With the onboard tools of Windows, you can only create symbolic links with the command line (unless you download some third-party GUI tool). The syntax is as follows:
mklink /D "c:\inetpub\External" "\\server\share"
This will create a folder c:\inetpub\External and it will point to a share on a server. You can delete c:\inetpub\External via normal File Explorer, it will only delete the Symbolic Link, not the destination share.
On Windows Server 2019, I wanted to switch off Windows Defender Anti-Virus realtime scanning to test something. I went to "Windows Security" and then cliecked on the "Open Windows Security" button. This brought up the following error message:
You need a new app to open this windowsdefender
After some searching, I found that you need to install the missing app yourself, it seems to be a bug in Windows Server 2019. To do this, open Powershell as Administrator and type (all in one line):
Add-AppxPackage Read more [...]
I recently had a Windows 2016 server that could not install automatic updates. It always hang at some percentage and would never finish. The next step was to try to install an update (.msu file) manually. But this always hung forever at "Copying packages to the update cache".
Here is what helped me:
Start a cmd box as Administrator
Run the following commands:
net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
del /f /q "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr*.dat" Read more [...]
After installing Windows Server 2019 Standard, I tried to activate it with a MAK key from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Portal. I clicked on "Change product key" and entered the key from the Microsoft Portal. I got the following error message:
The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0x80070490)
Searching on Google, this error number mostly refers to Windows Update or Windows Store errors, but not to licensing issues.
I finally Read more [...]
When I wanted to install CU11 for Exchange 2016, at the Prerequisites Check, I got the following error message:
"There is a pending reboot from a previous installation of a Windows Server role or feature."
I restarted the server twice, but still got the same message. After messing around with some registry keys and still no luck, I looked at the error message in more detail. The key part is "installation of a Windows Server role or feature". So this was not talking about a normal pending reboot Read more [...]
I recently had a problem on an Office Web App Server (Windows Server 2012 R2). To show a document in Web View, it had to fetch it from another server via HTTPS. This failed.
The ULS log showed:
"The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel"
When I used Internet Explorer from the Office Web App Server, I could connect to the other server via HTTPS no problem. So the certificate was not the problem, it was trusted on the Office Web App Server.
After hours of searching, I Read more [...]
If you need to synchronize the time via the Internet on a Windows Server, it is best to configure this via command line. Find below the commands you need (Open CMD as Administrator):
If you are not sure if the time of your Windows Server or Client is synchronized properly or if you would like to know which is the time source, you can use the following command lines (Start cmd with Administrator privileges):
net start w32time
w32tm /resync
w32tm /query /status
You should see something like this:
C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm /query /status
Leap Indicator: 0(no warning)
Stratum: 2 (secondary reference - syncd by (S)NTP)
Precision: -6 (15.625ms per tick)
Root Read more [...]
