Get Active Directory Password Change Dates – 60 second solutions

Here’s another very useful script which simply lists all of your users in Active Directory, sorted by when their passwords were last changed. Great for checking if your password policies are actually being enforced… Import-Module ActiveDirectory #This may be done automatically when issuing the next line Get-ADUser –Filter * -Properties PasswordLastSet, PasswordNeverExpires | Sort PasswordLastSet […]

Exchange Online and Hybrid Exchange Auditing Configurations

Exchange is a very powerful piece of software. Unfortunately, misconfigurations, shared mailbox access, rogue admins and more can allow sensitive data to be viewed or deleted. I experienced this a few weeks ago where a member of a shared mailbox was deleting emails that needed dealing with! Let’s have a look at how to track […]

Using Shadow Copies on Windows Server (and Desktop)

Shadow Copies can be a lifesaver – when used correctly. They are not a replacement for backups, but can sometimes stop you reaching for that backup tape stored in the depths of the IT office (yes, in that cupboard!). I recently had a user who managed to delete an entire folder from a shared area […]

Adobe Lightroom fails to import photos (or the case of 65k temp files)

So I recently had to fix a problem for one of my family (hey Mum!), whereby Lightroom (4.6 at the time) was failing to import photos from any of her digital cameras through Lightroom. Problem Lightroom would open the import window and just seemingly freeze (100% of one CPU core in use). Copying the photos […]

Failure configuring Windows Features, reverting changes

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the last two days trying to fix this: Failure configuring Windows features. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer. This post is about a very specific case of this error, which probably won’t apply to most people: Attempting to change from Windows Server 2012 Core (Standard/Datacenter), Server […]

(System Center) Virtual Machine Manager 2012, Hyper-V, SMB shares

Ever seen this in System Center Virtual Machine Manager? Computername, Unsupported Cluster Configuration, Host Normally, it’s down to something silly like someone forgot to detach an ISO image from the CD drive when they were finished using it, but today I came across it in a different context. Server 2012 includes Hyper-V 3, which supports […]

Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 7 64bit

We had an interesting issue with Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer 10 and Windows 7 64bit today – when opening a PDF from an untrusted website on the Internet, IE would display a grey/black ‘broken page’ icon in the top right with an ‘infobar’ message at the bottom: The webpage wants to run ‘AcroPDF.dll’. If you […]