Tag Archives for " PowerShell "

Use -SearchBase with Get-ADComputer for faster results

This might be specific to my Windows Server environment and PoSH scripting, but using -SeachBase with PowerShell’s Get-ADComputer gives me faster results. You can use this for your own advantage, here is a little example to speed up AD DS queries.

Install Windows Server Servicing Stack Updates (SSU) using PowerShell

You can install Servicing Stack Updates (SSU) for Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 using PowerShell, without downtime. Because they must be installed prior to your normal Windows Server security updates, you can install them anytime you want to during the day. Here’s a small PowerShell example to do so.

How to verify SMBv1 is disabled in Windows and Windows Server

Since WannaCry and Petya ransomware were spreading through Windows systems in 2017, it’s recommended to have Server Message Block version 1 (SMBv1) disabled in Windows clients and Windows Server. Now SMBv1 is not installed by default in Windows 10 1709 and Windows Server, version 1709 and later, but how can you be sure it is disabled in older Windows versions? Easy, use PowerShell.

How to uninstall and remove Adobe Flash Player in Windows Server

Ever wondered why Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) offers Flash updates for Windows Server? Adobe Flash Player is installed on Windows Server 2016 / 2019 if you have the Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) role installed. Yikes! I can imagine you want to delete Adobe Flash Player without deleting the RDSH role, and here is how.

Working with file attributes in PowerShell

How to use the Windows PowerShell cmdlet Get-ItemProperty to work with file attributes.

Working with PowerShell’s Get-ItemProperty to get file attributes may boost your work productivity. It’s often easier to getting things done if you have a more generic way of doing something. Here is how to use Get-ItemProperty in PowerShell to perform and streamline day to day tasks like installing or updating software based on file versions.

Windows privilege escalation guide

Ryan McFarland writes on his blog: “Privilege escalation always comes down to proper enumeration. But to accomplish proper enumeration you need to know what to check and look for. This takes familiarity with systems that normally comes along with experience. At first privilege escalation can seem like a daunting task, but after a while you start to filter through what is normal and what isn’t. It eventually becomes easier to know what to look for rather than digging through everything hoping to find that needle in the haystack. Hopefully this guide will provide a good foundation to build upon and get you started.”

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Windows Server 2016 on Hyper-V stuck at stopping

… and the guest server VM won’t reboot

If a Windows Server 2016 guest VM on Hyper-V hangs while stopping after Windows Updates, it might be caused by the recovery debug information type set. Especially when you have moved the Windows PageFile to a different partition/VHDX.

List all SPNs used in your Active Directory

There are a lot of hints & tips out there for troubleshooting SPNs, or Service Principal Names. Listing duplicate SPNs is fairly easy, just use setspn -X on your command-line and you’ll find out. But how do you find out which SPNs are used for which users and computers are used for this?

How to: Determine which .NET Framework versions are installed

Users can install and run multiple versions of the .NET Framework on their computers. When you develop or deploy your app, you might need to know which .NET Framework versions are installed on the user’s computer.

How to unzip a file in PowerShell

Unzipping a file on your PowerShell command line may come in handy sometimes, even on your Windows 10 workstation. Use Expand-Archive for this, and all that is required is PowerShell 5.0+, or the .NET 4.5+ Framework to use System.IO.Compression.ZipFile.

How to determine if a SQL Server backup is compressed?

Compressed SQL Server backups can be verified in PowerShell using a handy PowerShell function. This comes in handy when you need to verify if existing SQL Server backups are compressed.

WsusPool keeps crashing: stops again and again

Sometimes you find your WSUS server keeps crashing over and over again. WSUS is unavailable and/or the WSUS management console hangs. When you start to investigate as to why Windows Server Update Services crashes, you’ll notice the following error message being logged in the HTTPErr log files:

How to detect ethernet network speed in Windows

Detect the ethernet network speed using PowerShell or WMI is perfect for Windows Server Core. If you ever need to lookup the speed of your ethernet network card in Windows, on the command-line, use one of the following WMIC commands on your PowerShell prompt:

DisableNSRecordsAutoCreation with Dnscmd

This post explains how to restrict automatic NS resource record registration in Windows Server DNS using Dnscmd. This prevents Windows Server DNS to automatically create NS records for zones that it hosts on the server.

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5 Extra ways to clean up disk space in Windows Server

Disk cleanup in Windows Server using DISM is one of the most popular posts here on Saotn.org. It is still valid for Windows Server 2016 and up. So apparently, disk space usage is an issue in Windows Server. Which made me wonder: what more ways to clean up disk space in Windows Server are there?