User Profile Service service failed

While attempting to log onto an Windows Server 2008 R2 system with Exchange 2010 for the first time, I received the following error: “User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.” After much searching, we found that during a reinstall some bits were left in C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server Once the files therein [...]

WMIC to the Rescue

A recent project had me trying to script the retrieval of the Dell Service Tag. Luckily there’s WMI Command-line to the rescue. From a command line or in a script wmic bios get serialnumber will display or grab the Dell Service Tag. Furthermore, you can use the WMI Command-line to retrieve all kinds of system data and even make [...]

Function Keys at the Command Prompt

This is sort of a noob post, but I’d forgotten about these, even though I use the command prompt almost hourly at work. With a cmd shell open: Press     To Get F1           Last command displayed one letter at a time F3           Repeat last command F5           Displays the last commands one-by-one F7           Displays the command history F8           Cycles [...]

Microsoft Learning Snacks

You may have guessed it already, but they’re bite-sized videos for learning quite a few of Microsoft’s products. Click here for a full list of what’s available, all that is required is Silverlight for viewing. I’m currently watching the eleven videos for Windows 7, part of my studies for an upcoming certification exam, and they’ve [...]

Where the 32-bit Programs Hide in the Registry

Trying to increase the speed of a Windows system typically involves disabling Services, removing items from the Startup menu and deleting Registry entries under Run, in both the Current User and Local Machine trees. The latter bit is what was missing when working on 64-bit systems. After noticing that the pesky Acrobat Speed Launcher and [...]

Microsoft offers Security Essentials to (very) Small Businesses

Since Microsoft announced its own anti-malware product, Microsoft Security Essenstials, back in late 2008, the product has been steadily getting better. When asked what I use for anti-virus, I always answer MSE or AVG Free. Both cost my favorite price, free, and are well regarded in the security community. The big news of course, is [...]

Paychex Preview Upgrade to Mapped Drive

This was actually too simple, but unless you speak with support, how is one to know? I was recently tasked with upgrading a server installation of Paychex Preview software, which according to documentation cannot be done on the host server, it has to be upgraded from one of the workstations via mapped drive. It seemed simple [...]

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