If you have the task of performing an Active Directory migration from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012 R2, there are a number of steps that you must complete for a smooth transition.Source : 4sysops
Using the CreateFromDirectory and ExtractToDirectory methods, it is possible to compress and extract files. In this tip I will show different constructors that can be used to either compress or extract files using this class. The following example will compress the files stored in the c:\testing folder:
Source : PowerShell Magazine
Excellent article that explain in details my the new Outlook app (Android and iOS) should not be used in enterprises.
Also look at the follow up post : Updates on the latest Outlook iOS App issues
Microsoft has released their iOS app “Outlook” today. And it will break your companies security for mobile PIM access in multiple ways! No matter if you’re a Microsoft Exchange or IBM Notes Traveler customer. I cannot believe that Microsoft has done what they’ve done. Even as a non-Microsoft guy I would have expected that they obey the rules of common company security rules.Read it : {rene.winkelmeyer}
Also look at the follow up post : Updates on the latest Outlook iOS App issues
Microsoft has quietly added Office Remote—previously a Windows Phone exclusive—to the Google Play Store, allowing users of that platform to remotely control PowerPoint 2013 presentations on a Windows PC. There’s no official announcement about the app yet, so it’s possible that an iOS version of the app is coming as well, perhaps as soon as today.
While studying up on Windows 10, I came across a technique that has been shown to reduce the time it takes to apply an OS WIM to disk by 20 – 50%*. That’s a fairly significant savings in time and the implementation of this technique is relatively easy and does not require you to change how you deploy Windows. Believe it or not, the savings come from adjusting the OS power management settings during a deployment. While there are multiple ways to implement these power management settings, below I’ve outlined what I consider the most non-intrusive to existing deployment methods.
Source : Reducing Windows Deployment time using Power Management - The Deployment Guys
In its drive to integrate OneDrive deeply with all of its core products, Microsoft has made the open and save operations in Office 2013 a bit ponderous. If you’re already syncing your OneDrive content to the PC—or if you intend to only use local folders regardless—you can configure various Office applications to open and save files more efficiently. Here’s how.
Source : Office 2013 Tip: Skip the Cloud Integration - Thurrott.com
DFS Replication Initial Sync in Windows Server 2012 R2: Attack of the Clones NedPyle [MSFT] 21 Aug 2013 5:18 PM 9 Hi folks, Ned here again. By now, you know that DFS Replication has some major new features in Windows Server 2012 R2. Today I talk about one of the most radical: DFSR database cloning. Prepare for a long post, this has a walkthrough…
Today we are releasing MS15-011 & MS15-014 which harden group policy and address network access vulnerabilities that can be used to achieve remote code execution (RCE) in domain networks. The MS15-014 update addresses an issue in Group Policy update which can be used to disable client-side global SMB Signing requirements, bypassing an existing security feature built into the product. MS15-011 adds new functionality, hardening network file access to block access to untrusted, attacker controlled shares when Group Policy refreshes on client machines. These two updates are important improvements that will help safeguard your domain network.
Today, we announced the release of Outlook for iOS and a preview of Outlook for Android. If you have an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or Android tablet, chances are that you’re using the built-in email and calendaring capabilities of your device. Why use the new Outlook app instead? We’re glad you asked!
Source : A deeper look at Outlook for iOS and Android - Office Blogs
Last week, I wrote on the arrival of Microsoft’s security bulletin MS14-066, containing a security update addressing several vulnerabilities in the Secure Channel. Yesterday, Microsoft issued an updated version of the update.
Source : The things that are better left unspoken | Update on MS14-066
References : It’s time to update your Secure Channel (MS14-066, CVE-2014-6321)
LAN Speed Test Lite is a very simple network performance test utility that doesn’t have to be installed. You can simply launch it from your USB stick and then measure the upload and download speed for a network share of your choice. After you click Start Test, you can configure the size of the file you want to use for the test.
Source : FREE: Network performance test – LAN Speed Test Lite - 4sysops
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is quickly becoming the most used data-interchange format. XML enjoyed the top spot for a long time but slowly people have been moving towards JSON. JSON is a first-class citizen in Windows PowerShell. With many automation frameworks and software products adopting JSON, it is important for system administrators to understand what is JSON and how to use it. This article is a JSON primer to give you an overview of this data-interchange format and how to use it.
Source : PowerShell Magazine » A JSON primer for administrators
Anyone who is familiar with RDCMan will be thrilled to hear that there is an updated version available! For those of you who are new to RDCMan – it is a tool that allows you to easily manage multiple remote desktop sessions:
Source : Update for RDCMan - Ben Armstrong - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Onetastic is a free multi-purpose addin for Microsoft OneNote 2010 and 2013.
Includes OneCalendar
Source : Onetastic for OneNote
ABC-Update is a free command-line tool that allows you to install Windows updates. It is easy to use and gives you the flexibility of deploying only specific updates in your scripts.
Source : FREE: ABC-Update – Install Windows updates at the command prompt - 4sysops
NEW YORK — Nov. 12, 2014 — On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. reinforced its commitment to cross-platform developer experiences by open sourcing the full server-side .NET stack and expanding .NET to run on the Linux and Mac OS platforms. Microsoft also released Visual Studio Community 2013, a new free edition of Visual Studio that provides easy access to the Visual Studio core toolset. The announcements kicked off Microsoft’s Connect (); event, where the company released Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview.
I think that I will start this Diary with the following statement: If you use an open source CMS, and you do not update it frequently, there is a very high chance that your website if not only compromised but also part of a botnet.
"You should proceed under the assumption that every Drupal 7 website was compromised unless updated or patched before Oct 15th, 11pm UTC, that is 7 hours after the announcement"
Source : InfoSec Handlers Diary Blog - The Wonderful World of CMS strikes again
If you have read some of my previous blog posts and IIS.NET articles about WebDAV, you will see that I often use the WebDAV Redirector that is built-in to Windows in order to connect to various WebDAV websites. This allows me to access my files via a mapped drive letter, which also enables me to use WebDAV with applications that do not have native WebDAV support. (Like Visual Studio.) I'm also a big fan of OneDrive, but sometimes I'm on a legacy system where I don't have OneDrive installed. With that in mind, I thought that I would put together a quick blog series to show you how to map a drive letter to your OneDrive files.
Source : http://blogs.iis.net/
The other day I was troubleshooting 100% CPU utilization on a SQL Server 2008 database server. The server had 100 or so databases of varying sizes however none were larger than a few hundred MB and each database had a corresponding web site on a separate web server. Since the server hosted quite a few databases the high CPU needed to be resolved quickly because it was causing issues for everyone. High CPU on a database server can often be symptomatic of a issues occurring outside the server. In this case the real issue was in fact being caused by a SQL Injection attack on a web server.
Source : Solving SQL Server High CPU with IIS Request Filtering | Peter Viola
Another one of the great built-in features of IIS 8 is Dynamic IP Restrictions (DIPR). With a few simple configuration steps you can quickly set limits for blocking IP addresses based on the number of concurrent requests or frequency of requests over a period time. With these parameters in place IIS will take over blocking requests unattended thereby making your server more secure.
Source : Preventing Automated Attacks with IIS Dynamic IP Restrictions | Peter Viola
