How do I change the directory Windows uses for user profiles? revisited
Some time ago, I noted that you can use the ProfilesDirectory setting in your unattend file to move the directory that Windows uses for user profiles. The classic documentation has been updated to...
View ArticleHow can I make WiFi passwords per-user rather than per-system?
By default, newly-created wireless networking profiles are made visible to all users. I’m guessing that the idea is that if you connect to a Wi-Fi network, you are setting it up for the entire machine....
View ArticleSIDs are really just another a fancy way of creating unique IDs in a...
A customer stumbled across a SID in an access control entry: S-1-15-3-1024-1365790099-2797813016-1714917928-519942599-2377126242-1094757716-3949770552-3596009590. They found the documentation on SIDs,...
View ArticleWhen documentation cautions that something may not happen, that suggests that...
TL;DR: If the troubleshooter documentation helps you fix a problem when X doesn’t occur, then this suggests that X normally occurs. Someone reported on a peer support distribution list that running a...
View ArticleHow does Explorer calculate the “Date” of a file?
Windows File Explorer has a column called “Date”. Not “Date created” or “Date modified”. Just “Date”. What is “Date”? The “Date” is what Explorer thinks is the most relevant date for the item in...
View Article“Stop sharing this folder” is not the same as “Never share this folder”
A security vulnerability report arrive that went roughly like this: Create two users on the system, call them A and B. Sign on as A. Create a folder, let’s call it X. In Explorer, right-click the...
View ArticleWhat happens if I define one environment variable in terms of the value of...
In Windows, you can call up the Environment Variables dialog box to edit both the System environment variables and the User environment variables. What happens if you use the % sign to reference one...
View ArticleAfter I accidentally denied access to everyone, how do I get access back?
A customer went to a folder and used the Security control panel to change its permissions to deny all access to everyone. After applying the changes, they realized that they had denied access to...
View ArticleMitigating attacks based on knowing the length of a Windows Hello PIN
When you set up a numeric PIN with Windows Hello, the system will immediately sign you in with that PIN once you enter the correct number of digits, saving you the trouble of having to press Enter. For...
View ArticleIn domain\user syntax, you can often use the period as an abbreviation for...
In general, the Windows syntax for a user in a domain on a system is domain\user or computername\user. A handy abbreviation is using a single period to represent the local computer name. For example,...
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