Enable Remote Desktop (Remotely)
KB ID 0001747 Problem Let’s say you want to RDP to a remote server (imagine such a thing!) But some doofus didn’t enable RDP? Well you can enable Remote Desktop via group policy and wait a while. I used to connect to the registry remotely and change the key that enabled RDP, but now you can do it with a simple PowerShell command. Not only will it enable Remote Desktop, it will also allow RDP on the Windows firewall (if...
Windows File Server Migration (Maintain Share & NTFS Permissions)
KB ID 0001201 Problem When attempting a File Server Migration why isn’t this better publicised? Did you know Microsoft have a set of Migration tools, and one of them is for file servers? Now traditionally I’d use RoboCopy or XCopy to migrate files and folders, and for ‘User Profiles’ I would normally back them up, and restore them to the new server. This is because the file permissions on ‘correctly...
Domain Join SID Error
KB ID 0001732 Problem Thankfully I don’t see a SID error very often these days; The following error occurred when attempting to join the domain ‘{domain-name} The domain join cannot be completed because the SID of the domain you attempted to join was identical to the SID of this machine. This is a symptom of an improperly cloned operating system install. You should run Sysprep on this machine in order to generate a new...
The Web Site for the CA Must be Configured to use HTTPS
KB ID 0000838 Problem When attempting to contact a server running the Certification Authority Web Enrolment role, you may see the following error. In order to complete certificate enrolment, the Web site for the CA must be configured to use HTTPS authentication Solution The correct fix is to set the web server (IIS) to serve the certificate website securely using https, though you can just set Internet explorer to ‘work’...
Setup FTP Server with Windows Server
KB ID 0000342 Problem You want to Setup FTP on your Windows Server, (and more importantly make it work without disabling the firewall.) Below are the procedure you will need to carry out. Note: For older Windows Operating systems like Server 2012, click here, or for Server 2008, click here. Setup FTP Server (Windows Server) Setup FTP on Windows Server 2012 (Including firewall setup) Setup FTP on Windows Server 2008 R2 (Including...
Running Dropbox On Windows Server
KB ID 0001489 Problem If you are here, you have probably already found out that Dropbox is not supported on Windows Server platforms. You can install it and set it up happily but it stops working and needs to be relaunched all the time (manually). I love dropbox! So much I actually pay for it! I run it on my management server and its handy for copying file up into my test network, so I can appreciate how annoying it is having to...
Windows Server – Disable ‘Defender’
KB ID 0001710 Problem I got a call last night to help out a colleague, this involved using a ‘dubious’ piece of software that is very old, (I wont elaborate further). But to run it on a modern Windows Server is nearly impossible. The host detects the software as being infected (It may well be, but I’ve never suffered). So I need to keep the software in a password protected Zip file. And only extract it on a Virtual...
Windows Server 2019 (&2016): Enable Flash
KB ID 0001484 Problem Back in server 2012 this was an easy fix; Windows Server 2012 – Enable Flash However try and do that on Server 2019 or 2016 and this happens; Windows PowerShell Copyright (C) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. PS C:\Users\administrator.PNL> Install-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience Install-WindowsFeature : ArgumentNotValid: The role, role service, or feature name is not valid:...
Patch Your DNS Servers! SigRed
KB ID 0001687 Problem WARNING: This is rated 10 on the CVSS scale. Affected Server OS: Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2012, Windows 2012 R2, Windows 2016, Windows 2019 Yesterday Microsoft released a critical notice (KB4569509) to address vulnerabilities identified in (CVE-2020-1350). Basically it allows a remote attacker to perform remote code execution on your DNS servers (unless you patch them!) The reason its...
Windows Server DHCP Failover & Load Balancing
DHCP Failover KB ID 0001488 Problem Applicable to: Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 Even though we have had this functionality for a while, I’m still seeing people deploy DHCP scopes (split 80/20) across two servers? You can deploy multiple DHCP servers to serve the SAME DHCP scopes, in either load balanced, or hot standby deployment. Solution: DHCP Failover I’m assuming you already have one DHCP server setup and, with a...