Welcome to Windows infrastructure support, where the blue screen of death is just the beginning of your problems. If you've ever sat in a meeting watching someone confidently propose migrating the entire infrastructure over a weekend "because it can't be that hard," this guide is for you. Buckle up for a journey through the most spectacular, head-desk-inducing decisions that keep Windows admins awake at night (and occasionally updating their resumes).
Take the Quiz (find out which Misfit matches your answers)
Take the Quiz (find out which Misfit matches your answers)
When Experience Masquerades as Expertise
The tech world has a special breed of decision-maker: the person whose six months of tinkering with Windows Server 2008 has somehow convinced them they're qualified to architect an enterprise-level migration.
"As someone who once installed Windows on their nephew's laptop, I think we should rebuild our entire Active Directory structure this afternoon. It's basically just a fancy address book, right?"
These are the same people who will fight to the death over the desktop wallpaper policy while having no opinion on whether sensitive data should be encrypted, see if you can identify with all these people below, you will find youself below as well if you look hard enough:
The Group Policy Gamblers
These are the admin heroes who deploy untested group policies across the entire domain at 10 AM on a Monday.
"I found this cool GPO on a forum from 2007. It locks down everything including the ability to use keyboards. Security first!"
Watch in wonder as they create nested policies that contradict each other, causing computers to enter a quantum state where they're simultaneously locked down and completely unsecured.
The "Let's Push This Update Without Testing" Brigade
These brave souls hit "approve all" in WSUS with the confidence of someone who has never experienced a failed driver update.
"Windows released 47 critical patches yesterday. I've approved them all for immediate installation on all servers during peak business hours. What could possibly go wrong?"
Then they mysteriously have "dentist appointments" when 300 servers simultaneously decide to reboot.
The "It Worked On My Machine" Chronicles
Nothing quite compares to the confidence of a developer pushing untested code to production at 4:59 PM on a Friday. These brave souls believe that because something functioned once, under perfect conditions, on their meticulously configured development machine, it will certainly perform flawlessly in the chaotic hellscape that is the production environment.
"No need for load testing! I clicked the button five times and it didn't crash."
Watch in awe as they disable notifications on their phone before heading to weekend camping trips with no cell service.
The Permission Enthusiasts
These security-minded individuals believe that the perfect Windows file system permission structure is one where nobody—including the system itself—can access anything.
"I've improved our file security. Now users need to submit a form in triplicate and perform a ritual dance to read their own documents."
Their crowning achievement is creating nested permission structures so complex that even they can't untangle them, leading to the classic solution: "Just give everyone Domain Admin and we'll fix it later."
The "I'll Just Click Yes To Everything" Pioneers
These are the users whom you've given admin rights against your better judgment, and who treat every popup as a challenge to see how quickly they can click "Yes" without reading.
"The message said something about 'certificate chain' and 'untrusted authority,' but I figured that was just Windows being dramatic again."
They're the reason your network occasionally contains more ransomware than actual work files.
The Drive Mapping Architects
These creative souls have developed network drive mappings so convoluted they require their own navigation system.
"We map drive K: to a folder on drive L:, which is mapped to a DFS share that points to a folder on drive M:, which is actually just pointing back to drive K:. It makes perfect sense if you don't think about it."
Their filesystem is the digital equivalent of an M.C. Escher drawing.
The "I Cleaned Up the File Server" Crusaders
"Users were complaining about clutter, so I wrote a PowerShell script to delete all files that haven't been accessed in the last 30 days. I ran it on the Finance share right before tax season. Did you know QuickBooks creates its backups with last year's date?"
The DNS Demolition Experts
"I thought our DNS servers were duplicating work, so I turned one off to see if anyone would notice. Turns out they did! Who knew DNS was so important? Also, what's DNS again?"
The Firmware Update Daredevils
"I found these BIOS updates from 2015 for our production servers. I'm updating all 48 of them simultaneously overnight. No, I didn't read the release notes, why?"
Watch as they discover that the update causes incompatibilities with the RAID controllers, turning your storage into expensive paperweights.
The "Everyone's a Domain Admin" Security Experts
"I was tired of getting access request tickets, so I put all users in the Domain Admins group. Now they can solve their own problems!"
Three days later: "Why is the entire company file share now hosted on a Synology network device in Eastern Europe?"
The 'Creative' Troubleshooters
"The SQL Server was running slow, so I moved the database files to a USB stick for better isolation. Performance is much worse now, which is weird because the package said 'High Speed'."
The Exchange Server Experimenters
"I read that defragmenting improves performance, so I defragged the Exchange database while it was running. Then I ran out of disk space, so I compressed all the .edb files to save space. Now Outlook says 'Cannot open your mailbox' for everyone. Probably just a coincidence."
The Certification Champions
"I updated our SSL certificates by copying one from another server. I mean, they're all just encryption, right? Now all our web applications show security warnings, but I fixed that by telling everyone to click 'Advanced' and 'Proceed Anyway'."
The Disaster Recovery Dreamers
"Our disaster recovery plan is super robust. We have backups going to a second server... which is in the same rack... in the same server room... right next to the production server. We're practically enterprise-grade!"
The Always-On VPN Visionaries
"I reconfigured the VPN to disconnect any session lasting over 1 hour for security reasons. I implemented it in the middle of the day without telling anyone. Turns out people don't love losing all their work on remote desktops!"
The Windows Firewall Warriors
"I enabled all the strictest firewall rules on our domain controller. Now nothing can talk to it, which means nothing can be hacked. That's maximum security!"
The RDP Port Pioneers
"I changed the RDP port on all servers to a random number each day for security through obscurity. I'll email everyone the new port numbers each morning. What do you mean 'nobody can log in'? Did you check your email? Oh right, the mail server uses RDP for management..."
The License Key Liberators
"I noticed we had all these expensive software licenses, so I didn't renew them. The software still works, it just shows an annoying message every 5 minutes and randomly closes files. Users just need to save more frequently!"
The "I Know Better Than Microsoft" Mavens
"I disabled Windows Update on all machines because updates are annoying. Then I manually installed just the updates I thought were important based on their titles. Apparently 'critical security vulnerability patch' wasn't descriptive enough for me."
The Password Policy Pioneers
"I implemented a new password policy requiring 20 characters, 5 special symbols, 3 numbers, and changes every 7 days. For convenience, I created a shared Excel file on the public drive where everyone can log their passwords for easy reference."
The Creative Naming Conventionists
"I've improved our server naming scheme. Instead of boring names like 'SQL1' or 'DC2', I've renamed everything after Game of Thrones characters. The finance server is now 'Hodor' because it holds the door to our money."
The "Shadow IT" Warriors
"I installed my own Wi-Fi router under my desk because the company Wi-Fi was too slow. I named it 'Not Corporate IT' so no one would be confused. Now half the department is using it, including for all our confidential work!"
The On-Premise Cloud Enthusiasts
"I've created our own 'cloud' by sharing a folder on my desktop and giving everyone access. It's just like Dropbox but free! No, I don't shut down my computer. Well, except on weekends. And holidays. And when it crashes."
The SAN Storage Savants
"I noticed our SAN was 75% full, so I deleted some volumes that weren't mounted anywhere. Turns out they were mounted, just not on my computer. Did you know that databases need storage to function?"
The Windows Service Wizards
"I stopped all services with 'Microsoft' in the name to improve performance. Now the servers are super responsive to ping, but nothing else works. Weird coincidence."
The Event Log Erasers
"All those red errors in Event Viewer were making the server look bad. I wrote a script to clear the logs every 5 minutes so everything looks green. Problem solved!"
The "Server Needs a Break" Believers
"I set up all our critical servers to reboot nightly at midnight for 'freshness.' Sure, some processes take hours to recover, but think how well-rested the hardware is!"
The Active Directory Artists
"I thought our OU structure was boring, so I reorganized it to look like a smiley face when viewed in the AD Users and Computers tool. Now nobody can find anything, but it looks much happier!"
The Architecture Astronauts
These magnificent creatures float high above practical concerns, designing systems so complex they require their own documentation systems, which in turn require their own documentation.
"We could solve this with a simple script, or we could implement a fifteen-server architecture with a custom message queue and blockchain verification. I've already started ordering the hardware."
When asked about user needs, they look confused, as if you've suddenly started speaking in tongues.
The Terminal Server Capacity Planners
"Our Remote Desktop Server is getting slow with 50 users, but I fixed it! I changed the maximum connections setting from 'unlimited' to '5000'. That should give us plenty of headroom."
When asked about the server's 8GB of RAM: "Memory is just a suggestion."
The Print Spooler Specialists
"Users were complaining about print jobs disappearing, so I set the spooler service to restart every 15 minutes. Now everyone just needs to time their printing carefully!"
The Windows Installer Innovators
"Installing new software on 300 workstations was taking too long, so I just copied the Program Files folder from my computer to everyone else's. Why isn't Photoshop working for anyone else?"
The Antivirus Annihilators
"The antivirus was slowing down our file server, so I added the entire C: drive to the exclusions list. Performance is amazing now!"
Three weeks later: "Why are all our files named 'PLEASE_PAY_BITCOIN.txt'?"
The DHCP Range Revolutionaries
"Our network only has 50 computers, but I set our DHCP scope to assign from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254. Just in case each employee brings 4 devices to work."
When the printer, router, firewall, and domain controller all suddenly changed IP addresses: "It's good to keep the network dynamic!"
The Email Attachment Enthusiasts
"We needed to send our entire customer database to a partner, but it was too big for email. So I split the 2GB Excel file into twenty 100MB chunks and sent them separately. The mail server crashed? Must be a coincidence."
The Software Distribution Dreamers
"I needed to deploy our custom application to 500 workstations, so I sent an email asking everyone to download and run this unmarked .exe file from a shared folder. Why are half the users ignoring my emails now?"
The Local Administrator Liberators
"I gave everyone local admin rights so they could install printer drivers themselves. Now I don't have to do it! Also unrelated, does anyone know how to mass-remove cryptocurrency miners from 200 workstations?"
The Hardware Diagnostic Geniuses
"This server keeps crashing, so I turned it off and on ten times in a row to see if I could reproduce the issue. Now the RAID array is rebuilding and we've lost three hard drives. Must be defective hardware!"
The Remote Access Revolutionaries
"I opened port 3389 on the firewall and forwarded it directly to our domain controller for easier remote administration. Why are there 10,000 failed login attempts from Russia every hour?"
The "Human Firewall" Believers
"We don't need expensive security software. I sent everyone an email saying 'Don't click on suspicious links' last year. That should cover it!"
The Shared Account Advocates
"Creating individual user accounts is too much work, so I created one account called 'Staff' with the password 'Staff123' for the entire company to use. It's easy to remember!"
The Disk Space Detectives
"Users kept complaining about low disk space, so I deleted all files with 'tmp' or 'temp' in the name. Did you know Windows keeps important files in places with 'temp' in the path? Neither did I!"
The SQL Backup Simplifiers
"SQL backups were using too much space, so I've switched from full to simple recovery model on all production databases. Also, I've scheduled all backups to run simultaneously at noon. The SAN admins love me!"
The Virtualization Virtuosos
"I nested our virtual machines five layers deep for better isolation. Now when users complain about performance, I can say it's because of physics, not our infrastructure!"
The Hardware Allocation Wizards
"Our Citrix system was running slow, so I gave its VM 128GB of RAM and 64 virtual CPUs. The host only has 64GB and 16 cores, but I figured more is better, right?"
The Bandwidth Optimizers
"Internet was slow, so I blocked all websites except our business applications. Turns out Salesforce pulls content from 47 different domains. Who knew?"
The Accidental DDoS Warriors
"I set all 500 workstations to check for email every 5 seconds instead of every 5 minutes. The Exchange server's CPU is at 100%? Must need an upgrade!"
The Permission Inheritance Disablers
"I got tired of permissions propagating down through folders, so I disabled inheritance on every folder and set unique permissions. Now it only takes 3 hours to add a new user to the system!"
The SharePoint "Optimization" Specialists
"Our SharePoint site was getting slow, so I deleted all the log files, recycle bins, and config caches. Now it loads super fast because it doesn't load at all!"
"I gave everyone Full Control permissions on the SharePoint content database. Now users can modify data directly in SQL - it's much faster than using the UI!"
"SharePoint was using too much disk space with its search index, so I scheduled a task to delete that folder every night. Search is a bit unpredictable now, but that just keeps users on their toes!"
The SQL Server Performance Experts
"The database was slow, so I deleted all the indexes. Think about it - if you don't have to maintain indexes, queries run faster! Genius, right?"
"I moved all our transaction logs to RAM drives for better performance. What do you mean 'durable transactions'? The power in this building hardly ever goes out!"
"Our SQL queries were taking too long, so I set the timeout value to 1 second. Now everything returns instantly with these helpful 'timeout' messages!"
The Office 365 Migration Masters
"We're migrating to Office 365 this weekend. I've exported everyone's 10GB mailboxes to PST files and plan to upload them all at once through our 10Mbps internet connection. Should be done by Monday, right?"
"We switched to Office 365 and decided to save money by canceling our on-premises Exchange immediately. No, we didn't migrate the mailboxes first, why?"
"I changed everyone's UPN without telling them, so now nobody can log into Office 365. I sent them an email with the new login instructions... to their Office 365 email addresses."
The Windows Domain Trust Relationship Breakers
"I thought our domain was getting cluttered, so I reset the computer accounts for all 500 workstations simultaneously. Why is the help desk phone ringing off the hook?"
"I saw we had a trust relationship with another domain, but I didn't recognize the name, so I deleted it. Turns out it was our parent domain! Everyone in the company lost access to resources, but better safe than sorry!"
"We needed to rename our domain, so I just changed the NetBIOS name in Active Directory. Now half our applications can't find the domain controllers. Who knew names were so important?"
The Windows Clustering Catastrophes
"Our SQL cluster was using too many resources, so I put all nodes into their own workgroup to isolate them. Now they're REALLY isolated!"
"I noticed we had two nodes handling the load of one service, which seemed wasteful. So I decommissioned one of the cluster nodes during business hours. I was very efficient - didn't even use the cluster manager to evict it first!"
"Quorum disks just add complexity, so I simplified our cluster by removing all the witness configurations. Now the cluster goes offline whenever a server hiccups, but at least the architecture diagram is cleaner!"
The Windows Licensing Logicians
"We save money by only activating half our Windows servers. When Microsoft wants to do an audit, we just activate different servers!"
"I found a great deal on Windows Server licenses on eBay. No, they're not counterfeit - the seller specifically said 'GENUINE LICENSE KEYS' in all caps!"
"We don't need Software Assurance. If we need to upgrade, we'll just buy new licenses then. What do you mean 'we can't upgrade directly from Server 2008 to 2022'?"
The Cloud Migration Mavericks
"We're moving everything to the cloud this weekend! I've set up a free tier AWS account with my personal credit card. What's a landing zone or governance framework?"
Two months later: "Why is our cloud bill $47,000? And why are all our databases exposed to the public internet?"
The DevOps Destroyers
"I implemented CI/CD by giving our developers direct access to production credentials. Deployments are super fast now because there's no testing or approval process!"
"What's Infrastructure as Code? I just manually click through the Azure portal and hope I remember what I did."
The Zero Trust Zero Understanders
"I implemented zero trust by requiring 27 different authentications. Users now spend 45 minutes logging in each morning, but security is our top priority!"
"I disabled all the MFA prompts on my admin account because they were slowing me down. It's fine - nobody knows I'm an admin except everyone in the company directory."
The Container Catastrophe Creators
"I containerized our monolithic application by putting the entire VM image inside a Docker container. It's 47GB but technically it's containerized!"
"I pulled all our container images from random Docker Hub repositories. They're probably fine - they had lots of downloads!"
The Shadow IT Enablers
"Users were complaining about file size limits in our official systems, so I told everyone to use their personal Dropbox accounts for company data. Problem solved!"
"Teams was too restrictive, so I told everyone to create their own Discord server for each department. Now we have 43 Discord servers and no one knows which one to use."
The Ransomware Ready Responders
"Our ransomware protection strategy? We back up to a network share called 'BACKUPS' with full permissions for everyone. What could go wrong?"
"Our disaster recovery plan is this sticky note with the Bitcoin wallet address of our CFO. If we need to pay, he'll handle it."
The Hybrid Work Havoc Makers
"We set up VPN access by exposing RDP directly to the internet on the default port. I added a sticky note to everyone's monitor saying 'Use a strong password!'"
"To support remote work, I gave everyone admin rights on their laptops. The security team doesn't need to know."
The Machine Learning Maniacs
"I used ChatGPT to generate PowerShell scripts that I run directly in production without reviewing them. AI can't make mistakes, right?"
"Our security system now uses AI! I trained it on two examples: one phishing email and one legitimate message. It's 50% accurate!"
The IoT Insecurity Implementers
"I connected all our building systems to the same network as our domain controllers. The smart fridge needs to talk to Active Directory, obviously."
"Our conference rooms now have voice assistants! I used my personal Amazon account to set them up, so all the recordings go to my email. So convenient!"
The Password Policy Pioneers (2025 Edition)
"Our new password policy requires changing passwords every day, but for convenience, we've set up a shared OneNote with everyone's credentials that automatically syncs to all devices."
"We've implemented passwordless authentication by having users upload their fingerprint images to a shared folder. It's biometrics!"
The Compliance Checkbox Champions
"GDPR compliance? I added a checkbox to our website that says 'We comply with stuff.' That covers it, right?"
"I prepared for our security audit by temporarily turning on all the security features the day before. I'll turn them back off once they're gone."
The BYOD Blunderers
"Our Bring Your Own Device policy is simple: if it has a screen, you can use it for work. No MDM, no policies, no problem!"
"We save money on laptop purchases by having employees use their personal devices. Their kids, spouses, and random coffee shop visitors all get the same access to company data!"
The Windows 11 Wildcards
"I upgraded all our specialized medical equipment PCs to Windows 11 overnight. Sure, the vendor said they only support Windows 8, but that's just them being cautious."
"TPM requirement for Windows 11? I found this great registry hack on Reddit to bypass it!"
The Stealth-less Ninjas
"I made changes to the domain controllers at 2 AM without a change request. Nobody will ever know it was me!"
Three days later in a meeting: "The audit logs clearly show your account made 47 changes to Group Policy at 2:13 AM on Tuesday."
"I set up a backdoor admin account called 'SystemAudit324' that nobody would ever notice or question. It's the perfect crime!"
When confronted: "What do you mean 'Microsoft Defender flagged it as suspicious activity'? I thought those alerts went to me!"
The Reddit Solution Seekers
"I found this Reddit thread from 7 years ago about a similar problem. The top comment says to delete the registry key HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet. I'm going to try that on our production server."
"This Reddit user 'PM_ME_UR_SERVERS_69' suggested fixing our Exchange server by 'nuking the information store from orbit.' They had 14 upvotes, so it must be right!"
"The Reddit hivemind suggested editing the Active Directory database directly with a hex editor. What's the worst that could happen?"
The ServerFault Copy-Pasters
"I found a ServerFault answer for a completely different version of SQL Server, but the accepted answer had a green checkmark, so I ran the commands on our production database."
"This ServerFault post from 2009 said to fix permission issues by giving Everyone full control of the System32 folder. The post had 3 votes, so I'm implementing it company-wide."
"I don't understand what this ServerFault command does, but it got 12 upvotes, so I'm running it on all our domain controllers simultaneously."
The Failed Googlers
"I Googled 'Windows slow' and found an article about Windows 95. I'm following their recommendation to edit autoexec.bat on our Windows Server 2022 machines."
"Our SQL Server is having issues, so I searched for solutions and found an article about MySQL. The commands look different, but databases are databases, right?"
"I searched for 'fix Azure AD sync' but could only find articles about on-premises Active Directory. They both have 'Active Directory' in the name, so I'm running these domain controller commands on our cloud tenant."
The Midnight Ghost Configurators
"I make all my changes at midnight when no one is watching. Of course, no one is around to fix anything if it breaks, but that's tomorrow's problem!"
"I don't believe in creating tickets for my changes. The mystery keeps everyone on their toes and develops their troubleshooting skills."
"I made critical DNS changes right before leaving for a two-week vacation. What timing!"
The Shortcut Enthusiasts
"I needed to deploy a security update to 500 machines, but that would take too long. So I just changed the registry to make it look like the update was installed."
"Creating a proper failover cluster was too much work, so I wrote a script that checks if the server is responding and, if not, sends me an email so I can manually fix it during business hours."
"Setting up proper backup verification would take too long, so I just check that the backup file exists and has a recent date. The contents? I'm sure they're fine."
The Configuration Drift Deniers
"Documentation? That's what the production environment is for! Just look at what's running."
"I've made slightly different configurations on each of our 15 servers so we can see which works best. No, I didn't keep track of what I changed on each one."
"We have four domain controllers with different settings. I call it 'biodiversity' - it's good for the ecosystem."
The "I'll Fix It Later" Legends
"Yes, this is a temporary solution that bypasses security, but I'll circle back and do it properly next week." (Narrator: They did not circle back.)
"I know running everything as Administrator is bad practice, but it's just until we solve these permission issues." (The 'temporary' solution has been in place for 4 years.)
"We'll document this critical business process right after we finish this urgent project." (The documentation remains theoretical to this day.)
The Script Kiddies Gone Corporate
"I found this PowerShell script on GitHub that supposedly fixes Exchange. It asks for Domain Admin credentials and disables all security features, but the README says it's fine."
"I don't know what this script does, but it has lots of fancy commands and the word 'cyber' in the comments, so it must be legitimate."
"This 4,000-line script has no comments and was written by someone called 'HackerBro99', but it claims to optimize Windows, so I ran it on all our servers."
The Bandwidth Bandits
"Users complained about slow internet, so I blocked all Microsoft updates across the organization. Problem solved!"
"Video calls were lagging, so I disabled all background security scanning and firmware updates company-wide. The security team sends me angry emails, but the calls work great!"
"I noticed our internet was slow, so I prioritized my workstation's traffic above all servers and network infrastructure. My YouTube videos never buffer now!"
The Data Hoarders
"I never delete any files. That log directory that's consuming 2TB on the system drive? Those are from 2008, but we might need them someday!"
"Our file server was running out of space, so I compressed every single file, including already-compressed ones and databases. Now things are slower but at least they fit!"
"I set up a policy that keeps email backups forever. We now have 47 different backup solutions all storing the same emails from 2003."
The Cloud Confusion Specialists
"I put our sensitive financial data in a public S3 bucket because it was easier than setting up permissions. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Azure Active Directory and Active Directory are the same thing, right? I'm using my on-prem management tools for our cloud environment."
"I copied our production database to the development environment in the cloud by making a public backup and downloading it over open WiFi at Starbucks."
The Technical Debt Deniers
"Technical debt? Never heard of it. I prefer to think of our system as 'architecturally seasoned.' Sure, we're running critical services on Windows Server 2003, but it hasn't crashed in weeks! Why would we upgrade something that's worked fine for 20 years?"
The Feature Creep Kings
"I know we agreed on a simple file server migration, but while I was at it, I redesigned the entire directory structure, implemented a custom metadata tagging system, and integrated it with a blockchain-based authentication platform I wrote last weekend. Why is everyone upset? I gave you more than you asked for!"
The "I Need No Documentation" Ninjas
"Documentation is for people who can't remember things. I have all our network configurations memorized, including the 143 different firewall exceptions and custom routes. No, I will not write it down. What if it falls into the wrong hands? Also, I'm taking a three-week vacation tomorrow."
The Blame Deflection Champions
"The server crashed because someone used it wrong. The backups failed because the moon was in the wrong phase. The ransomware infection happened because Finance doesn't appreciate good cybersecurity. My code deleting all the customer records was actually a hardware issue."
The Buzzword Bingo Players
"We need to leverage a synergistic approach to our multi-cloud containerized DevSecOps strategy while implementing zero-trust quantum-resistant blockchain authentication through our AI-powered machine learning algorithms." Translation: "I want to upgrade our file server."
The Permission Structure Archaeologists
"Don't touch that folder permission! It was set up by someone who left 12 years ago for reasons nobody remembers. Last time someone changed it, the payroll system started printing checks in Wingdings. We just work around it now."
The Group Membership Shoppers
"User can't access the finance share? Let me compare their groups with someone who can... ah, this user is in 'SQL_Admins', 'Printer_Maintenance', and 'Summer_Party_2018'. I'll add them to all three just to be sure!"
"I need access to the executive reports. Let's see... 'Global_Resource_Access' sounds important. So does 'SystemConfigManagers' and 'DL-All-Permissions'. I'll just add myself to all of them. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Troubleshooting access issues is easy! Just find someone who has the access, compare group memberships, and add the user to every single different group you find. It's like buying a shopping cart full of permissions—one of them is bound to work!"
The "My Internet Research Says" Evangelists
"According to my research, Intune doesn't support Android device administration after that deprecation date. It says so right here in Microsoft's documentation. We need to rebuild our entire meeting room infrastructure!"
"What do you mean 'there's a separate article about Teams Rooms devices'? This clearly says 'Android device administration is deprecated.' A meeting room device runs Android, so it must be affected!"
"No, I don't need to read that other documentation about dedicated Teams Room hardware being exempt. My article is from Microsoft too, and it doesn't mention any exceptions. Yes, I know this is specifically about mobile phones and tablets, but Android is Android!"
Building Your Windows Support Survival Kit
A rubber duck: For explaining terrible decisions to something that won't argue back or request a meeting to discuss further.
A collection of bootable USB drives: Because someone will inevitably decide that RAID configurations are "just suggestions."
Documented proof of when you said "this is a terrible idea" before the terrible idea was implemented.
A dedicated "server restoration" coffee mug : Extra large, for those days when someone decides to "reorganize" Active Directory at 4:55 PM.
A calendar marking how many days since someone deployed changes directly to production : The record is 3 days.
A collection of appropriate reaction GIFs: For messaging responses when words fail you.
A template for resignation letters: Keep it updated, just in case someone decides to "improve" your database by deleting all the indexes.
A "meeting translator: A notes app that converts corporate speak to reality. "We're exploring innovative solutions" = "We're going to ignore your advice and do whatever management like the sound of"
Noise-canceling headphones: For when you need to silently scream into the void after a particularly baffling meeting.
Remember, in the Windows support trenches, the distance between "it works fine" and "everything is on fire" is often just one well-intentioned but catastrophically misguided decision. Keep these examples in your pocket for those moments when you need to remind yourself that yes, it could always be worse!