Server 2008

Windows Server 2012 (R2) – Turn GUI off or on

Windows Server 2012 (R2) can be migrated with a single reboot to a Server Core and back. This quite handy feature is mostly used on domain controllers or Hyper-V controllers, this way you can install and configure your server roles with an GUI interface and afterwards go back to the Core edition to require lower recourses and have a small attack surface. These commands only work if you have installed the server with the GUI, you can’t install the GUI if you have installed the core edition.

If you want more information about the Windows Server Core features: please visit this link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd184075.aspx 

You can turn off the GUI with the following PowerShell command:

Or turn the GUI back on if you want to modify something on your server with the following PowerShell command:

Don’t forget to reboot after running these commands succesfully.

This can be done with the following command:

 

Antivirus Exclusions Microsoft Products

Running a good, constantly updated Anti-Virus program on your computers – server and workstations – is a must when looking into the potential risks in today’s IT world. However, when installing Anti-Virus software on a computer, you also risk having issues with some of the services and applications that run on these computers, most specially with the server machines. Anti-Virus software scans and sometimes locks files on the computers, and when you scan these files, performance and operating system reliability problems may occur because of file locking.

This is why it is extremely important to properly configure the Anti-Virus software to exclude specific files, file type and/or folders on the computers (most importantly – server machines) with an antivirus exclusions for Microsoft Products.

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Understanding IPv6

With approximately a few more months left until there are no more IPv4 addresses left many of you are starting too look into IPv6.  Now just because there are few IPv4 addresses left doesn’t mean the Internet is going to come to a screeching halt but it is definitely time to learn about IPv6 and get your self ready for the transition.  So what’s the difference?

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Control USB Drive Letter Assignment in Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008

In Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008, when a removable drive (USB flash drive, flash card reader, portable hard drive, etc.) is attached for the first time, Windows mounts it to the first available local drive letter.

So far so good. But if there is a network share on this letter, Windows will use it anyway for the new USB drive, because network shares are specific to the current user and not visible in the context of the system where the letter is assigned

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