Topping Up Microsoft Azure Credit

Log into Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center portal – VLSC, and open the Relationship Summary page.

Select ‘Add Open License’ and enter the License & Authorization numbers that you would have received from your Microsoft licensing reseller. You’ll need to wait for the licensing request to be processed before proceeding.

After processing you should receive a product key for the purchased Azure credits. Go to the following url to add the credits – https://account.azure.com/Subscriptions

Click on ‘Click here to add credits’ and enter the product key.

If the product key is accepted confirmation will be displayed.

Windows 10 Remote Desktop – No Connection

Our Remote Desktop connection settings are applied with Group Policies, and have previously worked with Vista, Windows 7 & 8 clients. On the rollout of Windows 10 we were unable to access these clients.

On checking Inboard Rules of a Windows 10 client ‘Remote Desktop (TCP-In)’ had been renamed to ‘Remote Desktop – User Mode (TCP-In)’

Changes were also noticed to the ‘Programs and Services’ tab.

I created a new group policy for testing where a changed ‘Programs and Services’ tab > Programs > ‘This program’ from ‘System’ to ‘%SystemRoot%\system32\svchost.exe’. I also added termservice to ‘Programs and Services’ tab > Services > ‘Apply to service with this short name’

Create bootable ISO for High Sierra Installer

I needed to create a High Sierra ISO for use with VirtualBox – which worked successfully.

The following method worked successfully on both Sierra and High Sierra systems.

The High Sierra installation files can be downloaded from the App Store when using a Mac or Hackintosh. I usually download a fresh copy of High Sierra after each update release from Apple.

Open Terminal with Spotlight, or by navigating to the Utilities | Applications folder and click the Terminal.app

Enter the following lines into Terminal to create the ISO for High Sierra.

hdiutil create -o /tmp/HighSierra.cdr -size 5300m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J

hdiutil attach /tmp/HighSierra.cdr.dmg -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/install_build

mv /tmp/HighSierra.cdr.dmg ~/Desktop/InstallSystem.dmg

hdiutil detach /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra

hdiutil convert ~/Desktop/InstallSystem.dmg -format UDTO -o ~/Desktop/HighSierra.iso

mv ~/Desktop/HighSierra.iso.cdr ~/Desktop/HighSierra.iso

A usable ISO should be created if no errors are encountered.

To use these commands in a script file, I would suggest using the && operator to chain the commands together. When the && operator is used the next command is run if and only if the preceding command exited without errors.

hdiutil create -o /tmp/HighSierra.cdr -size 5300m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J && hdiutil attach /tmp/HighSierra.cdr.dmg -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build && sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/install_build && mv /tmp/HighSierra.cdr.dmg ~/Desktop/InstallSystem.dmg && hdiutil detach /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra && hdiutil convert ~/Desktop/InstallSystem.dmg -format UDTO -o ~/Desktop/HighSierra.iso && mv ~/Desktop/HighSierra.iso.cdr ~/Desktop/HighSierra.iso

Create executable script files with Terminal.app

Open Terminal with Spotlight, or by navigating to the Utilities | Applications folder and clicking Terminal.app

Once Terminal is open, navigate to the location where the file is to be created. If you want to know your present location type the pwd command.

cd Desktop/

Create file with the touch command.

touch script.command

If you try to run the created script it will fail due inappropriate access privilages.

Use the chmod command to apply the appropriate access privilages.

chmod +x script.command

Use TextEdit to add the required commands to the file.

NOTE: If you need to run a command that requires root access, add the sudo prefix your command. When the script runs you’ll be requested to enter your admin password.

Deny or allow client logons with Group Policy

As part of our GDPR implementation we have decided to deny staff from logging onto student clients, and vice versa.

The required policies can be found in – Computer Configuration > Policies > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment.

The “Deny log on locally” specifies the users or groups that are not allowed to log into the local computer.

The Group Policy has been tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10 clients successfully.