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Windows 10 Upgrade Path

In case you’re wondering, the simplified upgrade paths to Windows 10 are as follows:

Free Upgrade to Windows 10 Home:

If you own any of the below editions, you will get the free upgrade to Windows 10 Home edition:

  • Windows 7 Starter
  • Windows 7 Home Basic
  • Windows 7 Home Premium
  • Windows 8.1 (without Pro)
  • Windows 8.1 country specific editions
  • Windows 8.1 Single Language
  • Windows 8.1 with Bing

Free Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro:

Below versions will receive the free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro edition:

  • Windows 7 Professional
  • Windows 7 Ultimate
  • Windows 8.1 Pro
  • Windows 8.1 Pro for Students

Generate Mailbox Size and Usage Report using PowerShell for Exchange 2010 / 2013

An easy way to get a mailbox usage report is via the Get-Mailboxstatistics commandlet in powershell and a combination of other commands. The below script will output a mailbox usage report in HTML format:

 

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxStatistics | Select DisplayName,
TotalItemSize,ItemCount,Database,LastLogonTime,LastLoggedOnUserAccount | Sort
TotalItemSize -Descending | ConvertTo-Html -Title "Mailbox Stats"|
Out-file "C:\MailboxStats.html"

Exchange 2010 Add Mailbox Folder Permissions including Subfolders

I was asked by a user today for access to a specific folder in an old user’s mailbox within Outlook. There were no free computers and so the easy way out of setting up Outlook with the mailbox was not an option. I fired up Google and found this handy script for use in the Exchange Console:

ForEach($folder in (Get-MailboxFolderStatistics AliasofSharer| Where { $_.FolderPath.ToLower().StartsWith(“/Invoices“) -eq $True } ) )
{
$foldername = “AliasofSharer:” + $folder.FolderPath.Replace(“/”,”\”);
Add-MailboxFolderPermission $foldername -User AliasofRequestor-AccessRights PublishingEditor
}

  1. Change the name of the folder to be shared to where Invoices is here: ‘FolderPath.ToLower().StartsWith(“/Invoices“)’
  2. Change ‘AliasofSharer’ to the alias of the user who will be sharing the folder
  3. AliasofRequestor is who will be given access to said folder
  4. In the above example I’ve used PublishingEditor but this can be changed as required.

Rebooting Computers with Symantec PGP Encryption Installed

In the same vain as my previous post on rebooting Macs with FileVault, computers with Symantec PGP Encryption also require users to enter a password before Windows boots which can be quite annoying. However, there is a workaround!

First, via command prompt navigate to C:\Program Files\PGP Corporation\PGP Desktop OR C:\Program Files (x86)\PGP Corporation\PGP Desktop depending on if you are 64-bit or 32-bit.

For a one-time password bypass, run this:

pgpwde –add-bypass –admin-passphrase [phrase]

Or for several reboots, run this:

 pgpwde –add-bypass –disk [number] –count [number] –admin-passphrase [phrase]

Where phrase is the password / passphrase and the number is the number of reboots. Disk is for if multiple disks are encrypted. Enjoy your reboots now!

 

Restarting OS X with Filevault Enabled

If you’re up on your security, you’ve enabled FileVault on any and all Macbooks you have. The problem for an IT admin working off-site or away from the physical machine is that you may need to reboot the computers. With FileVault, a user will need to enter their password first before OS X boots.

With the commands below, you can reboot a Macbook with FileVault WITHOUT NEEDING USER INPUT. This is good for late night work or times when the user is in a meeting.

Simply open you Terminal and to first check if the command is supported, type:

fdesetup supportsauthrestart

If everything looks good, you can then enter the following and reboot:

sudo fdesetup authrestart