windows 2003, 2008, R2 how tos
If you are trying to tighten up your security by adding Virtualization-Based Security (aka VBS) to your Windows 11 you might find this error: Core Isolation Memory Integrity Incompatible Drivers WDCSAM64_PREWIN8.SYS Driver date: 11/29/2017 Driver version: 1.2.0.0 Published name: oem26.inf This is an old driver that ships with both Windows 10 Read more…
You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Chuck Peddle (the inventor of the personal computer) to understand that a safe word, like Secure, Trusted and Measured, before the word Boot, likely means this will improve the security of your computers startup process. However, even experienced IT professionals find this Read more…
In this video we explain and demonstrate how to migrate Active Directory from Server 2012 to Server 2022, move the FSMO roles and upgrade the Domain and Forest Functional Levels. Note that over the years we have done many in-place upgrades to Domain Controllers at smaller customers but it is Read more…
If you have an M.2 SSD you might want to know how to figure out if it is healthy or not. These two screen shots show the health check results of our old Crucial P1 which is still in great shape (and likely will be for many years to come) Read more…
Eight years ago we wrote THIS article explaining the difference between TCP/IP printer ports and the then new WSD printer ports. In 2021 we find IPP ports are confusing people: What Is an IPP Port? First lets explain what IPP stands for. IPP is an acronym for Internet Printing Protocol Read more…
If you have either of the following printer error messages in Windows 11 or Windows 10, we have a work around that may help. Printers: Operation Could Not Be Completed Error 0x00000bc4 We Can’t Install This Printer Right Now #740 In both cases the problem appears to be with Read more…
What is S.M.A.R.T.? SMART is an acronym for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology and it is just a simple monitoring system built into your hard drive. The idea behind SMART is to predict drive failures so you can protect your data (i.e. copy it to something else) before it dies Read more…
If you have security software that you can not uninstall using the normal methods like ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS there are several ways to succeed. 1 – Uninstall AV Using Command Line Script: Most software companies, especially those with enterprise / corporate products, have an easy way to uninstall their products using Read more…
In this video we explore the 10 features in the Microsoft Edge Chrome based browser that you should be using but probably aren’t. We cover: Immersive Mode with Read Outloud PDF Markup Reopen Closed Tabs Home Page Daily News 9 Dot App Selector for Office365 Apps Coupons & Competitor Pricing Read more…
Unless you are very new to using Windows, you will know that Microsoft has made enormous strides in driver management over the decades. The Driver Roll Back feature has saved our butts a few times. However, there is still one area that is seriously lacking and that is the removal Read more…
If you are having problems with your printers or queues, there are several steps to take to clear the system and we will go through them in order of easiest to most difficult: 1 – Easy Print Resets Click START and type PRINTERS Click on the printer you want to Read more…
What is BIOS? BIOS is the acronym for Basic Input Output System. A BIOS is the firmware (meaning that it is changable code stored in a physical chip) that tells the operating system SOFTware what the physical HARDware is capable of. Without a UEFI / BIOS, Windows, Linux, Android, MacOS, Read more…
Put simply, a Permanent Denial of Service (aka PDoS) attack is a hack that intentionally causes physical damage to a device. WHY WOULD SOMEONE PDoS? DoS stands for “Denial of Service” and usually that means an attacker wants to temporarily block access to your system so they can extract Read more…
Since the last Windows 10 upgrade one of our staff noticed that Windows File Explorer did not show their profile path (We are always on beta’s which change every few weeks to there is little point to explaining the build details). Specifically, the missing user is “Calgary” and so the Read more…
We recently tried to connect to the administrative shares (i.e. C$, E$, admin$, …) on a PC that was not part of a Domain using a Microsoft Account that was setup on that remote PC. We were frustrated to find it errored out with “You might not have permission to Read more…
We recently licensed a copy of Windows Server 2016 from a website named Digital Software Planet. There instructions were to download and install a 180 day evaluation copy of Server 2016 from the Microsoft Evaluation center. They also provided a standard product license key but when we entered it we Read more…