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How to Adjust Privacy Settings in Microsoft Edge: Disabling Tab Grouping, Creator Following, Similar Sites, and Shopping Recommendations
Microsoft regularly uses its platform to push its software and cloud services onto users, often providing little value but bloating the system or siphoning off data. This is applicable to various Edge browser features that are active by default but can be disabled via GPO. Microsoft has long been installing Windows add-ons without user consent.…
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A Deep Dive into MaxPowerSoft Active Directory Reports
MaxPowerSoft Active Directory Reports generates various types of reports, eliminating the need to create PowerShell scripts to retrieve Active Directory data manually. In this review, I will elaborate on the key functionalities of the AD Reporting tool that are most beneficial. The AD Reporting Tool’s user interface resembles a Microsoft product, and you can customize…
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How to Upgrade to Windows 11 on Unsupported Hardware
In this article, we’ll examine the process of updating a Windows 10 computer to Windows 11 23H2 using unsupported hardware. This includes computers that lack a TPM chip and utilize older CPU models. Microsoft’s stipulated minimum requirements for the installation of Windows 11 include a hardware TPM chip, Secure Boot, and a new CPU (released…
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How to Convert Certificate Format Using OpenSSL
OpenSSL is an open-source library and a command-line tool that helps admins and developers perform various cryptographic tasks, such as generating key pairs, certificate signing requests (CSR), verifying certificates, encrypting and decrypting data, identifying certificate information, verifying file integrity and much more. In this post, you will learn how to convert TLS certificates into different…
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How to Verify Digital File Signatures using SigCheck
SigCheck, part of the SysInternals suite, is a command-line utility offering security features such as verifying the digital file signature and calculating file hashes using multiple hashing algorithms. Distributing digitally signed files to customer computers is a common practice for trusted software publishing companies. The code-signing process uses a certificate from a reliable certification authority…
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Step-by-step Guide: How to Add an ESXi Host to VMware vCenter Server (vCSA)
Let’s examine how to incorporate a standalone host with an ESXi hypervisor into the VMware vCenter Server (vCSA) for administrative centralization and utilization in cluster setups. Establish a connection to the vCenter Server by launching the vSphere Client URL in your internet browser (https://vcenter_server_fqdg_or_ip/ui). Choose the datacenter, folder, or cluster where you intend to introduce…
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Comparing Sudo for Windows vs. Runas and Sudo for Linux
Sudo for Windows has been available since Build 26052 and is currently only accessible through the Windows Insiders program as part of preview builds for Windows 11. At this time, it appears that sudo will not come to Windows Server 2025. In this article, I explain how to use sudo in Windows 11 and compare…
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Step-by-Step Guide to Installing WireGuard VPN on OPNsense Firewall
If you are employing an OPNsense firewall, the option to configure WireGuard as a VPN server instead of OpenVPN is a viable option. WireGuard’s clients are available for all major operating systems, proving very fast and lightweight. This can easily be installed as an OPNsense extension and configured via the web console. For implementing a…
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How to Craft Your Own Custom Windows Image with Pre-Installed Applications
In this guide, we’ll cover how to create a custom Windows 10/11 installation image with pre-installed apps, necessary files, and other environment and application settings. Currently, many admins prefer to deploy a clean Windows image and then install all the required programs and tools on the computer: deploy software via GPO, using the installation commands…
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How to Resolve Sysprep Errors: When Sysprep Fails
In this post, you will learn what to do when Sysprep fails and how to fix the error: Sysprep was not able to validate your Windows installation. Sysprep is a built-in Windows tool used to generalize OS images before deploying them to multiple machines. There are several reasons why Sysprep fails, but the error message…