Category All posts

WSUS Offline Update tutorial

“WSUS Offline Update” also known as “wsusoffline” is a Microsoft Windows application that can download Windows updates to a local folder so you can install those updates later on another offline computer. It is a great way to update computers…

Get computer information with CMD

Get model name of the computer: Get the serial number of a computer: Get vendor/company of the computer: Get drive information. This basically shows the same as Disk Management but what is interesting is that if you have a drive…

Export local Active Directory information with PowerShell

Need to get a list of users in your domain? Or perhaps an inventory list of computers, or security groups? PowerShell is your friend! 🤝 Requirements and installation For first time and one-time setup you need to do the following: Download Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10 from Microsoft and install it. Make sure you choose the one appropriate for your operating system. In Windows run OptionalFeatures.exe and turn on Remote Server Administration Tools. In PowerShell you will have to run Import-Module ActiveDirectory. Usage Here are some common use cases. If you want more you can check out the official documentation. Export all users in AD with all attributes to a csv file. Make sure you Set-Location -Path or cd to the export path first. Export users of a specific organizational unit: If your domain is adatum.local then you should write DC=adatum,DC=local. For some strange reason the list of OU’s and DCs must be listed in a reverse order like this: But we could make it tidier by setting the list of OU and DC as variables. We can also make a variable with attributes. This makes it easier to change or adapt the script to different tasks. Export users that are actually human employees A lot of times you might have some service-accounts, test accounts or similar. If you just want to export a list of actual employees you can filter the results by using any attribute such as the employee number or employeeID. Get all disabled users that have an employee number Export memberships of users with employee number Find all employees with employee number and export their respective memberships to individual text files. Export all attributes of users with employee number Find all employees with employee number and export their all their respective attributes to individual […]

How to find compatible parts for Lenovo PCs

Solution 1: Use Lenovo SmartFind website You can use Lenovo SmartFind to find compatible accessories easily. All you need to know is the machine “type number“. For example, a ThinkPad T580 may have a machine type of 20L9 or 20LA. You can find the type number by running the command: wmic baseboard get product and note the first four letters/numbers. Solution 2: Use lenovo.com website You can also use the link below and replace XXXXXXXXXX with the model number e.g 20J6003GMX. This will take you directly to all compatible parts for that particular type of computer you have. If that doesn’t work, you can go to https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/search and search for any PC. Solution 3: Use the OCM spreadsheet Although this method might not always be up to date, you can use a spreadsheet called “Accessories and Options Compatibility Matrix (OCM)” from Lenovo. It is basically a huge spreadsheet document that contains a matrix of all compatible products. It is not very user friendly, but this table includes detailed info and comments from Lenovo. Great for IT employees that need to know specifications, FRU, and so on… Understanding Lenovo model numbers and letters It can be a little tricky to navigate the jungle of Lenovo products if you do not know your way around. Here is an infographic on how to understand how Lenovo PC names. Yeah… I am not sure about that last one, MX, but I believe it has something to do with which region in which the product is distributed or produced.

Print list of files and folders in Windows

Here are a few ways you can get a list of files and folders on a computer. I won’t get into specifics on how to use them. I just wanted to give you the options. 😇 The DIR command (Simple way to list files and folders) Documentation: Microsoft Docs Articles: How-To Geek, SS64, Computer Hope, windows-commandline Advantages: Good if you just need list of files, types, sizes etc… Disadvantages: Not good if you need a visual representation of the file hierarchy. GUI Alternative: JR Directory Printer does pretty much the same with a GUI. Karen’s Directory Printer offers a little more options, but it is not portable. There is also DirLister that can export to Excel and other formats, but it is buggy and adds annoying text after each file/folder. TREE command (Make a directory structure tree) Documentation: Microsoft Docs Articles: SS64, Computer Hope Advantages: Very simple and limited. Good if you just need a tree of the directory structure Disadvantages: Not good if you just need a list of files, advanced filtering or if you need something more visually pleasing. Snap2HTML (Software to make dynamic HTML) Documentation: GitHub Download: Snap2HTML Advantages: A beautiful and eloquent way to share complex directory structures with other non-technical people. Also, the software is portable, free and allows you to export to CSV or JSON. Disadvantages: Requires HTML and a web browser. The template looks a bit outdated, but you can change it if you know HTML.