Category: Windows

Fix trust relationship between workstation and primary domain

The following solution worked on a Microsoft Windows 10 Professional workstation. You can reset the computer password using the PowerShell cmdlet Reset-ComputerMachinePassword. This is the fastest and most convenient way to reset the password of a computer and doesn’t require reboot. Reset-ComputerMachinePassword -Server DomainServer -Credential DomainName\UserName To test a trust relationship use Test-ComputerSecureChannel. Test-ComputerSecureChannel -Verbose You can also repair secure…

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Delete a Windows Recovery Partition via CLI

The Windows Recovery Partition always seem to be at the end of the drive. This makes it nearly impossible without a third-party utility to expand the disk space. I don’t recall ever a time where I needed to access this partition. I don’t know why Microsoft in their infinite wisdom did not incorporate this functionality in their Disk Management utility….

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Update to Windows 11 Breaks Mozilla Firefox

Since Microsoft in their infinite wisdom insists on push the masses into their “flagship” Windows 11 by no longer offering Windows 10 licenses from their site (although still possible to purchase elsewhere), where Windows 10 is supported until 2025, I started to test Windows 10 latest to Windows 11 latest upgrades. The goal is to see if anything breaks, before…

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Rocky Linux to Microsoft WSL 2

Assumption, you have WSL 1 installed.  You want to upgrade to WSL 2 but get a “WSL 2 requires an update to its kernel component.” error. Source(s)

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Upgrade Windows 10 21H1 to 21H2 (KB5003791)

It seems that the official Microsoft position to upgrading to 21H2 from 21H1 is to refresh the Windows Update page. I haven’t seen any evidence of that of being a viable solution. It is obvious that there is a KB associated with the update but it seemed difficult to track down. Updates Not only has the appropriate KB been tracked…

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SSLRobot Proxy Warning Resolution

A fantastic little utility called SSLRobot is a TLS/SSL checking tool that differentiates itself from other tools by checking locally installed root CA certificates (Windows or MacOS) to support servers that use custom in-house generated SSL certificates. I wanted to test a known website … this one.  Just type in the name and hit Go. An Overall Grade A+ was…

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Windows 11: Install on VMware Workstation

There are CPU, TPM 2.0, and RAM requirements that must be met to install Microsoft Windows 11. These requirements are met when installing as a VM on VMware Workstation 16.  This has successfully been tested on October 6, 2021 with the official Microsoft ISO. while preforming a fresh install of Microsoft Windows 11. After you get past the setup screen,…

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Windows 10 Path to Current Desktop Backgrounds

Microsoft has made it increasingly impossible to easily manage a Microsoft Windows 10 system.  The act of applying a new background to the desktop is relatively simple. But what if you would like to use that image elsewhere; where is this file stored. This wouldn’t be necessary if the background that was applied still existed at it’s original source. Here…

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Windows Firewall to Block WAN and Allow LAN Only Access

You want to test an applications capabilities on your local network and block all other networks and Internet access while on your Microsoft Windows 10 system.  This process was tested using Version 1909 (OS Build 18363.1440).  Assume for this experiment that you want to allow any computer or device access to and from this workstation that is found on the…

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Windows 10 Upgrade to 20H2 Breaks VMware Workstation

After an update to a Windows 10 system to the 20H2 build, it was quickly noted that the device manager added virtual ethernet ports to support Hyper-V.  A sneaky suspicion that this would break VMware Workstation 15 and it did. A VMware Workstation Solution The first thought, why not try to launch a virtual machine in the existing VMware Workstation…

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Windows: Useful Commands

The intent of this page is a quick reference of some interesting and useful PowerShell and other commands. dism Enable/disable telnet client through command line telnet isn’t something that I use often, but when needed, here is the command.  After using telnet, it may be advisable to remove it.  Here are the two commands to add/remove telnet. dism /online /Enable-Feature…

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iDRAC 7 and Java 8 Connection Failed Easy Work-a-round

There is an older Dell PowerEdge (“PE”) R720xd; it comes equipped with the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (“iDRAC7”) Enterprise. The iDRAC has recently been provided a network connection and upon any attempt at launching the console from the Virtual Console Preview, it quickly resulted in the Connection failed messages. This guide will demonstrate how to download and install…

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NFL Pick ‘Em for 2019 Season

NFL PHP Pick ‘Em is a free php web app that allows you to host a weekly NFL pick ’em football pool on your website.  This fantastic tool replaced the use of spreadsheets.  There was a time that this tool was not supported.  However, I just checked out the www.phpickem.org website it is is updated for 2019. I wish I…

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Add a GUI to Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Core / Standard

There was a server with Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Standard installed with GUI, for some unknown reason the GUI was uninstalled along with PowerShell.  To reinstall or install these “features”, the install.wim file is needed.  Using a mounted Windows 2012 R2 Standard ISO is one such way. These are the steps to “recover” the GUI and PowerShell.  Since PowerShell is…

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VMware Workstation loses bridged network

VMware Workstation loses bridged network and it does not want to come back following the usual methodologies.  I restarted the VMware Workstation services, used the Network Manager, and reboot the computer all to no avail.  In the end, it was something that wasn’t a problem before. Problem On a Microsoft Windows 10 workstation running VMware Workstation 12 for many months…

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Microsoft Windows 7 Hidden Modes

Microsoft has a little gem some have called “GodMode“, but there are actually 16 of them. These modes are easy to add to your computer. Simply create a folder and name them with a specific name. Setup GodMode From the desktop: Here is a list of the modes that you would use to replace the {xxxx-xxx-xxx-xxx} above: {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} {00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33} {0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}…

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