Category Archives: Windows

Windows: Shared Printers Cannot be Installed after the September 2021 Windows Update

After the September 2021 Windows Update, non-administrator users will no longer be able to add remote printers without an elevation of privilege to administrator. To allow normal users to add remote printers (hosted on a print server), you can now add the following Registry value on the client: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint RestrictDriverInstallationToAdministrators = 0 (DWORD 32) No restart of the client is needed. If things still do Read more [...]

Windows: Shared Printer Cannot Be Added (Error 740)

When logged in as Administrator in a Windows 10 or 11 machine, when you try to add a shared printer, you get the error: That didn't work. We can't install this printer right now. Try again later or contact your network administrator for help. Error: #740. The underlying problem is this: Error 740 means: "The requested operation requires elevation". This is a problem as you are already logged in as Administrator. So the solution is to start the "Add Printer Wizard" as Administrator. To do this: Read more [...]

Microsoft Exchange: Increase Maximum Message Size to 100 MB

Sometimes, the default maximum message size (including attachments) in Exchange is not enough (30 MB is the standard). To increase this to 100 MB, do the following: First check the current maximum size on all relevant Exchange components: Get-TransportConfig | ft MaxSendSize, MaxReceiveSize Get-ReceiveConnector | ft Name, MaxmessageSize Get-SendConnector | ft Name, MaxMessageSize Get-Mailbox Administrator |ft Name, MaxsendSize, MaxReceiveSize Then set it to 100 MB for all components: Set-TransportConfig Read more [...]

Windows 10: Top Part of Maximized Window is not Visible

I have rarely the issue that all of a sudden, on some programs (for example Edge and Firefox) I can't see the top part of the Window anymore. Preconditions for this to happen: Multi screen (does never happen on single screen setups) Happens only on the primary screen Only when application is maximised Only some applications are affected, not all (Microsoft Office apps are never affected): File Explorer, Edge, Firefox, Notepad and many others What does not help: Minimizing Read more [...]

Windows: Download Adobe CS6 Master Collection

Unfortunately, Adobe is pushing hard to their Cloud Suite (Creative Cloud) and has disabled all download links to their CS6 suite. After some searching, I found the following 2 links still working (as of May 2020): Installer: https://trials.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/legacy/99CABBAC-C975-4A06-8D99-064C6871EE80/STAM/CS6/win32/MasterCollection_CS6_LS16.exe Installation data: https://trials.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/legacy/99CABBAC-C975-4A06-8D99-064C6871EE80/STAM/CS6/win32/MasterCollection_CS6_LS16.7z Update: Read more [...]

IIS: Error 503 on port 80

On an IIS server, with a simple static web page, I constantly got: HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable I did not get any entry in the IIS logs and when stopping the respective app pool, I got the same message. There was definitely no port conflict as I checked with TCPView if any other process was using port 80. After a while I tried to change the binding to port 81. And - bingo - , on port 81, the web site worked. After digging for a while, I found that port 80 had an "ACL reservation". Read more [...]

Windows: How to check and set Symlink Permissions

If you have clicked on a Symbolic Link (SymLink) in Windows and got the following error message:

"The symbolic link cannot be followed, because its type is disabled"

You can check what SymLink Types are allowed by using the following command:

fsutil behavior query SymlinkEvaluation

If you need to change this, so you don't get the error, you can run:

fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation R2R:1 R2L:1

Windows: How to create a Symbolic Link

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.

Windows Server 2019: Can't open Windows Defender settings

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 [...]