OneDrive Catastrophic Failure

When trying to open a OneDrive folder on the computer you get a catastrophic failure message. This is related to the “Offline” attribute for that folder being reset, possibly due to some other program or action that had been performed in the past.

The same folder can be opened from Windows Explorer when selecting the folder from the left pane view, but the message appears when opening the folder from the right pane view.

You can check the folder location by right-clicking and selecting “Properties”

Open a CMD prompt, CD to the OneDrive folder location found in the properties and use the ATTRIB command to reset the Offline attribute for the folder

ATTRIB -O "Pictures" /s /d

 

If there are a lot of folders showing this issue, the same command can be run against the whole OneDrive folder instead

ATTRIB -O /s /d

Microsoft Product Versions and build number reference

This will be a quick reference page for links to build numbers for versions of various products

Configuration Manager 2012

Exchange 2007-2010

Exchange 2013

SQL Server

Windows Server and Workstation – Need better reference with build numbers

Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) updated to 2.7!

Lot’s of improvements including direct connections to Hyper-V guest consoles. Nice.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=44989

RDCMan manages multiple remote desktop connections. It is useful for managing server labs or large server farms where you need regular access to each machine such as automated checkin systems and data centers. It is similar to the built-in MMC Remote Desktops snap-in, but more flexible. The RDCMan 2.7 version is a major feature release. New features include: – Virtual machine connect-to-console support – Smart groups – Support for credential encryption with certificates – Windows 8 remote action support – Support for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

And here’s some info about a connection bug you may or may not see

How to locate the cause of error code 1603 in a verbose MSI log file

After having a failure on many servers installing a particular component, I found the process of scrolling through the MSI setup logs looking for the error to be incredibly tedious and unhelpful.

Luckily a colleague mentioned a tip for how to fid the error which led to this awesome blog post.

Essentially, search for “return value 3” (without the quotes) and the failing component should be just above it.

[16:07:47] The state of web site “Default Web Site” is Started.
[16:07:47] The installed certificate has a hash of length 20.
[16:07:47] @@ERR:25051
MSI (s) (AC!24) [16:07:47:727]: Product: ConfigMgr Management Point — Error 25051. Internet Information Services BITS support is not installed
Error 25051. Internet Information Services BITS support is not installed
CustomAction CcmValidateServerConfig returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 16:07:47: CcmValidateServerConfig. Return value 3.
Action ended 16:07:47: INSTALL. Return value 3.

 

Cisco VPN Client fails to connect

When running the Cisco VPN client on a Windows 64bit OS, it seems to never install correctly and will fail to connect.

Secure VPN: Connecion terminated locally by the Client.
Reason 442: Failed to enable Virtual Adapter

It seems to be an issue with how the installer registers the network device for the Service. It’s an old issue that has been popping up for YEARS.

Delete WINDOWS.OLD on Windows Server

After performing an in-place upgrade on a Windows machine, you will find a WINDOWS.OLD folder in the root of C:. This folder will have a backup of your old program files, appdata and Windows folder… just in case you need to revert back or recover something that might have been lost during the upgrade. When you try to delete it though you are told you don’t have permissions.

Event Viewer query error message

Usually after an OS upgrade or possibly a major system corruption and repair, event viewer will start throwing up a message when you go into certain “query” views such as the “Custom Views\Administrative Events”. Usually this is because a component that event viewer was configured to monitor no longer exists in the upgraded OS.

One or more logs in the query have errors 
The system cannot find the file specified
The events displayed are partial results

This is usually because an element of the query for the logs is no longer part of the system or is corrupted to the point it can no longer be read.

(If you are seeing this on a standalone Exchange server when opening “Custom Views\Microsoft Exchange with Database Availability Group Events” then check this post instead)

Windows Update KB2982791 MS14-045 causing bluescreen

I don’t have a fix of my own for this, but I am seeing a lot of people finding my site through various search engines from my previous Windows RT fix. This is not an issue I have experienced and at the moment is not something I am looking into.

If you need help then the following Microsoft article has some details on a fix.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2982791

If you know of another site with more “friendly” instructions, let me know and I’ll link it here. If this problem persists, or if I encounter it myself I will look to post my own fix if nothing else appears from Microsoft.

Quick and dirty Windows server file and share migration

Looking for a quick way to migrate your server files and shares to a new server while keeping all the permissions in-tact?

This blog has the simplest method I’ve found. A simple xcopy (could substitute robocopy with /mir for increased functionality) and a simple reg export/import for the shares. Brilliant.

Migrate Files And Shares To Server 2012 Guide

 

Task Scheduler service is not available

Another one of those “this has been bugging me for ages” things. Sometime *ages* ago one of my servers had an unexpected shutdown (crash/bugcheck whatever). After it came back up and all the various repair and recovery stuff completed it was back to normal… more or less.

One thing that started happening was that the task scheduler would throw an error “Task Scheduler is not available. Task Scheduler will attempt to reconnect to it.” every time it was opened, and some scheduled tasks didn’t always seem to trigger.

Overall I didn’t bother about it too much as I planned to decommission the server anyway. One and a half years later, the server is still going :sigh: