Tips Trick Domain and Active Directory Stuff

Links to pages about Windows Domains and Active Directory. Will be more later (when and if I get the time!). Generally, the information is about business environments and some may be applicable when there isn't actually a Windows Domain. Sorry, I don't know squat about Small Business Server, so see the SBS newsgroups on the msnews.microsoft.com news (NNTP) server for SBS specific info. Generic Rules for User Accounts, Groups, Permissions and Group Policy Objects in a Windows Domain.

Convert SID to name and vice-versa.

Below are links to a pair of downloadable Word documents about how to create a Windows 2008 Active Directory Domain. They explain basic concepts and contain tips trick for those that are new to Windows Domains. Although the detailed instructions are specifically for the Windows Server 2008 user interface, the concepts (with a few exceptions) apply to Windows Server 2003 as well. I've included explanations of the "why" as well as the "how to" as a sort of tutorial. There are many "Comments" that will only be visible if you have "Original Showing Markup" or "Final Showing Markup" selected (Word 2007 in the Review tab on the Ribbon - in earlier versions the Reviewing Toolbar).

Instructions are included that are specific to a Virtual Machine environment, but using Virtual Machines is definitely not a requirement, although useful. The files are in both the 2007 Office format (docx) and older Office format (doc). If you have an older version of Microsoft Word, you can download (free) an Office add-in so you can open the 2007 format files - see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923505 or http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en.

I don't know why, but when I download the Office 2007 format files with IE 6 or 7, they get the file extension ".zip" instead of ".docx". However, they do open correctly in Word 2007. Change the file extension from .zip to docx in the download dialog (or after the download is complete). I know that the Word 2007 file format is a "zip" file, but that does not exactly explain why IE changes the file extension from .docx to .zip. If I look at this site with an ftp client, it tells me that these files actually have the .docx file extension.]

Concepts about and instructions for installing Windows Server 2008, setting up basic networking in a home or small business type environment for testing/experimenting, installing Active Directory Domain Services, creating a basic Organizational Unit structure:

133 KB WindowsServer2008BaseInstall.docx
185 KB WindowsServer2008BaseInstall.doc

Building on the Domain built in the above document, adds sets of user accounts and groups, delegates administrative authority, builds basic set of Group Policy Objects, shared folders and printers.