Author: hewagen

  • Create a performance trace

    Performance traces can help to figure out, which processes slow down the system. To create a performance trace, we use XPERF and NETSH commands. NETSH is part of the operating system while XPERF is a part of the Windows ADK (Assessment and Deployment Kit) and needs to be downloaded and installed. Find the latest version…

  • Windows 10 or Windows 11 GPO ADMX – Which One To Use For Your Central Store?

    Hi community, My name is Helmut Wagensonner. I’m a Customer Engineer at Microsoft and this blog should help you to understand, which Administrative Templates (admx) to choose for your Windows 11 / Windows 10 mixed environment. Note: The content of this article is only useful if you use ADMX file versions released before 21/07/23. All…

  • May 2023 cumulative update for Win10/Win11 explained

    Hi all, mitigating the Secure Boot UEFI bootkit using the May 2023 cumulative update still causes misunderstandings at some of my customers.  So I wrote this short article to give you an overview and illustrate how this update works, especially regarding the elemination of the BlackLotus bootkit, covered in CVE-2023-24932. A very detailed description can…

  • How to get your Intune package source files back

    Hi community! I am Helmut Wagensonner, a customer engineer for Windows client OS at Microsoft. This blog is about getting back the source files of a Win32 app uploaded to Microsoft Intune. Not long ago, I updated one of my tools (https://technet.blogs.ms/stayawake-updated/) and I wanted to add it as a new app package in my Intune…

  • StayAwake (Updated)

    Good day everyone! Some time ago, I created myself a little tool to prevent my computer from going to sleep or standby. I worked with it the last couple of years but lately I thought about an option to disable the tool at a certain time, like “Keep my PC alive until 7 pm and…

  • Powershell Few-Liners (Miscellaneous)

    This article is part of the few-liner series, where you can find some useful powershell examples. Of course, you need to adjust the values/paths to your needs. Also, I know there may be other ways to achieve the same results but this is not a base for an “which-command-is-better” competition. Depending on the time you…

  • Powershell Few-Liners (Active Directory)

    This article is part of the few-liner series, where you can find some useful powershell examples. Of course, you need to adjust the values/paths to your needs. Also, I know there may be other ways to achieve the same results but this is not a base for an “which-command-is-better” competition. Depending on the time you…

  • Powershell Few-Liners (Windows Events)

    This article is part of the few-liner series, where you can find some useful powershell examples. Of course, you need to adjust the values/paths to your needs. Also, I know there may be other ways to achieve the same results but this is not a base for an “which-command-is-better” competition. Depending on the time you…

  • Create a boot trace using WPR

    Hi all, I am Helmut Wagensonner, a Customer Engineer at Microsoft. This blog post gives a short overview on how to create a boot trace with Windows Performance Recorder. It does not cover trace analysis. Creating a boot trace is basically quite self-explaining but as I often need to explain it to customers, I thought…

  • GimmeNote

    General Information GimmeNote is an Outlook VSTO plugin written in C#. It enables users to add notes to mail and appointment items. GimmeNote is designed to work with your primary (default) mailbox, which must be an Exchange account. IMAP and POP3 accounts do not support categories. Creating notes should also work on secondary accounts (even…