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  • Blog

    PowerShell Basics – Command Structure

    Although you’ve almost certainly used PowerShell by now, you may not be comfortable writing your own commands and scripts.  With PowerShell being the de facto scripting platform for Windows administration, being able to confidently write and execute your own scripts is an invaluable skill.  As networks get larger and larger, the need to increase efficiency…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Domain Controller Selection

    The process of a Windows client selecting an Active Directory domain controller isn’t too complex but is often not fully understood.  Let’s look at the way a member server chooses a DC and how this affects applications. Why it Matters Windows will optimize connections to the best available domain controller for the following types of…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Removing Ghost Mailboxes from Exchange with Remove-Mailbox and -StoreMailbox

    I ran into an absolutely crazy issue which involved Exchange 2010 and a group of “ghost” mailboxes.  The specifics were that the mailboxes showed up in Get-MailboxStatistics reports on the databases, but were not connected, “Deleted”, or “Soft Deleted”.  They were not visible in the console, or during a Get-Mailbox command, through either their GUID…

    Nathan Lasnoski
  • Blog

    Policy Analyzer

    Policy Analyzer is a tool released a couple of years ago that allows an administrator to easily compare two or more GPOs to find the differences between them.  It’s a little clunky to use for quick troubleshooting, but for in-depth GPO work, this is a great tool for helping review and organize GPOs.  Here, we’ll…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Disabling Windows Update in Windows 10 IoT Core

    If you’re working with Windows 10 IoT Core on your devices and have wondered how you can disable Windows Update, well wonder no more! This article will detail out the steps needed to disable this service. First off, I’d like to state that I don’t recommend that you disable Windows Update on your devices running Windows…

    Concurrency, Inc.
  • Blog

    Crash Dump Analysis

    Extracting information from a memory dump after a server crash is an important part of root cause analysis.  Although this is an advanced topic, and debugging crash dumps is often a very complex task, here we will look at the basics.  This information is enough to get started and debug a simple crash that has…

    Concurrency, Inc.
  • Blog

    Focused Inbox in the Outlook Mobile App

    The primary view in the Outlook mobile app Inbox is Focused Inbox.  The Focused Inbox is replacing Clutter and is meant to filter important emails into your main Inbox view as further explained here.  Regardless of what view you’re in, particularly in the Outlook mobile app, you’ll still receive all emails but the mobile app…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    Netsh Packet Captures

    A common troubleshooting step is collecting a packet capture to see what’s happening at the network level.  Perhaps you’re trying to track down a port blocked by a firewall or a connection that just isn’t working right.  For this, many people would install Wireshark, Microsoft Network Monitoring (netmon), or Microsoft Message Analyzer.  However, Server 2008 R2 and…

    Concurrency
  • Blog

    8 Things to Know about OneDrive Files On-Demand

    Files On-Demand is a game changer for how you interact with your content within Office 365. Files On-Demand allows access to all of your files without using storage on your device. This means you can view all your files that you have synced without having them on your device. With this feature you don’t need…

    Concurrency