In August 2020, Microsoft released an update to fix a critical Windows Server vulnerability in Active Directory — CVE-2020-1472 (more known as Zerologon) . This update was successfully…
CoreyJuly 12, 2021
(User Account Control) is an important component of the Windows security. When you run any application or process that requires administrator privileges, trying to change system…
CoreyJuly 5, 2021
Using Group Policies, you can automatically copy specific files or folders to all domain computers. You can place files to the Desktop, a user profile folder…
CoreyJune 30, 2021
Using local accounts (including the local administrator) to access another computer over network in Active Directory environments is not recommended on a number of reasons.…
CoreyJune 28, 2021
You can use file system object access event auditing to identify a specific user who created, deleted, or modified a specific file. In this post,…
CoreyJune 23, 2021
vMotion allows you to migrate a running VMWare virtual machine from one physical ESXi host to another one without interrupting its operation and stopping any services.…
CoreyJune 21, 2021
In this post we will discuss all effective ways to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server and run SQL queries from PowerShell. There are many…
CoreyJune 16, 2021
When replacing a motherboard or a network card, during a P2V or cold migration of virtual machines between hypervisors/sites, or when configuring multiple VLANs on a…
CoreyJune 14, 2021
By default Windows PowerShell (as well as the command prompt) saves the history of executed commands only in the current session. When you close the…
CoreyJune 9, 2021
In this post we will show how to configure a tagged VLAN interface on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 (2019/2012R2). The VLAN (Virtual LAN) standard is described in IEEE…
CoreyJune 7, 2021
In this post we’ll show how to find out when a password of an Active Directory user account expires using PowerShell, how to set a…
CoreyJune 2, 2021
The majority of Windows administrators, who are familiar with PKI, know about the MakeCert.exe tool, which allows to create a self-signed certificate. This tool is part of…
CoreyMay 31, 2021
In this post we will learn what PowerShell versions exist, what is the difference between Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core, and how to check the PowerShell version installed…
CoreyMay 26, 2021
One of the main tools to configure user and system settings in Windows is the Group Policy Objects (GPO). Local (these settings are configured locally on…
CoreyMay 24, 2021
Sometimes users cannot connect to RDS farm servers running Windows Server using the built-in RDP client (mstsc.exe) with the following error: The task you are…
CoreyMay 19, 2021
User cannot logon to the computer due to the GPSVC (Group Policy Client service) connection error on one of the computers running Windows 10. When…
CoreyMay 17, 2021
An unexpected expiration of a server certificate can cause a number of problems for your users and customers: they may not be able to establish…
CoreyMay 12, 2021
Windows.edb is the Windows Search index database. A search index allows users to quickly search for data and files in the file system due to indexing…
CoreyMay 10, 2021
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is widely used on user computers to run different enterprise Java apps . However, some apps require the specific Java version and…
CoreyMay 5, 2021
During a clean OS install, Windows Installer creates a special System Reserved Partition (SRP) on the MBR disk partition table. This is a hidden partition with the…
CoreyMay 3, 2021
In this post we will discuss existing Microsoft SQL Server licensing schemes and learn how to license SQL Server in a virtualization and container environment…
CoreyApril 28, 2021
By default, only members of the Domain Admins group have the remote RDP access to the Active Directory domain controllers‘ desktop. In this post we’ll show how you to grant…
CoreyApril 26, 2021
In Windows Server 2016/2019 and Windows 10 (starting with build 1709), the Server Message Block 1.0 (SMBv1) network protocol used to access shared folders is…
CoreyApril 21, 2021
When you install modern Microsoft Office 2019, 2016 and Office 365 versions, you cannot choose to install separate Office apps, change a path to the…
CoreyApril 19, 2021
In this post we will learn how to repair Windows bootloader on a modern computer that uses UEFI instead of BIOS and GPT disk partition table (instead of MBR). The…
CoreyApril 14, 2021
In this post we will consider how to install and configure MPIO on Windows Server 2016/2012 R2. MPIO (Multi—Path Input Output) is a technology that allows to build fault-tolerant transport…
CoreyApril 12, 2021
The network connection between your computer and the VPN server could not be established because the remote server is not responding. This could be because…
CoreyApril 7, 2021
In this post we’ll show you how to remove Microsoft Store provisioned apps, features (capabilities), and unused Windows editions from a Windows 10 installation image…
CoreyApril 5, 2021
Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is the minimal OS based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) which includes a number of tools to repair, reset and diagnose Windows. If the…
CoreyMarch 31, 2021
The built-in SSH client appeared in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019. Ssh.exe can be used to securely connect to Linux/UNIX servers, VMWare ESXi hosts and other devices instead…
CoreyMarch 29, 2021
CHKDSK.exe (check disk) is a classical built-in Windows tool for checking hard drives for errors. The chkdsk allows you to check your disk and file system…
CoreyMarch 24, 2021
In Windows 10 1903/1909 I have found several strange bugs related to configured VPN connections. The first problem: when trying to connect to a remote…
CoreyMarch 22, 2021
When connecting a new USB device to the computer, Windows automatically detects the device and installs an appropriate driver. As a result, the user can…
CoreyMarch 17, 2021
You can configure network ports forwarding in all Windows versions without using third-party tools. Using a port forwarding rule, you can redirect an incoming TCP connection (IPv4…
CoreyMarch 15, 2021
When installing any role or feature on Windows Server 2016, an error appears that the server requires a restart: “The request to add or remove…
CoreyMarch 10, 2021
When creating virtual machines in different hypervisors (VMWare, KVM, Hyper-V, etc.), you may see that sometimes a virtual machine may not see all virtual processor sockets…
CoreyMarch 8, 2021
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
On your VMWare ESXi host, you can redirect an attached local USB device/flash drive/disk inside the virtual machine. This technology is called USB Passthrough and available starting…
CoreyMarch 1, 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
