How to Determine if a PST is ANSI or Unicode

PSTs created in Outlook 2002 and earlier versions are saved in ANSI format, which has a 2.1GB limit. Outlook 2003 and later offer both ANSI and Unicode formats for PST creation. Unicode PSTs have a theoretical 36TB limit which makes them a better choice, providing that backward compatibility is not an issue.

So how can you tell if a PST is in ANSI or Unicode format?

One way is to download a free utility called ListPSTs from http://www.maclean.com. You run this utility from the command line against the file or folder that contains the PST(s). The output displays the format of the PST files, as shown above.

Another way to tell without having to use a separate utility is by viewing the properties of the PST from within Outlook, itself. When you add the PST to Outlook, pay attention to the Format field of the PST, as shown below:

Unicode formatted PSTs will display the format, "Personal Folders File". ANSI formatted PSTs will display the format, "Personal Folders File (Outlook 97-2002)".

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Your Troubleshooting PAL

How many times have you been faced with a performance issue with a computer and you don't really know where to start? Sure, you can fire up Performance Monitor (perfmon) and start collecting data for analysis, but which counters do you collect and how do you identify a bottleneck?

Perfmon can gather tons of information and pouring over all that data for analysis can be a daunting task. Enter Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL), a new and powerful tool that reads in a performance monitor counter log in any known format and analyzes it using complex, but known thresholds. The tool produces an HTML report which reports important performance counters and displays alerts when thresholds are exceeded.

PAL is a free open source application developed by Microsoft and is hosted on CodePlex, Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. It requires two other free pieces of software on the computer where PAL will run:

Log Parser 2.2
Log parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory. PAL uses the Log Parser tool to query perform logs and to create charts and graphs for the PAL report.

Microsoft Office Web Components 2003
Log Parser requires the Office Web Components 2003 in order to create charts.

Note: Because there is no 64-bit version of the Microsoft Office Web Components, PAL only runs on x86 platform computers.

To use PAL, you begin by collecting performance data from the target machine using perfmon. Typically, I collect the Memory, Network Interface, Physical Disk, Processor and System counters to begin with. Once you've collected some data run PAL and walk through the wizard. Be sure to answer the Question Variable Names at the bottom of the Threshold File page. The variables are Number of Processors, use of the /3GB switch, is the target a 64-bit computer, total RAM and whether it has a kernel dump configured. Step through the rest of the wizard and PAL will create a batch file, run it and display the output as a graphical report in your web browser. Very cool!!!

You can view a LiveMeeting streaming video training of PAL here.

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New PowerShell Scriptomatic

For those of you who are familiar with the the WMI Scriptomatic tool (and those of you who aren't), check out this awesome new version for Windows PowerShell -- The PowerShell Scriptomatic!

This tool will have you writing PowerShell scripts like a pro with absolutely NO experience. Imagine the fun you'll have deleting all the user accounts in the domain without having to write a single line of code yourself! Well, errr, maybe that was a bad example.

Actually, this really is a great tool to use to create PowerShell scripts without having to know the classes and objects necessary to access. Just select the WMI namespace and WMI class to access, and the PowerShell Scriptomatic will generate the correct PowerShell code. Then use this code to experiment with or add to other snippets. Brilliant!

It's great for those new to PowerShell and seasoned veterans who are just plain lazy.

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit) Released

Microsoft has released a 32-bit version of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools.

Exchange Server 2007 is a native 64-bit application that includes 64-bit management tools. You can use the management tools to administer your Exchange Server environment remotely. If your remote computer is running a 32-bit operating system, you will need to download the 32-bit management tools.

The Exchange management tools include the Exchange Management Console (EMC), the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), the Exchange Help file, the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool, and the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant Tool.

Get the 32-bit Exchange management tools here.

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Can my system support Hyper-V?

This is a common question. Hyper-V requires three things: processor virtualization support, BIOS virtualization support and Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V.

Processor virtualization is provided by Intel (Intel VT) and AMD (AMD-T) processors. You can check each of these websites to see if a processor supports virtualization. AMD offers an AMD Virtualization™ Technology and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ System Compatibility Check Utility that will tell if the installed AMD CPU supports it.

BIOS virtualization support, however, can be dicey. Normally, a BIOS manufacturer will offer the ability to turn virtualization on or off -- but not always. I have a Dell Dimension E521, for example, that doesn't offer virtualization configuration. Thankfully, it's enabled by default in this BIOS.

So how do you tell if your machine will support Hyper-V? Well, the easiest way by far is to use a utility by Gibson Research called SecurAble. This handy little program will quickly tell you if your computer is 64bit, running hardware DEP and is virtulization capable.

Note that SecurAble will report that Hardware Virtualization is "No" if you run it on a Windows Server 2008 computer that has the Hyper-V role installed. This is because Hyper-V capability is "hidden" once it's installed. See the Virtual PC Guy's WebLog for more details about this.

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Cloning Windows Server 2008 Disks with Norton Ghost

Just in case you're wondering, Norton Ghost 11.0.2 works just fine on Windows Server 2008 formatted disks.

I cloned a simple volume 160MB Western Digital disk to a new Western Digital 500MB disk in 47 minutes. I swapped the cables and booted up to the new drive without a hitch.

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RSAT Released for Windows Server 2008

The Windows Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) have been release for Windows Server 2008. These tools allow you to manage remote Windows Server 2008 computers from a Windows Vista SP1 x86 client. The Vista SP1 x64 version is available here.

These tools are designed to provide the same functionality as the familiar Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack. But sorry, no XP for you!

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Windows Core GUI Configurator

This totally rocks!!!

Guy Teverovsky, an MVP for Windows Server - Directory Services in Isreal, wrote a GUI application that helps you configure a Windows 2008 Server Core installation without having to go to the dark place.

While I still recommend you thoroughly know and understand how to configure server core from the command line (after all, this isn't going to be installed on every server core installation you come across), this certainly makes it easy.

Download it here.

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VMware Processor Check for 64-Bit Compatibility

VMware has created a standalone processor check utility which you can use without VMware Workstation to determine whether your CPU is supported for virtual machines with 64-bit guest operating systems.

This utility is a handy way to check a system before you buy it. Download it onto a USB key and run it on the prospective computer to see if it will run 64 bit guests.

It's important to note that you do NOT have to run a 64 bit host OS to run 64 bit guests in VMware 6. For me, this is really handy since none of my wireless USB Ethernet adapters have 64 bit drivers. I can use x86 XP as my host OS to access my wireless network while still running 64 bit guests like Windows Server 2008. Sweet!

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WinDirStat Disk Utilization Program

I discovered a (free) disk utilization program called WinDirStat that can replace or supplement TreeSize Professional (not free). WinDirStat produces a graphical representation of a drive or folder, showing all the types of files.


The utility can be downloaded from http://windirstat.info/wds_current_unicode.zip. Here's how to use it:

• Login to the machine you want to run it on with an Admin account. You can login locally or via RDP.
• Run WinDirStat
• Select the drive or folder you want to scan and click OK
• WinDirStat will begin scanning the drive and display cute little PacMan style icons showing it's working:

• It may take a while to complete (280GB took about 32 minutes). Running it locally has very little impact on performance, but it does increase disk utilization a bit, but users will probably not notice it (similar to TreeSize).
• Once the scan is complete, you will see a graphical representation of the data on the drive(s) or folder selected (called a Treemap):
  
  
  
• To use this tool, you can do any of the following:
  
  
• Click a large colored area to find out what file(s) are represented (for example, click the large purple areas reveals the files are .TXT files)
• Click an extension in the upper right area will highlight all the files of that type in the Treemap
• Drill down through the folders and files on the upper left area will highlight the folders or files selected in the Treemap
• Double-click part of the map or a file in the upper left area will open the selected file
• You can zoom in and zoom out of the Treemap
• You can delete files directly from WinDirStat
• You can select a file and click Report > Send Mail to Owner to send an email to the owner of the file asking them to clean it up. Note that this requires a working email profile and Outlook on the machine you are running it from.

Unlike TreeSize, you cannot save reports and email them to others. This makes WinDirStat an ad-hoc utility for working on a file server immediately when a free space problem arises. Use TreeSize when you need to create reports or want to save the results for historical reasons.

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