WServerNews: Might as well face it

In this week’s newsletter:

We hear back from our readers on whether Microsoft should make Windows boring again like it used to be. Plus a TIP for SCCM admins and a FACTOID that tips the hat to that Robert Palmer song about addiction. We’ve also added several new podcast channels to our PODCAST CORNER so that subscribers of our newsletter can advance their IT knowledge and skills when they’re comfortably ensconced in their favorite chair with their eyes closed and headphones on. The new podcast channels we’ve included are:

Heavy Networking which examines networking technologies from a practical and engineering perspective
Virtually Speaking which focuses primarily on virtualization with VMware
Clear To Send which is devoted to wireless networking technologies and news
Security Now which covers consumer and enterprise security, regulatory issues and industry news
The CTO Advisor which looks at cloud computing and other technologies from a business-oriented perspective

Be sure to check out Podcast Corner later in this issue and give a listen to any that interest you!

Enjoy this week’s issue of WServerNews and feel free to send us feedback on any of the topics we’ve covered — we love hearing from our readers 🙂

Editor’s Corner

Last week’s newsletter included a conversation I had recently with a colleague named James on the subject of how Windows used to be boring — and why that was a GOOD thing as far as my colleague is concerned. This drew a LOT of responses from the readers of our newsletter so we’ve devoted this week’s issue of WServerNews to sharing what our readers think about the subject. I hope you enjoy reading the below comments, and if you have anything more yourself you’d like to say about this feel free to email me at [email protected]

Wholehearted agreement

Craig Hollins the Business Manager of and IT company in Western Australia had these sobering thoughts about the current state of supporting Microsoft Windows for business customers:

When I used to work at a computer shop (remember those things?) we used to build white boxes and then pre-load Windows, Office, AV, Web browsers and other useful software for the client by default. We developed a CD that would boot up, present us with a check list of software to install, we selected what we wanted and clicked go. When it was done we’d remove the CD for the next run up and pack the computer.

It was a bit like an SOE but for micro businesses and home customers. We developed it in Windows 2000 and only a minor change was required when going to XP. It worked seamlessly right thru to SP3.

From Vista onwards the effort required to get the tool working was greater (largely thanks to new “protections” for the consumer like product activations). Every time there was an update something broke and had to be fixed. It got to the point where we couldn’t trust the tool so just stopped using it.

Yes, there are tools to automate installations and products like Microsoft 365 recapture that automation, in many ways better. However none of the new methods are worthwhile for single machine installs.

And yeah, what was wrong with Control Panel?

Craig’s penultimate comment about the new automation methods not being useful for performing single machine installs is a telling one when it comes to supporting the needs of small businesses. The Microsoft of today with its push to the cloud seems to only care about its larger customers, leaving small businesses frustrated and individual home users mad as hell with the frustrations they experience with Windows 10. As proof of this I’ve heard from several Microsoft MVPs that they’ve never seen such anger from users in various forums when it comes to Windows 10 compared to the kinds of problems they had with earlier versions of Windows.

Amen, brother!

Next comes the following comment from a reader named Monty who used to be a sysadmin but is now retired:

First I’d like to give James a big AMEN!

I am a retired Sysadmin / IT project Mgr. of 30 years. I think James is dead on with the Windows theory. I remember those days of finally getting the entire group of users (about 250) up to speed only to have Microsoft change the interface in some way to screw it up. The thing about it is it changes the overall functionality very little, it just moves it around and renames some of it. Most of our applications did not upgrade so you had to deal with backwards compatibility issues.

I have spent countless hours updating Windows and then trying to recreate the original desktop for users who go into panic mode because the icons moved.

Sometimes I think the changes are just to create a reason to recertify and make a few bucks.

I don’t miss dealing with the end user at all, but I do miss my time in the NOC. (sometimes)

My problem is that while such things used to happen from time to time with earlier Windows versions, they happen much more frequently with Windows 10. So maybe Microsoft was always bad with fiddling around trying to fix things that weren’t broke. But now they seem to actually enjoy breaking things.

Lack of consistency

Another reader named Dan has a different take on what’s wrong with Windows today:

Mitch, I feel that the “boring” argument is hiding the real problem with Windows (10 primarily): lack of consistency. Without consistency, management of Windows installs becomes less trustworthy, requiring more time spent managing workstations on the network. You can’t count on one build of Win 10 behaving the same as the previous one, which means far more testing of each build is needed, and with builds coming out every 6 months-ish (if you try to keep up with each build, that is), that’s very difficult. What was once possible with two internal IT techs at a company is now requiring more manpower to accomplish, which equates to higher IT expenditures, which will most likely be shot down at the top levels of the company.

And that’s just internal IT… MSPs are in an even worse position, where the old equation TIME = MONEY is the law! Management tools can’t even keep up, such as RMM services.

Microsoft should feel free to add new features, but when new features trample older features in completely new ways, or when techs who are already over-worked now have to learn new ways of finding the most basic of settings (which change randomly every build version), this is getting to be too much to (want to) keep up on. I was happy at first that Microsoft was switching to the “rolling updates” method of OS development, but they are taking it too far. “Agile development” does not mean “shake it up” every update.

Wow, that’s an excellent point about MSPs. I’m sure they — and vendors of Windows software in general — are pulling their hair out trying to keep their products and services working smoothly when each new version of Windows 10 is released.

Keep it simple

John Dvorchak Jr. who is a Systems Administrator working in Massachusetts expresses his feelings on this subject quite clearly:

I’ll take Boring any day, gets the job done faster so I can move on to other things and Life. Having to relearn and find where settings have been moved to can be a real pain.

Give me God Mode back but maybe a little simpler.

For a recent article on how to enable the so-called God Mode in Windows 10 check out this article:

What Is the “God Mode” Folder in Windows 10, and How Do I Enable It? (How-To Geek)

https://www.howtogeek.com/402458/enable-god-mode-in-windows-10/

Take the leap

Finally here is what a reader named James did and what he recommends:

I’m not a techie by any stretch (I’m also “old” by most yardsticks) so a boring (reliable) PC that holds my company documents and runs my accounting software, is easy for me to use, etc etc is good. I did convert to windows 10 because that’s what came with the new PC’s I had to buy. It’s ok.

I took the leap and converted 2 ancient laptops to Linux mint. If I could learn how to run quickbooks on Linux I’d be there in a flash and although I don’t like the open source word and spread sheet programs I could cope if I had to.

My windows office is the 2010 version and I write a few letters and build a few spreadsheets here and there. I don’t want or need More bells and whistles and I like having a CD with the software so I can reload if My pc dies.

I extremely dislike being forced to keep buying new software just because Bill Gates needs a new tire for his Bentley or whatever. I’m now getting nagged to upgrade to office 365. Frankly, I was quite happy with office 2000 or whatever it was when I had to move to 2010, knew more about WordPerfect and lotus than I do word and excel, but that’s another story (I said I was old didn’t I???)

If there was a quickbooks compatible open source software I’d be happy to give it a whirl but it better have a short learning curve that isn’t too steep because my climbing days are behind me.

I like boring. Now if only I could find a boring politician…no, not on this planet. (Sigh)

I like boring too. Boring is good. Let’s all be bored together.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this topic? Email me at [email protected]

Got more thoughts about anything in this newsletter?

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Tip of the Week

>> Got any IT pro tips you’d like to share with other readers of our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

Microsoft SCCM Backup and Recovery Guide

Justin Chalfant on his Configuration Manager Blog has some terrific resources for SCCM admins who need to learn how to back up and recover their environments:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/jchalfant/microsoft-sccm-backup-and-recovery-guide/

Be sure to bookmark this valuable resource if you use SCCM!

Admin Toolbox

>> Got any admin tools or software you’d like to recommend to our readers? Email us at [email protected]

This PowerShell Module has multiple functionalities, but one of the signature features of this module is the ability to parse Security logs on Domain Controllers providing easy to use access to AD Events:

https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWinReporting

BurntToast is a module for creating and displaying Toast Notifications on Microsoft Windows 10:

https://github.com/Windos/BurntToast

This configuration guidance is for implementing collection of security relevant Windows Event Log events by using Windows Event Forwarding:

https://github.com/nsacyber/Event-Forwarding-Guidance

Factoid – Might as well face it, you’re addicted to…Texas Instruments calculators

Last week’s factoid and question was this:

Fact: A study in 2018 by Boston Consulting Group indicates that 88 per cent of business calls are going unanswered because they receive too many nuisance phone calls.

Question: How do you personally deal with this?

We received several responses to this one. First here is what reader Avtar Singh who lives in the UK recommends for handling those annoying robocalls:

I always answer all unknown calls and immediately put them on silent until they speak first; even if they aren’t charged a connection fee, they’re inconvenienced and it limits the number of calls they can make. If it turns out to be an unsolicited sales call I tell them I’ll go and get the phone’s owner and then just leave them on silent until they hang up.

Wayne Hanks also shares the following story:

Hi Mitch, I had to laugh about your scam callers.

I was home one day and picked up the house phone ( rarely rings as we have a silent number and mainly receive calls on our mobiles) to be greeted with an Indian voice claiming to be from Telstra (Australian Telco) and that someone was trying to hack into our Internet connection. I played along for a while since my son, the paranoid network technician, had locked our internet down tight. They tried to get me to load software up so that they could evaluate the situation internally ( no, I didn’t do it) but after 10 minutes I told them that “I’m actually in IT and everything you have told me is F@#$ing BS” before hanging up. Thought no more of it until the next day I got another call at exactly the same time. This time I asked with an incredulous tone in my voice, “Does anyone actually fall for this line of bullshit?” The next day, same time I picked up the phone and didn’t speak until the autodialler decided there was no-one there and hung up. This continued for a number of days, with both my wife and I taking the calls and telling them to remove our number from their listing with no success. When we looked at the number it looked very similar to a Sydney number except that it was too long (started with area code 02) so I assumed they were spoofing the caller id.

What did work was one night, my wife (whose name is not Kelly) decided to be a bit cheeky and answered, “Kelly’s sex line, How can I pleasure you?” 🙂

The lady on the other end of the line did a double take and said, “what?” to which my wife replied, “Kelly’s sex line, all calls are charged at $5 per minute.” The woman couldn’t get off the phone fast enough and we have never had a call back since.

To be honest I think my wife is sexy, but this gave me the best laugh of the week and was very effective.

I think we’ll try that sometime!

Now let’s move on to this week’s factoid:

Fact: The U.S. education system has become addicted to Texas Instruments, which has a staggering, monopolistic hold over high school math.

Source: https://gen.medium.com/big-calculator-how-texas-instruments-monopolized-math-class-67ee165045dc

Question: When was the last time you used a calculator? As opposed to using the calculator app on your phone or pressing WinKey, typing “calc” and pressing ENTER on your laptop. And what’s the make/model of the last calculator you used?

Email your answer to [email protected]

Conference calendar

>> Got an IT conference or event happening that you’d like to promote in our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

Microsoft Business Applications Summit

April 20-21, 2020 in Anaheim, California

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/BusinessApplicationsSummit

Microsoft Build

May 19-21, 2020 in Seattle, Washington

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/build

Microsoft Inspire

July 20-24, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada

https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire

Other Microsoft events

Microsoft Licensing Boot Camps – Dec 9-10 in Seattle, Washington

https://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/training

Infosec conferences

Cyber Security Summit – Dec 5 in Los Angeles, California

https://cybersummitusa.com/losangeles19/

Other conferences

European SharePoint, Office 365 & Azure Conference – Dec 2-5 in Prague, Czech Republic

https://www.sharepointeurope.com/

SharePoint Fest – Dec 9-13 in Chicago, Illinois

https://www.sharepointfest.com/Chicago/

Podcast Corner

Crafting the Story for Microsoft 365 with Stephen Rose (Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast)

https://www.msclouditpropodcast.com/

Power Platform Updates With Rob Windsor (Microsoft Cloud Show)

http://www.microsoftcloudshow.com/podcast

New on Techgenix.com

Using JSON with PowerShell: A guide for IT professionals

Here’s a tutorial on how IT pros can use JSON in their daily activities and make it even more useful by incorporating it with PowerShell.

https://techgenix.com/json-with-powershell/

WMI or CIM in your PowerShell scripts: Which should you use?

Should you be using WMI in your PowerShell scripts, or is it better to use CIM? The answer is not always straightforward. Here’s why.

https://techgenix.com/wmi-or-cim-powershell/

Review: Email security software GFI MailEssentials

GFI MailEssentials is a powerful software suite that offers email security, business spam filtering, antivirus protection, and more. Here’s our review.

https://techgenix.com/review-gfi-mailessentials/

Color-coding PowerShell operating system health reports

PowerShell is great at keeping an eye on operating system health. And with a few commands, you can color-code the output so problems will be easy to spot.

https://techgenix.com/powershell-operating-system-health-reports/

Protect and restore Microsoft Azure VMs using snapshots

Here is a step-by-step tutorial that will save you some time. It includes a script to address the process of protecting and restoring an Azure VM.

https://techgenix.com/restore-microsoft-azure-vms-snapshots/

Fun videos from Flixxy

Above New York City – Filmed In 12K

Beautiful aerial footage of New York City, recorded in 12K – 48.5 times the resolution of HD 1080p:

https://www.flixxy.com/above-new-york-city-filmed-in-12k.htm

New Formula 1 Pit Stop World Record: 1.82 Seconds

The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team has just clocked the fastest pit stop ever of 1.82 seconds at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix:

https://www.flixxy.com/new-formula-1-pit-stop-world-record-1-82-seconds.htm

Mizuki Aerial Silks On France’s Got Talent

21-year-old Mizuki Shinagawa presents an amazing aerial silks performance on France’s Got Talent 2019:

https://www.flixxy.com/mizuki-aerial-silks-on-frances-got-talent.htm

People Are Awesome – Archive #14

A compilation of some of the best clips from the People Are Awesome archive:

https://www.flixxy.com/people-are-awesome-archive-14.htm

Send us your feedback!

Got feedback about anything in this issue of WServerNews? Email us at [email protected]