One of the benefits of having computers joined to a domain and within a local network is the ability to manage things over the network pretty easily. Unfortunately, some basics are turned off by default. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to turn them on for your environment. Being able to see if a computer is powered on or on the network with a simple ping is a basic function. That … [Read more...]
Silently install CutePDF Writer without the Ask toolbar
CutePDF Writer is a neat little utility that installs a printer on your computer. Anything that you print to that printer (documents, images, web pages, etc.) gets saved as a .PDF file. I like this sort of utility because they're free ways to create PDF files and I find that to be an even better print preview function and it saves paper when I can keep things digitally. The … [Read more...]
Installing Firefox 15 silently with some customizations
To install Firefox silently is easy. You just run the setup executable with a -ms parameter, for example: firefoxsetup.exe -ms Deploying it with that parameter is a little more complicated but doable through scripts or management programs. Further more, if you would like to customize the default behavior of Firefox, it gets a little more complicated. Here are the steps I … [Read more...]
A few Group Policy particulars
Since starting with the Group Policy basics way back when, and learning along the way, I've picked up a few nuances recently in my in-depth work with Group Policy. These little quirks can seem a little counter-intuitive at first but upon understanding them, you can use the knowledge to your advantage. Unlike some previous articles that focused on a specific particular, today's … [Read more...]
Use Starter GPOs in Group Policy as a template to prevent tedium
If you're in the Group Policy Management Console a lot like I have been the past few weeks, you can save some time using Starter GPOs. Starter GPOs act as templates for configured settings that you will want to use repeatedly. In my instance, I created a starter GPO for "Managed Labs". Now, when I create a GPO for a new lab I can choose this starter GPO to start off the … [Read more...]