Windows 8 – ‘Test Mode Windows 8 build 9200’
KB ID 0000281 Problem Also seen on Server 2008. Solution 1. Click Start, in the search box type cmd > then right click the cmd icon and select “Run as administrator”. 2. At command line issue the following command, Bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OFF 3. Then Reboot the PC. Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links Original Article Written...
Disable ‘Fast user Switching’
KB ID 0000320 Problem Fast user switching was introduced with Windows XP (though XP can’t do this when joined to a domain). Starting with Windows Vista you COULD do this in a domain environment. Some users and sysadmins see this as a bad thing (having users logged on with sessions open that may get forgotten about). Should you with to disable this feature then do the following, Solution Option 1 – Via the registry 1. On...
Windows – Search the Internet from the Start Menu
KB ID 0000394 Problem I think this is a feature that should be enabled by default, perhaps it will be in Windows 8. Essentially just a quick policy change and you can perform an internet search with your default browser and search provider, straight from Windows Search/Run box. Solution Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links NA
Hide/Remove Users from the Windows Welcome/Logon Screen
KB ID 0000541 Problem This was asked on EE the other day, and I’ve been asked it before, so I put it on my list of “Articles to write up”. Windows by default will display all “Enabled” accounts on the welcome screen. In most cases that’s fine, but the poster had installed SQL and all the service accounts were listed. Solution Option 1 Updated 09/08/12 Site visitor (Fehlmann Paolo ) Emailed in to...
Windows – Enable Two RDP Sessions
KB ID 0000554 Problem If you have Windows (Professional, Enterprise or ultimate) you can already connect to it remotely using RDP. Unlike Windows Server 2008/2003/2000 which can have two concurrent RDP connections for remote administration, Windows client operating systems can only have one. If someone is logged into the machine and you connect in, it simply kicks them out to the login page. This was never a problem for me until I...
Windows – Remove Saved / Cached Network Passwords
KB ID 0000556 Problem Windows 7 / 2008 R2 like previous versions of Windows, caches your user names and passwords entered for network shares, drives etc. That’s fine until there’s an incorrect password or username in the cache, and you want to remove it. With Windows XP you could do this by running “control userpasswords2” and deleting the offending entry. With Windows 7 we have Credential Manager to do this...
Windows – Print Spooler Keeps Stopping
KB ID 0000751 Problem This is quite a common problem, in MOST cases the problem is caused by a print driver that Windows does not like. But my printers are delivered via login script or group policy? If that is the case then you need to exempt both your user and the computer from this method of printer deployment while you are troubleshooting. Solution 1. As we cant be sure what printer/driver is causing the problem, we need to remove...
Windows Printer – Setting up an IP Network Printer
KB ID 0000624 Problem Originally I wrote this back for Windows 7, but I have now updated it for Windows 10. How to add an IP network printer. Setup a Windows Printer 1. If you don’t have a CD/DVD that came with the printer, then get onto the manufacturers website and download the correct drivers for your printer, you will need to know if you require 32 or 64 bit drivers. How to Tell if Windows is 32 or 64 bit 2. Start >...
KMS Activation – Error: 0xC004C008
KB ID 0000637 Problem KMS had been running fine for months, when we started seeing the following errors. When attempting to activate via slmgr Error: 0xC004C008 The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used. When attempting to activate via Computer Properties. Code: 0xC004C008 Description: The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used. Solution You need to make a...
Slipstreaming Hyper-V
KB ID 0000092 Problem Anyone who has tried the version of Hyper-V that came in the first release of Server2008 may well have written it off as a bad lot, In Microsoft’s defence it was still a Beta product in that initial release, but for many the damage has now already been done. (It seems the mistakes made by releasing “Longhorn Beta 1.00001 to the public have still not been learned). I’ve been meaning to spend more...