Create OWA & ECP Custom Themes Exchange 2010 SP1

This post will give some basic concepts on how to Achieve some basic OWA customization

by creating your own Themes., The themes are Real-Time, so there should be no need to restart IIS. (Just F5)

Note: These are only basic guides and tips from our test lab, for official MS Guides please see

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee693018(EXCHG.140).aspx  (Once released)

(Note: Avoid testing through ISA / TMG, This caches the png`s and do not change until the cache expires)

  

1. Copy your Base theme you wish to edit, The themes are located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa\Version*\Themes\

      e.g copy the "space" folder and rename the new copied folder to your custom theme.

2. In your new folder edit the file "ThemInfo.xml" and input your Theme Name

3. Edit your themepreview.png  to chose your own preview picture

4. Now Just edit the following files.

    a)  edit csssprites.png with your custom logo  (NOTE: This may not work well if you have a full Banner with colour, but works well with the fade effects banner)

    b) edit hedaderbgmain.png and enter any custom text or logos if needed.

5. If you also wish to customize the ECP (Options) you will need to edit the same files in

C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\ecp\Version\Themes\Default

NOTE:  After each Service Pack / Rollup you will need to re-copy to your custom theme to the new Version folder.

Done.....

Quickly Export and Import DHCP Reservations Windows 2008, Winows 2003

This simple process describes the how to migrate a DHCP reservation list without having to migrate the entire scope.

1. Export the DHCP reservations, from the Old server which is to be migrated using netsh:
   
           netsh dhcp server [ip address] scope [scope address] dump>c:\temp\reservations.txt
   e.g. netsh dhcp server 172.20.2.33 scope 172.16.0.0 dump>c:\temp\reservations.txt
   
2.  Edit the exported file in notepad 'reservations.txt' , Simply do a Find and Replace for the old DHCP server IP you ran the export on and change to the New DHCP server IP you are importing to and remove out everything else in the text file except for the reservations config section.
   
   
3.  On the New DHCP server, make sure you create the new scope first, and ten just simply run the  following command:

           netsh exec C:\temp\reservations.txt

Done

Application Patch Installation & Windows 2008 UAC

Just a quick tip - now you can no longer drag an installer into an elevated command prompt or right-click and select 'Run as Administrator' like you would for an EXE (oh UAC how we love you) to install it, you might need to know this trick:

...hold Ctrl+Alt and then right-click the file and you get a new option to ‘copy to path’ paste that in your Adminitrator:command prompt window, and you’re golden.

Simon