Articles Tagged “Information Systems”
24 articles tagged “Information Systems”, newest first.
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The Order of Name Resolution on Windows — hosts, the DNS Cache, LLMNR/mDNS, and DoH
Whether hosts, the DNS cache, the DNS server, or LLMNR/mDNS answered decides why some PCs fail. Learn the Windows name resolution order, what DoH changes, an...
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What Fast Startup Really Does — Why a Windows 'Shutdown' Is Not the Same as a Restart
A Windows shutdown is a hybrid shutdown by default, saving the kernel and drivers to hiberfil.sys. Why only a restart resets them, and when to turn Fast Star...
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From Group Policy to Intune — A Device Management Migration Guide for Small and Medium Businesses
AD server due for replacement: GPO or Entra ID plus Intune? How each applies, licensing, Group Policy analytics inventory, five migration stages, pitfalls fo...
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OneDrive Files On-Demand and Business Apps — The Assumptions Placeholders Break and How to Fix Them
A desktop CSV will not open or an import fails with "file not found": OneDrive's KFM and Files On-Demand may be why. Covers placeholders, attribute checks, a...
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Volume Shadow Copy (VSS): The Mechanism and the Practice — Why Backup Software Can Copy Files That Are Still in Use
In-use files hit sharing violations, yet backup software copies them. This covers VSS requester, writer and provider roles, copy-on-write, vssadmin, and diff...
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A Practical Guide to Group Policy (GPO) — How It Works, Confirming Application, and Choosing Between GPO and Intune
This guide covers how Group Policy works, the LSDOU order, verifying with gpupdate and gpresult, GPO versus Intune, and customer GPOs that change how your ap...
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Windows Security Audit Policy and Event Log Investigation in Practice — Becoming an IT Team That Can Read Event 4625
A practical guide for "look into the failed sign-in logs": basic versus advanced audit policy, subcategories to enable, 4624/4625/4688, Security log sizing, ...
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A Practical Guide to Windows LAPS — Retiring the Shared Local Administrator Password Across All PCs
A shared local admin password lets one compromised PC spread to all via Pass-the-Hash. This guide covers Windows LAPS rotation, AD/Entra ID storage, and oper...
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The Windows Certificate Store in Practice — User or Computer, Which Should You Use?
Should a client certificate go in the user or computer store? A practical guide to certmgr.msc vs certlm.msc, private key permissions, and PowerShell expiry ...
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The Windows Firewall and Business Applications — Register Inbound Rules From the Installer
When a Windows business app cannot communicate on site, triage inbound rules, listening, profiles, and managed policy. Covers rule design, installer registra...
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Windows Update Management After WSUS Deprecation — How to Choose Between WUfB, Autopatch, and Intune
Deprecated in September 2024, WSUS still runs but gains no new features. A decision table weighs WSUS, Windows Update for Business, Autopatch, and Intune, li...
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BitLocker Practical Guide — How to Find the Recovery Key and Manage It Safely
Where is the BitLocker recovery key? Find it from the recovery screen, tell encryption percentage from protection status, and manage company keys, updates, a...
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Why Passkeys Are Secure — How They Work, How They Sync, and What to Watch for If You Lose a Device
Why passkeys are secure, from registration to login: phishing resistance, synced vs. device-bound, revocation and recovery after a loss, plus WebAuthn and Wi...
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How Long Can You Go On Using MSMQ? — The Migration Decision for a Legacy Queue That Isn't Even "Deprecated"
MSMQ is not on Microsoft's deprecated lists, yet System.Messaging is .NET Framework-only and blocks .NET migration. How to decide whether to keep it, and wha...
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AppLocker, App Control for Business (WDAC), and Business App Distribution — Before Application Control Blocks You
Compares AppLocker, App Control for Business (formerly WDAC), and Smart App Control, and covers how to avoid blocks on business apps and how to read the even...
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SMB Signing and LDAP Channel Binding — Closing the "Other Half" of NTLM Defense in Practice
SMB signing and LDAP signing/channel binding limit relay damage while you retire NTLM. We cover OS defaults, audit events, enforcement, and how to fix apps a...
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NTLM and Kerberos Explained with Diagrams — Why Authentication Falls Back to NTLM
Diagrams compare NTLM and Kerberos: challenge/response, TGTs and service tickets, Negotiate's NTLM fallback without an SPN, relay attacks, Pass-the-Hash, and...
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Will NTLM Deprecation Stop Your Business Apps? — How to Collect Audit Logs, and the Order in Which to Kill Dependencies
This article covers how to find where Windows and business apps depend on NTLM: audit policies, NTLM/Operational events 8001-8004, causes and fixes, and SMB ...
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What Is the TPM in Windows? — An Illustrated Guide to the "Safe That Never Lets Keys Out" and Measured Boot
An illustrated TPM guide. It covers keys that never leave the chip, PCRs and Measured Boot, BitLocker and Windows Hello, dTPM, fTPM and Pluton, Get-Tpm, and ...
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Automating PC Provisioning With winget + PowerShell — Making the Runbook Executable
Make new-hire PC setup reproducible: winget installs and export/import, declarative WinGet Configuration, the settings PowerShell fills in, and unattended-ru...
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Hardening PowerShell — Logging, AMSI, Language Modes, and JEA
Use PowerShell safely instead of banning it. This guide covers script block logging and transcription, AMSI, disabling old versions, language modes, and JEA ...
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Investigating Event Logs in Practice with Get-WinEvent — Filtering Speed Decides How Long the Investigation Takes
How to make Windows event log investigation efficient with PowerShell. Covers why filtering with Where-Object is slow, when to use FilterHashtable versus XPa...
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Distributing and Updating PowerShell Modules In-House — PSResourceGet and an Internal Repository
How to move on from copying and reusing ps1 files in a shared folder. Covers how to write a module manifest, versioning, building an internal repository with...
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An Introduction to Microsoft Graph PowerShell — Running Microsoft 365 After the Retirement of AzureAD and MSOnline
A practical guide to migrating Microsoft 365 operations to Microsoft Graph PowerShell now that the AzureAD and MSOnline modules have been retired: connecting...