Before upgrading to Windows Server 2025, check your existing Windows Server version to determine if an in-place upgrade is feasible. You can check the Windows version via the graphical user interface, Windows PowerShell, or the command prompt.

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Roo Code and Cline are popular AI-driven coding extensions for VS Code. Both assistants indicate whether they support Images, Computer Use, and Prompt Caching when selecting a model. In this post, I explain these model features and whether you need them when coding with AI assistance.

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For security purposes, it may be beneficial to restrict Active Directory account logins to regular working hours. These logon times can be configured using the calendar widget in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC). However, PowerShell provides a more efficient and flexible alternative, particularly because it offers reporting capabilities that the graphical interface does not.

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Quick Machine Recovery is a new Windows 11 2H24 feature that can restore Windows 11 devices that fail to boot. The new feature detects boot errors and automatically searches Microsoft’s continuously updated online database of known issues for solutions. IT admins can use Quick Machine Recovery to fix boot issues without requiring direct physical access to the machine.

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The Docker Model Runner is a beta feature available in Docker Desktop 4.40 for macOS that enables you to run open-source AI models, including DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral, and Gemma, locally on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 to M4). Support for Windows with NVIDIA GPU acceleration is expected to be released by the end of April 2025.

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LLMs' knowledge cutoff date is a significant issue, often resulting in outdated responses. Some frontier models can browse the web, but they frequently skip this ability because they think they can handle things on their own. Bringing in an MCP server that can search the web helps the AI stay updated and assist it when struggling with a problem. Tavily is a research search engine designed to summarize online content for AI models. In this post, I will guide you through installing the Tavily MCP server on Windows. Installing on a Mac follows a similar process.

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Playwright is an open-source framework by Microsoft for automating web browsers to perform end-to-end testing, scraping, and UI interactions across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. The Playwright MCP server lets AI agents like GitHub Copilot control a web browser using Playwright’s automation capabilities. Microsoft introduced support for MCP in Visual Studio Code 1.99 (March 2025), enabling tools like the Copilot Agent to connect with external services. In this post, I explain how to install the Microsoft Playwright MCP server in VS Code for the GitHub Copilot Agent.

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Since Group Policy changes remain a cornerstone of centralized Windows system management, admins should know which settings have been introduced or changed before an OS upgrade. Windows 11 adds not only policies for its latest features but also extends configuration options for many existing components.

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In March 2025, the release of VS Code version 1.99 introduced support for Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) in GitHub Copilot's Agent Mode. This open standard is now backed by leading AI companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI. MCP provides a standardized framework that allows AI models to interact with external tools and data sources. In this post, I will guide you on how to install, start, stop, activate, and deactivate MCP servers. You will also learn to configure settings in mcp.json and settings.json, as well as import MCP servers from Claude Desktop, Cline, and Roo Code.

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DNSSEC is a security standard that protects the Domain Name System by ensuring only authorized servers can respond to DNS queries. Microsoft's DNS server has supported DNSSEC zone signing for some time. However, to take full advantage of DNSSEC, client systems must also be configured, typically via Group Policy, to request authentic responses.

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This article presents a PowerShell script leveraging the Azure OpenAI API, enabling you to execute PowerShell commands using natural language. A key benefit compared to comparable AI tools like ShellGPT is the ability to customize the script.

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EventSentry v5.2 brings powerful new security and monitoring enhancements, including compromised password checking in ADMonitor, local inventory visibility for file shares and user groups, and centralized Sysmon management. Additional upgrades like process tracking improvements, spoof detection, and threat scoring help security teams detect threats more effectively.

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In Visual Studio Code release 1.99, Microsoft introduced GitHub Copilot’s Agent mode, a feature that closely resembles functionalities previously offered by Cursor, Cline, and Roo Code. Agent mode lets Copilot examine the codebase, find relevant files, make edits, and autonomously run and debug code. In this post, I’ll compare Agent mode with Ask and Edit mode and outline how Agent mode facilitates vibe coding—the automation of writing code.

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ScriptRunner is a PowerShell-based IT automation platform that streamlines, delegates, and monitors various management tasks through a no-code web interface and a comprehensive script library. It ensures secure operations with strict user and system access controls, comprehensive policies, and full-activity auditing. Version 7.2 introduces approval workflows for script execution, enabling administrators to configure authorization groups and track pending requests, adding a governance layer beneficial for organizations with strict compliance requirements.

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The AI tools for the Command Line Interface (CLI) we discussed on 4sysops connect the terminal to AI models. For example, the Warp terminal includes AI tools designed to help admins working on a CLI. The Windows CLI MCP Server does the opposite. If you missed it, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a new open standard for AI agent communication with software services created by Anthropic and backed by OpenAI, Amazon, and Microsoft. With MCP, your primary interface is the chatbot, and for the Windows CLI MCP Server, shell access is an additional tool the AI can utilize. The Windows CLI MCP Server supports PowerShell, CMD, Git Bash shells, and remote SSH.

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Have you ever received the notice stating, "Additional security updates can be applied with ESM Apps" after logging into an Ubuntu Linux machine? Despite working with Ubuntu for 15 years, this was the first time I encountered it. Since this was a relatively new installation of Ubuntu 24.04, I was perplexed as to why I couldn't install all security updates using apt upgrade. After some investigation, I discovered I was using Ubuntu Standard, while only Ubuntu Pro qualifies for all security updates. I felt annoyed and deceived because my system had no uncommon packages, and everything I installed came from the Ubuntu repository. This means that, in most cases, a fresh installation of the latest Ubuntu Linux LTS release does not receive all critical security updates.

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Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 is a standalone product that allows you to virtualize your environment at no cost. In this post, you will learn about the options available to upgrade to the paid Windows Server 2025 Hyper-V role.

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Zapier is a cloud-based automation platform that lets users connect and automate workflows between thousands of web services without coding. Recently, Zapier announced support for Anthropic's MCP standard. MCP is an open protocol that allows AI models to interact with external tools, data sources, and services, and it's now also supported by OpenAI, Microsoft, and Amazon. In this post, I share my experiences with Zapier's MCP server.

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Cyberattackers are evolving their tactics and developing more sophisticated ransomware. Advanced AI-driven security solutions are needed to provide the defense mechanisms to detect and remediate ransomware threats. Ransomware Protection Plus is a new solution from ManageEngine that provides a multi-layered defense against ransomware.

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