Category: Active Directory

Understanding Microsoft Security Baselines and Applying Them – Part 1

What are security baselines? Why do I need them? Security Baselines are published by various companies however I will focus strictly on Microsoft Security Baselines, and how to apply them safely in your environment. Microsoft Security Baselines are created to give our customers a benchmark and to utilize the latest features possible, while also guiding … Continue reading Understanding Microsoft Security Baselines and Applying Them – Part 1 →

Getting Ready for LDAP Channel Binding & LDAP Signing Changes on March 10 Windows Update

In this blog post, we will deal with March 10 Windows Update and its expected changes regarding LDAP Channel Binding and LDAP Signing. What is LDAP Signing? Is it safe to configure Channel Binding Token? And how can I be sure that LDAP clients will continue to work properly after installing the update? Let's try to answer all of these questions.

Microsoft Edge: Viewing applied policies

The new Microsoft Edge browser based on Chromium was released in January 2020. Unlike the original Edge browser, which is only available for Windows 10, the new Microsoft Edge Chromium based browser can be installed on Windows 7/8/8.1/10 and is also available for MacOS. Microsoft Edge is ready for business and has dedicated deployment resources … Continue reading Microsoft Edge: Viewing applied policies →

Field Notes: Azure AD – Configuring Self-Service Password Reset in Hybrid Deployments

This is a continuation of a series on Azure AD Connect. The second blog post of the series covered a custom installation. One of the optional features I promised to cover then was password writeback, which I discuss in this blog post as part of enabling the self-service password reset (SSPR) feature in a hybrid … Continue reading Field Notes: Azure AD – Configuring Self-Service Password Reset in Hybrid Deployments →

Active Directory Based Activation (ADBA) Fails with Error: 0x8007202B

Introduction I was working with a customer recently who could not get clients or servers at a new remote site to activate using Active Directory Based Activation (ADBA). They were getting event ID 8214 as in the image below. Notice in the above where I bold the computer name Client1.Child1.Contoso.local. This means that Client1 is … Continue reading Active Directory Based Activation (ADBA) Fails with Error: 0x8007202B →

PowerShell: Active Directory Cleanup – Part 4 – Unsupported Windows Operating Systems

Introduction Welcome to part 4 in my Active Directory Cleanup Series. This part is concentrated on pulling a report of Windows Operating Systems that are obsolete/unsupported. Using this report you can review them and decide if they should be removed or upgraded. Script 1: Long 1 liner. The following script was posted on one of … Continue reading PowerShell: Active Directory Cleanup – Part 4 – Unsupported Windows Operating Systems →

AppLocker – Part 3

Introduction:In the previous blog we looked at the AppLocker Rules, Rule Conditions and how to enforce them. In this blog we will look at AppLocker in audit mode. By using the Audit only enforcement setting, you can ensure that the AppLocker rules are properly configured for your organization. When AppLocker policy enforcement is set to … Continue reading AppLocker – Part 3 →

PowerShell: Active Directory Cleanup – Part 3 – Stale Computer Objects

Introduction Hello everyone. Part 3 in my AD Cleanup series is stale computer objects. Stale computer objects are computers that haven't logged into the domain for a specified number of days. This script includes a NumberOfDays parameter that either you specify when calling the script or it defaults to 120 days during script execution. The … Continue reading PowerShell: Active Directory Cleanup – Part 3 – Stale Computer Objects →

Field Notes: Azure AD Connect – Migrating from AD FS to Password Hash Synchronization

This is a continuation of a series on Azure AD Connect. I started off this Azure AD Connect series by going through the express installation path, where the password hash synchronization (PHS) sign-in option is selected by default. This was followed by the custom installation path where I selected pass-through authentication (PTA) as a user … Continue reading Field Notes: Azure AD Connect – Migrating from AD FS to Password Hash Synchronization →