Author: Bob Lin

Q: What’s Windows RE and WinReTools?

Chicagotech.net: Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems. By default, if you install Windows using media created from Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD), you’ll get a dedicated WinRE tools partition on both UEFI and BIOS-based devices, located immediately after the Windows partition. This allows Windows to replace and resize the partition as needed.

WinRE includes these tools:

1. Automatic repair and other troubleshooting tools.
2. Push-button reset, which enables your users to repair their own PCs quickly while preserving their data and important customizations, without having to back up data in advance.
3. System image recovery which restores the entire hard drive.

Q: How do you enable or disable popup in Microsoft Edge?

chicagotech.net: Click on 3 dots on the top of right. Click Settings and then Advanced. Under Media autoplay, you will have option to Allow, Limit and Block.

1. Change the paging file size to improve performance.
2. Free some disk space on your PC.
3. Uninstall apps you don’t use anymore.
4. Disable the programs running in background by using MSCONFIG so they don’t run when your PC starts.
5. Scan any virus and malware.
6. Check corrupted windows system files using The Deployment Image Service and Management Tool (DISM) and run System File Checker (SFC).

Q: How do you apply the configuration change on Paloalto Firewall?

chicagotech.net: Click Commit at the top right of the web interface to commit, validate, or preview your changes to the firewall configuration.

Tip: To save, revert, import, export, or load configurations, select Device > Setup > Operations.

Q: Can I lock my configuration when I am working on Paloalto Firewall so that other admin can’t mess up the configuration?

chicagotech.net: yes, you can. The web interface enables you to apply a configuration or commit lock so that other administrators cannot change the configuration or commit changes until the lock is removed. To lock it, click the top right lock of the web interface.

Tip: To configure the firewall to automatically set a commit lock whenever an administrator changes the candidate configuration, select Device > Setup > Management, edit the General Settings, enable Automatically Acquire Commit Lock, and then click OK and Commit.

Q: We would like to a rule to allow VPN users access network resources. Could you please give us the steps by steps instruction.

chicagotech.net: Sure, here is how.

1. Open Symantec Endpoint Protection and right-click Options on Network and Host Exploit Mitigation. Select Configure Firewall Rule.

2. Click Add.

3. Enter Rule name, for example Enable Mapping.

4. Click Host and check IPv4 address. Enter 192.168.108.1-192.168.108.254. Click OK.

5. Now, highlight the Enable Mapping rule and move it to the top.

6. After closing the Symantec Endpoint Protection, re-establish the VPN and try the mapping. If we still have the same issue, please tell me your computer name and the time you try. We will check the error log for further troubleshooting.

Q; I would like to stop/resatrt Symantec Endpoint Protection temproryly. But the sto and restart SEP service is grayed out. How to stop Symantec Endpoint Protection?

chicagotech.net: To stop SEP service, run this command:  smc -stop, and

then run service to stop it.

Q: I hear about Paloalto Firewall Task Manger. What is it and how to use?

chicagotech.net: Paloalto Firewall Task Manager displays the operations that you, other administrators, or PAN-OS initiated since the last firewall reboot. The Task Manger is located at the right bottom of the web interface.

The Task Manager provides these information and actions:

Type: The type of operation, such as log request, reports, license refresh, or commit. You can click certain types to see more details about the operation, such as warning messages.

Status, Start Time, Message, Action, Show and Clear commit Queue.

Q: Which tools can I use to manage Paloalto Firewall?

chicagotech.net: You may have 4 options:

1. Web interface—Configuration and monitoring over HTTP or HTTPS from a web browser.
2. CLI—Text-based configuration and monitoring over Telnet, Secure Shell (SSH), or the console port.
3. Panorama—Palo Alto Networks product that provides web-based management, reporting, and logging for
   multiple firewalls. The Panorama web interface is similar to the firewall web interface but with additional
   management functions
4. ML API—Provides a Representational State Transfer (REST)-based interface to access firewall configuration, operational status, reports, and packet captures from the firewall. There is an API browser available on the firewall
5. at https:///api, where is the host name or IP address of the firewall.

Q: Is there a easy way to join Skype’s meeting without downloading the Skype App?

chicagotech.net: yes, you can sign into Skype for Web on web.skype.com.