Category Archives for Windows Server

IIS backup and restore

Backup and restore IIS configuration with appcmd

If you are using Windows Server IIS as your web server software, it is important to make regular backups. Luckily, using appcmd this is quite easy.

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.

Security baseline for Windows 10 v1903 and Windows Server v1903 – final release

Microsoft is pleased to announce the final release of the security configuration baseline settings for Windows 10 version 1903 (a.k.a., “19H1”), and for Windows Server version 1903.

Setting up Monit monitoring in Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog article about setting up Monit monitoring on an Ubuntu VM on Hyper-V. Now it’s time to do the same, but then in Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL. So, without further ado, here is how to install and configure Monit monitoring in Windows 10 WSL.

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.

Silently import .reg file in your Windows registry

To add a .reg file silently to your Windows registry, you can use the regedit command. As almost always, the /s parameter is for silent and /q for quiet.

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.

11+ Tips to optimize Umbraco CMS

Umbraco is a popular, ASP.NET powered, content management system (CMS). Even though it performs pretty well, here are 11+ tips to optimize the performance of Umbraco powered websites on IIS.

How to set SVN_EDITOR environment variable in Windows Server

On a newly installed workstation or server, you might encountered the following subversion error when you commit a change:

Manually fail-over all databases in an SQL Server Database Mirroring configuration

How to manually fail-over an SQL Server database mirroring session?

How to manual fail-over mirrored SQL Server databases using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) in SQL Server 2017+. This can only be initiated from the principal server, and the mirrored database must be synchronized (that is, when the database is in the SYNCHRONIZED state). In this article I’ll show you how to force a fail-over.

Start all stopped application pools that have Autostart set to true

Just a quicky: Start all stopped application pools in IIS that have the autostart property set to true. Easily with appcmd or the IISAppPool cmdlet that’s available in the IISAdministration PowerShell module. 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 10 and Windows Server quality updates

What’s next for Windows 10 and Windows Server quality updates

Microsoft’ll be bringing a new design for quality updates to the next major versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server, coming later this year, Maliha Qureshi writes. This design creates a compact update package for easier and faster deployment.

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?