Windows

MarkC's Tech Blog

Extending Windows Evaluation Time

31/12/20 11:39

You can get evaluation copies of Windows Server that last for 180 days - great for labs and testing. What happens if you need it beyond those 180 days though? Well, you can extend those trials up six times - so nearly 3 years in total. Of course you can't use them for live services under the licensing terms, but it's still useful to have.

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Parallels or Fusion?

22/01/20 21:23

I get asked about virtualisation on MacOS a lot. Let's look at the two leading contenders here.Click here for more

Windows Server 2016 Evaluation Upgrade to Full

29/06/18 15:18

Upgrading an Evaluation 2016 Server to Standard - Error: This Edition Cannot Be Upgraded
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Windows 10 - Profile is Grey

09/01/18 19:52

Messing around with one of my Windows 10 VMs earlier, and the profile seemed to lose its colour and go grey/gray. Here's how to fix.
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Windows Update Errors (Insider Preview)

15/09/17 13:53

Simple way to fix Windows Update errors with Insider Preview.

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Windows 10 Insider Preview 16193.1001

17/05/17 11:28

Windows Insider Preview 16193.1001 not downloading - Error 0x80070002Click here for more

CertSrv Missing

12/01/17 17:54

CertSrv IIS Directory Missing
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Visio Stencil Shapes Wrong

22/11/16 11:25

Visio Stencils showing up weird and wrong.
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KB3194496 Fails to Install

11/10/16 09:05

Windows 10 KB3194496 Fails to Install.
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DHCP Failover

11/04/16 16:30

DHCP Failover in Windows Server 2012 R2
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Windows Server Update Services

12/03/16 11:01

A run through of Windows Server Update Services.
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Skype for Business Click to Run

31/10/15 08:56

You can also use Click to Run to off-line deploy Skype for Business 2015/2016, whether Basic or full fat. Let's have a look how.
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Office 2016 Click to Run

29/10/15 23:02

I've seen a lot of posts recently with people struggling trying to work out how to deploy Office 2016 to multiple machines when Office is being supplied through Office365. Let's have a look how it's done. Click here for more

Microsoft Money (MSmoney)

01/08/15 21:43

Microsoft Money and Windows 10
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Clearing Storage

17/01/15 10:40

Got a drive with weird partitions on that you can’t work with? Here’s how to clean them down.
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Outlook Advanced Searching

10/12/14 17:06

How do you find that email...?
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Utilities I couldn't live without...again

24/11/14 16:29

What utilities do I love to use....?
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Enabling PIN Login on Windows 8/8.1

21/11/14 20:19

How can you allow PIN logon on a Windows 8/8.1 machine when it’s in the AD Domain?Click here for more

PowerShell & Text Manipulation

05/09/14 19:57

Scripting is the way forward for everything...but some things are so hard.Click here for more

Parallels Desktop 10.0

20/08/14 12:03

So, there’s a new version of Parallels Desktop 10.0 out - what gives?
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Cannot enter coherence mode in Parallels Desktop 9

18/03/14 08:32

A recent update has produced a lot of comments about not being able to switch in to Coherence Mode in Parallels Desktop 9 - here’s a work around that works for me.
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Windows 8.1 RTM Benchmarks

11/09/13 20:03

Windows 8.1 RTM Feels Fast! Quick look at Benchmarks.
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Parallels Desktop 9 Windows 7 Look

11/09/13 09:31

Quick look at Parallels Desktop 9 Windows 7 Look
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VMWare Fusion 6/Parallels Desktop 9 Roundup

08/09/13 09:22

Quick round-up of my recent blogs on VMWare Fusion 6 and Parallels Desktop 9.
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VMWare Fusion 6 & Parallels Desktop 9 Benchmarks

06/09/13 23:26

Some benchmark comparisons between Parallels Desktop 9 and VMWare Fusion 6.

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VMWare Fusion 6

06/09/13 10:07

Early run through of the newly issued VMWare Fusion 6 virtualisation package.
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Parallels Desktop 9.0 - Pauses & USB Connections/Disconnections

31/08/13 16:43

Issue with random pauses, and also USB devices randomly disconnecting & connecting.

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Parallels Desktop 9.0 - Issue with iSight WebCam

31/08/13 16:32

My iSight camera doesn’t play well with Parallels Desktop 9.0.
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Parallels Desktop 9.0

31/08/13 16:07

Early run through of the newly issued Parallels Desktop 9.0 virtualisation package.
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Google Chrome showing your saved passwords

07/08/13 21:47

In Google Chrome you can easily view your saved passwords.....
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Embedding Video in Office

02/08/13 14:44

How do you embed a video into a Microsoft Word document?
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USB 3 - Real World Performance?

07/07/13 22:10

Holy Stating the Obvious Batman - USB 3 is quicker - who knew?

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Configuring Windows IIS ARR

21/06/13 13:01

Details the processes involved in configuring Application Request Routing (ARR) for reverse proxy services.

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Testing Schema Updates

25/05/13 14:08

How do you test schema updates in your systems?
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Duplicating your Active Directory for a Test Environment

24/05/13 21:59

How do you create a replica of your active directory for testing purposes?
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Why do I like Windows 8 so much?

18/05/13 20:46

Why do I like Windows 8 so much? Some thoughts on that thing that’s called Windows 8.
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Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 - Windows 8 Pro Tablet

17/05/13 20:42

Early days opinion on the Lenovo Tablet 2 Windows 8 Pro Tablet. Updated 17 May 2013, and it’s not good.

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Automating Common Administrative Tasks

15/05/13 20:08

Another look at how to automate common tasks - making your administrator's life easier.

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Accessing Apple HFS Volumes from Windows

07/05/13 21:22

How can you access HFS+ Drives from a Windows PC.
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Running Windows 8 on VMWare Fusion 5 - on OSX

25/04/13 15:09

Experiences of running Windows 8 on VMWare Fusion 5 - virtualised on OSX.

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Running Windows 8 on Parallels 8 - on OSX

25/04/13 15:02

Experiences of running Windows 8 on Parallels 8 - virtualised on OSX.

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Reset lost Windows XP/Vista/7 or Windows 8 Password

24/04/13 08:08

What to do if you’ve lost the password for a Windows machine.
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Windows 8 Tablet - HP ElitePad

13/04/13 14:34

Some thoughts on my HP ElitePad Windows 8 Pro Tablet.
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Windows 8 Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel - Gone

11/04/13 22:31

How do I get my touch keyboard icon back in my task bar?
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Building an Exchange 2013 Server for Demo

25/03/13 17:16

I’ve been building up a number of machines for my demo environment - this one is for Exchange 2013. - a video in here shows the build process.

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Building a Windows Server 2012 on VMWare Fusion

25/03/13 12:50

Quick run-through of building a Windows 2012 Standard Edition Server using VMWare Fusion. It’s built on an SSD so pretty fast.
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Quickly Bulk-Create lots of AD Users

23/03/13 20:32

Quick blog showing a small script that can bulk create a lot of Active Directory users for you.
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Installing Office Web Apps on Server 2012

22/03/13 21:01

Quick run through of installing Office Web Applications on to Windows Server 2012.

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Activating Windows 8 from the Command Line

20/03/13 09:34

Discusses how to activate Windows 8 from the Command line.
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Dual Homed Servers

13/03/13 12:53

In this blog I look at how you can dual-network home a Windows server, and how you need to consider the network routing.

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Unified Communications - The Importance of Design

01/03/13 12:05

Article discussing the importance of technical design for Unified Communications platforms.
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Lync - Utilities & Plug-ins

01/03/13 11:34

Blog outlining some of my favourite plug-ins for Microsoft Lync. Click here for more

HyperTerminal on Windows Vista/7/8/Server

01/03/13 11:32

Do you ever miss HyperTerminal when you’re on a later Windows edition? If so, you should find this article interesting.

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Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

01/03/13 10:30

A list of the more common Windows 8 shortcut keys.Click here for more

Active Directory Migrations - Why so hard?

20/01/13 01:27

For some reason the processes and requirements for carrying out directory migrations are often underestimated. In here I talk about some of the issues you may encounter. Click here for more