Not really adding anything constructive, but definitely echoing the sentiment of just building something from a minimal Linux install. I'm currently experiencing the issue of a commercial NAS making some simple things much harder than they should be. All I can put it down to is the tangle of customization and variance from general standards they do behind the scenes.

I wont be replacing them with newer versions - I'm nearly at the point of ripping their storage for dedication to a Linux VM setup to do the same duties.

@JaredBusch - have you had any luck? I've not had to lock USB down here (yet), but I have had issues with Intune configuration policy (re)application and general "fuzziness". I've been keeping an eye on this thread.

I will second @notverypunny on the register cleaner tools sometimes being a possible help. I have to deploy Office 2019 here (MS punish Admins who haven't been able to acquire click-to-run product licencing, with this product :confounded_face: ). Some install errors were fixed with registry cleanup provided by a portable version of a mentioned application.

Without knowing if this is a professionally refurbished / checked unit and as you've not given details as yet, I'd offer that if it has a RAID card, check for a battery unit attached. Some of these can become swollen and leak with age - potentially damaging and dangerous.

Just a precaution.

Otherwise - like @scottalanmiller suggested, load up a hypervisor like XCP-ng, Proxmox VE, or your preferred Linux persuasion ( Ubuntu, Fedora, Centos, Debian ) and use those as your virtualisation and / or containerisation platforms. Microsoft flavour preference? Try Hyper-V Server. Note these are solely examples, other options exist!

JumpCloud Free version now has the System Insights feature included

" A core philosophy at JumpCloud has always been to provide tremendous functionality to customers, including free accounts with up to 10 users and systems. It’s critical that IT admins can fully deploy and use our platform without restrictions, especially during times when managing a remote workforce is necessary.

To support this, we've made our new premium feature System Insights available to use for all JumpCloud free accounts like yours. System Insights provides critical visibility into OS configurations and security settings on JumpCloud-managed systems. We hope that you’ll use and enjoy this new and exciting feature to:

• Remotely collect data on OS version, patches, kernel info, and app versions in order to find recently reported security vulnerabilities and take appropriate action
• Track the applications end users are installing on systems to find out-of-date software and licenses
• Troubleshoot user issues and mitigate them with easy access to system data such as uptime, network interfaces, shared resources, hardware, and more
• Gather deep insights from 64bit Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems "

PowerToys updated recently, v 0.16.0 - looks like it's already in Chocolatey (public)

Noticed it here -> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-updates-windows-10-powertoys-with-new-utilities/

github link -> https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/tag/v0.16.0

Has a "Bulk image resizer", SVG preview pane add-in etc

What caught my eye was "Window walker" (alt tab replacement) ..... anyone used it?

I'll just persevere with trying to streamline / simplify Teams for the staff here... try to limit the ability to "Potato" anyone if I can find ways

@nadnerB said in Microsoft Teams:

@scottalanmiller said in Microsoft Teams:

@nadnerB OMG, is MS Teams like SnapChat?

Looks like it's a bolt on.
https://collab365.community/how-to-use-snapchat-filters-in-a-microsoft-teams-meeting/
https://www.onmsft.com/how-to/heres-how-to-use-snapchat-camera-on-windows-10-to-spice-up-your-microsoft-teams-calls

its a free-for-all in Teams with default settings..... users can do almost anything

@black3dynamite said in Microsoft Teams:

@scottalanmiller said in Microsoft Teams:

@warren-stanley said in Microsoft Teams:

Can anyone honestly recommend Teams? Asking for a friend

LOL, not this guy. What's amazing is... how the heck did they screw this up? Like with Rocket and Mattermost both being older, open, and free and Teams just.... completely fails by comparison! How can they have so much money and be so completely bad at this?

It's seems that Teams is popular among Colleges or at least where I'm working at and where my wife works at.

Microsoft give stuff away / offer significant discounts, for Nonprofit and Academia. This trains generations of people (including IT folk) into thinking Microsoft is a "Standard" (as opposed to a "Product"). I'm in the predicament of having access to 365 licencing to cover my workplace, for next to $Zero, and it's the only external cloud based solution that offers data storage (at rest) on our soil (which is mandated by our upstream funding) for that $Zero figure.

Can anyone honestly recommend Teams? Asking for a friend

@scottalanmiller I'm hoping 20.04 will be a good release to stand Nextcloud up on

@scottalanmiller installed 20.04 from "daily" on a spare low end Intel NUC, it's looking good!

After adjusting the updates to the pve-no-subscription repo and updating (full-upgrade), I had an issue where no templates for Containers were available on the host, to "Download" (under pve -> local (pve) -> "Content" -> "Templates").

Apparently the list of available templates is updated daily through the "pve-daily-update timer".

I triggered and update manually (cause i'm impatient) via:

root@pve:~# pveam update

...you can then check the list via:

root@pve:~# pveam available

And then I had templates to use under pve -> local (pve) -> "Content" -> "Templates".

Just spinning up a Debian 10 CT and VM now.

Yeah, Proxmox has been on the edge of my radar for years, occasionally I've run up a box to have a look at its progress - never keeping it for actual production use. I've hesitated revisiting recently, for concerns similar to what is echoed in this thread and other past experiences.

Are you using hardware RAID or ZFS? I'm interested as the Proxmox wiki doesn't encourage mdraid.

@scottalanmiller - what storage options are you using with your testing?

@VoIP_n00b - only just started reading through their wiki. Currently looking at their use of ZFS and how I'd make that work on my equipment.

This (Bubble Bobble) :backhand_index_pointing_down:

Note - image gratuitously lifted from Spectrum Computing

@scottalanmiller @CCWTech - chiming in late... I inquired a couple of years back (a few perhaps ). They were just "Storware" then. From vague memory it was expensive and didn't inspire confidence. I ended up staying on Windows Server, utilising Hyper-V and Veeam.

Would be really interesting to see if they reinvigorate efforts for this product, at a realistic price (cough significantMLdiscountsforeveryone cough). Looks like they could use some marketing and increased product awareness out into the tech community.

@Dashrender so much PC driven medical equipment out there will be affected, not to mention the EHR systems that get, at best, medical compliance patching and are stuck on older non-10 MS OS'es

@scottalanmiller oh good, the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that patch intentionally makes the non-10 MS OS fall over