Adventures in stupid technology
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Wipe securely and track what you’ve wiped
It can be a tedious task to bulk wipe systems to DoD 5220.22-M standards. Especially if you need to keep track of what you’ve wiped and when. There are a handful of tools available for free which allow you to essentially boot and wipe systems and there are many vendors selling appliances to bulk wipe…
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Outlook data recovery from a PST file
[sponsored] If you’re using Microsoft Outlook with a single POP3 account to manage email, all your personal data will likely exist in a PST file. If this file gets corrupted for whatever reason, Outlook may fail to start. [the problem] Outlook will not start and hangs at a splash screen showing starting… or processing… or…
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Google Apps to Office 365 migration the wrong way
So if you’re planning on moving from Google Apps to Office 365, don’t perform a PST migration. The result could be that each migrated email has an incorrectly formatted x400 email address and replying to any migrated messages will yield a 550 5.1.11 RESOLVER.ADR.ExRecipNotFound NDR. [the problem] When using Outlook 2016 and Google Apps Sync…
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Microsoft breaks USB device input with cumulative update KB4074588
–UPDATE 4/10/18– Microsoft has released the 2018-04 Cumulative Update (KB4093110) and again there are reports ranging from disabled USB input devices to broken start menu issues. Microsoft acknowledges some installation related issues with this patch here, but fails to disclose issues reflecting what users are reporting. –UPDATE 3/6/18– Microsoft has acknowledged issues with the 2018-02 Cumulative Update…
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Troubleshooting ping general failure aaand it’s Symantec
Having worked in IT for some years, I’ve developed a special kind of hate for Symantec. I remember Symantec Mail Security for Exchange recursively quarantining all email messages with .ppt (powerpoint) attachments across your datastores, failed tape backups with every Symantec Backup Exec update or Symantec Endpoint Protection Management (SEPM) log files overfilling the OS…
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Deploying TeamViewer unattended host
So I’ve been playing with deploying TeamViewer 13 unattended host for several hours today and have reached the conclusion that the deployment documentation is just grossly inadequate. Here’s what I’ve learned after looking at several forum posts: Don’t try to deploy your customized TeamViewer unattended host MSI application via the GPO software installation package method…
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Skype for Business 2016 breaks Office 2013
In this particular case Skype for Business (SfB) 2016 Basic was installed on a system running Windows 7 Pro and MS Office 2013 with all patches up-to-date. Oddly enough, while Skype for Business 2016 was installed the system appeared to be running problem free; the SfB integration in MS Outlook 2013 indicating availability status colors…
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Skype for Business 2016 on Remote Desktop Server 2016
I had an interesting request lately. Install Skype for Business (SfB) 2016 Basic on an existing Remote Desktop Services Server (formerly Terminal Services) which already had a volume licensed install of Microsoft Office 2013 Standard. A little background on this particular customer is that they licensed Office 2013 Standard for their users and the RDS server…
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How to fix a Dell P2210T 22″ Monitor with a broken backlight
Alright, so admittedly this video will not help you fix all possible backlight issues with a Dell P2210T, but it may help you fix the most common problem I’ve seen. I have a lot of these monitors in production (many were deployed in 2012-2013) and most of them have exhibited the same issue: 4 failed…
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PPTP VPN: testing whether GRE 47 traffic is allowed
Some networks block the basic requirements for PPTP VPN connections. Hotels sometimes do this prevent guests from skirting their internet content policies. To establish a PPTP VPN connection, the host network must allow traffic on port 1723 and Generic Route Encapsulation (GRE) 47 traffic. Both requirements must be met by the host network to establish a successful PPTP…