Windows 7 VSS Error–Essentials Backups Failed

June 29, 2016 by 1 Comment

WindowsVistaBackupIconThis issue came up on our own internal accounts machine, so it was pretty critical to get it resolved.

Seemingly out of the blue, the machine decided to stop backing up. There was nothing particularly helpful in the logs on the Essentials Server. Checking the logs on the client itself revealed a string of VSS related errors.

I decided to abandon the Client PC backup at this point, because if the underlying cause was VSS, then what we need to do was fix VSS and then this would also fix the client backups. Read more of this post

Filed under Backup, Essentials, General, Tips & Tricks, WSE Tagged with , , , ,

Configuring a Raspberry Pi as a Dashboard display

May 12, 2016 by 3 Comments

raspberry-pi-logoA while ago my TV died. I say it died, my wife called to say it had a funny blank line running through it, and rather than investigate I took it as a signal that the Universe wanted me to buy a new TV, and you can’t argue with the power of the Universe.

As it turns out there was nothing wrong with it, but who wants to keep a seven year old TV when you can upgrade to a 40” Smart TV with Netflix and Wi-Fi built-in?

Anyway, this led to me having a spare TV, and as my wife ‘wanted that thing out of the house’ I was left with no choice but to take it to the office.

Paul, the owner at IT Authority, then wanted to know ‘what that thing’ was doing in his office. Not wanting to reveal my secret plan to install an Xbox into the office, I said I had donated it to put on the wall to display our dashboards.

Honestly looking back I don’t know where that idea came from, but I was stuck with the task of making it work.

Read more of this post

Filed under General, Tips & Tricks

Outlook Office 365 System Folder Names appear with 1

May 11, 2016 by 2 Comments

RSS Feeds1After an Office 365 migration I had noticed I had some duplicate folders in my Outlook. The duplicate folder appeared with a 1 next to the folder name, and what’s worse it was on the ‘System Folders’ like Junk Mail or RSS Feeds.

you might be forgiven for thinking, so what? well indeed, but it was annoying the hell out of me and this is my website, so there you go..

I tried numerous times to remove them, or delete them, and replace them with new folders. Of course none of this worked. Read more of this post

Filed under General, Tips & Tricks Tagged with , ,

WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! HURRY HURRY HURRY!!!!

April 25, 2016 by Leave a comment

dipping-birdDo you want Free IT Training, for LIFE?

Yes, Yes you do.

Just follow this link and drop your name in the hat, for the chance to win a most exciting prize!

http://www.firebrandtraining.co.uk/FTFL/17KN

Filed under General Tagged with

Unable to create a VPN Connection on Windows 10

April 19, 2016 by Leave a comment

metroA friend called me up recently to ask for help with a Windows laptop. It had been running Windows 8.1 and auto upgraded to 10. During the upgrade, or, as a consequence of the upgrade it had lost its VPN connection to the main office.

It would not allow a new VPN connection to be setup either, with the wizard instantly failing after you entered the remote IP address, or, accepting the remote IP Address but sitting on the ‘Creating the Connection’ screen indefinitely. Read more of this post

Filed under General, Tips & Tricks Tagged with , , ,

Windows 10 Rollback, Office Key Missing

March 15, 2016 by Leave a comment

metroA client emailed this morning to say their PC had automatically upgraded to Windows 10.

They had decided to roll it back because ‘some applications did not work properly’. Which was music to my eyes because I did not want to have to sit through a roll back.

However, when they had gone into Outlook, it was showing as Unlicensed, and prompting them to buy!

I used my favourite Office licensing tool, OSPP.vbs to check the status and found ‘No Product Keys Detected’. Read more of this post

Filed under General, Tips & Tricks Tagged with , , ,

Windows Server Essentials 2016 – Install Stuck at 17% or 39%

March 10, 2016 by 39 Comments

2016This week I had a Skype conversation with a fellow MVP and friend from Brazil, Daniel Santos. He reported an issue he was having installing the Essentials 2016 TP4 OS which was stalling at 17% during the Essentials configuration Wizard.

He also reported that the environment had not changed and that previous TPs had installed correctly.

I volunteered to login to his server and check it out.

His Lab was running on a Windows 10 workstation with Hyper-V.

He was also using a Portuguese language edition of the TP but reported the same issue with the English one, I got him to start over with the English one so I could read it!!

Read more of this post

Filed under Essentials, General, Tips & Tricks, WSE Tagged with , ,

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