Windows Server Core is an ideal choice for Active Directory Domain Controllers due to it’s low resource usage and greatly reduced attack surface. In this post I’ll go through the initial steps on how to deploy a new Active Directory forest and add an additional Domain Controller to the domain, and finally I’ll run some basic checks on the health of the domain after installation. This guide is also suitable for regular GUI Windows Server installations.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) can use a lot of resources, so why not use Windows Server Core and make the most of the resources you have. In this post I’ll go through the initial steps on how to deploy and configure a WSUS server using command line and PowerShell. This guide is also suitable for regular GUI Windows Server installations. Installing Windows Server Core 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.

A quick guide on how to configure file permissions for non admin users.

When browsing files and folders on your file servers as an admin, you receive "You don't currently have permission to access this folder. Click Continue to permanently get access to this folder." Here's how to fix that.

A guide on how to correctly configure file permissions for users home folders.

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.

Automate Creation of WIM Files Image Factory 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 This utility is designed to run on a computer with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit installed. The computer must have either the Hyper-V management PowerShell modules installed, or Virtual Box.

At the time of writing (2017-07-18) the latest PowerShell available is PowerShell 5.1 which is a part of Windows 10 1607 and Windows Server 2016. To find which version of PowerShell you have, type this command into PowerShell: 1 $PSVersionTable.PSVersion To upgrade PowerShell, you’ll need the latest Windows Remote Management for your version of Windows. You might also need to upgrade WinRM to remotely manage servers using the Server Manager tool, which comes with Windows Server and is a part of RSAT for Windows 10 version 1607 and later.

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!

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.

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. Update I’ve tested and updated this post for Windows Server 2016. In this post, I’m going to walk through setting up a WSUS server from scratch on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2016.

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. Update 2017-05-03: If you’re looking to resolve similar problems with WSUS on Windows Server 2016, please see this post. If you’ve been managing a WSUS server, you may have run into the well known MMC connection error above (appears as Event ID 7053 in the Event Viewer) by now.