UPDATED: Jan 3 2022 If you are trying to get rid of Internet Explorer inside your organization, you likely will want to use the new Microsoft Edge (aka. Chromium Edge and CrEdge). The problem is that there are some features inside IE that most companies still can’t live without due […]
If you have Office365 ProPlus (aka Office 2016/2019) you will know that it updates constantly. Originally patches were released weekly but from 2018 one they are released monthly. To be clear, Office365 Pro Plus patches are released on the second Tuesday of each month (aka Patch Tuesday), just like Windows […]
Most users, especially those will laptops, will want Outlook to operate in Cached mode but you likely don’t want Outlook caching on boardroom / focus room / huddle room / client room computers. Cache mode copies a large amount of data from the Exchange server to an .OST file on […]
If you want to block programs from running on your corporate network, you can easily create a Group Policy Object (GPO) to make that happen. However, there are two GPO’s you can use but only one of them works well. Method 1 – GPO to Block Software By File Name […]
When you create a SCHEDULED TASK that needs to run automatically you will specify a service account for the job. That service account must have permissions to run batches, so Windows will popup “This Task Requires That The User Account Specified Has Log On As Batch Job Rights” as shown […]
From time to time Microsoft changes their ADMX templates and that may mean a setting you have configured becomes orphaned. Because you can not see the entry when you are EDITING the GPO you can’t delete it; you can only see it in the GPMC SETTINGS tab. So the question […]
There are 3 ways to configure the START MENU tiles and left RAIL (the thin menu on the far left that defaults with power, settings, documents) in Windows 10 with default applications: A – GPO Using a Windows 10 PC add the tiles and rail configuration you would like. Open […]
UPDATE OCT 18 2018 – You CAN now use a GPO to block the public Microsoft Store but keep your private corporate Store. See our short explanation HERE. After working on setting up a private Microsoft Business Store (businessstore.microsoft.com) I was shocked to find that I could not disable the […]
If you want to set your modern Windows (Win 10, Server 2016, Server 2019…) to not download and install updates automatically, there is a simple Group Policy Object you can create: GPO To Stop Windows From Automatically Updating: Expand COMPUTER > POLICIES > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > WINDOWS COMPONENTS > WINDOWS […]
As you likely already know, because you have found this page, the GPO to disable the MICROSOFT STORE app was set to be ineffective on Windows 10 Pro after build 1511. This annoying change meant that you could only block the store using a GPO if you were running Windows […]
Here are the features that Microsoft is killing in Windows 10 1803. There are two lists, features that have been removed and features that Microsoft has stopped working on. Note that Windows 10 1803 is also known as the “Spring Creators Update” and “Redstone 4”. FEATURES REMOVED FROM WINDOWS 10 […]
Installing and configuring Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on Server 2016 or Server 2012R2 is straight forward. There are four key steps:
To be clear, the process below will take you 20 minutes of work time to complete, but because you have to wait for the install to complete (5-15mins) and then the initial sync to complete (several hours), you will need a day to get your WSUS server functional.
To add the WSUS role launch SERVER MANAGER > MANAGE > ADD ROLES > then click next through to the ROLES and select WSUS. Then click NEXT to the end. Do NOT change the defaults.
If you run Windows 10 in a corporate settings you will likely want to set a few default entries in the START menu and TASKBAR. If nothing else you will likely want to remove the default junk that Microsoft clutters the START menu with. Fortunately after a few hours of […]
If you have Sophos Safeguard you likely have annoying popup messages saying things like: Sophos Safeguard: Communicating With Server Sophos Safeguard: No New Settings Available Sophos Safeguard: Synchronization with Sophos Safeguard server succeeded These will occur several times a day and drive your staff insane. Fortunately there is an easy way […]
If you want to disable the RESTORE button in PREVIOUS VERSIONS/SHADOW COPIES using a Group Policy Object (GPO), you are smart. Humans make mistakes so IT Administrators need to set policies to protect people from themselves. I argued with Microsoft about this fact when Shadow Copies came out and the response was that staff […]
UPDATE: VALIDATED THIS PROCESS ON WINDOWS 10 1909 – SEPT 18 2020 If you have Windows 10 clients on a WSUS server and you want to confirm that they are receiving patches from that WSUS server and not going directly to Microsoft to update, you used to just read the […]