Setting ACLs on Website directories using PowerShell

One of the extremely common tasks I have to perform whenever I set up a website or virtual directory/application in IIS is that I have to also set up folder/directory permissions on the newly created directory as well.

This can be time consuming and error prone, especially if you have to set up numerous directories either on a single web server or multiple web servers.

That is why I heavily rely on PowerShell to help me accomplish this task!

For a primer on just how to accomplish this using PowerShell, you can check out this article: http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/powershell-manage-file-system-acl,2-837.html

Of course, my needs are targeted towards IIS website directories in particular, so I have modified the original script to suit my needs.

You can check out my version of the PowerShell script:

Upgrading to Windows Server 2016

Now that Windows Server 2016 has gone RTM, I thought I would try to see if I can upgrade my existing Windows Server 2012 R2 systems to Windows Server 2016.

As part of the upgrade process, I had to uninstall "VMWare Tools" and "Mcafee VirusScan Enterprise 8.8i" before proceeding with the upgrade as you will see in the screenshots below:

After completing the upgrade, I had to re-install VMWare Tools (since I uninstalled them earlier), but other than that, all of my applications seemed to working fine and intact!  Piece of cake!!

Installing Telnet Client from PowerShell

If you need to install the Telnet Client, you can either install it from using the Server Manager GUI or you can install it directly from PowerShell!

I, personally prefer PowerShell since it is much quicker than going through the wizards in Server Manager.

If you want to install Telnet Client from ANY client OS or server OS, you can run the following command:


However, if you wish to install PowerShell on a server OS, you can run the following command:

Installing Oracle Database server 11g R2 on Windows

If you need to develop against an Oracle Database backend, you will probably want to be able to setup your own Oracle Database for development and testing.

Even though Oracle Database 12c has been out for quite some time, there will probably be numerous occasions where you have to install the older version of Oracle Database 11g R2 instead.  To do so, you simply have to download the Oracle Database 11g downloads from here (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html), extract the .zip files and then run setup.exe:

Antivirus for Windows Server

If you are looking for Antivirus for Windows Servers, this can definitely be hard to find since most antivirus solutions are targeted towards Windows Desktop Operating Systems such as Windows 8 and Windows 10.

Well, thankfully, there are quite a few solutions available for Windows Server platforms such as Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2:

• Mcafee VirusScan Enterprise: http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/virusscan-enterprise.aspx
• ESET File Security for Microsoft Windows Server: https://www.eset.com/us/products/file-security-microsoft-server/
• AVG File Server Edition: http://www.avg.com/ppc/ww-en/avg-file-server-edition?ecid=ad:ro:se:smb-GUS1132&channel=ppc&gclid=Cj0KEQjwyJi_BRDLusby7_S7z-IBEiQAwCVvn5x7TB3qipIhDf8DlAF8GUr5ZLgIAEqx_iGVnm84-swaAgs18P8HAQ
• Symtantec Endpoint Protection: https://www.symantec.com/campaigns/endpoint-protection
• Sophos Antivirus: https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/server-security.aspx
• Avast File Server Security: https://www.avast.com/en-us/file-server-security
• TrendMicro ServerProtect: http://www.trendmicro.com/us/enterprise/cloud-solutions/server-protection/
• Kaspersky Business Security: http://usa.kaspersky.com/store/business-security/

Installing Oracle Database server 12c on Windows

If you need to develop against an Oracle Database backend, you will probably want to be able to setup your own Oracle Database for development and testing.

Surprisingly, installing Oracle Database 12c on Windows is very easy!  You simply have to download the Oracle Database 12c downloads from here (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/database12c-win64-download-2297732.html), extract the .zip files and then run setup.exe: