Mount ISO in Windows Server

 I ran into an interesting issue today.  Windows Server 2012 R2 had no options to mount an ISO file.  I tried a couple of 3rd party programs to do it but they would not work either.  I found a command that can be used with PowerShell to mount an ISO and it worked perfectly.  Here's the text of the command.

Good luck!

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath 'D:\Path\To\Image.iso' -StorageType ISO -PassThru | Get-Volume

Configure an External Time Source in Windows Server 2008 R2

Configure an external time source

This computer is configured to hold the primary domain controller (PDC) emulator operations master role (also known as flexible single master operations or FSMO) in the forest root domain. This computer should not use itself as a time source. Configure an external time source as the authoritative time source for the forest, or configure a member domain controller as the time source peer. The configuration must be done manually. Perform the following procedure on the computer that is logging the event to be resolved.
To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Domain Admins, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To configure a manual time source peer:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start. In Start Search, type Command Prompt. At the top of the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
2. At the command prompt, type w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:server,0x8, /syncfromflags:manual /update, where server is the name of the time source that you want to configure, and then press ENTER. ((I recommend pool.ntp.org for an Internet source))
3. Restart the Windows Time service. At the command prompt, type net stop w32time & net start w32time, and then press ENTER.
4. Resynchronize the Windows Time service client with the time source peer. At the command prompt, type w32tm /resync, and then press ENTER.

To learn more about the Windows Time service and related tools, see Windows Time Service Tools and Settings (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=42984).

Verify

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Administrators, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.
To verify that the Windows Time service is synchronizing correctly:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator. To open a command prompt as an administrator, click Start. In Start Search, type Command Prompt. At the top of the Start menu, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.
2. At the command prompt, type W32TM /resync, and then press ENTER.
3. At the command prompt, type W32TM /query /status, and then press ENTER. This command displays the status of the Windows Time service synchronization. The Last Successful Sync Time line of the output displays the date and time that you ran the W32TM /resync command in the previous step. Also, check the computer name that is shown as the Source. This should be the name of a domain controller (or an administrator-configured time server) in the same Active Directory domain as the local computer.

To verify that the Windows Time service synchronized successfully with its time source, confirm that Event IDs 35 and 37 appear in Event Viewer. If there was a recovery from a previous failure to synchronize with the time source, you also see Event ID 138, which indicates that the Windows Time service is synchronized correctly.

Things You Can Open in Windows From the Run Command

With all the work I do on Windows Server knowing these commands is a real time saver instead of always having to run things down through the GUI.  This isn't by any means a full list but here is a list of some of the things you can access in Windows without the mouse (type these at a Run Prompt):

    control = Opens the Control Panel Window

    control admintools = Opens the Administrative Tools

    control keyboard = Opens the Keyboard Properties Window

    control color = Opens the Display Properties (at the Appearance Tab in Windows 7)

    control folders = Opens the Folder Options Window

    control fonts = Opens the Font Policy Management Window

    control international (or intl.cpl) = Opens Regional and Language Options

    control mouse (or main.cpl) Opens mouse properties

    control userpasswords = Opens the User Accounts Editor

    control userpasswords2 (or netplwiz) = Opens User Account Access Restrictions

    control printers = Opens the Printers and Faxes Window

    control desktop (Windows Vista/7 only) = Opens Control Panel>Personalization

    appwiz.cpl = Opens the Add or Remove Programs Utility

    optionalfeatures = opens the Add or Remove Windows Component utility

    desk.cpl = Opens the Display Properties (Themes Tab)

    hdwwiz.cpl = Opens the Add Hardware Wizard

    irprops.cpl = Opens the Infrared utility (does nothing if no IR devices are installed)

    joy.cpl = Opens  Game Controller Settings

    mmsys.cpl = Opens the Sound and Audio device properties window (Volume Tab)

    sysdm.cpl = Opens the System Properties window

    telephon.cpl = Opens the Phone and Modem options window

    timedate.cpl = Opens the Date and Time Properties window

    wscui.cpl = Opens the Windows Security Center in XP (opens the Action Center in Windows Vista/7)

    access.cpl = Opens the Accessibility Options Window (does not work in Windows 7)

    wuaucpl.cpl = Opens Automatic Updates

    powercfg.cpl = Opens the Power Options Properties window

    ncpa.cpl = Opens the Network Connections window

    bthprops.cpl = Opens the Bluetooth Control window (does nothing if no bluetooth devices are installed)

    certmgr.msc = Opens the Certificate Management MMC

    compmgmt.msc = Opens the Computer Management

    comexp.msc (or dcomcnfg) = Opens the Computer Services MMC

    devmgmt.msc = Opens Device Manager

    diskmgmt.msc = Opens Disk Management

    eventvwr.msc (or eventvwr) = Opens the Event Viewer

    fsmgmt.msc = Opens Shared Folders

    napclcfg.msc = Opens the NAP client configuration tool

    services.msc = Opens Service Manager

    taskschd.msc (or control schedtasks) = Opens the Task Scheduler

    gpedit.msc = Opens the Group Policy MMC

    lusrmgr.msc = Opens Local Users and Groups

    secpol.msc = Opens the Local Security Settings window

    ciadv.msc = Opens the Indexing Service Window

    ntmsmgr.msc = Opens the Removable Storage Manager

    ntmsoprq.msc = Opens the Removable Storage Operator Requests

    wmimgmt.msc = Opens the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) window

    perfmon.msc (or perfmon) = Opens the Performance Monitor

    mmc = Opens a blank Microsoft Management Console

    mdsched = Opens the Memory Diagnostics tools

    dxdiag = Opens DirectX diagnostics tools

    odbcad32 = Opens the ODBC Data Source Administration window

    regedit (or regedt32) = Opens the Registry Editor (these commands actually open different Registry editors, google for the differences)

    drwtsn32 = Opens Dr. Watson

    verifier = Opens the Driver Verification Manager

    cliconfg = Opens the SQL Server Client Network Utility

    utilman = Opens the Utility Manager (in Windows 7 this opens the Ease Of Access Center)

    msconfig = Opens the System Configuration Utility

    sysedit = Opens the System Configuration Editor

    syskey = Opens the Windows Account Database Security Manager

    explorer = Opens Windows Explorer

    iexplorer = Opens Internet Explorer

    wab = Opens the Windows Address Book

    charmap = Opens the Character Map

    write = Opens Wordpad