Ask the Directory Services Team
Microsoft's official enterprise support blog for AD DS and more
AskDS Is Moving!
Hello readers. The AskDS blog, as with all the other TechNet and MSDN blogs, will be moving to a new...
Date: 03/26/2019
TLS Handshake errors and connection timeouts? Maybe it’s the CTL engine….
Hi There! Marius and Tolu from the Directory Services Escalation Team. Today, we’re going to talk...
Date: 04/10/2018
Introducing Lingering Object Liquidator v2
Greetings again AskDS! Ryan Ries here. Got something exciting to talk about. You might be familiar...
Date: 10/09/2017
Active Directory Experts: apply within
Hi all! Justin Turner here from the Directory Services team with a brief announcement: We are...
Date: 07/26/2017
Troubleshooting failed password changes after installing MS16-101
Hi! Linda Taylor here, Senior Escalation Engineer in the Directory Services space. I have spent the...
Date: 10/13/2016
Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) Troubleshooting (part 2 of 2)
Hello everyone! Hubert from the German Networking Team here again with part two of my little Blog...
Date: 09/21/2016
Access-Based Enumeration (ABE) Concepts (part 1 of 2)
Hello everyone, Hubert from the German Networking Team here. Today I want to revisit a topic that I...
Date: 09/01/2016
Deploying Group Policy Security Update MS16-072 \ KB3163622
My name is Ajay Sarkaria & I work with the Windows Supportability team at Microsoft. There have...
Date: 06/22/2016
The Version Store Called, and They’re All Out of Buckets
Hello, Ryan Ries back at it again with another exciting installment of esoteric Active Directory and...
Date: 06/14/2016
Setting up Virtual Smart card logon using Virtual TPM for Windows 10 Hyper-V VM Guests
Hello Everyone, my name is Raghav and I’m a Technical Advisor for one of the Microsoft Active...
Date: 05/11/2016
Previewing Server 2016 TP4: Temporary Group Memberships
Disclaimer: Windows Server 2016 is still in a Technical Preview state – the information contained in...
Date: 03/09/2016
Speaking in Ciphers and other Enigmatic tongues…update!
Hi! Jim Tierney here again to talk to you about Cryptographic Algorithms, SCHANNEL and other bits of...
Date: 12/08/2015
Using Repadmin with ADLDS and Lingering objects
Hi! Linda Taylor here from the UK Directory Services escalation team. This time on ADLDS, Repadmin,...
Date: 11/06/2015
“Administrative limit for this request was exceeded" Error from Active Directory
Hello, Ryan Ries here with my first AskDS post! I recently ran into an issue with a particular...
Date: 10/29/2015
SHA1 Key Migration to SHA256 for a two tier PKI hierarchy
Hello. Jim here again to take you through the migration steps for moving your two tier PKI hierarchy...
Date: 10/26/2015
Manage Developer Mode on Windows 10 using Group Policy
Hi All, We’ve had a few folks want to know how to disable Developer Mode using Group Policy, but...
Date: 09/22/2015
Windows 10 Group Policy (.ADMX) Templates now available for download
Hi everyone, Ajay here. I wanted to let you all know that we have released the Windows 10 Group...
Date: 08/07/2015
Troubleshoot ADFS 2.0 with these new articles
Hi all, here's a quick public service announcement to highlight some recently published ADFS 2.0...
Date: 05/06/2015
A Treatise on Group Policy Troubleshooting–now with GPSVC Log Analysis!
Hi all, David Ani here from Romania. This guide outlines basic steps used to troubleshoot Group...
Date: 04/17/2015
DFSR: Limiting the Number of Imported Replicated Folders when using DB cloning
Hello! Warren here to talk about a very specific scenario involving the new DB cloning feature added...
Date: 02/12/2015
Understanding ATQ performance counters, yet another twist in the world of TLAs
Hello again, this is guest author Herbert from Germany. If you worked an Active Directory...
Date: 10/24/2014
Managing the Store app pin to the Taskbar added in the Windows 8.1 Update
Update 9/9/2014 Warren here yet again to update this blog to tell you that the GP to control the...
Date: 09/09/2014
It turns out that weird things can happen when you mix Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controllers
UPDATE: The hotfix is now available for this issue! Get it at...
Date: 07/23/2014
An Update about the Windows 8.1 Update
Hi everyone, David here. Today over at the Springboard series blog we announced some important news...
Date: 04/16/2014
Options for Managing Go to Desktop or Start after Sign in in Windows 8.1
Hi, David here. Over the past year we’ve gotten a lot of feedback from our customers about the...
Date: 04/07/2014
Our UK Windows Directory Services Escalation Team is Hiring – Support Escalation Engineers.
Hi! Its Linda Taylor here again from the Directory Services Escalation team in the UK. In this post,...
Date: 02/17/2014
Adding shortcuts on desktop using Group Policy Preferences in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
Hi All! My name is Saurabh Koshta and I am with the Core Team at Microsoft. Currently I work in the...
Date: 02/17/2014
An update for ADMT, and a few other things too.
So, we’ve been quiet for a few months, which is extraordinarily embarrassing after I basically...
Date: 12/13/2013
Important Announcement: AD FS 2.0 and MS13-066
Update (8/19/13): We have republished MS13-066 with a corrected version of the hotfixes that...
Date: 08/15/2013
MD5 Signature Hash Deprecation and Your Infrastructure
Hi everyone, David here with a quick announcement. Yesterday, MSRC announced a timeframe for...
Date: 08/14/2013
DFS Replication in Windows Server 2012 R2 and other goodies, now available on the Filecab blog!
Over at the Filecab blog, AskDS alum and all-around nice guy Ned Pyle has posted the first of...
Date: 07/31/2013
Roaming Profile Compatibility - The Windows 7 to Windows 8 Challenge
[Editor's note: Everything Mark mentions for Windows 8 clients here is also true for Windows 8.1...
Date: 07/31/2013
Because TechNet didn't have enough Active Directory awesomeness already
Time for a quick lesson in blog history. There'll be a quiz at the end! Ok not really, but some...
Date: 07/15/2013
Interesting findings on SETSPN -x -f
Hello folks, this is Herbert from the Directory Services support team in Europe! Kerberos is...
Date: 07/01/2013
Windows Server 2012 R2 - Preview available for download
Just in case you missed the announcement, the preview build of Windows Server 2012 R2 is now...
Date: 06/25/2013
Two lines that can save your AD from a crisis
Editor's note: This is the first of very likely many "DS Quickies". "Quickies" are shorter technical...
Date: 06/04/2013
Back to the Loopback: Troubleshooting Group Policy loopback processing, Part 2
Welcome back! Kim Nichols here once again with the much anticipated Part 2 to Circle Back to...
Date: 05/21/2013
AD FS 2.0 Claims Rule Language Part 2
Hello, Joji Oshima here to dive deeper into the Claims Rule Language for AD FS. A while back I wrote...
Date: 05/07/2013
Circle Back to Loopback
Hello again! Kim Nichols here again. For this post, I'm taking a break from the AD LDS discussions...
Date: 02/08/2013
Distributed File System Consolidation of a Standalone Namespace to a Domain-Based Namespace
Hello again everyone! David here to discuss a scenario that is becoming more and more popular for...
Date: 02/06/2013