A simple tool to extract and use the Windows activation key from BIOS.
The tool will extract the key Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line.
The key extracted will be install and activated using Windows Software Licensing Management Tool.
Tool is command-line based.
Can be used with your favorite client management tool
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Activate-using-Windows-OEM-db93ca97
Came across this error today:
HTTP Error 500.0 – Internal Server Error C:\PHP\php-cgi.exe – The FastCGI process exited unexpectedly
I was working on a Windows Server 2012 R2 with IIS installed.
After installing PHP 5.6 the error occured when trying to access any php files.
So apparently you need VC++ 11 runtime for PHP 5.5 or newer.
the solution was quick, download, install and iisreset (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679)
Make sure you download and install the x86 version (vcredist_x86.exe), PHP on Windows isn’t 64 bit yet.
If you’re running PHP 5.4.x then you need to install the VC++9 runtime (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5582)
For many years BIOS has been the industry standard for booting a PC. BIOS has served us well, but it is time to replace it with something better. UEFI is the replacement for BIOS, so it is important to understand the differences between BIOS and UEFI. In this section, you learn the major differences between the two and how they affect operating system deployment.
BIOS has been in use for approximately 30 years. Even though it clearly has proven to work, it has some limitations, including:
As the replacement to BIOS, UEFI has many features that Windows can and will use.
With UEFI, you can benefit from:
UEFI Version 2.3.1B is the version required for Windows 8 and later logo compliance. Later versions have been released to address issues; a small number of machines may need to upgrade their firmware to fully support the UEFI implementation in Windows 8 and later.
In regard to UEFI, hardware is divided into four device classes:
Microsoft started with support for EFI 1.10 on servers and then added support for UEFI on both clients and servers.
With UEFI 2.3.1, there are both x86 and x64 versions of UEFI. Windows 10 supports both. However, UEFI does not support cross-platform boot. This means that a computer that has UEFI x64 can run only a 64-bit operating system, and a computer that has UEFI x86 can run only a 32-bit operating system.
There are many things that affect operating system deployment as soon as you run on UEFI/EFI-based hardware. Here are considerations to keep in mind when working with UEFI devices:
I know that there are some questions about, how to include msvcr120.dll/msvcp120.dll into your project.
If you want to drop that dependency. If you compile the program in release version, in Visual Studio 2013/2015 and do not depend on any VS-specific commands (#pragma etc.) or precompiled headers etc.
If you want to compile it to one single release .exe and provide it to user WITHOUT demanding enduser to install VC++ Redistributes for VS
You can statically link the runtime to your project by setting the /MT flag. You can find this option in Visual Studio 2013/2015 under Project > [ProjectName] Properties… > Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Code Generation > Runtime Library. Make sure to only set it for the Release configuration.
So, you might be stuck with SUSDB maintenace issues – properly the maintence jobs won’t finish without getting timeouts? Something like this maybe?
Msg 1205, Level 13, State 54, Procedure spUpdateChangeTrackingNumber, Line 11
Transaction (Process ID 110) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction.
here is a script that will help you – you might have to run it multiple times
Issue: WSUS clients may fail during synchronization and log the following errors: 0x8024400D
Cause: Too much rubbish in WSUS database eg. Lots and lots of expired and superseeded updates. No cleanup or maintenance has been done for a loong time.
Resolution:
Execute a maintenance CleanUp on the WSUS Server. Most of the 0x8024400D are due to a high quantity of updates on the server, even declined, expired, or superseded. This causes that the client WU Engine cannot finish processing all the information, and cannot pass to the Evalutation phase of the update process.
-Run Decline-SupersededUpdates.ps1 (Can also be found at www.thomasmarcussen.com – in the Archive folder). If the base Operating System is Windows 2008 R2 of further there should not be any problem to run it on Powershell 2.0
Instructions:
Open a Powershell windows as Administrator
Execute the next cmdlet in order to be able to execute non-signed scripts: Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass
Execute the script using the next syntax: .\Decline-SupersededUpdates.ps1 -UpdateServer FQDNoftheWSUSserver -Port xx -SkipDecline
Example: .\Decline-SupersededUpdates.ps1 -UpdateServer wsus.domain.local -Port 8530 -SkipDecline
After the process finishes we need to run the WSUS Cleanup:
From WSUS Console, go to Options, and open WSUS Cleanup Wizard
– Select only the 4th and 5th option: Expired Updates and Superseded Updates
– After the process finishes, run the Wizard again, just selecting the 1st Option: Unused updates and update revisions.
You might have to run this multiple times, untill it stops giving timeout errors – in case you got A LOT of expired and superseded updates – I’ve put up a script to perform this task instead. – see this post: https://blog.thomasmarcussen.com/susdb-maintenance/
In this case, we will need to ensure that they have at least the WU Agent revision from June 2015: (You can download it from Here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3050265 )
From a CMD as Administrator execute:
Net stop AppIDSvc
net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptsvc
ren %windir%\SoftwareDistribution %windir%\SoftwareDistribution.old
ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 oldcatroot2
Delete, in the registry: the PingID, SUSClientID and the AccountDomainSID values from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate
Then execute:
net start AppIDSvc
net start wuauserv
net start cryptsvc
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow
Getting tired of the John and Jane doe testing account names?
Here some funny and creative ones — let me know if you got some to add 🙂
General Lectric
Private Keepout
Nosmo King
Patty O’furniture
Owa Tegyu Siam
Minny Tonka
Tennis “E”
Ida Ho
A.Blinkin
Itza Bird
Itzu Perman
Chick Innees
Chuck U Farley
Robin Steele
Yuda Mann
Solomon I. Lands
Burr Palishus
Loo King Good
Florida Keyes
Hey Zeus
Hung Low
Sum Dum Chum
So Soo Mee
Bill Payre
Kisme U. Fool
E Bonnicks
Woz Upp
Auntie Upp
Wazzapp Nindood
Jail Enno
Tillit Hertz
Harry Palms
L Bowgrees
Lee Deway
Shirley Ujest
Phil D Basket
Memm Brzonly
Wysso Glumm
Ock Kewpannt
Rezzi Dent
Funny thing happend……
For some reason new email accounts (older then 24 hours) and email aliases was not working properly within Office365.
External contacts was reporting:
tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain mydomain by mydomain.mail.protection.outlook.com
550 5.4.1 [<username>@<mydomain>]: Recipient address rejected: Access denied
Reason:
Issue:
Resolution:
Articles on Mail Flow for reference:
Exchange Online Protection Limits
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/exchange-online-protection-limits.aspx
How Office 365 does SPF checks for customer-to-customer mail
Manage Transport Rules
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657505(v=exchg.150).aspx
Transport rules
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-IN/library/jj919238(v=exchg.150).aspx
Configure your spam filter policies
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200684(v=exchg.150).aspx
Submitting spam and non-spam messages to Microsoft for analysis
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-IN/library/jj200769(v=exchg.150).aspx
Advanced spam filtering options
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200750(v=exchg.150).aspx
Spam email and Office 365 environment
There seems to be some doubt about Office 2016 when to install 64-bit version of office vs 32-bit
The 64-bit version of Office may perform better in some cases, but there are limitations:
If you have specific add-ins that you use in the 32-bit version of Office, they may not work in 64-bit Office, and vice versa. If you’re concerned, check your current version of Office before installing the new one. Considering testing the add-in with 64-bit Office, or finding out if a 64-bit version of the add-in is available from the developer.
The 64-bit version of Office has some limitations, but is the right choice when:
If you ever had to recover a Synology nas box in recovery-mode, pre DiskStation installation or after a failed DiskStation install….. Then you would need the “secret” telnet password for admin (or in some cases root)
In case you don’t want to contact Synology here is how it’s generated
So, let’s say today is October 15, the password would be: a10-0f05 (a = month in hex, 10 = month in dec, 0f = day in hex, 05 = greatest divisor between 10 and 15).
In some cases the clock is also set to factory default… then try the password: 101-0101
Based on the original correct_password.c source,here is a short snippet to generate the daily password.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
void main()
{
struct timeval tvTime;
struct tm tmOutput;
gettimeofday(&tvTime, 0);
localtime_r(&(tvTime.tv_sec), &tmOutput);
tmOutput.tm_mon += 1;
printf("password for today is: %x%02d-%02x%02d\n\n",
tmOutput.tm_mon, tmOutput.tm_mon, tmOutput.tm_mday,
gcd(tmOutput.tm_mon, tmOutput.tm_mday));
}
int gcd(int a, int b)
{
return (b?gcd(b,a%b):a);
}