Resources

Systems Management

Ivanti Workspace Control End of Life: Discover Your Next Steps with Application Workspace
Recast Blog

Ivanti Workspace Control End of Life: Discover Your Next Steps with Application Workspace

Streamlining IT Management: The Advantages of Consolidating with Recast Software 
Recast Blog

Streamlining IT Management: The Advantages of Consolidating with Recast Software 

How to Create a Recast Agent Deployment Process in Application Manager
Recast Blog

How to Create a Recast Agent Deployment Process in Application Manager

Optimizing Application Management for Windows and macOS 
Recast Blog

Optimizing Application Management for Windows and macOS 

How to Configure the Recast Agent Gateway with Microsoft Windows Server Network Load Balancing 
Recast Blog

How to Configure the Recast Agent Gateway with Microsoft Windows Server Network Load Balancing 

Enhancing Cybersecurity: Meeting the ACSC Essential Eight Standards 
Recast Blog

Enhancing Cybersecurity: Meeting the ACSC Essential Eight Standards 

Our Cybersecurity Survey Revealed Successes and Underlying Issues
Recast Blog

Our Cybersecurity Survey Revealed Successes and Underlying Issues

Polling Data Confirms the State of System Administration
Recast Blog

Polling Data Confirms the State of System Administration

Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars: Jörgen Nilsson
Recast Blog

Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars: Jörgen Nilsson

Jörgen Nilsson is an IT Consultant with Onevinn, working since 1993 in that capacity. He also holds a Microsoft MVP in Enterprise Mobility and blogs at ccmexec.com.

Your Remaining Questions: Version 5.0 Webinar
Recast Blog

Your Remaining Questions: Version 5.0 Webinar

We had so many questions during the webinar that we weren’t able to get to all of them. Our Solution Engineering duo Courtney Baty and Marty Miller have answered the remaining questions.

Recast Software Releases Version 5.0
Recast Blog

Recast Software Releases Version 5.0

This version 5.0 release marks a significant shift in the backend infrastructure of the Recast Software product suite. We've rebuilt all our products from the ground up. This overhaul streamlines future update processes, while also paving the path for more secure 3rd-party integrations.

How Can I Install Report Builder?
Recast Blog

How Can I Install Report Builder?

Why would you want to download Report Builder (RB)? I must admit that I don’t use the application an awful lot, but I find it particularly useful when I can’t access my own laptop. When this happens, instead of using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), I can use Report Builder to create a reporting project and make quick edits to an existing report or dashboard from another workstation.

Microsoft Configuration Manager Overview
Recast Blog

Microsoft Configuration Manager Overview

Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), currently Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MEMCM) formerly System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), is a Microsoft solution designed to enhance the management of Windows enterprise devices.

Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars: Sami Laiho
Recast Blog

Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars: Sami Laiho

For our second Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars, we interviewed Sami Laiho, an 11-time MVP in Windows OS. Sami is a leader in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) space, and specializes in troubleshooting, security, Active Directory, and penetration testing.

Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars: Prajwal Desai
Recast Blog

Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars: Prajwal Desai

This post is the first in a new series, Q & A with SysAdmin Superstars. We're excited to host Prajwal Desai for our first digital interview. Prajwal is an 8-time MVP in Enterprise Mobility and a vital content creator within the Configuration Manager / SCCM space.

Recast Management Server – What is It and Why Do I Need It?
Documentation

Recast Management Server – What is It and Why Do I Need It?

Initial Review of Windows 11 and ConfigMgr OSD
Recast Blog

Initial Review of Windows 11 and ConfigMgr OSD

Windows 11 has been out for several months, and now I’m ready to give my initial review of Windows 11 and ConfigMgr OSD. I must say that I’m impressed. While I personally wouldn’t deploy Win 11 to production yet, call me conservative based on previous Windows releases, it’s always fun to play with in a lab.

Learn One New Thing at the Midwest Management Summit (MMS)
Recast Blog

Learn One New Thing at the Midwest Management Summit (MMS)

Configuration Manager Baselines: System and User Contexts
Recast Blog

Configuration Manager Baselines: System and User Contexts

Upgrading to Windows 10 21H2 via Enablement Package
Recast Blog

Upgrading to Windows 10 21H2 via Enablement Package

How to Update Devices to Windows 11 with Right Click Tools
Recast Blog

How to Update Devices to Windows 11 with Right Click Tools

Enable PSGallery in a ConfigMgr Task Sequence While in WinPE
Recast Blog

Enable PSGallery in a ConfigMgr Task Sequence While in WinPE

BitLocker Compliance Tool Dashboard: Ensure Compliance Before Loss or Theft
Recast Blog

BitLocker Compliance Tool Dashboard: Ensure Compliance Before Loss or Theft

Task Sequence Tip: CMTrace Logging Run PowerShell Script
Recast Blog

Task Sequence Tip: CMTrace Logging Run PowerShell Script

App Revision Cleanup: How to Leverage PowerShell with ConfigMgr
Recast Blog

App Revision Cleanup: How to Leverage PowerShell with ConfigMgr

Preparing for Windows 11: Checking UEFI, SecureBoot, and BIOS Versions
Recast Blog

Preparing for Windows 11: Checking UEFI, SecureBoot, and BIOS Versions

Is There an Easy Way to Manage Windows Updates with ConfigMgr?
Recast Blog

Is There an Easy Way to Manage Windows Updates with ConfigMgr?

View ConfigMgr Application Deployment Requirements Using PowerShell
Recast Blog

View ConfigMgr Application Deployment Requirements Using PowerShell

Recast’s ConfigMgr Community Influencer Highlights – Maurice Daly
Recast Blog

Recast’s ConfigMgr Community Influencer Highlights – Maurice Daly

In this second installment of our ConfigMgr community highlights, I had the opportunity to have the MVP Maurice Daly (@modaly_it) participate. I've known Maurice for many years now, as one of my projects at my former company was starting to cross paths with a project Maurice was just releasing initial versions.

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 4 – ConfigMgr Baseline
Recast Blog

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 4 – ConfigMgr Baseline

In this post I'm going to cover how we are using a ConfigMgr Baseline to control the user experience. I'm not suggesting everyone do it this way, but for us, we wanted to provide a good user experience, even to those on slow links, and make it look pretty while still looking legit, and native.

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 3 – Self Service Deployments
Recast Blog

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 3 – Self Service Deployments

In this post I'm going to cover how we're doing our Self Service Deployments for the Microsoft 365 Apps. We're controlling it via Active Directory Group Membership.

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 2 – Changing Channels
Recast Blog

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 2 – Changing Channels

We have setup 2 methods for channeling the Office Channel on devices. One that allows self-service via an application in the software center, and one that is forced via a baseline set on a collection.

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 1
Recast Blog

Lessons Learned from Microsoft 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Part 1

Hey Team, thanks for reading through the Office 365 posts, hopefully at this point you've got a good grasp on the Office Setup Process, the Deployment Methods and the user experience. I happen to know a guy who has setup Office 365 Deployments in a rather large enterprise, and was faced with a few "opportunities".

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 6 – Channel Info
Recast Blog

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 6 – Channel Info

Hey Team, Gary Blok here, I'm coming back after a few weeks and am now adding Channel Query Collections.

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 5 – Office Updates and Automatic Deployment Rules (ADR)
Recast Blog

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 5 – Office Updates and Automatic Deployment Rules (ADR)

In this post, I'm going to do a simple "How-to" on creating an ADR and deploying it to your devices. I'm not going to go into the depth that those other 2 posts do.. because I'm not a huge fan of reinventing the wheel. I'll have a little overlap, but will keep it simple.

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 4 – Deployment Methods
Recast Blog

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 4 – Deployment Methods

Thanks for making it this far in our Deployment and Maintenance of Office 365 using Microsoft's Endpoint Manager, Configuration Manager (MEMCM / SCCM) series, now that we have our Office application setup, it's time to get it deployed, and look into how we can change the channel [Channel on Docs]. Based on how you deploy it, and a setting in the XML file, you'll see different behavior.

Office 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Post 3 – Creating the Office Installer (advanced)
Recast Blog

Office 365 Deployment with ConfigMgr: Post 3 – Creating the Office Installer (advanced)

In this post, we're going to go over the magic of PowerShell and creating an XML file on the fly.

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 2 – Creating the Office Installer (simple)
Recast Blog

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 2 – Creating the Office Installer (simple)

In this Deployment and Maintenance of Office 365 using Microsoft's Endpoint Manager, Configuration Manager (MEMCM / SCCM) post, we're going to get familiar with the Office 365 App Creation process that comes built into Configuration Manager.

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 1 – Intro & PreReqs
Recast Blog

Office 365 Deployment Series with ConfigMgr: Post 1 – Intro & PreReqs

This post will go over the Deployment and Maintenance of Office 365 using Microsoft's Endpoint Manager, Configuration Manager (MEMCM / SCCM).

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 13 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Certs PreReq
Documentation

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 13 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Certs PreReq

Learn about the Required Certificates needed for a CMG and how to set them up, including Client Authentication Certs, Web Cert for CMG device and Root CA Cert

Dashboard Series: Know Your Devices to Manage, Update, and Secure Them Effectively
Documentation

Dashboard Series: Know Your Devices to Manage, Update, and Secure Them Effectively

With our Hardware & Firmware Dashboard, built into Microsoft SCCM, you can streamline those processes. You can also make Windows 10 feature updates easier by getting the big picture on hardware and firmware pre-requisites. Finally, view the firmware status and versioning to assist with necessary firmware updates, which are often pre-requisites to Virtualization-based Security components.

Manage What You Have and Cleanup What You Don’t Using Active Directory Dashboard
Documentation

Manage What You Have and Cleanup What You Don’t Using Active Directory Dashboard

Our Active Directory Dashboard, built into Microsoft SCCM, can identify and remove, disable, and isolate stale devices that no longer exist. It can also ensure all of your existing AD devices are being properly managed by Configuration Manager.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 14 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Azure Subscription
Documentation

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 14 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Azure Subscription

What to do within Azure Portal to get things ready for a CMG. This was the biggest thing that tripped me up, mostly because I was using an account that didn't work properly. So just a note, if you don't log into your Azure Portal Directory with the Same "domain name" as the one you're managing, you'll run into issues.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 15 – Azure Services Connection
Documentation

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 15 – Azure Services Connection

In the previous posts we've created the Certificates required for CMG and looked at Azure to confirm we have things in place. We also confirmed we have the rights setup in Azure that are needed. Let's start the process in the CM Console.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 16 – Setting up CMG in the Console
Documentation

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 16 – Setting up CMG in the Console

We're four posts into our CMG Sub Series here, and we're finally getting to the CMG setup, we're going to go through the CMG Setup in the Console.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 17 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Post CMG Config
Documentation

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 17 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Post CMG Config

In our previous posts, we've setup the pre-reqs and the CMG, now it's time to continue setting up CM to leverage the CMG.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 18 – Cloud Management Gateway – Client CMG Endpoints
Documentation

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 18 – Cloud Management Gateway – Client CMG Endpoints

So now we've got everything in place, let's do some CMG tests to confirm it's working.

Hardware Inventory Tips – Manufacturer Specific
Recast Blog

Hardware Inventory Tips – Manufacturer Specific

In our recently release of Right Click Tools 4.1, we added the Hardware Audit Dashboard, as we continue to add functionality, to make best use of this feature, you'll have to make sure you're collecting additional information via hardware Inventory, mainly Product in Baseboard.

Tips and Tricks – How to Delete User Profiles in ConfigMgr
Recast Blog

Tips and Tricks – How to Delete User Profiles in ConfigMgr

The System Information tool has a wealth of actionable information available at your fingertips. Here's how to use this tool to delete User Profiles from a device.

Women’s History Month: Featured Women in IT
Recast Blog

Women’s History Month: Featured Women in IT

March is Women's History Month. We looked around the IT community and noticed so many strong women leaders. This blog highlights a few of them, giving them a chance to tell their stories.

How to Test Microsoft Apps After Moving DNS Servers
Recast Blog

How to Test Microsoft Apps After Moving DNS Servers