Remove & Reset Folder Redirection from a Profile. In case you’ve been Folder Redirecting any User’s Home Folders and along the way you've decided it’s not you cake, to restore your User's profile to its original shape, there are some things you can do. Since Folder Redirection is a complex (and sometimes convoluted) topic, I don’t mean to be 100% exhaustive (but I'll… Read More
How to setup Per-Computer “Local Admins” on a Domain. Veggies. This post is a humble summary of Alan Burchill's brilliant post published at the following address in 2010: http://www.grouppolicy.biz/2010/01/how-to-use-group-policy-preferences-to-secure-local-administrator-groups/ Alan is the überhero (& self-declared genius...), so please thank him for his precious time and effort. Alan's methods reconnects to one of my previous articles were I talked about granting Local Admins credentials to… Read More
Thinking of SHA512 for your PKI? Think again. If you are in the process of deploying a new CA, and you are thinking of issuing Certs that use SHA512 Hashes, think again! (From https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2973337):"If you currently use SHA512 certificates, and do not have this update installed, you may have problems in one or more of the following scenarios by using TLS 1.2:… Read More
Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 Auto-Login Howto. [UPDATE - 2016/Jul/30 - Windows 10 Support and Recommendations]: Thanks to Microsoft's policy of backwards compatibility, Windows 10 supports Autologin, so the below "ORIGINAL ARTICLE" instructions still do work. 'Though, before setting up Password-less Autologin on Windows 10, you might wish to investigate if your device supports Windows Hello and (if not), perhaps… Read More
Secure Restricted Groups to grant Local Admin Credentials to Domain Users. As I said on my previous post titled "3 ways to grant “Local Admin” permissions to Domain Users": There are 2 ways to use Restricted Groups. The first way simply adds New Users along the pre-existing Local Administrators Users (within the (Local) "Administrators"-Group). The second way resets (ie. deletes/wipes) ALL the pre-existing Local Administrators Users… Read More
3 ways to grant “Local Admin” permissions to Domain Users. There are three ways (that I know of..), to grant “Local Machine” Administrator credentials to a Windows Domain User: lusr-method (!). "Restricted Groups" / Secure Restricted Groups (convenient for that funny bunch). “Secure Local Administrators” (a-la Alan's way). lusrmgr.msg. to grant “Local Machine” Administrator permissions to a Windows Domain User through lusrmgr.msc: Remotely… Read More
2 correct ways to install RDS apps (formerly TS) on your RDS HOST. 2 Options. When you need to provision a new Windows program to by multiple Users (ie. that remotely login to the same TS/RDS Host), you have 2 options. Setup.EXE VS Setup.MSI If your app comes packaged with a 3rd party installer (generally "Setup.EXE"), you'll need to manually place your TS/RDS Host into "Install Mode".… Read More
HOW-TO Setup a Windows RESET Image. As promised, today I will continue blogging on how to Setup a Windows RESET Image to Restore your System to a previously working state. This post builds on my previous ones (reported here for convenience): 1. Best Windows UEFI/GPT partitioning scheme 2. HOW-TO Setup a Windows REFRESH Image. Please note – the RESET… Read More
HOW TO Setup a Windows REFRESH Image. To continue with your discovery into hidden but-not-so hidden Windows secrets, the next step after configuring your Best Windows UEFI/GPT partitioning scheme is to setup a Windows REFRESH Image. If you are a Windows Laptop or Tablet user, it is likely that your (reputable?!) vendor has already done the hard work for you.… Read More
Best Windows 8.1 UEFI/GPT partitioning scheme. In this post, I will assume that you wish to deploy Windows 8.1 (or newer) to your UEFI computer on a blank GPT Hard Disk in the best possible manner. “Best” is a highly subjective topic of which you can write bibles and treaties about. My vision of “best” mainly (not always!) revolves… Read More
4 most useful vmrun commands. A simple explanation of the possibilities offered by the vmrun command.… Read More