Category Archives: Windows

User Logon Time

By | June 13, 2019

To find when a user last logged onto their PC (drop findstr to return account properties): net user “johnDoe” /domain | findstr /C:”Last logon”

Dropping RAID

By | January 25, 2019

If you need to drop RAID from a windows box follow these steps: Reset the Local account password Sysprep the box and shutdown Disable RAID from the drives or remove the controller Let the system boot and rejoin the domain This can be helpful if you plan the virtualize a windows box that is set to boot from… Read More »

Making PowerShell Interactive

By | January 11, 2019

Turn a Powershell script into an interactive application with: Out-GridView -PassThru | This code will pause your script and present you the data collected in a grid view. You can then select specific items in that view. When you hit OK at the bottom the script will proceed against just the selected items.

AnyConnect Password

By | August 23, 2018

The Cisco Any Connect Client does not allow you to save a password on the client. This code when saved as a .vbs file will let you get around this.  Be warned that the client’s password is saved in clear text in the file. I hide the file in Drivers and create a shortcut to it with the… Read More »

Exchange Permissions

By | August 16, 2018

You can list all users with Mailbox permissions with this in PowerShell: Get-Mailbox | Get-MailboxPermission | where {$_.user.tostring() -ne “NT AUTHORITY\SELF” -and $_.IsInherited -eq $false} | Select Identity,User | Export-Csv -NoTypeInformation mailboxpermissions.csv

Home Ed. in a Domain

By | May 22, 2018

You can connect a Windows home edition PC to a domain as follows: Change the PCs workgroup to the domain name (pre-Windows 2000) Change the local username and password to exactly match a domain account. The PC should now have full access to Outlook, network shares and printers without entering credentials.

Safe Mode from CMD

By | April 8, 2018

If you need to put a system into safe mode you can do this from cmd then reboot: This will set the safemode switch: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal with networking: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot network to put back in normal mode via dos: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot

Remote log off

By | March 20, 2018

I recently had a console session hang with just a white screen and no start menu on an Exchange Server. Not wanting to reboot the server and disrupt the entire office, I used the following to remotely log the admin out via PowerShell: (gwmi win32_operatingsystem -ComputerName $PCname).Win32Shutdown(4)

Issues Renaming a Domain Computer Part 2 of 2

By | March 15, 2018

So you have gone through part 1 and now get an error saying the directory service is busy! Is SQL Express or SQL installed? If so, from an elevated command prompt type: setspn -L computername Note any registered SPN in the format of MSSQLSvc/[Computer Name]:[Instance Name] Delete each of the SPN’s noted above. setspn –d [SPN Name] [ComputerName]… Read More »

Win7 updates not running

By | January 3, 2018

Update services are running yet the windows update control panel says that they aren’t when you try to check for updates. Disable windows update service and then stop it. At this point go to Windows\SoftwareDistribution and rename the folder to SoftwareDistributionOld. Enable windows update service and start. You should be able to check for updates now.

C Drive filling up regularly

By | January 3, 2018

Windows/Temp filling with cab_XXXX files. Deleting the cab_xxxx files only resulted in regeneration. Checking \Logs\CBS folder I found lots of .log and (some) .cab files It seems, that windows wasn’t able to zip (makecab.exe) one of the .log files. Solution was: in \Logs\CBS folder delete the oldest .log file (you can also delete them all) in \temp folder… Read More »

Photo Viewer for 10

By | November 15, 2017

Some users prefer to use the old Windows Photo Viewer. If the PC was upgraded it is still available. For a system that was clean installed use this registry hack. This also addresses the fact that Outlook is missing from the “Share Pictures” feature of the new photos app.

7to10 Remote upgrade

By | August 7, 2017

Windows can be upgraded remotely with these steps. Verify MSP Connect is working on the PC. Download the ISO and copy the contents to C:\Win10\ Run the upgrade to Windows 10. After about 30 Min. access the PC with MSP Connect (RDP will not work yet) Answer the setup questions to complete the upgrade. Test RDP

Exchange Email Format

By | May 9, 2017

In Exchange, emails sent outside the organization are converted and the format of these can be set per domain or for all domains. If messages are sent in text format, some recipients will have issues viewing attached images. ContentType should be MimeHtmlText not MimeText when running: Get-RemoteDomain |fl To update it run the following with either a domain… Read More »

Clean All Temp Folders

By | February 28, 2017

$tempfolders = @(“C:\Windows\Temp\*”, “C:\Windows\Prefetch\*”, “C:\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\temp\*”, “C:\Users\*\Appdata\Local\Temp\*”,”C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\*”); Remove-Item $tempfolders -force -recurse