Update, maintain and use Windows Image Files (WIM)

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Since I’m very busy with deployment and rollouts, I thought I’d write a few basic articles that I could refer to. This sometimes saves you some time in workshops for the more interesting things or gives administrators incentives to automate things.

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End of the Windows 7 Life-Cycle – Migration approaches from the field

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Soon it is time, for Windows 7 the extended support ends on 14.01.2020. As with every end of operating system support the end comes “completely surprising”, okay, not really. At the beginning everything looks so far in the future, it is still x years time. But in the end, the problems appear.

I already saw this at the “surprising” end of XP. But there are also cases where migration is not so easy. Special problem areas can be interfaces to special Hardware. For instance, measuring workstations or production control systems. If a measuring instrument with current Windows 10 support directly costs a few tens of thousands of Euros, then you consider the investment.

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The possibilities of computer installations for businesses

Verschiedene Installationsmedien für Windows

This article discusses the different methods of computer installations for businesses. In technical terminology also called rollouts or deployments. Typically, such a concept is created when a large number of computer installations are required. Here are a few examples where it can be useful to rethink the previous way of working:

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Which Office version works with Windows 10?

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Often the question arises during a rollout: Is our Microsoft Office version still supported with Microsoft Windows 10? The first glance should always be at the current lifecycle of Microsoft Office. You can also find a nice overview in my article “Product Lifecycles – The Forgotten Being“. Depending on the remaining time of the life cycle of the Office program, a migration with Windows 10 can also be useful.

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Creating Users Easily with PowerShell

As most people know, I like to make my life easy at work. That doesn’t mean I’m afraid of work, I just like to automate or simplify it where I can. I like to use PowerShell for this.

Another reason besides the convenience or lack of time why you should solve tasks through scripts is a consistent level of quality. Let’s face it, who doesn’t know this, even if there are checklists, you might forget one step when you get distracted.

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Microsoft Azure AD – the license types and functions

Azure AD - Lizenzen und Funktionen

Welcome to part 2 of the Azure-AD series. This part covers license types and features. We will also deal with the topic of license procurement and licensing possibilities. Due to the scope of functions, I cannot describe all functions contained in the individual licenses in this article. But I try to cover as much as possible and to provide links to further information.

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Windows 10 and the Microsoft Store

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Many companies would like to turn off the Microsoft Store so that not everyone installs “Netflix” or “Ages of Empires” on their corporate device. There are many ways, but which one is the right one, that depends. The risk exists that if the store is deactivated incorrectly, the integrated apps (for example the calculator or the photo app) will not receive any updates. However, there are a few basics that need to be clarified before you can get started.

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End User Computing MeetUp – Bonn / Koblenz Area (Germany)

End User Computing End User Computing MeetUp - Bonn / Koblenz Area (Germany) 7

For a long time, I have been planning a MeetUp on the topic of End User Computing, which I am starting to organize and regularly offering now. Many can’t imagine much about End-User Computing (EuC), in general, it’s about working on the end device, i.e. the computer, tablet, mobile phone and Co.

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New for Autopilot with Windows 10 1903 (Updated)

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With every new release of Windows 10, there are also new features in the area of Microsoft Autopilot. If you don’t know what Autopilot is, I recommend the article “What is Microsoft Autopilot“. Today we’re talking about new features that are possible with Windows 10 1903. As always with autopilot, this also requires an up-to-date Intune instance.

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Windows WinRM over HTTPs

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Windows Remote Management is no longer a way to think in today’s world. But why do we do it unencrypted? Normally the authentication is done by Kerberos. That’s secure enough for most people. However, Kerberos also has limitations, for example when using local accounts.

In the standard system, communication is via HTTP via TCP port 5985. Why not HTTPS? This is possible, the port TCP 5986 is intended for this. Unfortunately, this is not only missing in the firewall rule templates but also has a few barriers still in the way. We take care of these barriers today.

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