Unable to setup Default Printer, error message: 0X00000709

In my environments, in few cases, I had the strange problem with installing and defining a default printer. The situation was, that I was perfectly able to install a printer, but I received a strange error: Unable to setup Default Printer, error message: 0X00000709. My first action was trying to set one of the other printers as a default one, but the error persisted. Then I tried to analyze why and I had a strange result. The nature of the problem was in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows. The error is that it is not possible to change the value of the key Device.
The solution of this problem is to make possible changing the value of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows registry key (in my case it was Read only for all the listed accounts). After I changed the permissions to modify, I was able to define the default printer.

Hope, that I helps someone..

How to change product key in Office 2010 and 2013

In some cases, you will need to change the product key for Microsoft Office 2010 or 2013. Unfortunately, there is no way to change it from Office programs via GUI, but there are still different ways to do it.
Personally, I prefer to do it from command prompt. I think that this way is transparent and clear to do all steps clearly and under control. To do this, you must open command prompt window as administrator and navigate to the one of this folders (depends on witch version of Office and Windows you have):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15
In this folder, there is situated the VBS script OSPP.VBS. This script is dedicated to work with product key and to change the product key you have to use syntax CSCRIPT OSPP.VBS /INPKEY:KEY_STRING (where KEY_STRING is the key). After you have changed the key, you have to activate it and this is possible to do it with the same script: CSCRIPT OSPP.VBS /ACT
Of course the script has more than this functionality and you can view them by typing CSCRIPT OSPP.VBS /?.

Good work!.

Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012R2 is coming

As you can see also on TechNet’s blog, the operating systems Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012R2 will became available on October 18. On this date will be also available Windows Server Essentials 2012R2, which is designed for small companies. As in all other OS, also in Essentials there are many upgraded or new functionalities (very nice and very cool). I will publish my top-ten new features in few days.
You can also download the Windows 8.1 product guide here..

Windows XP and Exchange 2013 connectivity

If you have the environment with Windows XP + Office 2007 or 2010 and Exchange 2013, you can expect some problems from the beginning. There is a problem because computers with Windows XP will not be able to connect to the new Exchange server. The nature of the problem is simple: Windows XP looks at the certificate using only the first SAN, but the internal name of Exchange is not in this line. This is the reason of the problem. Now, what can we do to solve the problem? In this situation, we can adopt two possible solutions:

  1. We can force Exchange to use a determinate certificate for internal AutoDiscover. This is simple to do with one PowerShell command: Set-OutlookProvider EXPR -CertPrincilalName:”msstd:mail.company.com” (mail.company.com is the name of your certificate).
  2. We can internally publish OutlookAnywhere with the same name as the external. Set the Authentication method for External clients to NTLM or Basic. In this case, you have to configure properly also the internal DNS servers, because this address must be available also from the internal network.

 

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