Technocrat

A quick and easy way to disable user accounts and move them into designated OU: Import-Csv  "C:\TEMP\users.csv"  | ForEach-Object { `       $u=$_. "sAMAccountName" ; $l= "Disabling and moving: "  +$u; write-output $l; `       Get-ADUser -Identity $u | `       Disable-ADAccount -PassThru | `       Move-ADObject -TargetPath  "OU=Disabled Users,OU=Organization,DC=domain,DC=local"    Input is provided via a CSV file: users.csv (username) sAMAccountName   jdoe1   jdoe2   jdoe3   jdoe4   jdoe5   To generate input file run something like this, review and edit as necessary: Search-ADAccount –UsersOnly –AccountInactive –TimeSpan 180.00:00:00 | `       where {$_.enabled} | `       Get-ADUser | `       select sAMAccountName | `       Export-Csv -Path  "C:\TEMP\users.csv"   

Sometimes after a database conversion (e.g. from MySQL to MariaDB) or due to encoding issues a situation might arise when WordPress is showing weird characters. A quick way of remedying the situation would involve examining the pages to discover a pattern (what characters are being substituted, in the example below the apostrophe was replaced by  ’ ) then running an queries against the database to reverse the effect. Here's a quick example (common tables that store content): UPDATE  wp_posts  SET  post_content =  REPLACE (post_content,  'Â' ,  '' )      UPDATE  wp_posts  SET  post_content =  REPLACE (post_content,  '’' ,  "'" )      UPDATE  wp_postmeta  SET  meta_value =  REPLACE (meta_value,  'Â' ,  '' )      UPDATE  wp_postmeta  SET  meta_value =  REPLACE (meta_value,  '’' ,  "'" )      Please, keep in mind that to permanently resolve the issue you would need to get to the root of the p

Skype for Business (SfB) has a very, very strong potential, I have written about it in my previous post . I can't think of any other platform that shows as much promise in terms of bridging personal and business communications as well as unifying different modes and mediums. And all of this may have started with a strategic acquisition of Skype by Microsoft in 2011. That said, the road ahead is not without challenges. For example, interoperability with other platforms. Making SfB work with existing Video TeleConferencing (VTC) systems, many of which represent significant capital investments in organizations' infrastructure, could be of a particular importance. After reading statements like Skype for Business is based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standards and supports H.264 (MPEG-4 video coding standard) one can come to a quick conclusion that integration and/or interoperability with other VTC solutions is easy or nearly automatic. Unfortunately, the industry is not

Skype for Business (SfB), formerly known as Lync, has been steadily gaining in popularity. Partly, because of the robust set of features that has been implemented over the last few releases making the product truly Enterprise ready; partly, due to the rapid proliferation of Office 365, which includes SfB's cloud counterpart. With SfB and/or Skype client software available on a wide variety of hardware platforms (personal computers, tablets, mobile devices) and across multiple operating systems (Windows, Linux, iOS, Android) a possibility of establishing a ubiquitous multi-media communications platform seems firmly within reach. And best of all, when using SfB Online, without the need to invest into an expensive infrastructure. But wait, there's more! The cloud delivers on the promises of more innovation and continuous development cycle - Skype Meeting Broadcast, PSTN Conferencing, Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling are just a few examples. Read more at - Skype for Business Preview

"To help with your assessment needs, we are announcing Office 365 Service Trust Portal (STP). STP is a service feature in Office 365 designed to provide deeper information on how Microsoft manages security, compliance and privacy." - for more information visit Office Blogs Service Trust Portal - https://trustportal.office.com/

PowerShell is all the hype these days, and rightfully so - you can do just about anything with it; but, call me old-fashioned I still like to use ds commands every now and then, it's quick and dirty. Here are a few samples that query AD and to get some basic counts and other information: # Get a count of enabled and disabled user accounts in the domain dsquery user -limit 0 domainroot | dsget user -dn -disabled | find /c /i " no" dsquery user -limit 0 domainroot | dsget user -dn -disabled | find /c /i " yes" # Get a count of enabled and disabled computer accounts in the domain dsquery computer -limit 0 domainroot | dsget computer -dn -disabled | find /c /i " no" dsquery computer -limit 0 domainroot | dsget computer -dn -disabled | find /c /i " yes" # Get a count of enabled, but inactive (at least 24 weeks) user and computer accounts in the domain dsquery user -inactive 24 -limit 0 domainroot | dsget user -dn -disabled | find /c /i

WMI Filters and GPOs are powerful when used in combination (though evaluating MWI filters may slow down policy processing). Just a few quick examples: For settings that may need to be applied to workstations, but not servers one could go with something like this - WMI queries for workstations vs. servers   ​SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE (ProductType <> "2") AND (ProductType <> "3")     ​ - workstations ​SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE ProductType = "1"      ​- workstations ProductType 1 = Desktop OS ProductType 2 = Server OS – Domain Controller ProductType 3 = Server OS – Not a Domain Controller For things like Bitlocker policy that needs to be applied to laptops only one could go with something like this - WMI queries for laptops vs. desktops ​SELECT * FROM Win32_Battery WHERE (BatteryStatus <> 0)      ​- presence of a battery indicates laptop ​SELECT * FROM Win32_PhysicalMemory WHERE (FormFactor = 12)      ​-

Ran into an issue with SQL snapins not registering in PS x86 (needed to run ADMT related scripts). The following resolved the issue. Start PowerShell x86 ( important - run as Administrator ) execute the following sequence: cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn" $framework=$([System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeEnvironment]::GetRuntimeDirectory()) Set-Alias installutil "$($framework)installutil.exe" installutil Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.PSSnapins.dll installutil Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.PSProvider.dll Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100 Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100 To verify that snapins registered correctly examine the output of the following command: get-pssnapin -registered