Black Manticore

GPO not applying on Windows 10 machines due to UNC hardening

by lunarg on November 30th 2020, at 16:45

A long standing issue (it goes back as far as Windows 10 1511) exists where GPOs are not (or not always) applied on Windows 10 machines, even though the entire setup checks out (correct GPO links, network in working order, domain controllers functional). Back in Windows 10 1511, there was a certain update introducing something called UNC hardening which caused this behaviour. Although it was expected that this has since been resolved in another Cumulative update, there are still numerous reports of users encountering this issue all the way up to Windows 10 2004.

Should you be affected by this issue, the symptoms are as follows:

You are able to succesfully log on using a domain account you' ...

gpo, ad, win10

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Resetting machine account password in Windows 10

by lunarg on October 30th 2020, at 16:30

In the past, whenever you needed to reset the machine (computer) account password for a computer joined to an Active Directory domain, you could use netdom.exe to perform the task. However, this no longer exists in Windows 10, but luckily, you can now perform the task through Powershell:

Reset-ComputerMachinePassword -Server dc.domain.local -Credential (Get-Credential)

Replace dc.domain.local with the FQDN of a domain controller. You will also be prompted to enter the credentials of a domain admin account (or another account which is delegated to reset computer account passwords).

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Restore Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10 (LTSC)

by lunarg on January 21st 2020, at 15:11

For people using Windows 10 LTSC builds, where the Windows Photos app is not available (and not installable), or for people with nostalgic feelings, you can restore the original Windows Photo Viewer from Windows 7.

The full article with registry hacks can be found here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/14312-restore-windows-photo-viewer-windows-10-a.html. It reactivates Windows Photo Viewer as an option to open image files with, though you still need to manually make the association.

In a corporate environment, to force the file association to Windows Photo Viewer for various common file types, you can do so through GPO by creating a file associations XML:

<?xml version="1.0&qu ...

win10, ltsc

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Ways to disable Windows 10 automatic updates

by lunarg on September 5th 2019, at 16:43

For users which really want to prevent Windows 10 from automatically installing updates, here are some methods to disable automatic updates. Depending on which method you use, you will still be able to manually check and install updates, or not be able to install updates at all...

Note that the methods leverage group policies, which is not supported on Windows 10 "Home/Essential" editions. A minimum of Windows 10 Pro or better is needed.

Caution
It is generally not recommended to disable automatic updates. Doing so (and not subsequently regularly installing the updates yourself) increases the risk of data loss and/or stealing due to potentional vulnerabilities in Windows 10.

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