Help Desk Lab // Parts 1-3 // Windows Server 2022 (VM Installation, Active Directory Setup, and Admin Account Creation)

*All credit for this lab goes to Simokid on GitHub. This is my walkthrough. 

Windows Server 2022: Install & Setup

First, download the 64 Bit Edition ISO file. (You should already have VirtualBox installed)

Next, click “New” in VirtualBox and set up the Windows Server 2022 machine.

My host has 16 GB of RAM so I gave this vm 4 GB of RAM. 4GB is enough for our lab. Be careful not to assign too much RAM to your vm, or it could cause it to crash. 

Click “Start”, and the vm will bring you to an installation page. Click “next” and then “install”. Follow the installation steps. 

Once the installation is complete the vm will automatically restart.

Then you must create a password for the Administrator account. 

Windows Server 2022: Active Directory

For part 2, we will rename Windows Server 2022, set up Active Directory, and manage domain services. 

First, we will rename Windows Server 2022…

Change the “Computer name” to “Server2022”. Changing the computer name can make it easier for Help Desk to identify, manage, and support machines.  

After renaming the computer the computer needs to restart. 

After the restart, verify that the computer name was successfully changed. 

We want to improve the machine’s performance and make sure our machines operate efficiently. Start by clicking “Advanced system settings” on the “About your PC” page.

Now we will install Active Directory. AD is important for Help Desk because it has user account management, access permissions, security/policy enforcement, auditing/troubleshooting, and SSO support. It is an essential tool for Help Desk. To install, go to “Manage” in the top right corner of “Server Manager” and click “Add Roles and Features”. Then follow the steps. 

We want to install Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS) because it is the first step to establish a Windows domain that manages users, computers, and policies. 

The machine will need to restart to complete the installation. 

After installation, it will take you to the login screen. We see that the Domain Controller name has been successfully changed to “SIMOTECH\Administrator”. Now you can log in using the Domain Credentials you created before.

After logging in go to “Tools” in “Server Manager” and click “Active Directory Users and Computers” 

Now we can see that we have successfully established the domain controller (SimoTech.com) with Active Directory

Windows Server 2022: Creating a Help Desk Account

Part 3 covers creating a dedicated Help Desk account in Active Directory using CMD for automation and verification. It demonstrates how to assign proper permissions for common admin tasks like password resets and user management. It also includes enabling the AD Recycle Bin for improved account recovery.

First we will activate the Recycle Bin just in case we need to restore a deleted file. 

Go to “SimoTech (local)” and on the far right side of the screen click “Enable Recycle Bin”.

After clicking “Enable Recycle Bin” you need to refresh the Active Directory Administrative Center. 

These confirm that the activation was successful. 

Next we will go to “Tools” in the “Server Manager” and go to “Active Directory Users and Computers”. Then we will proceed to establish the Help Desk account. Follow the steps. 

Now we can see that the Help Desk account we just created and the Administrator account are part of the same group, “Administrators”.

Since we have successfully established the Help Desk account we are going to perform some Help Desk/Admin tasks with CMD.

The first command is “ipconfig”, which will display basic network information regarding the machine. 

The next command “ipconfig /all” displays more detailed network information. 

The next command, “net use”, allows Help Desk to connect to shared network resources, such as shared folders or drives, using specified credentials. It can be used to map a network drive or check existing network connections. This is useful for troubleshooting, accessing logs, or managing files on remote systems. We haven’t done anything to our network yet so there are no entries yet. 

The last command we will focus on is “net user helpdesk /domain”. This command displays detailed information about the Help Desk account within the domain. It helps verify account settings such as group membership, login permissions, and password policies. This is important for Help Desk admins to quickly check account status and ensure proper configuration for support tasks.