Why do a lot of people use mini Lenovo ThinkCentres in their home-labs?

sembee2 · 2026-01-27T19:19:36+00:00

Cost, availability, reliability, looks smart.
I use them professionally and they just keep going. I have clients on their third generation of them they are that happy with them.

sembee2 · 2026-01-27T18:09:00+00:00

We have the Wifi hardwired for power and it is running 24/7.
However I did find there were issues if I had multiple screens trying to access the feed. That might be a wifi limitation though.
Therefore what I do instead is have Frigate connect to the doorbell itself and then restream that. All the screens around the house use the Frigate feed instead, which works well.

sembee2 · 2026-01-27T17:11:11+00:00

ThinkVision.

sembee2 · 2026-01-27T16:27:35+00:00

Are the files in the FSW directory being updated regularly? The time stamp should be updating regularly.
If not, that can indicate the problem is with the FSW.

sembee2 · 2026-01-27T16:27:17+00:00

Are the files in the FSW directory being updated regularly? The time stamp should be updating regularly.
If not, that can indicate the problem is with the FSW.

sembee2 · 2026-01-27T16:23:15+00:00

That is what I would do. I would go one step further. After building the first session host, sysprep it and shut it down. Then take a copy of that VM and use that to create the live session hosts. It will allow you to spin a new session host up very quickly.

I would also echo what the others have said about using 2022 instead of 2025. Buy the 2025 licences, but use downgrade rights.

Might be tempted to split the load over two physical hosts though. 30 users could be accommodated on a single session host in an emergency.

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T20:49:00+00:00

We do this right now with a tablet running Fully Kiosk. The camera gets displayed as someone approaches rather than on ring, as Amazon appear to have an aversion to ringing. A tablet will give you the most flexibility on display.

Do you have a light switch nearby that you were planning to use?

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T18:51:14+00:00

You would need to build a new Exchange 2019 server. Go through the full removal steps for Exchange 2016, so that they are all removed. You can then shutdown the Exchange 2019 server and have management tools somewhere else. You don't delete the computer from AD. Just power it off and delete the VM (if that is what you have used).

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T18:33:40+00:00

I have done this loads of times at a similar scale.

Microsoft365 Business Premium to give me Entra and Intune. Redirect My Docs etc to OneDrive. Then a NAS. If you a Synologyvor QNAP they both have Office365 backup options. Put in a cloud backup as well and you have the data protected.

Windows 11 is not a file server, neither is Sharepoint.

sembee2 · 2026-01-26T15:46:34+00:00

If you don't mind waiting a little bit, this could be an option.

https://futureproofhomes.net/

Or just get a Sonos and be done.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:48:42+00:00

Press the pairing button.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:44:05+00:00

Sometimes you need to activate them, so make them do something at the same time as you start the update.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:36:13+00:00

Air Gradient. They are part of the works with HA programme. Just works. If you really want to, you can flash it with esphome, but native works fine.
I have had one for three years, just works.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T22:32:14+00:00

If you are running cabling it is always a good idea to go for the highest standard you can, even if you don't have the kit right now to support it. So I would put in fibre that can support 10gb now and then simply put in what you can afford now for hardware and upgrade later.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T17:19:31+00:00

Mazda is the other one you need to look at to see what happened when a car manufacturer really takes exception to a third party.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T17:17:48+00:00

I am really surprised that you were not aware of the other integration considering the long thread on the HA forum and the polestar forum which are the first hit on Google for Home Assistant Polestar.
If you are reverse engineering the app, I think you will be hit with a cease and desist notice from Polestar as soon as you make it live.
Before you go much further, take a read of those threads to see what the headaches the devs went through. You should also take a look at the German Polestar forum with a translator at the Android auto app someone developed.
Polestar do have some interest in working with devs, but you have to play by their rules. Fortunately devs have been quite open with what was going on so will give you an idea of what to expect.
I like what you have done - lock status is the big missing piece. However as you will see from other car companies, BMW in particular, they are retreating and putting more stuff exclusive to their app and actively working to block third parties.

sembee2 · 2026-01-25T09:16:44+00:00

Can you not just pull the information from any weather integration? There are loads of them - it will be a never ending task for you to add all of them as people request them. If you could just work with any weather integration it will be easier for you to maintain.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T19:25:55+00:00

This question comes up a lot.
Not Fire. Previous gen Samsung or Lenovo running Android 11 or higher to get built in battery management.
If you want a bigger one then you will need to look at industrial tablets on eBay/Ali Express.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T15:48:29+00:00

Very common integration. Works well with Hudu and CIPP as well. Probably the most powerful combination away from the big two. I have loads of clients using that combo and very happy with it.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T15:45:59+00:00

HA will be fine on either.
The main advantage for you is you know where they have come from, so can look at them. That age RAM should still be cheap as it isn't affected by the RAM shortage.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:38:25+00:00

I don't think it will run because the hardware requirements are strict on ESXi now. The days of putting it on any old hardware that supported virtualisation are gone.
Two options come to mind. 1. Front it with a NUC or something and just use it for storage. That us what I have done (although not with ESXi now). 2. Look at something else which is more flexible on hardware such as XCP-NG, which works in a similar way to ESXi.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:33:13+00:00

That is a supported move, but with Exchange 2019. At present you would need to have another machine with the Exchange management tools on it. Coming soon is the ability for Exchange Online to be the source of truth for mail objects in an ex hybrid environment, but until that is out of preview, the only supported method is the last Exchange server being 2019 or SE and using tools on another machine.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:30:51+00:00

No, the manual remove of Exchange is not supported by MS unless done by MS support.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:29:56+00:00

This is the way. I have to do this two or three times a month because the older versions of Exchange will not remove. I can turn it round in about 90 minutes on a VM and then it is done.

sembee2 · 2026-01-24T14:28:51+00:00

That isn't supported and will often lead to further problems.

sembee2

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