Category Archives: Windows

Windows 10 / ESX 5.5

Windows 10 boxes reboot every 24 hours (or so). Problem in VM SATA driver. Convert CD drive to IDE and remove SATA Controller. If that doesn’t work update ESX to 6 U1b https://communities.vmware.com/thread/509448?start=0  

Disable Update to Windows 10

bit.ly/no-gwx https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351 The actual updates… Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: July 2015 Windows Update Client for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2: July 2015 After Update installed add / edit group / local Policy in the following location… Computer Configuration To block the upgrade by using Computer Configuration, follow… Read More »

Exchange Backup Procedure

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998340(EXCHG.80).aspx You followed this procedure to move a EDB file from a dying SBS server to a different server running Exchange 2007 in Trial mode. Old server was called SVL2008, new server was called SVL2DC (ie they were completely different), they were on the same domain though (unsure if that makes any difference?) The procedure was unexpectedly painless!

Office Administrative Template / Group Policy

32bit / 64bit refers to the architecture of the Office, not the Operating System. Office 2013 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization To Office 2013 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool 32bit Office 2013 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool 64bit Office 2016 Administrative Template files (ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization… Read More »

A Blank SUSDB Database for WSUS 3.0 SP2 & Size Information

Initial SUSDB.mdf file after a virgin installation was 8,340KB During the initial setup of WSUS it goes away and downloads update information from Microsoft Update (You press Start Connecting and wait quite a while). After this process completes, but before you pressed next the size of SUSDB.mdf was 35,008 KB. A backup of a SUSDB taken… Read More »

Using WSUS to keep Adobe software up to date

http://windowsitpro.com/article/patch-management/Secure-non-Microsoft-applications-by-publishing-3rd-party-updates-to-WSUS-129241 https://wsuspackagepublisher.codeplex.com/ Adobe Products Reader – https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/AdminGuide/sccm.html Flash – http://blogs.technet.com/b/jasonlewis/archive/2010/09/21/new-scup-catalog-adobe-flash-player.aspx      

The wuauclt Utility

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc720477%28v=ws.10%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 The wuauclt Utility /a /ResetAuthorization Initiates an asynchronous background search for applicable updates. If Automatic Updates is disabled, this option has no effect. /r /ReportNow Sends all queued reporting events to the server asynchronously. /? /h /help Shows this help information.    

Windows Update impacting system performance

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3050265 Fixes included in this update This update addresses an issue in which system performance can be decreased during scans. This issue has the greatest effect on computers that have a small amount of physical memory. This update addresses an issue in which Windows Update scans can fail and generate a 0x8007000E error. General improvements are… Read More »

Software Restriction Policy

Default “Additional Rules” %HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRoot% %HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir% Additional Steps Remove LNK from Designated File Types (so shortcuts work!) Add the following Additional Rules %HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir (x86)%

Updating SBS 2011 Exchange 2010 to SP3

Common problems…  A previous software update installation was not completed. The system must be restarted to finish the installation. If the incomplete installation was a security update, then the system may be at risk until it is restarted. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164360(v=exchg.80).aspx First thing to check is if the server needs a restart due to Windows Updates or… Read More »

Create large dummy file

Fsutil.exe is a built in filesystem tool that is useful to do file system related operations from command line. We can create a file of required size using this tool. syntax to create a file: fsutil file createnew filename length (length is in bytes) For example, to create a file called test.txt  and of 1GB in size:… Read More »

Error 800B0001 and using a WSUS?

Short version Download and install http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29999 (avoid rebooting if required, doesn’t seem to effect the effectiveness of the hotfix) sc stop WsusService iisreset /stop iisreset /start sc start WsusService Longer version BACKGROUND: Every machine I install the lastest Windows Update Agent on results in a 800B0001 error when getting updates “FROM YOUR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR” but have no problems when… Read More »

MS SQL – Preferred data types

Decimal Numbers… DECIMAL(18,0) will allow 0 digits after the decimal point. Use something like DECIMAL(18,4) instead that should do just fine! That gives you a total of 18 digits, 4 of which after the decimal point (and 14 before the decimal point). Question Sum’ing data of type REAL resulted in a total with about 10… Read More »

Windows Firewall Diagnostics

While looking into what wermgr.exe was () and why it was trying to communicate with 65.55.53.190 I found this page with some useful information about how to generate a XML file with the reasons why a connection is blocked… http://superuser.com/questions/451862/windows-firewall-blocks-outbound-connection-that-is-allowed-by-a-rule After asking for help in the Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) forum on MSDN I learned that you can… Read More »

Reset File NTFS Permissions to default

As yet unconfirmed… secedit /configure /db secedit.sdb /cfg %SystemRoot%\defltwk.inf /overwrite /verbose https://www.raymond.cc/blog/apply-hardening-on-windows-7-windows-server-2008-using-command-line/

Avast + Exchange + Queue

Mail remains in exchange queue with Avast 8 installed. Problem arises is ESP is using self signed certificates. Checking %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\AVAST Software\Avast\log\Mail.log you’ll find Cannot establish TLS with SMTP server A.B.C.D:25, SSL_connect error 1:error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed Resolution Remove the mail server / domain from the list which your exchange server is having problems connecting to. The message… Read More »

Windows Updates 0x80070005

Spent days trying to get to the bottom of this error. 0x80070005 apparently means “Access Denied”. While researching the error and trying all the normal things you’d do to resolve a Windows Update issue I felt it was likely a NTFS / Registry permission error as I had also had issues on the laptop in question… Read More »

VSS Writers

Excellent list of services to restart when a VSS Writer is playing up (and thus avoids a whole server restart) http://www.planetcobalt.net/sdb/vss_writers.shtml