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Deleting User Profiles
“How do I delete old users from a Windows 10 computer? I log in as an administrator, navigate to c:\Users\, and delete their tree.” NO! In fact, HELL NO! There are several reasons why you might want to delete a user profile from a computer. ranging from termination of employment to reallocation of systems to……
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Stored Passwords–Beware, and know.
How many passwords do you have? How many of them are unique? How many of them would cause you, should they fall into the wrong hands, grief, hardship, financial loss? Now what would you say if I told you that anyone with a very little bit of knowledge could access all of those passwords, and…
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Recovery Image Oopsie…
In a recent article I told you all how I had to recover my Surface Pro, and downloaded a Recovery Image from Microsoft in order to do so (See Surface Woes). As I went through the process of finding that image download, I could not help thinking that so much of the process seemed… outdated. …
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Delegating Control in Active Directory
I have been saying for years that a good IT department in a secure, well-managed infrastructure will give their end users the tools they need to do their job… and nothing more. If that is true for end users, shouldn’t it also be true for the IT department themselves? It is frustrating to see the…
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Surface Woes
Earlier this year I opened a ticket with Microsoft to replace my Surface Pro 4 under warranty. There was an intermittent problem, and I was hoping to be able to get it fixed. Unfortunately the problem went away, and I continued to use my device as normal. This week I turned on the device, and…
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Management Packs: Keep Up!
Updating your SCOM Management Packs should be done from time to time… schedule it!
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A BossDock PHEW! Moment…
I got to my office this morning and realized that my screens were unresponsive, as were my external keyboard and mouse. Assuming the issue was with my external docking station, I disconnected it from my laptop and then reconnected it; I unplugged it from the power source, waited a few seconds, then plugged it in…
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Golden Exam?
I have a spreadsheet that I keep in my OneDrive that tracks the certification exams I have taken. Over the years (starting in December, 2011) I have written a great many of them, Mostly for Microsoft but also a few VMware exams sprinkled in there. Much has changed since I wrote my first exam (which,…
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Offline Files: Groan!
You’ve configured Folder Redirection in Group Policy, and it works as expected… as long as you are connected to the network. As soon as you disconnect, things stop working. That may be a real inconvenience if you are redirecting your Photos, but if you have redirected your Desktop folder to a network share, there is…
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Not all Computer Docks are Created Equal…
When I first joined Cistel, I picked up a Dell Universal Dock (D6000) to use with my corporate Dell Latitude laptop. It is a good little device, and it did the job just fine… until I wanted to work on my Surface Pro 4, at which point I would have to switch to my Surface…
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What’s My WiFi?
A lot of changes have been made to Windows 10 over the nearly three years since its release as the last desktop operating system that Microsoft would be releasing. Some of those changes have been substantive, others purely cosmetic. Over the last few versions, they have done quite a bit to remove any of the…
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Ironkey Fail: Time to change.
There is probably no good reason why I have four (4) military grade USB keys on my key ring with Windows To Go (WTG) configured on each one… but since 2015 I have written about four different devices, and I keep all of them. Of course, they are not all always up to date… but…
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KB4103723: DO NOT APPLY!
Hey folks, if you know what is good for you, do not apply this patch yet. KB4103723 protects against a CredSSP vulnerability that has not yet been compromised. However, it will break lots of things in your system, including RDP and Hyper-V connections. Errors will include CredSSP errors when trying to connect via RDP (or…
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Automated Virtual Machine Activation
Let’s face it… Microsoft wants you to use Microsoft, so when it can, it creates technologies that make it easier for you to do so. Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) is one of those tools. I remember when Microsoft got into the server virtualization game, it really had very little to compete with VMware, other…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 