Windows

Items related to Windows in general

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Change AD FS 2012 R2 Service Account Password

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

One of the added features in AD FS 2012 R2 was the ability to leverage group managed service accounts (gMSA) which obviated the requirement to manually change the password associated with the service account.  See Getting Started with Group Managed Service Accounts for some background on gMSA.  You may also see the term sMSA which is a standalone managed service account.

Managed service accounts and … Read the rest “Change AD FS 2012 R2 Service Account Password”

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New Netstat Options

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

New?  Well some options are not that new really.  Others are however!

Sometimes it is the little things in life that can help immensely.  Take our venerable friend, netstat!  Even though it has been around for many moons folks often get into the habit of using only certain options, switches or parameters.   For reference purposes, the Windows XP Netstat options are doc… Read the rest “New Netstat Options”

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Script To Remove Windows Update Server Values From Registry

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

In some of the lab environments provided to me, the base Windows image has pre-set WSUS updates servers.  When I then move the lab VMs to a different network, the original WSUS servers are no longer available, and I typically point to Microsoft Update or a different WSUS server.

In the case of pointing to Microsoft Update, I wanted to delete the initial WSUS registry values.  In my case, these are … Read the rest “Script To Remove Windows Update Server Values From Registry”

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Updating Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS SSL and Service Certificates

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

The below content is superseded  -- for information on updating your certificates please see:

 

Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) heavily leverages X.509 certificates to allow the solution to function securely.  As with all of the other certificates that you deploy within your enterprise, there must be a process to manage and renew certifica… Read the rest “Updating Windows Server 2012 R2 AD FS SSL and Service Certificates”

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Exchange Services Not Starting on Windows Server 2012 Due to Network Location Profile

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Some of my lab servers run in Microsoft Azure with no redundancy.  This is because they are only a lab, and I want to minimise the monthly billing costs for these environments.  When the servers are restarted due to patching or maintenance activities, there can be a little fallout. 

In the case below, some Exchange services were not running on the Exchange 2010 CAS server in the lab… Read the rest “Exchange Services Not Starting on Windows Server 2012 Due to Network Location Profile”

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Remote Desktop Connection Manager Distorted Display

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) is a very popular remote administration tool with Microsoft admins.  RDCMan allows us to minimise the number of open windows on the local machine, when connecting to multiple remote systems.  At the time of writing, the latest version is 2.7 which can be downloaded here.

On my Windows 10 1511 laptop, some of my Azure VMs were not correctly rendering the di… Read the rest “Remote Desktop Connection Manager Distorted Display”

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How To Use Nslookup To Check DNS TXT Record

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Being able to retrieve DNS TXT records is very useful in multiple scenarios.  In this post we will look at checking the TXT domain verification record for Office 365 and also for the Sender protection Framework .

In addition to a MX record, we also have the option to prove domain ownership to Office 365 by using a TXT record.  Why do we want to manually check for these Office 365  TXT records?  Rat… Read the rest “How To Use Nslookup To Check DNS TXT Record”

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Windows 10 Laptop Not Charging After Enabling Airplane Mode

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

One of my colleagues emailed with an issue on their laptop.  After travelling to the customer location, his power supply had “died” as it was not charging the machine.  This was a Lenovo W541 with the new rectangular power connector, which meant there were no spares readily available.

Later that day when I arrived at my hotel, my W541 did the same thing.  Chances of two laptops from … Read the rest “Windows 10 Laptop Not Charging After Enabling Airplane Mode”

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Install Desktop Experience – Windows Server 2012 R2

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

This is an updated version of the original Windows Server 2012 post.  The genesis of which was an application requirement to install Media Player onto a couple of servers.  This met with some muttering and cursing from my colleague in the nearby fabric covered box, as the option to install the Desktop Experience feature is not as obvious as it was on Windows 2008 R2 which is highlighted … Read the rest “Install Desktop Experience – Windows Server 2012 R2”

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Case Of the Disappearing GUI

Posted on by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

Is it as Miles Kington said, “Knowledge is knowing the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in your fruit salad”.  Or is knowledge learning by your experience, and wisdom is learning through other people’s experiences?   Let’s make this post use the second option, and discuss what was observed on an recent(ish) trip.

The crux of this tale i… Read the rest “Case Of the Disappearing GUI”