Michael has been an IT Pro since 1998. He has worked predominantly in the Windows world including client and server operating systems, on-prem systems engineering (AD, DNS, etc.), and over the last ten years or so has embraced and immersed himself in all things Microsoft 365 - including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams, OneDrive, and Microsoft Entra ID. He has written articles here on Petri based on these technologies. Michael strives to help other IT Pros with getting more efficient (especially with PowerShell) in their day-to-day tasks and offering solid assistance on larger projects.
Last Update: Feb 12, 2024
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…
Last Update: Apr 14, 2026
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…
Last Update: Jun 14, 2024
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…
Last Update: Feb 22, 2024
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…
Last Update: May 06, 2025
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…
Last Update: Jul 16, 2026
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,…
Last Update: Jun 08, 2025
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…
Last Update: Feb 03, 2026
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…
Multi-tenant organizations (MTOs) are a new feature in Microsoft 365 and Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) that has reached the public preview stage in mid-2023. An MTO is a group of up to five Entra ID tenants linked together to offer your users seamless collaboration and the sharing of resources. In this article, I’ll…
Last Update: Apr 16, 2024
Ransomware protection is one the most important topics for IT Pros and C-Level technology executives. Learn how immutable backups and immutable storage help to protect your organization against data corruption and loss, malware, viruses, and ransomware – and how to implement them. This post is sponsored by Object First Veeam 2023 Ransomware trends report – most ransomware targets backups In May…
Last Update: Jun 05, 2025
Roaming profiles are a Windows feature that allows user profiles to be used across multiple workstations within a network. A user profile contains personalized application settings, desktop configurations, application preferences, and other user-specific data. In this article, I will show you how to deploy roaming user profiles in your Windows environment so that users have…