Friday, November 4, 2016

Reset WORD


  1. Close Word application
  2. Delete Normal.DOTM and BuildingBlocks.DOTX: these files are rebuilt automatically next time Word is started. Normal.DOTM and BuildingBlocks.DOTX usually reside in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates (Username is your Windows profile name);The default NORMAL.DOTM file used for new profiles can be stored in C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.
  3. Use regedit to delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Data key: it will be rebuilt automatically next time Word is started.
Source: http://www.nullalo.com/en/how-to-reset-word-settings-without-reinstalling/

Friday, September 16, 2016

Blue screen on Windows 10 caused by Displaylink driver

This has been an issue since we have upgrade to Windows 10. The systems got blue screen all the times with the error PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA in dlkmd.sys. Do not bother to download any drivers from Displaylink website. The only fix works for us is to apply Windows 10 Anniversary update 2016 (8/2/2016) which has integrated Displaylink driver into OS. Here is more information, http://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/525125.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Windows 7 SP1 Windows Update stuck at "checking for updates"

On my fresh built Windows 7 SP1 64bit PC without any applications installed, the Windows Updates stuck at "Checking for updates" and made no progress. I also saw "Error 0x8024d00e: window update core" on ReportingEvents file in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution directory. There are a lot of solutions on Google and I had tried several ways without any luck. Eventually I found out the solution working for my situation and the tool solved my issue is Windows Update Troubleshooter.

Download the Windows Update Troubleshooter first from here, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/512a5183-ffab-40c5-8a68-021e32467565/windows-update-troubleshooter.

The steps I took to fix all my issues:

  1. Make sure IE11 is installed on fresh built OS.
  2. As most of people have suggested, download and install the latest "Windows Update Agent" as the first step. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3135445.

    In my case, I could not even install it because it stuck at "Searching for updates on this computer..." So I tried to downloaded this fix, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3102810 to resolve, but it stuck at "Searching for update..." again.
  3. Here comes the rescurer: Run Windows Update Troubleshooter then install KB3102810
  4. Run Windows Update Troubleshooter AGAIN then install KB3135445
  5. Run Windows Update Troubleshooter ONE last time, then launch Windows Updates from the Control Panel, shortly all the updates will be available, then process to install.
Hope this helps you too!!

Monday, May 2, 2016

Unity VMs Not Been Delivered to Outlook

After investigation, there're two issues, VMs stuck in UnityMsgStoreSvc mailbox, then VMs stuck in 03-to-10 Connector.

Topology:

  • UnityMsgStoreSvc mailbox resides on EXC-03
  • In 03-to-10 Connector: EXC-01 was listed as the only server to be able to send emails & EXC-02 is the only Remote Bridgehead
Troubleshoots:

1. Emails queued in UnityMsgStoreSvc mailbox: the "unity_UNITY" account password must have expired. Changed the account to never expire, then emails start to empty from the mailbox.


2. However, the emails now stuck in the Connector queues on EXC-01, and unable to connect to EXC-02. Reboot EXC-02 to resolve this.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

User Unable to Log in Cisco Personal Communicator even with the valid credential

Usually the issue can be resolved in manually downloading the user profile from Call Manager.


  1. Enable TFTP client program on the client PC
  2. Open Command prompt and type in tftp then enter
  3. type the following command:  tftp <Call Manager's IP> get <UPCprofilename>.cnf.xml then enter
  4. The file will be downloaded to C:\users\<userprofile> directory
  5. Move the file to C:\Users\<userprofile>\AppData\Local\Cisco\Unified Communications\Client Services Framework\Config
  6. Now user should be able to log in the Personal Communicator





Thursday, February 25, 2016

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

RDP client did not see the correct SSL certificate

Renewed and installed the SSL certificate for our RDS 2008 server, however the RDP client kept receiving the invalid certificate error as below:
I first updated the SSL certificate in Gateway server properties, but it is no good. Eventually google and found out I missed one more step which is documented beautifully by MS here, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2000960

1. Open the "Terminal Services Configuration" windows in Windows Server 2008 or the "RD Session Host Configuration" in Windows Server 2008 R2.

2. Open the properties dialog of the "RDP-Tcp" connection.

3. On the "General" tab, check the selected certficate. Ensure that you select a correct certficate to make Terminal Server sessions or Remote Desktop sessions.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Dell Latitude E5550 Boot mode - HASSLE

Re-image Dell Latitude E5550 is a hassle comparing to older generations. The problem has something to do with the UEFI boot mode.

Here is what I found out to have a successful process to re-image the OS from an external CD-ROM drive. My case is using Dell Windows 7 Professional CD media.


  1. Press F12 on Dell logon screen to get into the boot menu.
  2. Change the Boot mode to enable legacy mode. UEFI boot will not work - no matter secure boot On or Off.
  3. Boot to F12 again, select "Legacy CD/DVD drive" from the boot menu. (Booting from UEFI will result a failure during the Installation)
  4. The installation will reboot the first time and it would fail. So remove the CD and select boot from the Internal hard drive.
  5. Do the same step above for the 2nd reboot, and the installation this time.



Azure MFA NPS extension stopped working due to expired certification

 Users complained they were unable to log in VMware Horizon Client portal and the logon stuck at "Authenticating...." screen. So I...