ExifTool on Windows: read, strip and fix file metadata from the command line
ExifTool is a free, portable command-line program that reads and writes the metadata hidden inside files: GPS coordinates and camera details in…
Security and access
Permissions, elevation and certificates: icacls, takeown, runas and UAC, certutil and OpenSSL.
X509Chain: the certificate check that returns False for 25 reasons
A certificate check that answers with a single True or False is almost useless when it says False. The certificate might have…
Remove a duplicate RDS key pack without rebuilding the database
RD Licensing Manager has no Delete. Remove one redundant RDS CAL key pack by its KeyPackId with PowerShell and leave the rest of the licence server alone.
runas and UAC token filtering: why your admin window is not elevated
runas starts a program under a different account than the one you are signed in with. It is the built-in answer to…
whoami /all in Windows: read your access token correctly
whoami does not ask Windows who you are. It prints what is already inside the access token that Windows built for your…
takeown in Windows: take ownership of files and folders safely
Administrator rights do not grant access to a file. They grant the ability to take ownership of it, and ownership is what…
RDP security warning after April 2026 Windows update (KB5083769): what it is and how to respond
After installing the April 2026 Windows security update, users started seeing a new dialog every time they open an .rdp file -…
ICACLS command in Windows
NTFS permissions control who can read, write, and execute files and folders on Windows. icacls is the command-line tool for viewing and…
How to Generate SSL Certificates with OpenSSL
OpenSSL is the standard command-line toolkit for working with certificates, keys, and SSL As a system administrator, you will use it to…
Discovering Certificate Authorities (CAs) in Your Domain
You are on a domain-joined Windows machine, someone asks you to submit a CSR to the CA, and nothing in front of…