Outlook: Some Favorites keep disappearing on Outlook restart

I recently had an issue with Outlook 2021 and Outlook 365: Some of the favorites (located in the left pane on the top) were disappearing on Outlook restart. I found some suggested solutions to start outlook from the commend line: outlook.exe /resetnavpane. But that did not help in my case. What worked for me was to add the following Registry key and then restart Outlook: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Autodiscover DWORD: ExcludeLastKnownGoodUrl Value: 1 Read more [...]

Linux: How to use the vi Editor

In Linux, there are different editors to edit text files. The most wide-spread editor is vi. Find below the basics on how to use vi: Open a text file: vi /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf There are 2 modes in vi: Command mode (you are in this mode right after starting vi) You can use keyboard keys to navigate, delete, copy, paste, save the file, quit vi and do a number of other tasks - except entering text Insert mode (-- INSERT -- will appear in the bottom line of vi) You can enter text, Read more [...]

Windows 11: Bring back the Classic Context Menus

Windows 11 brings a new version of the context menus (the ones that appear when you right-click on a folder, for example). They contain less items, so this can be quite annoying. If you want to bring back the behaviour from Windows 10, do either of the following: Open the Command Prompt (admin) and run the “reg add “HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32″ /f /ve” command Open the Registry in the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\CLSID” Read more [...]

Exchange 2019: Search for all Email Addresses

Exchange 2019 EAC does not show results if you search for parts of email addresses if they are not in the primary email address. Let's take for example the following mailbox: Primary email address: [email protected] This mailbox has a second email address: [email protected] In EAC, you can search for "admin" and will find the mailbox. But if you search for "postmaster", you will not find it. Here, Exchange Powerhell helps, just type: Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter {EmailAddresses Read more [...]

Outlook: Remove the "External" label left to the From field

If you are using Outlook and you are connecting to Exchange Online, you might see (depending on what your IT administrator has set) a big "External" label to the left of each From field on each email that has an external sender. This can be quite distracting, expecially if 95% of all your emails are coming from external senders. You can remove that "External" label, by replacing the "From" column with a custom "From" field. Here is how to do it: In Outlook, go to View > View Settings Click Read more [...]

Windows Server 2022: The October 2023 Update installs and adds the Azure ARC Setup to auto start

With security update KB5031364 from October 10, 2023 for Windows Server 2022, Microsoft also installs the Azure ARC Setup and adds it to auto start. This means that on the server, you will now see the Azure ARC Setup in the system tray. Most server administrators do not like this silent adding of unneeded features. To get rid of this, you can use the following Powershell (as admin) command: Remove-WindowsFeature AzureArcSetup This needs a restart of the server. What is Azure ARC? This Read more [...]

Microsoft Exchange: Renew the Microsoft Exchange Server Auth Certificate

In Microsoft Exchange on-prem, there is a self-signed certificate called Microsoft Exchange Server Auth Certificate This not bound to any IIS web site, but still needed for authentication purposes. It is valid for 5 years. If the certificate has expired or is about to expire, you can renew it with the following procedure: Start the Exchange Management Shell and type: (Get-AuthConfig).CurrentCertificateThumbprint | Get-ExchangeCertificate | Format-List This should show you the details of Read more [...]

Microsoft Exchange: Renew internal backend certificate

In Microsoft Exchange on-prem, there is an internal certificate that is bound to the back-end web site. This certificate is self-signed and valid for 5 years. It is called Micorosoft Exchange The subject of the certificate is the server name itself. Find below the procedure to renew this certificate. It does not matter if the certificate is already expired or still valid. Start the Exchange Management Shell Get the thumbprint of the current certificate: Get-ExchangeCertificate | where Read more [...]

My experience with servers, networks and gadgets.