• Expand Server Configuration, click Hub Transport, and in the work pane under the Receive Connectors tab, select the Default connector. In the action pane, click Properties.
• In Properties, select the Permissions tab.
• Select Anonymous Users to add anonymous permissions. Click OK.

Click to enlarge

This will modify your default receive connector to receive connections from the internet.

After making sure that all prerequisites for installing Exchange 2010 was met (like installing IIS, .NET etc) I proceeded to install the Exchange server, but it will fail every-time with an error saying it cannot access the default website, make sure IIS was properly installed and stuff. Even reinstalling the IIS would not make it happy and it wouldn’t let me go any further. Finally after doing some research and looking at logs, it seemed like the Exchange server was also looking for IIS 6.0 management compatibility role services (which by the way is additional role service that can be added even after IIS installation). After adding that role services (and make sure that you have application server installed, not just .NET) I started Exchange server install wizard and this time it surely passed all the tests and it was a go.

Click on the image to enlarge

Click on the image for larger size

If you have worked with previous versions of Exchange, like 2000 or 2003 then you would remember that, out of box, you are able to send emails to outside world, right after installation. But such is not the case in Exchange 2010 and also Exchange 2007. It will not send emails to outside world just like that. You will have to manually configure it to be able to talk to outside world. This is done by creating a send connector by either using PowerShell or Exchange Management Console (EMC). Send connector represents logical gateway through which outbound emails are sent. As default no send connectors are created when a Hub Transport Server role or Edge Transport Server role is installed. The instructions on how to create send connector is as follows:

1. Open the EMC and navigate to the next location: Organization Configuration > Hub Transport > Send Connectors > New Send Connector.
2. Name the Send connector, select Internet under the “Select the intended use for this connector” and click Next:
   

   Click on the image to enlarge

3. In order to send emails outside the organization to the Internet, click the Add option and fill * (asterisk) under the Domain field, click OK and Next:
   

   Click on the image to enlarge

4. If you want to route the emails to Smart Host, choose Route mail through the following smart hosts, if not – click Next:
   

   Click on the image to enlarge

5. You can associate the new send connector to any Exchange 2007 server that holds the Hub Transport roles in your Exchange organization, just by clicking Add in the next screen:
   

   Click on the image to enlarge

6. If you have only one Hub Transport or you don’t want to add other server, click Next. Now click New:
   

   Click on the image to enlarge

7. In order to finish the connector installation, click Finish:

In the end the wizard does give you the summary of PowerShell commands it ran to complete the configuration. It can be copied by pressing Ctrl-C. You can use it to analyze the commands.

In the end some lessons learnt about Exchange 2010. I will keep posting about my new adventures with Exchange 2010.

Downloaded Exchange 2007 trial from Microsoft’s website and then started the install process. Exchange 2007 requires that IIS has to be installed. So made sure that required server roles were installed prior to starting the installation. Bt despite all that it would keep giving me an error when installing the Exchange server. Read somewhere that the Domain functional level needs to be native. Checked it in my Active Directory domains and sites and it was mixed environment so tried raising level to Windows Server 2008 and re tried the install but still got same error message.

Did some more research on the web and came to know that Exchange 2007 is not compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2 edition. Seems like Microsoft was busy working on Exchange 2010 and they were in no mood to fix the issue. Instead they wanted to release Exchange 2010. So if you are planning to install Exchange 2007, better make sure that you have Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 and not the Server 2008 R2 version.

2) Search through for as many “Upperfilters” you can find.
Mine was under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

3) They most likely have 2 lots of drivers associated with it eg ‘tphclhs kbdclass’ , usually comes if you have installed VMWARE previously

4) Double click the ‘Upperfilter’ and delete the other entry except ‘kbdclass’

5) Search for all instances of this and change them
6) Go to device manager and uninstall your keyboard – then ’scan for hardware changes’

7) You will most likely need to restart Keyboard should now be working fine.

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoViewOnDrive
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: 32-bit bitmask

The “NoViewOnDrive” value uses a 32-bit bitmask to define local and network drive access for each logical drive in the computer. The lower 26 bits of the 32-bit word correspond to drive letters A through Z. Drives are visible when set to 0 and hidden when set to 1.

If your not happy working in Hex, add these decimal numbers to hide the drive(s):

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863

For example to hide drive A and drive D, you would add 1 (A) + 8 (D) which means the value should be set to “9″.

To disable all the drives set the value to “67108863″.

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

First method:

Try downloading full install package from microsoft website and install it. It can be obtained by going to the link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389/.

Second method:

Restart the computer and disable any anti virus or anti spy ware program that you have on your computer. They can be disabled from the system tray icon. Just right click on the icon and click on close or disable. Then install the sp3 and then after finishing the install enable the anti virus again.

Third method:

This method is for advanced users only, because it involves steps to
modify the registry. Serious problems might occur if you modify the
registry incorrectly.

1. Download and install the Subinacl.exe file. To do this visit the following Microsoft web site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8ba3e56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en
2. Start notepad.
3. Copy and paste the following text into notepad.
   cd /d “%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools”
   subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
   subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
   subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
   subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
   subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
   secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose
4. Save this Notepad file as Reset.cmd.
5. Double click the Reset.cmd file to run the script.

   Note: Script may take long time and should be run as administrator.

6. Install Windows XP sp3.

Use a utility like ccleaner clear up PC Junk. Also flush the Software Distribution Folder and then reboot. If you are using WindowsUpdate try using MicrosoftUpdates and vice versa.
If you still cannot Update Windows Vista (or WinXP/SP2) using windowsupdate, try this :
Open Internet Explorer > Tools >Internet Options > Security > Click ‘trusted sites’ icon >Click Sites > uncheck ‘require server verification’.
Then add following sites :
http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
http://*.windowsupdate.com
http://update.microsoft.com
http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx
Click Close > Apply > OK. This is known to help the GenuineValidated Windows, in some cases, but not always.
Try to re-register the following dll’s individually. Open Notepad. Copy-Paste the following command lines into it and save the file using a .bat or .cmd extension.
regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wuwebv.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltux.dll
regsvr32 /s wudriver.dll
Double-click the icon of the .bat or .cmd file; command window will open. Run the commands, and then close. Reboot, and see if Windows Updates is working OK. Also Open IE > Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Security Settings > Ensure that the two boxes “Enable SSL 2″ or “Enable SSL 3″ are checked. Hopefully, this should help !
Else, note your error code and visit this excellent Microsoft Resource : Windows Update Support: Error Codes. Search for the solution against your error Code. If you receive Windows Update error 80246008 while downloading updates, you might need to change the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) or Windows Event Log service settings, and then restart each service. Click here for more on it. KB943144 is another helpful link.
If you are recovering from a malware attack, you may also want to have a look at your Hosts file. Some malware programs may modify the hosts file to control DNS name resolution. Remove ALL entries for Windows Update and Microsoft Update from your Hosts file situated at C\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. You can either remove any lines that contain entries for Windows Update or for Microsoft Update OR you can just place the number sign # before or in front of any line that contains “microsoft” and “update”. HostsMan is a good freeware utility to help you manage your hosts file.

First clear up your Temp File/Cache, Reboot and try again. Best and easier to use CCleaner. Disable your Firewall and try ! In many cases, the update may fail to install in the first instance, but for some inexplicable reason, succeeds in the 2nd or 3rd try. So try a couple of times. It it doesn’t help, search on Microsoft, for the patch / update KB number, and download its Stand-alone Installer. Now apply the patch manually. Search for just the number; don’t include KB !

If it still doesn’t help, try this : Rt Click Computer > Manage > Services > Stop the “Cryptographic Service” and rename the “Catroot2″ folder situated in C:\Windows\System32\Catroot to something like say Catroot2X. Reboot. Now run the update/hotfix installers again. This action will re-generate a new Catroot2 folder and the updates/hotfixes, should hopefully install OK. If still you have a problem then, go to C:\Windows\Windows Update.log and look for the most recent entry. Any failed updates will have error code/s written next to them. Note them down. If you find just too many entries too confusing delete this WindowsUpdate.log and try installing the updates again. Now open the newly re-created WindowsUpdate log file and have a look at its contents.

Now Rt-click Computer > Manage > Event Viewer > Applications and Service Logs > Microsoft > Windows > WindowsUpdateClient > Operational . Check out for any Critical Message or Warning. Now refer the Windows Update Error Codes . This will give you the direction in which you may have to look for the solution. Or check out Microsofts Windows Update Solution Center. There is some nice info here too at UpdateXP some of which may find relevance to Vista.

0×80070002 ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND
0×8007000D ERROR_INVALID_DATA
0×800F081F CBS_E_SOURCE_MISSING
0×80073712 ERROR_SXS_COMPONENT_STORE_CORRUPT
0×800736CC ERROR_SXS_FILE_HASH_MISMATCH
0×800705B9 ERROR_XML_PARSE_ERROR
0×80070246 ERROR_ILLEGAL_CHARACTER
0×8007370D ERROR_SXS_IDENTITY_PARSE_ERROR
0×8007370B ERROR_SXS_INVALID_IDENTITY_ATTRIBUTE_NAME
0×8007370A ERROR_SXS_INVALID_IDENTITY_ATTRIBUTE_VALUE
0×80070057 ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER
0×800B0100 TRUST_E_NOSIGNATURE
0×80092003 CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR
0×800B0101 CERT_E_EXPIRED
0×8007371B ERROR_SXS_TRANSACTION_CLOSURE_INCOMPLETE