Category: Information

Posted on

Flashback to what it took to do math in DOS batch files

While working on a script for an upcoming project, I wanted to test for the presence of various Office versions, including 32-bit and 64-bit components before initiating setup. Here’s one way I found:

@ECHO OFF
SET CURRLOCATION32="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16"
SET CURRLOCATION64="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16"
SET PREV1LOCATION32="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office15"
SET PREV1LOCATION64="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office15"
SET PREV2LOCATION32="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office14"
SET PREV2LOCATION64="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office14"

REM Check for 64-bit versions
IF EXIST ""%CURRLOCATION64%\MANIFEST.XML""
… [ Continue reading ]
Posted on

Export Credential Manager to PowerShell

If you ever find yourself in a sticky wicket and need to extract usernames and passwords from Credential Manager (usually because you forgot them), you can use this handy-dandy little function from PowerShell:

function ExportCredMan
{
    # Dump local passwords from credential manager
    [void][Windows.Security.Credentials.PasswordVault,
… [ Continue reading ]
Posted on

Apply Security & Compliance Center Retention Labels to Outlook Folders

I couldn’t really come up with a cool-sounding title for this post, so I just went with the basics of what it does.

Last week, I worked with a customer that wanted to deploy custom retention labels to custom folders inside a user’s mailbox–the idea being that they would create a custom folder structure such as this under a user’s Inbox:

\Inbox
\Inbox\Retention Schedule
\Inbox\Retention Schedule\2 Year (apply a 2-year retention label to everything in this folder)
\Inbox\Retention Schedule\4 Year (apply a 4-year retention label to everything in this folder)
\Inbox\Retention Schedule\7 Year (apply a 7-year retention label to everything in this folder)
\Inbox\Retention Schedule\Forever (apply a ‘Never delete’ retention label to everything in this folder)

Seems easy enough, right? … [ Continue reading ]

Posted on

Exchange Online Protection (EOP) Best Practices and Recommendations

Yes. I said it.

Someone needed to put a line in the sand and today, that person is me.  I’m going to say these are some best practices.

Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on your type of organization–users at a local bank or city government will have different threats presented to them than an engineering firm with international customers, for example.… [ Continue reading ]

Posted on

Update to Get-UserHoldPolicies

This certainly seems to be a day for updates! Based on some additional feedback from my peers, I’ve updated the Get-UserHoldPolicies script to exclude legacy Exchange MRM policies by default.  MRM policies, while they have RetentionPolicyTags, are technically either moving or deleting content, not preserving it.… [ Continue reading ]