The Egg Basket

I recently installed a fancy new firewall for a client.  Out of the box, the web filtering policies are blocking the installation of Office 365 apps from Microsoft. Curious, yes.  The category responsible for blocking is Risky Downloads .  Installing Office Apps? Risky, indeed. I had to add a Web Protection Exception with the following entries: ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?microsoft\.com/ ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?windowsupdate\.com/ ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?officecdn.microsoft.com.edgesuite.net/ ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?officecdn.microsoft\.com/ ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?windows\.com/ What a wonky syntax.  Can you guess what the firewall vendor is?

Intel Corp to Build Ohio MegaFab You may have heard- Intel ( NASDAQ:INTC ) is building a plant in New Albany: The Ohio MegaFab. When they say this is big, that's no joke.    Quick facts: It will be the largest semiconductor factory in the world. The site will occupy almost 1,000 acres (926 to be exact) Initial plans are for 2 fabrication facilities The factory will employ 3,000 direct Intel employees earning an average of $135k There will be about 7,000 construction jobs The first chips are expected to be produced in 2025 Total investment by Intel is $20 Billion Construction will begin this year (2022) Potential to expand up to 8 fab facilities and 2,000 acres. Also: " tens of thousands of additional indirect and support jobs including contracted positions, electricians, engineers, and jobs in restaurants, healthcare, housing, entertainment and more," according to a press release. This is the closest thing to a gold rush this country has seen in a while.  What opportun...

So, I was today years old when I learned that there's an easy way to do a screen snip in Windows 10!   All along, I had been hitting PrtSc and then pasting the result into Paint, and then cropping the image to select the portion I wanted. No more! Simply hit Win-Shift-S on your keyboard. (Hold the Windows key, hold Shift, and press the letter S, all at the same time.) Your screen will dim, and you can use your mouse to drag and select the area you want. There are also some fun options that appear:  Freeform Snip, Window Snip, and Full Screen Snip. Enjoy!

Hold it right there! You've likely heard it before, but here it is again... never give anyone your password for anything, to anyone, for any reason.  Here, I'll discuss password hygiene and other security measures. But my IT person said they need it! No, they don't.  If it comes down to it, they should have the ability to reset it to something they know.  In a properly managed environment, this will leave an audit trail.  Otherwise, they can have you enter it directly.  In a remote support session, there are tools available to properly handle authentication without disclosing your password.  If your IT staff is constantly asking for personal passwords, I know a guy that can help.  Never, under any circumstances, disclose your password over the phone to a caller who's requesting it.  No story, no matter how legit sounding, should prompt you to disclose authentication information. A visual representation of someone calling and requesting your passwo...

How Long Has It Been?! Let's find out! Sometimes we'd like to know how long it's been since a system was booted, or even installed. Here are a few quick & (not-so?) dirty ways to find out. System Boot Time (or Uptime) Recent versions of Windows display the uptime in the Task Manager on the Performance tab: You can also obtain the boot time from a command prompt.   For the systeminfo commands, you can shorten the phrase in quotes, but it is case sensitive .  Entering find "Date" and find "Time" will get you what you want. systeminfo | find "System Boot Time" or net statistics workstation  [or server] System Install Date From a command prompt: systeminfo |find "Original Install Date" From PowerShell: ([WMI]'').ConvertToDateTime((Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem).InstallDate) Check back last Thursday for more exciting time-based posts!

Here is a collection of Azure AD URLs and commands I frequently use: Disclaimer:  These commands have not been tested in all environments or implementations.  They may contain typos or errors.  Updates not guaranteed so some commands may be deprecated.  Edit closely and use at your own peril. URLs: https://portal.office.com/commerce/subscriptions.aspx https://portal.office.com/admin/default.aspx https://portal.office.com/Partner/ModernShell.aspx#DashboardView https://portal.azure.com/ https://manage.windowsazure.com https://account.windowsazure.com/Subscriptions PowerShell Commands: To force Azure AD Connect to perform a synchronization between on-prem AD and Azure AD: First: Import-Module ADSync To perform a full sync: Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Initial or To perform a delta sync: Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta Remove One User Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName username@contoso.onmicrosoft.com Remove-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName username@contoso.onmic...

Responding to Negative Reviews Sooner or later, it's bound to happen.  Someone visits your business and somehow they leave... less than impressed.  So much so, that they go public and leave a negative review.  Whatever the reason, there are appropriate ways to respond.  Keep in mind- when you're responding to that one review, your audience is not just the unhappy client; but also the potential thousands and thousands of folks that come across your reviews when they're looking for a product or service like yours.  Therefore, your review should not only address the issue at hand, but also let prospective clients know you genuinely care about their experience.  Here are some tips to help you craft the perfect response.  These are general tips but are applicable to most any industry; so, feel free to substitute customer/patient/visitor/reader/etc. where you see "client" below. Avoid:   Responding from emotion Reading something negative someone has to ...