windows 2003, 2008, R2 how tos
If your Windows 10 computer does not have the NETWORK icon in the system tray and you see nothing but a line in TURN SYSTEM ICONS ON OR OFF (see screen shots below) there are several fixes we will detail. However, to get to the point, we have found that usually the problem is the NETWORK LIST service, see details below. 4 FIXES FOR MISSING NETWORK ICON: Right click on the START button, select…
If you have worked on Windows for more than a few years you will know that C:\Windows\WinSXS takes up an ever increasing amount of disk space and that you should not delete anything from it. Microsoft says: One commonly asked question is, “Can I delete the WinSxS folder to regain some disk space?” The short answer is no. You can, however, reduce the size of the WinSxS folder using tools built into Windows. For more…
If you are trying to manage Windows Updates on a Windows 10 or Server 2016 / 2019 computer you have no doubt already figuredout that WUAUCLT no longer functions. We are not sure why Microsoft has done this because the only replacement we can find is a new undocumented tool named USOCLIENT that is built into Windows 10 and Server 2016/19 at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\USOClient.exe. We say undocumented and mean it. Microsoft has made no information available…
Microsoft certainly has been making patching Windows 10 PC’s difficult these days but after some significant effort, I have found a simple combination of commands and one free tool does the trick. The command in question is an undocumented program inside Windows 10 named C:\Windows\System32\USOClient.exe This program manages Windows Updates much like the old wuauclt used to: Launch a CMD prompt or PowerShell AS AN ADMINISTRATOR Type USOClient.exe ScanInstallWait You would expect that command to download and install…
PIN’s used to work in Windows 10 with no changes to GPO’s but at some point in recent Win 10 ADMX templates, Microsoft added an odd setting. They turned off PIN’s by default and you have to turn them on in via GPO if you want to use them on a domain connected user account. This means that there is not a GPO that is blocking your use of PINs and the message “THIS SETTING…
If your Outlook returns a yellow box saying “Something went wrong and your search couldn’t be completed” the most likely issue is your Windows Search Service is damaged. You can verify this in two ways: Click the START button and type something. If it shows SEARCH INDEXING WAS TURNED OFF. TURN INDEXING BACK ON, this is likely your issue Click the START button and type SERVICES.MSC to start the Services management console and see if…
We recently told you that there was no way to block the public Microsoft Store but allowing your private corporate Store and while true at the time, is now false. At the recent Microsoft Ignite conference, I tracked down a Store program manager and dug into the problem. He told me this has now been changed so I tested and confirmed the GPO setting works as promised. You can set the Microsoft Windows 10 Store…
There are many programs that will run as both an administrator and as a restricted user. However, when some security programs like Active Directory Sites and Services and Group Policy Management Tool, are run as a standard restricted user they have very little functionality. As a result admins must right click on the relevant shortcut and select RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR to force an elevation. This is a pain. To have programs automatically prompt for elevation:…
Windows Admin Center was code named Project Honolulu during its development cycles. It went live in April 2018 and was titled “Our Re-imagined Management Experience” for good reason. At Ignite 2018 in Florida Microsoft drove home a few points over and over and over again. One of those points was get on Windows Admin Center now. So strip away the hype and ask why should you use Windows Admin Center (WAC) WAC is a web based…
I just attended another Microsoft Windows Server 2019 event at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Florida and I am disappointed to report that Server 2019 has been described as a “nothing burger” by some of the attendees. It should not come as a surprise that the 7th version of Windows Server since NT4 is little more than an iteration on its immediate predecessor, Server 2016. In fairness, there are improvements but the VAST majority of…
If you need to add a registry entry to a Windows PC most often techs will simply export the key and entries they want and then use the REGEDIT /S command to push that entry onto another PC. For example if you want to disable the Cortana bar (but not Windows Search), you save the following into a file named DISABLE-CORTANA.REG Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search] “AllowCortana”=dword:00000000 Then you simply put that file…
We often talk about editing or creating new registry entries in Windows but we seldom talk about removal. If you want to delete an existing registry entry you simply set the entry value to a hyphen ( – ). For example, we recently needed to delete: HKLM > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Run > InstallWindowsUpdates = DWORD AA To do this we simply set “InstallWindowsUpdates”=- Specifically, the DELUPDATES.REG file looked like: Windows…
Over the years we have produced many instructions on how to add files or add drivers to a .WIM image file, but they are all outdated because they are command line. There is now a free GUI front end for DISM made by Mike Celone. To get DISM GUI to work you need two things: .NET 4.0 which can get from Microsoft HERE in unlikely event you don’t have it already Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) that…
If you have already got a deployment image in your Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) then you likely will want a CAPTURE IMAGE so you can collect the Operating System from a SysPreped PC. This is easy to do:Launch WSUS Expand your server > BOOT IMAGES Right click on the appropriate boot image (i.e. Windows Setup (x64) – 1803) and select CREATE CAPTURE IMAGE On the METADATA AND LOCATION screen click the BROWSE button, select…