Deploy Windows 10 2004 (20H1) Reference Image
· β˜• 14 min read
News and Updates An essential update for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT_KB4564442) has been released: This update fixes two issues around booting. Details on how to install it are on Michael Niehaus' blog post here. and you can download the fix here. I will add installation instructions in the walkthrough below. NOTE: If you have existing shares you will need to copy the files from the extracted update to %DeployRoot%\Tools and overwrite the existing files in all shares.

Build and Capture Windows 10 2004 (20H1) Reference Image
· β˜• 10 min read
News and Updates An essential update for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT_KB4564442) has been released: This update fixes two issues around booting. Details on how to install it are on Michael Niehaus' blog post here. and you can download the fix here. I will add installation instructions in the walkthrough below. NOTE: If you have existing shares you will need to copy the files from the extracted update to %DeployRoot%\Tools and overwrite the existing files in all shares.

Log Manager Utility - Update 20.03.23
· β˜• 1 min read
Flexible clean up and backup of log files A user reported an issue where wildcards would not work with the -LogsPath switch. This was due to me adding incorrect validation to that option. To fix this I have removed the validation and should now accept wildcards as before. Please accept my apologies for this error, it should have been caught during testing but I missed it. I’ll take steps in future to prevent this type of problem from occurring in future.

WSUS Maintenance Utility - Update 20.03.20
· β˜• 1 min read
Clean up your WSUS I’ve overhauled WSUS Maintenance Utility and have added some new features which were long overdue. It also includes all the same improvements that the other refactored utilities have. 2020-03-20: Version 20.03.20 Added code contribution from [email protected]. Individual clean-up jobs now run separately. Improved reporting. Made slight improvements to documentation. WSUS Maintenance Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.

TechNet Gallery is being retired
· β˜• 1 min read
Microsoft is finally retired the old TechNet Gallery - one of the websites where I’ve made my utilities available in the past. So, this is just a heads up that if you get my scripts from there, they will no longer be available in the near future. They will still be available on the Microsoft PowerShell Gallery and on my own GitHub. I’ve been expecting this as over the past few years some functionality of the site has been broken for months on end.

Tech Tips for These Tumultuous Times
· β˜• 5 min read
Hi all, In these interesting times I thought I’d create a round-up of some tips and recommendations for those of you who are looking to improve your technology - whatever your situation. It’s a grab bag of various items I’ve been collecting for a while but I hope some of these suggestions are useful to you. I usually write posts geared towards IT professionals but this post is aimed at people from all walks of life working from home with little IT assistance.

Internet Access Control Utility
· β˜• 2 min read
Control Internet access with Windows Firewall Internet Access Control 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 It requires Windows Firewall to be active. The utility requires at least PowerShell 5.0. This utility has been tested on Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Remove Win10 Apps Utility - Update 20.03.13
· β˜• 1 min read
Customisable Windows 10 app removal utility I’ve refactored my old Remove UWP script and renamed it to bring it in line with my recent utility updates. Version 20.03.13 β€˜Cool’ Refactored code. Backwards compatible. Added logging. Added config report when ran. Added ASCII banner art when run in the console. Added option to disable the ASCII banner art. Remove Win10 Apps Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.

Logon Audit Utility
· β˜• 2 min read
Really simple log on/off auditing utility Logon Audit 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 β€˜issues’ tab on GitHub. Thanks -Mike Features and Requirements The utility should be run on a client machine. It is ideally triggered as a logon/logoff script by Group Policy. Any files that the script needs to access should be accessible from a client device.

Log Manager Utility - Update 20.03.11
· β˜• 1 min read
Flexible clean up and backup of log files This is a minor update to my Log Manager Utility - there was a switch alias which was conflicting with a variable and preventing the utility from running correctly. The previous command line switch of -LogPath is now -LogsPath. Version 20.03.11 ‘Cow’ The previous command line switch of -LogPath is now -LogsPath. This fixes an issue with a duplicate variable and switch alias preventing utility from running currently.