Configuring Virtual Machines and User settings.

Using Oracle Virtual Box to Create a new VM and install windows

Using Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager, you can create a new Virtual Machine that will affectively meet your needs granted the computer you have has the resources to do so. Here is a step-by-step walkthrough of the creation process.

1. Open the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, select the new icon and NAME your new VM.
2.  INSTALLING WINDOWS
   1. Select your Operating System type and version: Microsoft Windows/Windows 10(64-bit) and click Next.
3. In Memory size, set the amount of RAM you want to use based on what you need. Remember, you can only allocate what you have in resources on the actual Computer.

1. Under Hard disk, select Create a Virtual hard now then Create.
2. Select your file location (its best to use the defaulted location), select the File size for the HDD, select the Hard disk file type (VDI works best with Oracle for wide compatibility), and under storage on physical disk select Dynamically allocated to ensure you are only using the storage you need then click create.
3. To add multiple Cores to the processors, select the VM you want to change the settings on, select Settings > System > Processor > move the slide under processors to the amount you want to enable and hit OK.
4. You can also add multiple HDDs if needed. Under Settings > Storage > Controller: SATA >select the icon of a disk with the green plus symbol.

Setting up windows

You will need to walk through the set up and configuration process for windows10 on your new VM as you would on a physical computer.

1. Windows setup: choose you language (English), time and currency format (English, US) and Keyboard input (US), select Next > Install now.
2. On the following screen, select the OS you want to install. Select Windows 10 Pro x64 and click next.
3.  Agree to the terms and conditions and click next again. Windows will begin to install.
4. Once the install completes you will be prompted to select your region (US)
   1. Skip the secondary keyboard step if you do not speak or type in a second language.
5. Select set up for personal Use and click next.
6. On the next screen you can set up using an existing Microsoft account, you can create an account, or you can set it up later by creating an offline account. Choose which option works best for your scenario and click next.
7. If you select offline account, click use with limited experience on the following prompt.
8. Name your PC.
9. Create your password.
10. Select No for activity history.
11. Decline the digital assistant (You can set this up later)
12. Accept the default privacy options. (You can also change these later.)
13. CONGRATULATIONS! Windows will finish setting up from her.

Name your PC.

You may want to personalize your PC by giving it a name or you might want to give each employee their own PC name to find them easier in a remote situation.

1. In settings select System > About > rename this PC
2. Add the name of your choice > click next.
3. You will need to restart you PC for the name to take effect.

Setting your DNS (Domaine Name System)

Setting our DNS to specified servers can help with the flow of internet traffic and communication time between hosts and websites. Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and google (8.8.8.8) are very fast and reliable DNS servers.

1. Press the windows key > type control panel and select the application. Select Network and Sharing Center > Change adaptor settings > Select the appropriate Network connection > Right click > select properties > in the list of items the connection uses select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPV4) and click properties again > at the bottom of this window fill in in the bubble that says Use the following DNS server addresses.
   1. Preferred DNS Server: 1.1.1.1(Cloudflare)
   2. Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.8.8(Google DNS)

Setting Date and Time

Sometimes you will need or want to change times zones.

1. To the left of the Action Center (right side of the task Bar) right click the date ant time and select Adjust date/time
2. Click the option to set time and time zone automatically.
   1. Additionally, you can set your own time zone manually.

Installing multiple applications at once using Ninite

Need to install all your favorite Applications without wasting precious time? Ninite.com solves this problem.

1. Go to  ninite.com through your web browser.
2. Select a list of all the Applications you want to download,
3. Select Get your Ninite.
   1. Save the file to begin download.
   2. Not all applications are listed on Ninite.
   3. For applications not listed, you will have to navigate to the manufacturer’s website for installation.

Installing MS Teams and Adobe Acrobat Reader

As previously stated, you will have to navigate to the manufacturer website to install MS teams and Adobe acrobat Reader, respectively.

• MS Teams
  1. Through your browser, navigate to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app. Proceed to download the desktop app for your PC or Mobile version for your android or apple device.
• Adobe acrobat reader
  1. Through your browser, navigate to https://get.adobe.com/reader/ to download the adobe acrobat Reader DC (Free version)

Setting default browser

Google a Chrome is a great application and for best search results and compatibility, you will want to set google as your default browser.         

Setting Home page

There can be many reasons to set a homepage to land on when you open your browser. Convenience, nuance, marketing, and branding, etc. Here is how.

Setting default program to open PDFs such as Adobe Reader.  

PDF files need a program application to open and present the file in proper format.  Adobe is the most compatible and practical application to use. After a fresh install of adobe reader, the set-up wizard will ask you if you want to change the default PDF reader to Adobe. Simple follow the set-up wizard, or, if you missed this step there is another way.

1. Open File Explorer and find the PDF file you wish to open. Right-click the file > Open with > Choose another app. 
2. You will be given a list of options to choose from, choose adobe acrobat reader.
   1. Additionally. you can also select Always use this app to make it the default application.

Creating user accounts

Creating multiple users is the best way for people to access their PCs with personalized settings, information, restrictions, and permissions.

1. G to Settings > Accounts > Family & Other Users, select Add someone else to this PC.
2. If no Microsoft account exist for the new user, select I do not have this persons Microsoft account, click next > add a user without a Microsoft account.

Creating groups

When setting up users in different departments you will need to set up groups as an administrator to grant or remove permissions and access to specific functions as well as keep them organized.

1. Start > Control panel >performance and maintenance> administrative tools > Computer management.
   1. Otherwise, you can type computer management in the windows search bar.
2. Click the drop-down box for Local users and groups, right-click Groups and select New group.

Creating back up department folder on secondary HDD

Sometimes you will want to back up some files quickly and a this is no way a safe practice but can be utilized temporarily. Backing up to a partition will separate the files to a different part of the disk and this works if say you partition off say 1GB just for some files and you want to wipe clean the other partition and install a fresh OS. This DOES NOT prevent data loss in the event of a catastrophic failure of the hardware.

1. Right click this PC and select manage.
2. Open Disk Manager
3. Select the disk you would like to partition. Make sure you back up all your files to a thumb drive or external hard drive if you are not doing this with a new disk.
4. Right click on the on the unallocated space on the bottom pane and select new simple volume.
5. Enter the size of the disk and select next to complete.
6. Right click the new drive and select format.
7. Name the New Volume whatever you would like (DATA works fine) and use FAT32 as your file system then click ok.
   1. To add a file, open your new disk drive (DATA) and create appropriate folders for your back up files or simply click and drag folders into the disk drive window.
   2. You can right click the blank space and select new > Folder or control +shift + n or select the new folder icon on the top left.

Creating folders on backup drive with access to corresponding folders in primary drive.

1. This PC > Select secondary drive > select folder created for department backup.
2. Create new folders for each department by selecting new folder and adding a name of the department.
3. Once each folder for each department is created, right click the folder, and select give access too > select the user/users that need access.

Logging out and into different user accounts

Switching between users is easy, and you will need to do it to make changes to each individual account.

1. Open the windows start menu > Select the image of a person > Select Sign out.
2. Sign back in with the appropriate account.
   1. Additionally, you can simply choose a new user to sign in with without signing out of the current user.

Copying folders/files to back up folders with permissions.

Backing up files is critical if you are about to perform a fresh install, refresh or reset of windows 10. Loosing data is a painful experience. Backing up important files and folders is necessary for important information stored on your PC. You can never have too many backups weather it’s an external HD, USB flash/pen drive or secondary partitioned disk drive on your PC. As stated earlier, backing up to a partitioned drive is not the safest but still a viable option. There are 3^rd party tools and applications, but Windows 10 has a feature to facilitate this through a multi-step process.

1. Click Start > Settings > Update and Security. 
2. Under update and security choose Backup on the left panel.
3. Click Add a Drive and windows will search for any attached drive. It could be external or internal. (Network attached, USB, Network Shared Drive, or a partitioned drive.)
4. Choose your drive. In this case I used my 1GB partitioned disk drive. TFLAB02
5. On the next screen, click More Options.
6. Under backup options, select Back up now.
7. Scroll down and you can see the folders that you want to back up. Select Add a folder to add more folders. Or, if you only want specific folders, scroll down to the Exclude these folders option, then Add a folder to delete the folders that you DONT want to back up. 
8. This solution uses windows10 back-up tool and is the more difficult way to create a backup image.
   1. If you simply want to copy a folder from one drive to another open the secondary drive through file explorer.
   2. Click and drag the folder/file to the backup folder you have created in the partitioned disk drive.
9. To give access permissions/access to specific folders to specific folders, locate the folder on the back up drive > right click > Give access to > add the name of the User you want to grant permissions to > click Add. 

Creating shortcut to specific websites for all users.

If you have multiple users and need to create a shortcut to something useful like the company’s knowledge base or a website login page for and application, they use every day, you can create a shortcut and add it to a public folder for all users to access.

1. Go to the website you wish to create a short cut for
2. Click the 3 dots (Ellipsis) on the right-hand side of google chrome > More tools > create shortcut.
   1. Note the shortcut on your desktop.
3. Open file explorer > Local Disk (C:) > open the public folder > Click and drag the shortcut from the desktop to the Public Desktop folder.

Adjusting user account control

This helps to prevent harmful programs from making unwanted changes to your PC.

1. Go to Control panel > User Accounts > User accounts AGAIN > Change User Account Control settings.
2. Move the slide down to the second to last setting Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop)

Turning on remote desktop

Allowing remote access enables admins to access the computer from their end to troubleshoot and fix problems without physically coming to the end-user.