The Lazy Administrator - Finding ways to do the most work with the least effort possible

Improved External Email Tagging in Office 365

August 25, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 0 Comment

With the rise of Phishing emails, a popular method to help your users not get phished is to append warnings to emails that either originate outside the organization or if they originate outside the organization and the display name matches that of a internal user. I myself have posted a blog on how to do this and get around the mail flow limitations.

A problem with this method however, is since it prepends a message or warning to the email, users can no longer view previews of the emails either in outlook or on mobile because all they will see is the warning message. A possible solution that I have rolled out several times is to prepend a warning unicode character (⚠️) to the message. The warning symbol was approved as part of Unicode 4.0 in 2003 and added to emoji 1.0 in 2015. As long as the receiving end … Continue...

In-Depth Look at Azure Bicep Syntax

February 21, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 3 comments

If you have not checked out my other series, “Getting Started with Bicep” then I would highly suggest starting there so you can familiarize yourself with Azure Bicep including some basic syntax and how to write your first template. This article will walk you through more advanced syntax topics including output variables, loops and more!

Comments

Comments in code help you or others figure out what something may do or why it’s there in the first place. While it does not replace full documentation, it is a great way to get a picture of what your code does.

Single Line Comment

You can comment a single line of bicep code by adding ‘//’ to it. In the example below you can see my comment added to the tagging resource that we will go over next!

Multi-line Comments

Instead of adding ‘//’ to every line you want to comment … Continue...

Getting Started With Bicep: Compiling, Deploying, and Decompiling

February 11, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 0 Comment

In the first post of the ‘Getting Started with Bicep’ series we learned what is Azure Bicep and how to install it and begin working with it. Next, we learned how to create our first Bicep template and user parameters and variables and the different data types there are. Now, in this section we will learn how to compile our Bicep templates and deploy them to Azure.

Compile Bicep to ARM

The first item we need to do is to compile or transpile (Transpiling is a specific term for taking source code written in one language and transforming into another language that has a similar level of abstraction.) our Bicep code to ARM (JSON) code. Then, once compiled, the resulting ARM (JSON) template will be deployed to Microsoft Azure.

From our previous post on ‘Getting Started with Bicep: Building your First Bicep Template‘ we created a basic Bicep … Continue...

Getting Started with Bicep: Building Your First Bicep Template

February 11, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 0 Comment

In the first section, Getting Started with Bicep, an ARM DSL for Azure, we went through what is Azure Bicep, and how to install Bicep on your machine. Now, we will learn how to build our first Bicep Template.

Bicep Declaration Overview

First, lets look at a Bicep declaration in a basic form:

The highlighted Resource (below) indicates the start of the declaration of a new resource in Azure to deploy.

Next, we have the Symbolic Name (in my example: stgact), which is an identifier within the Azure Bicep file. This will allow you to get the properties from the declared resource to be used in other resources elsewhere. Keep in mind, this is not the name of the Azure resource that is deployed.

Following the Symbolic Name, we have the Resource Provider.

Next, we have the Resource Type, this is the Azure Resource Type name for the resource … Continue...

Getting Started with Bicep, an ARM DSL for Azure

February 10, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 1 comment

Note: This is one part of a several part blog series that goes through Azure Bicep

What is Azure Bicep

Bicep is a Domain Specific Language or DSL, for deploying Azure resources in a declarative manner. It ‘aims to drastically simplify the authoring experience with a cleaner syntax and better support for modularity and code re-use. Bicep is a transparent abstraction over ARM and ARM templates, which means anything that can be done in an ARM Template can be done in Bicep.’¹

Bicep moves away from the JSON syntax used by ARM Templates to something similar to HCL in Terraform. The end result is a syntax that is easier to both read and write. Bicep code is converted into ARM Template code (JSON), and then the resulting ARM Template code (JSON) is used to deploy your Azure resources.

One of the key benefits to Bicep to another DSL like … Continue...

A PowerShell Game you can Compete with People Online – Feature Update to PSWordle

January 11, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 0 Comment

Usually, when I update items such as modules, functions, and other projects, I don’t make a new post but rather adjust the original post. But, in this case there are so many changes and new features, I felt that I had too. I will still be updating the original post so if anyone stumbles upon it they won’t be given old information. A HUGE Thank You to Lee Holmes whose PowerShell code of the Wordle logic was so good, I ended up re-writing about 90% of this module!

What is the Game?

The game is a clone of Wordle which I came across reading a New York Times article and based off my Twitter feed, is quite a popular game. The game itself is pretty simple, you have 6 attempts to guess the word. Letters that turn gray are not letters found in the word at all, yellow letters are … Continue...

Play Wordle, the Puzzle Game Using PowerShell

January 4, 2022 Brad Wyatt Comments 2 comments

I recently came across a NYTimes article talking about a new game called, ‘Wordle.’ If you are not familiar with the game, its a text-based game where you have 6 tries to guess the word. Letters in a Gray box are not letters found in the word. Letters in a Yellow box are found in the word, but are in the incorrect spot. And finally, letters in a Green box are in the word and in the correct location.

After playing, I decided to see how I could transport the game over to PowerShell because why not? After a few hours I got it working and uploaded to the PowerShell Gallery so everyone can play. Below, I will talk more in depth about some of the features, how to install the module, and how to create a new game.

Install the Module

The module is uploaded to the PowerShell Gallery, … Continue...

From Standard User to Elevated Administrator: Run Elevated PowerShell Commands with PowerShell Studio and Impersonation

October 10, 2021 Brad Wyatt Comments 2 comments

I recently had a request to create a small applet/windows form that would allow regular end users to perform an administrative task. For example, restart the Print Spooler service. We did not want to grant the user any elevated rights, only to give them a program that would allow them to perform the single task and nothing more. PowerShell to the rescue –

Beginning with Windows Vista, the administrator security token split with the standard user token. This means that to perform administrative tasks you must elevate (UAC). Each app that requires the administrator access token must prompt for consent. Using PowerShell Studio I can create my Winform and use an administrator manifest to prompt for elevation, and input either a RunAs account or specify an account to Impersonate as.

The Issue

The problem however, is Windows evaluates manifests prior to RunAs or Impersonation. It will load the manifest before … Continue...

Uninstall the built-in Chat from Microsoft Teams in Windows 11 with Intune

October 9, 2021 Brad Wyatt Comments 2 comments

Windows 11 comes with Chat from Microsoft Teams which is ‘a signature, lightweight experience brought right to the Taskbar to let Teams personal account users quickly start a video call or chat with friends and family.’¹The problem with this is that it is only available for Personal accounts and not for Work or School accounts.

The new Teams experience on Windows 11 and Chat are intended for personal Microsoft accounts and will be available only to individuals using such accounts.

With this installed by default, and Teams for Work/School, you will have two versions of Microsoft Teams installed locally. This can be confusing to end users.

Uninstall Chat for Teams with Intune

Save the following PowerShell script locally, we will need to upload this to Intune

$MSTeams = "MicrosoftTeams"

$WinPackage = Get-AppxPackage | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $MSTeams}
$ProvisionedPackage = Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -eq $WinPackage }

… Continue...

Easily Enable End Users to Manage Active Directory Users with PowerShell GUI

January 18, 2021 Brad Wyatt Comments 3 comments

Recently I got a request to find a way to let managers or Human Resources the ability to modify basic user attributes in Active Directory. Like anyone else, I presented the idea of using RSAT to let them modify users in ADUC or ADAC. This was not an ideal solution because ADUC can become overwhelming to someone that isn’t technical. They wanted something that was extremely basic, easy to follow and work in without any guidance or instructions, and did not show the user anything else that they could not modify or needed to see.

The decision was made to create a custom program with the pre-requisite of having RSAT installed so we could use the AD modules underneath the hood. We could then control permissions on the Active Directory side.

Improvements from ADUC

Because I built this with a specific audience in mind, I was able to make some … Continue...