Category Archives: Windows

Hide installed application in Windows

By | May 17, 2024

There may be a time when you need to hide an installed application so that it will not be uninstalled. An easy way to keep an application from being uninstalled is to just hide it from appearing in Windows add/remove programs. This is easily achieved by adding the SystemComponent value DWORD in the uninstall section… Read More »

Powershell .ToString()

By | April 22, 2024

I’m posting this as I spent too much time on figuring out how to convert the current IP of a machine and turn the IP address into an array. I needed this so I can change the last octet to a couple of other values that I would set later in the script. Powershell has… Read More »

Monthly patching schedule

By | October 6, 2023

I am often asked how I perform security and third-party patching for an entire company. Below, I have outlined the basic strategy I use, and this has not varied much in the past 15 years from every company where I have been responsible for maintaining the patching in regard to Windows servers and workstations. First… Read More »

Using Powershell to read registry HKEY_USERS

By | August 30, 2023

This is a small example I put together on how to quickly loop through each user SID in HKEY_USERS and find the value that shows what the wallpaper is set to for each user. This little script is a decent reference to use for finding (And with a little modification, setting) registry value(s) in the… Read More »

Download files from website via Powershell

By | August 11, 2023

A simple method I like to use when I want to quickly run a powershell script to download a file from a webserver. I use this when endpoints are not on an internal network so a network share is not always available, but since I am usually remotely calling the powershell script, Internet access is… Read More »

My favorite Windows management tool

By | December 17, 2021

When I first started at my current job I needed to find a solution that would help me get an inventory of all my assets, assist me in managing and patching as well as some kind of remote access. One of my needs was to find something that would be cost-effective for my organization while… Read More »

Trouble changing Timezone -Server 2019

By | December 3, 2021

I was having problems changing the timezone on a new domain controller today. I am the admin, but I still could not change the timezone region. I kept getting the following message “Unable to continue. You do not have permission to perform this task. Please contact your computer administrator for help.” But again, I am… Read More »