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showing posts tagged with 'windows'
Windows 8.1 Store does not start
edited by on March 20th 2015, at 12:00
In Windows 8 or 8.1, the Windows Store may not start: clicking on it very briefly shows the green background but then returns to the desktop or start screen. The Application event log shows the following error (or a similar one):

Event log
Activation of app winstore_cw5n1h2txyewy!Windows.Store failed with error: This app does not support the contract specified or is not installed. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational log for additional information.

Running the WsReset.exe also produces an error.

A possible solution is to re-register the Windows Store through Powershell. Run the following from an elevated command prompt:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPa  ...
 
Enable Internet Explorer's Enhanced Protected Mode through a Group Policy (GPO)
edited by on March 19th 2015, at 16:04
Internet Explorer's Enhanced Protected Mode is an additional layer of security that protects our computer against malicious content from exploiting Internet Explorer and prevents infections on your computer. It is available since Internet Explorer 10, and only on 64-bit versions of Windows. It works by running all Internet Explorer processes in 64-bit mode on a 64-bit computer. Starting from Windows 8, EPM also limits access to the registry and file system to certain (harmless) locations only, further enhancing security on that platform.

It is possible to enable EPM through Group Policy, provided you have the required Internet Explorer 10 ADMX or Internet Explorer 11 ADMX files present on y  ...
 
Configure message tracking logs for Exchange 2007 and up
edited by on March 19th 2015, at 14:43
You can quickly configure message tracking logging through the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). Among the things you can set up are: the time the logs are to be kept, where they should be stored, the individual log file size, the total maximum size for the tracking logs directory, etc.

Retrieve the current settings for a server with:

Get-TransportServer <server-name> | Select MessageTracking*

Change those values with:

Set-TransportServer <server-name> <parameters>

In case your mailbox role is running on different servers, you also need to run:

Set-MailboxServer <server-name> <parameters>

Example: set the message tracking log for a server called EXCH01 to   ...
 
Apple Airport Configuration Utility
edited by on March 16th 2015, at 14:15

I'ved noticed the Airport Configuration Utility from Apple requires "elevation" (= run as administrator) to work properly on a Windows 8/8.1.

If it still throws out an error after connecting, try disabling IPv6, then reboot.

 
How to clean out cached Windows Updates
edited by on March 16th 2015, at 13:34
There are a lot of misconceptions about the %WINDIR%\SoftwareDistribution folder, home to the Windows Update data files. This can be seen by the myriad of posts and comments found all over the internet. So here's the real deal about cleaning out the Windows Updates cache.

Note that Windows Update automatically cleans out the cached updates at a regular interval (depending on the age of the cache, etc). If you're running production servers, you usually don't have to manually clean out the cache, unless you have acute disk space trouble. But sometimes it may be necessary to accelerate the process, and that's when the methods of the article come into play.

Don't delete   ...
 
Restrict access to Exchange Admin Center to local subnets
edited by on March 5th 2015, at 12:35
By default, when opening up OWA (Outlook Web App) access to the internet, you could technically also get into Exchange Admin Center (EAC) by appending /ecp after the external OWA URL, potentionally creating a security vulnerability and increasing the chance for a brute-force attack to succeed.

While it is generally a good idea to deny access to the Administrator user to manage the Exchange-server, this is not always possible or desireable. Additionally, because EAC is a VirtualDirectory within a site in IIS, it is not possible to have it listen on a separate internal IP address and secure it through the edge firewall. Luckily, IIS also has some other mechanisms to secure access. There's an   ...
 
Exchange Powershell: find quarantined mailboxes
edited by on March 4th 2015, at 17:18

You can easily find quarantined mailboxes through Powershell:

Get-Mailbox | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.IsQuarantined -eq $True } | Select Name,Alias

More information about quarantined mailboxes: KB2603736.

 
Exchange/Office365: set OWA language and time zone for users through Powershell
edited by on March 4th 2015, at 15:09
By default, when a user first logs on to Outlook Web App, they are prompted to choose their language and time zone. Sometimes, it's required to change these settings for a certain user, or even, for all users. This can be done by an administrative user through Exchange Management Shell (EMS), and works for both Exchange 2010/2013 and Office365, with the cmdlet Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration.

First, open EMS for your on-premise Exchange, or for Office365, connect to Exchange Online using Powershell.

You can then set/change the language and time zone for a user like so:

Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Identity -Language -TimeZone

identity speaks for itself: it can be an alia  ...
 
Opt-in to Microsoft Update
edited by on February 19th 2015, at 15:54
You can manually opt-in to Microsoft Update (allowing installation of updates for other Microsoft products through Windows Update) through a simple script:

VBScript
ServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"
Set NewUpdateService = ServiceManager.AddService2("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d",7,"")

Powershell
$ServiceManager = New-Object -ComObject "Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager"
$ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"
$ServiceManager.AddService2("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d",7,"")

Note that you probably need at least vers  ...
 
Exchange: retrieve a list of mailboxes not using default quotas
edited by on February 17th 2015, at 12:45

Using EMS (Exchange Management Shell), you can quickly retrieve a list of mailboxes not using the default quotas:

Get-Mailbox | Where { $_.UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults -eq $False } | Select Name,UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults,ProhibitSendQuota
 
OneDrive for Business stuck at "We're getting things ready to sync..."
edited by on February 13th 2015, at 11:05

If OneDrive for Business stays stuck at "We're getting things ready to sync..." when syncing a new library, or re-syncing an existing one, try resetting OneDrive for Business.

 
Clear and reset OneDrive for Business
edited by on February 13th 2015, at 11:02
If for some reason (e.g. when synchronization no longer works properly), you can completely clear and reset OneDrive for Business in a few easy steps.

First, close down all Office programs (such as Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.). Next, open Windows Task Manager, look for and kill these processes:

MSOSYNC.EXE

GROOVE.EXE

MSOUC.EXE

I've noticed that sometimes, these processes get restarted automatically, so be sure they are gone before performing the next step.

Next, locate and delete these folders and their contents:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\Spw

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache

If needed, also delete the local copy of all synced libraries. The location depends   ...
 
No more Windows Update at shutdown for Windows 8?
edited by on February 2nd 2015, at 13:49
Since Windows 8 introduced "fast startup", Windows no longer finishes the installation of updates when performing a regular shutdown. The next time you turn on your computer, it will ask again to restart your computer to finish the installation of updates. The reason for this is "fast startup", which does not do a full shutdown, whereas a restart does a full shutdown and startup of your computer.

You could turn off "fast startup" but who would want that, right? Luckily, there is a workaround.

When you hold down Shift, then click on the Shutdown button, your computer will do a full shutdown just this once, enabling Windows Update to finish the installation of u  ...
 
Internet Explorer 11 Offline Installer
edited by on January 29th 2015, at 08:30

Internet Explorer 11 can be downloaded as an offline installer for Windows 7 and 2008R2:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie-11-worldwide-languages

 
Disable the new Avatar menu in Google Chrome
edited by on January 27th 2015, at 14:28

Google Chrome v39 introduces a new Avatar menu, which is now permanently displayed at the top-right corner of each window.

The only way to get rid of it is through the "experimental" flags. Type the following in the address bar to reveal the flag:

chrome://flags/#enable-new-avatar-menu

Set it to Disabled to turn it off, then restart Chrome entirely to apply the changes.

Note that this also works under Mac and linux.

 
Error starting Veeam vPower NFS service after upgrade to version 8
edited by on January 27th 2015, at 12:56
You may get an error during the upgrade of Veeam Backup & Recovery to version 8, stating that the vPower NFS service is unable to start. Alternatively, when updating the individual components, you may also get a similar error (such as: "Error 1920.Service Veeam vPower NFS Service (VeeamNFSSvc) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.").

There are several reasons possible for this, but the most likely one is a wrong NFS Datastore path specified in the registry, usually because the drive that the datastore is pointing to, is no longer present.
Another reason could be that your server has the "NFS sharing" feature installed,   ...
 
Force-reload Exchange Global Address Lists
edited by on January 20th 2015, at 17:04

Open an EMS (Exchange Management Shell), and type these in, one by one:

Get-GlobalAddressList | update-GlobalAdressList
Get-AddressList | update-AddressList
Get-OfflineAddressBook | Update-OfflineAddressBook

Some users report having to restart the Exchange File Distribution service after running these PS cmdlets.

 
Get rid of lingering objects in AD, the easy way
edited by on November 20th 2014, at 15:16
Lingering objects in Active Directory are a pest, and require a lot of work to properly dispose of them. Luckily, there's repldiag.exe, part of Active Directory Utils. This particular tool resolves lingering objects by automating the required procedure and set of commands to run to clean up lingering objects.

In normal circumstances, you would have to look up and run various commands to completely clean out the AD database on each DC. Using repldiag.exe does the hard work for you by looking up the DC's and running the clean up on each DC, cross-referencing with the other DC's, and it does so by using the built-in commands and API's (such as those used by repladmin and other commands).

Down  ...
 
Set up out-of-office for shared mailboxes (Office365)
edited by on November 12th 2014, at 16:45

Technically, you can't set up out-of-office for shared mailboxes through a normal way, because you can't log in with Outlook on those accounts. A workaround would be to temporarily convert it to a regular mailbox, grant a license to it, and then log in with Outlook, but this is not always possible or desired.

Fortunately, you can also enable out-of-office through Powershell on any mailbox, including shared and resource mailboxes.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2667296

 
KMS client keys (generic keys)
edited by on November 7th 2014, at 15:48
 
showing posts tagged with 'windows'
 
 
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