http://activetweets.

net/

ActiveTweets
User Guide Version 1

7/3/2011

Table of Contents

1. What is Active Tweets? 2. System Requirements 3. Installation Guide a. Installing the Prerequisites b. Installing ActiveTweets c. Configuring ActiveTweets i. Linking to Twitter ii. Adding an ActiveTweets Administrator iii. Scheduling ActiveTweets to Run d. Testing Your Installation 4. Commands 5. Utilities a. addadmin b. addssa c. deleteadmin d. deletessa e. importadmin f. importssa g. listadmin h. listssa i. nuke 6. Best Practices 7. ActiveTweets GUI 8. Extra Configuration Consideration 9. Log Viewer 10. Troubleshooting and Support 11. Licenses

Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Page 9 Page 10 Page 12 Page 16 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 24 Page 25 Page 25 Page 26 Page 26 Page 27 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35

ActiveTweets User Guide: Version 1

1. What is ActiveTweets?

ActiveTweets is a middleware program that serves two functions: 1. To let systems administrators manage Active Directory user accounts through Twitter, and 2. To let regular end users unlock their own accounts and get a new password if they forget. The idea is that, if users can solve one of the most common computer issues for themselves, the help desk will be relieved to a degree. Additionally, if system administrators can solve account issues easily in the field, results can be delivered more quickly without having to gain access to a particular computer to manage accounts. ActiveTweets essentially listens for commands it receives via Twitter, and if the commands are authorized, carries out the commands against Active Directory, returning a result. So, system administrators can tweet something like disable johnsmith to keep a just terminated employee from gaining system access, or unlock maryjohnson because she entered the wrong password fifty times again this week. Additionally, users can tweet unlock me to unlock their own accounts, or new password to be given a new password via Direct Message in case they forget how to log in. For obvious security purposes, end users cant run the full gauntlet of administrative commands.

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2. System Requirements

To run ActiveTweets Standalone Edition, the computer must meet the following specifications: Must be running one of the following operating systems: o o o o o Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 or R2, any Edition Windows Server 2008 or R2, any Edition

Must have the .NET Framework 3.5 installed Must have SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 or newer installed

Thats the requirements! That said, there are some recommendations for speed and performance: Dont use Windows Vista if it can be helped! Having a machine (physical or virtual) dedicated to running ActiveTweets is ideal. ActiveTweets isnt very demanding, but it does rely on the task scheduler. If the machine is bogged down running other programs, youll find that ActiveTweets is going to take minutes instead of a minute or less to respond to commands. Whatever machine you decide to use, make sure it is at least capable of running its operating system quickly. If your OS is responsive, ActiveTweets should be as well. You do not need to use a server operating system even though this service is becoming of a server. It literally is a program that runs as a task. Finally, be sure to configure a backup! There is one file in particular that holds all of the vital configuration information for ActiveTweets. If you lose this file, you have to start over! It doesnt change very often, but you should maintain an accurate backup of this file just in case the drive dies. More on backups later!

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3. Installation Guide

This section is going to walk you through installing ActiveTweets and configuring it for the first time! Before you continue, you will need the following: The computer ActiveTweets will be installed on The ActiveTweets installer The SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 installer(s) The .NET Framework 3.5 installer (if it isnt already installed) A Twitter Account for ActiveTweets to use (do not use your own) A Twitter Account and Active Directory account for each user youd like to add after installation Credentials for an Active Directory account used to run the ActiveTweets parser

If you already have the SQL Server Compact 3.5 installed, or the .NET Framework 3.5 installed, you wont need to install those. If you dont have all the things you need, obtain them and come back! While this guide is going to show you how to install ActiveTweets on Windows Server 2008 R2, these instructions apply to every operating system. The task scheduler part may look a bit different, but you want to do the same thing. Lets get started! Installing the Prerequisites The very first thing you will want to do is install the .NET Framework 3.5, and SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2, if they arent already installed. You can download the .NET Framework here and you can get SQL Server Compact 3.5 here. These are pretty easy to install. Literally, youre just running installer packages and clicking next until youre finished, so space wasnt taken up in this guide to show you how to do it. IMPORTANT: Microsoft advises that on 64-bit Operating Systems, both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the SQL Server Compact 3.5 should be installed, in that order. The SQL Server Compact 3.5 download includes both installers, so install both if you have a 64-bit OS. Otherwise, just install the 32-bit one.

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Installing ActiveTweets With those installations out of the way, we can focus on ActiveTweets. You should have already downloaded the installer, AtSetup.exe, from the website. (If not, you can go to http://activetweets.net/download.html and download the installer for ActiveTweets Standalone.) This installer is equally simple! Just run the installer and follow the prompts. You can choose where to install it and whether you want shortcuts, but otherwise, its the same mundane clicking. It looks like this when you run it:

As stated previously, youll basically just want to click next until the installation finished. Functionally, there are no important decisions made during the setup process; configuration happens after installation. However, you can make a few visual changes regarding shortcuts. Lets take a look.

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The first screen that lets you choose your own settings looks like this:

This screen asks you where you want ActiveTweets to be installed. Where you install the program will not affect it functionally. There shouldnt be any reason why the default folder is a bad choice, but if you prefer for it to be somewhere else, feel free to browse for a more suitable location. Otherwise, just click next and move along!

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The next screen asks you about the Start Menu folder.

If you need to configure ActiveTweets or view the logs, youll be able to do so by clicking Start and browsing to the folder that you specify here. Again, ActiveTweets is a perfectly fine name and there usually isnt a need to change it. You can if you wish. If you check the box at the bottom, ActiveTweets wont show up in the Start Menu at all. This is fine too, but youll need to use Windows Explorer to browse to it if you need to run something manually. The screen after this asks whether or not you want a desktop shortcut. Again, it doesnt matter either way. The shortcut will take you to the configuration utility if you select to use it.

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Finally, youll get an Install button, which finishes installing the program. IMPORTANT: You should have chosen an Active Directory account to run the command parser. This is basically a service account that should be used for nothing more than carrying out ActiveTweets commands. You need to give this account Write permission on the Settings.sdf in the folder where ActiveTweets was installed. Otherwise, it will not be able to carry out the tasks is takes on. Additionally, the account must have the correct rights to make changes to Active Directory accounts.

To give this account write permissions, browse to the installation directory, open the properties for the Settings file, go to the Security tab, and add the account (we used twitteradmin), giving it write permissions with the checkboxes. (Alternatively, make the account an Administrator and give the Administrators group the write privilege. This makes manual administration easier.) ActiveTweets User Guide: Version 1 8

Configuring ActiveTweets Upon successful installation, and giving the proper rights to your Twitter Service Account to the Settings.sdf file, youre ready to configure ActiveTweets! Configuration is simple as well, as long as you have a low volume of users. If you have a ton of users, well cover that later. When you open ActiveTweets for the first time, youll see this screen:

This dialog message basically explains that you need to tie ActiveTweets to a Twitter account. This Twitter account should not belong to a person. It is merely an account that users will send Direct Messages containing commands to. Active Tweets will then parse the commands and execute them if the sender was authorized. At this point, youll need to know the credentials for this Twitter account. For lack of a better screen name, the account I created was shuministrator. When you click OK youll be presented with the screen on the following page.

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The section under Step 1: Authenticate below. is basically a web browser. You need to enter the screen name and password for the Twitter account you selected. Youll probably have to scroll down or make the window larger to do this. Then, youll click the Authorize app button. After doing so, youll be presented with the screen on the next page.

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IMPORTANT: The large number is your PIN. It will be different than this one. Thats fine. Now, copy the PIN into the text box where it says Step 2: Enter PIN and click the Finish button. You will receive this message if everything goes as planned:

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Perfect! Now you need to add at least one user account to the mix. Were going to add a single Administrator for the sake of brevity. The process for adding a Self Service Account is nearly identical, so just rinse and repeat for each user. If theres a ton of users, you can do an import; more on this later. After you click OK on that last dialog box, youll see this screen:

This is generally referred to as the Configuration Utility and is the main visible interface to ActiveTweets. To get things going, we need to add some users, so thats what were going to do. You can take a look at the rest of the functions later. Before adding users, you need to understand the difference between an Administrator and a Self Service Account, or SSA. Administrators are able to run all of the supported ActiveTweets commands. SSAs can only unlock their own accounts, or get a new password for their own account. They can do absolutely nothing to anyone elses account.

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Adding users to either group is a nearly identical process; you just click a different option on the file menu. For the sake of brevity, were just going to add an Administrator. If you go to the File menu, the very first option says New Administrator. This is exactly what we want to do!

(Alternatively, use Control + Shift + N as a shortcut. Adding a new Self Service Account is an identical process, only you choose New Self Service Account instead, or use the Control + N shortcut.) When you select this option, a dialog box will appear. Youll need to enter two pieces of information: What is this administrators Active Directory account, and what is their Twitter screen name? You need both pieces of information. Without an Active Directory account, you cant be authenticated against the domain, and without a Twitter account, you cant send commands to ActiveTweets.

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For the sake of this tutorial, Im going to create an Administrator that used lbaum for the Active Directory account name and LukeBaum for the Twitter account screen name. IMPORTANT: You do not need to precede the Active Directory account with DOMAIN\. ActiveTweets accounts for domain settings behind the scenes. IMPORTANT: You do not need to precede the Twitter Account screen name with @. Just enter the text part of the name. Youll notice that you cannot continue until you enter credentials that make sense. You still want to double check and make sure the information is valid because ActiveTweets does not verify that either account is valid. IMPORTANT: It is important for security purposes to understand that you can block this users control over Active Directory by disabling their account, even if they are still listed in ActiveTweets. ActiveTweets checks both conditions before running commands. It does not, however, take into consideration the permissions this user account is granted; all commands run as the Twitter Service Account. Make sure to either disable trouble administrators or remove them from ActiveTweets!

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Fill out the information...

and you should see something like this:

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We now have an ActiveTweets administrator! Theres one more very important thing that needs done before we can say were finished with our configuration, and that is to schedule the command parser to check in with Twitter once in a while and actually run our commands! To do this, we need to schedule a task. There is no built in utility to do this, so lets go through the process of adding this task to the Windows 2008 R2 Task Scheduler. (The process is nearly identical on all platforms, though XP and Server 2003 are a bit different. The concepts are the same.) On the Windows Start Menu, go to All Programs Accessories System Tools and click on Task Scheduler. Youll get a window that looks something like this:

Youll want to click Create Basic Task in the rightmost pane. When you do, a Wizard will open.

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On the first screen, youll be asked to give the task a name and description. It doesnt matter what you put here, just make it descriptive and give it a name that makes sense. Ill call it ActiveTweets. When you click next, youll see this screen:

For now, just select Daily and click next. When you do, youll get another screen asking for dates, etc. Just pass it up as quickly as you can. Well get to adjust the time a little later. When you click next again, youre asked if you want to start a program, send an email, or display a message. Select Start a program and click Next again. When you do, youre confronted with the screen on the following page.

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Use the Browse button to locate the middleman utility in the ActiveTweets installation folder. On Windows Server 2008 R2, the default location for this file looks like this:

You dont need to specify any arguments or other information. Click the next button. On the next screen, check the box next to Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish and click Finish. Youll be presented with the dialog box on the next page. ActiveTweets User Guide: Version 1 18

On the General tab: Change the user to the Active Directory account you have set aside for the task. This should be an arbitrary service account that is only responsible for running this task. (We named ours twitteradmin) Check Run whether user is logged on or not. Optionally, change the Configure for: setting if there is a more appropriate one.

Now you want to head on over to the Triggers tab and click Edit. You want to configure this tab to look like it does on the next page.

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The start date should be todays date. The rest of the information makes sure that the task runs every minute of every day, all day long. Feel free to adjust as needed. Then click OK on every dialog box open. You may be prompted to enter the credentials for the account you specified. Enter them and continue, and then close the Task Scheduler. Youre all configured now!

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Testing Your Installation Now that youve got your setup up and running, youll want to test it out! Assuming that the administrator you added was for you, log into Twitter. Send a new Direct Message to the Twitter Account you linked to ActiveTweets during configuration. The Direct Message should contain the words unlock me. You should be mentioned in a Tweet in under a minute saying your account has been unlocked. If this is the case, congratulations! Your installation is up and running! Now you can focus on adding any other administrators and Self Service Accounts. If you didnt get a message, something is wrong! First, check the Task Scheduler and see if the task ever ran. If it didnt, reconfigure your task. If it ran but there was a strange message about the result, check things like permissions on the files inside the installation directory, or try authenticating with that account again in the task properties.

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4. Commands

So what can you do through a tweet? A lot, as it turns out! The full list of commands is below. Wherever you see <AdAccount>, you should put in place the Active Directory user account that you want to manage. IMPORTANT: You must send commands as a Direct Message! Mentions wont work. This is by design for security purposes. IMPORTANT: Remember, youre sending messages to the Twitter account you configured after installation. Cant remember what account it is? Open ActiveTweets on the computer it is installed on, go to the File menu, and select Preferences to see the screen name you should send to. Command unlock me new password Effect Unlocks the requesting users Active Directory account. Generates a new password, sets it on the users Active Directory account, and sends the password via Direct Message. unlock <AdAccount> enable <AdAccount> disable <AdAccount> set password <AdAccount> <Password> add group <AdAccount> <Group> remove group <AdAccount> <Group> get enabled <AdAccount> get locked <AdAccount> Unlocks the specified account. Enables the specified account. Disables the specified account. Changes the specified Active Directory accounts password to <Password>. Adds the specified Active Directory account to the group <Group>. Removes the specified Active Directory account from the group <Group>. Tells you whether or not the specified account is enabled. Tells you whether or not the specified account is locked out. Admins Only

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5. Utilities

ActiveTweets ships with some command line utilities designed to make batch operations a bit easier. In particular, these commands deal with user management. IMPORTANT: For any of these commands to complete successfully, the user executing the command must have write privileges on the Settings.sdf file. This issue was addressed in detail on Page 8. Heres an overview of the commands:

Utility addadmin addssa deleteadmin deletessa importadmin importssa listadmin listssa nuke

Function Adds an Administrator account to ActiveTweets. Adds a Self Service account to ActiveTweets. Removes an Administrator from ActiveTweets. Adds a Self Service account to ActiveTweets. Imports a group of Administrator accounts to ActiveTweets from a CSV file. Imports a group of Self Service accounts to ActiveTweets from a CSV file. Lists the Administrators in ActiveTweets. Lists the Self Service accounts in ActiveTweets. Removes all Administrators, Self Service accounts, or both from ActiveTweets.

These utilities are intended to help those who will want to script or program against ActiveTweets. Each utility returns output to the console, and events are logged in the Event Viewer if there is a problem. After learning how to use these commands, you can write scripts or programs that call to them to do just about anything youd want to do as far as managing ActiveTweets users goes. Usage details for each utility are included in the pages that follow. You can always get help at the command line by passing the utility help as a parameter. IMPORTANT: If you are having trouble with these commands and are getting error messages when you dont feel that you should be, double-check the permissions on the Settings.sdf file as described on Page 8 and be sure that you are passing valid parameters.

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addadmin This utility is used to add one Administrator account to ActiveTweets. You must provide an Active Directory account name and a Twitter screen name for the user. If the values provided are valid, the administrator will be added instantly. addadmin AdAccount TwitterAccount Adds an administrator whose Active Directory account is AdAccount and whose Twitter screen name is TwitterAccount. You will get a message indicating success or failure. addadmin AdAccount TwitterAccount LogPath Adds an administrator whose Active Directory account is AdAccount and whose Twitter screen name is TwitterAccount. You will get a message indicating success or failure. Additionally, a log is written to LogPath if addadmin has permission to write there. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: addadmin lbaum LukeBaum This adds an Administrator with Active Directory account lbaum and Twitter screen name LukeBaum. addssa This utility is used to add one Self Service Account to ActiveTweets. You must provide an Active Directory account name and a Twitter screen name for the user. If the values provided are valid, the Self Service Account will be added instantly. addssa AdAccount TwitterAccount Adds a Self Service Account whose Active Directory account is AdAccount and whose Twitter screen name is TwitterAccount. You will get a message indicating success or failure. addssa AdAccount TwitterAccount LogPath Adds a Self Service Account whose Active Directory account is AdAccount and whose Twitter screen name is TwitterAccount. You will get a message indicating success or failure. Additionally, a log is written to LogPath if addssa has permission to write there. The path can be relative or absolute.

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deleteadmin This utility is used to delete one Administrator from ActiveTweets. You must provide the Active Directory account name of the Administrator you would like to delete. deleteadmin AdAccount Deletes the administrator whose Active Directory account is AdAccount. deleteadmin AdAccount LogPath Deletes the administrator whose Active Directory account is AdAccount. Additionally, a log is written to LogPath if deleteadmin has permission to write there. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: deleteadmin lbaum This removes an Administrator with Active Directory account lbaum. deletessa This utility is used to delete one Self Service Account from ActiveTweets. You must provide the Active Directory account name of the Self Service Account you would like to delete. deleteadmin AdAccount Deletes the Self Service Account whose Active Directory account is AdAccount. deleteadmin AdAccount LogPath Deletes the Self Service Account whose Active Directory account is AdAccount. Additionally, a log is written to LogPath if deletessa has permission to write there. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: deletessa lbaum This removes a Self Service Account with Active Directory account lbaum.

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importadmin This utility is used to import a list of Administrators from a CSV file. The CSV files records should be in the format AdAccount,TwitterAccount where AdAccount is the Administrators Active Directory account name and TwitterAccount is the Administrators Twitter screen name. importadmin PathToCsvFile Imports Administrators from the file PathToCsvFile. The path can be relative or absolute. importadmin PathToCsvFile LogPath Imports Administrators from the file PathToCsvFile. The path can be relative or absolute. Additionally, a log is written to LogPath if importadmin has permission to write there. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: importadmin C:\Users\lbaum\Desktop\admins.csv C:\Users\lbaum\Desktop\results.txt Imports Administrators from the admins.csv file on lbaums desktop and writes a log on the desktop called results.txt. importssa This utility is used to import a list of Self Service Accounts from a CSV file. The CSV files records should be in the format AdAccount,TwitterAccount where AdAccount is the Self Service Accounts Active Directory account name and TwitterAccount is the Self Service Accounts Twitter screen name. importssa PathToCsvFile Imports Self Service Accounts from the file PathToCsvFile. The path can be relative or absolute. importssa PathToCsvFile LogPath Imports Self Service Accounts from the file PathToCsvFile. The path can be relative or absolute. Additionally, a log is written to LogPath if importssa has permission to write there. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: importssa C:\Users\lbaum\Desktop\ssas.csv C:\Users\lbaum\Desktop\results.txt Imports Self Service Accounts from the ssas.csv file on lbaums desktop and writes a log on the desktop called results.txt. ActiveTweets User Guide: Version 1 26

listadmin This utility lists all Administrators in ActiveTweets. listadmin Lists all of the Administrators in ActiveTweets. listadmin LogPath Lists all of the Administrators in ActiveTweets and stores the results in a file with path LogPath if it is writable. If an error is generated instead, the error is stored in the file. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: listadmin C:\Users\lbaum\Desktop\admins.csv Lists all Administrators in the console and saves the list in admins.csv on lbaums desktop. If there is an error, the error is stored instead of a list of Administrators. listssa This utility lists all Self Service Accounts in ActiveTweets. listssa Lists all of the Self Service Accounts in ActiveTweets. listssa LogPath Lists all of the Self Service Accounts in ActiveTweets and stores the results in a file with path LogPath if it is writable. If an error is generated instead, the error is stored in the file. The path can be relative or absolute. Example: listssa C:\Users\lbaum\Desktop\admins.csv Lists all Self Service Accounts in the console and saves the list in admins.csv on lbaums desktop. If there is an error, the error is stored instead of a list of Self Service Accounts.

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nuke This utility removes all Administrators, all Self Service Accounts, or all of both, from ActiveTweets. IMPORTANT: This utility is called nuke for a reason. Be careful with this utility and make a backup of Settings.sdf if youre unsure, because there is no undo feature. nuke admin Removes all Administrators from ActiveTweets. nuke ssa Removes all Self Service Accounts from ActiveTweets. nuke all Removes all Administrators and Self Service Accounts from ActiveTweets. nuke admin LogPath Removes all Administrators from ActiveTweets. The results are written to a log at path LogPath, if it is writeable. The path can be absolute or relative. nuke ssa LogPath Removes all Self Service Accounts from ActiveTweets. The results are written to a log at path LogPath, if it is writeable. The path can be absolute or relative. nuke all LogPath Removes all Administrators and Self Service Accounts from ActiveTweets. The results are written to a log at path LogPath, if it is writeable. The path can be absolute or relative.

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6. Best Practices

For optimal operation, high security, and high availability, the following recommendations should be applied to your setup: If your machine is a physical machine, use a battery backup in case of a brief power outage. Use a machine that is dedicated only to the ActiveTweets application. Limit access to the machine to trusted Administrators. Schedule a backup of the Settings.sdf file to another location in case of a disaster. To restore ActiveTweets to how it was, simply install it fresh and replace the fresh Settings.sdf file with the backed up copy. After scheduling the task as mentioned on page 16 of this guide, consider exporting the task and saving it on another machine in case of disaster. This way, you can just import the old task on the new machine and be back up and running. Use a dedicated Active Directory account to run the task described on page 16 of this guide. It should not be used for anything else. Tell the password to as few people as possible. Change the file permissions to be as tight as possible. The only accounts that need write access to Settings.sdf are: o o The account that is scheduled to run the task as described on page 16 of this guide Any Active Directory administrator who is going to manage Active Tweets through the GUI or the command line utilities described on page 23 of this guide Use any version of Windows but Vista, if at all possible. ActiveTweets will work on Vista but the operating system is not that reliable. If you are only using ActiveTweets for Administration and do not plan to implement Self Service Accounts, you can disable the feature all together. This tightens security. See the next section for more information.

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7. ActiveTweets GUI

The GUI program bundled with ActiveTweets can be used to manually manage Administrators and Self Service Accounts. Additionally, it can be used to access a couple of extra configuration options. IMPORTANT: The actions on the following menus cannot be undone. Lets look at each item on the menus. File Menu New Administrator This launches a dialog box that lets you add new Administrator by supplying their Active Directory Account and their Twitter screen name. New Self Service Account This is the same as New Administrator, except this adds a Self Service Account instead. Delete Selected Accounts The main window has a list of Administrators and Self Service Accounts. Simply select members of either list and choose this option to remove them from ActiveTweets. Import Administrators from CSV File This imports a list of Administrators from a CSV File, just like the importadmin utility described on page 26 of this guide. Each record should be formatted as AdAccount,TwitterAccount where AdAccount is the Active Directory Account and TwitterAccount is the Twitter screen name. Import Self Service Accounts from CSV File The same as the previous option, except records are imported as Self Service Accounts. The format is the same, and the same can be done with the importssa utility outlined on page 26 of this guide. Preferences Opens a dialog box that gives access to some additional configuration options. (Well cover this on page 32 of this guide.) Exit This simply closes the GUI.

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View Menu Refresh This refreshes the list of Administrators and list of Self Service Accounts in the main window. While changes you make through the GUI are updated in real time, any changes made simultaneously by someone else through the GUI or the utilities are not automatically reflected use Refresh to show them. Tools Menu Log Viewer This opens the log viewer. Errors, and occasionally, general information, is stored in the Event Log. Both events that occur with commands are received and executed, and events that occur from running the utilities, are logged depending on severity. You can just use the Windows Event Viewer to view these occurrences in the Application log. The bundled Log Viewer provides a quicker view, though. Use it for troubleshooting purposes. Command Prompt in ActiveTweets Directory This does exactly what it says, which is useful if you want to run one of the utilities. Explorer Window in ActiveTweets Directory This does exactly what it says, which is useful if you need to set the permissions on Settings.sdf. Help Menu Documentation This opens this User Guide for you. If the guide is not where it is supposed to be, it offers to take you to the ActiveTweets website instead. About ActiveTweets This shows the standard program information youd expect, including the Version.

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8. Extra Configuration Considerations

Lets revisit the Preferences menu selection. As mentioned before, this opens a dialog box that provides a few extra configuration options. Heres what the Preferences box looks like: The Set Twitter Account button allows you to select which Twitter Account commands are sent to. As you can see, Id currently send commands through Direct Messages to @shuministrator if I wanted to manage my Active Directory. Click the button to change the account to a different one. You will need to run through the process outlined on page 10 of this guide to link the new Twitter account.

There are also two checkboxes. By default, both are checked. They control what Self Service Accounts are allowed to do. If you dont intend to implement Self Service Accounts, you can uncheck both boxes. This effectively disables them, even if there are accounts in the Self Service Accounts list. Check the first box if you want to let Self Service Accounts unlock themselves with the unlock me command. Check the second box if you want to let Self Service Accounts get a new password in case they forget their own using the new password command. The text box explains each option in detail.

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9. Log Viewer

The Log Viewer is provided to give you quick access to event and error entries for ActiveTweets. This can help you troubleshoot problems you might run into. You can access the Log Viewer from the main ActiveTweets GUI under the Tools menu. It looks like this:

The Log Viewer will let you save a copy of the log from the File Menu. This can be useful if you have someone trying to support you remotely. You cannot delete the events with this Log Viewer. To do this, use the Windows Event Viewer and looks for ActiveTweets entries in the Application log. ActiveTweets User Guide: Version 1 33

10. Troubleshooting and Support

If youre having trouble getting ActiveTweets to work, please be sure to verify the following: 1. The correct version of the .NET Framework and SQL Server Compact are installed on the computer ActiveTweets is installed. 2. The computer running ActiveTweets has a reliable Internet connection and power. 3. The permissions on the Settings.sdf file has write permissions assigned to both the account that will run the scheduled ActiveTweets task, and any administrators who are to manage ActiveTweets. 4. The Task Scheduler is configured correctly. 5. Twitter Account information is entered correctly. IMPORTANT: The above are absolutely essential to get a successful ActiveTweets installation up and running. Do not try to get support until you can verify all of the above! If you are sure you have everything configured correctly, but you still cant get things running smoothly, visit http://activetweets.net/ to see what your support options are. ActiveTweets is simple by design but the systems it interacts with are complex. We think ActiveTweets can be very helpful to administrators who are on the go, and want to get as many successful installations up and running as possible.

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11. Licenses

This version of ActiveTweets is covered under a freeware license! Copyright (c) 2011, Socially Integrated Systems All rights reserved. This means: You can install ActiveTweets as many times as you like without any paying anything. You can give copies of the software to other people using any method you wish, as long as all the parts are intact. Additionally, the following are true: ActiveTweets is designed to be helpful to Active Directory administrators, but does not come with any sort of guarantee to work. While the software is not designed to break anything, this program talks to your Active Directory. This makes it possible for someone to accidentally cause great harm; make sure all administrators understand the software before use, because damages and liability do not fall on the author of this software. Support is offered, but it is not guaranteed to be offered forever and is offered according to the terms of the software author. Installation and use of the software indicated an agreement to these terms.

To summarize: This software does not cost anything, you can distribute it however you wish as long as the licenses and all other pieces remain together, and the author is not responsible for any damages. ActiveTweets was written entirely from scratch except for one important, bundled library provided for free by Duane Roelands. The use of the library is subject to the terms of its separate license agreement as shown on the next page.

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TwitterVB Copyright (c) 2010, Duane Roelands All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * Neither the name of Disintegrator Software nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

IMPORTANT: If you do not agree with these terms, do not install and use the software. If you have already installed it, uninstall it immediately and find software that better suits your tastes, or write your own.

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