For some time I have had some strange symptoms on Windows 10 systems when they were accessing the Internet over a VPN connection. In my case the VPN provider was TigerVPN. This issue is unrelated to the provider, but is instead caused by the Windows networking stack when used with the OpenVPN software (which many …
Tag Archives: Windows
What’s special about the builtin Administrator account?
Every installation of Windows based on the Windows NT code base has a builtin admin account called Administrator. Every installation of Active Directory Directoy Services also has a builtin admin account called Administrator. (If you are running a version of Windows other than English, your accounts may be named something else.) This account provides complete access …
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Error when trying to reset a password when Fine Grained Password Policies (FGPP) are in effect
I had created a Fine Grained Password Policy (FGPP) which, among other things, turned off the requirement for complex passwords. I had applied this policy to users through a group. When I tried to reset the password of one of the users for which this FGPP applied, Active Directory Users and Computers would give me …
Office 2010 Professional Plus fails with unexpected restart on Windows XP
The Situation Office 2010 Professional Plus (32-bit) deployed to Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (32-bit) clients with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 R2 (64-bit). Office 2010 configured with Office Customization Tool (OCT) according to Microsoft guidelines. The Problem Upon completion the installation would initiate a forced reboot without prompting the user or giving …
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Poor sound quality in Spotify
I love Spotify, but recently I have been plagued by poor sound quality. Specifically I experienced clipping, popping and variations in volume level during playback. As far as I could tell this affected all the songs I played in Spotify. At first I thought the problem was specific to Spotify, but after doing some tests …
Computer naming schemes
I often get asked what I recommend for server/client naming schemes. Although there is no definitive answer; this always depends on your organization and what your specific requirement are, here are some pointers: Things you would often want to include in the name of a machine: Your organization name or an abbreviation of it: <org> …
Remote Desktop on Linux?
With the momentum behind desktop virtualization; both with VDI and Remote Desktop Sessions (formerly Terminal Services), more and more people are looking for ways to access the Windows Desktop from platform other than Windows. Citrix offers the Citrix Receiver which supports virtually all platforms, but if you want to use the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) …
SHA1 Thumbprints for trusted .rdp publishers
Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) has a Group Policy setting that determines which publishers are to be considered trusted when launching connections (typically .rdp files served in various ways). The publisher is identified by the SHA1 thumbprint of the certificate of the publisher (the certificate used to sign the .rdp file). You get the thumbprint from …
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GPS Fun with the Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform
Introduction Windows 7 has a new framework; the Windows Sensor and Location Platform. In short it is a system that enables the OS to utilize different sensors; e.g. a GPS device to track your location, a light sensor to dynamically adjust your screen brightness based on the ambient lighting, an accelerometer to use for games …
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Printing nuggets
Someone once told me “Users and printers take the fun out of the whole network.” The printing part I am inclined to agree with… I met up with an old friend today that works for a large printer manufacturer and he imparted the following printing tips to me: Disable bidirectional support on your printer This …