Vista – Configuring Updates Step 3 of 3 — 0% Complete
Last Friday I came upon a frustrating problem with a Windows Vista system that had applied updates during shutdown, but could not finish the process. This resulted in many reboots and an unusable computer; too bad it held the company’s only copy of QuickBooks.
Typically the simplest fix is to boot from the Vista install media and [...]
Network Printer Offline
Yesterday I was at a client site where everyone prints directly to the printers, rather than sharing via a print server. One of the PCs kept showing a printer as offline, even though everyone else was printing to it. From the PC you could ping the printer and even browse to the builtin web server [...]
Omnibook BIOS Reset
A good friend gave me an old HP Omnibook of his, which was used by a former employee and he hadn’t used it in well over a year. It turned out to have a BIOS password, which he didn’t know.
I thought I was in for some laptop disassembly to remove the CMOS battery or change a jumper; perhaps even worse, to [...]
Service ‘MSExchangeTransport’ failed
A few months ago I had an Exchange Server 2007 install stop cold, caughing up this error:
Error:
Service ‘MSExchangeTransport’ failed to reach status ‘Running’ on this server.
Apparently if you disable IPv6 on a Windows Server 2008 the error will occur. Not to be picky, but how many networks are actually using IPv6 and why is it installed by [...]
What kind of file is that?
Many of us have experienced the annoyance of receiving a file that we don’t have the appropriate software to view or in a format we do not know or recognize, e.g., “What is a .xxe file and how do I open it?”
(Disclaimer: Make sure you have up to date virus scan and check with the sender [...]
Control Panel Applets from Command Line
One of my customers doesn’t allow user accounts to be in the local Administrators group, something I wish more companies would do. In fact over 90% of infections could be stopped by not logging in as an administrator; but I’ll save that “soapbox” topic for another post.
Many times I need to change settings or install/remove [...]
TechNet Subscription
Any Windows IT guy/gal worth their salt should have a TechNet subscription. The download-only version (the one to get) at $349 for the first year and $249 for annual renewal, is an incredible bargain.
As a subscriber you get a huge array of non-expiring Microsoft software covering all their operating systems (including DOS), applications, server software and early [...]
Right-Click, Registry Access Denied
Yesterday I had an odd issue with a Windows laptop. Every time the user would right-click on a file or folder, an error message would pop-up saying “Registry Access Denied“, after acknowledging the message, the context menu would appear and function normally.
I did numerous searches, examined permissions, removed/added the user from groups, nothing worked. Then [...]
Recovering Deleted Mail in Outlook
Disclaimer: This is only for those using Exchange (and always backup your registry before editing).
So you’ve hit Shift-Delete on a mail item or perhaps even setup a POP account on a system that totally drains all of your messages from your Inbox. Don’t fret, highlight the folder in question, go to Tools > Recover Deleted [...]
Upgrading the Default Email Address Policy
One of the tasks to perform before removing the last Exchange 2003 server in a 2007 migration is upgrading the Default e-mail address Policy.
The method for upgrading the policy is to fire up the Exchange Command Shell and run the following command:
Set-EmailAddressPolicy “Default Policy” -IncludedRecipients AllRecipients
You may recieve the following error: Set-EmailAddressPolicy:The recipient policy “Default [...]