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Hello all, If you pay attention to the updates we rollout each month or take note of what Windows Updates are on your Windows 8 PC or Windows Server 2012 Server, you may have seen some monthly rollup updates. Below are the rollups from the first one when we released Windows 8 up to April 2013: (Note...

If you’ve been managing an Active Directory infrastructure for the last 5-10 years, you might have noticed that the pace of change has rapidly increased. After surviving the migrations from Windows NT to Windows 2000 and then Windows 2003, we settled into a nice lull for about 5 years. Suddenly...

Hello folks, its Rick here. In a previous post Michael gave you nice overview of Windows Azure Services and helped you setup your own VMs in cloud using the free trial thru the Azure portal. Today I would like to walk you through building a VM in Windows Azure using your favorite management tool ‘PowerShell...

If you've read any of my prior posts, you know I like to be able to do things without a lot of prep, in a short amount of time. Yes, I like the K.I.S.S principle – Keep It Simple, Stan. I also enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes when I can leave work and know that I actually made progress...

Here’s an interesting question that came to us from one of our readers. If you have a question for us, don't forget that you can contact us using the Contact tile just to the right of this article when viewed from our TechNet blog . Question: I am setting up multiple Windows Server 2012 and...

Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC) was first introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 to manage directory service objects along with Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) however, it did not win me over until after I saw the enhancements made in Windows Server 2012. It is one of the reasons...

Windows Server 2012 provided major improvements to the Hyper-V role, including increased consolidation of server workloads, Hyper-V Replica, Cluster Aware Updating (CAU), network virtualization and the Hyper-V extensible switch, just to name a few! Hyper-V 3.0, as some call it, helps organizations improve...

Remember these on Windows 2003 Server? I cannot count the number of times I’ve been asked how to clean this up. Apparently I’m not the only one that hates clutter. And what about that annoying prompt to insert your product CD-ROM now at the most inopportune time? I’ve literally...

Not sure where February went but it sure is flying by in a hurry. During the month I had another interesting question given to me to answer. Don't forget that you can contact us using the Contact tile just to the right of this article when viewed from our TechNet blog . Question When building a...

Some have noticed that my posts over the last few months have a focus on Windows Server 2012 storage features. (In case you're new to the Ask PFE Platforms blog, I'll include links to those at the end of this post.) On a typical day I'm not obsessed with storage. However, I just couldn’t help but...

When I first heard of ReFS my immediate first question was whether ReFS as a file system was a direct replacement for NTFS. It didn’t take long before my customers began to ask me the same question. In learning about this new file system in Windows Server 2012, it became apparent fairly quickly...

Thanks for great feedback and for reading my prior AskPFEPlat post regarding Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 . Based on feedback and questions following that post, it seemed like a great time to show how to import a storage pool on another server. Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 writes the...

Remember when Windows Server 2008 R2 was released, and one of the exciting new features was Managed Service Accounts ?  Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) held so much promise – automatic password management and automatic SPN registration.  Remember all of those service you have in the domain...

By Roger Osborne Like many of you, when I test out new Windows features, I often turn to TechNet documentation, to be certain I’m following Microsoft guidelines and recommendations along the way. A lot of work and effort goes into making this information available, and, more often than not, the details...

With Windows Server 2012, there are tools, features and functions that are available from the first member server (or Win8 PC with the RSAT pack - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972 ). ** You don't need a schema extension, you don't need to deploy any 2012 Domain Controllers...

My last installment about how Windows Server handles processor cores discussed Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows Server 2012 is out and the editions available differ somewhat from prior Windows operating system releases. With the editions available, key differences are not regarding...

As mentioned in my prior post about Storage Spaces, Windows Server 2012 contains many new capabilities. The integrated iSCSI Target happens to be one of those. Many have used the downloadable iSCSI Target for Windows Server 2008 R2 from Microsoft since it was released for internet download. Prior to...

Rick Bergman here with a post on gathering hotfixes from multiple node failover clusters ranging in OS version from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2012. Recently, I reviewed a number of failover clusters for my customer and it was identified that they were struggling with keep the hotfixes...

Windows Server 2012 introduces many, many, many new features.  Just in the realm of storage it would be difficult to cover all storage features in appropriate detail within a single blog post.  This post is just one installment about Windows Server 2012 storage features.  Those of you...

Tom Moser here with a post on one of the new ADDS features in Windows Server 2012; Virtual Domain Controller Cloning. Until now, cloning, snapshotting, copying, or pretty much doing anything but rebuilding from scratch to a virtual domain controller wasn't just unsupported; it had the potential to...

  Hello, Rick here to talk about how you can use the new PowerShell Web Access (PSWA) feature in Windows Server 2012 to allow remote administrative access to a set of servers in your IT infrastructure. Furthermore, you can granularly delegate access and only expose specific administrative privileges...

Following up on Greg Jaworski’s great post from last week where he talked about how to promote a domain controller in Windows Server 2012, today we will cover some thoughts around where to place your first Windows Server 2012 DCs and how many to plan on rolling out at once. This blog post is meant...

Welcome to part two of this blog where we discuss promoting a Domain Controller with Windows PowerShell. We also discuss how you can do the prerequisites checks before introducing the first Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller. Promoting a Domain Controller with PowerShell Just like in the GUI...

Greg Jaworski here again to discuss introducing the first Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller. We will discuss things such as extending the schema, enhancements to the Domain Controller promotion process (it is no longer called dcpromo), and things you should be doing to ensure a smooth upgrade and...

Well, another summer has passed, kids are back in school and the folks here at Microsoft have been reeeeeeally busy getting the final touches on many, many new products. One of those new products is our newest server Operating System – Windows Server 2012. In case you hadn't heard, it recently...