KB250455: How to change display names of Active Directory users

Nothing earth shattering here, just something I can never seem to find quickly when I need it.

When a new user is created in Active Directory, the Full name field is always generated in FirstName LastName format. In turn, this field sets the Display Name field on creation, therefore, you end up with a FirstName LastName formatted global address list.

You can make this change by using the Adsiedit utility. Adsiedit not only changes the default way the Display Name field is built, but also the Full Name (that is, the "cn") field, therefore, users appear in the chosen format when you look in the Users and Computers snap-in.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250455

Two PowerShell Event Logs on Exchange 2007 Servers

When PowerShell 1.0 is installed an Event Log called "Windows PowerShell" is created.  When Exchange 2007 is then installed, a second Event Log called "PowerShell" is created.  When this log is created, multiple entries are added each time the Exchange Management Shell is opened, so this log rapidly fills up and you will get errors unless you go and change the configuration of the Event Log.  More interestingly, the entries in the "PowerShell" Event Log are unable to be resolved so that the description can be presented.  A typical entry in this log looks like this:

Event Type:      Information
Event Source:      PowerShell
Event Category:      (4)
Event ID:      403
Date:            5/12/2007
Time:            2:45:55 AM
User:            N/A
Computer:      MYCOMPUTER
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 403 ) in Source ( PowerShell ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Stopped, Available,       NewEngineState=Stopped
      PreviousEngineState=Available
      SequenceNumber=20
      HostName=Default MSH Host
      HostVersion=1.0.0.0
      HostId=2afe9b64-5601-4df3-8478-6efc5cf2c471
      EngineVersion=1.0.0.0
      RunspaceId=433e6992-c711-47a8-b732-728a45104767
      PipelineId=
      CommandName=
      CommandType=
      ScriptName=
      CommandPath=
      CommandLine=.

To resolve this issue, simply delete the following registry key, which will delete the "PowerShell" Event Log:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\PowerShell

A reboot is required for the change to take effect.  Once the "PowerShell" log is deleted and the server is rebooted, the PowerShell events will flow into the "Windows PowerShell" Event Log without issue, and you will be able to properly view the description of the events.

Note though, that updates or service packs for Exchange may put this Event Log back in, so check for it after any update and simply delete the registry key again if it appears.

Using Messenger accounts with non-Microsoft SMTP Domains in LCS/OCS With PIC

I'm not sure if the subject on this post even makes sense, but it's the best I could come up with. Essentially the issue is that even though you have LCS or OCS set up with Public IM Connectivity (PIC) you can't add contacts that use MSN/Live Messenger unless they have a Microsoft SMTP domain for their account. The valid MS domains (as of the latest update on the KB article) are:

• hotmail.co.jp
• hotmail.co.th
• hotmail.co.uk
• hotmail.com
• hotmail.com.ar
• hotmail.com.tr
• hotmail.de
• hotmail.it
• hotmail.fr
• messengeruser.com
• msn.com
• simpatico.ca
• passport.com
• passporthotmail.com
• webtv.com

I think it's safe to assume the live.com domain and all the country specific variations of it are on that list as well, but I haven't tested those.

But, you can set up a Messenger account with any SMTP domain you want. If you add them in to the LCS/OCS client, they simply don't work. I may be an idiot, but for the longest time I thought that's just the way it was. Then today I stumbled across a KB article that describes how to do it. It's a matter of manipulating the IM address of the contact you want to add. It's not very obvious, and it would be nice to see the OCS client/server catch these and fix them for you, or at least tell you the proper format.

So I know user@gmail.com is a Messenger user, and I want to add them to my OCS client, the address should be entered in the following format:

user(gmail.com)@msn.com

Odd, but hey it works. Check out the full KB article here.