Automated Office 365 Licensing v1.1
· β˜• 3 min read
Update 2019-06-16 I recently learned that Office 365 licensing can be managed via Azure Active Directory’s group based licensing feature and I have since switched to using this and have retired this script. I’ll leave this post and the script itself available here, on the Microsoft TechNet Gallery and GitHub, but I’ll not be developing the script any further. For more information on Azure Active Directory group-based licensing please check out Microsoft’s documentation here and here to start with.

Deployment of Windows 10 1809/Windows Server 2019 Paused by Microsoft
· β˜• 2 min read
Update 2018-11-13: Microsoft has resumed the rollout of Windows 10 1809, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809. The ISO’s are now available to download from the Volume Licensing Service Center once again. Hi all, Given I’ve posted my usual guides on how to deploy Windows 10 1809 with MDT, I thought it important to also post that Microsoft has chosen to delay the rollout of Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019 for the time being due to some users reporting that files are missing after an upgrade.

Deploying A Windows 10 1809 (October 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT
· β˜• 13 min read
Update 2018-11-13: Microsoft has resumed the rollout of Windows 10 1809, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809. The ISO’s are now available to download from the Volume Licensing Service Center once again. Continuing from a previous post: Building A Windows 10 1809 (October 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.

Building A Windows 10 1809 (October 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT
· β˜• 10 min read
Update 2018-11-13: Microsoft has resumed the rollout of Windows 10 1809, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809. The ISO’s are now available to download from the Volume Licensing Service Center once again. This post will walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to build a reference image of Windows 10 1809 (October 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.

Altering an MDT Task Sequence to Update from Windows Update
· β˜• 2 min read
I’ve been revisiting my MDT process as I wanted to try and use Windows Update to get drivers during deployment - by itself this is not a problem, I can just remove the WSUSServer=http://wsus:8530 configuration from the CustomSettings.ini. However as the device is added to the domain, Group Policy will configure the device to use the local WSUS for updates, this is desired as I still want to use WSUS for future updates, but I want to use Windows Update during deployment.

Rethinking The Need For Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
· β˜• 3 min read
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.

Hyper-V Virtual Machine Backup Utility - Update v4.3
· β˜• 1 min read
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.

Network Device Status Monitor
· β˜• 4 min read
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 β€˜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.

Windows Server Status Monitor - Update v1.5
· β˜• 1 min read
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.

Mind Games
· β˜• 9 min read
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.

Windows Server Status Monitor - Update v1.4
· β˜• 1 min read
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.

Deploying A Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT
· β˜• 13 min read
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.

Building A Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT
· β˜• 10 min read
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: