I recently needed to manually add an entry to the Windows start menu and was surprised at how hard it was to find the start menu location.
There are actually two locations; one for all users and one for a specific user.
The all users location is in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and the user specific one in %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
A client has recently been having an issue with a process which appears to starts having problems after it has been running for a few days. While the application was investigated, they wanted to restart the service periodically restarted automatically.
The below Windows command script was created to stop the named service, wait 30 seconds and then start the service again:
@echo off
net stop {service name}
timeout 30
net start {service name}
exit
Change the highlighted section to the name of the service to be stopped and started.
Windows Explorer allows you to customise a folder by changing the columns available with the changes only affecting that one folder. However, there is also a method of applying the changed view to all foldersof the same type. This means if you’re working, as I was, on a folder containing photos that you can apply any changes to the columns to all other folders which Windows sees as a photo folder. This is a fairly blunt approach, but it met the needs of what I was doing.
To apply the settings from the folder you’re in, click the View tab and select Options. When the folder options window opens, click the Apply to Folders button:
When prompted to make all folders of this type to match the folder you’re in, click Yes:
Do you want all folders of this type to match this folder's view settings?
I had a problem recently where the ump lists for Microsoft Office stopped updating. I did some checking around and a recommended solution I found is to remove large files (> 1MB) from the %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations.
I had a look in the folder and did find some large files and so deleted them. Over the next couple of hours, I checked the jump lists and they still weren’t updating, so I deleted the rest of the files to see if there was a smaller corrupt file.
The jump lists didn’t immediately start working, but I noticed after a few days that they were again recording recently accessed files.
This is actually an older issue, I didn’t post about as I first came across it months after Microsoft made the change. However, I’ve seen it come up a few times recently after installing Windows updates, so I am posting this as a reminder of how to fix the issue.
I have seen this on a couple of client sites which has been referred to the client’s IT department to take action, but I also get this on my home network.
The issue is when you try to access a network share, such as from a NAS (Network Attached Storage):
You can't connect to the file share because it’s not secure. This share requires the obsolete SMB1 protocol, which is unsafe and could expose your system to attack...
Continue reading “Fixing “This share requires the obsolete SMB1 protocol…””
Having never seen the below error message before, I have now seen it twice in the last few weeks.
The first time was when I started a VM running an old version of Microsoft Dynamics GP for the first time in a few months; the second was when I copied the VM from my laptop onto the server which had a previous copy of the domain controller VM.
The second instance was not unexpected, but at least I knew how to resolve the problem having seen it recently on a VM which hadn’t been run for a while.
The error is produced when you try to log into Windows:
The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed
The solution is to remove the computer from the domain, restart the computer and then add it back to the domain.
Across the years I have mapped a folder to a drive letter, often to share a drive with an RDP connection where I didn’t want to add the entire c drive, but today, when I needed to do it, I completely forgot how, so I am posting this as an aide-mémoire.
In Windows Explorer, right-click on This PC an select Map network drive…:
I recently uninstalled an application to notice a few days later that the related service was still showing in the Services applet.
I’ve previously posted about adding and removing dependencies from a Windows service.
As with adding or removing dependencies, the SC command online program can be used to delete a service:
SC DELETE {service name}
This post is part of the Hands on with the Microsoft Dynamics GP Fall 2020 Release series where I am hands on with the newly released Microsoft Dynamics GP Fall 2020 Release.
Before installing any of the Microsoft Dynamics GP components, you need to make sure the system requirements are met. On top of this there is also some prerequisites which need to be met before the Microsoft Dynamics GP client or other components can be installed.
Most of these prerequisites can be handled by installer process, there is one which cannot; this is the .NET Framework 3.5 feature which is installed using the Add Roles and Features Wizard available via Server Manager on Windows Server or using Turn Windows features on or off accessible via Program and Features on Windows.
If the PC or server you’re planning to install Microsoft Dynamics GP onto has an Internet connection, then the .NET can be installed simply by using the wizard. However, if, for whatever reason, you don’t have an Internet connection available, the install process isn’t quite that smooth.
However, for both server and PC you can do an offline install and I have blogged about this several years ago:
The above articles are for older versions of Windows Server and Windows, but the process is exactly the same on current versions.
I’ve been switching off sounds for notifications for different programs for a while as I find the notuification chime far too loud compared to other program sounds, but as I am doing this on five or more machines, it is getting somewhat irritating. I eventually started thinking about a global switch off and wanted to see if this was possible, but since Microsoft moved settings out of the Control Panel, I have had a hard time finding a setting when I want it.
This particular setting does exist and is in what is an obvious place (or at least obvious when you know where it is); do disable sounds on notifications globally, open the Notifications and settings app (the shortcut ms-settings:notifications can be used to open it quickly) and unmark the Allow notifications to play sounds):
I have an article on the settings shortcuts.