Some Notes on the Machines

Highly recommended by the indefatigable Bruce Blackman:

www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-create-a-forensic-image-with-ftk-imager/

Run this:

sysdm.cpl

Then go to the Advanced tab, and click the Settings button in the middle under User Profiles.

This works great under 10 also, but is a lot more hidden in 11.

See:

wimlib.net

Amazing piece of work. wimverify may be immediately useful if you are using WIMs.

First we connect to Exchange Online via Powershell. First we install or update the MSOnline module.

#Install
Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

#Update
Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
Update-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

Then we connect:

Connect-MsolService

Now get a list of deleted users:

Get-MsolUser -ReturnDeletedUsers

And here’s how we permanently purge all of them. Do this ONLY if you are certain. There is no going back after this.

Get-MsolUser -ReturnDeletedUsers | Remove-MsolUser -RemoveFromRecycleBin -Force

There are different methods for 365/Azure. But to get directly to Exchange Online from Powershell running on Windows, a current update of longstanding methods is as follows.

To install the module:

Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

To update the module:

Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
Update-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

To connect:

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName admin@domain.com

Current reference, including methods for MacOS and Linux as well:

learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/exchange/exchange-online-powershell-v2

This one is a good basic, it prevents unwanted sleep and sets other helpful parameters. Not a performance setting, not a power-paranoia setting either! It does alter the current power scheme.

# General
powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /change monitor-timeout-dc 15
powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /change standby-timeout-dc 120
powercfg /change hibernate-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /change hibernate-timeout-dc 180
powercfg /change disk-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /change disk-timeout-dc 60

# Exposes and zeroes hidden "System unattended sleep timeout"
# which can cause problems
powercfg -attributes SUB_SLEEP 7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0 -ATTRIB_HIDE
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_sleep 7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0 0

# Disable hybrid sleep both AC powered and DC
powercfg -setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_sleep 94ac6d29-73ce-41a6-809f-6363ba21b47e 0
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_sleep 94ac6d29-73ce-41a6-809f-6363ba21b47e 0

# Reapply current power scheme
powercfg -setactive scheme_current

This one works very well:

www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup

It’s a recent and active development, works very well, very nicely functional. Currently runs on Windows, macOS and Linux desktop computers, as well as on Android devices and Chromebooks. Uses the Sword Project repositories. The UI is a bit different than others, but it’s very well worth the learn.

ezrabibleapp.net/

This is at the 365 level, not the Exchange level. To connect:

Connect-MgGraph -Scope User.Read.All 

(or User.ReadWrite.All)

To get user info:

Get-MgUser -UserID username@domain.com

To change immutable ID to “a”:

Update-MgUser -UserID username@domain.com -OnPremisesImmutableId "a"

One cannot change ImmutableID to $null, but it can be changed, so an AD/AZ ‘hard match’ is probably still possible. Have not verified yet.

The Exchange Online direct connection from Powershell, does remain, and is freshly updated.

Microsoft is getting rid of Powershell modules we have been learning for years, in favor of something radically different, called Microsoft Graph. Here’s a page which gives us the profoundly different pattern of Graph usage for some nice things to have:

blog.raindrops.dev/blog/force-password-change-for-all-users-in-office-365/

The Exchange Online direct connection from Powershell, does remain, and is freshly updated.