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⚙️ Enabling Auto-Enrollment via Group Policy (AD CS)
Hi everyone! In the last post, I walked through how I created and published custom certificate templates. Now it’s time to automate the certificate issuance process using Auto-Enrollment. This is one of my favorite AD CS features—once configured, certificates are issued silently in the background to users and computers without any manual intervention. 🤖 What…
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🏗️ Installing the Enterprise Root CA (Step-by-Step)
Hi again! Now that I’ve introduced what AD CS is and why we use it, it’s time to get our hands dirty by installing an Enterprise Root Certificate Authority. This is the heart of any AD-integrated PKI infrastructure, and I’ll walk you through each step I use in my production and lab setups. 🧠 Quick…
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🔐 Introduction to Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)
Hi everyone! In this blog series, I’m going to take you on a journey through Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)—from the basics to more advanced concepts. If you’ve ever been confused by terms like “PKI,” “Root CA,” or “auto-enrollment,” you’re not alone. I was there too, and that’s why I decided to write this…
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Automating GPO Management with PowerShell – How I Simplify Group Policy Tasks
Once I got comfortable working with Group Policy in the GUI, I started to hit a wall when managing multiple GPOs across different OUs and domains. That’s when I discovered the power of PowerShell automation — and it completely changed how I manage Group Policy Objects. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I…
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Advanced Security Settings with GPO – How I Harden My Windows Environment
After getting comfortable with basic Group Policy configurations, I realized I could take things much further — especially when it comes to hardening security. Group Policy gives me the power to apply advanced security settings consistently across all users and machines in my domain, without needing third-party tools. In this post, I’ll share some of…
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Using Group Policy Modeling and Results – My Go-To Tools for GPO Troubleshooting
When I first started managing Group Policy in a real-world environment, one of the challenges I faced was figuring out which policies actually applied to a specific user or computer — and why. That’s where Group Policy Modeling and Group Policy Results became my best friends. In this post, I’ll walk you through what these…
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Managing GPO Inheritance and Precedence – How I Keep My Group Policies Under Control?
One of the things that tripped me up early in my Active Directory journey was how multiple GPOs interact — especially when they’re linked at different levels like the domain, OU, or site. I quickly realized that Group Policy Inheritance and Precedence are essential to understand if I want to avoid conflicts, unexpected behavior, or…
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Creating and Linking My First GPO
When I started working with Active Directory, one of the first tasks I learned was how to create and link a Group Policy Object (GPO). Group Policy is a powerful way to manage user and computer settings across a domain, and in this post, I’ll show you exactly how I created and linked my first…
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What is Group Policy and How Does It Work?
As a system administrator, one of the most powerful tools I use to manage and secure a Windows environment is Group Policy. It allows me to control the working environment of user accounts and computers within Active Directory (AD). In this post, I’ll explain what Group Policy is, how it works, and why it’s essential…