Help and Support Service not in Services.msc

We were receiving the below error whilst trying to run System Information on a Windows 2003 server running SP2.

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Help and Support Error
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Windows cannot open Help and Support because a system service is not running.

To fix this problem, start the service named ‘Help and Support’.
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OK
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Upon opening up the Services MMC the Help and support service was not in the list.

To fix this:

1. Open a command prompt

2. Type “cd %windir%\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries”

3. Type “start /w helpsvc /svchost netsvcs /regserver /install”

4. open the Services.msc

5. Find “Help and Support” in the list and start the service

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.