Archive for Windows – Page 4

The shared protection point operation failed with error 0x81000101

This is the first time that I’ve seen this error on any Windows server I manage. This is an SBS 2008 server that has been in production for 6 years. The error was associated with a failed Windows backup of this server last night.

Full error message: Creation of the shared protection point timed out. Detailed Error: The shared protection point operation failed with error 0x81000101.

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A quick web search led me to this blog post by David J Steele who encountered the same issue. The solution changes the default timeout from 10 minutes to 20 minutes.

Although his process is correct, there is one error in the information he posted. The value for the registry key should be 1200000 (5 zeroes) and not 12000000 (6 zeroes).

Here are the correct instructions:

  • Run regedit.exe on the server
  • Navigate to HKLM –> Software –> Microsoft –> windows NT –> CurrentVersion –> SPP
  • Create a new registry key (type DWORD) with the name “CreateTimeout”
  • Modify the value of the key to decimal 1200000. Be sure to click the radio box for Decimal before entering the value.

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Why you will love Windows 10

I am still amazed at the number of people, both consumers as well as I.T. professionals, that simply do not like Windows 8.1. Many managed service professionals (MSP) that I know are still installing Windows 7 in their customer base, avoiding windows 8.1 altogether. I’m fine with that, as that’s their choice.

Personally, I like Windows 8.1 (for the most part). And those sites where I have installed 8.1, the reaction of the users quickly go from “Dislike” to “It’s OK”, and in some cases, they move to “I like it!”.

I came across this article from CNN Money website that gives a very nice overview of why people will want to upgrade to Windows 10.

CNN: You’ll love Windows 10

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BOA Dropping Windows Mobile Phone App

wp_ss_20150219_0002I am not a happy camper with both Bank of America (BOA) and Microsoft.

Earlier this month I started to receive the following message whenever I logged onto my BOA phone app from my Nokia Lumia 920 –>

So, what’s their definition of “soon”?

You have to go to the Windows Phone App store to find that in “early March 2015” they will stop supporting this app on the Windows Phone platform!

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I utilize the electronic check deposit feature of their phone l the time.

Their suggestion that I do my mobile checking through the browser is a farce, since their web site does not provide the capability of electronic check deposit.

Why am I upset with Microsoft? Because it appears that BOA is waling away from the Windows Phone platform, and I’m not hearing anything from Microsoft on this situation. If BOA walks, whose next? And what does that say about the future of the Windows Phone platform?

P.S. Now it looks like both BOA and Chase are moving away from the Windows Phone platform! click here

GodMode in Windows 7/8/10

Haven’t heard about GodMode? No, this is not a joke. There is a hidden method for getting access to virtually all of the Windows control panel apps and system functions – all on a single screen. Best of all, it works on Windows 7 / 8 /8.1 / 10 as well as Windows Server 2011/2012!

Warning: this does not work with prior versions of Windows. You risk locking up the Windows Explorer window if you try to do so.

It’s called God Mode.

Here’s how to enable it:

  1. Create a new folder on your desktop
    (Right click on your desktop, then click New –> Folder)
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  2. Name the new folder: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}  
    I advise copying and pasting the bold faced text to get it exactly right (including the period and braces)
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  3. Double click on the new folder, and voila … God Mode at your disposal!
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Connecting Windows 8.1 to a Shared Printer

With every iteration of Windows, it seems that connecting up printers gets easier and easier. Generally speaking, that is.

I was at a client site installing a new Windows 8.1 workstation. They had a printer directly connected to a Windows 7 workstation, and it was configured as a shared printer. In fact, all of the other workstations were setup to access this printer.

But I was unable to add this shared printer to this new Windows 8.1 workstation. The shared printer was not showing up when I selected Add a Printer. I tried to add it manually (using \\computername\printername). It kept giving me either a Connect to Printer error, or the network could not find a driver. And that’s with me downloading the correct Windows 8.1 driver for this printer.

I then discovered a blog post from Brian Hitney that addressed this very issue. His blog post includes great screen shots and step-by-step directions. So, I will not repeat them in detail here. I’ll simply summarize the steps required:

  • Go to Control Panel –> Hardware –> Devices and Printers, and select Add a Printer
  • Select The printer that I want isn’t listed
  • Select Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings
  • Select Create a new port, and then set the type of port to Local Port
  • In the dialog box that displays, enter the UNC of the shared printer (\\computername\printername)
  • Next, you can choose the driver to use. I would suggest that you first click on the Windows Update button, and download the latest selection of printers and drivers.
  • You can now search for and select your desired printer driver.

A big “Wahoo” to Brian for this information!

Windows Live Writer 2012 for WordPress

I recently replaced my 8 year old workstation with a new Windows 8.1 system with an SSD drive. One of the  software apps I use all the time is Windows Live Writer 2012 to post blogs to my website.

Thanks to Scott Hanselman for his post on where to download Live Writer 2012. I was glad to see that someone else also loves using Live Writer!

Here are the steps to installing it on your workstation:

  • Download the software from this link:
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials
  • Select the option to “Choose the programs you want to install”
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  • Make sure that Writer is the only program checked
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  • Select the blog service you use (WordPress, in my case) 
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  • Enter your login and password for your blog site
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Happy blogging!

Windows 10 January Preview Now Available

The January 2015 build of Windows 10 is now available for download for those who signed up for the Windows Insider program. If you’re not signed up, you should be – it’s free!

Windows Insider Program

This release is labeled Build 9926. To learn what’s new in this release, go to the Windows 10  January Build blog page.

Please note: it does NOT include all the new features that were shown during the Windows 10 presentation on Wednesday.

Enjoy!

Windows 10 free upgrade for first year!

At the Windows 10 briefing event today (Jan-21-2015) they announced that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users for the first year!!!

Read the specifics from Arstechnica

And here is the link to the video of today’s presentation:

http://news.microsoft.com/windows10story/

Cannot Burn DVD in Windows 8.1 Movie Maker

After upgrading a Windows 7 computer to Windows 8.1, I discovered that Windows 8.1 Movie Maker does NOT offer the ability to burn movies to DVDs. Yes, it was there for Windows 7, but removed in Windows 8.1. Bummer!

If you need a FREE solution, the one I have been using successfully is called DVDStyler.

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Quick steps:

  1. First, use Movie Maker to create your content. When finished, select to save it to your disk, creating a WMV file.
  2. You may wish to review the online instructions for creating a DVD with DVD Styler.
  3. Startup DVD Styler. Here are some simple steps for creating your first DVD:
  4. The Welcome screen let’s you define a new project. The three things I do on this page are:
    • Change the wording in the “Disc label” field
    • Set video format to NTSC
    • Set aspect ration to 16:9
    • Click OK
  5. Next you can select a template
    • Change the wording in the “Caption” field
    • Let’s use the default template, so click OK
  6. Now we can customize the DVD and drop in your video file
    • Right click on “Disc Title”, select Properties, then change the text as desired
    • Along the left border, you will see vertical tabs for ‘’”File browser”, “Backgrounds” and “Buttons”
    • Click on “File browser” and a File Explorer frame will open. Browse to locate your video file.
    • Simply drag your video file down to the bottom of your screen where you see the message “Drag your video files from the File Browser to here”
  7. And finally, let’s burn the DVD
    • Insert a writeable DVD in your drive
    • Click on File –> Burn DVD
    • If you have more than one DVD drive on your computer, be sure that the correct DVD drive is selected
    • Sit back and wait until you get the message that the burn was successful.
    • Click  the “Close” button, and pop out the DVD
  8. Multiple copies?
    1. If you wish to burn multiple DVDs, simply repeat the instructions in Step 7 above.
    2. Fortunately, burning the additional DVDs won’t take as long as the first one, as it has already created the temporary DVD output files required.

Why Windows 10 and not Windows 9?

This week Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows would be called Windows 10. Many of us (myself included) wondered “why did they skip calling it Windows 9”?

Today I read of one plausible explanation.

It suggests that there may be plenty of third party Windows programs still in use that have lines of code in their software to perform specific tasks if it was running on a legacy version of Windows (specifically Windows 95 or Windows 98). If so, those programs could include code similar to this:

 

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True? False? I don’t know. But being a long time programmer, I could be convinced. Just look back to the “Y2K” fears 15 years ago:

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, we only stored the last two digits of the year in computer records. So, “12” meant “1912”. None of us programming back then ever envisioned that our software would still be running 30 or 40 years later, past the year 2000. Suddenly, we weren’t sure if ‘12’ was meant to be 1912 or 2012?

I keep thinking to myself … the more things change, the more things remain the same.