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 [...]

Microsoft Edge: How to disable the "Download Microsoft Edge mobile app" pop-up

Starting a month ago, I occasionally get the following pop-up in Edge: Download Microsoft Edge mobile app Take your AI-powered copilot for the web on the go! This is not a pop-up coming from a web site, but a built-in pop up from the browser itself. So how can this and similar pop-ups from Microsoft be permanently disabled in Edge? Here you go: In the browser bar, type edge://flags. This will present a list with browser experimental options. Type Show feature and workflow recommendations Read more [...]

Windows PKI CA: "The certificate has invalid policy"

When you try to issue a new certificate on a Windows client, this might not work and you get the following error: The certificate has invalid policy. 0x800b0113 (CERT_E_INVALID_POLICY) The root cause of this is that the issuing CA has restricted the issuance policies you can use. If you have created a certificate template that uses a policy that is not allowed, you will get that error message. There is a quick and dirty method to get rid of this error (but it also makes your CA a bit more Read more [...]

Windows: USB stick not recognized after formatting with Linux

I had recently created a bootable USB disk for a Linux distro. After I did not use that anymore, I wanted to format it in my Windows 10 machine. But it was not recognized anymore. No drive letter, not visible in File Explorer. In "Disk Management" it was visible, but I could not format it there either. Using command line tool "Diskpart" did not help either as the "clean" command ended with an "Access Denied" error. In the end, the folloing sequence of commands helped me in "Diskpart": list Read more [...]

Windows CA Server: Trust relationship to the Domain Failed

When a client or a server that is joined to a Windows Domain loses the trust relationship to its object in Active Directory, you normally get this error message, when you try to login: The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed What you then normally do, is to un-join the computer from the domain and join it again. The problem with with a Windows CA (Certificate Authority) Server is that you cannot un-join it from the domain. So that would mean you have to Read more [...]

Windows: Delete Folder with a trailing Space Character

Recently, I had the problem that a Robocopy script created folder with a space character at the end on the Windows NTFS file system. So for example

"FolderName "

In File Explorer, I could not delete the folder, the error message said "Object does not exist". Also renaming the folder was not possible.

The onyl solution was to go to a CMD box and issue the command

rd /s "\\?\D:\bad\folder\path "

Just answer "y* when you are asked if you really want to delete the folder.

Windows Server: How to Force a Solid Background Color

To avoid the typical picture on the background of your desktop, use the following procedure to force a solid blue color as background: Start the Group Policy Editor: gpedit.msc Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Desktop > Desktop Open Desktop Wallpaper Enable it and set the Wallpaper Name to: C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img105.jpg Click on OK to save the changes While you could also just right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize and set a Read more [...]

My experience with servers, networks and gadgets.