How to Install and Configure PowerShell 7 using Ansible

Quick Links PowerShell 7 is a versatile shell and programming language. Unlike many other configuration systems, it does not require an agent on the target system. This makes it easy to use and set up. Most package systems for Linux distributions have this built-in. This is a virtualized instance of Linux that runs in parallel with Windows. Notably, we need a hosts file to define our target locations. A simple hosts file that creates a group of hosts under the...

April 22, 2020 · 2 min · 286 words · Randy Duarte

How to Use Ansible Vault to Store Secret Keys

As with any automation system, Ansible needs a secure way to store secrets. In the case of Ansible, that system is calledAnsible Vault. Ansible Vault provides a cross-platform solution to securely storing credentials. By default AES is used which is a shared-secret based encryption. Both file and variable encryption methods have their benefits and drawbacks. File Encryption To create a new encrypted file named , simply use the followingansible-vaultcommand. Similarly, to encrypt a previously unencrypted file, use the followingansible-vaultcommand....

April 21, 2020 · 2 min · 403 words · Charles Johnson

Quick Tip: Roku TVs Can Pause Live TV From an Antenna for up to 90 Minutes

But if you’ve become acclimated to streaming, you might miss the ability to pause live TV. Roku’s TV interface has the ability to pause TV from an over-the-air antenna for up to 90 minutes. The feature was added in a software update a few years ago, without too much fanfare. You’ll just need a few things to get started. If you don’t have one,a drive that meets these requirements is super-cheap....

April 21, 2020 · 1 min · 154 words · Sherri Reed MD

How to Create a Self-Signed Certificate with PowerShell

In this article, you’re going to learn how to create a self-signed certificate in PowerShell. This cmdlet is included in the module. There are many options when it comes to creating certificates. Common self-signed certificate types are (default for the cmdlet) and . Let’s go ahead and create a regular certificate. This is one that usually is used to protect websites with SSL encryption. you might see an example of this below....

April 20, 2020 · 1 min · 196 words · Nicole Riddle

5 YouTube Channels to Help You Build Your New Desktop PC

UPDATE: 11/9/21 Verified content is still accurate. You might need to keep a finger on the pause button, but it’s all good info. The “DIY In 5” playlist is where it’s at. The channel is a corporate one, so it shills pretty hard for Kingston products. But if you’re free to get past that, it’s a great place for quick info. They havea series of articles all about building your own desktop PC, complete with photos and step-by-step breakdowns....

April 18, 2020 · 1 min · 109 words · Susan Lee

How to Build a Windows Server Inventory Report for Free with PowerShell

Quick Links PowerShell is used by many server administrators. Prerequisites This article will be hands-on. In practice what does something like this look like? Let’s list out some of the properties that would be very useful to know. Since we have a list of servers, we will have to iterate over the$Serversobject and query. Starting with a simpleForeach-Objectloop below, we can create a custom object to hold our values. Unfortunately, this is not all of the information that we need....

April 16, 2020 · 2 min · 296 words · Melinda Hughes

How to Use the BITS Module to Transfer Files using PowerShell

Quick Links A lesser-known feature of Windows is the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). Getting Started with BITS TheBITS cmdletsare actually built-in as default PowerShell commands. We can see what those commands are by running . Using the same@Paramsdeclaration, we can add a display name, in this caseTestTransfer. By default, the BITS transfer will run at aForegroundpriority, which implies the highest transfer speed available. This can be easily changed using one of the available priorities listed below....

April 14, 2020 · 2 min · 282 words · Andrea Baker

How to Manage Windows Firewall Rules with PowerShell

This article covers common commands used in the Windows Firewall and where they may be used. The module NetSecurity is welldocumented. Keep in mind that this article only applies to the Windows operating system. To load the module, simply import the module as shown below. List Existing Firewall Rules The cmdlet,Get-NetFirewallRulewill show all existing firewall rules. There are many, by default, so to demonstrate, we output the first 10. There are many properties that are returned byGet-NetFirewallRule....

April 13, 2020 · 2 min · 231 words · Leslie Blevins

IKEA's Smart Blinds are Online Now for $129 and Up

It’s on sale starting today. TheFYRTUR blindsare a set of rolling blackout cloth. There’s also a manual remote if you’d rather take matters into your own hands. FYRTUR blinds range in price from $129 to $179, depending on how wide you need them. All three sets are shipping on IKEA’s website today. Source:IKEAviaEngadget,Reddit

April 13, 2020 · 1 min · 53 words · Anita Bonilla

How to Build a Jenkins Build Server

Automating the build and deployment processes enables software development teams to make smaller changes more often. Automation limits bugs due to code other team members write, as the code was checked out. to get to achieve this benefit, a high degree of automation and orchestration is necessary. Jenkins is one of the most popular and flexible open-source orchestration tools out there. Prerequisites We get hands-on in this article. after you grab installed Jenkins, you’re free to access it right from your web online window....

April 9, 2020 · 2 min · 397 words · Stephen Franco

Logitech G604 Gaming Mouse Review: The Honeymoon is Over

Instead, it’s a successor to theG602, a favorite among gamers who need tons of side buttons. In terms of hardware, I like almost everything about this mouse. The only thing that brings it down is Logitech’s bloated driver software. And unfortunately, that’s a big failing point on a mouse where programmable buttons are the entire idea. But if frustrating software is a dealbreaker for you, then skip it. It’s not worth the hassle....

April 9, 2020 · 3 min · 615 words · Mark Shelton

Five Ways a Non-Privileged User Account Can Own Your Network

We also assume that the attacker has either access to a domain-joined computer or has access to the connection. Don’t forget to update the drivers as well! But how do the attackers know that an admin will log on to that computer? Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock Well, that’s easy—they cause problems with the machine and wait for support to log on. BloodHound uses a Graph Database calledNeo4jto discover hidden relationships between users and computers by usingGraph Theory....

April 8, 2020 · 1 min · 132 words · Gregory Small

How to Set Up Monitoring to Alert on Windows High System Usage

This utility has many overlooked abilities, one of them being the ability to alert on various metric conditions. What is Perfmon? The default view upon launching highlights a few different areas and real-time metrics. you could add additional metrics to this graph, by clicking on the green plus and adding more metrics. Data Collector Sets Real-time data is useful, but not what we are ultimately looking for. How then do we alert on certain conditions, in this case, high CPU usage sustained over time?...

April 6, 2020 · 2 min · 346 words · Gregory Jones