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Surface Woes
Earlier this year I opened a ticket with Microsoft to replace my Surface Pro 4 under warranty. There was an intermittent problem, and I was hoping to be able to get it fixed. Unfortunately the problem went away, and I continued to use my device as normal. This week I turned on the device, and…
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Management Packs: Keep Up!
Updating your SCOM Management Packs should be done from time to time… schedule it!
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A BossDock PHEW! Moment…
I got to my office this morning and realized that my screens were unresponsive, as were my external keyboard and mouse. Assuming the issue was with my external docking station, I disconnected it from my laptop and then reconnected it; I unplugged it from the power source, waited a few seconds, then plugged it in…
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Golden Exam?
I have a spreadsheet that I keep in my OneDrive that tracks the certification exams I have taken. Over the years (starting in December, 2011) I have written a great many of them, Mostly for Microsoft but also a few VMware exams sprinkled in there. Much has changed since I wrote my first exam (which,…
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Offline Files: Groan!
You’ve configured Folder Redirection in Group Policy, and it works as expected… as long as you are connected to the network. As soon as you disconnect, things stop working. That may be a real inconvenience if you are redirecting your Photos, but if you have redirected your Desktop folder to a network share, there is…
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Not all Computer Docks are Created Equal…
When I first joined Cistel, I picked up a Dell Universal Dock (D6000) to use with my corporate Dell Latitude laptop. It is a good little device, and it did the job just fine… until I wanted to work on my Surface Pro 4, at which point I would have to switch to my Surface…
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What’s My WiFi?
A lot of changes have been made to Windows 10 over the nearly three years since its release as the last desktop operating system that Microsoft would be releasing. Some of those changes have been substantive, others purely cosmetic. Over the last few versions, they have done quite a bit to remove any of the…
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Ironkey Fail: Time to change.
There is probably no good reason why I have four (4) military grade USB keys on my key ring with Windows To Go (WTG) configured on each one… but since 2015 I have written about four different devices, and I keep all of them. Of course, they are not all always up to date… but…
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KB4103723: DO NOT APPLY!
Hey folks, if you know what is good for you, do not apply this patch yet. KB4103723 protects against a CredSSP vulnerability that has not yet been compromised. However, it will break lots of things in your system, including RDP and Hyper-V connections. Errors will include CredSSP errors when trying to connect via RDP (or…
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Automated Virtual Machine Activation
Let’s face it… Microsoft wants you to use Microsoft, so when it can, it creates technologies that make it easier for you to do so. Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA) is one of those tools. I remember when Microsoft got into the server virtualization game, it really had very little to compete with VMware, other…
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Default Gateway Corrections
The default gateway setting in Windows (and every other networked operating system) is a simple setting that tells your network interface card (NIC) where to send traffic when sending it outside of your domain segment. More often than not, it will be the .1 address of a network segment (e.g.: 10.0.0.1), but that is not…
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Replay: Not quite a Second Shot, rather like buying Exam Insurance.
Microsoft certifications are worth the money… but there is certainly money involved. You are paying USD$165.00 to sit an exam, whether you pass or fail. Some time ago, Microsoft started offering Second Shot vouchers. As long as you pre-registered for it, you would get the chance to re-sit an exam in the event that you did…
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Microsoft Technology Roadshow
Tuesday morning I stood up in front of a great audience of IT Professionals at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. The subject? Azure networking. One of the slides that Microsoft gave me for the ‘Curtain Warmer’ contained a list of links for further information. They are: Azure Training: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-ca/training Azure Certification: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/learning/certification-overview.aspx Windows Certifications: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/learning/windows-certification.aspx…
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Windows 10 Support Extended
I know, I am a couple of months late on this… on February 1st, 2018 Microsoft announced that it would be extending support on Windows 10 Editions 1709, 1703, and 1607. That means that instead of having 18 months of support, you will have 24. The bad news? This applies only to the Enterprise and…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 