Category: How To
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Outlook: Offline Mode
From time to time, I need to run Outlook in Offline Mode. This is usually the case when I want to ensure that a mail merge has worked successfully. It is also a good option to reduce data usage when on mobile networks. Going to Offline Mode is straight forward. In Outlook, go to the…
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Excel: Text to Columns
I work a lot with text files containing data which is, to some degree or another, structured. Whether a breach file from a published breach, or the result of a powershell query such as Get-ADUser, Get-ADComputer, or Get-ADDirectReports, I need to separate the data into columns so that I can work with it. This is…
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Look up AD User Password expiration date
A little while ago, I had a user call in and ask when their password would expire. Luckily, this information is readily accessible if you know where – and how – to look. Here’s how: Open a command prompt Enter the command net user %USERNAME% /domain Read the information from the results: In addition to…
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SCCM: Find client BIOS information
With some regularity, I find myself needing to fetch information from the BIOS of a client computer, preferably without having to go onsite to do so. This may be because I need to know what BIOS version the client is running, the serial number of the computer, or when it was manufactured. If you’re running…
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Identifying the version of a Windows client
Back in December, I showed you how to install RSAT on a Windows client. As you will have seen, the method depends on what version of Windows the client is running, which means that correctly identifying the version running is somewhat important (although trial and error does work – eventually). I have found that the…
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AD: Inspecting object attributes
A little while ago, I was asked about when a specific user last logged in with their active directory (AD) user account. While looking up that information was easily done, finding out how to look up the information was a mite more challenging. There are a number of ways of achieving it; including command line…
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Excel: Highlight duplicates
Among my many areas of responsibility at work, is contacting all the users found in various data breach lists that our InfoSec team get their hands on (typically, these are the same lists that eventually make their way to HIBP). Not unsurprisingly, there is a significant amount of overlap between some of these lists, and…
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Installing RSAT on a Windows client
You may, for one reason or another, need to install Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on your Windows client computer. You may want to perform administrative tasks in Active Directory Users and Computers, administer Certificates in Active Directory Certificate Services, or administer DNS or DHCP in DNS or DHCP Server Tools. Whatever the case may…
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GMail: Schedule sending of emails
From time to time, I have found it useful to schedule the sending of emails, such as reminders to others about something, requests for updates and so on. Luckily, this is a feature which is easily available in GMail. After composing an email, instead of hitting “send”, click the arrow pointing down, and then click…
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View message headers
For most users, the message headers of any given email are irrelevant; the email has arrived, and that is all there is to say about that. It does, however, have applications both in IT support and in information security. While those applications are outside the scope of this article, accessing the message header is not.…
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Quickly check user logon time
With surprising regularity, I need to check when a user last logged in. I recently found a command that returns this information; quser. Using it is simple enough; open a command prompt, enter the command, and hit return: When run on a server, the command returns information of when all currently logged on users logged…