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A Guide to Deploying Third-Party Software Updates with WSUS
The WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) server, located onsite, is ideal not only for launching updates for Microsoft’s products (including Windows, Office) but also for installing and updating any third-party software in a centralized manner. The common methods used to install third-party software in Windows networks include: Installing MSI-packaged apps using GPO, executing logon scripts,…
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How to Upgrade Python on Windows: A Comprehensive Guide
This article will explain the four ways to upgrade to a new version of Python on a Windows system: installer, Microsoft Store, Winget, and Chocolatey. You will also learn how to use different versions of Python on your system and how to uninstall an old version. To follow along, you should be on a Windows…
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Exclusive: Free Access to Enhanced ChatGPT 4 for 4sysops Members!
Members can now enjoy free access to 4sysops AI powered by ChatGPT 4 (GPT-4 Turbo). 4sysops AI is a continuously updated and does not have a cutoff date of April 2023 like ChatGPT. As you may be aware, the free version of ChatGPT only supports ChatGPT 3.5, while the paid membership of ChatGPT Plus, which…
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Troubleshooting Guide: What to Do if Windows 11 Copilot is Not Working
In a recent blog article, we discussed enabling or disabling Windows Copilot in Windows and Edge One of the most common problems reported by end users is the fact that Windows 11 Copilot is not available or not working. In this blog article, I will go through various issues you might face and explain how…
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How to Edit JSON Config Files using Free JSON Editors or Notepad++
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is gaining popularity as a format for configuration files. Unlike XML or the still-used INI format, editing JSON in a text editor can be tedious and error-prone. However, there are free JSON editors and plugins for Notepad++ that simplify this task. Initially intended for platform-independent serialization of JavaScript objects, JSON is…
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How to Add an Azure AD Group to Your Local Administrator Group: A Step-by-Step Guide
This guide will explore adding an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) group to the local administrator’s group. This will empower Azure AD group members to conduct tasks needing administrator permissions on Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers. The progression to LocalUsersandGroups policy From the release of Windows 10 version 20H2, Microsoft suggests using the LocalUsersandGroups…
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The Procedure for Unlocking User Accounts in Active Directory
A user account lockout in a domain is one of the most popular reasons why users contact the technical support team. In most cases, the lockout is caused either by a user forgetting their password or by an application trying to use a previous (saved) password for authentication after the user has changed it. Account…
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A Detailed Guide on Analyzing Windows Event Logs Using Security Onion
Security Onion is an open-source platform for threat hunting, security monitoring, and log management. It aggregates free tools such as Kibana, Elastic Fleet, InfluxDB, CyberChef, and Suricata. The solution provides access to these tools via a web console. I’ll demonstrate how it can be used for analyzing Windows logs. Security Onion is designed as a…
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Step-by-Step Guide to Configure Firefox Proxy Settings Using Group Policy
If you desire to manage the proxy settings of the Mozilla browser in a network in a centralized way, there exists an applicable Group Policy. Different from Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, Firefox has the potential to not only obtain the proxy configuration from Windows directly but also through GPO. Within numerous organizations, users access…
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How to Use PowerShell for Managing System and User-Assigned Managed Identities in Azure
Managed identities provide secure authentication for resources accessing other resources in Azure without requiring sensitive information such as secrets, credentials, and certificates to be handled. Microsoft Entra ID manages these identities, enabling applications to obtain tokens for authentication. In this post, I will provide an example that illustrates how to use system and user-assigned managed…