Browse step-by-step how-to guides covering Windows, Windows Server, networking, and virtualization. These tutorials are designed for IT professionals, system administrators, and home lab users looking for practical solutions and clear instructions.
This is a guide on upgrading System Center Configuration Manager 2012 to Service Pack 1 in a lab environment. Your setup may be slightly different so remember this is a guide, so if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post. Note that I am using … Read more
This query for SCCM will tell you the devices that have been discovered by Configuration Manager in the last 24 hours. This query can be amended to change the amount of days you wish to look back at for newly discovered devices by changing the last digit in the code. SQL Query More Queries Our … Read more
If you are using an Exchange system and have self signed certificates, every year you will have to renew the certificate. An expired certificate may cause problems such as connectivity to web services, SMTP transport and Outlook prompting certificate security warnings which is extremely annoying for users and also can cause problems with Out of Office settings. To do this is very … Read more
This guide will show you what you need to do to capture a Windows XP Service Pack 3 image, which you can then capture and deploy using Configuration Manager.First of all, you need to create a full image that is ready to be captured. This is usually best to install on a virtual machine using … Read more
If you have a Shoretel telephony environment, you may want to change the ringtone of your handset(s). You can do this with the boring built in ones or customise your handset with any tune you like. To do this, there are two methods, one for customising just one phone and another for customising all models … Read more
If you have a Shoretel telephony environment, you may want to change the ringtone of your handset(s). You can do this with the boring built-in ones or customise your handset with any tune you like. To do this, there are two methods, one for customising just one phone and another for customising all models of … Read more
If you are using custom updates for things Java or Adobe updates via WSUS and SCUP, then you need to ensure that you enable signed intranet updates for all your client machines. The best way to do this is to use Group Policy. You should create a new Group Policy Object (GPO) and apply that … Read more
Bit of a simple one this but very useful…. If you want to add a link into the left sidebar of your windows explorer (which is the bit below): All you have to do is browse to %userprofile%Links and then right-click, then go to New then Create Shortcut. Then follow the wizard to create a … Read more
Like most businesses, we still have programs that rely on Windows XP to run. So, I built a Windows XP Professional image to push out to our slightly older machines where XP is needed to run these older programs. Once created, the image on some machines was working fine, but on some (mostly newer older … Read more
If you are as stupid as me and manage to make a partition active that you shouldn’t have done, so long as you haven’t restarted the machine, there is a quick easy fix to put it right. On the machine, do the following: Go into a Command Prompt Type “diskpart” Type “list volume” Type “select … Read more
As you may have seen on some of my previous posts, you can update Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader X via Windows Updates using SCUP through WSUS/SCCM. This stops the annoying pop-ups for users especially when they can’t install updates if they have not got local admin rights – just like standard Windows Updates, this … Read more
A recurring issue that I have is the old Active Desktop in Windows XP. No matter how many times you click the Restore button, you still get the script error. To fix this, you can do the following: Click Start then click Run, type “regedit” and press enter Browse to “HCUSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerDesktopSafeModeComponents” Double click the value DeskHtmlVersion … Read more