Outlook – Restore Categories
KB ID 0000493 Problem After a recent Exchange failure at work we had to rebuild our mail databases and import our old mail. All was fine except Outlook had lost its categories, now you can do tons of things with categories, but for the most part I just use them for colour coding my diary entries and for colour flagging emails. Colours gone 🙁 Solution 1. Annoyingly simple, close Outlook (if open). 2. Launch outlook from the run box...
Deploying Office 2010 via Group Policy
KB ID 0000464 Problem What used to be the simplest task, has now been overly complicated (Thanks Microsoft!) Simply deploying from a single .msi file would have been far too easy! This procedure uses group policy to install Microsoft Office 2010 via group policy. It uses the Microsoft preferred method of employing startup scripts. Below I’ve also disabled UAC, I found it was stopping my automated install, (If I ran the script...
KMS Activation – Error: 0xC004C008
KB ID 0000637 Problem KMS had been running fine for months, when we started seeing the following errors. When attempting to activate via slmgr Error: 0xC004C008 The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used. When attempting to activate via Computer Properties. Code: 0xC004C008 Description: The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used. Solution You need to make a...
Windows – Reset all User Passwords in an OU
KB ID 0000497 Problem I did some bulk user imports for a client this week, and then needed to set all the passwords on these accounts. Seeing as it was a school, and each year group was in its own OU in Active Directory, I needed a way to “Bulk Reset” the passwords. Note: Passwords can NOT be set with a CSV / CSVDE import. Solution 1. We are going to perform this procedure while logged onto a domain controller with...
Bulk Importing Users with CSVDE
KB ID 0000498 Problem This is not a task I’ve had to do for ages, so when I had to do it this week, I thought I’d just do a quick Google search as a refresher. What I can remember was a simple task took me far too long to work out. So heres a quick solution for everybody else. Solution Before I begin, the spreadsheet below, was the hard work of John Haddock, I have only made some minor tweaks and adjustments. 1. You will...