BoltActionRifleman

Ask Microsoft Anything session on Secure boot and CA2023 June 04, 2026, 8:00 AM PDT - 5:00 PM Brussels time

Posted by Smart-Definition-651@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 17 comments

Intune is not fit for purpose.

Posted by Hobbit_Hardcase@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 415 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

We went from Intune trying to run scripts and like OP mentions, it was half-assed at best. Running successfully on a small percentage of machines, and the others it would either fail or just not run at all with no logging. Switched to A1 and the first scripts I ran on a batch of test PCs, we were able to watch live logging on each one. My first thought was why did I waste so much time on Intune, second thought was what a contrast. Any failures (very rare) are displayed in real time with actual error codes and descriptions. Beyond scripts, the update management, app deployment and overall visibility of devices is just incredible, especially when compared to the extremely low bar set by Intune.

What was the most shocking moment of the 90’s?

Posted by Less_Than_Average1@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 575 comments

Who actually has vendor support that is worth it?

Posted by viking_linuxbrother@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 74 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Came here to say the exact same thing. VMWare support felt like they cared and were helpful. Broadcom is just a bunch of back and forth log collection for 4 days until you get escalated to the one person working there who actually knows something.

Silent Deployment/Updating of ComputerEase software

Posted by Helpful-Risk-4547@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 6 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Seconding this. Install ABR, then send out instructions to the users on how to check for updates. Once the ABR request shows up, they can type in the reason why they need the admin rights and whoever the assigned approver is can approve it. If you see this OP, ABR still has a number of free installations (I think 25) before you have to pay anything.

Insane response from Microsoft support

Posted by SurfeitedSysadmin@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 60 comments

Who taught you how to drive a stick?

Posted by wannareadrandomstuff@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 1668 comments

Daily reminder to not be complacent and to not be stupid - laptop stolen from truck

Posted by Nexzus_@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 55 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

My team has two cargo/utility vans, and SUV and we frequently borrow pickup trucks from other departments to haul fiber reels, large racks, big equipment deployments etc. There’s plenty of us sysadmins and associated teams who need to haul stuff on a semi regular basis.

Newer IT Admin Trying to Turn On BitLocker for 300+ computers

Posted by drewwhose@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 152 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

\#3 - Yes. We had been messing around with Bitlocker using GPO and then Intune with sporadic success. Found a script to implement it via Action1, report the key to A1 reports and haven’t looked back.

What songs come to mind when you see this

Posted by Pokemom-No-More-18@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 2760 comments

Did you actually sneak out as teenagers?

Posted by Complete-Chipmunk-0@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 4553 comments

What is "small town America" really like?

Posted by philthy_barstool@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 138 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

On the Hallmark Christmas movie scale of 1-10, my hometown was probably a 7 when I was growing up. Almost everyone knew each other, little to no crime, town celebrations throughout the year, neat small businesses everywhere. In the late 1990’s, the school merged with a school in a nearby, larger town. They kept both open for a few years, but eventually shut ours down. Once the school left, it was like a light got turned off. Businesses started steadily closing, people were no longer downtown just hanging out as frequently. When your kids and grandkids are doing everything in the next town over, you’re there every night instead of in your hometown. Another twist of the knife is when the town has no school, and fewer and fewer places of employment, people all but stop wanting to live there. The bigger towns 1000-5000 people started to actually grow a little, but the small towns of under 1000 people started looking like a ghost town. In 30 years, we went from 2 gas stations, 1 grocery store, 1 furniture store, 1 livestock market, 1 veterinarian’s office, 1 lumber yard, 2 bars, 1 dime store, 3 restaurants (and various other businesses), to just having 1 gas station. That gas station is now very busy because it’s the only place in town to get *anything*. This is a little bit long and kind of a rant, but I miss my small town and still wish they had never merged schools. I know there were likely other factors at play, but once that school was gone, so was the “small town” feel.

Putting the car in neutral to sneak out…

Posted by CurlyCupcake1231@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 198 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

My parents had a good upbringing, but neither of them had strict parents and I think they just passed that along to us growing up. I had to call if I was going to spend the night somewhere. Not going out during blizzards was the only driving restriction. I passed this down to my kids as well and they all turned out fine. In my opinion, it’s better to let kids grow up not feeling like they’re constantly on probation when they’ve done nothing wrong.

Myself and one other person are supporting 350 end users right now. HR told us to expect approximately 100 more employees by the end of the year. My manager told me that we don't need to hire another person in our department. Is it just me or is that completely unreasonable?

Posted by NeezDuts900@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 191 comments

Staff Meeting Topic, need an opinion from fellow Admins

Posted by Ruevein@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 24 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

How to a ticket with actual that me the problem just subject line error message. When they ask about the intent of the meeting, explain to them this is how IT feels every single day about tickets.

Help desk vs Sysadmin

Posted by b3b0p831@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 75 comments

What kind of household tech did y'all have in the 1970s–1990s?

Posted by Tight_Note4515@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 521 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

We had a VCR, Apple IIe (eventually a IIgs), landline with two phones and antenna TV. For many years we had 4 channels, CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS. It was a big deal when Fox came about.

What’s your favourite “I was there” GenX moment?

Posted by lovelyb1ch66@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 2100 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

I don’t really have any big moments I’ve attended, but I once went to go see NIN and Marilyn Manson (before he was famous) was the opening act. He ran out on stage wearing a giant strap on dildo and sang a couple songs with it on, bouncing all around. It was kind of bizarre.

Intune devices new UI

Posted by The-Dude-01@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 21 comments

AI Mushy Brain Syndrome

Posted by Grouchy-Western-5757@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 125 comments

What’s Your Most Controversial IT Opinion?

Posted by OrdinaryJust9594@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 986 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Especially when they claim Intune works well. We have it (not my choice) and every single time we have to change or configure something, it’s a struggle that should take minutes, but instead takes days to weeks to complete.

Moving from a VDI system to thick clients. What to use to manage?

Posted by fishy007@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 77 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

We’re slowly doing the same, with each VDI issue that arises having no permanent solution, and certainly no good support, it’s one more reason to go back to thick clients. We can spend hours or sometimes days troubleshooting thin client issues with no resolution, or just give them a computer and the problem goes away.

What Brands Have You Forgotten?

Posted by Outrageous-Back-5980@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 2706 comments

Production server black screen nightmare - In recent VMTools upgrade of 13.0.10.0

Posted by Enough_Return_5261@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 17 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

This sounds like us with VMWare bullshit. Don’t have time to find the root causes, and likely wouldn’t find it anyway, so we just get it running again and stay a few versions behind on VMWare Tools.

What is a rite of passage in America that existed 20 years ago but is rare today?

Posted by bricklegos@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 1137 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Iowa is similar up to a certain age. I don’t remember the exact details anymore, but the laws are set up to discourage being with friends and also to waste fuel since you can’t ride together, and the best part…instead of 4 or 5 friends taking one car, they take 2 or 3. So what’s meant to make things safer actually puts more teens on the road driving. These policies are just idiotic.

So my company is switching half our Windows servers to Linux....

Posted by A_SingleSpeeder@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 593 comments

my company wants to use VDI by 2027

Posted by Cool_Equivalent_4607@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 219 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

When there are problems in our VDI environment, it’s usually widespread and hard to diagnose, troubleshoot and resolve. We’re slowly moving away from it and going back to desktops and laptops, which rarely have issues, and if they do it’s usually isolated to one PC. It also used to save a lot of money being on VDI, but I’m not seeing that so much anymore, if at all.

Lessons learned after auditing 6 months of helpdesk tickets - the real causes behind "network is slow"

Posted by michealdesanto@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 36 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

How did someone plug in a personal router and then have it start doling out addresses on your network? Or am I interpreting this incorrectly and they had it between their machine and your network and it was only affecting their PC?

Daughter called crying. She has a '12 Honda Fit w/ 130K. Seems to run great. Took it in for A/C service. Mechanic told her she needed lots of service - about $750 - which she does not have. I think most is just sched maint - listed below. Which does she really need? Which can she pass on?

Posted by SirJasper6969@reddit | askcarguys | View on Reddit | 1075 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

I’m not a mechanic, but I’ve owned a lot of cars and trucks. If money is seriously tight, you don’t really need to do any of that immediately, or anytime soon…in most cases. They’re not trying to scam her, and what they’re suggesting and charging all seems reasonable, but there’s a good chance she can get by without doing any of it for a long time. Maybe suggest she stows away so much per paycheck and do them one at a time.

Fuck you microsoft and your new “prove you aren’t a robot” challenges for outlook.

Posted by mag_man85@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 26 comments

Rant: I DO NOT WANT TO READ EMAILS WRITTEN BY LLMs!

Posted by RabidTaquito@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 520 comments

I know how to do the job, I just can't aswer questions about it

Posted by WhiskyEchoTango@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 148 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

We’re a fairly small org and I don’t do a lot of hiring, but when I do I don’t give two shits about someone’s specific skills or telling me how to do XYZ off the top of their head. All I care about is if they seem like someone who can troubleshoot *in general*. There are so many people in this world who are simply incapable of thinking “Well, this program is doing these three things, but not this other thing, ever since ____ happened. Let’s see what happens if we change these 5 settings, one at a time, with testing in between”. Most people just think to themselves “Thing broken, someone fix”. I don’t have a point to my story other than telling you to hang in there and keep looking. There are those of us out here who look at the person and their methods vs. their accreditations.

I’m too entitled or stupid to learn how to do this, so just do it for me instead

Posted by 98PercentChimp@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 144 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

> like how to restart or shut down their computer My favorite is after telling people to restart, and telling them the exact steps on how to do it, they instead click on shut down. A minute later I’ll ask them “Did you get logged back in?” “No, the screen is still black” “Did you click on restart or shut down?” “I don’t remember, I think it was shut down though”. I can’t even begin to comprehend why these people get hired.

I said “Milk, milk, lemonade” to my teenagers, and they just stared at me… blankly. Have I failed them, or has society failed our children as a whole? Discuss.

Posted by leftoverrights@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 1830 comments

What is a piece of software or hardware that still leaves you traumatized to this day?

Posted by 66659hi@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 1668 comments

How common is it for Americans to leave their doors unlocked?

Posted by Mont3Carlo@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 451 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

The last place I lived had an old closet door handle for the front door, it wasn’t even capable of locking. Current place has a lock but we don’t use it and would have to look around to see if we still have the keys. If someone wants in, they’re going to get in regardless of the door being locked. And if they’re able to just open the door, at least I won’t have to repair or replace the door and door frame.

What is a piece of software or hardware that still leaves you traumatized to this day?

Posted by 66659hi@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 1668 comments

Office 365 Phishing Emails Epidemic

Posted by mickeykarimzadeh@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 66 comments

Office 365 Phishing Emails Epidemic

Posted by mickeykarimzadeh@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 66 comments

Conditional Access and vacation access from blocked foreign countries

Posted by Borsaid@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 38 comments

Is there something tech you never touched?

Posted by Abject_Serve_1269@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 367 comments

What is a song that you never skip but you have heard a million times

Posted by scott19692012@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 1857 comments

Americans who took Spanish in school: did any of it actually stick years later?

Posted by taube_d@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 1846 comments

Real ID venting

Posted by allaboutaphie@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 334 comments

What's your worst "horrible coincidence" experience?

Posted by joshuamarius@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 151 comments

Help setting up WSUS deployment from scratch

Posted by thtpopunkid@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 65 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Agreed, we dabbled with Intune updating/patching and going from that unresponsive turd to A1 was quite the eureka moment. Everything in A1 is quick, you don’t have to wait hours or even days to see if something worked, you know right away. Also, the Remote Desktop feature is worth a lot as well, not needing another vendor or software for that justifies a lot of the cost alone.

Help setting up WSUS deployment from scratch

Posted by thtpopunkid@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 65 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

I didn’t actually see the billing, that’s above my pay grade. But in the initial talks I think it came out to something like $5k/year for 300 devices. I could be way off on the final number though so you’d want to get a quote from them.

Help setting up WSUS deployment from scratch

Posted by thtpopunkid@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 65 comments

How to prevent users from printing from their phones?

Posted by walks-beneath-treees@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 130 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Agreed, if they walked in and took the equivalent amount out of the cash drawer they’d likely be fired on the spot. It’s in no way excessive to tell employees they’ll be suspended without pay for stealing. If anything, it’s a bit lax.

Rebuilding a department's reputation

Posted by BemusedBengal@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 101 comments

BoltActionRifleman@reddit

Have a quick meeting with the supervisors of the affected employees and let them know the tone has changed, and you’re open to listening. Don’t give them the green light on everything, because they’ll quickly overwhelm you with the backlog, just let them know you’re here and are approachable.