Steve the IT Tech Guy

I needed to reduce the complexity of the password policy for a Windows 2008r2. I found the option to be greyed out. This did it immediately.

Found this on the Internet. Thank you Strangenut. Here is the original blog.

The basis of the blog is the following:

1. Go to a command prompt
2. Type ‘secedit /export /cfg c:\local.cfg’ and hit enter
3. Using notepad, edit c:\local.cfg
4. Look for the line “PasswordComplexity = 1” and change it to “PasswordComplexity = 0”
5. You can also edit “MinimumPasswordLength = 7” to a lesser value if you like.
6. Save the file
7. At a command prompt type ‘secedit /configure /db %windir%\security\local.sdb /cfg c:\local.cfg /areas SECURITYPOLICY
8. This will apply the new settings and refreshing the gpedit.msc should reflect the new settings
9. Set your new less complex password!

The only thing you need to change is if you have 64-bit version (most will be) then you can’t use the edit command. You will need to open the local.sdb file using notepad.

Have a client that could not go back to IE8 in Windows 7 after installing IE9. What the client was doing was going into Control Panel and turning off Windows feature IE9 where he should have uninstalled IE 9 by using the following:

To remove IE9, don’t “turn Windows features on/off”, This is what you have to do:

To uninstall Internet Explorer

The following instructions apply to both Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

1. Click the Start button , type Programs and Features in the search box, and then click View installed updates in the left pane.
2. Under Uninstall an update, scroll down to the Microsoft Windows section.
3. Right-click Windows Internet Explorer 9, click Uninstall, and then, when prompted, click Yes.
4. Click one of the following:
• Restart now (to finish the process of uninstalling Internet Explorer 9, and restore the previous version of Internet Explorer).
• Restart later (to wait until you shut down or restart your computer).

I have a client that got an Iphone and I had the hardest time getting it to connect to the SBS 2003 Exchange. I found this article on line and it worked for me!

Exchange 2003 and Activesync Configuration and Troubleshooting

Thank you Alan!

Here is a local copy of the article.

The part that got me going is this:

Microsoft-Server-Activesync Virtual Directory
• Authentication = Basic
• Default Domain = NETBIOS domain name – e.g., yourcompany*
• Realm = NETBIOS name
• IP Address Restrictions = Granted Access
• Secure Communications = Require SSL and Require 128-Bit Encryption NOT ticked