Windows & PowerShell
Identify the services behind svchost.exe
Diagnostic steps, interpretation and safe next actions
Author & owner
Stuart Kerr Spindlow
Stuart Kerr Spindlow on LinkedIn
Stuart Kerr Spindlow owns and writes Happy SysAdm and is responsible for its editorial decisions and any testing he undertakes.
The current articles are research-based. Product tests, qualifications and prior operational experience are not inferred from domain ownership or from the work of the previous publication’s author.
Articles by Stuart
Windows & PowerShell
Read and search large log files with PowerShell
Memory considerations and version-specific examples
Windows & PowerShell
PowerShell arrays, hashtables and objects
Choose the right structure for administration tasks
Windows & PowerShell
A safe PowerShell automation checklist
Least privilege, logging, credentials, error handling and rollback
Windows & PowerShell
Diagnose “disk is offline because of policy”
Distinguish local disks, shared storage and cluster risks
Windows & PowerShell
Windows component-store cleanup
Supported methods, inspection and why manual winsxs deletion is unsafe
Buying guide
Backup software for small IT teams
Workload fit, recovery options, administration and total cost
Buying guide
Microsoft 365 backup tools
Supported workloads, permissions, retention, restore granularity and limits
Backup & recovery
Build a backup strategy
Copies, isolation, retention, ownership and restore verification
Backup & recovery
RPO and RTO
Practical examples and how to set achievable objectives
Backup & recovery
Restore-test checklist
Isolated validation, evidence, business acceptance and follow-up
Backup & recovery
A practical disaster-recovery runbook template
Dependencies, contacts, sequence and decision points
Buying guide
RMM tools for small IT teams
Endpoint coverage, patching, permissions, remote actions and technician/device costs
Buying guide
Server monitoring tools
Host/service visibility, deployment effort, retention and alert routing
Monitoring & RMM
RMM versus server monitoring
Different jobs, overlapping features and when both are justified
Monitoring & RMM
What to monitor on a server
Availability, saturation, capacity, logs and application health
Monitoring & RMM
Reduce alert fatigue
Actionable thresholds, ownership, maintenance windows and escalation
Monitoring & RMM
A controlled patch-management workflow
Inventory, rings, backups, verification and rollback
Buying guide
IT help-desk software for small teams
Internal support workflows, assets, slas and integration
Buying guide
IT documentation tools
Access control, versioning, exports, assets, knowledge and operational handover
IT service management
Design an IT ticket workflow
Triage, priority, ownership, escalation and closure
IT service management
IT incident priority matrix
Impact versus urgency with a usable example template
IT service management
Essential IT documentation checklist
Systems, dependencies, procedures, ownership and review dates
IT service management
IT asset inventory template
Useful fields, lifecycle ownership and a copyable example
Buying guide
Remote support software for small IT teams
Attended/unattended support, os coverage, permissions, logging and cost
Remote administration
Attended versus unattended remote access
Workflows, consent and control differences
Remote administration
Secure remote administration checklist
Mfa, least privilege, session logs and access removal
Remote administration
RDP versus remote support software
Operational differences and access architecture, without exposing rdp publicly
Buying guide
Virtualisation platforms for small IT environments
Workloads, support, hardware, migration and licensing
Virtualisation
Windows Server VM template checklist
Supported generalisation, updates, identities, agents and deployment checks
Virtualisation
Virtual machine troubleshooting
Separate host, storage, network and guest symptoms
Virtualisation
VM snapshots versus backups
Recovery limitations, dependencies and operational use
Virtualisation
Plan a safe virtualisation lab
Resource budget, isolation, licensing and disposable workloads
Storage & performance
SSD fundamentals for administrators
Endurance, interfaces, latency and workload considerations
Storage & performance
Diagnose NAS performance
Client, network, protocol, disks and measurement limits
Storage & performance
SATA and AHCI performance explained
Controller modes, drivers, historical context and safe troubleshooting
Storage & performance
RAID versus backup
Availability, recovery and common failure scenarios
Storage & performance
Storage capacity planning
Growth, headroom, snapshots, retention and alert thresholds
Cloud administration
Microsoft 365 administration checklist
Ownership, roles, lifecycle, recovery and routine checks
Cloud administration
Cloud identity and access checklist
Least privilege, emergency access, review and deprovisioning
Cloud administration
Cloud cost controls for small teams
Budgets, tagging, idle resources and billing review
Cloud administration
SaaS offboarding checklist
Ownership transfer, sessions, tokens, retention and licence removal
Cloud administration
SaaS backup and shared responsibility
What the provider supplies and what the organisation must verify