Ever get sick of the beeping of your VMs?
Working quietly, logging on to a vm…
BEEEEEP! YOUR PASSWORD HAS EXPIRED SO I FELT LIKE WAKING UP EVERYONE IN THE OFFICE!
Well, if your test lab is in a domain, there is a good permanent fix for you.
Now, the next section is useful to know if you want to know where service configuration in a GPO is stored. If it’s not interesting for you, just go to the “Shortcut” section at the end.
Create a new group policy. Call it DISABLE_THE_BEEPS.
Edit it.
Under Computer configuration, in Windows settings\security settings, open System services.
The service we want to control is called Beep. What…it’s not in there?
God does not want me to live free from these annoying beeps? Will I have to open up my laptop case and rip the PC Speaker apart?
No no no..a simple GPO trick will do it!
Edit Any service in the GPO (If your GPO is linked to an OU with computers, try not to pick a critical service, just in case). I usually take the Print Spooler.
Go in its propertiers, and set the startup mode to Disabled. Click OK.
In GPMC, go to the details page of the DISABLE_THE_BEEPS GPO. Note the Unique ID of the GPO.
Browse to \\yourdomain\SYSVOL\yourdomain\Policies\{unique id}\Machine\Microsoft\Windows NT\SecEdit .
Right click the GptTmpl.inf file and open it with notepad.
The last line should be “Spooler”,4,”"
Replace Spooler by Beep. Save the inf.
You can now review the GPO settings..
Now just make sure the GPO is getting applied to your VMs, and GONE ARE THE BEEPS!
Shortcut:
Create a GPO, browse to it in Sysvol, open the security settings inf, add this at the end of the file:
“Beep”,4,”"
Apply it on servers.
Video
Disabling the Beeps through GPO..
When hardening Windows servers through security templates or Group Policies, it is important to give the proper permissions to services. You might want to grant a helpdesk group the rights to stop, start and pause a service while not being able to change the parameters on the server, and most of all, without being a local admin of that server.
To do that, you create a new Group Policy, and under Computer configuration, you find the System Services section. Then you select your spooler service, you set its startup mode to automatic, and you specify the rights.
Now, the problem is that the default rights the GPMC console shows you is NOT aligned with the actual defaults of Windows !
Here you can see on the left, what GPMC is proposing. On the right, Default Windows 2003 settings.
Now, it is probably a very good thing to remove Power Users. The print spooler might be perfectly fine with what GPMC wants you to use + your own customizations.
However, it is very important to make sure that any service that depends on this service is able to read! For example, if only administrators can read the service, and you have a Fax server that depends on the Print Spooler , it will not be able to start unless the service account it uses is part of Administrators!
Just a thing to keep in mind when hardening a lot of services, or when troubleshooting service startup problems..
Well, I passed this exam yesterday afternoon.
I prepared by reading Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure in diagonal, really quickly.
If you already have OK knowledge (and I don’t mean GOOD by any means, I’m not GOOD with Sharepoint services or even IIS..just OK) of Sharepoint, IIS, and Terminal Server, you should be fine by just learning the new features of IIS7, Terminal server in 2008, as well as KMS and MAK activation. There will be a few questions on DRM and Windows Media server, but nothing really complicated.
4 exams to go for the whole MCITP:Enterprise Admin..
