Brian Reid – Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Master
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RegRead and Error -2147024894
Error -2147024894 appears when you use the WScript.Shell RegRead object to read a registry key that does not exist. But why would you get this error when the key does exist! Probably because you are running your code inside a HTA and using a 64bit operating system. The HTA environment is mshta, which is 32…
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Scheduling Backup on Microsoft Hyper-V Server
To do a backup of the virtual machines installed on your Hyper-V Server (2008 or 2008 R2 editions) you need to complete the following steps. Install the backup feature by typing start /w ocsetup WindowsServerBackup from the command prompt. Get a list of the drives on which Hyper-V Server has stored virtual machines. This will…
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Managing Exchange Server 2010
The recently release Release Candidate (RC) version of Exchange 2010 also has available the Management Packs for System Center Operations Manager. Unfortunately it does not have any documentation available! To configure System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) to work with the RC version of the management packs you need to enable proxying of the agent, or…
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Windows XP Mode and McAfee AntiVirus
Windows XP Mode is a new feature of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate Editions. It allows you to run a copy of Windows XP on the same machine at the same time as Windows 7 to allow you to run software that does not work on Windows 7 Though support for hardware virtualization is…
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Booting a Server with a USB Key
There are numerous instructions on the internet for creating and booting a server with a USB key, but they were all complex or hard to read – even for a techy like myself. So I thought I would rewrite a simple list of instructions to allow you to create a DOS bootable USB pendrive/key that…
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Windows Backup Failure on Windows Server 2008
I recently had a case where Windows Backup would fail at approx. 75% complete during a full backup. The backup utility and command line both reported that “The system cannot find the file specified”. The Event Viewer/Application… Services/ Microsoft/ Windows/ Backup/ Operational reads “Backup target is running low on free space. Future backups to this…
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Installing Integration Services on Hyper-V Clients
The installation of the Hyper-V integration services should be easy, but what happens if you have taken the virtual disks from a Windows Virtual PC or Virtual Server installation and is already running the Virtual Machine Additions software from that installation? What happens is that you need to remove the previously installed Virtual Machine Additions…
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Uninstalling Virtual Machine Additions in Hyper-V
The error message “this installer may only be run inside of a virtual machine” appears when you try to remove old virtual machine additions (from Virtual Server 2005/Virtual PC 2004) when running the virtual machine in Hyper-V. The migration guidelines recommend the removal (but do not mandate it) of the Virtual Machine Additions. But this…
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Message Tracking Logs ‘And/Or’ Error
The following message appears in the Exchange Server 2003 message tracking logs: The object ‘and/or’ in the message tracking logs can’t be found in the directory. The object may have been deleted. The tracking history may be incorrect. This is an error that can be ignored as it does not mean that the email message…
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Editing the Registry on x64 Windows Computers
This is, in the main, just a quick note to myself! When editing the registry on a Windows x64 based computer, but the program that will read those registry settings is a 32 bit application then you need to change the location that you edit to the “Wow6432Node” rather than the usual location. Note that…
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McAfee Total Protection and SMTP Email on Port 587
McAfee blocks SMTP connections that do not operate on the default port 25. If you have Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail configured to use an SMTP port that is not 25 then you get errors such as: Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems,…
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Running MOC Courseware Virtual Machines on Windows 7 RC
Once you have installed Windows 7 RC and downloaded Microsoft Virtual PC you might have the need to run Microsoft Official Curriculum courseware virtual machines. And therein is a problem. The virtual machines are built to use Virtual Server 2005, but that cannot install in Windows 7, so you cannot use the Lab Launcher. Though…
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Create i386 CMAK Profile on x64 Machine
Informing users and clients how to connect their Windows PC to a VPN connection is easy, but could be easier. There are a few questions to answer and having the user type this in might mean wrong answers, and therefore a supsequent support call would be required. To ease this issue, and reduce the support…
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CRM 4 Fails to Run In Outlook on Terminal Services
If CRM 4 Client is installed on a Citrix/Terminal Services server and the initial installation (done when in CHANGE USER /INSTALL mode) also includes starting Outlook for the first time then a registry key is set in the Terminal Services registry shadow. This means that once you go into CHANGE USER /EXECUTE mode and a…
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Remote Web Workplace in Essential Business Server 2008 Always Prompts for Password and Never Logs In
There is a published problem with EBS 2008 where Outlook prompts for a password all the time when connected over HTTP/RPC (Outlook Anywhere) – see the Microsoft EBS Team Blog. We have found that the same problem is also exposed in the Remote Web Workplace when trying to connect over Remote Desktop to your PC…
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Giving a laptop to a new user when CRM 4.0 Offline Mode is installed on it
When someome leaves a company, or their laptop is replaced and they get a new laptop, their old laptop goes somewhere. If that somewhere is to a new user and that laptop had an installation of CRM 4.0 configured in Offline Mode installed on it then you will get the following error message when you…
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Enabling ActiveSync on a Sony P1i with a GoDaddy Certificate
GoDaddy issued certificates are not trusted by the Sony P1i phone and so if you are using a GoDaddy issued digital certificate for ActiveSync on one of these phones you will be prompted to accept the certificate at each sync. As this kills the purpose of push email sync you will want to stop the…
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Configuring an SSTP VPN on Small Business Server 2008
SSL based VPN’s are great. In short it is VPN without firewall or NAT issues (both of which you get with PPTP and IPSec VPN’s). But SBS 2008 does not enable SSTP VPN’s by default. It uses RRAS, so SSTP is possible, but it is not as easy as it first looks! The following is…
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Log On To Restrictions in Essential Business Server
Thirty days after installing Essential Business Server 2008 your licence restrictions take effect. This means that users are shown as unlicenced in the EBS Management Console will only be able to log into licenced devices (as shown in the EBS Management Console as well). Only licenced users will be able to log into any computer…
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SBS 2008 SharePoint Install Breaks Default SBS Web Site
A recent installation of a second SharePoint site on Small Business Server 2008 broke the Remote Web Workplace site for access from the internet. Intranet access to the site worked fine, but from the internet where the http request to the site is redirected to https had stopped working. Opening up IIS 7 Manager and…
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Hyper-V and VSS Backups Cause Bluescreen
I found the other week that my Hyper-V server, running Server Core and nothing else was restarting all of its own accord. As this is just a server at home, and the monitor is switched off 99% of the time I had not noticed it blue screening. So looking in the event log (remotely of…