Over the past several days, I have been exploring the idea of retrieving information for diagnostic purposes from Windows hosts using PsExec of the Sysinternals suite. This is something that might make sense for a small environment, as it is clientless, and there is really no overhead besides the lightweight PsExec tool, and the ThreadJob…
Category: HomeLab
PowerShell, Reddit, Confetti, and Rick Astley
The other day, I came across this Reddit post on r/sysadmin: https://reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/FkC30bMxCJ The OP explains that his CEO has requested that he make confetti appear on everyone’s screen simultaneously to celebrate a milestone. I found the absurdity of the request hilarious. And, I took it as a challenge to script something similar- but I took…
PowerShell – Convert PsExec-run Cmdlet Output Strings Back to Objects, Properties, & Values
I have been experimenting with using PsExec of the Sysinternals suite to gather information from remote Windows systems for diagnostic use. I’ve found it to be a powerful tool, especially when integrated with PowerShell scripts. It is able to execute a script or command on a remote machine and return the output back to the…
PowerShell – Programmatically Determine the Primary User of a Device
Configuration Manager includes the device property and concept of UserDeviceAffinity, with which the Primary User of a device can easily be determined and referenced. But, what if your environment does not have MECM in place? MECM is a lot of overhead for a small environment. How might one maintain this capability? Well, user log on…
Build Your Own “Lab Hydration Kit”
When performing iterative development or testing work, it is critical to be able to quickly stand up a “clean slate” environment. The concept behind the hydration kit is to be able to rapidly “hydrate” a small Windows Domain to simulate a small enterprise environment, “Just add water!” When I am configuring an enterprise lab environment,…
Homelab – SSD Types and VM Performance
The idea that Solid-State Drives (SSDs) have superior performance when compared to the Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) of yesteryear has become common amongst administrators. And, for many applications, SSDs have now proven themselves. Many administrators have not indulged beyond this concept. However, if you are building a machine with performance in mind, you might take…