Changing a Windows account picture on one computer is simple. Changing it reliably for multiple domain users, across multiple domain-joined computers, while retaining central control is a slightly different problem. I wanted a system where profile pictures could be administered…
I wanted domain users on my order.realm network to have their own Windows account pictures automatically applied when they log on to a domain computer. The environment in this example uses: The final result is that a user can log…
Remote Desktop is one of those Windows features that usually either works immediately or sends you down a permissions rabbit hole. This particular problem came up in Realm Labs when I had a Windows machine joined to the order.realm domain…
One of the things I like about running Active Directory at home is that it gives me somewhere to experiment with the same sort of problems that appear in much larger environments. Mapped drives are a perfect example. They start…
This one was painful because the symptoms made it look like the entire domain was falling apart. I had a Windows domain environment running in Realm Labs and wanted domain-joined machines to automatically bring up a WireGuard tunnel at startup.…
Windows Group Policy makes it possible to centrally deploy applications to domain-joined PCs, but the traditional Software Installation policy has an important limitation: it is primarily designed around Windows Installer packages (.msi). During this project I wanted domain computers to…
Hyper-V is Microsoft’s native Type-1 hypervisor built directly into Windows. Whether you are building a local dev environment, testing new operating systems, or setting up dedicated homelab services, Hyper-V offers bare-metal virtualization performance without needing third-party hypervisors like VMware Workstation…
If your Hyper-V virtual machine is running fine in the background (e.g., you can still SSH into it), but Hyper-V Manager fails to connect or throws an error stating that the object was not found or deleted, the issue lies…
Deploying a Consistent Desktop Wallpaper via Group Policy Maintaining a consistent desktop background across domain-joined computers is a simple way to reinforce branding and create a professional user experience. In my home lab, I use Active Directory Group Policy (GPO)…
When managing a Windows Active Directory environment, it’s easy to assume that if a Group Policy Object (GPO) contains both Computer and User settings, everything inside it will apply automatically. Unfortunately, that’s not how Active Directory processes policy. I recently…
