Addressing the PowerShell Garbage Collection bug

September 25, 2017

There is a known bug where PowerShell does not correctly manage a garbage collection whilst executing a pipeline or loop of an object. Simply using [System.GC]::Collect() within the pipeline or loop does not work as expected. Memory continually grows until the pipeline or loop has completed. This becomes a serious problem if you’re script is […]

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Installing, Configuring, Securing and Using MDT Webservices – Part 2

December 22, 2016

In Part 1 we walked through the installation and configuration of Deployment Webservices. In this part we will focus on securing the Webservice. There are five (5) main areas that I focus on to lock down the Webservice, and I’ll include two (2) optional areas for consideration: Use Request Filtering, which is basically what the old […]

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Installing, Configuring, Securing and Using MDT Webservices – Part 1

December 12, 2016

This will be a three part article on installing, configuring, securing and using Maik Koster’s Deployment Webservice. Part 1 – Installing and Configuring Deployment Webservices Part 2 – Securing Deployment Webservices Part 3 – Using Deployment Webservices I’m a massive fan of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and use it for all customer deployments that don’t already have […]

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Script to modify the defaultSecurityDescriptor attribute on the Group-Policy-Container schema class object

June 29, 2016

Last week I published an article about the changes in the behavior of Group Policy processing after the deployment of security update MS16-072 under KB3163622. It included a script to assist with the remediation of Group Policy permissions: Script to report on and remediate the Group Policy security change in MS16-072. Of course that’s not where it […]

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Script to report on and remediate the Group Policy security change in MS16-072

June 22, 2016

On June 14th 2016 Microsoft released security update MS16-072 under KB3163622 that changes the behavior of Group Policy processing so that user group policies are now retrieved by using the machine’s security context instead of the user’s security context. This is a by-design behavior change from Microsoft to protect computers from a security vulnerability. Update 23/06/2016: Microsoft […]

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Netlogon parser for Message Analyzer

January 25, 2015

The Microsoft Message Analyzer is a very cool tool which helps us read and analyse a number of different log and trace file formats. In fact Message Analyzer is the replacement for the old Network Monitor (AKA Netmon) tool. Brandon Wilson from Microsoft wrote a parser for the NetLogon.log files. Here are the references to Brandon’s TechNet blogs: […]

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Script to Import and Bind a Certificate to the Default Web Site

January 4, 2015

This Powershell script will import and bind a certificate to the Default Web Site. I use this script for Citrix StoreFront and Director deployments, but it’s written to be very flexible and versatile so can be used for other tasks. The original idea came from scripts written by Thomas Albaek and Jerome Quief for Citrix StoreFront. The way I’ve written […]

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Script to Change the Drive Letter of all CDROM and DVD Drives

January 4, 2015

This PowerShell script will change the drive letter of all CDROM & DVD Drives found starting from whatever is set as $LastDriveLetter variable, working backwards until it finds an available drive letter. Too many IT Pros leave CDROM/DVD Drives as the drive letter Windows assigns them when first detected, which is typically usually either D: or E:. Then […]

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Custom MDT Wizard For Network Settings

January 4, 2015

Setting a fixed IP Address during the MDT task sequences has always been ugly. It’s an area that I believe needs to be revisited by Microsoft. I don’t like the concept behind the “Apply Network Settings” task action. I don’t find it dynamic enough. In my opinion it’s too cumbersome and involved. The old “NICSettings_Definition_ENU.xml” […]

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Script to Create a Summary Overview and Full Report of all Contact Objects in a Domain

January 2, 2015

This PowerShell script is one of the most comprehensive you will find that provides a thorough overview and full report of all contact objects in a domain. It is the culmination of many Active Directory audit and reviews and therefore contains valuable input from many customers. A lot of thought has been put into the logic […]

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