Windows10-logo

Windows 10 – Disable Windows Update P2P

With Windows 10, Microsoft introduces a new method to get Windows Update. Before it, you can only download update from the Microsoft servers, but with Windows 10 you can also get update from computers already updated. It uses a technology like peer to peer (P2P).

Windows Update

Windows Update

By default, Windows tries to get update from Microsoft server, computer in your local network or from others computers on the internet. This new method speeds up the update download but it means that you can also send data to computers on internet. Depends on your upload rate, this can slow your internet navigation.

Let’s see how to disable this function:

Continue reading

Share
Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 – Force Start Menu Layout

When you deploy Windows 8.1 in your environnement, you may define a strategy to force all users to have the same Start Menu Layout. This layout was defined by IT Team and will be provide to all computers.

For example, I set a custom layout: I added some tools and application groups:

Windows 8.1 Custom Start Menu

Windows 8.1 Custom Start Menu

If you want to deploy this Start Menu Layout, you can do it with:

  • Powershell cmdlet on the computer
  • ConfigMgr (SCCM)
  • Group Policy

Continue reading

Share
Windows 8.1

Security – Local Administrator Password Solution LAPS

Since Windows Server 2008, we can use Group Policy Preferences to set a password for Local Administrator on all workstations in an OU. In May 2014, Microsoft released a patch to remove this feature. KB2962486

In fact, the password was stored insecurely. It was crypted using a key which is now public MSDN. This is a security leak, password are sent in “clear” and several time by day, using GPO application. If KB2928120 is installed on your system, you can’t no more use GPO to define password for:

  • Drive Maps.
  • Local Users.
  • Scheduled Tasks.
  • Services.
  • Data Sources.

With the Security patch, Microsoft provided a Powershell script to change local password remotely.

Since few days, Microsoft released a new tool: Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS). With this tool, computers are able to randomly change password for local administrator and store it in Active Directory attribute.

Continue reading

Share