Category Archives: Windows

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: http://trials.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/legacy/99CABBAC-C975-4A06-8D99-064C6871EE80/STAM/CS6/win32/MasterCollection_CS6_LS4.exe Installation data: http://trials.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/legacy/99CABBAC-C975-4A06-8D99-064C6871EE80/STAM/CS6/win32/MasterCollection_CS6_LS4.7z 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 [...]

Windows: Installing a Windows Update manually hangs on "Copying packages to the update cache"

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 [...]

Windows Server 2019: Error 0x80070490 When Activating Windows

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 [...]

Exchange 2016: "There is a pending reboot from a previous installation of a Windows Server role or feature"

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 [...]