Building a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 9 min read
Following on from a previous post which covers some queries and issues I had when first deploying Windows 10 1703 (better known as the Creators Update) this post is designed to walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to build a reference image of Windows 10 1703 using a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. Installing & Configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Dependencies We’ll be using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) version 8443, which at the time of writing is the most recent release and fully supports Windows 10 1703.
3D Maze Remix v1.0
· ☕ 2 min read
Download for Windows, Mac and Linux Important note: 3D Maze Remix was updated to v1.1, adding many new features, and is now also available from the Microsoft Store. Please check out this page for all the details. For the last few months I’ve been learning Unity and C#, and this is the first real thing I’ve made: 3D Maze Remix. It’s a playable, interactive version of the 3D Maze screensaver that first shipped in Windows 95.
Log Manager Utility
· ☕ 5 min read
Flexible clean up and backup of log files For full change log and more information, visit my site. Log Manager Utility is available from: GitHub The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery Please consider supporting my work: Support with a one-time donation using PayPal. Please report any problems via the ‘issues’ tab on GitHub. Thanks -Mike Features and Requirements The utility will delete files and folders older than X days.
Auto Create Exchange Mailboxes v1.8
· ☕ 4 min read
I needed to write a PowerShell utility to create Exchange mailboxes for new users in Active Directory. The utility needed to create the mailboxes, use different databases, retention policies, and take users from several Organisational Units along with users in child OUs. This utility is available to download from the Microsoft TechNet Gallery, PowerShell Gallery and GitHub. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Please consider donating to support my work:
Delving Into Disabling OneDrive
· ☕ 3 min read
UPDATE 2017-11-07 After testing the method below on Windows 10 1703, I found that it wasn’t working as it did with 1607. To disable One Drive and remove the One Drive folder from the Navigation Pane of Windows Explorer, enable the group policy item: Computer Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/OneDrive/Prevent Usage of OneDrive for file storage and also set the following registry key from 1 to 0: 1 2 HKEY\_CLASSES\_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} "System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree"=dword:00000000 Please note that the registry key must be set on a per user basis.
PXE Booting with WDS for UEFI and BIOS Devices
· ☕ 5 min read
Introduction Update 2022-08-15: Added PowerShell commands to configure a Windows DHCP server for PXE boot. Update 2018-04-28: I’ve added the information in this post to a new one completely re-written for Windows Server 2016 here In a previous post PXE Booting for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit I mentioned that I would talk about how to set up PXE to deal with VLANs. To be honest I forgot all about it until someone on twitter reminded me - many thanks for the reminder!
Some Notes On Building a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 4 min read
With the release of Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) ISO on the Volume Licensing Service Center, I’ve recently been looking into using the “final” code with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to build reference images and discover what issues are present. This post is a round up of differences and issues I’ve found with building and deploying Windows 10 1703 thus far, and some resolutions. For a full walk through on installing MDT and creating a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) reference image, check out this post.
Windows Server Update Services Configuration Tweaks For Improving Performance
· ☕ 4 min read
Update 2018-04-20: I’ve rolled the information in this post and updated it, into a new post about setting up a WSUS server from scratch on Windows Server 2016 Core. The post is also suitable for a regular Windows Server 2016 server with a GUI. You can read it here. I’ve been dealing with some issues with a WSUS server recently. It services around 1000 devices, mostly Windows 10 with some Windows 7, Windows Server 2016/2012 R2/2012 and 2008 R2.
Removing Included Microsoft Store Apps from Windows 10 & Windows 11
· ☕ 7 min read
When deploying Windows 10/11 you might want to remove some of the included Microsoft Store Apps to help speed up the login process, save storage space, bandwidth etc. Important note! A “provisioned app” is an app that is a part of the Windows 10/11 installation and will be available for all users. Otherwise the app is only installed for the currently logged on user. To remove apps for all future users and the currently logged on user, you must remove both types of app.
Hyper-V Backup With Checkpoints/Snapshots
· ☕ 5 min read
UPDATE: This post is old and intended as a walk through on how my original script was put together for those wishing to learn PowerShell. For the finished, up-to-date script please check out this post and you can download the script from my TechNet profile. I previously posted a quick and dirty Hyper-V backup script that was very basic but did the job required at the time. I always wanted to revisit it and improve it.

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