Lee Stevens: Technical Blogs
Because someone's gotta tell the story...
PS without BS: Showing a popup box and killing it
This is a simple solution for those wanting to show a popup box, but not leave it up indefinitely....
Date: 04/30/2018
PS without BS: Replacing Select Case True
This is a short blog to describe how to replace VBScript's brilliant "Select Case True" with...
Date: 04/28/2018
When SQL has no certificate...
Yesterday I posted a blog on how to identify the SQL Certificate used. I had some questions come...
Date: 04/24/2018
Server Core: Navigating an old but new world
Lately, I've done a lot of posting on Server Core and one thing I've neglected to write on is how...
Date: 04/23/2018
PS without BS: Finding the SQL Cert and trusting it to a remote system
This was an interesting case, and surprisingly didn't really find anything on how to do this out...
Date: 04/23/2018
Upgrading SQL Server on Windows Server Core
This, thankfully is a quick and easy blog discussing the how's of an upgrade to SQL Server 2017 from...
Date: 04/16/2018
Upgrading MDT on Server Core
So, in my previous blog on PS without BS: Building MDT and WSUS on Server Core, I outlined how to...
Date: 04/16/2018
Lee's Word Troubleshooting Guide
This is part of a series of my notes and troubleshooting guides referring to Microsoft Office. They...
Date: 03/27/2018
MDT: Using the UDI Wizard without SCCM
For those who know me, you know how deep my background in SCCM is. Over the last while, I have...
Date: 03/20/2018
PS without BS: Some useful GPO cleanup scripts
Just a quick blog with a lot of punch to it: Some easy and great ways to clean up Group Policy. What...
Date: 03/07/2018
Lee's Outlook Troubleshooting Guide
Outlook is a product that has been around for a very long time, with its first release as part of...
Date: 02/27/2018
PS without BS: Building MDT and WSUS on Server Core
Update: If you are looking also how to add the UDI Wizard standalone with MDT (without SCCM), check...
Date: 02/26/2018
Demystify PKI - Act II: Certificate Logging
This is a quick blog on how to enable certificate logging, as by default this is not enabled in...
Date: 02/13/2018
Demystify PKI (aka AD Certificate Services) - Act I: Cryptography
Some things are just a lot to digest, and so I thought it may be useful to the ditial world to kind...
Date: 02/13/2018
PS without BS: Removing WMI Queries from GPMC
One of the neat features back in (cough) Windows Server 2003 was the addition of WMI filters to...
Date: 02/05/2018
PS without BS: Fixing the user primary group
This is a Part 2 from my blog Group membership isn't consistent in AD Users and Computers. In this...
Date: 02/03/2018
Lee's Excel Troubleshooting Guide
In troubleshooting various Excel issues, I have found the following solutions to work quite often....
Date: 02/02/2018
Excel: Subtract Minutes from Time
So, you have a spreadsheet and you're trying to log time entries, say for work. You work 8:00 to...
Date: 01/17/2018
Excel VBA: Deleting a worksheet in code
I wanted to take a moment and share a little VBA in Excel that would delete a worksheet from code....
Date: 01/16/2018
Excel VBA: Replacing text in a specific column with code
Another really quick code snippet to replace text in a specific column through code. Usage is...
Date: 01/16/2018
SCCM 1710 and PeerCaching: Technical Notes
Executive OverviewSCCM peer cache was first introduced in SCCM 1610 as a pre-release feature and...
Date: 01/15/2018
Group membership isn't consistent in AD Users and Computers
This was the case of another interesting troubleshoot I ran across where users weren't enumerating...
Date: 10/04/2017
The future of old apps with Windows 10
The past is hard to let go of, let's be honest. In the IT world, there is a lot of truth to some of...
Date: 09/21/2017
PS without BS: Creating Random Test Users in Active Directory
This was an interesting ask, and kind of showcases a couple of different techniques. The ask was to...
Date: 09/19/2017
Troubleshooting Internet Explorer and the CRL mystery
This was an interesting case, and didn't see much on this when I searched around the public...
Date: 09/08/2017
Detecting port availability and blockage: Part 2, The Trace
Note: For Part 1 of this blog, "The players", Click Here So, back to our scenatio and detecting port...
Date: 08/31/2017
Detecting port availability and blockage: Part 1, The Players
Note: For Part 2 of this blog, "The trace", Click Here In a recent blog "Welcome to the domain, just...
Date: 08/31/2017
Protecting from Accidental Deletion (or not)
An interesting conversation came up today regarding the Active Directory feature "Protect from...
Date: 08/23/2017
SCCM: For those nasty incremental collections
One feature that is easily misunderstood in SCCM is one of "incremental updates to collections",...
Date: 08/22/2017
Welcome to the domain. Just kidding.
I ran across a strange issue recently in regards to joining a server to the domain, so I hope this...
Date: 08/21/2017
Demystifying the UNC Hardening Dilemma
Had an interesting issue come up today, and wanted to break it down a bit for my own understanding....
Date: 08/09/2017
The classic "Whodunit": Who removed IIS?
I had a recent issue where a customer's SCCM Distribution Point came up non-functional. Upon looking...
Date: 08/03/2017
MPControl 500 error after removing WSUS and the SUP from SCCM
One thing I have found interesting, intriguing, and somewhat ironic is a glorious lack of need for...
Date: 07/25/2017
PS without BS: Let's play "Where's that MSI?"
That infamous folder c:\windows\installer can take up a lot of space and resources, more...
Date: 07/19/2017
Recovering a SQL database via T-SQL
So this post is courtesy of a late night database issue. One of my important SQL databases was...
Date: 07/19/2017
Locked out of SQL...No More
I had an interesting issue come up at a customer where they needed to change SQL Memory and reattach...
Date: 07/10/2017
SCCM Servers showing their state as "Unknown"
I recently came across a unique issue where SCCM had not been reporting site status for its remote...
Date: 06/27/2017
PS without BS: Getting AD Users with a Filter
Recently, I was asked to get a list of admin accounts within multiple domains, however, all domains...
Date: 06/26/2017
Allowing RDP access to only certain IPs
I had an issue come up recently where the ask was to only allow RDP access to certain IPs. The trick...
Date: 06/26/2017
I can't connect - but the firewall is off!
Sometimes you simply cannot connect to another system, in one case a domain controller. You know the...
Date: 06/21/2017
PS without BS: How many times have you joined the domain?
Ever since the beginning of what is today called Active Directory, the default has always been to...
Date: 06/14/2017
How can I still use NTBackup after Server 2008?
You're probably wondering why on earth anybody would still want to use NTBackup after we removed it...
Date: 06/12/2017
PS without BS: multiple replace of a string
Been a busy blog day, but the last one today (promise). There is feature that is unique to...
Date: 06/09/2017
PS without BS: Extracting DHCP Reservations to a CSV
Just a quick snippet that shows how to extract existing reservations into a text file using...
Date: 06/09/2017
CMTrace without CMTrace
A quick blog to give cheap pop to PowerShell and it's rescuing power, yet again. Just a nice, quick...
Date: 06/09/2017
Changing individual quick action buttons via GPP
I was asked today if there was a way to change individual quick action items via GPO, and...
Date: 06/07/2017