Stop Windows 11 Upgrade
KB ID 0001773 Problem I have no problem with Windows 11, In fact I prefer its UI. But if experience has taught me anything, it’s that businesses will not be as quick to adapt Windows 11 as the general public. Some private companies spend ‘ages’ testing production OS’s with various applications, and getting a change to that config can be a ‘challenge’. So there are valid reasons for wanting to stop a...
Group Won’t Accept Mail From ‘Outside’
KB ID 0001771 Problem Exchange has been this way for a long time here’s me explaining this very problem with older versions of Exchange. If you create a ‘Group’, be that a Distribution Group, or a ‘Microsoft 365′ Group, the default setting is to NOT ALLOW mail from anyone outside your organisation. If you attempt to send mail to that group you will see errors like these; Errors; 550 5.7.133...
Can you Use ‘Let’s Encrypt’ on Hybrid Exchange?
KB ID 0001770 Problem A few months ago I wrote an article about getting free exchange certificates with Lets ‘Encrypt’. And that still works peachy, I implemented it on my test Exchange 2019 server (in Hybrid mode) and all appeared well. Some time later, (remember this is my test network so it’s not in production.) I noticed that mail was not getting forwarded from O365 to the on premises Exchange server. I’ve...
Exchange Y2KK Bug
KB ID 0001769 Y2KK Problem Over the last couple of days the Exchange forums have been alight with the Y2KK bug, typically it affects Exchange 2016 and 2019 (though the chatter is, it actually effects any Exchange versions whose update version begins with 22… This is fine below, (it begins with 21..) Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Forefront.Filtering.Management.Powershell Get-EngineUpdateInformation Y2KK Symptoms Emails No Longer Being...
Exchange ECP HTTP 500 Error
KB ID 0001756 Problem This infuriatingly happens to me a lot! Every time the fix is the same, (but is a little impractical). Essentially you attempt to log in to ECP (Exchange Admin Center), you a prompted for your credentials, then you just get a ‘500 Error”. The website cannot display the page HTTP 500 Most likely causes: •The website is under maintenance. •The website has a programming error. What you can try: ...
Microsoft Edge on Server 2019/2016 (and Citrix)
KB ID 0001657 Problem In a fit of lunacy Microsoft have called ‘their’ new browser Microsoft Edge, so we can spend the next few months confusing it with Edge. Plus every Google search for GPO settings, error messages etc will all now show search results for the old Edge Browser not the new Microsoft Edge browser! Perhaps the same doofus at Microsoft who called the Exchange sync Active Sync when Microsoft already had a...
Windows Server – Sysprep
KB ID 0000729 Problem I don’t deploy large amounts of servers at once, so Windows Server sysprep is not as important as it is with the client operating systems I deploy. But I do need to create virtual machine templates, (mostly for testing), but some clients like to have server templates. I prefer to manually sysprep and shutdown a server then either convert or clone it to a template. Thankfully sysprep is in the same place as...
Exchange 2000 / 2003 – Exporting Mail to .pst files with ExMerge
KB ID 0000091 Problem ExMerge has been around for a long time, its used (as the name implies) to merge pst files into existing mailbox’s. However its also a great tool to export/backup users mail box’s if you’re doing a migration, or if you have got your “Disaster Recovery” hat on. The following is a run through of how to export from a mail store to pst files – Note on a live system this can take...
Windows Server – Install and Configure NDES
KB ID 0000947 Problem NDES, is the name for what we used to call MSCEP, which was an ‘add-on’ for the Server 2003 family of servers. In Server 2008 it was renamed to NDES. It is a role service that runs on a Certificate Services Server, and is used to create a registration authority (RA) that can issue certificates from your PKI infrastructure to network devices, i.e. Routers, Firewalls and Switches. Solution Installing...
How to Join Windows 11 to a Domain
KB ID 0001764 Problem If you need to join Windows 11 to a domain, then this is the procedure. How To Join Windows 11 to a Domain (Local Domain) Windows Button > Settings. Scroll down to the ‘About’ section and expand it. In the ‘Device Specifications’ section (at the bottom) select ‘Domain or Workgroup’. If you’re used to older versions of Windows, this should look familiar > Change >...