Windows file server administrators often have to force close the shared files that are open simultaneously by multiple users. This usually happens if the desktop…
CoreyMarch 3, 2021
Active Directory user accounts have a special thumbnailPhoto attribute in which a user’s photo can be stored as binary data. Outlook, OWA, Lync/Skype for Business, SharePoint (and…
CoreyFebruary 24, 2021
In all supported Windows versions it is possible to run applications on behalf of another user (Run As) in the current session. This allows you to run…
CoreyFebruary 22, 2021
In this post we’ll show you how to configure network adapter parameters in Windows via PowerShell. We will learn how to get and set a…
CoreyFebruary 17, 2021
You can use Group Policy to add Active Directory users and groups to the local Administrators group on domain-joined servers and workstations. This allows you to grant local admin privileges…
CoreyFebruary 15, 2021
In this post we’ll show you how to manually restore an accidentally deleted Windows EFI boot partition on a UEFI computer. We’ll look at an…
CoreyFebruary 10, 2021
In this post I will configure SSH authentication with RSA keys on Windows to securely access remote servers/computers. I’ll show how to generate RSA keys…
CoreyFebruary 8, 2021
The Shutdown.exe is a built-in Windows command line tool that allows you to reboot, shutdown, put your computer to sleep, hibernate or end a user session. In…
CoreyFebruary 3, 2021
By default normal users cannot manage Windows services. This means that users cannot stop, start, restart, or change the settings/permissions of Windows services. In some…
CoreyFebruary 1, 2021
When expanding the disk size of a VMWare virtual machine or deleting a disk, sometimes it is hard to understand which VMware virtual disk matches…
CoreyJanuary 27, 2021
Using Group Policies, you can create a shortcut to a specific app on the desktops of all (or certain) domain users. GPO allows you to…
CoreyJanuary 25, 2021
When analyzing the server licenses used in our corporate network (with a KMS server deployed) we found that a more expensive Windows Server Datacenter edition is installed on one…
CoreyJanuary 20, 2021
In this post we’ll show how you to restore a Active Directory domain controller from a System State backup created earlier (see the post Active Directory…
CoreyJanuary 18, 2021
I have at time noticed some strange things when trying to access SYSVOL and NETLOGON folders in the domain from Windows 10/Windows Server 2016. When I tried to access…
CoreyJanuary 13, 2021
When trying to configure a new RDSH node in the RDS farm running Windows Server 2012 R2/2016/2019, you may be encountered with the following warning…
CoreyJanuary 11, 2021
In this post we will show how to use the built-in Windows 10 OpenSSH server to forward ports via an SSH tunnel. SSH port forwarding allows you to…
CoreyJanuary 6, 2021
The built-in Windows Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) client (mstsc.exe) saves the remote computer name (or IP address) and the username that is used to login…
CoreyJanuary 4, 2021
Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019 have got a built-in SSH server based on OpenSSH. In this post we’ll show how to install and…
CoreyDecember 30, 2020
Mbr2gpt.exe is a new built-in Windows 10 console tool that allows you to convert a disk with the MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table to a…
CoreyDecember 28, 2020
If you see the “Operating System not found” boot error message on your computer, it means that no operating system bootloader has been found on…
CoreyDecember 23, 2020
This is a step-by-step guide on how to create a bootable USB flash drive with a Windows 10 or Windows 7 install image for a…
CoreyDecember 21, 2020
In this post I’ll talk about Active Directory domain controller backup and we'll learn how to configure automatic AD backup using PowerShell and built-in Windows…
CoreyNovember 18, 2020
The setup.exe installer in a Windows 10 install image has quite a large number of the command-line parameters that administrators may be interested in to automate and…
CoreyNovember 16, 2020
In this post, I’ll show you how to track user account lockout events on Active Directory domain controllers, determine from which computer and program the…
CoreyNovember 11, 2020
I had an idea to write a simple PowerShell script to automatically block (blacklist) IP addresses, on which RDP brute-force attempts or continuous RDP attacks…
CoreyNovember 9, 2020
This post gives the basics on how to manage settings and rules of built-in Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security using PowerShell. We'll review how…
CoreyNovember 4, 2020
I saw a strange message “An internal error has occurred” when trying to connect from Windows 10 to a recently deployed RDSH server running Windows…
CoreyNovember 2, 2020
All Windows admins know that after a computer or a user is added to an Active Directory security group, new permissions to access domain resources…
CoreyOctober 28, 2020
From time to time we notice that some connected network printers go offline, stop printing and print jobs begin to queue on the print servers…
CoreyOctober 26, 2020
You can manage Windows services not only from the services.msc snap-in or sc.exe command line tool, but also using PowerShell. In this post we’ll consider…
CoreyOctober 21, 2020
In this post we‘ll show you how to create a software mirror (RAID1) from two GPT disks with Windows 10 / Server 2016 / Server…
CoreyOctober 19, 2020
In Windows Server 2012R2/2016/2019, you can use the graphical Server Manager console to install and remove server roles and features. However, in most cases you…
CoreyOctober 14, 2020
If you are against of installing Windows updates automatically and disable Windows Update service (wuauserv) completely, then you have to download and install the latest…
CoreyOctober 12, 2020
Quite a number of applications on Windows Server and Windows 10 require .NET Framework 3.5 (in spite of .NET Framework 4.6 is installed by default). For…
CoreyOctober 7, 2020
My colleagues work computer running Windows 10 began to lose Internet access from time to time (once in 2-3 days with the Limited connection status in the…
CoreyOctober 5, 2020
You can use the Get-ADDomainController PowerShell cmdlet to get information about the domain controllers in Active Directory. This cmdlet is a part of PowerShell Active Directory module and requires…
CoreySeptember 30, 2020
Windows Hyper-V Server is a free hypervisor platform by Microsoft to run virtual machines. In this post we’ll look at how to install and configure the…
CoreySeptember 28, 2020
The Active Directory Attribute Editor is a built-in graphical tool to manage the properties of AD objects (users, computers, groups). It is the Attribute Editor…
CoreySeptember 23, 2020
A very common problem is when Outlook starts asking for the user credentials, even if the correct password is specified. It looks like this: after…
CoreySeptember 21, 2020
Most administrators use the PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment) to build their PowerShell scripts. But by now Microsoft has almost stopped developing PowerShell ISE and recommends using…
CoreySeptember 16, 2020
A user reported a missing Mail app icon in the Control Panel on a computer running Windows 10 1903. Office 365 is installed on the computer, and…
CoreySeptember 14, 2020
A Windows administrator can use the good old Dnscmd cli tool or DNSServer module for PowerShell to manage DNS zones and records. In this post we’ll cover the basic…
CoreySeptember 9, 2020
The first thing an administrator can come across when deploying Office 2019 in an enterprise environment is that now you cannot download an Office 2019 installation ISO…
CoreySeptember 7, 2020
In this post we’ll consider how to find domain controllers with FSMO roles in Active Directory, how to transfer one or more FSMO roles to…
CoreySeptember 2, 2020
In one of the previous posts we showed how to use the Set-ADComputer cmdlet in a GPO logon script to save the current logged in user info to the…
CoreyAugust 31, 2020
The Disk Cleanup tool allows the administrator to quickly clean up the Windows Server system drive by deleting unnecessary and temporary files, including cleaning the WinSxS directory from files…
CoreyAugust 26, 2020
The Set-ADComputer cmdlet allows you to change the attributes of a computer account object in Active Directory. In this post, we’ll show how to add current logged-in…
CoreyAugust 24, 2020
I came across an interesting issue when trying to install Linux CentOS on a virtual machine running on a Hyper-V server (the type of the…
CoreyAugust 19, 2020
In this post we'll review some ways to block access to the specific websites, domain names, URLs or IP addresses in Windows without using third-party…
CoreyAugust 17, 2020
I received several emails from readers asking me to help solve the problem of displaying computers in a network environment on the latest Windows 10 builds. Indeed,…
CoreyAugust 12, 2020
Once I saw that one of my test virtual machines was running out of free space on system drive C:. I increased the disk size…
CoreyAugust 10, 2020
The Active Directory for Windows PowerShell module is one of the main tools to administer domain, manage objects in Active Directory and get different information about AD…
CoreyAugust 5, 2020
You can use the SFC (System File Checker) and DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) commands to check and repair the integrity of system files and components of your…
CoreyAugust 3, 2020
Search in Windows 10 is used more often than in previous Windows version. You can use Windows search to find an app, file, setting item,…
CoreyJuly 29, 2020
The monitoring system on one of my servers running Windows Server 2016 started sending multiple messages of the Volume Shadow Copy Service error with the…
CoreyJuly 27, 2020
IPerf is an open-source tool designed to test network bandwidth between two network nodes. The iPerf allows to generate TCP and UDP traffic/load between two hosts.…
CoreyJuly 22, 2020
When creating new user accounts in Active Directory, an administrator sets a unique initial password for each account and tells it to a user (usually…
CoreyJuly 20, 2020
Quite often users ask: “Will I be able to re-activate my Windows 10 if I change hardware configuration of my computer (replace a motherboard, an…
CoreyJuly 15, 2020
If you can access the Internet from your computer only via a proxy server, then by default you won’t be able to access external web…
CoreyJuly 13, 2020
The DNS servers and suffixes configured for VPN connections are used in Windows 10 to resolve names using DNS in the Force Tunneling mode (“Use default gateway…
CoreyJuly 8, 2020
Suppose you want to use the Firefox browser to open .HTML files on all domain computers (you want to associate this file extension with the app). To…
CoreyJuly 6, 2020
In order to manage access to files or folders in Windows, a special ACL (Access Control List) is assigned to an NTFS file system object…
CoreyJuly 1, 2020
If your virtual machine running on Hyper-V is stuck for some reason, stopped responding and doesn’t start/stop/reset after clicking the corresponding buttons in the Hyper-V…
CoreyJune 29, 2020
If you need to run a PowerShell script with the administrator privileges, you can check if the current powershell.exe process has the elevated permissions right…
CoreyJune 24, 2020
I faced an error code 0x80073712 when trying to install security updates on Windows Server 2016. As I found later, this error was related to the damaged…
CoreyJune 22, 2020
Windows has many tools for diagnosing problems in TCP/IP networks (ping, telnet, pathping, etc.). But not all of them allow you to conveniently check the status or…
CoreyJune 17, 2020
In this post I'll try to describe the main reasons why Outlook 2019/2016/2013/2010 does not display images in the email body and ways of solving…
CoreyJune 15, 2020
In this post, we will show you how to install and bind a free TLS/SSL Let’s Encrypt certificate for a site on the IIS web…
CoreyJune 10, 2020
You can use PowerShell to view or change BIOS settings on your computer running Windows. Let’s review some examples you can use to get or…
CoreyJune 8, 2020
In this post we will look on how to manage non-admin user permissions to restart or shutdown of Windows computers or servers. By default, non-privileged…
CoreyJune 3, 2020
It is very convenient to use the special PSWindowsUpdate module for PowerShell to manage Windows updates from the command line interface. The PSWindowsUpdate is not integrated into…
CoreyJune 1, 2020
Many users note that when viewing any image in the new built-in Photos app in Windows 10, it takes a long time to open. The delay when…
CoreyMay 27, 2020
You can use the Get-MessageTrackingLog cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell to analyze mail flow, message forensics and to get different information about messages sent or received…
CoreyMay 25, 2020
If you cannot open/map network shared folders on your NAS, Samba Linux server, computers with old Windows versions (Windows 7/XP/Server 2003) from Windows 10, most…
CoreyMay 20, 2020
In some cases Windows 10, 8.1 and 7 may recognize an internal SSD or SATA drive as a removable device (media). Consequently, the safe removal…
CoreyMay 18, 2020
In the VMWare vSphere Client interface you can search virtual machines by their names only. But in some cases it is necessary to find the…
CoreyMay 13, 2020
On a server running Windows Server 2016, an additional disk (not a system one) connected as a SAN LUN over FC may go offline after…
CoreyMay 11, 2020
In this post, we will cover the concept of a network profile in Windows, consider what types of network profiles there are, what they are…
CoreyMay 6, 2020
A quite interesting feature, Storage Replica (SR), appeared in Windows Server 2016 that allows you to replicate the local disk volume to a remote server for disaster…
CoreyMay 4, 2020
Any PowerShell script can be transformed to a real Windows service that runs in the background and starts automatically during your server boot. You can create…
CoreyApril 29, 2020
Full multiple partitions support for any USB storage device has appeared in Windows 10 starting with build 1703 (Creators Update). Now, a Windows 10 user…
CoreyApril 27, 2020
I faced a strange problem when trying to upload any file (ISO, vmdk, OVA/OVF, etc.) to a VMFS Datastore in VMware vSphere (6.7). When I…
CoreyApril 22, 2020
On Windows workstations and servers, especially on RDS (Remote Desktop Services) servers, there is a regular need to remove old (unused) user profiles from C:\Users.…
CoreyApril 20, 2020
Get-ADUser is one of the basic PowerShell cmdlets that can be used to get information about Active Directory domain users and their properties. You can use…
CoreyApril 15, 2020
Currently, a large number of programs for recovering deleted files and partitions on a hard disk or USB drive are available. All these programs are…
CoreyApril 13, 2020
In this post I'm going to explain what is Windows 10 LTSC Enterprise; when it is better to use this edition; in what way it differs…
CoreyApril 8, 2020
The Boot Manager in the modern Windows versions uses the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file to boot the operating system installed on the computer. This file contains…
CoreyApril 6, 2020
In a Active Directory domain, you can centrally manage and customize Start Menu and Taskbar Layout on Windows 10 users’ computers using Group Policy. This…
CoreyApril 1, 2020
Let’s look at how to automatically install and connect printers to specific users, computers and groups in an Active Directory domain using Group Policy (GPO).…
CoreyMarch 30, 2020
When you install VMware ESXi to an SD card or USB stick (or when using Boot from SAN), the yellow exclamation mark icon is displayed…
CoreyMarch 25, 2020
One of the main metrics, which allows to estimate the performance of the existing or designed storage system is IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second). In simple terms, IOPS is…
CoreyMarch 23, 2020
If you can access the Internet from your computer only via a proxy server, then by default you won’t be able to access external web…
CoreyMarch 18, 2020
In all Windows operation systems the default port assigned to RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is TCP 3389. If your computer is connected to the Internet directly (e. g., a…
CoreyMarch 16, 2020
After upgrading the Windows 10 build to 1803 or higher (1809, 1903, 1909), some users noticed that they could no longer connect to shared network…
CoreyMarch 11, 2020
By default, when a user tries to access a network shared folder on a server joined to the Active Directory domain from a workgroup computer,…
CoreyMarch 9, 2020
When managing user access permissions to various resources in an Active Directory domain, an administrator may have to create dynamic AD user groups. Dynamic groups make…
CoreyMarch 4, 2020
The built-in Windows Remote Desktop client (mstsc.exe) allows you to save the username and password used to connect to the remote computer. Using a saved…
CoreyMarch 2, 2020
Like in earlier Office versions, when installing Office 2019/2016 or Office 365, a user is offered to try the product for free during 30 days.…
CoreyFebruary 28, 2020
In this post I will cover typical reasons why a Group Policy object (GPO) may not be applied to an organizational unit (OU), specific computer…
CoreyFebruary 26, 2020