How to change Microsoft 365 Channel from command line

Good article here on how to change Microsoft 365 without worrying about registry keys.

1. Run a CMD prompt
2. type cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
3. To change to e.g. Current channel do the following
4. Type OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Current
5. Type OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user

This allowed me to easy change form SemiAnnual to Current channel.

More details here: https://www.fmsinc.com/microsoft-office/change-office-365-channel.html#CommandPrompt

Microsoft Teams Crashing on Startup\Sign in

Teams developed a crash on startup.
Saw various messages such as an Azure AD sign in failure whch s strange as we don't use Azure AD for local domain authenticaton.
We do use a centrally provided Azure sign in for Office 365 applicatons though.

Finally tracked down this article on the excellent Petri site:
https://www.petri.com/debugging-teams-clients

Gave the option to delete the Teams cache at %AppData%\Microsoft\Teams and this fixed the issue straight away.

The teams client did initially come up wth my AD logon, so perhaps it was trying to authenticate my domain logon against Azure?

Windows 10 unable to access SYSVOL and NETLOGON on 2008 R2 Domain Controllers

I found some help here:

• https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1389891-windows-10-and-sysvol-netlogon
• https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/f4d77de7-17df-4463-b751-d1892829e7ab/windows-10-cannot-be-access-sysvol-amp-netlogon-folder-on-the-server-2012-r2?forum=win10itprogeneral

Looks like the SMB security needs to be weakened to allow Windows 10 to access these shares.

Enable the following policy:

• Computer -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> Network Provider -> Hardened UNC Paths

You can either put the following in "Show Values":

• \\*\NETLOGON    RequireMutualAuthentication=0,RequireIntegrity=0,RequirePrivacy=0
• \\*\SYSVOL    RequireMutualAuthentication=0,RequireIntegrity=0,RequirePrivacy=0

Or put an entry for each DC:

• \\DCNAME    RequireMutualAuthentication=0,RequireIntegrity=0,RequirePrivacy=0

Windows 10 Store icon missing from taskbar

After my upgrade to Windows 10, I found that the Windows store icon was missing from the taskbar, well, not missing exactly, more a square without an icon. It launched fine but the taskbar icon wasn't there.

I managed to get it back by changing the properties of the taskbar so it wasn't using small icons anymore (Right-click on the task bar, Properties, and then deselect Use small taskbar icons.

I then removed the Store icon by Right-click and then selecting  Unpin this program from task bar.

I used search to find the Store application, and then Right-click, and then finally Pin to taskbar.

I can now have my taskbar using small or large icons and the Store icon is still visible.

Fix: Windows 10 Settings app does not open or launch

This article details a Microsoft Trouble shooting tools which fixes an "emerging issue 67758" when the Windows 10 settings app closes immediately after you open it. Worked for me!

Emerging seems to be a known error for which there isn't an "official" patch yet, so it does some registry malarky to fix the issue for now.

I wonder if I'll need to run ut again?

Fix: Windows 10 Settings app does not open or launch:

'via Blog this'

Tracking the FREAK Attack

Are your servers and browsers susceptible to the latest SSL issue?

Tracking the FREAK Attack:

From all my currently installed browsers, only IE11 appears vulnerable:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/3046015

My other browsers appear fine:

• Chrome Beta 41
• Firefox 36.0.1
• Firefox Nightly 39.0a1 (2015-03-06)
• Maxthon 4.4.1.5000
• SeaMonkey 2.32.1

'via Blog this'

Cisco Anyconnect stops working on Windows 8.1 after Internet Explorer patch KB3021952

A recent patch to Internet Explorer (KB3021952) has broken Cisco AnyConnect v3 on Windows 8.1. I'm not able to test v4 as we don't have access to it. It looks like the concept of on-line\offline working has disappeared causing AnyConnect to become confused and believe that it is permanently offline.

The message I kept getting said that the VPN susbsystem was unreachable.

The article below mentions a registry change, but this didn't work for me. The comments suggested running the GUI part of Cisco AnyConnect in Windows 8 compatibility mode, and this indeed did work for me.
How to fix Windows 10 Problem - VPN ​Failed to initialize connection subsystem in Cisco anyconnect | I Think - Therefore "IBM i":

'via Blog this'

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-021 - Critical

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-021 - Critical:

This is the Zero Day exploit for IE.

'via Blog this'

Word KB2837593 patch causing 100% CPU useage

Updating an image for a VMWare View VDI Desktop, I applied all of the recent Microsoft Office 2010 patches. However, when the desktops were refreshed, all started three copies of Winword.exe running under the System account. One of these copies of Word was using 100% which created mayhem on the VDI platform.

I've removed KB2837593 from the VMWare View VDI desktop image and the platform seems to have stabilised. We aren't seeing this on our Citrix XenDesktop platform, but this also doesn't have the KB2837593 patch applied yet.

Has anyone else seen this? Please feedback if you have.

How To Integrate Dropbox & Google Drive Into Office 2013

How To Integrate Dropbox & Google Drive Into Office 2013:

'via Blog this'

How to re-create the Show desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP

To re-create the Show desktop icon yourself, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type notepad in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Carefully copy and then paste the following text into the Notepad window:
          [Shell]
           Command=2
           IconFile=explorer.exe,3
           [Taskbar]
           Command=ToggleDesktop
3. On the File menu, click Save As, and then save the file to your desktop as "Show desktop.scf". TheShow  desktop icon is created on your desktop.
4. Click and then drag the Show desktop icon to your Quick Launch toolbar.


How to re-create the Show desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP:

'via Blog this'

MSDN Blogs

How to video stream with Expression Encoder:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jitghosh/archive/2007/11/30/demo-live-streams-in-silverlight.aspx

'via Blog this'

CES 2012: Windows 8 Demo - YouTube

CES 2012: Windows 8 Demo - YouTube: 'via Blog this'

The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista

I had a problem with the DVD drive on my laptop with Windows 7 and Kaspersky.

I kept getting an error 19 in device manager.

It didn't appear to like the Kaspersky filter or Gears ASPI filter.

I think it was probably the Gears filter as this didn't return and the DVD drive appears to be working again.

The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista: 'via Blog this'

Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F - The Atlantic

Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F - The Atlantic

Want to see inside Microsoft’s global datacentres? - UK TechNet - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Want to see inside Microsoft’s global datacentres? - UK TechNet - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

NHS Trusts in the dark over CfH licence transfer

How very, very, true...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/17/nhs_trusts_/

Problems using iPad on Office 365 Beta

I had some problems connecting my trial iPad to the Office 365 beta. I put all my credentials in but the iPad kept prompting for a server. I entered the server name as used by the Outlook account, but this didn't seem to work. Seems that m.outlook.com has now worked fine.

Thanks to this post:
http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/148/t/301.aspx

Convert Windows 7 from KMS to MAK License Keys

Installed some Windows 7 Professional VM's to find that they had defaulted to KMS licensing.

It was relatively easy to convert from KMS to MAK with the following command lines:

1. Install the product key (replace with your key):
   slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
2. Activate:
   slmgr /ato
3. Display license information:
   slmgr /dli

Thanks to this post for most of the help:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winserversetup/thread/1db5b305-510c-4800-ab1f-e0647cc8a877

Unable to add search provider to IE8

This has been bothering me for a while on my server, and only just had some time to do something about it.

 I found the answer here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=4d9cc69c2ac5abd3&hl=en

The contents of the registry entry:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ TypeLib \ {EAB22AC0-30C1-11CF-A7EB-0000C05BAE0B} \ 1.1 \ 0 \ win32

Was set to:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\shdocvw.dll

Instead of:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ieframe.dll