Pushing out Adobe Flash Player updates through a startup script got a little more complicated with Windows 8. For IE11 on Windows 8, Adobe Flash Player is updated through Windows Updates. Pushing the update out through a startup script for Windows 7 works just fine for the ActiveX and Plugin installs but on Windows 8+, the IE Adobe Flash Player update can hang and keep Windows … [Read more...]
Put your programming skills to the challenge with Elevator Saga
A practical lesson in programming can come in the form of a game. Elevator Saga - The elevator programming game is a simple simulation of an elevator in a building responding to requests for service. There are multiple levels with increasingly different challenges. You must improve the logic employed as the challenges become more demanding, the number of elevators increase, and … [Read more...]
Everybody should know psuedocode
Coding and writing scripts, like most things, gets better with practice and experience. To improve communication between developers and others, everybody should understand psuedocode as a middle ground communication means. Psuedocode is also great for beginning programmers to understand so that they can focus on the concepts and building blocks of good programming or a … [Read more...]
Using PowerShell to manage Group Policy
If you utilize Group Policy in your environment and take advantage of its capabilities, it can create a bit of an administrative overhead in exchange for the gained efficiency and consistency. Some of this comes from the limited tools available to interact with Group Policy such as the Group Policy Management Console. GPMC certainly gets the job done but it can require a lot of … [Read more...]
A script to clear cached Group Policies
I ran in to an instance last week where Group Policy was coming into question - specifically, why a computer wasn't receiving new or updated policies. The problem ended up being related to Deep Freeze not thawing correctly and stuck group policies being the symptom, not the problem. Despite the innocence of the GPO, I cobbled together a quick script to purge all of the … [Read more...]