ivan's blog

My URL is changing (ever-so slightly)

Ivan Dretvic — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:03:22 +0000

Hi All, Just a heads up to any returning readers out there. I have decided to change my URL. (its a small change). Here are the new details: New URL: http://ivan.dretvic.com Old URL: http://ivan.dretvich.com – the trailing ‘h’ has been …

Deploying Adobe Flash Player 11.2 with auto-updating in an enterprise

Ivan Dretvic — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:40:01 +0000

Adobe have come to the mercy of IT administrators by introducing an auto updating feature for Flash Player. This is excellent news but now we need to get it to work in the real world With the below configuration the …

How to deploy mms.cfg config file to your Adobe Flash Player clients?

Ivan Dretvic — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:14:41 +0000

You have just downloaded the Adobe Flash Player distributable, created an mms.cfg configure file and you want to push it out to your network. You might be scratching your head on how to do this if you don’t have an …

Exchange 2010 test scripts

Ivan Dretvic — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:59:50 +0000

I have a need to test our simple single server Exchange 2010 environment when doing upgrades and major changes. Generally it doesn’t happen very often so I tend to forget all the areas I really should be testing. This is …

Upgrade Exchange 2010 SP1 to SP2 on a single server environment

Ivan Dretvic — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:59:15 +0000

I have read a number of documents online regarding the installation of Exchange 2010 SP2 where most are quite comprehensive however they lack in clear explanation of what to do in a single server environment. Below are the steps I …

How do people get around…

Ivan Dretvic — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:43:32 +0000

Have you ever asked yourself how system administrators get around certain problems (cheaply, if not for free)? Simply put in a comment with what you would like to better understand and I will try my best to write an article …

How to force replication of Domain Controllers

Ivan Dretvic — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:47:43 +0000

Here is a handy tip on how to force replication of Windows 2008 Domain Controllers using Repadmin. There is a GUI and a command line. From time to time its necessary to kick off AD replication to speed up a …

Exchange OWA logon customisations

Ivan Dretvic — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:01:02 +0000

There are several customisations that can be done to Exchange OWA so that the look and feel can be tailored to your company needs. The changes that are possible are: Sign-in and Sign-out pages OWA Logo Font colors and styles …

Adobe Flash 11 Deployment via GPO

Ivan Dretvic — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:44:13 +0000

At last Adobe have come to the party and released Adobe Flash 11 that comes as 32-Bit and the long awaited 64-Bit versions. This is great news to me because I can now try to use IE 64-Bit browser as …

How to clear old unused distribution lists from Exchange 2010 programatically

Ivan Dretvic — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:58:23 +0000

If you are an Exchange administrator you would most likely have hundreds of distribution lists in your organisation and no idea which ones are being used. Well I had this problem and decided to do something about it. I set …

Automatically set Microsoft Office User Info based on LDAP query

Ivan Dretvic — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:30:22 +0000

In our network we have had a problem where a lot of our users never configured their Microsoft Office user details and simply accepted the defaults. In our case it was ‘Admin’ due to our SOE not accommodating for it. …

How to run domain admin tasks without being logged in as an administrator

Ivan Dretvic — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:41:38 +0000

My problem was I did not want to always “Run As…” all my important admin programs and mmc snap-ins all day because i didnt log on as an admin. It simply took up alot of my time and it frustrated …

Adobe Flash 10.3 deployment via GPO

Ivan Dretvic — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:59:16 +0000

This article has been superseded by a new article that includes Adobe Flash 11 (including 32Bit and 64Bit deployments) http://ivan.dretvich.com/2011/10/adobe-flash-11-deployment-via-gpo/ So we need to update Adobe Flash for our users…again. With all the security vulnerabilities this one I like to …

How to package and deploy Java JRE 1.6.0_26 via Group Policy

Ivan Dretvic — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:28:50 +0000

I have documented the steps to package and deploy the latest (currently) version of Java JRE (Java Runtime Environment) with an MSI via Group Policy. Its a relatively easy task to do but due to information being scattered around the …

How I deploy GPO software in my enviroment

Ivan Dretvic — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:21:25 +0000

There is no wrong or right way of deploying software via Group Policies, however through my experience I now recommend using the below method because it is the most flexible. The Key points about how I deploy GPO software: I …

How to configure a KMS server in Windows Server 2008 R2

Ivan Dretvic — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:25:51 +0000

Well I have had the pleasure of setting up a KMS server in our environment, and found that the documentation from Microsoft is somewhat confusing. In light of this I will write the steps I used to configure the first …

What is GPRESULT and how it helps you

Ivan Dretvic — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:41:51 +0000

GPRESULT, or otherwise known as Resultant Set of Policy Queries is a tool used to provide client end information of Group Policy settings. The utility ships with all current versions of Windows and is used to aid administrators in troubleshooting …

Remove specific email from ALL mailboxes in Exchange 2010 SP1

Ivan Dretvic — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:38:53 +0000

Have you ever had the situation where you had to quickly remove an email from all mailboxes in an organisation? Maybe it was an accidental email by an assistant to the whole company, or worse, inappropriate content sent by a …

Who on your network is a Local Admin?

Ivan Dretvic — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:33:45 +0000

So I wanted an answer to a very simple question. Who on my network has been given Local Admin rights? We have had requirements in the past where users had to be administrators for whatever reason, usually due to applications …

GPO: How to redeploy software to an individual machine

Ivan Dretvic — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:34:38 +0000

So i come across this every now and then where i have a machine that successfully had the software installed, but through an automatic update or user removing it the software needs to be reinstalled. Wouldnt it be great to …