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Archive for News – Page 12

Stop Java from installing other third party software

by KW · Comments (0)
Jun 29 2013

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being tricked into installing additional third party software that I did not want.

Oracle’s Java is a prime example. It tries to get you to install their sponsors’ applications (Ask Toolbar, Yahoo Toolbar, McAfee,  Chrome, etc.) whenever you click to install the newest Java update. Yes, there’s a window that pops up allowing you to UNcheck those boxes, but come on … leave them unchecked by default, ad then let us decide if we want to install them.

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I finally discovered a solution – there are registry settings that will block ANY of these sponsored applications from installing! I will give Oracle kudos for at least providing these registry settings, but it certainly is a hidden secret!

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To make things easy, I put the two registry settings into a text file that you can download and install.

Please note that the download file has a .txt suffix, which will need to be changed to .reg before installing.

  1. Download file to your computer: disable-java-sponsors.txt
  2. Rename file to disable-java-sponsors.reg
  3. Double click on the file and it will update your Windows registry
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If you want to test that it really works:

  1. Uninstall your current version of Java
  2. Go to the Java web site and select to install it again.
  3. Voila, the sponsored application window doesn’t even appear!

For those with a Windows server, you can use group policy to implement this for all workstations!

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Categories : News, Servers, Tools, Windows
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63 Free Microsoft eBooks!

by KW · Comments (0)
Jun 21 2013

Eric LigmanJust in time for summer … Eric Ligman, Microsoft Sales Excellence Manager, is making available 63 (count ‘em) Microsoft eBooks absolutely free – no strings, no time bombs, no tricks.

These eBooks cover a wide gamut: from Office 365 to Windows Azure, from Windows Server to Visual Studio., from SharePoint to Web Development to programming Windows 8  apps.

Click here to view and select e-Books for downloading!

Eric said that last year, when he made a similar offer, over 1 million eBooks were downloaded.

Enjoy.

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Categories : News, Office 365, Servers, Sharepoint, Windows
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Memorial Holiday 2013

by KW · Comments (0)
May 24 2013

I sent the following email to all my business clients and friends today:image

I hope each of you may be able to enjoy time with your family and friends this Memorial weekend. It’s also a time to pause and give thanks to all the men and women who have given their lives to protect us. I feel blessed and honored to know so many who have served in the military. My own father was a WWII veteran, and was there on the initial landing at Iwo Jima. I still cannot fathom their sacrifice.

Please enjoy the weekend and drive safe if you are traveling.

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Categories : News

Extend Keyboard and Mouse with Synergy

by KW · Comments (0)
May 10 2013

Last August I wrote about a utility called Mouse Without Borders, developed in Microsoft’s “The Garage”, that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers. And the utility works very great.

That is, unless you also have Linux or Mac OS X computers which you also want to control with a single keyboard and mouse.

So, here comes Synergy which offers to extend your mouse and keyboard to all three environments. And did I say that it is FREE??

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I decided to take it for a spin today, and I was quite surprised at how easy it was to install and run it. For this first effort, I only installed it on two Windows computers. At a later date I will post my efforts to include a Linux or Mac workstation.

My scenario: I have a Windows 7 x86 workstation with three monitors, and a Windows 2008R2 x64 server, running Hyper-V.

INSTALL/SETUP FIRST WORKSTATION

My mouse and keyboard that I wish to use is on my Win7 workstation. So I first downloaded the Windows 32-bit version of Synergy and installed it. I designate this as my Synergy “server”.

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It then asks what type on encryption I wish to use. That’s a really nice feature as it does provide some protection from anyone trying to intercept your keystrokes. You have a choice of four (4) different encryption modes, or you can disable encryption. For purposes of testing, I chose to not enable encryption.

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The only other step to do is to click on the Configure Server… button. You will have a screen where you can describe your setup, indicating in which direction the monitor for each of the other workstation(s) is located.

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INSTALL/SETUP ON NEXT WORKSTATION

In this case, my second workstation (which Synergy refers to as a client) is running Windows Server 2008 R2 x64. I am also running Hyper-V manager on this server, so I decided to install the Synergy client to the Hyper-V parent, so I can control all of my Hyper-V guests.

So I download and install the 64 bit version of Synergy, and install it. This time, when it asks Server or Client, I’ll select “Client”. Then you need to tell the Synergy client the name of the computer that is the “Synergy “server”.

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I thought I was all done, but my mouse would not move over to the monitor attached to my server. At first I thought it was a firewall issue, but turning off the firewall on the W2K8R2 server did not fix it. In fact, if you check the firewall settings, you will find that Synergy had automatically added the proper Inbound TCP and UDP rules.

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I then checked Services, and discovered that the Synergy service had not yet been started.

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After doing so, I immediately saw that Synergy was communicating between the two computers, and my single mouse and keyboard was now controlling both computers!

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Categories : News, Servers, Tools, Windows
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Possible Gmail Interruption?

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 17 2013

This morning I my Outlook 2010 program had a pop-up windows asking my to enter my Gmail credentials:

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I did, but I still was not receiving my Gmail messages. I was, however, sending and receiving email properly through Outlook 2010 for all my other email accounts. I also checked and verified that I log into Gmail’s web site properly and access my email that way.

I’ve contacted some of my peers, and they say they have received calls from some of their customers with the same issue.

So I suspect there is either a temporary outage or issue or possibly an upgrade with Gmail’s service. Not sure how widespread it is, but one person in London told me that his smartphone popped up requesting his login credentials.

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WSUS now available for Windows Server 2012 Essentials!

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 06 2013

Finally! One of the major features, in the eyes of many I.T. professionals and consultants, missing from the Windows Server 2012 Essentials product was the ability to fully manage, approve/reject, and deploy Microsoft updates to the attached workstations in the network.

This feature, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), was a built-in server role in all of the Small Business Server (SBS) product line, as well as Windows Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter, with enhanced features.

Microsoft has now released the enhanced version of WSUS for Windows Server 2012 Essentials! It is packaged as a Microsoft hotfix.

Here are the links you need:

  1. Coffee Coaching – HP & Microsoft blog announcement
  2. WSUS features and requirements (KB 2762663)
  3. WSUS 2012 Evaluation Guide
  4. Download the Microsoft WSUS hotfix here
    Instructions:

      • Accept terms and conditions
      • Click to select the desired hotfix
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      • Enter your email address and security code
      • A link to the hotfix will be mailed to you
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      • Click on the provided link in the email, and you will be asked to run or save the download.
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Categories : Essentials, News, Servers, WSUS
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Case Study–Windows Server 2012 Essentials

by KW · Comments (0)
Apr 05 2013

My good friend and MVP buddy, Wayne Small of Australia, was the focus of a recent Microsoft case study on the features and benefits of implementing a mixed cloud/on-premise solution to customers.

The article details Wayne’s approach, using Windows Server 2012 Essentials (the follow-on product to the highly successful Small Business Server) and Office 365.

He explains how this winning combination helps to address the needs of many of his customers, and discusses the benefits of deploying Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

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Congratulations, Wayne!

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Categories : Essentials, News, SBS, Servers, Windows
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Add KB 2775511 to WSUS

by KW · Comments (0)
Mar 14 2013

In a previous blog, I described how to locate, download and install the hotfix rollup (KB 2775511) – a rollup of 90 hotfixes that will improve performance and stability to Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1 systems.

As noted in the previous blog, this hotfix rollup is NOT automatically available via WSUS. However, it is very easy to add this rollup to WSUS for distribution to your workstations and servers.

  1. From your server hosting WSUS, open up the WSUS Console (Start –> Administrative Tools –> Windows Server Update Services
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  2. Click to select your server from the left hand frame, and then click Import Updates… from the right hand frame
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  3. This will open up the Microsoft Update Catalog site in a new browser window. In the Search box, enter 2775511 and click the Search button
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  4. Click the Add All button, and then click View Basket
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  5. The screen refreshes, and the option “Import directly into Windows Server Update Services” is displayed and checked. Go ahead and click on the Import button. Wait until the download completes and then click Close.
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  6. The KB will appear in WSUS list of updates after the update check has run on each workstation/server, and you can approve/schedule it accordingly.
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  7. And for SBS servers, the KB update can be found in the SBS Console (Security –> Updates) for scheduling.
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Categories : News, Servers, Windows
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Hotfix Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1

by KW · Comments (0)
Mar 13 2013

On March 13, 2013 Microsoft released KB 2775511. They refer to this as “an enterprise hotfix rollup” for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1. This rollup contains 90 hotfixes that have been issues since the release of SP1 for Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2.

The chatter on this release is that a lot of work went into this rollup, and that you definitely want to be looking at this for your customers and your own systems. Microsoft says that this hotfix rollup improves the overall performance and system reliability of Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 SP1 systems.

One small example: I installed it on my own Windows 7 workstation and saw a dramatic improvement in boot time.

Now, for whatever reason, you will NOT find this hotfix rollup on Microsoft Update (MU) or Windows Update (WU) or on WSUS. That’s correct – you will NOT find it there. Instead, you will find it on the Microsoft Update Catalog download site. I know … I’m with you on this one as I didn’t know about this site myself.

But lets stop gabbing and get to downloading and installing the rollup!

  1. You can read the details about this rollup here: KB 2775511 
  2. Or go straight to the Microsoft Update Catalog site
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  3. In the Search box, enter 2775511 and click Search
  4. The list of available files are displayed. There are separate versions of this hotfix rollup for Windows 7/x86, Windows 7/x64, Windows 2008 R2 x64, and Windows 2008 R2 Itanium.
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  5. Click on the Add button for those versions you want.
  6. After that, click on the Download button and choose your desired drive/folder location to store the downloads.
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  7. For each version, a folder is created with two files in it — a .exe file and a .msu file.
    Double click on the appropriate .msu file to install the hotfix.
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  8. Install and reboot your system. That’s it!

Now, for those who like to do performance measurement, there’s a tool called XPerf you may want to take a look at. There’s a nice blog post on using XPerf to measure Slow Boot Slow Logon (SBSL) scenarios

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Categories : News, SBS, Servers, Windows
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eM Client – Outlook replacement?

by KW · Comments (0)
Mar 06 2013

So, when your neighbor or family member decided to purchase a new PC, how long did it take for them to discover that Outlook Express is not available on Windows 7?

And when they called you to complain, what direction did you turn for a replacement email client? Thunderbird? Eudora? Windows Live Mail? something else? Well, there are pros and cons to each of the above alternatives.

ENTER EM CLIENT!

A fellow MVP’er recently suggested that I take a look at eM Client. And I must admit, I’m quite impressed with it at first glance.

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PLEASE NOTE:

eM Client does not interface with Exchange. Second, eM Client has both a free and Pro (paid) version. The free version is more than suitable for the family member or neighbor you might have in mind.

GO AHEAD AND INSTALL IT!

  1. Yes, go ahead and download and run the eM Client install utility. It runs on both Windows 7 & 8.
  2. Click to Agree to the EULA, and click to Install.
  3. Once installed, decide whether to make eM Client your default mail application, and then click Finish.
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CONFIGURING IT IS EASY!

  1. When eM Client starts up the first time, you can select which theme to use. I went with the default Modern theme. Click Next.
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  2. You can then choose whether to import email accounts and data from either Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live Mail, or you can select to Skip Import, which is what I did on my computer, and then click Next. However, I installed eM Client on another computer that has Outlook 2007, and the import feature brought over both the data and email settings.
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  3. You can choose to let it do an Automatic Setup, by entering your email address and password. Or you can click on the Mail option and set things up manually. eM Client includes support for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL, as well as standard POP3 or IMAP mail accounts.
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  4. For my first test, I created a new email address on one of my web sites, with a mail server that supports both POP3 and IMAP. From the eM Client window, I entered my email address and password, clicked a couple of buttons, and voila! we are up and running.
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EM CLIENT FEATURES

You can read the long list of features for yourself from the eM Client website. I’ll just point out three things right now:

  1. The first feature is that it looks like Outlook (without the Ribbon Line)!
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  2. The second feature is that I imported an email account with a default PST file nearly 7GB in size, plus an archive PST file over 4GB in size, and it all imported fine – mail, calendar, contacts and tasks!
  3. The third feature I like is that eM Client includes a built in backup utility, that can be configured and runs via Windows Task Scheduler. Yes, no big deal to most of us, but it sure is a nice feature for my neighbor!
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Categories : News, Windows
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