Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 & 2022 How To’s
If you pay attention to your Windows Updates you’ll notice there several different categories of updates and this can cause confusion. In particular, a Windows “Update Stack Package,” a “Servicing Stack Update,” and a “Cumulative Update” are all different types of updates that serve distinct purposes in maintaining and improving Read more…
Generic Volume License Keys (GVLK) are the codes that are used to activate Windows desktops and servers with a companies internal Key Management Server (KMS). GVLKs are also referred to as KMS client setup keys. Installation media from Microsoft for Enterprise editions of the Windows operating system may already contain Read more…
The title of this article might seem a bit convoluted but this article will explain how to troubleshoot Azure AD Sync failures. In our case we have a client that was making a lot of changes on their on premise active directory and then found that new accounts created on-prem Read more…
Many of our clients know their Volume License / Open License / Open Business / Open Value / Enterprise / Education Windows Server activation keys but they do not have an ISO for their product. The easy solution is to log into the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (MSVLSC) and Read more…
Are you using the standard DISM command to activate your Windows and finding it is stuck at 10%: Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /AcceptEula /ProductKey:12345-12345-12345-12345-12345 Deployment Image Servicing and Management toolVersion: 10.0.14393.0Image Version: 10.0.14393.0Starting to update components…Starting to install product key…Finished installing product key.Removing package Microsoft-Windows-ServerStandardEvalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.14393.0[===== Read more…
If you are struggling to activate your Windows Server and see ERROR 0X0C004F074 The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activatedwe have the answer. What does error is probably trying to tell you is that The server is trying to connect to a key management server Read more…
If you are an administrator, or even just a curious power user, there will come a time when you will want to know who shutdown a computer, or who logged off of a computer last. How To Tell Who Shutdown a Windows Computer If you want to know who logged Read more…
Today we had a good question from a frustrated client. One of their users had their laptop stolen so the administrator logged into Microsoft 365 / Azure and disabled their account. About an hour or later the user came into the office picked up a loner laptop and was able Read more…
In this short article we are going to explain several things that all tech’s need to understand both the Delivery Optimization service in Windows. 1 – What is the Windows Delivery Optimization Service (WUDO)? The Windows Delivery Optimization Service (aka WUDO) let’s your computer pull parts of updates from computers Read more…
In this video, we’ll show you how to easily find the root cause of a Windows Blue Screen / Green Screen of Death. We’ll show you how to open, read, and analyze mini-dump files from crashes. Whether you’re experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) or a Green Screen of Read more…
This one has bothered us for a while and tonight I decided to dig in and figure it out. With a number of our clients we have to log into the console to do patching and the only way we could run that in the past was to manually start Read more…
We’ve recently had a situation in which a client could not see a number of files on their C drive even though they had turned on hidden files, as you can see in the see: However if you look at the bottom right corner of that screenshot you will see Read more…
A common question we have receive every year is, What files can be safely deleted from my C drive to free up space? As a result we have written several articles explaining what files and folders can safely be deleted including THIS one from a few months ago, but today Read more…
If you are new to Microsoft Edge as a browser you might be surprised to find that under the hood it’s actually running on Google Chrome which is why so many of the features are so similar. However there is still a pile of new icons and new features in Read more…
What Does CHKDSK /SPOTFIX Do? CHKDSK /SPOTFIX is a new feature of Check Disk that became available with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 and is exclusive to NTFS partitions. /SPOTFIX scans only the areas that have been detected as problematic by NTFS, instead of the whole drive. As a Read more…
In this short article we are going to provide half a dozen answers to common Local System account questions. What is The Local System Account In Windows? The Local System account is a user account created when the operating system is installed and is used primarily to run Windows Services Read more…