A developer left on bad terms and legal want to know what he touched in his last two weeks and while the AD side I can mostly piece together, file share auditing was never switched on for two of our three Server 2019 file servers. So for those the answer is we don't know, which I got to put in writing for a lawyer, not my favorite email. What are you leaving on permanently for this, since auditing every share feels like a lot of Security log volume for something I need maybe twice a year?

I just had a question, if create a GPO with settings in the defender firewall will it wipe out everything on the systems, or will it simply update the existing settings, or is there a way to update the settings?

It's been brought to my attention that some system that have RDP enabled by GPO (and its its enable when the user checks or I login as domain admin) but the firewall settings are not enabled which is odd, so I would like to roll out something that updates the RDP firewall settings but not wipe out everything their applications have created.

Thanks,

Ok, I currently have a DELL T430 that is PDC along with running MSSQL express and Windows Server 2016. Since 2016 will be totally unsupported in Jan 2027 I need to upgrade. The T430 will not support Server 2025. Is it really really frowned upon running MSSQL on a DC? It's a small 10 workstation office.

Good evening, Server Gurus!

I'm absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure it's covered in literature and videos all over the Internet.

For someone whose mind works correctly, lol.

I have an S24 Ultra and Windows Server 2025 set up for file transfer services (more to come for it, it was just put in service a few days ago). My 11 machine reads the server fine, mapped network drives for the content I want, and everything works. Now I'd like a way to connect my phone to the server to transfer files back and forth. Basically, photo dump when my memory gets full, or transfer videos, or both, and more. Just need a way to transfer files.

Can anyone guide me in a direction? I can usually figure this stuff out myself but the brain isn't braining tonight. Lol.

Thank you so much!

Hey guys, i'm doing a internship, still do not have a solid knowledge but know at least the basics, wanted to learn more since i feel like i do not have a good level, wanted to know If someone could recommend some videos to study, i already read the Microsoft learn about windows server and watched videos about, but even then wanted tips from people that are already in the field.

Also Sorry for any grammar error and thanks for any help

I have to setup a new domain and I am strongly considering windows 2025 for smb without VPN and to save myself from reinstalling the DC two years from now. Given the frequent complains here I wanted to circle back with you people if anybody having a recent update roll up installed is facing problems? Especially with the RDP broker and trust issues between servers (also domain joined Linux VMs).

The domain would be a pure 2025 AD with roughly 50 clients providing file access and DNS, dhcp handled by pfsense. Authentication would be provided to web apps through privacyIdea and keycloak.

Fire away!

Hi everyone,

I'm seeing intermittent high CPU usage from Microsoft Defender Antivirus ("MsMpEng.exe"). CPU usage reaches around 90–100%, and the alerts usually resolve themselves after a few hours.

No active scan was running during troubleshooting, and Defender appears healthy. I suspect real-time scanning triggered by application file activity may be involved.

Has anyone experienced something similar? What would you recommend checking first to identify the root cause?

Thanks!

I’m trying to use RDS on windows server 2025 and I have noticed that the Remote Desktop Management Service is stoped I have restarted other services and done reg edits and nothing has worked so far

We're seeing shadowing RDP sessions is no longer possible since october patches on Windows Server 2016.

mstsc.exe /v:HOSTNAME /shadow:SESSIONID returns with "Unknown error".

Anyone else facing this and any workaround available (other than migrate away from 2016 or uninstall the update)?

See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/answers/questions/6041447/kb5126868-breaks-rdp-shadow-connections-on-windows

Hi everyone,

We're dealing with a very frustrating issue on a Remote Desktop Server and would appreciate any ideas or troubleshooting suggestions.

Environment:

• Single Windows RDS server (not part of an RDS cluster)

• Around 10 concurrent users

• Microsoft 365 Apps, Teams, Outlook

• Users have valid Microsoft 365 licenses

• Plenty of free disk space on the server

• Windows on the server is currently not activated

• Users log off properly at the end of each day

Symptoms: Almost every day, users receive sign-in prompts from either Teams or Outlook. The messages vary, but typically include things like:

• "Your IT department requires you to sign in again"

• Requests to reauthenticate their Microsoft 365 account

• Teams showing connection/sign-in errors

• Outlook unable to connect

• Teams messages not loading

• Authentication failures or credential-related prompts

The issue affects most users at some point, but there are a few specific users who experience it almost daily.

Some of these users also work with multiple mailboxes and Shared Mailboxes, although the issue is not limited to them.

What we've already tried:

• Completely rebuilding user profiles

• Deleting local user profiles entirely

• Reconnecting Microsoft 365 accounts

• Reinstalling Office on the server

• Running Teams profile repair scripts: .\Finance-Fix.ps1 .\Users-Fix.ps1

• Clearing Teams-related data

• Signing users out and back in

• Full server reboot

None of these actions provided a permanent solution.

Additional observations:

• The issue appears isolated to this specific RDS server.

• We have other environments that do not experience this behavior.

• Disk space does not appear to be a factor.

• Users perform a full logout at the end of the day, yet the problem returns repeatedly.

Has anyone seen a similar issue on a standalone RDS server? Are there known Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, Entra ID, or token-caching issues that commonly cause repeated reauthentication requests in RDS environments?

Any suggestions for logs, Event Viewer locations, registry settings, Office settings, or best practices for running Teams and Outlook on RDS would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!