Sometimes, you have a certificate in PEM format as a CRT file (also called a CER file) with a key file (also called a PEM file), and you need to combine and convert them into a PFX certificate. In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to convert a PEM certificate into a PFX…
There are many ways to generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request). In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to generate a CSR using OpenSSL. Prerequisites The Process I will be using C:\SSL as my working directory. I will be using Microsoft Windows with Windows Terminal and PowerShell. In my example, I will name my private…
Certain situations can arise where you no longer know a Windows user account password and need to reset it or make a new one. Third-party tools can assist, but in my experience, many of them have been hit-and-miss. In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to reset a Windows password using Windows install…
The net user and group commands are very powerful tools for managing local and domain users and groups. In this post, I will show you how to use the net user command locally and on a domain to create a user account, reset a user account password, and view general info about a user account.…
Microsoft Windows Server 2025 has just reached general availability. I decided to install it and see what’s changed compared to Windows Server 2022. Right off the bat, the installer loading screen is slightly different. With Windows Server 2025, there are two setups the new setup UI, which is the default, and the previous setup UI,…
There are many ways to activate Windows, and a really cool way to activate Windows is with Active Directory-Based Activation. Active Directory-Based Activation (ADBA) was first introduced in Windows Server 2012 and is only usable if your Microsoft Volume licensing has a KMS host key. If you don’t have a KMS key, you may need…
With Windows 11, many visual elements have changed, and one of the most noticeable ones is the Start Menu. With a new star menu comes a new way to manage it. With Windows 10, you can control the start menu with an XML file. Now, with Windows 11, you can control it with a JSON…
The Company Portal application is a wonderful tool for Microsoft Intune. If you come from the world of ConfigMgr (Microsoft Configuration Manager aka SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager)), it is the Intune version of Software Center. Company Portal allows users to install programs you publish on the Company Portal. My favorite part is that the…
Usually, when you want to control the Windows Update settings, you create a GPO to manage the settings or tweak some registry entries. Both methods alter the registry values in the registry key To reset any custom Windows Update settings, I nuke out that registry key or reverse the GPO or both, and restart the…
Windows Autopilot uses several mechanisms to function. A common one is the device’s hardware hash, also called the hardware ID. There are several ways to gather the hardware ID from a device to use in Windows Autopilot. In this post, I will show step-by-step how to get the hardware ID from a system with PowerShell…
