Set-ADForestMode Fails - referral was returned from the server

Attempting to upgrade the forest mode from 2003 to 2008R2, using the command:

Set-ADForestMode –identity %FOREST% –ForestMode Windows2008R2Forest

This was failing with the error:

Set-ADForestMode : A referral was returned from the server



I found the Active Directory Web Services Service hadn’t started.




After starting this service, the Set-ADForestMode command worked fine.

RDS Manager MMC Freezing

I removed a server that was added into a Remote Desktop Services Manager MMC snap-in.  Once the server was removed, the MMC would freeze.



You could notice that the RDS group (in this case ‘My group’ would get an hour glass on it, and then the RDS Manager would get an error.


















 

     




Close the MMC, and ensure there are not instances of mmc.exe running.

Open the registry and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\TSAdmin\Connections\My Group

Find the server that was removed and delete it.  Close the registry and open RDS Manager.

Reference:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/terminal-service-manager-hang-when-i-open.1608147/

Remove Dymo label printer addins.

I recently installed a Dymo Label printer on a Terminal Server.  There were no options during the installer, so addins were installed into Word, Excel and Outlook.  I used Group Policy Preferences to remove them.  To remove them, the following registry keys need to be deleted:

HKCU\software\microsoft\office\word\addins\dymo.labelwriteraddin
HKCU\software\microsoft\office\outlook\addins\dymo.labelwriteraddin
HKCU\software\microsoft\office\excel\addins\dymo.labelwriteraddin

Setup Powershell Remoting … Remotely

You can use Sysinternals psexec to setup powershell remoting ... remotely.

Get psexec.exe from here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb897553 

The command to install it is:

psexec \\%PCNAME% -h c:\windows\system32\winrm.cmd quickconfig –quiet

Where %PCNAME% is the name of the PC you wish to install it on.

eg:

psexec \\WA_P_023 –h:\windows\system32\winrm.cmd quickconfig -quiet