Get Windows Firmware Embedded Activation Key

Firmware-embedded activation keys have become the standard method for OEM providers to deliver license keys on devices. Gone are the days of a Microsoft label stuck on the device with a license code that may come off or degrade over time. We now have a product key stored in the device firmware which allows it … Read more

Compress Symbols Files To Save Space

If you’re like me and you have a number of debugging tools (WinDBG, Sysinternals tools, etc) you more than likely have a locally cached copy of the publicly available symbols. This certainly helps speed things up as you don’t have to query the online Microsoft repository every time you use one of these tools, however … Read more

BCDEDIT – Boot Configuration Data Store Editor

I recently had to troubleshoot an interesting problem which required me to reboot a server into safe mode a number of times. While I was hammering away on the F8 key during the boot phase I wondered if there was a different way to change the boot menu to avoid the key spamming. That’s what brought … Read more

Error Lookup With net helpmsg Command

Microsoft provide a convenient command line tool which allows you to lookup error codes and be provided with the text description relating to that code. It may be something you’ve not come across before so this quick post will hopefully be useful. If you are familiar with the net commands (e.g net user, net localgroup, … Read more

Rename Windows Network Adapter with Powershell

I like my servers configured exactly the way I want – this extends even to minor things like the name of a network adapter interface. I’m slowly rebuilding my lab with the latest versions of ESXi and Microsoft Windows Server 2016. I noticed that my new 2016 servers were creating the network adapter with a … Read more

Microsoft Server 2016 and System Center and SQL Oh My!

Well it’s finally here – Microsoft Server 2016 has been released and is now generally available (GA). I’ve been messing around with the technical previews since they first came out and I eagerly awaited the final release. It is now time for me to start rebuilding a large portion of my home lab environment and … Read more

Disable Automatic Chkdsk on Windows Failover Cluster

These days it is pretty rare to be prompted to run a chkdsk on a Microsoft system, I certainly remember it being a more frequent occurrence on older hardware and OS versions. That being said, there are still occasions where Windows will prompt for a chkdsk and this post deals with a particular event – … Read more

Why I’m Using VMware ESXi In My Home Lab

A question came to me recently concerning my use of VMware ESXi on my home lab servers rather than Microsoft Hyper-V. I should of course acknowledge there are other options such as Linux and various other hypervisors but let’s stay on point for now. At work I run both ESXi and Hyper-V, there are certainly … Read more

Windows Server Core Expand Volume

I am trying to run as many of my Windows server home lab virtual machines (VM) as Core installs. This reduces the resource requirement for each VM in terms of drive space, memory and CPU – obviously a good thing in any environment. It also forces me to learn more ways of dealing with situations, … Read more

Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode

Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode (ESM) is a configurable option which enhances the Hyper-V virtual machine console providing options and features similar to an RDP client session. Configuring ESM can be achieved either via the Hyper-V Manager GUI or through PowerShell – obviously if you have many hosts to configure PowerShell is the way to go. Some … Read more