HPlum78

No trouble and good spot on the winstoreui issue.

yeah and then reload gpmc.msc and if its worked correctly you should see them (wait for replication to happen!)

Just out of interest how much storage and how many users (active) at anyone time have you got? how many spindles in your server? and whats the spec of the individual disks? I am still not going to rule out H/W issue here, SMB across 2k8 and 2k12 possible but would have to understand the patching methodology. AV more likely if it's bashing your file server on every read write! but I am thinking a under scoped H/W config but need the details. more so the more I think about it, only when under load! hear hoofs think horses not zebra...... should try to use my hands instead of my face to type!

Win10 and its a good question looks like it should be the 1511 as its got a later creation date, and yeah I would also get the 2012r2 and 8.1 ones as well and then copy them with the 2012r2/8.1 first and then copy over the win 10 ones any that have been updated changed in win 10 will then be the latest available in your environment.

5i Provide IT Solutions to Channel Partners in Berkshire they know their onions and phone systems! and helped me with a migration project from cisco to Lync/Skype.

And just to help with this I have dug up this https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530196.aspx it goes through the process step-by-step and you can download the win 10 admx/ADML MSI from here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48257 and the Server 2012 and win 8.1 are available at the bottom of that page under additional resources. if you need anymore info let me know.

what desktop OS(s) are you using?

Well yes and no, the central store method of storing your needed .adm/.admx files is a good way of being able to use a consistent set of policies for any client server or workstation to edit GPO's as no matter where you load GPMC up from it will always pull the policies from that central store. When you create a policy that requires a certain .adm/ .admx file you will see in the file-based part of the policy e.g. \\yourdomain\sysvol\yourdomainname\Policies\someGUID\ADM dir it will have a copy of the .adm/ .admx file there and that's what your clients will use to apply these settings, so they don't really care about the .amd/ .admx files.

Sorry I am still trying to understand how the file transfer has taken place? you say it a different server HP to a Dell so unless you have been really really unlucky and gone from a server with a fault to a new/ different server with the same fault the only thing I can see that may be the same hardware is the underlying storage as if its on a DAS host or a SAN fabric that's what I would look at first. If its been a lift and shift e.g you have copied all the data from one server to the other then its probably not going to be a storage related issue.... he says holding his breath!

Has the underlying storage stayed the same when you moved servers?

yeah because you have the Policy Definitions in sysvol when you load GPMC it looks in that store not to the local servers C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions dir. So as you are seeing its just giving you the chrome settings. Copy the C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions from a server /client (including the local(s)) folder and reload gpmc and they will appear, or copy the stuff out of the policy definitions folder in sysvol to you gpmc client C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions get rid of the policy definitions folder and reload gpmc on your client and they will appear. Look here for a better guide! https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3087759

It depends on your information security policy, that can change how much disposal costs. You can like you say just get shot of them and people will pick them up for you or if you implement a policy around information then HDD's have to be removed and destroyed and if you guys don't get paid for the removal of your old IT gear then I suppose you can get it done for "free" (or are we classing staff costs as sunk cost and its just part of running IT?) even then its a cost! Was just drawing out all IT infrastructure has a lifecycle not just a fire and forget activity.

I have done this in recent years with Econocom and HP Financial Services as mentioned above, and again also mentioned above insisted that the kit have a warranty that also covered off accidental damage and the like for the term of the lease. Yes you will overall spend a little more than outright purchased kit but when you start to take in the cost of disposal at the end and all the other bits its not all that bad (assuming you all follow the law on disposal!) being able to add kit to the lease when needed and also have the option of if the kit is in good shape by the end of the 3/5/.... years to extend the lease for a minimal cost it all starts to look pretty good. There are downsides like never owning the kit and having to seek approval to upgrade and the likes but none that are insurmountable. Talk to Dave Castle (0845 345 8340) at EE he made the process extremely easy and took care of everything with about 2 mails and a telephone call, also did the cost break down between the leasing and buying options and all that jazz so that I could present that to SLT!

How are you managing your win 8 gpos? I seem to have it in my mind you have to use vista or above to create and manage them not from win7/ server 2k8r2. This may need clearing up as its all a little hazy now!

gci C:\localapp -File -Recurse | select name, *time | sort-object LastAccessTime or gci c:\localapp -File -Recurse | select name, *time | export-csv c:\PSout\filesys\lastaccesstime.csv will give you a .csv file that you can open in Excel (others are available!) you could also while you are at it learn some PowerShell and pull out the other useful stuff you may also require like Directory so the above would look like this gci C:\localapp -File -Recurse | select name, directory, *time to find out more about what gci can get you, you can do the following gci | gm or you can do this the hard way by doing gci c:\localapp -File -Recuse | select * (the filter * select * is not the way to do things mind if you want to see why just do get-adobject -filter * select * !) oh and I know that giving out the alias is frowned upon so GCI is Get-ChildItem and GM is Get-Member.

or indeed this may well help you https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2014/02/07/use-powershell-to-find-files-that-have-not-been-accessed/ I would before killing files backup as you never know just what is lurking in those file stores! any data that may need to be archived for compliance would be a bad thing to just go and delete!

PowerShell - gci C:\localapp -File -Recurse | select name, *time - - - Updated - - - you can then where clause I suppose to narrow down your dates...

PowerShell: Sending a Wake-On-LAN (WOL) Magic Packet https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Send-WOL-packet-using-0638be7b The above will get you booting computers from PS, if that what you are looking for.

The version of PowerShell is not dictated by the version of the OS so I suppose the question is what does the $PSVersionTable output look like? like jamesfed says PS functionality changes depending on the PS version but also the WMF version as well (WSManStackVersion). I also have to disagree with the add them manual approach to this, I would encourage the use of PowerShell to do this and would allow my administrators an hour or two to write the script than point and click in the GUI, once the script is done its repeatable and can be run time and again also the skills you learn by applying yourself to a bit of PS learning is far more valuable than just having someone who can click a button! (I agree with Jeff Snover on this, look him up!) oh and if you are smart with this you can also automate the install of the drivers with some devcon magic. Get me the above from the $PSVersionTable and I will try and point you in the right direction.

This may give you some insight https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/826936 not much info in your post, but it gives you a starting point and outlines some of the tools that can be used to look at the VSS Writers and the like.

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Understanding-Office-365-identity-and-Azure-Active-Directory-06a189e7-5ec6-4af2-94bf-a22ea225a7a9, this should help you along the way.

hmmm something like this https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/ashleymcglone/2014/03/17/powershell-to-find-where-your-active-directory-groups-are-used-on-file-shares/ maybe

something about minds and the like!

These are normally created by windows updates/ .msu installs.

Cannot see that this has been called out (sorry if it has), but just for info. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/05/17/simplifying-updates-for-windows-7-and-8-1/