Tech Encounters

root\cimv2\TerminalServices namespace is marked with the RequiresEncryption flag Scenario Published App on one server, gateway running on another server. Server 2008R2 Unable to refresh applications, icons missing in RDWeb Other servers able to publish applications Checked Gateway server is correctly added to web applications on the Published App server Event log showing Event 5605 errors: "The root\cimv2\TerminalServices namespace is marked with the RequiresEncryption flag. Access to this namespace might be denied if the script or application does not have the appropriate authentication level. Change the authentication level to Pkt_Privacy and run the script or application again." Unable to restart application server due to user activity Temporary Solution Add the Gateway server account to the Local Administrators Group on the Application server. A temporary fix but gets the apps published again. Review WMI errors after reboot

How to downgrade SQL Standard Edition to SQL Express - running SharePoint Sometimes mistakes get made, imagine checking an SQL Express installation and finding SQL Standard Edition installed.  To make this harder to find, the SQL Standard instance was named SQLExpress in Services. Run a SQL @@version to get the truth. Overview We'll use a Hyperv replica at the DR site for preparing the recipient server, a clone of production. You could also export the production server and configure as a new virtual machine. This example SharePoint 2013 installation with SQL2008R2 Standard Process fist run - without impacting production (takes about an hour) Confirm the production SQL server DNS name is locked in with a static entry. This is to prevent overwrite when starting up your recipient server. On the recipient new server: Configure the recipient server as a new virtual machine on a different subnet from production to prevent name clash. Start the recipient ser...

Windows 10 upgrade stopped  Message advising Windows update couldn't continue uninstall Nero Burning Rom. Nero is not installed, nothing showing in Uninstall Programs, no services, nothing showing using Autoruns. To fix  Search c:\Program Files and c:\Program File (x86) for folders named 'Ahead' or 'Nero' Delete the folders, which places them in the Recycle bin (and prompts for Administrative approval) Refresh the Windows update screen, and the update will continue The Cause  Windows update appears to search for specific files rather than installed programs or autoruns components. Upon finding a file match for Nero stops the update presumably as a precaution.

Runtime Error 2507 dBase III type isn't an installed database type SCENARIO Server 2008R2 Terminal Server 64bit Access 2013 32bit edition installed Get Run-time Error 2507 dBase III type isn't an installed database type FIX PROCEDURE 1. Install Access Runtime 2010 32bit edition 2. Run Access 2013 from a shortcut to repair the installation 3. Install the registry keys below (Save as  .reg file). 4. Job done Note The file contents below are for 64bit operating system Note Watch out for copy and paste changing the quotes (search and replace to fix) Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Access Connectivity Engine\Engines\Xbase] "win32"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\microsoft shared\\OFFICE14\\ACEXBE.DLL" "DbcsStr"=hex:01 "Mark"=dword:00000000 "Date"="MDY" "Exact"=hex:00 "Deleted"=hex:01 "Century"=...

The fix: On the source computer making the executable. Use the 32bit version of iExpress.  Create a shortcut to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iExpress.exe Create a new project or open your saved SED file (the SED works with both 32bit and 6bit) Save the new Executable. This will be a 32bit which works on both 32bit and 64bit Operating Systems. The cause:  iExpress makes 64bit exe's when using 64bit source systems Full Error message: "The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information to see whether you need an x86 (32 bit) or x64 (64 bit) version of the program."

Problem Installing Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2013 64bit edition fails with the message "the expected version of the product was not found on the system". Fix Override product detection when running the installation file. From CMD Prompt: Proplussp2013-kb2817430-fullfile-x64-en-us.exe" "PACKAGE.BYPASS.DETECTION.CHECK=1" Installation successful Notes Previously Microsoft Office 2013 32bit Edition had been installed. Then uninstalled and the 64bit version installed. Windows Updates were up to date. Check that the Office version shows the correct version for the service pack to apply. From Word File / About.

Caused by The Scheduled Task Start In folder having quotes around the path. FIX Remove quotes from Start In (optional): Task Scheduler failed to launch Powershell.exe Error Value 2147942667

The Problem Open Outlook 2013 and get the message Installing Microsoft Office 64-bit Components 2013, every time you open it. Occurs on terminal Server 2008R2. One way to stop this involves installing the Windows Search role feature (under File Services).  Personally I don't like using the Windows Search feature in Terminal Services since there is nothing of value to search on the local computer.  The Fix in 5 steps with no-reboot Install Windows Search from the File Services Role Feature Set the Index service to index nothing (the default) Once complete, open Outlook once as administrator Now Stop the Windows Search, and set the service to Disabled Log off your test user account, log in and test Outlook Job done! What this appears to do is allow the Microsoft Office installation to complete some tasks whcih were dependent on the Windows Search feature that was not running at the time of Microsoft Office installation.  Once this installation is complete, ...

The problem affects Published Applications on Server 2012r2 from some locations. Locally the apps run quickly (12 seconds in our case). Remotely from basic Internet connections also run quickly at 12 seconds.  From remote 'corporate' type sites 30 seconds before the 'Details' button comes alive on the client connection screen (Stateful inspection firewalls possibly).  From the Microsoft RD Client on Android and Apple works fine at 12 seconds, even when connecting from a site whose desktop computers take 30 seconds (yes tried proxy on and off). From hours of trawling forums many things tried such as; UDP on and off, network settings, binding order, certificate revocation checking, profile disks, health check off, BPA scan, proxy settings, netbios on and off, IPv6, bat wings and goat blood. Nothing made a difference. Tried pulling the published app icon out, removing the signature and editing settings directly, to disable printers, drive mappings, port mappings,...

Wanted to rename a database on Azure and could not find an option to do this in the Azure Portal. From Visual Studio Web Edition 1. In the Server Explorer view, expand SQL Databases. 2. Right click and Open in SQL Server Object Explorer 3. Login, if needed 4. Right click the Server (not the database) and Click New Query 5. In the Query Window type: ALTER DATABASE [oldname] MODIFY NAME = [newname] My refresh did not work correctly so close Visual Studio and reopen to see the result. Refresh the Azure Portal screen to see the result as well. Rename Database on Azure - Done.

Invalid File Format Descriptor is too large Using the Starwind v2v Converter to convert two v5 .vmdk files to Hyper-V. Got the message "Invalid File Format" "Descriptor is too large". Sadly recopied the files back out of the VMWare box, thinking a broken copy process, but again with the same result. The fix is simple, don't try to convert the large file.  Instead direct the v2v to the small pointer vmdk file, see below.  This one fails: SOURCEDISK1-flat.vmdk (430Gb) Use this one: SOURCEDISK1.vmdk (1Kb) Sometimes its the simple things that get you...

Situation: Had an old server that customer data was needed from. The server has not run for a few years and the password unknown.  Boot from Windows PE or Windows RE or Bart CD and access the command prompt Find the drive letter of the partition where Windows is installed  Type the following command (replace “C:” with the correct drive letter for Windows) to create a copy of sethc.exe to restore later. Copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\  Type this command to replace sethc.exe with cmd.exe: copy /y c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe Reboot your computer and at the logon screen, press the SHIFT key five times You should see a command prompt. Enter the following command to reset the Windows administrator password  Net user administrator newpassword Now log on with the new password Afterwards replace sethc.exe with the copy you stored in the root folder of your system drive in step 3. Boot up again with a boot CD  Then enter this...

AWS Plugs in MS Virtual Machine Manager - Hybrid Cloud Just got Easier The battle between the cloud giants continues to heat up with  AWS releasing System Manager for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). The add-in for SCVMM enables management of EC2 instances from within SCVMM.  The concept of managing both private and public cloud infrastructure from a single pane implies simpler management.  There are some gotchas, while you can move workloads to AWS there is no simple method to move them back again. Oh and you'll need license mobility for your System Centre Licenses - this means having Software Assurance or licensed through a Microsoft SPLA partner.  Of course AWS is not the first to offer cross cloud infrastructure management, but this move by the giant sets the scene for more growth and action in the cloud wars. Amazon used a similar attack on VMware some time back when a new connector was developed to control external EC2...

The Task is Created but Shows the Path Broken into Parts When you create a task with spaces in the path, the schedule task is created with part of the path in the arguments section. Using quotes as normal will not fix the problem. THE FIX Use the syntax shown below to embed the path within quotes. schtasks /create /tn "the task" /tr "\"c:\foldername name with spaces\program.exe\" arguments" /sc once /sd 07/29/2003 /st 10:01

The system cannot access one or more event logs because of insufficient rights The Problem: Configuration refresh message. The system cannot access one or more event logs because of insufficient rights, file corruption, or other reasons. For more information, see the Operation channel in the ServerManager-ManagementProvider error log on the target server. Problem occurred on Server 2012 servers that have been upgraded to Server 2012R2 servers. Servers are also clustered. The Solution: Following the event logs leads to a few registry keys. You can eliminate the messages by: 1. Export the following registry keys (for safety) 2. Delete the following keys: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-DxpTaskRingtone/Analytic HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-IME-Roaming/Analytic HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-IME-SCDICCOMPILER/Analytic HKLM\SOFTWARE\Mic...

Shrewsoft VPN client - can't open Access Manager Problem Access Manager is not visible Occurred after adjusting using dual monitors. Reinstall does not fix the issue. The Fix Use regedit to rename or delete the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ShrewSoft\vpn\user Had a look around the Shrewsoft support site - nothing useful in there to fix this problem.

THE PROBLEM: Browser not supported message Occurs on RDWeb 2008 site when using IE11 or IE10 - message reads.  "Browser Not Supported - This Web browser is not supported by RD Web Access. RD Web Access requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or later. You can download the latest version of Internet Explorer from the Windows Update Web site" You could provide a temporary fix by setting the browser to emulate IE7...  But this is a user by user fix. THE FIX: Thanks to the work of Dale Hayter Add a new response header  requesting the browser to display the page as IE9.  1. On the RDWeb server open IIS Manager 2. Add the new response header .   3. In the box type: Name : X-UA-Compatible Value : IE=9 4. R un IISReset f rom an Administrative command prompt . 5. Job Done!

EVENT ID 32088 for all VMs After running out of disk space on the Replica host server, all VMs stopped replicating.  Replication cannot simply be started by right clicking on the source VM and selecting Resume Replication. No console error message just the event log event 32088.  I considered removing replication and re-replicating but this seemed an awful lot of work for simple problem. Tried stopping the Hyper-V service on the replica host and restarting, but this also did not work. THE FIX 1. Go to the destination replica server, right click each VM and select Resume Replication.  2. Now you can go to the source server, right click each VM and select Resume Replication. For some strange reason this works. Just trying one end or the other will fail without a console error message (but shows in the event log).

Locked out by Firewall for Remote Desktop connection Server 2012 R2 Snookered, I had a 2012 R2 Server operating in a remote data center with a network card which had reverted to Public.  The Public setting had no rule to permit remote desktop. Remote management using the GUI server manager did not have an option I could find to enable the firewall rule. THE FIX On another server, on the same domain  Right-click and open Powershell as Administrator. At the Powershell prompt: # This opens a remote powershell session PS C:\> Enter-PSSession remoteservername-or-ipaddress # This creates a rule to permit RDP access PS C:\> New-NetFirewallRule -Name Custom_Allow_RDP -DisplayName "Custom Allow RDP" -Description "Custom Allow RDP TCP port 3389" -Protocol TCP –LocalPort 3389 -Direction Inbound -Enabled True -Profile Any -Action Allow # Now connect to the server and deal with the problem at hand PS C:\> mstsc Done!

Steps to migrate virtual machines from Server 2012 non-clustered to Server 2012 R2 clustered. Prepare the migration At the source server, check the VM settings and the current network Virtual Switch name. A matching Virtual Switch name must exist on the destination server or you will get a nonsensical error message about not being able to connect to the destination server. As a temporary fix where the names do not match...  If both systems are production systems and you don't want to interfere with operations. Go to the destination server and create a new Virtual Switch and assign this to the internal network. This will be sufficient to get the migration working but you will need to swap the adaptor on completion. At the destination server, create the virtual machine folder in the final location on the clustered CSV volume that the machine will finish up in (only the root folder is needed). Do the move At the source server commence a 'Move'. For the destination ...