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How to reset the evaluation period for Windows Server 2008

How to manually extend the evaluation period When the initial 60-day evaluation period nears its end, you can run the Slmgr.vbs script to reset the evaluation period. To do this, follow these steps: Click Start , and then click Command Prompt . Type slmgr.vbs -dli , and then press ENTER to check the current status of your evaluation period. To reset the evaluation period, type slmgr.vbs –rearm , and then press ENTER. Restart the computer. This resets the evaluation period to 60 days. You can see the current status of the trial period by entering slmgr /dlv Other Links on the topic http://www.daniel-mitchell.com/blog/reset-windows-7-rearm-count/ http://www.arabek.net/how-to-rearm-windows-7-instance/ Other References talk about skipping the rearm For Windows Vista: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SL For Windows 7: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform Change value of Skip...

Testing Connections to Other computers

PowerShell 4 has a handy feature called Test-Connection  More info at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849808.aspx You can also invoke powershell commands on a remote computer using a command like invoke-command -ComputerName 192.168.2.192 -ScriptBlock { get-wmiobject win32_process | select caption  | where {$_.caption -eq "firefox.exe" } } -credential Administrator However, before that command will work in a none domain environment, you'll need to set up some trusts. Got this from http://www.howtogeek.com/117192/how-to-run-powershell-commands-on-remote-computers/ Run on all computers in the party... Set-Item wsman:\localhost\client\trustedhosts 192.168.2.111 Then you'll need to run  Restart-Service WinRM You may also have to run  Enable-PSRemoting -Force  

Great article on setting Office 365 passwords using powershell.

http://o365info.com/manage-office-365-users-password-using/ Notice the use of $_. to refer to columns in a CSV file  Set a Predefined Password for Office 365 user PowerShell command Syntax Set-MsolUserPassword –UserPrincipalName <UserPrincipalName> –NewPassword <New Password> -ForceChangePassword $False Set a Predefined Password for Office 365 users imported from a CSV File Step 1: Get-MsolUser | Select UserPrincipalName|Export-CSV C:\Temp\o365users.csv Step 2: Import-CSV C:\Temp\o365users.csv |%{Set-MsolUserPassword -userPrincipalName $_.UserPrincipalName –NewPassword AbcAs123 -ForceChangePassword $False} Creating a new user and password from a CSV file Import-CSV –Path C:\Temp\users.csv| ForEach-Object { New-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName $_.UserPrincipalName -FirstName $_.FirstName -LastName $_.LastName  -DisplayName "$($_.FirstName) $($_.LastName)" –Password $_.Password –UsageLocation “AU” }

Permanently Change hostname in linux

Permanent hostname change on RedHat based systems RedHat based system use the file /etc/sysconfig/network to read the saved hostname at system boot. This is set using the init script /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit I got this from http://www.ducea.com/2006/08/07/how-to-change-the-hostname-of-a-linux-system/

Setting your own time server (or perhaps pool.ntp.org) in Windows

http://www.timetoolsglobal.com/2013/06/21/how-to-synchronize-microsoft-windows-to-a-ntp-server-1/ Single Command for Windows servers, to use NTP w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:0.pool.ntp.org,1.pool.ntp.org,2.pool.ntp.org,3.pool.ntp.org After that, the trick is to tell the windows server that the time configuration has changed, this is done with w32tm /config /update Finally, tell the time service to update w32tm /resync   The following command will tell you where the server is getting it's time from  w32tm /query /source