From the Help Desk – Page 2

Windows 22H2 repeatedly says “wrong username and password” trying to login Active Directory user

Posted on November 4, 2022December 9, 2022 by admin

I recently had to troubleshoot an issue where a new Surface Pro 9 for an employee of an existing company. IT staff unboxed the device and began the initial set up, including Windows 11 22H2 Pro. Initially, the machine joined to the domain, but upon reboot, after joining the domain, absolutely nothing would let us log in to the domain. We tried normal users, domain Administrators, and in the end we had to go back to local users to continue troubleshooting.

We didn’t believe there was a problem with the Domain Controller because all of the other computers in the building are behaving fine. Why just this one brand new computer? In the end, we realized it was because Windows 22H2 (Windows 10 or 11) doesn’t like a Linux-based SAMBA Active Directory server.

Gaining Command Prompt access on a Windows Computer that has never been set up

Posted on November 2, 2022November 2, 2022 by admin

I sometimes work in an environment that has reasonably tight security requirements. One of those requirements as that a device’s MAC Address / Hardware Address be entered into a table on the router before it can be assigned an IP address.

I recently showed up on site with a brand new in box Surface Pro 9, but I had no idea how to get the MAC Address of the device because I could not log in and open a command prompt. Or so I thought.

I got to the wifi screen telling me to create a connection, then pressed “Control+Alt+Escape” which brings up Task Manager. Although it did not appear on my screen, I suspected it was running behind the overlay locked to the forefront of my screen. I pressed “Alt+Tab” and was able to confirm my suspicion. I then used the keyboard combination of “Alt+F” to open the file menu, pressed Enter knowing that “Run” was highlighted, typed “cmd” and pressed enter to open a Command Prompt window. All of this was happening behind the “Let’s Connect You to a Network” screen, but as veteran of the keyboard era of Windows, all of this was second nature to me.

From there I was able to run the familiar ipconfig /all command, then, with the help of my phone’s camera, I could take a photo of the output of the command prompt and see the MAC Address that I was looking for.

This was convenient enough, but the thought of just being connected to wifi without ever logging in to the machine and then being able to take advantage of this “defaultuser0” account to open a terminal, and then utilize wget to download and execute potential malware before the computer has ever even been set up… fascinating. I’m sure this isn’t “breaking news” to anyone, infact the feature is probably left in, intentionally, for cases just like my original issue! But it does force me to take pause and think of what I can do with this.

How to disable “notifications” from all major browsers

Posted on October 27, 2022October 27, 2022 by admin

People often get a lot of annoying pop ups down by their clocks in Windows 10 and 11, and what they don’t realize is that they have accidentally allowed “notifications” to come from advertising driven websites that are sending them notifications even when they aren’t visiting that website!

In my opinion, the “notification” feature was the worst thing ever added to modern web browsers, but they all have it: Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all include this ability and with more and more browsers being powered by Chrome (Brave, Opera, etc…) this feature doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. So here’s how to disable it!

I Love What I Do

Posted on October 25, 2022October 17, 2023 by admin

Originally published on Reddit in the /r/Sysadmin subreddit which was often filled with negativity and frustration, I shared this:

I’m probably the very last of a generation.

I wasn’t part of the earliest days of silicon valley. I grew up watching them, wishing I was just 10 years older.

My first computer was a Commodore 64. Then I had a Packard Bell w/ an Intel 486DX4 80Mhz, Windows 3.11, 8MB of RAM, and a 600MB HDD. We upgraded the HDD to a whopping 4.2 GB, added another 16GB of RAM, and eventually upgraded to Windows 95. My first modem was 19.2Kbps. I watched the first “dot com” bubble burst. I was an unabashed geek who loved learning things, but I could never wrap my head around math skills. I was told there was no way I could make it in “computers” because of my weak mathematics.

I went off to college, got a degree in English because I thought I was going to be a school teacher. Couldn’t find a job as a journalist, teaching jobs required years of being a substitute before you could find something good, so I fell back on my geeky skill set. I found a place that was willing to take a chance on me in an entry level help desk. I think I’m the very last of a generation that was able to get into this line of work without a formal background or degree or even certificates.

I then worked from one position to another… technician’s jobs at small companies where a title was more of career stepping stone than the work I did while I was there… another help desk, a “Director” title at a job where I was the only IT guy… now I’ve pivoted to a place where I’m the “IT Administrator” but I’m doing all kinds of things I never thought I would do.

I never learned programming languages… after all, I am still pretty bad at math. The company I work for is small enough that I can work directly with end-users and see that I still make a difference when I solve their problems. I’ve always loved that feeling. But I have zero formal training, and I’ve made a pretty great career out of “I don’t know everything, but I know that I can figure it out.” My attitude is always if there’s a problem, there’s a solution.

Last night I spent two hours troubleshooting an Ubuntu Linux server because I’ve spent the last 35+ years of my life being a “Windows Guy” and only the last 14 months or so learning about Linux. I called a friend of mine when I took this job (full time RHEL admin) and he basically had nothing but encouraging things to say! ‘You’ve spent your whole life figuring things out, this is just something new to figure out!’

ARE there times when an end user tries to throw the IT Department under the bus? Sure. Bring your receipts, show your logs where the email was delivered to their inbox, and it’s not that it wasn’t delivered, it’s just that they didn’t see it. ARE there times when an end user frustrates me? Sure, but there are days when those same people make me laugh. It’s all “water off a duck’s ass” as my dad used to say; it’s very rare that you have to completely avoid someone for the sake of your own sanity, and even when there are people like that, you learn which ones. ARE there times when I wish the biggest decision I had to make today was which font to use on a graphic or on which date I need to ship something out to make sure it doesn’t arrive too early or too late for an event? Absolutely. ARE there times when I’m overcome with existential dread that if I my backups don’t work correctly the whole company is sunk and dozens of people are out of a job and all I want to do is vomit at the mere thought of how much weight rests on my shoulders? Occasionally.

But DAMN I love what I do. I love knowing that I fixed a problem and made a difference that day. I love the tangible nature of puzzle solving. I love that I always get to tinker with something new. Even in small dead end IT jobs where the work is repetitive – make a project up for yourself! Download something new and tinker with it! I love that just because I don’t have any credentials that require “Continuing Education” credits doesn’t mean that I should ever just STOP learning new things!

What gets YOU excited these days? What got you excited when you first STARTED this career? Let’s have a thread that’s different from all of the rants!