Event ID 4227

Warning: Before making any registry changes or system change make sure you have backed up you system and registry.

The issue:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Tcpip
Date:          12/2/2013 11:52:26 AM
Event ID:      4227
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      xxxxxxxx
Description:
TCP/IP failed to establish an outgoing connection because the selected local endpoint was recently used to connect to the same remote endpoint. This error typically occurs when outgoing connections are opened and closed at a high rate, causing all available local ports to be used and forcing TCP/IP to reuse a local port for an outgoing connection. To minimize the risk of data corruption, the TCP/IP standard requires a minimum time period to elapse between successive connections from a given local endpoint to a given remote endpoint.

The fix:

• First use TCPview or netstat to view how many ports and connections are in use

Fix 1:

You can check the registry and via the command line to see the dynamic port pool size. And change it as need be.

To do it via registry key view HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\MaxUserPort and see what that value is set to. Note this key might not exist you can create it if need be. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938196.aspx. To do this as command line “netsh int ipv4 show dynamicport tcp” you can see more examples at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929851/en-us if you are running out of ports you can use the command to increase the pool or change the reg key to complete this task.

Fix 2:

This might also be caused by the connection wait delay, if you have this problem you will find lots of connections in a time_wait status in TCPview or netstat.

If this is your problem you can adjust the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\TcpTimedWaitDelay http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938217.aspx to resolve this issue. Note again this key might not exist

 

Additional helpful link:

http://www.ittrainingday.com/2012/12/windows-server-tcp-port-starvation.html

large system volume information folder

The problem:

A very large “system volume information” folder at the root of one of your windows drives. My issues turned out to be shadow copies from C drive stored on D. And D was low on space.

More Information:

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/11/20/55764.aspx?Redirected=true

The fix (for VSS/volume shadow copies):

1. Checked the volume shadow copies and they where disabled on both C and D (but C drive listed 90GB used on D drive)
2. As they where disabled to run in the first place (my guess is my backup software created them)
3. I stopped “volume shadow copy” service
4. Start “volume shadow copy” service
5. Checked shadow copies and reported 0 used for both C and D drive.

 

If you need to perform this on windows past 2003 view http://blog.itprohelp.com/2010/04/system-volume-information-folder-it.html

Windows User profiles

This is going to be a mixed topic about user profile management.

Note: never delete a user profile out of Documents and Settings or Users. This will only remove the profile’s data, but not its information in the registry. This will cause errors later like unknown profiles.

How to correctly remove Windows profiles

1. Open System in Control Panel.
2. On the Advanced tab, under User Profiles, click Settings.
3. Under Profiles stored on this computer, click the user profile you want to delete, and then click Delete.

Automated way to remove profiles

• Use command line tool “delprof.exe”, works great for a terminal server’s with hundreds of profiles.
• Tool can be downloaded from Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5405
• You can find some good scripts as well just make sure they delete the registry data for the profile as well.

How to delete profiles with “NTUSER.DAT in use“

1. Make sure the user is not logged in
2. reboot system, if reboot did not unlock ntuser.dat move on
3. download “User Profile Hive Cleanup Service” from Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6676
4. install
5. reboot
6. ntuser.dat should no longer be in use.

• Note: this sometimes will also clean up profiles listed as unknown
• Note: most “unlock” utilities will not unlock this .dat file.

Dr watson log and dmp location large

Problem:

Docuemnts and Setttings>userid>local settings> application Data>microsoft>Dr watson file: drwtsn32.log and file: user.dmp might be large and using up valuable space.

Fix:

Dr watson is activated at time of an program crash, its safe to delete these two files if you don’t need the data or if they are just old.

Server hangs from RDP reboot

Problem:

Do a GUI reboot from RDP session, and RDP closes/no longer works but never reboots server because windows hung. (mostly found out by checking console)

Best way to try and prevent:

use shutdown command

“shutdown /r” may need /f option, also switches could be different depending on  your windows version.

How to restart RDP without rebooting windows

WARNING: Test this process before you try it on an production system, to make sure you like the results and have the process down.

Problem:

RDP has stopped working but your server still work just users can’t connect to modify applications

The most common fix is to reboot windows, because “Remote Desktop Services” aka TermService can’t be restarted at least thats the case on 2003 as the option is grayed out. This will also create an outage just for a remote control issue and thats not always desirable.

The fix: (remotely)

from command line

1. tasklist /s \\servername /svc /fi “imagename eq svchost.exe” (locate PID for TermService)
2. taskkill /s \\servername /pid xxxx (may need /f to force, UAC might give problems as well)
3. sc \\servername start TermService

The Fix: (local, using remote admin card/other remote control software/other remote command line)

From command line

1. tasklist /svc /fi “imagename eq svchost.exe” (locate PID for TermService)
2. taskkill /pid xxxx (may need /f to force, UAC might give problems as well)
3. sc \\servername start TermService

more helpful RDP troubleshooting

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2477176

Cluster Administrator access is denied

Warning: following the below steps could harm your system if you don’t know what you’re doing, please have a up-to-date backup.

Problem: Domain account and local admin both in local administrators group, get an error when trying to access cluster with cluster administrator. An error occurred attempting to open cluster node ‘name’. access is denied. Error ID: 5 (00000005)

The possible Fix: check registry setting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa and key LMCompatibilityLevel if that is set to 1 you might have this problem. Other things could effect cluster admin and give this error, this is one of them.

1. backup registry
2. run regedit
3. navagate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
4. LMCompatibilityLevel
5. if set to 1 change to 2 (other options could work in your environment, also no reboot should be needed)
6. Cluster administrator should now work

How to create custom computer policy adm from registry

The problem:

Had to change the default regional settings on windows server 2003 so an application would show data correctly, it was installed as US regional settings but was used in EU. So come to find out that windows does not have a system-wide regional setting. At installation the default profile is set with what was picked at installation. And that default profile is used for all user accounts that get created so after an account is created it stores its own regional settings (currency, date, time, etc). Well come to find out that this is all stored in the registry and we have the option to do a login script, local GPO, domain level GPO, or just delete all the current user profiles. I went with local GPO as it was only for a few systems.

Waring: Make sure you backup your system before you do the steps below and if you don’t know what you’re doing in the registry you may not want to do this as it could destroy your system.

The fix:

1. Make a copy of registry as a backup
2. Make the change as the current user, to the regional settings you want (control panel>regional and language options) on advanced tab check apply all settings to current user and default profile (this will change it for your userid and all new ones)
3. Make a copy of new changes (export reg key HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>International) Note: HKEY_USERS>.DEFAULT>Control Panel>International is the default user settings but you DON’T want to copy this one.
4. user a reg to .adm converter tool or create the .adm yourself (RegToADM from the nuts.exe package from http://yizhar.mvps.org/)
5. copy new adm file to C:\windows\inf
6. open gpedit.msc
7. add your new .adm file to the User Configuration>Administrative Templates (right click add/remove templates, then add and find your new .adm file)
8. change your filter options (have administrative templates highlighted and view>filtering, uncheck only show policy settings that can be fully managed. Otherwise you will not see your settings)
9. enable all your new settings (go to your newly created folder under User Configuration>Administrative Templates that the .adm file created, this will now update all current user profiles with the new settings after they login)
10. May need to reboot if its not working well with your applications

Helpful links if you need more help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924852
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=323639
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/registry2/jsi-tip-0311-regional-settings-in-the-registry-
http://yizhar.mvps.org/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225087
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up0Sd_R8KNM
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/microsoft.public.win2000.group_policy/HbN-0gfR_MU
https://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2007/08/14/deploying-custom-registry-changes-through-group-policy.aspx?Redirected=true

How to hide unwanted accounts from windows login screen

How to hide a windows account from the login screen list

NOTE: Make sure your system is backed up before making changes to your registry!

1. From Run launch regedit.exe
2. Move to key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList” NOTE: that most likely SpecialAccounts and UserList will not be there so just create two new sub-keys.
3. Under UserList create a new DWORD (32bit) Value, and name it the userID of the account you want hidden (this is not the display name)
4. Make sure the value is set to 0 (this should be the case by default)
5. To enable the account again just change the value to 1
6. Log off or restart for this setting to take effect.

RDP Black screen/console black screen or parts black windows 2003

The Problem:

We have had some Windows 2003 systems logon screens turn black no more gray background or the username and password fields turn from white to black so you can’t see what your typing (this effects RDP and the console). They all still work if you can find them. As with the screenshot below you can see the problem is a nuisance.

The Fix:

Note: Always make a backup of your system before changing the registry.

1. on a working windows 2003 system
2. open regedit
3. connect to remote registry
4. navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors (on the effected system)
5. create a export of the current key
6. go to the working system
7. create a export of HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors
8. import the working registry settings to the remote registry system that is effected by the black screen
9. Reboot the effected system the color should be restored now.

Additional details can be found http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906510 as well

What the registry settings should be by default:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
“ActiveBorder”=”212 208 200”
“ActiveTitle”=”10 36 106”
“AppWorkSpace”=”128 128 128”
“Background”=”102 111 116”
“ButtonAlternateFace”=”181 181 181”
“ButtonDkShadow”=”64 64 64”
“ButtonFace”=”212 208 200”
“ButtonHilight”=”255 255 255”
“ButtonLight”=”212 208 200”
“ButtonShadow”=”128 128 128”
“ButtonText”=”0 0 0”
“GradientActiveTitle”=”166 202 240”
“GradientInactiveTitle”=”192 192 192”
“GrayText”=”128 128 128”
“Hilight”=”10 36 106”
“HilightText”=”255 255 255”
“HotTrackingColor”=”0 0 128”
“InactiveBorder”=”212 208 200”
“InactiveTitle”=”128 128 128”
“InactiveTitleText”=”212 208 200”
“InfoText”=”0 0 0”
“InfoWindow”=”255 255 225”
“Menu”=”212 208 200”
“MenuText”=”0 0 0”
“Scrollbar”=”212 208 200”
“TitleText”=”255 255 255”
“Window”=”255 255 255”
“WindowFrame”=”0 0 0”
“WindowText”=”0 0 0”