Server 2012 and Up – Sync DHCP Filter List on Hot Spare Failover Server

Once again, we find out how worthless and pathetic Microsoft is when it comes to thoroughness. Starting with Server 2012, they added the ability to have a failover DHCP server using load balancing or by acting as a hot spare and have it replicate the server configuration, which is great, except they left out the MAC filtering lists, forcing us to use scripts yet again to accomplish something that should have been built in.
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Exchange 2010 – Add Send As Permission for All Users/Future Users from a User Account

No need for a bunch of hoopla, here’s the short and sweet version.

Add Send As Permission for All Users from a User Account

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Add-ADPermission -User "YourDomain\Username" -Extendedrights "Send As"

To add send as permissions for future users, we need to create a powershell script with the above line in it, make sure you have enabled the use of unsigned scripts by issuing the “Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned” command at an administrator ran PowerShell prompt, and create a task scheduler job to run our script with the administrator credentials saved in there.
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PowerShell Script – Generate DFS-R Health Reports and Email Them

Sure there are a few DFS-R scripts out there to choose from in various languages like batch, vbscript, and even PowerShell to name a few, but I decided to write one to fit my own personal needs at the time.

I created this so that it could be ran as a scheduled task each morning. Basically the script just lets you set an array of different replication groups to run the Health Report on, attaches them all to a single email, and then shoots that email off via an SSL connection through an Exchange server in this particular case. Continue reading “PowerShell Script – Generate DFS-R Health Reports and Email Them”

Server 2012 – Force a Network Type with PowerShell

Here’s an annoying one that I run into quite frequently. On Windows Server 2012, it appears there’s not a quick and easy way to change the network type for a network connection other than to use PowerShell. The problem that I typically run into, is that firewall rules for a specific program are only set for the “domain” profile, so here’s how to force the network type on some interface. This is just for my own personal reference, but I took this info directly from here. Continue reading “Server 2012 – Force a Network Type with PowerShell”

Server 2012 – Remove Pinned Items on the Taskbar via Group Policy

I have researched for hours and hours and have looked into numerous different solutions on how to remove pinned items from the taskbar in Server 2012 and have not really found an elegant solution to the problem. Microsoft intentionally made it an extremely ridiculous and convoluted process to be able to add and remove pinned items from the taskbar. I guess it was meant to help prevent it from getting all fuckered up but for christ’s sake, I shouldn’t have to jump through effing hoops just to do such a seemingly rudimentary task.

Part of my particular issue lies in the fact that I’m setting up a completely locked down 2012 RDS environment where the users don’t even have access to the command prompt, powershell, or the ability to run VB scripts. This alone rules out almost every solution out there that I’ve found.

I have even gotten to the point of where I tried using Group Policy Preferences to create a HKCU RunOnce key to run a batch file to delete the necessary files, add the proper registry keys, kill the explorer.exe process, but then I can’t start explorer again without using cmd.exe and I don’t want the user to have to log off and back on again and we can just have a missing shortcut sitting in the freaking taskbar, it confuses people. WTF!!!
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