We are currently in the process of stripping down mailbox permissions for our users. I used the following procedure to export the info into a ".csv" file for easy viewing.

• Log onto the domain administrator account on your Exchange server.
• Open the "Exchange Management Shell"
• Navigate to the desktop with the "cd" command.
• Type in the following command, replacing user.name and filename with the user you would like to audit.
  
  "Get-Mailbox | Get-MailboxPermission -User USER.NAME | Export_Csv -NoTypeInformation FILENAME.csv"
  

Hello folks! This is my first of many IT blog posts, mainly to help me remember stuff, but you may glean some useful stuff off of it too.

At my work, we are currently rolling out a new Lync phone system, and this quirk started showing up with several users. This is what I did to solve it...

First! Make sure the user hasn't actually disabled their picture on their Lync client. You don't want to waste time on a more complex fix that will essentially do nothing if they have their photo hidden.

In rare cases, the contact list may be corrupted because of an invalid character in an "out of office" message or because a lingering deprovisioned contact exists. To resolve this problem, force a contact list update to make sure that your information is synchronized. To this, follow these steps:

1. Locate one of the following folders, depending on your operating system:
   • For Lync 2013:
     • Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7 and Windows 8: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync\sip_<sign-in name>
   • For Lync 2010:
     • Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<sign-in name>
     • Windows Server 2003, Windows XP: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data \Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<sign-in name>
2. Delete the following files:
   • Galcontacts.db
   • galcontacts.db.idx
   • CoreContact.cache
   • ABS_<sign-in name>.cache
   • Mfugroup.cache
   • PersonalLISDB.cache
   • PresencePhoto.cache
3. Restart Lync, and then wait for 30 minutes for resynchronization to finish.

*When doing this, be conscious of the effect this may have on the users, especially while dealing with executable files.*

I was requested to delete a file by our developer, Jason the other day and had no way of finding out who was using the file(We use Terminal Services). I tried a forced deletion of the file. To do this, you will need to open the command prompt.

• Log into the terminal server where the file is located with administrator credentials.
• Click on the "Start" button and type in "cmd."
• The command prompt executable should appear. Click on it to run.
• Before going any further, you should find out where the file is located. Write down the full directory path.
• In the command prompt, enter "cd c:/full/directory/path/of/file"
• Type in "dir" and hit enter to confirm you are in the correct directory.
• To delete the file in use, type "del fileinuse.exe"
• The file will be forcefully deleted and disappear from the directory.

You can use the very nifty command line tool, PSEXEC to dump all of the ipconfig settings into a text file! You can download PSTOOLS (Including PSEXEC) here.

To do this, open up the command prompt by clicking "Start" then searching for "cmd."The command prompt icon will show as "cmd." Right-click it and run as administrator.In the command prompt, type in the following command...
"psexec \\* ipconfig /all > c:/output.txt"

PSEXEC will display a message telling you that it is enumerating the domain. This may take a while!

Once it has finished, a text file called output.txt will appear on the root of the C drive containing the ipconfig settings of every windows machine on the domain.

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog and even then the posts are few and far between! I'll try update more often with stuff I find interesting.

What will I talk about today, hmm? Oh!

The piccy on your left there is me and Catherine enjoying a glass of Prosecco. Why you ask?

After years of slacking (I'm just kidding...!) I have finally obtained my bachelor of science (honours) degree in Computer Network Management and Design. I'd like to thank the Academy...

I just finished this game the other day, It was great. GEDDIT.

If people who do not know me personally, or are still in the dark about my condition, I am type 1 diabetic. This means that the insulin-production capabilities of my pancreas have failed. In my case my own antibodies started attacking the insulin producing cells in my pancreas. Without insulin, I cannot function. Without insulin, the sugar I eat cannot be used as energy. Insulin is the 'key' to unlock my body to allow it to use sugar effieciently. Without insulin the sugar starts to build up in my blood as the body turns to burning body fat for energy. This process of burning fat this way is not healthy. The process produces ketones, a poison that can cause diabetic ketoacidosis. This can cause comas or even death. A full list of DKA symptoms are listed here.

Basically, what this all means for me is a life of careful carbohydrate counting, insulin injections, and painful finger pricking and blood glucose testing. Please don't feel sorry for me, this post is not to attract sympathy.

It is to bring to light a possibly life changing technology. If you are type 1 diabetic yourself, you will probably thinking that a world free of finger pricking tests, insulin injections and carb counting is ridiculous. This technology could possibly automate each of these things a diabetic has to carry out to stay healthy, while also getting rid of possible human error by creating a closed loop insulin pumping system. This technology hugely excites me and it would be a dream come true if this system removed the limitations that my disease creates for me. Please watch the following video from JDRF's (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) Dr. Richard Insel about this technology and please leave a comment below about what you think.