Jason Yoder, MCT

Recently while delivering a PowerShell class, I received a real shock from Windows 8.  Take a look at the image below. It was also interfering with PowerShell’s Autocomplete feature.  I automatically assumed that I accidently triggered a Windows 8 keyboard shortcut that I was not aware of.  To enable or disable this feature, press Ctrl + Space .

While delivering a PowerShell class, it came to light that the users of PowerShell were not going to have access to the ActiveDirectory module.  This changes a lot.  The AD module is full of useful cmdlets to help make a Network Administrators life easier.  as a matter of fact, I did not move to PowerShell from AD administration until I PowerShell V2 and the ActiveDirectory module were available to me. One of the more cryptic properties that can be pulled from the user account object is the UserAccountControl property.  Here is a description of the flags that can be set with this property. (Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305144 ) SCRIPT - The logon script will be run. ACCOUNTDISABLE - The user account is disabled. HOMEDIR_REQUIRED - The home folder is required. PASSWD_NOTREQD - No password is required. PASSWD_CANT_CHANGE - The user cannot change the password. This is a permission on the user's object. For information about how to programmatically set this permission

PowerShell utilized both Snapins and Modules to expand its functionality.  For those of you needing to do some exchange scripting, you will need access to the Exchange Snapins.  These snap ins are installed on your Exchange server.  If you would like to work off of a client, then use the Exchange installation media to install the Exchange Management Tools to your client.   These snapins are for Exchange 2010. Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Setup Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Support   To register these snapins quickly in the ISE, type this command in the Command window: Get-PSSnapin –Registered | ForEach-Object {Add-PSSnapin –Name $_.Name}

One of the reason why the cmdlets in the ActiveDirectory module limit the properties from objects or the number of objects returned is because you may accidentaly ask for 2 billion objects if you are not careful.  A recent question from one of my posts asked about how to exceed the threshold for Get-ADGroupMember.  The error that the user received was: Get-ADGroupMember : The size limit for this request was exceeded The default limit is 5000 objects.  This is a limitation imposed by the Active Directory Web Service.  ADWS is a requirement for utilizing the ActiveDirectoy module for PowerShell. If you have multiple instances on ADWS on multiple Domain Controllers, you will need to perform this procedure on each one.  Since you do not know for sure which DC your client will bind to, changing this setting on all of the ADWS services will prevent random issues from happening in the future. On the file c:\Windows\ADWS\Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.WebServices.exe.config After the <appSe

Recently I purchased a Windows 8 laptop as part of my normal 3 year hardware refresh.  Love it.  It is nice and fast.  I installed Office Professional Plus 2013 without any issues.  When I was asked to deliver a virtual class using Lync, I had an issue.  A quick fix was to uninstall Lync 2013 and just use the web based client.  That is when it all started. Out of the blue, windows in the background, or even minimized, would pop up and take focus. It was very embarrassing to have to deliver a class when I could barely maintain control of my own system.  Here is how I fixed it. Open Programs and Features. Select Microsoft Officer Professional Plus 2013 and then click Change . Select to Repair your installation.  I am happy to say, no more issues.

It happened again.  I was doing a demonstration in a class and my shift key got stuck inside of the Virtual Machine Connection windows for Hyper-V.  Normally these leads to a reboot of the VM.  Fortunately, one of my students found a much better work around.  Simply Pause the VM and the Resume it.  The Pause and Resume buttons are in the same place on the menu bar.   This quick and effective work around should make this random issue a bit easier to work with.

This past week I have been working on a project in Windows Azure and PowerShell.  As I’m learning the Azure platform, I’m coming across the need to be able to find key words in the help files to help me discover the cmdlets that I need.  Here is the command line that I am using. Get-Command -Module Azure | ForEach-object -process { Get-help $_ . name -Detailed } | Select-Object – Property Name , Description | Where-Object Description -like "*blob*" | Select-Object – Property Name   The – Module parameter is used to ensure the Get-Command cmdlet only returns objects from the Azure module.   The ForEach-Object cmdlet will cycle through each cmdlet and call the detailed help file for each cmdlet.   We can filter some of our data at this point and ask for only the cmdlet’s name and description.   Finally, the Where-Object cmdlet is used to look for a pattern.  In this case, I am looking for any help file from the Azure module that has the work “blo

This is a problem that seems to have vexed a lot of people.  Windows Live Writer worked just fine.  Word 2013 will not register with Blogger nor allow you to install Windows Live Writer. Here is how you get around that little issue.  Download Windows Essentials .  I know that it is not the best, but it works fine for me.  I de-selected everything but Windows Live Writer and I am now able to post to my Blogger account. I have read many postings starting with Word 2007 about this issue.  Hopefully this will help a bit.

Here is a simple solution for my Shipmates moving to Windows 8. When you access the NMCI Webmail client, you may not be able to see any emails and the menu bar may look like this: To correct this, we need to make sure that the NMCI web client loads in Internet Explorer compatibility mode. What is the IE Compatibility mode? Since IE version 8, not all websites compile correctly. The Compatibility mode makes Internet Explorer compile a web page as if you were using IE 7. To be honest, I have all Navy website do this. Here is how to set this up. Go to the Windows 8 desktop and open Internet Explorer from there. Do not do it from the touch interface. If you do not see the Menu Bar in IE, right click the top of the window and check Menu bar . Click Tools à Compatibility View Settings . Add in Navy.mil and then click Add . Click Close when finished. Let the browser reload and you will get to your NMCI email.