Tag Archives: Windows

Be Careful Upgrading to Windows 7 SP1

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Be careful when you’re prompted by Windows 7 to upgrade to Service Pack 1 (SP1). Specifically make sure that no other updates are checked off when performing the SP1 install. Having other updates checked off may result in the dreaded Blue/Black Screen of Death (BSOD), a sign of big problems.

Like all Windows service packs, Internet Explorer installs and other “large” updates I strongly recommend downloading the full install packages instead of using what comes down the pipe in Windows Update. Full packages generally do a more thorough job, at the expense of taking longer to install.

Windows 7 SP1 Full:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c3202ce6-4056-4059-8a1b-3a9b77cdfdda

Using a DNS alias (CNAME) to access file shares on a Windows host

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Most of the time it’s a good idea to assign each service its own DNS alias (CNAME) which points to the host the service is currently running on. This way if the service should need to be moved to another server, the DNS alias can simply be pointed to the new host. I might, for instance, map my clients to \\print01, even though the actual server is named zeus. Zeus might one day decide to take an extended nap and not boot, but I can easily install the printers on apollo, quickly change the DNS–and not have to change all 42 clients. Needless to say very beneficial.

Unfortunately for us Windows administrators the Server service (LanmanServer) that exposes all those wonderful file shares to the network doesn’t like DNS aliases much–by default.

Why this is–I have no idea for sure. One would guess there’s a security reason behind it, but I’d only be speculating.

Luckily there’s a documented workaround.

Simply change the following and then reboot:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters|DisableStrictNameChecking(DWORD):1

Once that change has been made you’ll be able to access those shares via the host name along with the alias now as well.