Windows Server Update Services, along with a growing list of other traditional Microsoft server products, seems to be in ‘maintenance mode’ at best. It’s been on my mind as to whether they’re going to release a cloud based version in Azure (unless they already have something like that and I’ve missed it) or if they’re going the route that I think they are: just update from the internet and don’t worry about it, which seems to be the answer when looking at Windows Autopilot.

Download it from the Microsoft TechNet Gallery the PowerShell Gallery and GitHub. Today I’ve released an update to my Hyper-V Backup Utility. In version 4.3 I’ve added the ability to specify the Hyper-V Virtual Machines you wish to backup using a TXT file. I’ve also improved some of the commenting and cleaned up some of the code. Whether you are running Hyper-V on a Windows 10 desktop or a Windows Server 2016 cluster, this utility can be used to backup your virtual machines.

PowerShell based network attached device monitor Please consider donating to support my work: You can support me with a one-time payment using PayPal Network Device Status Monitor can also be downloaded from: The PowerShell Gallery Please report any problems via the ‘issues’ tab on GitHub. -Mike Features and Requirements The utility can output the network device name and IP address as specified in the CSV file.

Download it from the PowerShell Gallery and GitHub. 23/02/2019 Update: Version 1.6 has now been released, you can check out the new features on the announcement post here. I’ve released an update to my Windows Server Status Monitor utility. In version 1.5 there are two new features: A light theme for the report page. An option to export the monitoring data to a CSV file. Whether you only have a few servers or a hundred, this utility can be used to monitor them and alert you about problems.

Recently I’ve had time to catch up and reflect on a few games that all touch on aspects of mental illness. I tend not to write personal blog posts, but I want to share some of my thoughts on these games as they made me think about interactive storytelling and mental illness, at a time where I’m currently reflecting on a lot on my own life. Although I’m not going out of my way to spoil the plots of these games, I’m going to assume that by reading this post you have either played them or don’t care about spoilers.

Download it from the Microsoft TechNet Gallery the PowerShell Gallery and GitHub. 2019-02-23 Update: Version 1.6 has now been released, you can check out the new features on the announcement post here. Today I’ve released an update to my Windows Server Status Monitor PowerShell script. Version 1.4 brings a few updates: Offline servers will always be at the top of the page. Servers are sorted alphabetically, regardless of what order they are specified in the TXT file.

Continuing from a previous post: Building A Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT, this post will walk through creating a Deployment Share to deploy the Windows 10 reference image. It is assumed that you have a Server or PC with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and it’s dependencies installed and have been through the post previously mentioned. Creating the Deployment Share Open the Deployment Workbench from the Start Menu.

This post will walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to build a reference image of Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) using a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. It is assumed that you have a Server or PC ready to install MDT onto and create an file share for MDT to build the image with. Here are the links to the software we’ll be using: Windows 10 1803 Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (8450) Windows 10 1803 x64 Volume Licensing Service Center Additional software which may be useful to you:

Windows Deployment Services can not be installed on Windows Server Core unfortunately - it still requires a Windows Server install with a GUI (Desktop Experience). Luckily we can still install it using PowerShell and the command line. In this post I’ll go through the initial steps on how to deploy and configure a WDS server using command line and PowerShell. Installing Windows Server Boot the server from the Windows Server media and on the “Select the Operating System you want to install” screen, select the option “Windows Server Standard” or “Datacenter” edition with “Desktop Experience” in brackets.

In a couple of weeks the next update to Windows 10 - Redstone 4, 1803, the Spring Creators Update will be released and later this year Redstone 5, 1809 will be come out, all being well. This continues the pace set last year and the semi-annual release cycle that Microsoft have put into place. For those of you who, like me, might be wondering what would happen to Windows Server’s release cycle.

Download it from the Microsoft TechNet Gallery the PowerShell Gallery and GitHub. Today I’ve released an update to my Hyper-V Backup Utility PowerShell script. Version 4.1 adds zip file creation and the ability to keep a history of Virtual Machine backups. These new features are included along with the ability to backup Virtual Machines using the built-in Hyper-V export function, meaning that the VMs do not need to be shutdown. However if the Hyper-V host lacks the permissions necessary to perform the export, it can be configured to shutdown the Virtual Machines and backup through a file-based copy operation.

Update 2018-11-04: I’ve evolved the script in this post into a more friendly utility which I’ve posted about here. If you are familiar with my other PowerShell scripts/utilities this isn’t as complete or polished as them, but it get’s the job done, and that’s all we can really ask for right? Let’s say it’s in early beta. The purpose of this script is to automate the process of setting the location and Office 365 license for users, using a local Active Directory to specify the users.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit build 8450 is out. You can read more about it here over on the MS Deployment Blog. Installing & Configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Dependencies Here are the links the software we’ll be using: Windows 10 1703 Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (8450) First we’ll install the Windows 10 1703 ADK which is now fully supported by MDT in build 8450. The setup will need to download additional files so it may take some time depending on your internet connection.