Convert KMS to MAK
If Windows is setup for Key Management Services activation it can be converted to Multiple Activation Key. slmgr.vbs /ipk “MultipleActivationKey”
Category Archives: Windows
Exchange Email Format
In Exchange, emails sent outside the organization are converted and the format of these can be set per domain or for all domains. If messages are sent in text format, some recipients will have issues viewing attached images. ContentType should be MimeHtmlText not MimeText when running: Get-RemoteDomain |fl To update it run the following with either a domain… Read More »
Installing Windows 10
Windows is 10 is finally stable, but not easy to deploy. Here is what I have found:
Uninstall Office 2016
IMPORTANT: Before you start, you need to know removing Office manually is a long, complex process and might require that you reinstall the operating system if certain steps are done incorrectly.
Clean All Temp Folders
$tempfolders = @(“C:\Windows\Temp\*”, “C:\Windows\Prefetch\*”, “C:\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\temp\*”, “C:\Users\*\Appdata\Local\Temp\*”,”C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\*”); Remove-Item $tempfolders -force -recurse
Migrate Public Folders
This will work for moving PFs from 2007 or 2010 to 2013 or 2016
Exporting Mailboxes
You can export entire mailboxes (smaller than 50GB) to PST, from the Exchange console: New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox “Amy Smith” -FilePath “\\Server\Share\AmySmith.pst” To get Status of the request: Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics | fl These should be output to a fast drive with plenty of capacity (not a shadow copy volume). When decommissioning a user account move the file to the… Read More »
Windows 7 Updates
Microsoft is limiting the performance of windows updates from their end for Windows 7. If you need to clean install a PC that will require updates to reach full functionality I would build it 24 hours in advance to allow windows updates to download and install. Set client expectations.
Bootable USB installer
Make sure that you use 8GB or larger USB drive. All existing data will be deleted. Diskpart list Volume select volume “X” (where X is the USB vol. number from 2) clean create partition primary format fs=ntfs label=OS_Install quick active Copy the contents of a bootable ISO to your USB.
Missing Volume Icon
Use this if the option to turn the icon on is greyed out in the system tray.
Jungledisk Failed Uploads
In the event a connection is lost while working on a remote file check c:\programdata\jungledisk\wg-cache\faileduploads
JungleDisk & Windows 10
JungleDisk recommends that WebDav be turned on with Windows 10. They don’t say why however and doing so will add extra steps for the user as all windows links will take you to a web page which won’t actually work. Instructions on breaking it are here so that you can un-break it.
iTunes Updates on Windows….
Apple seems to get their folder structure wrong on a regular basis. If you’ve been getting an “AppleSyncNotifier.exe – Entry Point Not Found” error every time you reboot your PC, here’s how to fix it.
Workgroup & Outlook
It is possible to totally eliminate the outlook log on requirement when a user is on a workgroup PC. 1) set the workgroup name to match the pre2k log on domain that hosts the exchange server. 2) Set the user name on the users local account to match the user name in AD. These settings cause Outlook to… Read More »
Outlook 2010 Only Starts in Safe Mode
MS Update KB3114409 (Update for Microsoft Outlook 2010 32-Bit Edition) issued on Dec 8, 2015 is the culprit. Remove it and you are all good. Microsoft removed the update so if you haven’t seen it you shouldn’t.
PDFs crashing Outlook
Issue:Trying to launch pdf attachments directly from Outlook causes Acrobat to crash. Environment: Acrobat XI or above and Outlook 2010 on Win7 pro x64. Fix: Set reader to run as administrator
Fully Format Disks
To Clear all partitions form a disk including Dell OEM run the following: DISKPART List Disk Select Disk “#” Clean From Disk Manager: Right Click the drive and Choose online Select GPT Create a New Volume with NTFS and 64K Allocation Size
Clean Install Windows
When installing Windows ONLY connect the drive(s) that will run the OS and the optical drive. Be sure all others are disconnected by: inspecting the internal connections in the PC, disconnecting all externals, and verifying the target drive specs in BIOS > Drives Disable drives not connected in BIOS > Drives Set the RAID to AHCI for a single… Read More »
Move iTunes backup
Open current iTunes backup: %APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync Move the folder” Backup” to the new destination At the original folder location, press the SHIFT key, right-click and select “Open command window here” and enter this command (ends in new location): mklink /J %APPDATA%\Apple Backup “E:\Backup\iTunes”
M-Color menu reload
This assumes it’s installed and you have run the executable that adds it to your apps. 1. In AutoCAD execute command CUILOAD 2. Select MCOLOR9x and Unload it (eg. MCOLOR97 for M-Color 9.7) 3. Restart AutoCAD If CUILOAD did not not restore M-Color menu: 1. Run AutoCAD commands: MCO_MCOLOR_MENU & MCO_MCOLOR_MENU2
Control Panels
Control Panel Item Command Accessibility Options Access.cpl Add Hardware Hdwwiz.cpl Add/Remove Programs Appwiz.cpl Automatic Updates Wuaucpl.cpl Bluetooth bthprops.cpl Date and time Timedate.cpl Display Control desktop / desk.cpl Firewall firewall.cpl Folder Options Control folders Fos Control fonts / fonts Internet Options Inetcpl.cpl iSCSI iscsicpl.cpl Java jpicpl32.cpl Keyboard Control keyboard Licensing Mode liccpa.cpl Mouse main.cpl Network Connections ncpa.cpl Network Setup… Read More »
Disable Hibernation
Windows default has hibernation turned on. This take good piece of the hard drive in the form of the hiberfil.sys file which takes up about as much c drive space as there is RAM installed. To dispose of the file and disable hibernation instantly use this in PowerShell: powershell -Command “Start-Process ‘powercfg.exe’ -Verb runAs -ArgumentList ‘/h off'”
Exchange Version
Get-ExchangeServer | Format-Table Name, *Version* Get-ExchangeServer | Format-List Name, Edition, AdminDisplayVersion Here is the list of versions:
Win7: Explorer Crashing
Some time ago I ran across a situation where the windows preview would cause files to lock, particularly excel and word files. More recently I came across a situation at Pasma Group where explorer would just randomly close up when you tried to open a window. We assumed it was related to the user’s profile until another user… Read More »
Dell Performance issue
Dell is once again shipping their workstations with Intel Speed Step enabled. This should be turned off in the BIOS.
Text comparision tool
Notepad++ has a plugin called compare. Note the visual map on the right side. This makes finding small changes in a script much easier. To access it: Install it from Plugins>Plugin Manager
Google Earth Pro is now Free
New Earth Pro keys are no longer being generated. If you do not have a key, use your email address and the key GEPFREE to sign in once you download the software here: https://geoauth.google.com/gev0/free_trial.html.
Search for PSTs
Before removing a drive from service or when moving a user to a new system, it is important to verify no PSTs have been left behind. To find all PSTs launch ISE as admin then run: Get-ChildItem -path c:\users\ -force -Recurse -filter ‘*.pst’ -erroraction ‘silentlycontinue’ | select name, Length, LastWriteTime, directory #Run as admin
Set Outlook permisions
In this example abaldwin is granted reviewer access to jjohnson’s calendar: get-mailbox -identity “jjohnson”| foreach {Add-MailboxfolderPermission $_”:\calendar” -User “abaldwin” -AccessRights Reviewer} To do this for an entire Co. use Excel and a list of all users then use Concatenate to edit the individual cmdlets which can be pasted in bulk to PowerShell.
Exchange 2013 Error “X-FEServer:”
This is caused after a new SSL Certificate is installed on Exchange. To resolve this go to IIS MMC find the certificate hash for the new cert then run the following PowerShell commands: Enable-ExchangeCertificate CertificateHash -Services SMTP Enable-ExchangeCertificate CertificateHash -Services IIS
Hardware migration via Sysprep
I was recently retiring the admin PC at HSLA and giving it to an end user for home use. At the same time I had a newer T3500 with a clean install of Windows that would make a great admin PC, however, I did not want to reinstall all the software and transfer the files. I first tried… Read More »
OST & PST Max file size
Microsoft Outlook 2007-2013 support American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and UNICODE personal folders (.pst) and offline folder (.ost) files. The WarnFileSize registry entry determines the maximum data that both the .pst and the .ost files can have. After this maximum data is reached, neither the .pst nor the .ost files are permitted to add any more data. These… Read More »
Uninstall Office 2013
IMPORTANT: Before you start, you need to know removing Office manually is a long, complex process and might require that you reinstall the operating system if certain steps are done incorrectly.
Uninstall Office 2010
Uninstall using the Program and Uninstall troubleshooter You can try running the Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter to uninstall Office 2010. Warning: The troubleshooter only removes traditional MSI-based installation files. If you have a Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 entry in Control Panel and you’re trying to uninstall it, the troubleshooter will not uninstall this type of Office 2010… Read More »
Ajera not on C: update
Ajera updates when install path is non-standard. Open d:\Ajera\AjeraService.sysajera with Notepad and update path from C:\… to D:\… (Where D is the install drive)