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 [...]

Windows: "The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel"

I recently had a problem on an Office Web App Server (Windows Server 2012 R2). To show a document in Web View, it had to fetch it from another server via HTTPS. This failed. The ULS log showed: "The request was aborted: Could not create SSL/TLS secure channel" When I used Internet Explorer from the Office Web App Server, I could connect to the other server via HTTPS no problem. So the certificate was not the problem, it was trusted on the Office Web App Server. After hours of searching, I Read more [...]

Apple iOS: iPhone X Shortcuts for App Close, Restart and Other Stuff

I come from a Windows and physical keyboard world, so things that are simple in Windows seem very complicated or undoable in iOS. For example, shutting down an App (as simple as clicking the red X in the upper right corner of a window) didn’t seem possible in iOS. Find below some shortcuts that show how to do the “impossible”: Go to Standby: Press the Standby button shortly. Wake up from Standby: Press the Standby button shortly. Go to Home screen: Swipe up from the bottom. Read more [...]

Outlook: How to send S/MIME signed emails

Sending emails with a S/MIME signature has 2 advantages: It ensures that the sender is really who (s)he says (s)he is (prevents spoofing) The content of the email has not been changed or tampered with It is fairly easy to implement and it works with any recipient as most email clients (including web clients) support S/MIME. Even if a client would not support it, the recipient can still read the mail. First, you need to get an official certificate for your email address. There are different Read more [...]

Windows Server: Synchronize the Time via Internet (Command Line)

If you need to synchronize the time via the Internet on a Windows Server, it is best to configure this via command line. Find below the commands you need (Open CMD as Administrator):

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"pool.ntp.org" /reliable:YES /update

w32tm /config /update

w32tm /resync

"pool.ntp.org" is just an example, of course you can use other time servers.

Windows: Check Time Synchronization

If you are not sure if the time of your Windows Server or Client is synchronized properly or if you would like to know which is the time source, you can use the following command lines (Start cmd with Administrator privileges): net start w32time w32tm /resync w32tm /query /status You should see something like this: C:\Users\Administrator>w32tm /query /status Leap Indicator: 0(no warning) Stratum: 2 (secondary reference - syncd by (S)NTP) Precision: -6 (15.625ms per tick) Root Read more [...]

My experience with servers, networks and gadgets.