You want to disable the Shutdown Tracker from running at system startup on lab or test systems because it is annoying. Shutdown Tracker is a new feature of Windows Server 2003 that prompts you to provide a description of the reason why a server is being shut down or restarted. If the server unexpectedly restarted, you are prompted during logon for this information.

(more…)

When you log into a Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 system for the first time, the Configure Your Server or Manage Your Server screens, respectively, are displayed. These screens are intended to make managing a server easier by providing links to install services and obtain help information. These screens are displayed for every user that logs on until the user checks the box on the screen to stop the screen from running at logon.

(more…)

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console.
2. In the left pane, navigate to the GPO you want to modify.
3. Right-click the target GPO and select Edit.
4. In the left pane of the Group Policy Object Editor, expand User Configuration Administrative Templates Start menu and Taskbar.
5. In the right pane, double-click Remove links and access to Windows Update (for Windows Server 2003) or Disable and Remove Links to Windows Update (for Windows 2000).
6. Select Enable and click OK.

(more…)

Using a graphical user interface

1. From the Control Panel open the Network Connections applet.
2. Right-click the network connection you want to disable and select Disable.

(more…)

To temporarily deactivate an account, disable the user’s password with the -l (lock) flag:

# passwd -l aborg

Password changed.

To re-enable, or unlock, a user’s password use:

# passwd -u aborg

Password changed.

Another way to disable an account is to insert an exclamation point at the beginning of the password field in /etc/shadow:

foobar:!$1$wiDlQr34$mitGZA76MSYCY04AHIY1:12466:0:99999:7:::

Yet another way is replace the x in the password field in /etc/passwd with an asterisk (*):

foober:*:1025:1025:Foober Smith,,,:/home/foober:/bin/bash

You can also take away the user’s login shell:

# usermod -s /bin/false foober

But it’s best to stick with passwd -l and -u.