SQLPrompt, also known as SQL Intellisense, is a great add-on to SQL Workbench and Query Analyser available from red-gate software. SQLPrompt is described on their website as
* Code completion for fast, accurate script building
* Discoverability in SQL Server query creation
* Keyword formatting, code snippet integration and other extended features
* FREE until release of version 3 (December 2006)
* No time-bombs, no restrictions
Tomorrow is December 1st but perhaps they won't release version 3 until the end of the month. Check it out.. you've gotta fill out a form to download the software but it's worth it:
SQLPrompt from red-gate software.
I'm working on a few Active Directory scripts that require knowing the full path or "distinguished name" of the user object. All I know initially is the username and domain name and I found a script at Hey, Scripting Guy! that is really useful -- it searches AD for the user's OU information. The only problem I had with the script is that it was properly done and thus, really long. At 26 lines, give or take, it cluttered my code so I decided to cut it down drastically. It's likely that my code isn't efficient and will probably take down the server one day but whatever, it sure is teeny!
Original Code
Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2
Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"
Set objCommand.ActiveConnection = objConnection
objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
objCommand.CommandText = _
"SELECT distinguishedName FROM 'LDAP://dc=fabrikam,dc=com' “ & _
"WHERE objectCategory='user' " & _
"AND sAMAccountName='kenmyer'"
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
objRecordSet.MoveFirst
Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
strDN = objRecordSet.Fields("distinguishedName").Value
arrPath = Split(strDN, ",")
intLength = Len(arrPath(1))
intNameLength = intLength - 3
Wscript.Echo Right(arrPath(1), intNameLength)
objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop
Shortened down to 7 lines and 1 object
Set rs = CreateObject("adodb.recordset")
Connstring = "Provider=ADsDSOObject"
strSQL = "SELECT distinguishedName FROM 'LDAP://dc=fabrikam,dc=com' WHERE objectCategory='user' AND sAMAccountName='kenmyer'"
rs.Open strSQL, Connstring
if not rs.eof and not rs.bof Then fullPath = rs("distinguishedName")
rs.close
Set rs = Nothing
Wow, it was over a year ago that I met my friend, PowerShell developer Lee Holmes at PDC 05. As a fan of scripting and Unix, I was excited after attending a session on Microsoft's new shell, codenamed "Monad." After the session, I went to the Microsoft's lab to play around and there was Lee.. my dream nerd. Lee was really down to earth, ultra smart, very helpful, had a passion for technology and even had a few BBS days stories to share. He showed me a few awesome things about Monad, which was an early beta a the time.
Fast forward a year and a few months later, I've spent only about an hour playing with PowerShell betas but I did get in a weekend at Lee's in Seattle playing Zuma on his XBOX 360 and sharing poutine in Vancouver with him, his daughter Ariel and my lady companion Delia. And of course, PowerShell is now at 1.0 RTW (Release to Web). You can read more at Lee's blog, Precision Computing.
Pic taken from Lee's site
Oh and by the way, if you would like to modify the color scheme (the red on black on blue error messages don't do it for me), visit myITforums.com to learn how.
I'm terrible with traversing alphabetic directories; when I was in high school and I took the series of military aptitude tests, that was the only one I didn't do well on. I excelled at the rest and the military did their best to court me. All I can say is that I'm one of the many potential recruits that they lost because of their dumb Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. The recruiter told me they would overlook it but living the closeted life is not how I roll. Where am I going with this? Well, the Windows registry is a quadruple nightmare for me (and I'm sure a lot of others.) Any time I'm required to do something in it, I always try to automate the process. When anyone at my company is required to modify something in the registry at more than one workstation, I try to automate the process for them too.
Recently, after an NT to 2k3 domain migration, we had some old legacy keys that were causing problems; applications set in startup were opening twice. Unfortunately, they were under the HKCU (current user) key which is not available via Remote Registry or REG DELETE \machineName. Oh well, at least I could make a batch file for the Help Desk to double click while sitting at the user's desk. We needed to delete keys valued 1 and 2 under the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run key so we create a batch file which ran the following:
REG DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run /f /v 1
REG DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run /f /v 2
Alternatively, if we would have watned to delete everything under that Run key, we could have used the /va switch instead.
REG DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run /f /va
NetFx3.com, a Microsoft community site for .Net 3.0 has announced that the 3.0 framework is now available. While there are no changes to VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET etc like there was with 1.1 to 2.0, .NET 3.0 adds a few new frameworks, namely Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation, WIndows Workflow Foundation and Windows CardSpace.
I've come across articles or conference sessions on each of the frameworks except CardSpace.. seems like it's an account consolidation much like Passport..but this time, it's using physical cards. Passport never got hugely successful.. I suppose Microsoft has faith that CardSpace will be different.
Microsoft offers both current and past issues of TechNet Magazine in CHM format as free downloads. You can even get also receive free subscription via mail if you qualify (I believe you have to have some sort of buying influence in the company) here so be sure to mention your influence, even if you're stretching the truth. TechNet Magazine is great bathroom reading for any Windows Administrator -- it covers just about any Microsoft product you can imagine. Today, I found the article on Microsoft Identity Integration Server particularly helpful (and will write about that shortly).
Also, I attended a pretty good roadshow yesterday on Unix and WIndows Integration. It was informative.. I actually came to work today and used some of the info I saw there. If you were unable to catch the show, you can download the slides on their website. Topics include Identity Management in heterogeneus networks, relational database integration and virutalization tips and tricks.