Solved: Deleting Copied Executable Files Fails – Temporarily I had a very interesting case recently where copied EXE files could not be deleted. They would simply remain in the folder like zombies, only to disappear a few minutes […] Read more
Setting up Mobile Broadband (WWAN) on HP Elitebook 8560p Configuring an HP Elitebook with integrated HS2340 mobile broadband module to use the 3G connection can be a little tricky. Here is how it works – without third-party dialer software! Read more
Authentication Fails Trying to Send Mail via Google Apps SMTP from PHP As you may know helgeklein.com also hosts a forum where I help people who have questions related to my software. The forum is configured to send out e-mails when new […] Read more
Removing “Eject VMware Virtual disk SCSI Disk Device” The HotPlug functionality of VMware ESX(i) 4 and 5 has the negative side effect that it is easily possible to “eject” hardware devices from inside the virtual machine, completely removing […] Read more
Solved: Disabling the BitLocker Service via GPP Fails If you want to disable the BitLocker service via Group Policy Preferences, you will find that you cannot. The service’s startup mode stays at “manual” and the following event is […] Read more
Walkthrough: Creating a UE-V Settings Location Template In this article I explain how to create a template for Microsoft User Experience Virtualization. For details on how UE-V works please see my earlier article Microsoft User Experience Virtualization […] Read more
Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V): Facts and Review 16 years after roaming profiles made their debut in Windows NT 4.0 Microsoft takes another stab at synchronizing user settings across devices – a very different one. As we will […] Read more
Windows Offline Files Survival Guide Windows Offline Files have a bad reputation. Many an administrator can tell a story where Offline Files caused issues that sometimes even required a reinstallation of the affected PC. But […] Read more
Windows 8 Storage Spaces: Bugs and Design Flaws When I first read about Storage Spaces in the Windows 8 blog, I was enthusiastic. Finally a replacement for the drive extender technology Microsoft let die so cruelly. Having used […] Read more
Dead Simple Wake-on-LAN for Your Windows Server at Home Having a server at home is a great luxury, but having a computer running 24×7 is an extreme waste of energy. Turning it on and off manually is not very […] Read more
Do Shadow Keys Still Work in Server 2008 R2? Shadow keys have been around forever, since way before Terminal Services were renamed to Remote Desktop Services (does anybody use that name?). It seemed they would stay in the OS […] Read more
Windows 8 Storage Spaces – a First(-Hand) Look at Performance Did I mention I love the new Task Manager in Windows 8? It is brilliantly designed, conveying tons of meaningful information while looking very good. This article is not about […] Read more
Building a Low Power, High Capacity Home File Server I have wanted an energy-efficient multi-terabyte home file server for a long time, but until recently such a system was too expensive for my taste, in terms of both energy […] Read more
You’ve Got a New Verisign Authenticode Certificate – Now What? The good news first: You can get a Verisign Authenticode code signing certificate for $99. Just check out https://sysdev.microsoft.com/ for details. This price even applies to the renewal when the […] Read more
Speaking Engagements 2012 As in previous years I will be speaking at several conferences this year. Read more
Get Rid of Active Setup Are you still using Active Setup to distribute per-user files or registry values? If so, stop! There are better ways to manage initial user settings. Read more
Solved: “Other” Eating Up Gigabytes of iPad Storage In preparation for next week’s MVP summit I wanted to fill my iPad with movies for in-flight entertainment when I noticed that a large part of my iPad’s storage capacity […] Read more
Half a Million Downloads of SetACL Last month SetACL reached the magic number of 500,000 downloads. That is a lot, especially for a command-line tool which is focused on a very specific aspect of system administration. […] Read more
How to Troubleshoot Failed MSI Installs I was given the Aventail VPN client software to install on a customer’s Windows 7 x64 computer. That failed miserably. Here is what I did to find the root cause […] Read more
What Remains of Magic Speed Improvements Doesn’t every IT pro dream of finding a secret switch, a switch that increases clock speed, doubles the amount of RAM or makes the PC boot faster? Some do, and […] Read more
How to Speed Up Your Windows 7 Boot Time by 20% [What I wrote here is wrong. Please read this follow-up article.] Here is a very simple way to reduce the time it takes to boot Windows 7 by around 20% […] Read more
Access Based Enumeration on Windows 7 Access Based Enumeration (ABE) is a well-hidden feature even in Windows Server, where it can be configured per share, but only in the Share and Storage Management MMC and not […] Read more
How to Make Google Chrome Search via SSL/HTTPS by Default A while ago I wrote about the dangers of using unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Right now I am connected to such a network and trying hard not to give away authentication […] Read more
Geek Fashion This is what I’ll be wearing at next week’s WINone: And yes, the letters are made up of actual source code ;-) Read more
Analysis: Require Domain Controller Authentication to Unlock Workstation Among the many security options that are configurable via Group Policy, there is a setting Interactive logon: Require Domain Controller authentication to unlock workstation. For security reasons, this is often […] Read more
ShMgrate – An Analysis ShMgrate.exe is an executable file in Windows XP and Server 2003 and one of those files that are documented nowhere. I will try to shed a little light on this […] Read more
Permissions Windows Does Not Show You Sometimes it is good not to know the truth, but as an administrator you better know what is going on! Most IT pros know that Explorer lies a lot (on […] Read more
New File System ReFS in Windows 8: Quick Facts The introduction of a new file system is a big step even for Microsoft. According to this article in the Building Windows 8 blog ReFS will ship with the server […] Read more
Windows 7 IPv6 in Enterprise Environments If you roll out Windows 7 in an enterprise environment you may need to decide what to do with IPv6. As you probably know, Windows 7 comes with IPv6 enabled […] Read more
WLAN Security – Beware of (Unknown) Wi-Fi Hotspots In its issue 1/2012 German c’t magazine published an article about security in Wi-Fi networks. The authors describe how very easy it is to gain access to other people’s accounts […] Read more
