Windows blue screen fix

Monday, March 2, 2015

Publisher 2010 wont save export PDF nor XPS any more

After updating my system to Windows 8, Office 2010 Publisher quit saving files as PDF and XPS. The error message was:
"Publisher cannot save the file" or in german "Publisher kann Datei nicht speichern".
On a different computer the same file saved as PDF without problems.

How-i-fixed-it:
I found the right hints how to fix it here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-office_other/publisher-2010-error-when-try-to-save-a-file-as/e2df6b52-0359-447d-8b5d-7d4545052ea3

I changed my default printer to a different one than before and suprisingly PDF and XPS export in Publisher was working fine again.

Office 365 PowerShell Commands

Here are some powershell commands that I used with Office 365 to automate my Cutover migration. In these examples Im using my domain skillsinc.com where your domain should be.
These are mostly commands you would use after you have moved your mailboxes to Office 365.

Open the Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell
If you want to run any commands that have Msol in them, like Get-MsolUser, you need to run this first:
$Cred = Get-Credential
Connect-MsolService -Credential $cred

If your not running on your ADFS server, you may need to connect to it first with this:
Set-MsolAdfscontext -Computer adfs1

If you want to run any commands that involve the mailboxes, like Get-Mailbox, you need to run this first:$Cred = Get-Credential
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell -Credential $Cred -Authentication:Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $Session
Assign Licenses
Check the name of the license pack we need:
Get-MsolAccountSku
Assign everyone the same licenses at one time instead of doing them one at a time in the 365 console.
This is the the license for Live@EDU Faculty
Get-MsolUser | Set-MsolUserLicense -addlicenses skillsinc:STANDARDWOFFPACK_FACULTY

Assign location
Get-MsolUser | Set-MsolUser -UsageLocation "US”

Set Timezone (Run these two lines one at a time)
$users = Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq UserMailbox)}
$users | %{Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration $_.Identity -TimeZone "Pacific Standard Time" }

Fix ImmutableId if its missing (Dont mess with this unless you know for sure why)
$samID = "johndoe"
$searcher = [DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher] "(samaccountname=$samID)"
$user = $searcher.FindAll()|%{$_.GetDirectoryEntry()}
$guid = [Guid]($user.Properties["objectGUID"][0])
$base64 = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($guid.ToByteArray())
set-msoluser -UserPrincipalName johndoe@skillsinc.com -ImmutableId $base64

Check to see what everyone ImmutableID is
Get-MsolUser -all | where {$_.isLicensed -eq $true} | select-object userprincipalname,immutableid

Force Removal off all deleted mailboxes from Recycle Bin
Get-MsolUser -ReturnDeletedUsers | Remove-MsolUser -RemoveFromRecycleBin -Force

Give yourself access to all the mailboxes
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq UserMailbox) -and (Alias -ne ed)} | Add-MailboxPermission -User ed@skillsinc.com -AccessRights fullaccess -InheritanceType all -Automapping $false

Find out how much mail is out there and send it to a text file
Get-User -Filter {RecipientType -eq "UserMailbox"} | Get-MailboxStatistics | ft DisplayName, TotalItemSize, ItemCount | Sort-Object TotalItemSize -Descending > mailboxes.txt

When users are added to the HR inbox they need to be able to forward emails
Add-RecipientPermission HR-Inbox@skillsinc.com -AccessRights SendAs -Trustee hr-user@skillsinc.com

Convert a mailbox into a Room Resource and let people add meetings to it
Set-Mailbox -Identity ConferenceRoom1 -Type Room
Set-MailboxFolderPermission -identity ConferenceRoom1@skillsinc.com:calendar -user Default -AccessRights Author

Close the session after your done...
Remove-PSSession $Session

More Office 365 tips coming soon!

My History with Infor Visual Manufacturing

This is in response to an email I got asking me about how my upgrades went and if I used new hardware.
-----------------------
When we did our big upgrade to 6.3.8, we moved the database to new hardware and then did the upgrade.
We also had a consultant do the conversion because we moved from Oracle to SQL server.
The conversion went fine. I move copies of the database to my test server all the time. Moving the databases around is no problem since there is no software tied to it directly on the DB server.
I use Microsoft DFS that comes with Server 2003 R2 and beyond to create DFS shares for my visual files. That way I can move servers around and it will not ever break Visual on the desktop.
So my Visual binary files are always loaded from v: and the custom reports from o:.
I also have 3 sites with a WAN, so I use thin clients at the remote sites and a terminal server here connected to my DB server with a Gigabit line. It works great. Much better than running over the wan with just the Visual client.
Even my planners at remote sites use Remote Desktop to run Visual.

Back to the install…
It much easier to do smaller upgrades, so I have done the last 2 by myself.
Like from 6.3.8 to 6.4.1 and then I went from 6.4.1 to 6.5.1.
I upgrade Visual about once a year.
Both upgrades were very simple and the database changes were done in like 15 minutes or less.
I used to use Microsoft SMS 2003 (System Management Server 2003) to push out the software to the desktops, but it was just getting out of hand, so now I run everything from a network share and it seems to be fine.
We have about 50 concurrent Visual users and about 20 barcode stations.

I hate SQLbase. I have to use it for my some of my timekeeping software.
I use Microsoft SQL server 2005 now and it comes with Reporting services free and we use it for lots of custom web based reports. I love it.
The only thing I didnt like was that I had to re-create all my 100 users when I upgraded from SQL2000 to SQL2005. This also happens when you change servers, so I did both things at the same time, so that I would only have to re-create everyone once.

How much water do plants need Dont care! Use Blumat!

How much water do your plants need? It took me a lot of time (and lots of indoor plants) before i finally found it, that i will probably never learn to give them the right amount of water. How to fix that problem?
Use the great Blumat Watering System. Less problems with your plants. More time to write great code :-)

Where can i find a free hosted Team Foundation Server Service

I was looking for a free hosted service of Microsoft Team Foundation Server to have version control for my Visual Studio software projects.

I found out, that Microsoft itself offers a free plan for up to 5 users under: http://tfs.visualstudio.com/

What it (currently) includes :

· Up to 5 users

· Unlimited number of projects

· Version control (TFVC or Git)

· Work item tracking

· Agile planning tools

· Virtual team rooms

· Build (still in preview)

· Test management (still in preview)

Windows Phone 8 1 ActiveSync Error 86000106 with Open XChange groupware

My Windows Phone 8 OS-Version: 8.10.12397.895 startet to throw error 86000106 when syncing with my companys Open-XChange groupware server.

Found similar issues described in a forum, but that did not help for me:

http://answers.microsoft.com/de-de/winphone/forum/wp8-wpemail/fehler-bei-active-sync-fehler-86000106/a69fb145-29d2-4c12-8730-7ecbd389787e?rtAction=1404212848646

https://mailbox.org/windows-phone-8-1-fehlermeldung-beim-synchronisieren/

The fixes suggested to change sync interval from "based on usage" to "manual".

How-I-fixed-it:
I deleted the particular Exchange ActiveSync Account on my phone and added it again. The account syncs OK since this.

C SQLCLR SqlMetaData with SqlDbType Float column getting InvalidCastException on SqlDataRecord SetFloat

In my SQLCLR C# Stored Procedure on SQL Server 2008 R2 i returned the results using a SqlDataRecord that has a column of SqlDbType.Float.

Trying to set the value using the SetFloat Method, i got an InvalidCastException.

How-i-fixed-it:
I found out that SqlDbType.Float is equal to a System.Double data type. Using the SetDouble Method it works fine.

Here i found the right hints:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/vstudio/system.data.sqldbtype(v=vs.80).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/vstudio/microsoft.sqlserver.server.sqldatarecord.setfloat.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/vstudio/microsoft.sqlserver.server.sqldatarecord.setdouble.aspx