Michael Reinders

Backup and replication are common data protection concepts, but they serve different purposes. Learn more about their differences and how they can benefit your data management strategy, especially how the backup vs replication argument relates to Active Directory (AD) and protecting it. What are backup and replication? Although backup and replication are both methods of…

You’ve probably heard about Windows Server – Microsoft’s enterprise server counterpart to its end-user client Windows 10 and 11 operating systems. But what is Windows Server exactly and how much do you know about it? Why would you want to install it and use it in your environment? What are the current supported versions and…

Discover the benefits of using Azure AD B2B in your organization. Learn how it can improve collaboration and streamline access for external partners, and boost your users’ productivity, safely and securely. What is Azure B2B? Microsoft Entra B2B (formerly Azure AD B2B) is a feature/service within the Microsoft Entra ID that allows collaboration between your…

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) B2C is a cloud-based customer identity and access management service that provides business-to-customer (B2C) Identity-as-a-Service. It allows organizations to secure and manage their customer-facing applications – so external parties can seamlessly sign up and log in. Learn more about the features and benefits of Azure AD B2C below. What is…

Audit your Active Directory environment to ensure the security of your company’s most valuable assets. Here are the top 10 events to audit in Active Directory to identify risks. Active Directory auditing involves more than tracking individual event IDs, it’s about understanding where privilege, persistence, and policy changes occur across the directory. This article focuses specifically on the most important…

How familiar are you with Windows Server Backup? You may be surprised by its value in your organization. I’ll explain what its main purpose is and how to use Windows Server Backup to back up Windows Server file servers and an Active Directory (AD) domain controller. What is Windows Server Backup? Windows Server has had…

Windows allows users to assign permissions to files and folders, for added security and to control which users can perform specific actions on files and folders. Learn all you need to know about basic permissions, folder permissions, user permissions, explicit permissions, and much more. What are NTFS permissions? NTFS permissions, first introduced with Microsoft Windows…

The Get-ADComputer PowerShell cmdlet is a powerful tool for managing AD computers. It can be used to retrieve information about computer objects, search for computer objects based on specific criteria, and perform various actions on computer objects. What is Get-ADComputer used for? Get-ADComputer is a PowerShell cmdlet that retrieves one or more computers from Active…

Direct answer: The AppData folder is located at C:\Users\[Username]\AppData. It is hidden by default in Windows 10 and Windows 11 because it stores user-specific application settings, caches, logs, profiles, and temporary files. Quick method: Press Windows + R, type %appdata%, and press Enter. This opens the Roaming folder inside AppData. To open the main AppData…

The Get-ChildItem PowerShell cmdlet is a powerful tool for listing files and folders in a variety of ways. In this blog post, we will explore the different features of the Get-ChildItem cmdlet and show you how to use it to get the most out of your PowerShell experience. What is Get-ChildItem? At a high level,…

Get-ADGroupMember is a useful PowerShell cmdlet for retrieving the members of Active Directory (AD) groups. In this article, we’ll delve into the capabilities of Get-ADGroupMember, explore its common parameters, and provide practical get-adgroupmember examples to showcase its power and versatility in managing your Active Directory environment. We’ll also touch on a related cmdlet – Get-ADGroup…

If you’ve been an IT Pro for many years (OK, decades), you likely know what an Active Directory OU (Organizational Unit) is. But, what if you’re new to the IT field or new to Microsoft Active Directory? No need to fret or get flustered – read my post to find out about OUs, what they are, and…