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...
Remove and Reinstall Microsoft WSUS
KB ID 0001679 Problem I don’t like WSUS, the product is OK (ish) the problem with it is, every time it’s deployed, typically the person it was deployed for never looks after it, or manages it properly, and months/years later it becomes a massive ‘bag of spanners’, which is never the client’s fault, it’s always the poor guy who built it, or the support company’s fault. If you run WSUS, log into...
Windows Server: Disabling SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, and TLS 1.1
KB ID 0001675 What are these protocols? Both SSL and TLS are cryptographic protocols designed to secure communications over a network (remember the internet is just a network). Originally we had SSL version 1 and version 2. But they were, (to be honest) ‘a bit bobbins’ and full of security holes, so never really took off. Version 3 however did and was widely supported. The problem with version 3 was, (again) that was also ‘bobbins’....
Windows Server – Schedule a Reboot
KB ID 0001321 Problem Back in the day we just used the ‘At’ command to schedule a reboot, but starting with Server 2012 that was stopped! If you try it now you will see the following; The AT command has been depreciated. Please use schtasks.exe instead Solution (The Quick Way) Execute the following command (change time and data accordingly); schtasks /create /tn “Scheduled Reboot” /tr “shutdown /r /t 0” /sc once /st...