The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context

After doing a repair on a windows installation which was corrupted we were getting the following error when trying to go to a website from the address bar of Internet Explorer 6 and also when clicking on the windows update icon on the start menu.

I believe this was occurring because prior to the repair the computer had Internet Explorer 8 and some IE8 settings must have been still hanging around causing problems.

To fix this I was able to download the full version of IE8 from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx (or just google for “IE8 download”) using an installation of Firefox on the system and then installing it off of the hard drive. After a reboot I was able to run windows update and browse again.

If you don’t have another browser on the system just download the installation files on another system and copy them over using some sort of external drive.

Some websites say that you can uninstall the previous installation of IE8 or IE7 using the Add/Remove programs but in this case the entry was not in the list. There is also an uninstaller under c:\windows\ie7 or c:\windows\ie8 but the uninstaller failed in this case.

Change Schema Master in Active Directory

To change the Schema Master in Active Directory you will need to register a DLL to enable the Active Directory Schema MMC. This MMC is disabled by default as this tool can break active directory completely if you make changes to the schema (think the regedit but for Active Directory).

To start open a run command and type “regsvr32.exe c:\windows\system32\schmgmt.dll”. This dll may also be in the winnt directory depending on whether your server was upgraded from Windows 2000.

If the command is successful you should get the following message.

Next open a clean MMC window by typing “mmc” into the run command.

Click on Console -> Add/Remove Snap-in.

Select the Active Directory Schema and click Add

Right Click on Active Directory Schema as shown and select Operations Master…

Make sure the Current Focus is the server you want to change to and then click change.

Note: Doing a DCPromo on the schema master should move that role to another Domain Controller within your domain, but I would still prefer to move roles off a server your going to decommission before you remove active directory from it.

Normal user cannot add a network printer on a Terminal Server

By default Windows 2000 and 2003 terminal services does not allow a non administration account to add a printer when they log onto a remote desktop connection. When they do attempt to install a printer the user gets the following error message.

You do not have sufficient access to your computer to connect to the selected printer.

To allow users to add a network printer either manually or via a logon script you will need to do the following:

1. Open up local security policy by clicking “Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy“.
2. Open Local Policies
3. Open Security Policies
4. On the Right hand side double-click “Prevent users from installing printer drivers”
5. Click on Disabled and then Ok and then Close the Local Security Policy window.
6. Reboot the computer

Apparently you can do a gpupdate /force (win 2003) or a secedit /REFRESHPOLICY MACHINE_POLICY /enforce (windows 2000) instead of rebooting but I have not tried that myself and its been just as easy to reboot the server.

You can also set this setting on the Terminal Servers OU through group policy if you have multiple Terminal Servers to save time.