Win-Fu Training Newsletter #55

Hello dear apprentices!

I am currently co-chairing Techmentor conference in Orlando! Feels fun to be in US for the first time in two years. Had to hire a huge car because of all the backlog in shopping so this job I will do for the love of the sport - not to mention how expensive airtravel was this time. Had to take more hops than normally and the amount of paperwork was crazy. A few decades ago when travelling to US every traveler would have a file full of papers when checking in to a US flight in Europe, and those times are back :) Covid-tests for all speakers and attendees before entering the venue, masks on for everyone and other measures in place and an inconvenience but I'd say it's easily worth it! Also Techmentor now has online options available as well - which we have been asking for a long time.

One super annoying thing is our Telco's new "Roaming deal" for 5G users. Elisa (Finnish Telco) used to offer (and still do if you downgrade to a 4G contract) a roaming deal of 1,5GB of data for the maximum of 14days for 19,90€. Now it's replaced with 500MB for a maximum of 24hours for 9,90€. So I used to need 19,90€ for a week (a lot of Wifi available) and this time I'll need 70€ minimum... And it doesn't matter if you use 5G or not... Only option is to change the whole contract to an older one, that then can't use 5G if available...

In general it's almost fun to notice how much I've forgotten about travel in the last 18 months. No clicker with me, wrong or missing adapters, sunglasses forgotten, forgetting devices in your bag during security checks... List is long... But in general, I'm happy to be on the road again but the break was probably about time.

Last time I promised that I'll skip the ads and concentrate on questions and tips. So here goes.

QUESTIONS:

Q: What's an easy way of getting the UEFI/BIOS version from the command line?
A: PowerShell: Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS

Q: What if I have a used computer that has had data already, and I start using BitLocker with the "Used Space Only Encryption" -option, how can I make sure the data "outside of BitLocker" is not compromised?
A: manage-bde wipefreespace
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/manage-bde-wipefreespace
Wipes the free space on the volume, removing any data fragments that may have existed in the space. Running this command on a volume encrypted using the Used Space Only encryption method provides the same level of protection as the Full Volume Encryption encryption method.

TIPS AND TRICKS

I just upgraded from an iPhone Xs to a new iPhone 13 Pro. It had been a while so I should have remembered a few things. Everything else went smooth except:

1. Wallet (not talking about the price only)
2. Authenticator

So BEFORE you shutdown and erase the old phone, take care of these.

The first one was something that I needed a little time on to get all the credit cards working again with the new phone but it was just time and really following instructions on screen. The second one deserves a tip from my wife. Thanks to my Mrs. SYSTEM, Sari, I love you.
First on the old phone you need to backup Microsoft authenticator. This requires a PERSONAL Microsoft Account. So I did that. Then you can start to recover them on the new one, having access to the old one still. Every account on Azure needs to see the QR code from the tenant that it allows access to. Use this URL: aka.ms/mfasetup
Logon with that account (MFA prompt on the old phone) and get the QR code for the app. Repeat for every account.

When I started to logon to one of my tenants I realized I had not listened to my own talks... I had one admin-account for the tenant, protected with mandatory MFA. I had access to my old phone so I could still accept the MFA on that. But what if my phone was stolen? Or I had been so optimistic that I had already wiped the old device as Apple instructs... So what were we supposed to have for every tenant? A Break Glass account... that does not have MFA. I got lucky... Luckily... Here some info: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/roles/security-emergency-access

That's all for this time! I thank you all for following me!
Updates will always be on Twitter so make sure you follow me @samilaiho.

Wax On, Wax Off – Happy troubleshooting!

Sami
Twitter: @samilaiho

Questions?
Don't be afraid to contact sales@adminize.com for any additional questions or comments.

Some general questions answered about the list:

What's Win-Fu? - Win-Fu is the first and only martial art dedicated to mastering the Windows OS. Win-Fu training provides you with training courses to give you superb skills on administering and troubleshooting the Windows OS. The first ever certified Win-Fu BlackBelt trainer is Sami Laiho - to read more about him head to http://www.samilaiho.com/
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