@scottalanmiller You just did.

@scottalanmiller said in Why Are UTMs Not Recommended Generally:

@JaredBusch said in Considering moving from SonicWall to Sophos XG (Looking for feedback on Sophos):

@dave247 I never recommend a UTM. If you are going to go UTM, then go Palo Alto.

SonicWall is crap. Sophos and Watchguard are meh.

Same advice here. Avoid UTMs nearly always (there are exceptions, but not that many), but when you need one, the you need one that is really good and that's Palo Alto. These cheesy cheap UTMs just don't cut it. They don't do that much, but cost way too much for what they do.

Not disagreeing but I'm looking for some real life examples. Simply saying one is crap or cheap, or better from a top level when others are more expensive or less expensive (I know, price not relevant for quality) doesn't cut it.

What's a real life scenario where SonicWall is crap and Palo alto wins?

People like to repeat replies there just for the points, like the 5 or so there in your case.

Install GIT for Windows and it will just work in VSCode.

I do it all via VSCode, rarely manually.

I have left ALT+1 to commit, ALT+2 to push, ALT+3 to pull. I have commit automatically stage changes.

So when I'm coding, I CTRL+S to save, ALT+1, then ALT+2. Takes 5 seconds, so easy.

You will want the "Git Extension Pack" by Don Jayamanne. (also, various extensions to better support the languages you're coding in)

Also, the "Settings Sync" extension by Shan Khan is excellent if you use VSCode on multiple devices.

Another option is to use configuration management software so that if something like this does happen, you can automatically have another VM spun up and configured, then restore your data to it.

But yeah, IMO it's just way easier to have a host-level backup and hit restore. The $1 is definitely worth it. It's $1, who cares if it's a test or not. It's going to cost you way more than a dollar (or a year of monthly dollars) of your time to build another one.

@dave247 said in Most of my Windows 10 1803 computers upgraded to 1809 despite it not being approved in WSUS / Dual Scan is a thing:

@Obsolesce said in Most of my Windows 10 1803 computers upgraded to 1809 despite it not being approved in WSUS / Dual Scan is a thing:

@dbeato said in Most of my Windows 10 1803 computers upgraded to 1809 despite it not being approved in WSUS / Dual Scan is a thing:

@dave247 said in Most of my Windows 10 1803 computers upgraded to 1809 despite it not being approved in WSUS / Dual Scan is a thing:

not on Windows 10 Enterprise. The registry settings may or may not technically work, so I'm holding off on that solution unless there is no other way.

We have WSUS with Windows 10 1803 professional and we do not have DUal Scan so they will not upgrade until approved.

Yeah, same here... however, I also have a group policy enabled company wide that strictly blocks OS upgrades. When I approve them in WSUS, then they upgrade. But never before.

My main point is that we have all versions of Win10 running, controlled by WSUS, and they only upgrade when approved in WSUS. There has never been a different result.

Can you maybe provide me with your settings you applied to prevent that?

Problem:

Unable to PXE boot to Boot Image / LightTouch / WinPE image via WDS.
You receive error in Windows Server Event log:
Event ID 4101
"The Following Client failed TFTP Download:...."

Issue:

Fix:

"Nothing is more permanent than temporary"

A little script to show the difference between them all, and the results. I thougth it was an fun experiment.

Script:

Write-Output "Starting script..."

function Start-CountingSheep {
    $sheepfarm = 1..99

    Foreach ($sheep in $sheepfarm)
    {
        if ($sheep -match 9)
        {
            break      # <- abort loop
            #continue  # <- skip just this iteration, but continue loop
            #return    # <- abort code, and continue in caller scope
            #exit      # <- abort code at caller scope 
        }

        "Counting sheep #$sheep"

    }
    'Done counting sheep!'
}

Start-CountingSheep

Write-Output "...script finished."

Break Output Example:
(at the first sign of a nine, abort foreach loop)

Starting script...
Counting sheep #1
Counting sheep #2
Counting sheep #3
Counting sheep #4
Counting sheep #5
Counting sheep #6
Counting sheep #7
Counting sheep #8
Done counting sheep!
...script finished.

Continue Output Example:
(continues through loop, skipping any number containing a nine)

Starting script...
Counting sheep #1
Counting sheep #2
Counting sheep #3
Counting sheep #4
Counting sheep #5
Counting sheep #6
Counting sheep #7
Counting sheep #8
Counting sheep #10
Counting sheep #11
Counting sheep #12
Counting sheep #13
Counting sheep #14
Counting sheep #15
Counting sheep #16
Counting sheep #17
Counting sheep #18
Counting sheep #20
Counting sheep #21
Counting sheep #22
Counting sheep #23
Counting sheep #24
Counting sheep #25
Counting sheep #26
Counting sheep #27
Counting sheep #28
Counting sheep #30
Counting sheep #31
Counting sheep #32
Counting sheep #33
Counting sheep #34
Counting sheep #35
Counting sheep #36
Counting sheep #37
Counting sheep #38
Counting sheep #40
Counting sheep #41
Counting sheep #42
Counting sheep #43
Counting sheep #44
Counting sheep #45
Counting sheep #46
Counting sheep #47
Counting sheep #48
Counting sheep #50
Counting sheep #51
Counting sheep #52
Counting sheep #53
Counting sheep #54
Counting sheep #55
Counting sheep #56
Counting sheep #57
Counting sheep #58
Counting sheep #60
Counting sheep #61
Counting sheep #62
Counting sheep #63
Counting sheep #64
Counting sheep #65
Counting sheep #66
Counting sheep #67
Counting sheep #68
Counting sheep #70
Counting sheep #71
Counting sheep #72
Counting sheep #73
Counting sheep #74
Counting sheep #75
Counting sheep #76
Counting sheep #77
Counting sheep #78
Counting sheep #80
Counting sheep #81
Counting sheep #82
Counting sheep #83
Counting sheep #84
Counting sheep #85
Counting sheep #86
Counting sheep #87
Counting sheep #88
Done counting sheep!
...script finished.

Return Output Example:
(at the first sign of a nine, exit loop and function)

Starting script...
Counting sheep #1
Counting sheep #2
Counting sheep #3
Counting sheep #4
Counting sheep #5
Counting sheep #6
Counting sheep #7
Counting sheep #8
...script finished.

Exit Output Example:
(at the first sign of a nine, kill the script)

Starting script...
Counting sheep #1
Counting sheep #2
Counting sheep #3
Counting sheep #4
Counting sheep #5
Counting sheep #6
Counting sheep #7
Counting sheep #8

I use this PowerShell method, because it's more accurate when needing bulid/release version and patch level: Get-WUAVersion

However, I do understand the possiblility of running into Windows versions that may not have some PowerShell modules and may not be able to automatically obtain it in the script, requiring CMD.

Versus just the release. I guess it depends on what you're after, but I always like having the release and patch level.

Which, you just learn after a second, or can reference ths chart:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history

I purposely use conversation view in email. It's very convenient that way, having all message of the same chain together and easily referenced without leaving.

I recently tried without it thinking it'd be better again without it, but I quickly found myself turning it back on.

@wrx7m said in Does Anyone Actually Use Conversation View Intentionally for Email:

@Obsolesce said in Does Anyone Actually Use Conversation View Intentionally for Email:

@scottalanmiller said in Does Anyone Actually Use Conversation View Intentionally for Email:

@Obsolesce Yeah, that's not bad. Outlook definitely handles it better than many.

Don't remember off hand with Gmail.

What I do know, is that I never miss emails in conversation view. I've only missed emials with Outlooks dumb "focused inbox" feature. But never with conversation view. I separate emails too after they are processed. But guess I use emial differently than you.

If the conversation is ongoing, I don't think I move it anywhere. If I have email tasks to do, I'll simply flag it for follow-up, or right-click on it to add as a task.... all while the conversation can continue to flow as normal.

Yeah, the focused inbox is something that created havoc when they first rolled that out and enabled it by default. All my users were missing messages. Now, I turn that off prior to giving out new systems.

At my last job, we disabled it globally in O365, as NOBODY wanted it.

@IRJ said in Mouse pointer periodically freeze in place:

Perhaps a guest mouse would solve the issue

Only if I stand far enough away

Why don't you just purchase a WordPress.com (or some other fully managed WP host) account for them, and just hand it off completely to them? All responsibility besides billing and account is on them.

@JaredBusch said in I guess Skyetel doesn't want business:

I’m still waiting on @scottalanmiller to actually comment on the point of this topic.

He won't. But if he does, I'm sure he'll say this is some kind of exception.

@G-I-Jones said in Spiceworks Custom CSS HelpDesk Theme:

What was it that turned you away?

Spiceworks.

@scottalanmiller said in Using Skype For Business For Conference Calls:

One of the issues for us with Teams, is that we don't have a subscription to it, but it installs it and turns on a trial by default if we accidentally let any of the users open it. So it's invasive in three ways...

1. It forcibly installs, and then reinstalls itself, in defiance of the system admin and the Windows install system.
2. It forcibly starts itself and puts an icon on the desktop, not only without permission, but even after being set to not do so.
3. It aggressively opens accounts by way of unprivileged users to trick them into using an unauthorized system.

Install only what you want.

@Scott add them to the remote desktop users group on each machine.