From Cork to Toronto

 I recently updated the ADK on my SCCM server to current, but the ADK version in SCCM (Boot Images, Upgrade Distribution Points) remained stubbornly at 10.0.19041 and I could not access the Drivers tab on my boot image (which is what happens when your image and your reported ADK don't match). Various repairs, reboots and general hacking and slashing came to nought. What did work in the end was running Start, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Configure ConfigMgr Integration and take the default (for me) option to remove the MDT extensions (console extensions only). After running that, the ADK version matched up.

 A couple of solutions which are off the well beaten track: 1. You are in a hybrid environment with an on-premises mailbox but an E3/E5 license applied to your user. Exchange Online spontaneously creates a mailbox. (Workaround for this is to remove the Exchange Online sublicence along with the licenses which depend on it - you just have to remember you did that when you migrate to EXO down the road...) 2. You have an old group policy or settings reg file which you think is aligned with MS365 norms but contains the following key - delete it, or change it to Delete in the Group Policy Preferences if it is a wider issue. Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange DWORD MapiHttpDisabled 1 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/connectivity/outlook-not-connect-exchange-use-mapi-over-http

 I wanted to import .Net Framework 4.8 into my WSUS (for Server 2016) and ran into some obstacles. Edge was default but wasn't adding the basket to import. Internet Explorer had the basket but claimed my version of WSUS was incompatible. The solution was based on this post -  enable "Allow Sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer Mode" in Edge settings restart Edge add the URLs below (and remove any others) https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/ https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx  Returning to WSUS and choosing "Import Updates" allowed the import.  There is a banner which invites opening in Edge mode (and breaking it again) but it's not like we can expect Microsoft to recognise its own incompatible websites, or properly HTML5-ize WSUS Catalog so I just ignored it. At least they did, apparently , fix Group Policy's HTML Export. This is a rare need for me so the "Allow for 30 days" option was sufficient for what I needed to a...

We were trying out a new imaging process and could not add iManage FileSite to a new user's Outlook 365 32-bit v1808 using ADDIMAN (or manually via Data File Management). This is an Outlook error rather than one specific to iManage. Fortunately we found an on-point forum post which pointed towards a missing C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033\MAPISVC.INF - copying this file (and grandparent folder as far back as MSMAPI) from a known-good machine cleared the problem.

This afternoon I helped someone recover an unsaved document from an .ASD file after a crash which did not trigger the usual file recovery pane. While the File/Options/Save dialog pointed to %appdata%\Microsoft\Word , File, Open, Recent, Recover Unsaved Documents points to %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles After copying the .ASD file into the latter (UnsavedFiles) folder, I was able to successfully open the .ASD file, save it to a DOCX and turn it over to the person I was helping. The person I was helping was using Word 2010 but I had the .ASD emailed to me, and did the recovery in Office 365 v1904, as I didn't have control of their machine.

Had a laptop come in where it would appear to boot normally, but at the logon screen both internal and external keyboards and mice did not respond. In Windows Repair, everything worked fine, just not within the operating system itself. The machine had a locally managed encrypted SSD which I wanted to decrypt before reimaging it, and there were some other items which would be more easily remediated if I could get 1-2 working login sessions before dropping the hammer on it. It did have working networking, so I gathered info via Event Viewer and established that I had access to the admin share and could control the machine via psexec. Using psexec to start SFC did not resolve the issue, nor did CBS.log point me in the right direction. The Event Viewer log for System noted a bunch of driver start events (Application Popup Event ID 26, Kernel-PnP Event ID 219) including for mouhid.sys. The "hid" rang a bell as being related to Human Interface Device, so it seemed like I migh...

So DDP|ST has been out of support for a bit and obviously hardware encryption has taken a bit of a knock lately, but some of you may be stuck with some Windows 7/OPAL setups for the time being so I'll write this up. The scenario was that DDP|ST was installed into an image - target machine was a Dell Latitude E7470 with a LiteON SED SSD. Everything was ticking along in the usual way until ready to hit "Encrypt" on the SED. On doing so... nothing happens. The Encrypt button is greyed but it is possible to back out of the section or close the UI entirely. I remembered overnight that I had seen this before - it required uninstalling and reinstalling the DDP|ST (including the usual PITA manual uninstall order, preserving Authentication data when asked, requiring reinstatement of the preboot text notices and removing undesired authentication methods). The log files for DDP|ST are in \ProgramData\dell\Dell Data Protection\ but as yet I haven't figured out a cause. Of cou...

When setting automatic replies (Out of Office) via Exchange 2013 OWA on behalf of another user, the message in the title can be displayed when saving the text. If you look at the System Event Log on the Exchange Server, you may see the following event ID 4: Current user: '" (domain)/(OU)/(OU)/(administrator) " on behalf of " (domain)/(OU)/(OU)/(User) "' Request for URL ( long URL follows ) failed with the following error: Microsoft.Exchange.Management.ControlPanel.RegionalSettingsNotConfiguredException: We couldn't process the request because the user ' (domain)/(OU)/(OU)/(User) ' hasn't signed in to Outlook Web App and selected a language and a time zone. Ask the user to do this, or, if you are a member of the built-in Organization Management or Help Desk role group, you can use Window PowerShell to select a language and time zone for them. Cancel the Automatic Replies dialog and switch to Settings, which will display a Time Zone selecti...

Got a call from someone who had been fiddling around in tables, had wandered away from it and was now disconcerted to find gridlines around their signature all the time. Outlook and HTML email being what it is, tables in signatures are a thing we choose to live with. To remove gridlines, begin a new email, then click inside the signature so that Outlook will present the Table Design and Layout tabs. Select Design, then track across the ribbon to the right hand side of Table Styles where you should find a Borders button with a drop down. Near the bottom of that long drop down should be "View Gridlines", which in this situation would be highlighted. Click to change that and the gridlines should disappear.

UPDATE: I was recently unable to get past this screen with 23.7.303.0 firmware and A29 driver, but was able to with DDPA 2.3.3, the 23.7.405.0 firmware (installed before the updated driver) and 2.3.415.120 driver (even though the driver popped an "upgrade firmware" notice on completion) We use OPAL self encrypting drives on our laptops which used to be managed by DDPA, a Wave product that Dell rebadged. There is a security vulnerability in DDPA which Dell and Wave have decided they won't fix, since the current product is Dell Data Protection | Security Tools (DDPST). Unfortunately, there is no direct upgrade path, so it's necessary to run a reset within DDPA, uninstall, install DDPST and re-encrypt. I've come across a couple of instances where opening DDPA to run a reset results in a message indicating that the USH firmware is out of date, and the user should go to dell.com to get a newer version. As best I can tell, this is because of poor version detectio...

Something popped up today we haven't seen in a while, but like some of my other posts the solution isn't necessarily something you hit in the first few google results. An Outlook 2007 user suddenly had their iManage add-in not load. This precluded attaching document management system content to emails in the usual way. Help, Disabled Items didn't show the add-in, and manually searching the registry keys for the add-in didn't show any changing in LoadBehavior. Enabling the VSTO_SUPPRESSDISPLAYALERTS = 0 environment variable did not result in any crash warnings. I wandered over to the bench where the laptop was sitting and asked the person then working on it to bring Tools, Add-ins brought up one more time. That's when I noticed this checkbox: The "apply macro security settings to installed add-ins" box, cleared in the example above, was checked . This issue has turned up in products like  GFI Archiver Outlook Connector ,  Condeco Room Scheduler , S...

Dell seem to have introduced a feature which would have been very handy to have had 18 months ago . Just download the firmware executable to a USB stick's root directory, power on the laptop and press F12 for a boot menu. There you should see (at least at the A07 revision) a BIOS upgrade option. After entering the BIOS admin password you are passed to a basic update screen which allows you to browse the file systems the BIOS can see (the stick I used was NTFS and the local HDD was non functional at the time) then select the executable and run it. On a side note, the E6440 (in our config) runs an mSATA mounted on a 7mm frame to fit the SATA HDD bay. While this keeps things nice and light, this did cause me to run into an issue that does come up now and then, which is that the SATA connectors don't line up correctly and the disk is not detected. In this case, the laptop had been disassembled to deal with the effects of a fall and on reassembly the BIOS would not detect the driv...

I'm going through a process of scoping hardware for a new project which is sized a little larger than usual for us. We are still relatively new to virtualization both in inclination but also in respect of vendor willingness to support it, but have used VMWare Essentials to get ourselves started. With this project I expected a step up but that Essentials Plus or at least vSphere Standard+vCenter might be as far as was needed. First I discovered that "full vCenter" cannot manage Essentials hosts which is grating. Then in reading around editions I discovered the presence of a vCPU (Virtual SMP) limit on guests, but we need to provision one at 24 vCores, which would put it at Enterprise for 5.1. I pinged our hardware vendor who also acts as our VMware vendor and said "figure it out for me" and the initial answer I got was Enterprise Plus, but after pressing the matter the rep said "I'll double check" Fortunately, while waiting for the reply, I foun...

We don't normally use OWA but every so often a situation calls for it. Since our last Exchange 2007 Rollup Update , the OWA logon theme on our CAS host has been borked with broken images. It turns out that there's a known and long standing issue and a script which can be run manually to fix it . Best four seconds I spent today :)

Came across an issue today where, after a firmware update, a HP LaserJet P4015 decided to send paper from the Letterhead tray through the duplexer. I knew I had seen it before but couldn't recall how it was resolved, but eventually I stumbled across discussions of the same issue. Most refer to the use of an "All_ALM_types_OFF.prn" file which when sent through the printer resolved the issue. It turned out I had a copy of said file lurking in my "I must organise this one of these days" folder. Here's how the PRN file looks in Notepad++, since Notepad and web forums don't render the escape codes correctly: However, this can also be dealt with from the printer's web console. If you want to read about what Alternative Letterhead Mode does when it's on, try this HP page . If you want to know why, years after this issue was first flagged, HP are still shipping firmware which can trip this setting on various models then I have no wisdom for you...

This is a short one but apparently in the variety of awful Bluetooth support that car manufacturers provide, at least one requires the MAC address to be entered for successful connection. This is reasonably easy to find for wifi but you have to dig a bit for Bluetooth. Blackberry's convention appears to be that they are the same except for the last hex digit. Click the Options icon. Click Networks and Connections. Click Bluetooth Connections. The screen should now say:             Bluetooth ON             Discoverable NO             Paired Devices At this point, click the Menu button (to the left of the touchpad) and select Options. You will see:             Device Name             Allow Outgoing Calls             Contacts Transfer            ...

I was having some trouble migrating one of my print servers (Windows 2008) to a stable 2008R2 file server. I intended to use the DNS name of the existing server as a CNAME alias on the new server, and didn't think it would cause much difficulty because the SMB shares are already advertised via a similarly migrated CNAME and the print queues worked fine when referenced by the server A record. Not so. It turns out the print spooler service needs to be allowed access the network in such circumstances, and failure to do so results in a 0x00000709 error. The situation is detailed here at TechNet Blogs. Even though it refers to a non-Microsoft DNS server I encountered the issue with a Windows 2003 R2 DNS instance. There is further reference to DNSonewire in this Knowledge Base article . Implementing the suggested reg key and restarting the spooler service resulted in a working connection to a CNAME referenced queue. Now I have to find the next cutover window...

We use a third party inventory and patch management system to roll out Microsoft updates silently. Unfortunately every once in a while a patch or patches will cause the icons for the updated applications to turn white on certain machines which wasn't noted during the test cycle. We've just seen that happen in our Windows 7 environment while rolling out the April Patch Tuesday patches, where Word and Outlook icons were borked on certain machines. I haven't confirmed this yet, but there were only a few packages pushed so it looks like KB 2863811 (Outlook) and KB 2878237 (Word) were involved. We did not see this on machines patched by WSUS or Microsoft Update. There are a lot of articles out there about fixing icons by deleting iconcache.db but that's of little help if the base icon is borked. The trick of repairing Microsoft Office Picture Manager within the application didn't help either. I isolated the issue to two shortcut sets: C:\Users\Public\Desktop and C:...

One of several things I'm working on at the moment is migrating people from Windows XP to Windows 7. There's various ways to go about this but we are in the main provisioning new PCs and manually bringing the data over - I'd rather not use Microsoft's tool to bring settings as we often take this sort of equipment change as an opportunity for a bit of a fresh start, with bookmarks and documents being re-imported later. One particular PC (Dell Latitude E6420, BIOS A08) decided on the very morning it was to be replaced to stop booting, even in Safe Mode/Command Prompt. Diagnostics and a chkdsk /R found nothing. There were longer than usual delays to bring up an F12 (choose boot device) menu. We had a backup of the data on it but it wasn't fresh because the user had been away from the office for a time. It seemed to me to be worth having a go at to get a better copy. Booting to XP Recovery Console to try and knock out some services or drivers was abandoned because...

Have been struggling this morning with a Windows XP PC which was in a reboot cycle displaying the following error: STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error} The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000135 (0x00000000 0x00000000). The system has been shut down. God there's a load of crap on the internet - including in the Knowledge Base. "Do a chkdsk. Check the memory" which is all fine and well but it doesn't analyse the problem the computer is actually reporting (although Microsoft take 90% of the blame here for not properly publishing error codes.  More posts, including Microsoft, said "do a repair install" but that would have broken stuff I didn't want to break, and doing a re-image would have been inconvenient. Better to see if it could be fixed. Most STOP 21A errors point to issues in winlogon.exe and csrss.exe but the "status of 0xC0000135" was an important differentiator between those and t...