Windows Administration

Windows Server 2025 Hotpatching: Rebootless Updates Explained

Windows Server 2025 brings hotpatching to general-purpose deployments — security updates that apply without reboot, dramatically reducing maintenance windows. This is a practical guide to how it actually works in 2026: the enrollment process, the baseline-and-hotpatch cycle, which workloads benefit most, the licensing cost (it is now a paid Azure Arc subscription), the limitations, and the rollout strategy that makes the math work for typical enterprises....

May 15, 2026 10 min

Windows Server Backup Strategies: Complete Guide for IT Administrators

Implement robust Windows Server backup strategies with this complete guide. Covers Windows Server Backup, PowerShell automation, Azure backup, and disaster recovery planning....

Apr 28, 2026 12 min

Windows Server 2025 Security Baseline: A Production Rollout (2026)

Windows Server 2025 ships harder defaults than any Windows Server before it. The security baseline tightens dozens more. Here is the production rollout - what changes, what breaks, what to roll out first....

Apr 19, 2026 12 min

Windows LAPS Entra-Integrated Rollout: Local Admin Without Lateral Movement (2026)

Every Windows fleet has a "shared local admin password". That single credential is how lateral movement spreads. Windows LAPS rotates it per device and stores it in Entra ID or AD - here is the production rollout....

Apr 19, 2026 12 min

Workload Identity Federation: OIDC for CI/CD Without Long-Lived Secrets (2026)

CI/CD pipelines store long-lived client secrets. Workload identity federation eliminates them: the pipeline presents a short-lived OIDC token, Entra ID exchanges it for an Azure access token, and there is nothing to rotate or steal....

Apr 19, 2026 12 min

Windows Event Log Forensic Queries: A 2026 PowerShell Reference

Get-WinEvent is the only Windows forensic tool you need on the box. The right XPath filter pulls the answer in seconds; the wrong one returns three days of noise....

Apr 18, 2026 8 min

Group Policy Troubleshooting with gpresult and RSoP: 2026

Group Policy "did not apply" is the second-most-common Windows ticket after "cannot print". Here is the diagnostic flow that finds the cause every time....

Apr 18, 2026 8 min

Windows Update Troubleshooting and Reset: 2026 Edition

Windows Update has the most failure modes of any OS component. The reset script below clears them in the right order and is safe to run on production servers....

Apr 18, 2026 8 min

Windows Boot and BCD Troubleshooting: A Field Guide for 2026

When a Windows host will not boot, the difference between a 30-minute fix and a 6-hour rebuild is knowing which command to reach for. This is the field-tested order....

Apr 18, 2026 8 min