Get IT Fixed

What to do when Outlook will not connect to Office 365

2017-10-24T02:12:00.001-04:00

I have been migrating many clients over to Office 365 lately. Every so often Outlook will have a problem making the initial connection.

Microsoft has created a nice tool that can fix many of the issues.

It's worth a shot. The free download is available at this link

HTTPS://diagnostics.office.com

IT Fixed it for me many times so far.

Office 365 Free Training

2017-10-22T23:27:00.001-04:00

As Office 365 is gaining popularity and more and more small businesses are migrating to it I have come accross some decent free training.

Micrsoft has some Office 365 training at the link below

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Just-released-Free-Office-365-training-for-IT-pros-small/ba-p/109527

It is separated into sections for IT Pros, Small Businesses and End Users.

Have a look.

What is the difference between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless networks?

2017-10-21T08:48:00.000-04:00

We get this question a lot.

The primary differences between the two frequencies are the range (coverage) and bandwidth (speed) that the bands provide. The 2.4 GHz band provides coverage at a longer range but transmits data at slower speeds. The 5 GHz band provides less coverage but transmits data at faster speeds.

How to list Active Directory groups for a pc and user.

2017-02-12T14:59:00.001-05:00

I have been using Microsoft Group Policy more lately and would like to post this as a reminder.

A good troubleshooting tool for group policy is the command "gpresult /r"

This should be run from the command prompt as the user logged in.

This will show which policies have been applied as well as list the active directory groups the user and computer are a member of.

Windows 10 Anniversary update hangs at spinning balls.

2017-02-11T18:20:00.001-05:00

I just attempted to install the Windows 10 Anniversary update and upon reboot the computer seemed to hang on the spinning dots or balls.

After letting it sit for over 8 hours i had to hard power cycle it. Upon restart again the pc started to roll back the changes.

I thought i was in the clear but the next time windows updates ran it did the same thing and hung at the same black screen with spinning dots.

After hours of research i found a tip that worked.

The next time I ran windows updates it hung again at the same screen.

I simply unplugged the wireless mouse receiver and the screen progressed to a Windows screen with the prgress percentage.

Not sure it this will work for everyone but
ItFixed it for me.

How to remove old service pack files from Windows 2008 R2

2015-09-24T19:21:00.000-04:00

This is a quick post as a reminder for anyone that may not know this.

This command will remove old service pack files from a Windows 2008 R2 server.
Run the below command from and elevated command prompt.

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

I have used this on many server to clean up disk space on running virtual machines.

Hope this helps.

How to get a list of folders only to be used in a batch file

2015-08-06T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have been asked a few times "How do I get a list of folder names only to be used in a windows batch file?"

There a likely several ways to accomplish this depending on your intended use but for a simple list of folders found in a particular directory you can run the command below

dir /B /A:D-H-S

This command will display a list of folder names only without any time stamps or file sizes. It will not show Hidden or System folders.
This can be used if you wanted to loop through these folders in a batch file and perform another action on each folder.

The /B switch is for "bare format"
The /A:D-H-S shows only Directories (D) and does not show Hidden(-H) or System(-S) files

You can also pipe this to a text file if you wanted as well by using

dir /B /A:D-H-S > directory-listing.txt

To read more about the dir command options you can also type the following from a windows command prompt.

dir /?

Hope this helps.

How to install older version of Android apps

2015-08-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

Ran into a problem with an automatic update on my Android phone (Galaxy S5)
An update caused the app to force close on every attempt to open it.

If this has happened to you you know how frustrating it can be if you have to wait for the developer to fix and update the app again.

If you can't wait there may be an option for you to save some sanity.

Please use this at your own risk.

Android app are sent to your phone in a formate called and APK file.

There is a site called APK Mirror http://www.apkmirror.com/ that has downloadable versions of many Android apps all sorted by date. It does not have every Android app but does have many of the most popular such as Facebook and Google Chrome etc...

Im my case I downloaded the prior version apk file of the app in question to my phone.

NOTE that you may need to change a setting on your phone that allows you to install apps from third parties. As there are too many phone to give details on this you will have to search for specific instructions to enable this on your phone. However many phone have this setting listed under SETTINGS then SECURITY. Look for the checkbox for the setting.

Again please use this at your own risk but It Fixed it for me.

Two useful Linux commands

2015-08-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

I came across a couple of Linux commands that I have not used before and wanted to share them in case anyone else find them useful. I used them to determin who was on a linux server as well as when the server last rebooted for troubleshooting a web server problem.

The command are

last

From the man page:

NAME

last, lastb - show listing of last logged in users

SYNOPSIS

last [-R] [-num] [ -n num ] [-adFiowx] [ -f file ] [ -t YYYYMMDDHHMMSS

] [name...] [tty...]

lastb [-R] [-num] [ -n num ] [ -f file ] [-adFiowx] [name...] [tty...]

DESCRIPTION

Last searches back through the file /var/log/wtmp (or the file desig‐

nated by the -f flag) and displays a list of all users logged in (and

out) since that file was created. Names of users and tty's can be

given, in which case last will show only those entries matching the

arguments. Names of ttys can be abbreviated, thus last 0 is the same

as last tty0.

The other is a variation of the first and shows a list of reboots on the pc or server.

last reboot

From the man page:
The pseudo user reboot logs in each time the system is rebooted. Thus
last reboot will show a log of all reboots since the log file was cre‐
ated.

Hope this helps.

How do I include the date in a Windows Batch file?

2015-07-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

I have used this many time in Windows batch files.

You can set any variable, in my example below called "thedate" to a substring of the computers date to produce only the numbers without any "/" in case this needs to be used in creating folder or file names.

For my example I would like to use a script to create a photos folder with the date in the name:

set thedate=%date:~-4,4%%date:~0,2%%date:~-7,2%

then you can show your output

echo %thedate%

I then use

mkdir photos_%thedate%

to create a folder called "photos_20150727"

The above was created using Window 7.

Hope this help

How many innocent pc users fall for this trap?

2015-07-29T20:15:00.002-04:00

Another not really new but new enough phone scam is going around.

The companies and callers could sound very legitimate using all the correct buzz words but they are just tyring to fool you into giving them your credit card.

The scam goes like this.

You may get a call caliming to be from "Microsoft Support" or another Computer Tech Services company claiming that your pc is infected and they they need to connect to your pc to fix it.
If you fall for this, the company will charge your credit card and then pretend to fix your computer. but in reality not do anything (or could even be infecting your pc further)
After a couple of days a second call may come alerting you that the first caller was a scam and that for an additional large sum of money they will clean up what the first scam company did.
They would then charge your credit card again.

You have now be scammed twice likely by the same company.

Most of these scams orginate from outside of the USA so there is little that anyone can do to prosecute these criminals

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS.

Always use uptodate Antivirus and Antimalware software.

For some of my recommended programs please see this link

http://itfixed.blogspot.com/search/label/spam%2Fspyware%20removal

I hope this prevents even one user from falling for this.

What is using all of my disk space?

2015-07-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

What is using all of my disk space?

This is a question I get asked often. While the answer can vary greatly depending on what you do with your computer, the following app can show you in detail where the disk space is being used.

(screen shot from Jam-Software website)

TreeSize free (download from https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/features.shtml ) is an application that can scan a disk or folder and display in order of space used the folders that are taking the most amount of space. It is less that 10MB is size itself so should install even the fullest hard drives.

While I do not recommend blindly deleting any files, this application may help you determine which folders to look at further.

I do not get any compensation from making this mini-review. This post simply intends to help users looking to free disk space.

Hope this helps.

Google Chromecast

2015-07-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

I know there are many reviews for this out there already but whats one more :)

I recently picked up a Google Chromecast from Amazon. See the link below.
I believe I paid $35 for it. If you don't know what the Chromecast is, it is a small device that you can plug into an HDMI port on a TV and then "cast" content to it from various pc apps as well as phone or tablet screens.

Personally I use this device to watch movies from a Plex Media server as well as Youtube play lists.

I have used this on vacation to watch content from my tablet as well.

For the price this can't be beat. Pick on up from the link above.

Useful Linux Command - with output redirection

2015-07-27T10:29:00.003-04:00

This one has been around for a while but in case you have not come across (and in case I forget myself) here is another useful Linux command:

ls > textfile.txt

This is a simple way to get a list of files in a certain folder and rather than write them to the screen it writes them to a text file that could be used in another script perhaps.

The above command will create a simple list of the file names in a particular directory.

If would like more details on the files you can use

ls -l > textfile.txt

Added the "-l" (the lowercase letter L) will produce a "long" list with the file details.

This could be used to create a spreadsheet where you could sort or filter the files for some other purpose.

Use SCONFIG in Windows Server 2012

2015-07-24T13:55:00.000-04:00

There is a very simple command to help get a Windows 2012 server initially set up.
It is called the Server Configuration Tool and is started by running the command

sconfig

From Microsoft's site

"In Windows Server 2012, you can use the Server Configuration tool (Sconfig.cmd) to configure and manage several common aspects of Server Core installations. You must be a member of the Administrators group to use the tool.
Sconfig.cmd is available in the Minimal Server Interface and in Server with a GUI mode."

For those server admins that like the command line this is one worth trying.

How to make an RDP session full screen.

2013-02-18T14:33:00.001-05:00

This one always bothers me and I never remember the key combo so I will post it here for myself as well as others.

This key combo will make an RDP session full screen. Once I open an Remote Desktop window and becomes "not full screen" it sometimes may not go back to full screen even though you maximize the window,

To make an RDP session window full screen again use the below key combo.

Ctrl+Alt+Break

Hope this helps.

Klok Updated to Version 2.5.5

2013-02-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

We just posted v2.5.5. This update includes a new dashboard chart. We have also added tagging that is used for searching for projects. Tag-based dashboard widgets will be coming soon.
Please download the update at www.getklok.com

How to have Device Manager show non present devices.

2013-02-06T09:25:00.000-05:00

Here are a few small commands that a colleague of mine showed me. These commands will start the Windows Device Manager and allow you to see devices that have been removed from the system.

This can come in handy if you P2V (Convert a Physical machine to a Virtual machine). the Virtual hardware will be using rather than the physical hardware that was once in the original system. This can help prevent certain BSODs

To run the commands open up a Command Prompt on the machine and type

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc

Also in Device Manager click on the View menu item and select "Show Hidden Devices"

Hope this helps...

How to schedule a reboot using the AT Command

2013-02-01T15:09:00.000-05:00

The "at" command can be very useful. Below is just one simple use to schedule a reboot of a Windows 2003 server at a certain time and day.

The at command:

at [\\computername] TIME [DATE] "command"

for example

at 3:00 AM Sun shutdown -r

The above command will restart (-r) the server the command is run on at 3:00 AM on the next Sunday it encounters.

Hope this helps.

What is the URL for a CentOS 6 netinstall?

2013-01-30T15:10:00.003-05:00

This one may be just a reminder for myself when I forget but it may help someone else as well.

If you download the CENTOS 6 Linux netinstall image it will prompt you for a URL to the install files.

Here are the links.

for 32 bit: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/i386/
for 64 bit: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/x86_64/

Hope it helps.

Klok 2 - Updated Asana connector now available

2013-01-30T14:26:00.003-05:00

This week we released a completely rewritten version of the Asana connector which resolves the issues people were seeing when they had many tasks. You can install it from the Tools / Preferences / Plugins screen or download it fromhttp://getklok.com/KlokConnectorPlugins.html#asana.

Thanks to the folks at Asana for updating their API to make this possible.

Table ‘mysql.servers’ doesn’t exist

2013-01-29T14:34:00.001-05:00

Came across this little issue while trying to install Centreon (monitoring server).

During the install it attempts to create a database use and then failed during that process with the following error

"Table ‘mysql.servers’ doesn’t exist"

Apparently during a MySQL upgrade it is common for something to not quite finish completely.

To fix the problem I had to run the following command from a console window. By the way this was run on a Centos 5.9 server.

mysql_upgrade -u root -p

After the above command I restarted mysqld

service mysqld restart

After the above I was successfully able to continue the Centreon install.

How to change timezone on Centos 5

2013-01-29T11:44:00.000-05:00

Here is a short quick one that may help someone. This will change the time zone to EST

Run from a command line

date

Then run

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime

Then run again to check to see if your change worked.

date

Hope it helps...

It's been a while...

2012-11-16T11:13:00.001-05:00

Well try to post more frequently again.
Should have done New posts up soon.

It Fixed it for me - Windows Update Not Working

2011-05-13T22:47:00.002-04:00

I recently had a client pc brought to me that would not run Windows Updates.

I initially though it was Malware or Spyware or Virus related so I was a bit puzzled after running my usual assortment of tools (Malwarebytes , Super Antispyware and others...) as to why Windows update would still not run.

It turned out that the some dll files were not longer registered ( possibly from some older previous infection )

To get Windows Update working again I opened a command prompt and ran the following

regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll

After each of the above there should be a message about successfully registering the dll.

Once they were all registered Windows Update worked again.

As usual this may not be the only way to solve the issue but "It Fixed It for Me"

For more of my "It Fixed it for me" articles please click here.