Philip Elder

WINDOWS SERVER 2025 GROUP POLICY UPDATES: Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows Server 2025 (March 2026 release) microsoft.com/en-us/download… Group Policy Settings Reference Spreadsheet for Windows Server 2025 (March 2026 release) microsoft.com/en-us/download… HT: Abbodii on the PatchManagement.Org DL

@hetmanrecovery We use GetDataBack with RAID Reconstructer by Runtime Software: runtime.org/data-recovery-… We've pulled quite a few out of the hat with some requiring the "freezer" technique to give us enough time to get the data!

@MPECSInc Controller failure doesn’t always mean data loss. Here’s how to restore RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10 after an ST-Lab A-520 failure: x.com/hetmanrecovery… #RAID #DataRecovery

STORAGE FAILURE: STORAGE SPACES DO NOT DO 1: Buy server with RAID controller. 2: Set up all disks as a Single Disk RAID 0 3: Deliver said arrays as LUNs to the OS 4: Set up Storage Spaces Pools 5: Grab said single disk RAID 0 LUN as SS Disk 6: Set up 2-Way Mirror 7: Set up Virtual Disk at 100% of available space Why? One disk fails and there's a risk that the pool will be pooched as well. A very high risk. So high in fact, that if there's a disk failure the pool is going to be done. Use a Host Bus Adapter (IT MODE HBA). Plug all of the disks into that. Let Storage Spaces do its thing. OH!!!! And leave at least 1 disk + 250GB of free space in the pool to allow SS to rebuild a failed disk. This is the only way to reduce the risk of total loss if one disk fails! SS will rebuild that disk's content across all disks in the pool so it's _quick_ thus reducing the risk of a total loss. It is our preference to have at least 2 Disks +300GB of free space in the pool to allow time for a replacement disk, or disks, to get plugged in.

@techspence Heh ... me thinks we in the on-premises world, neglected for close to two decades, need to get the word out somehow eh? ;-)

@MPECSInc no, 95%

Until I stop having conversations where me mentioning LAPS to someone is the first time they have ever heard it, I won't stop making content about this...

I was this close || to the Journeyman's ticket with big dreams of this. Funny or F1 it didn't matter. I had a very solid grasp on making that air pump move that air better than many. I'd been a part of the Big Three HP to Cubes gang for a long time by then. One of the "guys" in "I know a guy". The itch is still there. ;-)

At that point just strap dynamite to the back of the funnycar and blast it forward.

@HackingDave I despise the word "this" in anything I see now whether headline or subheadline. IGNORE

What I’m realizing is 99.9999999999999999999999999% of AI posts are from people that are trying to get more followers and clicks and has no real world experience on actually deploying. “Improve your workflow 80% by this one Claude skill” “Omg they just released this and it changes the industry completely” It’s all bogus. Create your own workflow that is tailored to you. Don’t buy into this garbage.

@dodo_sec @0xTib3rius @UK_Daniel_Card Me too. CAPTCHA: What critter belongs in the bird house? Click them all. ME: Dog, cat, squirrel. FAIL Retry: Wash, rinse, dry, repeat. All of them when I have time. For anyone with hosted e-mail using human inferencing in email would be a great way to mess with the models.

@0xTib3rius @UK_Daniel_Card I always made it a mission of mine to do the scanned word outrageously wrong

literally everyone with an IQ > a dead newt realised that the detections (bloody autocorrect) for captchas were training models. it's not 'breaking news'

I remember the propane conversions going through the shop I worked in time ago. Peeps thought that cheap propane would reduce their daily gas cash outlay. Um, first: 50% of the energy of gasoline. Oops. Need twice as much to do the same work. Second: Had to change the valve seats and valves in the heads so they didn't burn up. Big $$$$ Third: First BOOM in an underground garage had virtually every underground parking facility BAN propane. Done. Finished. I remember the complaints too. Drivers were right upset their fuel bills were more than they were with gas! In the early days it was all or nothing. No hybrid gas/propane. We did well with the conversion though! ;-)

Hydrogen is the stupidest, most ridiculous, and most impossible energy alternative. It takes 5 to 10 times more energy than it returns. This has been known since 2004, yet hydrogen refuses to die. It is far from renewable because it contains no energy at all—energy must be forced into it like a battery—and you lose even more when converting it back to electricity. It has the worst energy return of any alternative: far more energy goes in than you ever get back. Consider the process: you first split hydrogen from natural gas or use far more energy to electrolyze it from water, then compress or liquefy it, build extremely expensive and short-lived steel containers and pipelines (since hydrogen embrittles them), and finally deliver it to virtually non-existent hydrogen vehicles. Fuel cell technology remains far from commercial. It is also highly explosive. Hydrogen requires 12 times less energy to ignite than gasoline vapor, so the smallest spark or heat source can turn it into a bomb.

Once the Windows Vista 64-bit drivers matured enough to push performance beyond the 32-bit version of the OS we never looked back. It took about 12-18 months for vendors to get their collective stuff together to make that happen. The new "TrustWorthy Computing" (TwC) initiative that was released in Windows Vista was a total buy-in for us. We spent a lot of money on training. Even though we had to shoehorn crapware like QuickBooks in because Intuit didn't get their code to work in the beta we ended up with a whole series of accounting applications, among others, that we figured out how to get running on it. SysInternals Process Monitor is a handy tool for that. Suffice it to say both Microsoft and the G00g put a stake through the heart of the entire TwC effort by installing crapware into %LocalAppData% with nary a thought to it. Browsers. Then so-called "Modern" apps. Yeah, modern my Jackass. What a Fool's Errand it was to believe that "Secure by Default" could be a thing. :-P

@FrankBr05713205 I replaced one on my 1983 Dodge Charger 2.2. The input shaft seal broke down over time but then one day puddle. Part was cheap. It was a chore to replace but it got done on a Saturday. Wheel alignment on Monday.

For years cars have used hydraulic steering racks that used power steering fluid. Todays cars use electric steering racks which use no power steering fluid. Biggest difference to car owners is replacement cost. The hydraulic rack can be had for approx. $200 to $300 on most cars (plus labor). The electric rack will set you back $ 1,800 (part only) and much more depending on vehicle and they have to be programmed after installation. Technology comes at a cost many times. I will stick to keeping a 3 dollar bottle of power steering fluid on hand for my older car.

Windows Server 2012 R2 on Hyper-V in Windows Server 2025 (Standalone or Clustered) Didier has a great post on the registry tweaks needed to get a legacy VM to boot on a new Windows Server 2025 Hyper-V cluster post lift-and-shift here: blog.workinghardinit.work/2026/03/17/how… The post has how to recover post move but also how to prep the VM before the lift-and-shift saving that heart stopping moment! ;-) .@WorkingHardInIT

@MactelecomN At least they had the courtesy to provide a series of loops behind it!

The only right way to install an access point

@BrandonCOdom Image is the URL below with the software we use to create the .XML file. ADK is here: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-… Windows System Image Manager Reference: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-…

@SwiftOnSecurity Solzhenitsyn eh? What have we learned?

My home repairs are now largely complete, how a new bookshelf to be my new home office video background. Still waiting for rest of books from storage

@BrandonCOdom That's Windows Deployment Services? The language is not very precise. What's being discontinued? We know WDS is done. I don't see AutoUnattend.XML going anywhere.

@manelrodero This is the basic outline of everything: mpecsinc.com/os-guide-slips… We need to update the KB for our current deployment methods. The catch is not having the time to do so. It's on the To Do List as is revamping the site! ;-)

@MPECSInc Do you have this procedure publicly documented on GitHub or similar? It looks very good.

WINDOWS DEPLOYMENT: AUTOUNATTEND.XML MEANS FAST, SIMPLE, ROBUST, AND CONSISTENT DEPLOYMENT WITH IMAGE MANAGEMENT TIPS We use the AutoUnattend.XML file as the basis for both our bare metal (BareM-) and virtual machine (VM-) OS installs. The primary difference between Bare Metal and Virtual Machine are: - No Auto-Partitioning/Auto-Partitioning -- For bare metal we choose the OS destination - Bare Metal has the Prompt to Install step -- We've seen boot orders get messed up -- This insures a server reboot goes to the OS All AutoAttend.XML files have: - OS keyed with Automatic Activation Keys - RDP enabled - Firewall exceptions set up - OEM settings in place - And more We use OSCDImg.EXE to generate the .ISO files to auto-boot so we're not stuck with hitting a key for VM boot post PowerShell setup script in a cluster or standalone setting. - Bare Metal OS Installs by Edition - VM OS Auto-Install by Edition - Dedicated Veeam Bare Metal OS install -- This one is big with all the Veeam fixings For Install.WIM files that don't have needed drivers we'll slipstream needed drivers into the OS using DISM then create the .ISO file using OSCDImg.EXE. That way we always have a fresh OS with the most up to date drivers for AMD and Intel chipsets, Mellanox and Intel network drivers, and more. We use RUFUS to lay bare metal images down on a 128GB Kingston DataTraveler Micro USB 3.2 flash drive. It's not the fastest for writes but we get an OS installed in minutes due to high read speeds. That flash drive remains plugged in to the bare metal server permanently. It will serve as an install source if something causes the node/host OS to get nuked. AVMA Keys are here: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-…

@BrandonCOdom Qualify: Link please? We're still using the file for our Windows Server 2025 bare metal standalone and cluster node installs along with virtual machine.

I do. I believe. We have built a robust, and secure, AD via Group Policy and Group Policy Preferences. Who needs the complication of Tiers when one can refine and segment via separate forests/domains altogether? Simplicity. KISS That's the way! Group Policy FTW! :0)

Sometimes, too much caffeine can cause the brain, especially a dyslexic one like mine, to flip around a bit too much! Now I see it! Every ______g Thing LoL That alone set us back at least 4-6 weeks because getting a _good_ data cable contractor here is extremely difficult. Reminder: Never let an electrician run data cables unless they have the Fluke certification gear which means they know what they are doing!

@techspence Brain hiccup ... EFC ... Heh

I question your dedication to IT of you don’t have numerous bags and boxes of cables ready at any given moment… 😅😂 Show me yours