Category: Uncategorized

Case of your Windows ports or charger not working after Windows update

Update: this seems to be a fix ONLY on Microsoft Surface laptops, and may work on some older models as well. I had a friend with a similar issue on a Lenovo…we tried this “hack” and it didn’t work, but perhaps if other vendors have a similar port reset keyboard shortcut, it could solve your issue as well. Good luck!

I had an interesting thing happen recently. I have a pretty new Surface Studio laptop which I love! All of the sudden I realized my brand new charger wasn’t working. I tried all of the usual tests…differnet plug outlets, check the connection to the power brick and the cable to the wall, etc. It just woulldn’t charge. So I had another charger ordered. Plugged it in….argggh Charlie Brown! Still didn’t charge ;(

I called my corp helpdesk and they didn’t have an answer. They said to take it to my local IT Technician. It’s a bit of a drive, so I gave Tim a call and told him what was going on. He said to do this “Press and hold the Volume UP AND DOWN buttons AND the Power button for 30 seconds or more. DO NOT let go no matter what happens. I asked what that does and he said it was something like resetting the ports on the motherboard….but nothing else. So I did it, screen flashes, reboots…..and I didn’t let go of those three buttons. End result, problem solved and now I have two working chargers 😉

If this helped you out, please post and share with others….I didn’t find anything like this anywhere on the web and it solved my issue and another friend’s in the same week!

https://aka.ms/WindowsUpdatePortsFail

Featured

SC-100 Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert resources aka.ms/SC-100

The Microsoft cybersecurity architect has subject matter expertise in designing and evolving the cybersecurity strategy to protect an organization’s mission and business processes across all aspects of the enterprise architecture. This certification will be available on April 7, 2022.

Before I add/update my resources (coming soon) let’s look at some resources already out there..

Stay tuned for my SC-100 CERT resources that will have a channel on https://aka.ms/YouTube/CERT *

Continue reading “SC-100 Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert resources aka.ms/SC-100” →

AZ-305 Resource Links

Below are the exam objectives for the AZ-305 exam which come from https://aka.ms/AZ-305. Throughout my AZ-305 CERT session I have many links that I show on YouTube and are the source for the content that I show and share. Below are those links so you can explore them further if you wish. I cannot possible tell you everything in 60+ minutes. Plus sometimes it helps to also read over what you have heard. And quite possibly you may run across nuggets of information that I may not have addressed.

I also want to cross reference Thomas Maurer’s AZ-305 blog where he creates a lot of resource links. I usually start with that first, and then see if I can find anything else that may help.

To access and share the AZ-305 video playlist for this, go to https://aka.ms/YouTube/AZ-305. And for all of the other CERT sessions, please like, subscribe and share https://aka.ms/YouTube/CERT.

Continue reading “AZ-305 Resource Links” →

EZVegan -The Motor City Smoothie

When I used to have an appointment every weekend in Downtown detroit, the Whole Foods was across the street from where I was. And they had / have a wonderful Smoothie Bar. Not the foo foo smoothie type of place using ice cream or yogurts, but made just with real whole foods! It was sooo good, everytimeI I travel and find a Whole Foods, I look to see if they have a Smoothie Bar. They are pretty rare. So now whenever I pop into the Detroit Whole Foods, I automatically pop in to get this smoothie. This was the top selling smoothie when I used to go there, and still my favorite one too.

Continue reading “EZVegan -The Motor City Smoothie” →

SC-400 Study Guide

I’m taking a new approach to my study resources and trying to simplify it all. To start off, a simple URL for each eam to get to the corresponding exam objectives. In this case it’s aka.ms/SC-400. The, just append “StudyGuide and then you will have all of the resources that I used to create these sessions and links for you to further study a little deeper on areas that you are not as strong in. In the case of this blog, it is https://aka.ms/SC-400StudyGuide. I can’t review everything in my C.E.R.T. sessions, but try to highlight what areas I think are closest to what the exam objectives called out. Then you have two choices. 1. Listen through the audio sessions on YouTube, plus all of the links on the blog. No PowerPoints to drill down to. Just the resources to quickly listen to, or research through to get your ready faster!

How to prepare for any exam

Below I am going to link all the resource links that I find in order to build out my review slides. This is the process I use to build out my C.E.R.T. sessions on YouTube –https://aka.ms/YouTube/CERT.

Continue reading “SC-400 Study Guide” →

SC-300 Exam Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator Study Guide

Welcome back! This is yet another blog post that ties together the study links from my related YouTube video on the same topic. You can find the videos I produced for preparing for this exam at https://aka.ms/YouTube/SC-300. The exam objectives which should guide your studying, and which were also used to guide the creation of the video content can be found at Exam SC-300: Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator – Learn | Microsoft Docs.

As referenced in the introduction part of the video, there was already another study guide out there with many solid reference links all on Azure Docs which can be found at aka.ms/SC-300StudyGuide.

Here are the slides to use for studying which contain all of the links provided and discussed in the video.

sc-300-study-slidesDownload

Featured

AZ-500 Study Resources

Use and know the Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies page. NOTE: towards the bottom of this page are specific Learning Paths you can walk through at your own pace!

On YouTube now! AZ-500 Certification Exam Rapid Training (CERT) review sessions – plus more to come!

Download Mark’s AZ-500 Study Slides full of resource Links.

LinkedIn Learning Identity & Access, Implement Platform Protection, Azure Security Center, and What is Azure Monitor

O’Reilly Learning Azure Security Technologies – 8 hours!

Stanislas Preparation Guide for Microsoft AZ-500 Microsoft Azure Security Technologies Certification

Pluralsight – Managing Azure Security Course

Cloud Academy Azure Security Services

Azure Stack Security aka.ms/AzureStack/Security

Hello once again!  This will be an evolving blog, but many are asking what are the specific certifications around Azure Stack. Below is an excerpt from our engineering group.

“Customers told us that compliance paperwork is a major frustration. To alleviate that, Azure Stack is going through a formal assessment with a 3PAO (3rd-Party Assessor Organization). The outcome of this effort will be documentation on how the Azure Stack infrastructure meets the applicable controls from several major compliance standards. Customers will be able to use this documentation to jump-start their certification process. For the first round of assessments, we are targeting the following standards: PCI-DSS and the CSA Cloud Control Matrix. The former addresses the payment card industry while the latter gives comprehensive mapping across multiple standards.

Continue reading “Azure Stack Security aka.ms/AzureStack/Security” →

Back to Basics with Active Directory | aka.ms/Identity/AD

As my career progresses and I dive deeper and deeper into the cloud, every once in a while my core Windows Server Active Directory roots come up and tap me on the shoulder.  Or else others ping me to say “Hey, where are the best resources out there for Active Directory goodness?”. Since many of these links are oldies but goodies, I want to collect and collate the best current and past links for you, me and our customers.  Hope you enjoy and please share!

Continue reading “Back to Basics with Active Directory | aka.ms/Identity/AD” →