So, you have purchased Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and need to activate Remote Desktop Service Licence Server.

We have found following post here.

Unless licensing is configured during the initial installation of the Remote Desktop Services role on Windows Server 2008 R2, a 120 day grace period is provided before a license server needs to be installed and activated.

Installing the Remote Desktop Services License Server

The first step is to install the Remote Desktop Services License Services server role. The license server does not necessarily have to be installed on a system which is acting as a Remote Desktop Server. The installation can be performed using by selecting Roles from the tree in the left hand panel of the Server Manager tool.

If the server is already configured with the Remote Desktop Services role, scroll down the Roles summary page to the Remote Desktop Services section click on the Add Role Services link. In the resulting dialog titled Select Role Services select the check box next to Remote Desktop Licensing and then click Next to proceed to the Configure discovery scope for RD licensing screen as illustrated in the following figure:

In the first version of Windows Server 2008, it was necessary to specify a method by which RD Session Host servers (or Terminal Servers as they were known then) would auto-detect the server running the licensing server. With Windows Server 2008 R2, this approach is discouraged, and Microsoft now recommends that each RD Session Host be manually configured with information about the license server. In keeping with this recommendation, leave the Configure a discovery scope for this license server option unselected. Note, however, that this setting may be changed at a later time if required via the RD Licensing Manager tool. Click Next to proceed to the confirmation screen.

On a server which is does not have the Remote Desktop Services role installed, open the Server Manager, select Roles from the tree in the left hand panel and select Add Roles. Click Next on the initial screen if it appears so that the Select Server Roles screen is displayed. From the list of roles select the check box next to Remote Desktop Services and click on the Next button.

Read the information screen and then proceed to the Select Service Roles screen. Check the box next to Remote Desktop Licensing, click Next and follow the steps outlined above.

On the confirmation screen, verify that the information matches your expectations and click Install to initiate the installation process.

Activating the RD License Server

Once the RD License Server has been installed the next task is to activate it. This task is performed using the RD Licensing Manager which may be launched via Start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Licensing Manager. Once started, the Remote Desktop Licensing Manager dialog will appear containing a list of detected license servers on the network. The only license server listed in the following figure is the one on the local server. Because this has yet to be activated it is listed with a red circle containing an X mark next to it:

https://activate.microsoft.com web site using a browser and enter the product ID. Alternatively, if an internet connection is not available or a firewall prevents such access the activation may be performed over the telephone. If Automatic connection is selected, the following dialog will appear as the wizard attempts to contact Microsoft:

Once the Microsoft activation server has been located a new dialog will appear prompting for user, company and geographic location information. Complete these details and click Next to proceed. The second screen requests more detailed, but optional information. Either complete this information or click Next to skip to the activation process. Once again the wizard will contact Microsoft and complete the activation. Once completed, the following completion screen will appear:

Note that the Start Install Licenses Wizard now check box is selected by default. If you are ready to begin installing Client Access Licenses (CALs) now click on Next.

Installing Client Access Licenses (CAL)

A Client Access License (CAL) is required for each client requiring access to Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services. Once an RD License Server has been installed and activated the next step is to install the CALs. This can be performed as a continuation of the RD License Server activation process as outlined above, or at any other time by opening the RD Licensing Manager, right clicking on the appropriate license server in the list and choosing Install Licenses from the popup menu.

Once the Install Licenses wizard has started, click Next on the welcome screen to select the type of license program being used. Select the appropriate license type from the drop down list depending on how the licenses were acquired and then click Next to enter the license codes. On the License Program screen enter each code and press the Add button:

Select the license program corresponding to your license and click next to proceed to the License Code screen:

Enter each license key into this screen followed by the Add button. Once all the license codes have been added click on the Next button to complete the license installation process.

Configuring Licensing Settings on RD Session Hosts

Assuming that you followed Microsoft’s recommendation to manually configure the license server information for each RD Session Host it will now be necessary to perform this task. On each RD Session Host invoke the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool by selecting the Start -> All Programs -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration menu option. Within this tool, double click on the Remote Desktop licensing mode entry located in the Edit settings box listed under Licensing. In the resulting Licensing tab of the properties dialog select the appropriate licensing mode (per device or per user). Having defined the licensing mode, the next task is to specify the licensing server. Beneath the mode selection area, click on the Add… button to display the Add License Server dialog as illustrated in the following figure:

All known license servers will be listed in the left hand box. If the required servers are listed, select them and add them to the list of specified servers by clicking on the Add> button. If a server is not listed, manually type the name or IP address of the server in the text box provided and click the corresponding Add> button. Once all the required servers have been specified, click the OK button to commit the changes and dismiss the dialog.

We had to install Windows 2008 R2 Server on HP ProLiant ML150 G3 server and we decide to do this booting and installing it from USB stick. We have a 4GB USB stick and it is enough.

Diskpart tool is excellent way to do this task. If you don’t have Diskpart, you can download it here.

Format the thumb drive

1. from a DOS prompt execute: diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk 1 (assuming disk 1 was your thumb drive in the above list disk command)
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. select partition 1
7. active
8. format fs=fat32
9. assign
10. exit

Copy the Win2008 install files

1. xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\ (assumes your dvd is drive D: and your thumb drive is drive E:\, adjust accordingly)

If you saved a password for a network drive in windows and want to remove it, press the keys [Windows] + [R] to open the windows command line. Then enter

control keymgr.dll

and click on “OK” to open the windows credential manager which allows you to manage and delete passwords saved in Windows.

This procedure works for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

If you scan your computer using HijackThis program you can be scared by seeing this line:

O2 – BHO: WormRadar.com IESiteBlocker.NavFilter – {3CA2F312-6F6E-4B53-A66E-4E65E497C8C0} – C:\Program Files (x86)\AVG\AVG9\avgssie.dll

According to Internet forums this is not a threat but legal part of AVG antivirus software.

301 redirect in PHP

<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://www.newdomain.com/page.html");
exit();
?>

301 redirect in ASP (only microsoft web servers)

<%
response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
response.addheader "location", "http://www.newdomain.com/page.html"
response.end
%>

301 redirect through mod-rewrite in your .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

If you have faced this problem when trying to attach your MSSQL database just copy MDF and LDF file to some directory where MS SQL service has full rights. It is usually something like this

c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Backup

How to install Joomla when you got:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method JException::getNullDate() in … /installation/installer/helper.php on line 290

Errors:

• Fatal error: Call to undefined method JException::getNullDate() in installation\installer\helper.php on line 290
• Fatal error: Call to undefined method JException::getNullDate() in /installation/installer/helper.php on line 290

During the installation of an undergoing Joomla 1.5 project, I deliberately hit the browser’s back button during the initial installation steps (as part of Joomla 1.5 testing, one of those “what would happen if’s”). Of course, data has to be resent, thus hitting the back button during the install steps produces this error.

Dilemma:

How to proceed with the installation, or do a re-install of Joomla 1.5 ?

Solutions:

1. Create a new and completely empty file, name it as configuration.php and upload or save it to your joomla root directory (e.g. …/www/joomla-folder/ or …/htdocs/joomla-folder, etc.) replacing the previous configuration.php.

Then go back to the installation process of Joomla 1.5 (http://joomla-site/installation/index.php, or http://www.joomla-site/installation/index.php). You will then have to enter (or re-enter) the details as the installation proceeds. This is part of what they call a manual installation

In my case, the previous installation (that have gone wrong) had reached the “Install sample data“, so I had to also drop/delete the initial database created in phpmyadmin (http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ or similar mysql admin tool) to give way to the second, fresh installation.

2. Installation should basically work then. If not, recommended further steps can be found here http://help.joomla.org/content/view/1945/302/

Use DOS command to delete all files and subdirectories from specific folder (directory) – you must not be in this folder when executing this command:

rmdir /s /q "c:\Temp\Your-Dir-With-Subdirs"

md "c:\Temp\Your-Dir-With-Subdirs"

What are network locations?

A network location automatically sets the appropriate firewall and security settings based on the network type (network location).

Here are Windows 7’s network locations and a brief description of each of them.

• Home Network: For home networks or when you trust people or devices on the network. Computers on a home network can belong to a Homegroup. Network discovery is also turned on. Network discovery allows the computer to see other computers and devices on the network and other computers and devices can see it.
• Work Network: For a small office or other workplace networks. Network discovery is turned on but it can’t belong to or create a Homegroup.
• Public Network: For public places like a coffee shop or the airport. The computer is completely hidden from other computers on the network. The computer can’t see other computers on the network as well.
• Domain Network: For domain networks in large corporate environments. This type of network is controlled by a network administrator and can’t be changed.

How to Change the Network Location

In this example I’m going to change my network location from Work to Home.

1. Open Control Panel from the Start menu.
2. Open Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel.
   Note: If Network and Sharing Center is not available, change View by to Large icons at the top right of the Control Panel.
   
3. Select the current network location in the active networks section (work network in this example).
   
4. Select the new network location
   

This advice was found here.

A way to get around this is to disable another new security feature by typing in about:config into the address bar and add a new boolean key value called extensions.checkUpdateSecurity

Set the value to false and try to install the extension again.
Should work like a charm.