SysAdmin Weekly #3
This week: security baselines, PowerShell twists, and a workload that ghosted Azure.
Welcome to your weekly dose of IT sanity, served piping hot! New here? All newsletter and podcast links are live and tracked at www.sysadminweekly.com
🧠 This Week’s Top Insight
This week we’re talking more about Debian Linux, seeing real-world automation examples for Intune and PowerShell via Copilot, and continuing the ongoing soul search: “Should we still trust the cloud for everything?” > Spoiler alert: sometimes the answer is STILL “lol, no.”
Hence the continued talk in the industry of “Cloud Repatriation”
🎙️ Latest on the SysAdmin Weekly Podcast
🎧 Migrate Off the Cloud? Yup! It’s a Thing!
In the latest episode of the podcast, Andy and Eric discuss the great cloud repatriation movement and why some organizations are moving workloads BACK to on-prem. The guys share some hard data to support their points as well as share their own experiences and thoughts on this growing trend.
🔍 From Andy On Tech and Project Runspace
🧠 Kernels, Shells, and Operating Systems (Re)Visited
Eric Siron breaks down the foundational layers of operating systems in this refreshed explainer. It’s a great reminder of what’s really going on under the hood.
📺 Video Companion to Andy’s “Why Debian in 2025” Article
A video version of the “Why Debian Linux in 2025?” article we discussed in last week’s newsletter, giving you some key reasons why you may want to include Debian in your OS lineup for 2025.
🧵 Helpful Community Content
🎥 Windows Server 2025 Security Baseline and App Control
Thomas Maurer sits down in this video to discuss the new Security baseline in Windows Server 2025. It also wouldn’t be a proper video with Thomas if there wasn’t mention of how Azure Arc fits into the picture as well!
📜 The Not-so-Simplified Syntax of Where-Object in PowerShell
Mike F. Robbins gets into the weeds on filtering syntax and logic. Great if you’ve ever muttered “Why isn’t this filtering properly?!” at 2 a.m.
🛠️ Making Intune Notifications Smarter with a Copilot Agent
Peter van der Woude shows how to use Copilot to automate responses to Intune notifications. Practical, powerful, and surprisingly easy to deploy.
🎟️ SysAdmin Content from Official Sources
📘 Azure Well-Architected Framework
Microsoft’s official best practices for designing and reviewing your Azure environments across performance, security, cost, and more.
📰 Security Headlines for SysAdmins
Chrome Zero-Day Actively Exploited (CVE-2025-5419) (CVSS 8.8)
A V8 engine out-of-bounds memory bug is under active exploitation. All users should update Chrome (or Chromium-based browsers like Edge/Brave) to version 137.0.7151.68 or higher immediately. Exploitable via web content alone.
Microsoft Shares Script to Restore Deleted inetpub Folder
Accidentally (maybe on purpose?) nuked the empty ‘inetpub’ folder created by the April 2025 Windows security updates? You’re not alone. Microsoft released a PowerShell script to help restore your inetpub path and avoid rebuilding from scratch. As a reminder this folder added to mitigate a high-severity Windows Process Activation privilege escalation vulnerability.
🛠️ Tool of the Week
WinGet CLI – Microsoft’s official package manager for Windows.
Manage app installs, updates, removals, and scripting with ease, all from the terminal. Great for automating workstation builds, testing labs, or finally replacing your manual Notepad++ install loop.
“Because if you can script it, you don’t have to explain it twice.”
🧠 Fun Retro SysAdmin Fact
Fun Fact: In 1991, Linux creator Linus Torvalds’s original version of Linux didn’t have grep. That essential tool came from Doug McIlroy’s Unix ancestors. Some of the first grep implementations were added from Unix v7 source code… decades before most of us were born!
☕ Wrap-Up
This week felt like a blend of “back to basics” and “forward to AI.” From Where-Object tweaks to Copilot automation, and from WSUS ghosts last week to WinGet dreams this week, the toolbox keeps evolving.
If this issue gave you a tip, script, or link worth bookmarking, forward it to a teammate! You’ll look helpful and clever. 😎
Until next week,
— Andy