windows 2003, 2008, R2 how tos
Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012R2 defaults Windows Updates to DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL and there is no obvious way to change those settings. Here are two easy ways to set Windows Update as you see fit: 1 – SCONFIG Open a CMD PROMPT as an Administrator Type SCONFIG and press ENTER Type 5 and press ENTER Type M for Manual (or D for Download Only) and press ENTER If SCONFIG still shows WINDOWS UPDATES are set…
From time to time Microsoft changes their ADMX templates and that may mean a setting you have configured becomes orphaned. Because you can not see the entry when you are EDITING the GPO you can’t delete it; you can only see it in the GPMC SETTINGS tab. So the question then becomes how to delete the rogue GPO setting? Clone the GPO you are working on so if you screw it up you still have…
I have been told by more than one Microsoft tech that there is no way to clone a Group Policy Object. That is wrong; there is an EASY way to clone GPO’s. Launch Group Policy Management Console Expand GROUP POLICY OBJECTS (NOT the GPO’s attached to you OU’s but the actual GROUP POLICY OBJECTS folder) Right click on the GPO want to clone and select BACKUP then complete the wizard Right click on GROUP POLICY…
There are 3 ways to configure the START MENU tiles and left RAIL (the thin menu on the far left that defaults with power, settings, documents) in Windows 10 with default applications: A – GPO Using a Windows 10 PC add the tiles and rail configuration you would like. Open a PowerShell (Admin) prompt Enter Export-StartLayout -Path “C:\Temp\MyStartMenu.xml” Copy that MyStartMenu.xml file to a location on your network that all PC’s get read from Create…
In the Windows 7 days, you used to setup a user and then copy that users profile over top of the default C:\USERS\DEFAULT\… so that things like the START MENU and WALLPAPER would be setup for new users. Then under Windows 8 and 10 that became very buggy and Microsoft said to setup a user they way you want and instruct SYSPREP to use an XML file that tells Sysprep to copy this current user…
If you try to install 32 bit Windows on a Hyper V server you may find that it just will not see the installation files. I tried from: Windows 10 32Bit Enterprise ISO downloaded from Microsoft VLSC Windows 10 32Bit Pro ISO downloaded using the current Windows 10 Media Creation Tool Windows 10 32Bit from a Windows Deployment Server WDS but had no detectable error messages… it just would not load. I spent about 40…
We are constantly telling our customers that traditional anti-virus programs that rely mostly on ‘signatures’ from previous attacks will no longer keep a company safe. Attackers are now sophisticated, well funded and often government controlled. This means they rely less on exploiting known security holes and more on developing those holes. A ‘zero day’ exploit is something that has been developed to take advantage of a security hole but has not been applied to other…
If you are seeing your Windows Deployment Services WDS operating system installs stall on the WINDOWS IS LOADING FILES screen and then errors out with: Windows Failed To Start … Status 0xc0000001 Required Device Isn’t Connected or Can’t Be Accessed then have we got a fix for you! To get to the point, it appears that in March 2019 Windows Update Patch KB4489882 and/or KB4489881 tighted up security on the TFTP (Trivial FTP) that WDS…
If you have software you need to uninstall via a script there are six easy ways to go about it: 1 – Uninstall Using The Software’s Own Tool Many pieces of software come with their own custom uninstaller. For instance if you want uninstall Dell SupportAssist, the command is: C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssist\uninstaller.exe /arp If you want to uninstall Office365 Pro Plus you could create an uninstall .XML using the Office Deployment Toolkit and then run: \\<SERVER>\Office365ProPlus\setup.exe…
This was a very unusual situation. Normally we see computers unable to connect to a UNC share using the Host Name but being just fine with the IP address. When you see this you almost certainly have a DNS issue. This case was the other way around: Can connect on \\<server host name>\<share name> Cannot connect on \\<server IP address>\<share name> When trying to connect to a share using the IP address, you may see:…
If you have a McAfee product that is stuck on your computer, there is a tool that McAfee developed to solve the problem. The McAfee Endpoint Product Removal tool will forcibly remove: McAfee Agent McAfee VirusScan Enterprise McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention McAfee SiteAdvisor Enterprise McAfee Data Loss Prevention McAfee Active Response McAfee Endpoint Security McAfee DAT Reputation McAfee Client Proxy MVISION Endpoint McAfee Policy Auditor Agent McAfee Endpoint Intelligence Agent McAfee File and Removable Media…
If you have a Microsoft HyperV Checkpoint / Snapshot that has come disconnected from the Hyper V Manager console, then you need to manually merge the VHDX and AVHDX files. Fortunately, this not generally very difficult: Shut Down the VM in question – This is not technically required but it will be faster and will reduce the likelyhood of data loss In HYPER V MANAGER, click EDIT DISK from the actions pane on the right…
When performing file restores using Veeam you may see an error that says: Copying Data from Deduplicated Volumes Requires That The Console Is Installed on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Later. This message appears when the data you are restoring was originally stored on a server with Windows Data Deduplication enabled. Fortunately all you need to do to get around it is to install the Data Dededuplication Console on the server that hosts your Veeam. You…
If you are considering using Azure Storage via Azure File Sync or Azure File Share, you need to know how fast files transfer. To figure this out we setup Azure storage shares in Toronto, San Antonio, California and Ireland than ran some tests. Specifically, we used Azure File Sync which moves ALL of the files to the Microsoft Azure cloud but lets you cache files on your local servers to dramatically increase performance of your commonly…