Microsoft has released KnowledgeBase Article 2830511, detailing a bug in the Installation Wizard of Windows Server 2012 Essentials, that prevents you from installing the server as a Domain Controller for an Active Directory domain with a public top-level domain (TLD), like .com, .corp, .org, .edu, .int and the country-specific top-level domains. ...

In Windows Server 2012, the Active Directory team has consciously blocked some Server Roles and Features from coexisting with the Active Directory Domain Services Role. Two months ago, I blogged on the incompatibility between the Fail-over Cluster Feature and the Active Directory Domain Services Role in Windows Server 2012. Earlier, I blogged on ...

Many Active Directory admins consider it unsafe to display the last users logon name on the Logon Screen, since it provides information on naming conventions, etc. to possible malicious people. Others change the default Logon Screen to accommodate for presentation PCs, flexworker desktops and other commonly shared IT equipment. Do Not Display ...

Windows Server 2012 introduces a new Group Policy feature: ‘Infrastructure Status’. This feature is present in the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) on Windows Server 2012 and in the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) package for Windows 8, and introduces a Status tab for the domain level. This tab is shown in the screenshot below: ...

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 2737880, titled ''The service cannot be started'' error during AD DS configuration describes an issue where promotion of a Windows Server 2012-based server to a Domain Controller and demotion of a Windows Server 2012-based Domain Controller is unable to finish. Its root cause is a policy or an administrator that ...

Last week, Microsoft introduced a new Active Directory-related KnowledgeBase article, titled Event ID 46 and 7023 logged during startup of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012. This article relates to the Windows Time (W32Time) service and the Netlogon (netlogon) service and their startup sequence. The situation On Windows Server 2008 ...

Microsoft released a KnowledgeBase article titled “ADDSDeployment module with the -Whatif argument shows incorrect DNS results” This KnowledgeBase article describes unexpected behavior in the PowerShell Cmdlets within the ADDSDeployment PowerShell module when you use the -WhatIf argument without specifying the -installdns argument.    ...

Microsoft has issued a new KnowledgeBase article that addresses an issue when you use the Install-ADDSDomain PowerShell Cmdlet from the ADDSDeployment PowerShell module remotely to create a child domain. This issue is related to PowerShell remoting and the fact that the Install-ADDSDomain PowerShell Cmdlet doesn’t perform a pre-check on the ...

Microsoft Knowledgebase article 2743345 with title ''The system cannot find the file specified'' Adprep /gpprep error, or tool crashes'' describes an issue where the Group Policy Preparation fails or crashes. The main reason for this behavior is the Domain Controller holding the Infrastructure Master Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) role ...

In KnowledgeBase article 2737129, titled Group Policy preparation is not performed when you automatically prepare an existing domain for Windows Server 2012, Microsoft describes the preparation steps in the new automatic Active Directory Domain Services Upgrade process in more detail. About the new automatic preparation process In Windows Server ...