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Category Archives: Best Practice

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Group Policy Best Practice – Commenting for Future You!

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Group Policy Best Practice – Commenting for Future You!

“Who was the idiot that created this GPO!” Those were my thoughts yesterday as I tried to sort out a cumbersome GPO. You might be wondering, why was this GPO so bad?

  • The GPO had user and computer settings within it but was linked to an OU containing just users.
  • The GPO referenced security groups that didn’t exist.
  • The GPO had zero comments/explanations.
This tech is so dumb...

This tech is so dumb…

Years ago, I configured this GPO and assumed that future me would remember everything from that day. That was dumb…

McMoody! McMoody! Is anybody home!

McMoody! McMoody! Is anybody home!

Instead, I should have left documentation within the GPO itself. Today, we are going to cover the three ways you can document your GPOs to save future you some work!

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Shadow Groups: Active Directory’s Dark Side

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Have you ever spent time troubleshooting a problem only to discover that a computer or user wasn’t in the right security group? Shadow Groups (sometimes called dynamic security groups) can stop this problem! They work by automatically adding objects to a group based on a name, Organizational Unit, or another attribute. So get ready to embrace the dark side of Active Directory – we are about to set up some shadow security groups!

Shadow Groups
If you only knew the power of the Dark Side…
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Updating BIOS Versions with MDT

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Updating BIOS versions is best done while the machine is imaging. Fortunately for us, the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) provides a built-in mechanism for updating BIOS versions. In this How-To guide, we are going to cover:

  • Creating a central BIOS version repository
  • Modifying your Task Sequence to install the BIOS Update

The examples shown are geared toward Dell machines. This layout should work for any Make and Model though. The only client requirements relate to the actual BIOS update file. It must initiate silently. If you are ready to get your BIOS updates under control, keep reading!

Updating BIOS Versions

 

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How to Not End Your Career: A Personal Story

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In the second year of my internship, I killed 90 computers (the only three labs in our school). By killed, I am talking full Blue Screen of Death that didn’t go away from a reboot. Each machine has to be manually reimaged. Worse, I had to reimage them with Ghost…

Isn't the new BSOD great?

Isn’t the new BSOD great?

That hectic morning taught me two important things when it comes to testing. It would take a few more years for me to learn from two other common mistakes. Here are the four things that might save your job:

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PowerShell Special: Inline .NET code Part 2

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Last Wednesday, we started our deep dive into PowerShell. This week, we continue our exploration of Inline .NET code when scripting. This trick allows you to extend PowerShell and to create custom commands for your environment. If you are interested in other techniques like this, pick up a copy of PowerShell Deep Dives and start really exploring PowerShell!

01

Today’s tutorial focuses on creating a .NET class. This section was written by Richard Siddaway:

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