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OpenSSL Cheat Sheet: Common SSL / TLS Commands
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Windows 11 and WSL 2 DevOps environment
2022-08-15
In this post I describe some of the settings and changes I made to make my Windows 11 and Ubuntu WSL2 into a fully fledged development environment. Here are the settings and tools I use for DevOps / SysOps on Windows.
Fix broken WMI provider in SQL Server
2025-08-27
Being unable to open SQL Server Configuration Manager is often caused by a corrupt or removed WMI provider for SQL Server. This post explains how to resolve this.
Update SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) automatically
2025-07-07
The fire-and-forget method to update SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) automatically by uninstalling any installed version and downloading & installing the newest available version from Microsoft.
Send mail through SendGrid Web API using PowerShell
2024-11-07
Learn how to use the Twilio SendGrid Web API v3 to send mail with PowerShell
Disable ECDH public server param reuse in Windows Server IIS
2024-04-09
Windows Server IIS is known for reusing DH key values, but there is a way to disable ECDH public server param reuse in Windows Server IIS and here is how.
Create strong passwords in Windows
2024-03-29
Learn how to create strong and unique passwords in Windows using PowerShell, because the use of those unique and strong passwords is important.
Install IIS in Windows 11 using PowerShell
2024-02-06
Have a need for IIS in your Windows 11 development station, and now you wonder how to install IIS? Here I describe how you can easily install IIS and some modules using PowerShell
Monitor website performance in IIS with Zabbix
2024-01-29
Zabbix is a great tool to monitor your website performance on IIS using Performance Counters, PowerShell and WMI.
Use PowerShell with SSL client certificates for HTTPS GET requests
2023-11-02
Use a specific TLS certifictate or thumbprint for outgoing HTTPS connections because of endpoint restrictions using PowerShell.
Calculate SHA-256 checksums in PowerShell
2023-10-10
Learn how to calculate and create file checksums with PowerShell's Get-FileHash and certutil.exe. Use this to validate file integrity in Windows (Windows Server).
Test open TCP ports with PowerShell
2023-10-10
Learn how to use PowerShell Test-NetConnection to test if a TCP port is open
IPv6 support for WSL2! 🥳
2023-09-19
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 now has native support for IPv6! 🥳
Windows SID to username and vice versa
2023-09-03
Old school: learn how to convert a Windows SID (security identifier) to an username, or vice versa (username to SID) using PowerShell and VBScript. Because sometimes you just need to convert a Windows SID to an username, don't you?
Get SQL database backup details with PowerShell
2023-08-21
Whenever I need to restore an SQL Server .bak backup file, I want to know some properties of the backup file to make sure I'm working with the correct file(s). Luckily, the .bak file and PowerShell provide all the information I need, so I don't have to start a Restore procedure in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) just to view the header information. As you know, SSMS is slow...
Get IIS Current Connections using PowerShell
2023-08-12
Use PowerShell, Performance Counters and WMI to get the current number of active connections to IIS websites. Monitor IIS servers in Zabbix
Install SSL / TLS certificates in Windows Server using PowerShell
2023-08-10
The following PowerShell snippet can be used to quickly install an SSL (or TLS) certificate in Windows Server. It assumes you have a PFX file and its password. The default location is Cert:\LocalMachine\My, to use for IIS websites.
Tune Windows Server TCP/IP and IIS
2023-06-21
In this small post I'll guide you through the various Windows Server and IIS configuration settings, for an optimized network performance, high performance websites and high volume of web requests.
Install Windows Updates using PowerShell
2023-03-15
You can use PowerShell to install Windows Updates automatically, unattended and simple. Neat, right? For this, you don't have to have an enterprise environment with WSUS, or Windows Server, but since this is Sysadmins of the North, I assume you do. In this post I show you how to install Windows Updates with PowerShell and the PSWindowsUpdate module.
Send email with PowerShell
2023-03-14
Easily send your DevOps reporting by email with this PowerShell function, because the Send-MailMessage cmdlet is obsolete. Of course you'll be using StartTLS and authenticated SMTP as additional security.
Create an additional SQL Server Login
2022-12-27
Sometimes you need to create an additional SQL Server Login (user) for your database (databases). Here is a small T-SQL snippet that creates such a login for contained databases in SQL Server and adds memberships.