Michael Simmons

Whether you’re looking to take advantage of Dynamic Access Control, begin virtualizing your Active Directory infrastructure, or start using one of the other amazing features that Windows Server 2012 Active Directory offers, it all begins with getting a Windows Server 2012 added as a domain controller. Read on to learn how.

Office 365 allows you to connect to your work email as easily as you’ve been connecting to your personal Hotmail account. We go over several approaches to moving your contacts or address book into Office 365.

Introducing Microsoft’s Private Cloud, which allows a faster delivery of services, and a more categorical approach to your datacenters and your method of delivering services while utilizing System Center 2012.

Learn about the new XML-based file system in Windows Server 2008 for Administrative Templates for Group Policy Objects. Michael gives a brief overview of these new file types and shows you where they need to go depending on the administrative needs.

Learn about SharePoint document libraries in Office 365, which allow you to share collections of files with team members with a high level of customization.

Have you ever been locked out of an important Word document either because you forgot the password or perhaps it left with an employee that is no longer with the company? Michael Simmons provides 3 solutions for recovering lost passwords associated with Microsoft Office 2010 documents.

In this post, Michael Simmons explains the functions of the Administrative Templates for Group Policy Objects in Windows Server, specifically, Server 2008 R2. These templates allow a huge range of customization of settings for administrators configuring computers and users in Active Directory.

Michael Simmons explains how you can use PowerShell to find mailbox sizes in Office 365. Michael shows you two functions that you will need (and can save for later use) and then walks you through the steps to administer Office 365 quickly and efficiently in PowerShell.

In this post by IT veteran Michael Simmons, learn how to set up the sharing features of your document libraries in Office 365 so you can share a document library with someone outside of your organization, including clients or contractors.

Microsoft’s Office 365 is an entirely different approach to their software model, putting the Office suite and server products into the cloud. Because this is such a leap from what we’ve been doing for decades, you may be wondering if it’s the right solution for your company. In this post, Michael Simmons shows you how to set up Microsoft’s free 30 day trial which you can set up on your own domain. Is Office 365 right for you? Try it out and see!

In part 3 of Micahel Simmons’ series on crash dump analysis, Michael finally dives into the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) by using the Windows Debugger (WinDbg). There is a lot of information to be had in these memory dumps and Michael will show you how to find out what Windows is trying to tell us about your unhealthy computer.

In today’s post, Michael Simmons shows how simple it is to change user’s local and domain passwords using PowerShell with WMI and .NET. This allows quick flexible changes to user accounts with script that can be reused whenever the need arises.