VBAF v2.1.0 Complete - Full Machine Learning Framework in Pure PowerShell 5.1
Hello PowerShell Community, I'm pleased to announce that VBAF (Visual Business Automation Framework) is now complete. What started as a roadmap post in this community has grown into a full machine learning framework — 8 phases, 20+ modules, built entirely in PowerShell 5.1 with no external dependencies. **What is VBAF?** VBAF implements machine learning algorithms from scratch in pure PowerShell 5.1. No Python. No pip install. No Jupyter notebooks. Just dot-source one file and you're training models: . .\VBAF.LoadAll.ps1 $data = Get-VBAFDataset -Name "HousePrice" $model = [LinearRegression]::new() $model.Fit($data.X, $data.y) $model.PrintSummary() Every algorithm is readable PowerShell code — making VBAF a genuine teaching tool for IT professionals who want to understand how ML works under the hood. **What's included in v2.1.0:** Phase 1-3: Core Foundation & Reinforcement Learning - Neural networks with backpropagation - Q-Learning, DQN, PPO, A3C algorithms - Multi-agent business simulations - Real-time WinForms visualization dashboards Phase 4-5: Supervised Learning & Data Pipeline - Linear, Ridge, Lasso, Logistic Regression - Decision Trees, Random Forest, Naive Bayes - Full data preprocessing: imputation, scaling, encoding - Feature engineering: polynomial features, PCA, selectors - CSV, JSON, Excel, SQL data I/O Phase 6: Deep Learning - Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) with image datasets - Recurrent Neural Networks: LSTM, GRU, Bidirectional, Attention - Seq2Seq models Phase 7: Production Features (MLOps) - Model Registry: save, load, version, compare models - Model Server: REST API via HttpListener, batch prediction, A/B testing - MLOps: experiment tracking, data drift detection (PSI), automated retraining triggers, CI/CD pipeline scripts - AutoML: Grid, Random and Bayesian hyperparameter optimization, algorithm selection, feature selection, full pipeline automation - Explainability: permutation importance, SHAP-style analysis Phase 8: Community & Ecosystem - Tutorial series: beginner to advanced - Real-world project examples (House Price MLOps, Anomaly Detection) - Templates & Recipes cookbook with quick reference card - Troubleshooting guide and PS 5.1 best practices **Why PowerShell?** Most ML tutorials assume Python. But many IT professionals live in PowerShell every day — managing infrastructure, automating workflows, writing scripts. VBAF meets them where they are. It's also a teaching project. Every algorithm is implemented from scratch with teaching comments explaining the math and concepts. Reading the source is part of the learning. **Project Resources:** - GitHub Repository : https://github.com/JupyterPS/VBAF - Public Roadmap : https://github.com/users/JupyterPS/projects/2 - PowerShell Gallery: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/VBAF - Installation : Install-Module VBAF -Scope CurrentUser **What's next?** Community feedback, issues, and contributions are welcome on GitHub. Best regards, Henning
Internal RDP vs Self-Hosted RustDesk
Hi everyone, I am looking for some guidance and real-world experiences around choosing the best approach for remote access in a Windows environment. Right now, we are considering two main options: - Continue using Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), but strictly for internal use only (no direct exposure to the public internet). - Deploy a self-hosted instance of RustDesk as an alternative or complement to RDP for remote access and remote support. Our main concern is security. RDP has historically been a common attack vector, especially when exposed externally or misconfigured, and we want to avoid introducing unnecessary risk to our endpoints. Even if we restrict RDP to internal networks or VPN-only access, we are still cautious about potential vulnerabilities, credential theft, lateral movement, and abuse of remote access. What we are trying to understand better is: 1. In environments where RDP is used only inside the LAN or over VPN (no open RDP from the internet), what are the recommended hardening practices and controls you would consider mandatory today? Examples might include: Network Level Authentication (NLA), strong account policies, just-in-time access, firewall restrictions, RDP Gateway, MFA, monitoring/logging, etc. 2. From a security and operational perspective, is it generally considered acceptable to keep RDP enabled only for internal administrative tasks, while avoiding using RDP for end-user remote support scenarios? 3. For those who have deployed self-hosted RustDesk (or similar remote support tools) in a Windows/Active Directory environment, how has it compared to RDP in terms of: - Security model (encryption, authentication, access control, exposure to the internet) - Ease of deployment and maintenance - User experience and performance - Logging, auditing, and integration with existing security monitoring 4. Are there any best practices or architectural patterns you would recommend when combining these approaches? For example: - Keeping RDP only on jump servers / bastion hosts inside the network - Using RustDesk (self-hosted) for remote support and helpdesk use cases - Enforcing least privilege, MFA, and strong authentication for all remote access paths - Segmentation and limiting which machines are even allowed to receive RDP connections 5. Have you encountered any specific security pitfalls, misconfigurations, or "gotchas" when relying on RDP internally or when rolling out RustDesk self-hosted that we should be aware of before committing to a design? Our goal is to design a remote access strategy that: - Minimizes attack surface and reduces the likelihood of compromise via remote access. - Separates administrative access from end-user remote support where it makes sense. - Remains manageable for a small IT/security team in terms of configuration, patching, and monitoring. If you have any references to Microsoft documentation, hardening guides, or community best practices for RDP (especially internal-only scenarios), as well as any detailed write-ups or lessons learned from using RustDesk self-hosted in production, those would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance for any guidance, recommendations, or examples you can share. Best regards, Juan
Seeming memory leak in Win 11
Hello, For the past couple months I have been experiencing a weird issue on my windows machine. Usually around 8 or so hours after a clean reboot, task manager will start reporting 170+GB of 190GB of RAM is in use when the system is basically idle. However, when I tally the entire list of processes I can only account for 4GB in use. When I use RAMMap its the same story, I can account for 4GB and it appears windows has simply misplaced a 150GB of memory. The only other symptom I notice is when I shutdown, the shutdown process will take 40+ minutes sometimes as if some process is refusing to die. This does not occur when I shutdown while memory usage appears normal. So far I have tried: Using different web browsers and uninstalling the one I had been using. Removing pretty much every piece of software I have been using while the issue occurred. Ensured windows, firmware and drivers were properly updated.
Excel - Conditional formatting
Hi all, I am new to this and i am creating or trying to create a bespoke Excel programme (Gant) that i need for work. i wanted to know if some could assist me with making a simple user tool as i need to share with colleagues i just cannot get the document to Make it so anyone can simply change the task cell colour from the standard Excel pallet options Make it so when the task cell colour is selected, the Gant cell changes to the same automatically Be able to edit the text in any tsk cell and automatically save to drop down choices with all its text and colour inputted Within the assigned to column cells, create individual drop down options when in the cell itself as apposed to t the top line probably easy for some of you that are well versed in Excel formatting and Data validation but certainly not me any help would be appreciated thanks in advance Mike mailto:email address removed for privacy reasons
Outlook and verizon email account
I've run into an issue this past week where I've tried changing my Verizon email account from IMAP to Pop3. I get errors like this; Task 'email address removed for privacy reasons - Receiving' reported error (0x80042110) : 'Your POP3 server is providing inconsistent information. The number of messages returned by the STAT command does not match the number of items returned by the UIDL or LIST commands. Contact your POP3 or Internet service provider.' I've created a new profile, I've done SCANPST probably more than 5 times, regenerated my third party password on AOL and it consistently fails for the same error. I've run the same version of Outlook on a different machine with th same results. My pop settings are pop.verizon.net, port 995, ssl/tls. The progress window shows that it's downloading messages but it sits there for a couple of minutes and then pops the error up; AOL adimmently says that it's got to do with Outlook because it works fine on there webmail. I can't seem to find an email alternative that creates a pst database so that I could rule one or the other out. Getting extremely frustrated. I would get completely away from the Verizon email but I have had it for so long; it's established everywhere I've done business, contacts, credit cards, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. PS I've even tried just creating a whole new pst, no luck. TIA
DESIGNER only mkes 1 design not 4
I use ms ai image designer to make images and i makew ai videos ,, but for a week now it only makes 1 image not 4,, and it doesnt follow the propsat as per usual,. and it makes images in 3:2 not 16:9. I updateed my subscription for this tool and depend onm it.. SO please help me fix this
Where / How to find "Ask a question"
CAN ANYONE TELL ME how to reliably and repeatably find the Link to "Ask a question" or "Start a Discussion"! Yes, I am Starting a Discussion now ONLY because I accidentally stumbled upon a Start a discussion link. I am often wondering around in the various Community Hubs, Discussions, Screens, etc. trying to find that link - and don't laugh because I am serious, but sometimes for 30 minutes or more and sometimes finally giving up. I love the Community and the support here, but WHY is it so hard to "Ask a Question" I will post the question somewhere else when I finish here - if I can once again find the link to ask a question. And sorry to be such a pain over this and although a long-term Community participant, but this has been a lingering problem for me, going back years and years. ron in shawnee
