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SMBv1 should have died in 2017 when WannaCry ransomware exploited the EternalBlue vulnerability (MS17-010) to infect 300,000+ Windows systems worldwide in 72 hours. Yet five years later, most enterprise environments still have SMBv1 enabled by default — not because they need it, but because it’s legacy technical debt that “works” and nobody wants to break file shares. This guide shows how to disable SMBv1 on Windows Server safely: audit current usage, migrate dependencies to modern SMBv2/v3, remove the protocol entirely, and verify compliance across the fleet. ...

If an attacker compromises a single endpoint in your environment and finds a reused local Administrator password, they own every other workstation that shares it. That single misconfiguration is how a phishing click on one helpdesk laptop becomes a 4,000-endpoint ransomware incident — and it’s exactly what Windows LAPS (Local Administrator Password Solution) was built to prevent. This is the complete step-by-step Windows LAPS implementation guide for enterprise environments in 2026: AD schema preparation, KDS root key generation, encrypted password storage, Group Policy reference, PowerShell administration, and the full DSRM password backup workflow for Domain Controllers. ...

NTLM has been on borrowed time for two decades, and Microsoft made it official: as of late 2023 Microsoft formally announced that NTLM is deprecated, with Kerberos and the new Negotiate-based authentication taking over. Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025 ship with NTLMv1 fully removed, and Microsoft strongly recommends auditing and disabling NTLMv2 wherever Kerberos can take over. This guide walks through how to disable NTLM in Windows safely — auditing first, staging the rollout, and rolling back cleanly if something breaks. ...