If UAC is enabled and Admin Approval Mode is enabled for the built-in Administrator for example, you might have problems accessing network drives from an elevated command prompt. This behavior is expected, since in Admin Approval Mode all apps run as a standard user by default. If a program is elevated, it runs under a different session than the non-elevated user.

Microsoft suggests following fixes or workarounds:

1. Remap network drives via bat file or manually
2. Create this registry key, which creates a link between both sessions:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System DWORD EnableLinkedConnections 1

References:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/networking/mapped-drives-not-available-from-elevated-command

Have you been having issues with Microsoft Azure AD Sync service after a simple reboot of the Windows Server? These simple steps might help:

Copy model.mdf and modellog.ldf files from

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\150\LocalDB\Binn\Templates

to either

C:\Users\ADSyncxxxxx$\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Local DB\Instances\ADSync2019

or

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\ADSync\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server Local DB\Instances\ADSync2019

This issue should not occur starting from version 2.1.1.0 of MS Azure AD Connect. Read the Microsoft doc below to perform a manual in-place upgrade of Azure AD Connect.

References:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/rxkd7m/has_your_azure_ad_connect_been_unable_to_start/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-upgrade-previous-version#in-place-upgrade

If you have the misfortune of having to troubleshoot and repair boot issues on a virtual machine after a physical host crash, these two commands might help you.

First of all, try to get into the advanced settings on boot (it should be the F11 key), or after a while Windows (Server or 10/11) might automatically go into the menu when it cannot boot from disk. Alternatively a Windows ISO image can be used.

Once in the advanced settings, run the good old checkdisk command:

chkdsk /f C:

After completion, restart the VM and check if you are able to boot. If the issue persists, try restoring the registry database (once again through the advanced settings or a Windows ISO). A scheduled task regularly backs up the registry and puts it the folder C:\Windows\System32\config\Regbak.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\RegBack\* C:\windows\system32\config

Restart the VM and check if you are able to boot into Windows. If you still have issues, you should consider restoring from a backup (it sucks but sometimes it is unavoidable).

So here is a challenge I had to face today: I created a virtual machine (VM) in Azure from a custom image that was previously Sysprep’d by me. The image contained several applications intended to run on a RDSH (Remote Desktop Session Host) for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (former XenApp), so the RDS role was also installed. The VM was not part of the domain, it was in a Workgroup and it could not reach the RDS license server. Which meant: I could not RDP into the machine to perform Domain Join. And if you already have some experience with Microsoft Azure, you will know that there is no Remote Console like in VMware or Hyper-V.

The VM was still reachable over the network. So here are four PowerShell commands that allowed me to remotely perform a Domain Join on that particular machine. Nothing fancy, but it might come in handy.

$Server=”10.10.10.10″

Set-Item -Path WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value $Server -Confirm:$false -Force

This credential variable stores the local username and password of the computer. Something like computername\admin along with the password.

$Cred = Get-Credential

Add-Computer -DomainName “ajni.lab” -Restart

After executing the last command you will be prompted to insert domain credentials. The user obviously must have the right to create computers in the domain.

Here is a cool trick that not everyone might know (I didn’t).

If you want to open Task Manager inside an RDP session, CTRL+ALT+DEL won’t work, right? That key combination would trigger on your local computer.

For remote sessions, there is CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.

This shortcut directly opens Task Manager, no additional steps required!