How to update/upgrade VMware vSphere ESXi from zip file

Example on updating and patching VMware ESXi 8.0.2 build xxxx to 8.0.3 build xxx on a Dell PowerEdge server Typically every 6 months or we reach out to Dell enterprise support (since they are the vendor of the servers we manage and maintain) to make sure servers are up to date with drivers, BIOS and […]

Office / Outlook 365 Authentication Couldn’t Be Completed, Blank page

We’ve encountered difficulties with Office 365 functionality on macOS systems. When attempting to configure Outlook with Office 365, users encountered the following error message after entering their email address: “Connecting to Office 365 Authentication Couldn’t be Completed Try Again” Moreover, even after successful configuration, Outlook failed to receive emails, accompanied by sporadic pop-up windows that […]

How to White-list a domain/email in Office 365

Login to the Office 365 and go to the antispam section.  Direct link: https://security.microsoft.com/antispam Edit the “Anti-spam Inbound Policy (Default)” Scroll domain and you should find the a section for allowed domains to enter.

Windows 11 Button/Option Missing from Settings Page

  If your Windows Updates option/button is missing from the Settings page of Windows 11, check the following Reg_SZ (SettingsPageVisibility), if exists delete.  Close and Re-open Settings. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer SettingsPageVisibility —-> Value —-> REG_SZ hide:windowsupdate  

Recovery is trying to change system settings. No Administrator Found

I was trying to enable an Extension on a MAC, but the MAC asked to boot to Recovery, go to System Security settings and enable it from there. The MAC was part of Jamf.  I logged in to it using a username First.Last, then I needed to login to Azure/Office 365, First.Last@Domain.com and password, and […]

How to search Outlook phrases using AND / OR

How to search Outlook email for phrases using AND / OR First make sure you can use quotations in Outlook search, so you might need to make a registry change https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/unexpected-search-results-when-you-use-double-quotation-marks-to-search-items-in-a-mailbox-in-outlook-d1de87c9-2ce6-0ce7-69b6-a6e872ba14c8 If the leading keys don’t exist, please create them Example of searching Outlook for emails received between 01/01/2019 to 01/01/2023 with phrases, words or […]

Manage AD from a PC that is not Member of the Domain

If you are remote and want to manage Active Directory from a computer that is not part of the AD domain. VPN into the office For Windows 10/11, add “RSAT: Active Directory Domain Services and Lightweight Directory Services Tool” to Windows. This is an Optional Feature in Windows so if you go to Optional Features […]

How to encrypt drive – Bitlocker – Command Prompt/line

  How to encrypt drive of Windows 10 / 11 with Bitlocker and print encryption key to copy and save for future recovery.  Don’t save on the same C drive. Run command line as admin manage-bde -protectors -add C: -rp  

How to Schedule Tasks from Command Line Windows 10/11

Learn how to automate daily reboots or shutdowns at specific times using the command line or command prompt in Windows 10/11. Below is an example of scheduling a computer shutdown daily at 6 PM: schtasks /create /sc daily /tn ShutdownAt6PM /tr “shutdown -s -f -t 2” /st 18:00 /NP schtasks: Command used to schedule tasks. […]

How to Extract Private Key and SSL Certificate from a Certificate.pfx file

  If you have an SSL certificate in pfx format (also called PKCS#12 format) and that usually includes the SSL certificate for your host or domain along with the private key (usually the key is secured with a password), and if you want to extract the certificate file and the private key, here what you […]

Microsoft Office 365 List of outgoing SMTP IP/Network addresses

The following are the outgoing IP addresses and networks of Microsft Office 365 SMTP/Email in case you need to know to white-list in your antispam or firewalls: 52.100.0.0/14 40.92.0.0/15 40.107.0.0/16 104.47.0.0/17 2a01:111:f403::/48 2a01:111:f400::/48

How to Map Network Drive to a SharePoint Folder

Mapping SharePoint Site/Folder to a network drive is only available with Windows Explorer.  This won’t work with Edge or any other browser. If your SharePoint URL https://www.MyCompanySite.SharePoint.Com And the name of the site MySite (could be blank as it’s the root of SharePoint), and the folder on the root to map called Compliance. 1- Go […]

Office 365 Mailbox Migration Status Stuck Syncing

Office 365 Mailbox Migration Status Stuck Syncing We had a mailbox that wouldn’t complete migrating from a hybrid setup with on-premise Microsoft Exchange 2013 Server to Office 365. We’ve cancelled the migration several time and restarted it but it always got hung up at the end without completing, with status Syncing or InProgress… left it […]

Outlook “Need Password” With No Prompt – Office 365 Multifactor Authentication

After migrating mailboxes from on-premise Exchange 2013 to Office 365, some Microsoft Outlook 2016/2019/Office 365 clients kept on getting a message on the bottom right-hand corner of Outlook saying “Need Password” without being prompted to enter it, they would click on the message and it would disappear, and Outlook would resume receiving emails but after […]

0x00000bcb Error Adding Network Printer Share Windows

If you have attempted to add a network printer by double clicking on the sharename name \\server\PrinterShareName, and you’re  getting 0x00000bcb error, it’s because of new Windows Security Updates. Add the following DWORD on the PC having the issue (not server). HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators Value of DWORD  0   You can delete it after adding […]

Remote Desktop Performance Issue – Bug – Download Update

Microsoft has released an emergency out-of-band update to address a Windows Server bug leading to Remote Desktop connection and performance issues. Download Updates from the following Knowledge Base Articles Windows Server 2019: KB5010196 Windows Server 2012 R2: KB5010215

Modern Authentication / Outlook 2016 Password / OWA / App Password

In Office 365 two factor authentication (2FA), App Password is used for older versions of Microsoft Outlook or for non Microsoft email clients on devices like MACs or smart phones. After enforcing 2FA in Office 365 and if you are trying to configure Outlook 2016 for email, and Outlook keeps rejecting the password that you […]

How to Force Sync Azure AD Connect with Azure Office 365

  If you have Azure AD Connector with Azure Office 365 and want to force Sync AD with Azure when you have just created a new user, start PowerShell on the server that has Azure AD Connect installed and type: import-Module ADSync Get-ADSyncScheduler Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta  

How to Connect to Office 365 Through Powershell

1- In Windows run PowerShell as an admin 2- Install PowerShell v2 if not installed: Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement 3- Import Exchange Online Management module: Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement For Windows 11 you might have to allow running scripts because running scripts is  disabled by default, run this command to allow running scripts. Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned  4- Connect to […]

How to renew OAUTH SSL Certificate in Exchange

  Open Exchange PowerShell on the Exchange server Run the following command (replace *.domainname below with the domain name) New-ExchangeCertificate -KeySize 2048 -PrivateKeyExportable $true -SubjectName “CN= Microsoft Exchange Server Auth Certificate” -DomainName “*.domainname” -FriendlyName “Microsoft Exchange Server Auth Certificate” -Services SMTP Answer No to over-write Write down the certificate thumpprint Type: $date = Get-Date Type: […]

Site link to create or delete Microsoft Office 365 App password

Below is the site used to create or delete Microsoft Office 365 App Password needed for Multi Factor Authentication used in conjunction with non-Microsoft Office apps like native mail clients on smart phones, MAC mail or even older versions of Microsoft Outlook. https://aka.ms/mysecurityinfo    

Renewing VMware esxi 6.0 SSL certificate – Certificate Error – Host – vCenter

If the self-assigned VMware esxi 6.0 SSL Certificate expired on a Host and displaying a warning or an error in vCenter on the Host, you will need to renew that SSL Certificate. The certificate can’t be renewed through the VMware vSphere client, but can be renewed via the Web Client but unfortunately that would require […]

PowerShell failed to invoke ‘New-FederationTrust’: Unable to access the Federation Metadata document from the federation partner

We were in the process of migrating mailboxes on-premise Exchange 2013 running on Windows Server 2012 to office 365  and while installing the Hybrid Configuration Wizard we were getting the following error. PowerShell failed to invoke ‘New-FederationTrust’: Unable to access the Federation Metadata document from the federation partner. Detailed information: “The underlying connection was closed: […]

Exchange mailbox move – Unable to open message store. hr=0x80040111, ec=-2147221231

When trying to move a mailbox from one Exchange server 2008/2010/2013 to another or from Database to another you get the error message below.  Fixing it is easy if you have used ASDIEdit before.  Basically you are going to reset the Exchange Mailbox Move Values… Sample Error: Data migrated: Migration rate: Error: MigrationTransientException: Failed to […]

–use-spdy%3Doff’s server IP address could not be found –disable-http2

When you click on a web/html link in email Google Chrome or the default Internet Browser opens up the link plus two tabs.  The two tabs would say: “—use-spdy%3Doff’s server IP address could not be found” -AND- “—disable-http2’s server IP address could not be found”   Solution: Your Windows PC is infected with a malware. […]

There are blocking issues for the physical-to-virtual conversion, there is no BCD boot…

There are two traditional ways to move physical machines to Hyper-V virtual machine using Microsoft Tools. 1- Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter When you try to convert a Windows server 2012 for example from physical to a VM, you might get the following error: Microsoft Virtual machine Converter encountered an error while attempting to convert the […]

The ACE doesn’t exist on the object

When attempting to remove permissions from Exchange server mailbox using Exchange Management Shell… Powershell Remove-MailboxPermission -identity…. You get the following error WARNING: Can’t remove the access control entry on the object… because the ACE doesn’t exist on the object. There is abundance of articles on the Internet on to deal with this… mostly confusing and […]

Windows Server 2016 Evaluation fails to activate 0xc004f050

If you are running a Windows Server 2016 standard 180 days evolution copy that you downloaded off Microsoft Website and try to activate the installation with a product key that you purchased for Microsoft Server 2016, you might get an error message saying that it can’t activate, or that you entered a product key that […]

SonicWALL – Can not access the appliance for Security. Please contact administrator

When you try to access SonicWALL SMA (Secure Mobile Appliance) using NetExtender you get “SonicWALL – Can not access the appliance for Security. Please contact administrator” Resolution: Make sure you type the domain correctly in the NetExtender and with the right case. The domain is Case Sensitive.  So if your domain on the SMA is configured […]

Can’t RDP to Windows 7 machine – Remote Desktop

Can’t remote desktop into a Windows 7 – RDP Run registry editor, regedit, and make sure PortNumber under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-TCP is 3389 in Decimal  

httpCookies httpOnlyCookies=”true” requireSSL=”true” – PCI vulnerability

If you have a Microsoft Exchange Server running OWA that failed a PCI vulnerability scan because of the following: <httpCookies httpOnlyCookies=”true” requireSSL=”true”/> Here what we can do to remediate it on the Windows server. Schedule a brief downtime for the Exchange Server while IIS restarts below. Launch IIS on the Exchange server, go to Default Web […]

Disabling TLS 1.0 Windows Server 2008-2012 – Exchange – PCI 3.1 Scan

  If you have to comply to recent PCI standards, a PCI scan on your Exchange server might reveal that it’s no longer compliant because TLS 1.0 is still enabled on it and you need to disable TLS 1.0 to pass test.  This applies to Exchange 2010, 2013 and 2016.  Not sure about 2007… Tried the […]

Duo Two Factor Authentication -Microsoft Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) Server.

Setting up Duo Two Factor Authentication with Microsoft Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) Server: We installed the Duo Proxy on a separate server than the Microsoft RRAS server. We couldn’t get it to work on the same server. When we ran it on the same server, we were getting errors like the following: “The connection was […]

Scan to network share SMB not working – Windows Updates

After applying one of Jan 2018 Windows updates to windows servers 2012 and could be 2008, scanning to network shares SMB fails from Network printers/copiers, the scan user gets locked out at times. We’ve had issues with different kind of copiers like Canon iR3035, imageRUNNER 6275 and image RUNNER advance iR-ADV4235. One full week of troubleshooting the […]

Exchange server Mailboxes size report 2010 2013 2016

Exchange Server Mailboxes size report 2010 2013 2016   Create a C:\Temp1 directory. Obtain Mailbox Database name from the Microsoft Exchange Console that would look like “Mailbox Database XXXXXXXXXXX” Using Exchange PowerShell (Run as Admin) , type the following: Get-MailboxStatistics -Database   “Mailbox Database XXXXXXXXXXX”  | Select DisplayName, ItemCount, TotalItemSize | Sort-Object TotalItemSize -Descending | […]

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update CU 18 Fails – Certificate

When trying to install Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 18 or others, update terminates with the following error: ————— The following error was generated when “$error.Clear(); Install-ExchangeCertificate -services IIS -DomainController $RoleDomainController if ($RoleIsDatacenter -ne $true -And $RoleIsPartnerHosted -ne $true) { Install-AuthCertificate -DomainController $RoleDomainController } ” was run: “System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: The certificate is expired. at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.ThrowError(Exception exception, ErrorCategory errorCategory, […]

How to Allow Windows Remote Desktop remotely through command line

How to modify firewall rules remotely command line Windows 7 How to allow Remote Desktop remotely through command line Download psexec https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec Extract to al temp place. Make sure you are able to access remote computer NetBIOS name i.e \\RemoteComputerName without getting an error message On your local computer, from command line and from the […]

Windows update will not download – stuck at 0% downloading

Windows Server 2008/2012 R2 Virtual Machine VM – Hyper-v Windows update will not download – stuck at 0% downloading.  Every time I start windows update it won’t download the updates.  Download bar keeps on running and moving but nothing downloads and the percentage stays at 0%. Ran into this issue several times. Go to the Ethernet […]

Boot/Start Windows to Safe Mode from Command Line – Windows Server 2012 R2

  How to force Windows server 2012 R2 to boot/restart/start into Safe Mode after restart: Go to Command Line, and type: bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal Reboot Windows and it will start in Safe Mode   To change Windows to boot normal from command line while in safe mode. Go to Command Line, and type: […]

Cisco WAP 551 561 SSID disappearing – Stop Broadcasting

Cisco Wireless Access Points WAP551 and 561 stop broadcasting SSID intermittently, sometimes every day or two. WAP551 is a Cisco Wireless-N Single Radio Selectable-Band Access Point Had to troubleshoot this issue for a customer. We noticed this happening more when WAP radio is configured in 5GHz mode Issue was caused by a new wireless feature […]

Error Connecting to the MKS: Error Connecting to the /bin/vmx process – Veeam, VMware

We had a VM on VMware ESX that kept locking up mysteriously once or twice a week.  The server would become inaccessible, we would have to shut it down to get it back and running. Upon investigation, and while looking on the vCenter we noticed that error message. “Error Connecting to the MKS: Error Connecting […]

OneDrive issues users 90 day notice

Microsoft has given its users of there cloud storage service OneDrive, their 90-day notice. Microsoft is shrinking its free storage size from 15GB to 5GB in late July. That is a 67% reduction in storage size. The reduction will take effect on July 27,2016. As part of the storage space cuts, Microsoft eliminated two paid plans that had […]

Shortcuts disappearing – Windows 7 desktop – Network drives

If shortcuts including network drives links are disappearing randomly from Windows 7 Desktops, here what you can do to address issue: 1)) Apply the following hotfix from Microsoft http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%207/Windows%20Server2008%20R2%20SP1/sp2/Fix385439/7600/free/441224_intl_x64_zip.exe   2)) Disable “System Maintenance troubleshooter” Control Panel.  Go to Control panel In control Panel (Change view to  Category).  Under System and Security, click Find and fix problems. […]

Multiple WiFi APs – WAPs – Same SSID – Zero hand-off

  If you are looking to have a reliable WiFi solution where you will have multiple WAPs covering a wide physical area, and would like them to broadcast the same SSID, you can accomplish without even considering a WiFi controller.   Fairly easy and affordable.  Worked great every time for us. Consider Cisco WAP 551. It costs […]

Veeam error – Cannot complete the operation because the file or folder [] already exists

You are getting this error in Veeam replication. ———- Processing Server01 Error: Cannot complete the operation because the file or folder [] already exists Details Preparing replica VM Error: Cannot complete the operation because the file or folder [] already exists Error: Cannot complete the operation because the file or folder [] already exists —– Solutions: […]

How to Reset Forgotten Windows Administrator Password

How to reset Windows 7/XP administrator forgotten password: Download the following tool. http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/usb140201.zip Unzip and copy all unzipped content to the usb Run command line as admin Change drive to the usb drive. If it is e: E: Enter Type e:syslinux -ma e: Boot from USB drive now to reset password

How to Force STOP/Kill a service – Windows server

To Force stop or kill a Windows server service stuck in stopping status, run Command Line as an Admin.  Type: taskkill /f /pid [PID] Where PID is the process ID.  You can find the process ID of that service in Task Manager under Processes.  In the View menu of the Task manager you can choose […]

Database is mandatory on UserMailbox. Property Name: Database

When you try to install the mailbox role of Exchange 2010 while upgrading from Exchange 2003, you get “Database is mandatory on UserMailbox. Property Name: Database…” and installation fails. Also when you open up Exchange Management Console or Exchange Powershell: VERBOSE: Connecting to myserver.domain.internal [myserver.domain.internal] Processing data from remote server failed with the following error […]

How to backup VMs

  If you are looking to backup virtual machines of Hyper-v or VMWare and looking for a free software to do it, you might want to consider Veeam (www.Veeam,com).  One of the features that wont be available since you will be using the free edition is being able to schedule backup Jobs from within Veeam. […]

How to build HTTP and HTTPS polices to use Webblocker and deny access based on Source IP Network/address or IP range

This is a quick published article that doesn’t include much detail but will give you very helpful hints. WatchGuard uses Proxy settings to achieve such resolution. WatchGuard can act as a proxy to intercept HTTP/HTTPS requests in order to allow or deny access to sites based on source or destination networks or ports according to […]