Your Server Can Do This Too…

Usually it is not possible in any application, especially a Windows application, to select two radio buttons simultaneously. The radio buttons are supposed to be mutually exclusive. If the developers want you to be able to select multiple items they use a check box, not a radio button. However, I ran into an unusual situation in Active Directory where I was able to select two radio buttons simultaneously under Group scope and under Group type.

On May 8, 2007 I posted this challenge in my article (Can your server do this?) to see if you are able to duplicate my scenario and select four radio buttons simultaneously on a Windows Server 2003 computer.

Here is the answer to the challenge :). In other words, here’s how you can duplicate the bug.

1. Create a Universal Distribution group, e.g. Test. Make sure it has an e-mail address, if not type one, e.g. billg@example.com.
2. Double-click the group you just created.
3. Delete (or shift-delete because you will need to paste it back again later) the e-mail address and then click Apply. You will see both Global and Universal buttons selected under Group scope.
4. Click on Security under Group type and then click Apply. At this point you will have both Global and Universal selected under Group scope and Security selected under Group type.
5. Type in (or paste) the e-mail address back again and then click Apply.
6. What you get is all four radio buttons selected at the same time.

Once you close the window and go back in again, fortunately you’ll see the last options that you selected, rather than the multiple selections.

I haven’t tested this on every combination or version of the server and am able to duplicate this process repeatedly with the same results on:

1. Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1.
2. Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise (64-bit) with SP2 and all the latest patches.

Copyright © 2007 Zubair Alexander. All rights reserved.