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It’s Good to be Back…
It is hard to believe that it has been twelve years since I first became an MCT…
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I Made The Papers!
It has been a long time since I got a notification that an article I wrote made the top of anything, so this morning when this came across my Twitter feed I was quite pleased: @vanessabruwer: The latest System Center Weekly Roundup! https://t.co/oT361QLUE6 Thanks to @USportsSG @MGarvis @ComtradeSoftw #sccm #sysctr Yes, this put a smile on…
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Juiced Again!
About 2.5 years ago, I wrote an article called I’m Juiced… Because my Surface Pro 3 Got Juiced! It was a play on words because I had won an adapter for my Surface Pro from Juiced Systems that was a 4-in-1 adapter custom-fitted to the Surface Pro 3, with two USB 3.0 ports, an SD Card reader,…
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SCOM Management Packs: Removing Foreign Languages
When you go to add Management Packs (MPs) to System Center Operations Manager, there is that temptation to be lazy and just add everything. This will clog your environment with a lot of things you do not need… including MPs in languages that you likely do not speak, read, or care about (within the context…
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Operations Manager: How to List What Management Packs Are Installed?
A client asked me recently how to determine what Management Packs he had installed in his System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) infrastructure. I told him to open his Management Console and navigate to Administration – Installed Management Packs. It was a short conversation. Easy peasy, right? Here’s a list, go with G-d. Twenty minutes later, my phone…
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Tapplock: Leave the Combinations & Keys At Home
Over the course of the last three years or so, I have gone through more padlocks than I care to admit. Even when I am careful, I write down the combinations, I label the keys… they always seem to get lost. Even when I do remember them, on two occasions I have had to throw…
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SCOM License – Upgrade?
The installation of System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2016 does not ask you anywhere to enter a license key. Then when you run the Operations Console, you are shown a required task to Upgrade to full version. When you click on the link, it opens a website that is less than helpful. In fact, when you…
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Enabling Agent Proxy in SCOM 2016
System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) chiefly relies on Agents in order to collect the data required to generate its reports. After all, SCOM’s primary functions are monitoring and reporting, right? Well, in order to do this for hundreds to hundreds of thousands of computers, there is a feature called Agent Proxying that helps it out. …
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Expensive Pieces of Plastic
Once again, I find myself sitting at the Microsoft Store in Yorkdale Mall, Toronto. Frankly, if it were not for the snow and traffic, I likely would have dealt with this online, once I got around to it… but Highway 401 through Toronto has a tendency of being congested, so here I sit. Over the…
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Domain Controller Health Service Lockdown Issue with SCOM 2016
I came to this realization last year, but I don’t think I wrote about it. When monitoring domain controllers, specifically domain controllers running on Windows Server 2016, and specifically with System Center Operations Manager 2016 (and later, I assume) have a bit of an issue when you deploy the SCOM Agent to the server. It deploys,…
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Active Directory Recycle Bin
A few years ago, Microsoft introduced the Active Directory Recycle Bin to Windows Server. Wonderful! It is not enabled out of the box, but it is reasonably simple to enable… except, it is not. Firstly, you can do it in the GUI… Open the Active Directory Administrative Center, navigate to local (local), and then in the…
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An Apple a Day…
Longtime readers of this blog will know that three years ago I made the jump from Windows Phone to the iPhone. I have few regrets about the move… the selection of apps on the iPhone (as well as the quality of them) is infinitely better than what I had on the Windows Phone. I can…
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Windows.old is getting old…
Earlier today I was looking for a script to remove the c:\Windows.old directory from my computer following installation of a new version of Windows. Unfortunately, in these times of “Windows 10 is the last desktop OS we will ever deliver, but we are updating it to a new version every six months,” this is needed…
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Change the Page in Command Line
Have you ever wondered what happens when you format a server (or any Windows system) with a small bootable drive, and a large secondary drive? Why would you? It shouldn’t matter, right? Recently a client of mine discovered different, when he formatted a server and then discovered that the Paging File was placed on the…
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Let’s Go: Creating a Windows to Go Hybrid Device
Recently I wrote a review of the Apricorn Aegis Secure Key 3z Flash Drive, a spectacular USB key with some great security features, including a unique keypad that requires you to unlock your device before connecting it to your computer. The same day I received a comment. Anthony asks: Would you be able to provide…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 