICODE,0×0101
IMAPUseSPA=PT_LONG,0×0108
Organization=PT_UNICODE,0×0107
ReplyEmailAddress=PT_UNICODE,0×0103
IMAPPort=PT_LONG,0×0104
IMAPUseSSL=PT_LONG,0×0105
; — SMTP Account Settings —
SMTPServer=PT_UNICODE,0×0200
SMTPUseAuth=PT_LONG,0×0203
SMTPAuthMethod=PT_LONG,0×0208
SMTPUserName=PT_UNICODE,0×0204
SMTPUseSPA=PT_LONG,0×0207
ConnectionType=PT_LONG,0×000F
ConnectionOID=PT_UNICODE,0×0010
SMTPPort=PT_LONG,0×0201
SMTPUseSSL=PT_LONG,0×0202
ServerTimeOut=PT_LONG,0×0209
CheckNewImap=PT_LONG,0×1100
RootFolder=PT_UNICODE,0×1101[INET_HTTP]
AccountType=HOTMAIL
Account=PT_UNICODE,0×0002
HttpServer=PT_UNICODE,0×0100
UserName=PT_UNICODE,0×0101
Organization=PT_UNICODE,0×0107
UseSPA=PT_LONG,0×0108
TimeOut=PT_LONG,0×0209
Reply=PT_UNICODE,0×0103
EmailAddress=PT_UNICODE,0×000C
FullName=PT_UNICODE,0×000B
Connection Type=PT_LONG,0×000F
ConnectOID=PT_UNICODE,0×0010
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 |
Microsoft Windows Shell Script Programming |
Microsoft Windows Script Host |
Active Directory for Dummies |
Redirecting My Documents shell folder from a login script / commandline
I’ve always been a firm believer in Group Policy redirecting users’ My Documents folders for me – but there’s nothing like the reassurance of a good old batch file carrying this operation out for you.
So how do you do it? Well, the location of My Documents is stored in the registry (which is read by the explorer process when it’s spawned) and is located here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal
As you would expect, editing this one value redirects My Docs. So, as part of your network login script, you can achive this automatically by adding in:
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders” /v Personal /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d \\server\%USERNAME% /f
…to redirect to your server using the username of the currently logged on user as the share name.
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
Active Directory for Dummies |
Microsoft Windows Shell Script Programming |
Microsoft Windows Script Host |
Mastering Windows Server 2003 |
Windows 2008 Server ADPREP detected that the domain is not in native mode
I’ve done a few 2000 / 2003 domain migrations now to 2008 server – but recently hit across one where (when issuing adprep /domain prep) I got the error:
Adprep detected that the domain is not in native mode
Rather irritatingly, it doesn’t say how to put it into native mode – but it is a very simple operation:
On a domain controller, fire up Active Directory Domains and Trusts. Right-click on your domain and select Raise Domain Functional Level. From the drop-down list box, select Windows 2000 Native and click Raise.
You’ll get a message indicating that the functional level was raised successfully. As you’ve probably already clicked ‘OK’ – it also mentioned that it may take some time to replicate the change to other domain controllers. If ADPREP still complains – then you know why! Go make yourself a coffee!
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
 Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Companion |
 Windows Server 2008 for Dummies |
 Introducing Windows Server 2008 |
 Designing, Deploying, and Running Active Directory |
How to disable Windows 2003 Server Shutdown Event Tracker
A rather irritating feature in 2003 (and 2008) server is the shutdown event tracker. For those not familiar with this – it’s a dialog box that appears when you try to shutdown Windows and won’t let you proceed until you give it a reason why you’re shutting it down!
Entering flippant remarks loses it’s novelty value after a while, so here is a quick how-to on disabling this feature. It does involve editing some group policies – which will depend on wheter you want to apply this to the machine or the entire domain.
First, fire up group policy editor and make this change to an existing or a new policy (make sure you apply the policy when you’re done!). If you want to apply this to the local machine (or one that isn’t part of a domain) – you can just do start/run and enter gpedit.msc
Navigate to (Policy root) – Computer Configuration – System and double-click ’Display Shutdown Event Tracker’ to display it’s properties. Set this to ‘Disabled’ and click OK.
You’re finished! Don’t forget, if you made the change to a domain policy – don’t forget to apply it to something!
Did you find this hint useful? Are you looking to learn more? Well, here’s a few books that I’ve found useful – have a goosie!
 Windows Server 2003 for Dummies |
Mastering Windows Server 2003 |
Introducing Windows Server 2008 |
Windows Server 2008 for Dummies |
Hide Run option from the Start Menu
Another useful tweak (especially useful for terminal server environments!) is the ability to hide the Run option from the Start Menu. Start registry editor and navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a new DWORD value and set it to 1.
