Microsoft Exchange Server Logon problem

This is a problem happened before.  After over two weeks of back and forth with IT, it was resolved by deleting the Outlook client profile and start setting up the mail account again.

It came up again two weeks ago.  I removed the profile on two computers and it fixed the problem right away.  However, it came back occasionally. 

Symptom:
Outlook client log on error and asking for password again even though the originally saved password is correct.  Entering the correct password again won't work. 

This only happened on one computer while other computers with Outlook or other e-mail clients (e.g. iOS) worked fine.  However, this problem will eventually cycle through other devices as well.  In most times, it will go away after cancel the logon box. 

Solution:
It seems that the authentication encryption may be the cause:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/3032395/outlook-connection-issues-with-exchange-mailboxes-because-of-the-rpc-e

In my case, the encryption was already enabled.  I just changed the "logon network security option" from  "negotiate authentication" to "password authentication (NTLM)". 

Then it worked.  After checking the setting again, it went back to "negotiate authentication".  It seems that the change in this setting reset a faulty state. 

Windows Remote Desktop blackscreen issue

Remote desktop became a necessity in my daily work and it not only allows me working at home but also access a lot of information while on the road (e.g. for country specific resources).

Today when I really need to log in to my office PC, it showed a black screen AFTER logged in.  After some connect/disconnect/reconnect, I finally turned to Google.  Here's the solution:
Using Ctrl+Alt+Home to bring up the "lock screen" menu of the remote computer (in Win 7 that's lock screen, log off, task manager, etc.) Then choose "task manager".

Wow, the desktop is back. 

I'm not sure whether this is related to I locked the screen when left office.  Will give it a try tomorrow.

BTW, Ctrl+Alt+Del will bring up the local PC's lock screen menu.

Cisco VPN Anytime Connect DLL problem

Over the past week, my Cisco Anytime Connect client started to behave funny.  Mostly it won't connect to the server at start up.  I had to click "quite" twice to close it, then started it again, when it usually would work.

Then it happened on Monday that it just wouldn't connect to the server.  Just hang during trying. 

I decided to uninstall it and reinstall it. 

What a bad idea. 

After uninstall it from the Control Panel, it won't install again either using an old installation file or new installation files just downloaded from our IT site. The error message is:

 "There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A DLL required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor."

Search online didn't give me any good results.  Our IT guy said that this may because I had Java 7 installed.  Although I don't believe him, tried it anyway.  After downgrade to Java 6, same error message.

Damn.

Then our IT guy suggested that I reinstall Windows. What a Bxxxxxxx.

I decided to try it on my own.  First, create a new administrator account.  Then use this account to install. 

It worked! 

When log back to my own account, Cisco AnyConnect is already there and working!

Computer trouble #1: change Windows Server 2003 Volume License Key

Recently, many of the computers I'm using/taking care of had problems. For starters, I'm using a Compaq Proliant server at work so I can log to it remotely doing things involving huge data transfer between a separtate data server. It's running Windows Server 2003 with a volume license. Starting early this year, the volume license provided along with the server by an outside vendor stopped working and I can't get microsoft update any more. The vendor provided another license but they told me to reinstall everything in order to update the license key.

After some searching, I found out that you do not have to reinstall Windows to change the license key. Here's an Microsoft support article:

Briefly, I need to modify the registry so the windows to deactivate Windows. Once deactivated, Windows will automatically remind you to activate windows through the Internet or phone a MS customer service representative to get a new license key.

So I pretended that I called Microsoft and get the new license key. Once entering the new key, and reactivate Windows registry, everything works.

One problem the MS support article didn't mention is that there's an activation code field which is the default of the activation process. I assume that this is the code the MS call center gives out. In my case, since I have a new volume license key, I had to specifically choose entering CD-key.

Now one problem is out of the way, I can come back to deal with the failed hard drive on my X61 tablet. The annonying part is that the new Intel X-25M 80G SSD I ordered from NewEgg failed also. I had to mail it back for replacement. Will update that later.

First impression with the X61 Tablet

Finally it's in my hands. Spent a few hours to set it up, not as I have dreaded. In the past, I have do a fresh installation of windows from scratch for every single one of the computer I got. This time, I want to give them a chance to "prove" themselves after so many years: they can make a computer that do not needs much TLC. Now it's more or less okay to run with the exception of a few minor incompatibility issues with Vista that I need to find a solution later. Here are some initial impressions:

Size:
The build is solid, may be too much. It's much heavier thank the old X31. Part of the reason is the large hard drive and cooling for the core duo CPU. Being a tablet, a lot of functionalities have been integrated into the LCD package, e.g. power, scrolling, screen orientation switching, etc. Hence, the edge of the screen is significantly wider than X31 and X41.

Another thing is that the battery sticks out in the back (as seen in the top of the figure) like some extended life batteries in other notebooks.


Tablet:
The rotation of the LCD is steady, functioning as expected. Handwritten recognition works exceptionally well for regular words, but not so much for intentionally miss spelled words or anything not in its vocabulary.

Temperature:
It is COOOOOOL. All three of the Dell Latitude series laptops I used before are very hot including the fairly recent D420. Even comparing to the X31, it is considerablely cooler. Nice feature when using it in hot weather on my lap with just shorts. There is heat coming from the bottom, but more distributed than the Dells that concentrated in a very small area. This should mostly attribute to the excellent design by Lenovo/IBM engineers and Intel for their new generation of low voltage dual core Centrino processors.

Program/Vista:
Again, Lenovo/IBM packed a lot of utilities in the pre-installed Vista Ultimate. Some are very useful such as the Diskeeper, Power Management, Access Connections, etc. It also contains a lot of programs I have no idea of preloaded when windows starting up. I have no prior hands-on experiences with Vista, may be need to wait for a few weeks before commenting too much on it.

Waiting for Vista

While waiting for Vista, here's another Windows joke from Joes4all.net.

No, Windows is not a virus. Here's what viruses do:
1. They replicate quickly. ... Okay, Windows does that.
2. Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so. ... Okay, Windows does that.
3. Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk. ... Okay, Windows does that too.
4. Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. ... Sigh.. Windows does that, too.
5. Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2) and the user will buy new hardware. ... Yup, Windows does that, too.



Until now it seems Windows is a virus but there are fundamental differences: Viruses are well supported by their authors, are running on most systems, their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature.

So Windows is not a virus. ... It's a bug.

Windows time server update frequency change

The changes to Windows described below requires modification of the registry. Please back up the registry before proceed. If you read the following and acted, you agree that I will not be responsible for any damages resulted from your action.

You probably already know that the clock in windows is very inaccurate if not been adjusted regularly. I still don't understand why Windows can't use a system clock on the motherboard or the CPU to do time synchronization. The digital watch I bought for $6 has much better accuracy than a $2000 computer.

Before XP, I used to download some utilities to do windows time synchronization. Windows XP and the server (Standard server 2003) now have a integrated time synchronization service that will periodically connect to an Internet time server. You can see this by double click the clock on the right bottom (in most systems). This will bring the Date and Time properties window and the third tab is Internet Time. The time synchronization can be done either manually (by click Update Now) or automatically.

The default update frequency is 1 week. For many systems, such as our server, it is not going to be enough. After some reading, I found this Microsoft article regarding Windows time service.

Two values in registry need to be modified:
1. Choose Run from Start Manu and type "regedit";
2. Back up Registry with a date in the file name and remember where the back up file is saved;
3. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time
4. Double click MinPollInterval and change the value to 4 (choose decimal if needed)
5. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters
6. Change SpecialPollInterval to 512, which will ask the system update time every 512 seconds.
7. Close registry editor.
8. Run Service.msc
9. Find Windows Time and stop it. They start it back on.

Now the time server should update at every 512 seconds instead of 1 week. You may check it through Windows Date and Time properties. If it doesn't work, make sure the specialPollInterval value you changed is the server you're using for the time update.