The next version of Windows 10 called May 2019 Update (also version 1903) is now out. It might take some time until it is available in Windows Update, but you can obviously force the installation.

This Microsoft site allows you to install the Media Creation Tool, which can download an ISO of the new Windows version. You can either create a bootable USB stick and freshly install Windows 10 or upgrade your current Windows 10 OS, without losing files and programs .

Also do not forget to check for known issues before installing.

Here are some of the interesting new features on Windows 10 version 1903:

Light Theme

Somewhere between the normal and dark theme. Warning: it is very shiny!

Windows Sandbox

Windows Sandbox is a separate environment where you can run unsafe software without harming your host OS. Hyper-V is not needed in order to run Windows Sandbox. Once you close the Sandbox all of the changes you have made are discarded.

You can activate this feature in the control panel. It is not enabled by default.

Pause Windows Updates

You can pause updates for up to 7 days. This feature is also available for Windows 10 Home Users.

Windows Search

Cortana and Windows Search are separated in the task bar.

You also have some options in the Settings to improve searching.

A better looking Game Bar

Windows + G allows you to open the game bar, which now has a lot of visual improvements. The Game Bar can also be opened while gaming. There is also a Spotify integration, which for some reason does not work on my machine.

Uninstall pre-installed modern apps

You can uninstall more modern apps like 3D Viewer, Calculator, Groove Music, Paint 3D or Sticky Notes, which you were not able to in previous versions.

So you just made a keyword search in Outlook and found that very important email from your boss. Awesome! But how can I find the path of that email, you may ask? Here is a very quick tip.

By hitting ALT+ENTER on the corresponding email, you can see some properties, including the email’s folder. In my case it is Posta in Arrivo (Inbox).

Another way of finding out, is to double-click on the email and select File on the top left of the window.

Cya!

Did you know?

Since CTRL+ALT+DEL affects your local machine, you can send CTRL+ALT+END to your RDP Session in order to do tasks like Task Manager, Lock the Session or change your admin password, all inside your RDP connection.

Hi Folks!

Here is a quick tip to install the VMware PowerCLI, which is – like the name says – for Windows PowerShell.

To initiate the installation process, type this command into the Powershell Console:

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

Powershell will ask you if you wish to install “NuGet”, which is required to automatically download and install VMware PowerCLI from PSGallery. You also have to trust the PSGallery repository in order to proceed with the installation.

Now you can list all of the VMware PowerCLI Modules:

Get-Module -ListAvailable | where { $_.Name -match “vmware” }

Or just check your currently installed VMware PowerCLI version:

Get-PowerCLIVersion

Enjoy!

With Windows Server 2008 R2, Active Directory has now a recycle bin. With this feature you do not have to use for example Windows Server Backup to initiate an authoritative AD restore, instead you can quickly recover deleted Users, OUs, Groups and other objects through Active Directory Administrative Center (Windows Server 2012 an upwards) or PowerShell

Enabling AD Recycle Bin (PowerShell commands

Enable-ADOptionalFeature ‘Recycle Bin Feature’ -Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet -Target ajni.lab

Type A (=Yes to All) to enable the feature

(Optional) Check Deleted Object’s Lifetime

Get-ADObject “CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=ajni,DC=lab” -Property msDS-DeletedObjectLifetime | fl

If you do not see the Property named “msDS-DeletedObjectLifetime”, it means that it has the default value of 60 days.

You can change is with this command – do not forget to replace DC=ajni, DC=lab with your domain name:

Set-ADObject -Identity “CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration, DC=ajni,DC=lab” -Partition “CN=Configuration, DC=ajni,DC=lab” -Replace:@{“msDS-DeletedObjectLifetime” = 120}

Checking the property again, you‘ll see your new value:

You can also have a look at this property with ADSIedit:

Restoring an Object

In our example we deleted an OU called “ImportantOU”

Let’s list all Deleted Objects:

Get-ADObject -filter ‘isdeleted -eq $true -and name -ne “Deleted Objects”‘ -includeDeletedObjects

And then restore our important OU. Before Restoring we can check if the Filter finds our OU:

Get-ADObject -Filter ‘msDS-LastKnownRDN -eq “ImportantOU”‘ -IncludeDeletedObjects

Now restore:

Get-ADObject -Filter ‘msDS-LastKnownRDN -eq “ImportantOU”‘ -IncludeDeletedObjects | Restore-ADObject

Our important OU is back from the dead:

We can also restore from Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC)

Note that while AD Recycle Bin gives you the flexibility of quickly restoring deleted AD Objects, you should also have a functional Windows Server Backup and VM Backup with solutions like HPE Data Protector or VEEAM. Just in case something goes horribly wrong!