NetWrix Active Directory Object Restore Wizard is a super simple tool that can save the day. The tool creates Active Directory snapshots, and allows you to restore deleted and modified objects easily. Imagine that you accidently deleted the wrong user container. You only wanted to delete your test accounts, but now all the users in your Active Directory are gone. You can either look for a new job, or just restore them with the AD Object Restore Wizard.

You probably know that Active Directory restores from backups is quite complicated. Check out this Technet article if you haven’t dealt with this topic yet. If you ever have to restore Active Directory and you don’t know exactly what you have to do, you will run into serious trouble. AD Object Restore Wizard can help you in cases where objects have been accidently deleted, or when you want to revert the changes you just made. It is certainly not a replacement for backups, though.

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• Microsoft’s new TMG firewall (ISA Server successor) is now available
• Microsoft System Center Service Manager Vision and Planned Capabilities Whitepaper – 12 pages. Interesting stuff!
• Operations Manager 2007 R2 Beta Available! New: cross-platform monitoring, service-level tracking, new monitor templates
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 SP1 is now released – Only bug fixes.
• New version: Active Directory Change Reporter – I blogged about this free tool a while back. New: support for Windows Server 2008, reporting of AD object security changes, several critical performance and reliability improvements.
• Filling up Active Directory (AD) with some test data – This script can be useful, if you have to run some tests.
• Microsoft Exploring Windows 8 Exclusively 64-Bit Scenario – I heard the same story already for Windows 7.
• The free Microsoft Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2.0 is now available – Helps to keep offline VMs up-to-date.
• Microsoft warns of new Windows attacks – This Conficker.a worm seems to be a serious threat. Check your firewall!
• The “Big Four” Cloud Offerings – This post compares Amazon AWS, Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce.
• Vista SP2 RC in February, RTM in April 2009

You probably know that you can record changes made to Active Directory and Group Policy objects by enabling auditing. But extracting the information that interests you can be quite cumbersome. You can use a more sophisticated event log management tool such as EventSentry or GFiEventsManager. However, if you just want to stay informed about which Active Directory objects have been changed, you might like NetWrix Active Directory Change Reporter.

There is a free and a commercial version. The limitations of the free version become obvious when you use the tool for the first time. There is a link to the commercial version at those spots where features have been cut. The main difference is that the free edition doesn’t allow you to see exactly when a certain object was changed and by whom. Thus, you will only be aware of the type of changes on a certain day. I think that this will often be sufficient. If you recognize a suspicious change, you can always check the security event log for more information.

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