Paul Smith's Blog

One of the issues I ran into this week involved Windows Server Essentials 2016, and the websites it creates as part of the Essentials role in IIS. All of which started returning an HTTP Error 501.19. This can also manifest as the connector software failing to connect, with the error "Cannot get information from 'servername'. Please contact your system administrator." Cannot get information from SERVER. This also coincided with WSUS being temporarily installed and removed from the server for unrelated testing....

An issue I’ve run into earlier this week involved the new Chromium-based Edge version 84 in this case. Edge was failing to launch when running via any shortcuts with the error message: The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incomplete. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail. If you navigate to the Edge install folder, on my system this is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\ and check for a new-msedge....

A number of people have messaged me asking why the Windows 10 May 2019 update is not being shown on Windows Update, despite a lot of the technology press saying its been available for several weeks. It's being gradually rolled out, so not everyone can get it straight away. Learning lessons from the 1809 update which was broadly made available very rapidly and was actively being pushed to machines far faster than previous updates....

This guide will walk you through using the ResetDRM.exe tool successfully on Windows 8. Out of the box it isn't officially supported, but after re-installing Windows 8.1 a few weeks ago I noticed my Zune / Xbox Music pass music wasn't playing - not the stuff already downloaded nor streaming. So I had to find a way to get it working. Zune was throwing a couple of different errors codes including C00D11CD and C00D2721....

A couple of weeks back I started the upgrade from Windows Home Server to Windows Server 2012 Essentials. I never bothered moving to Windows Home Server 2011, the lack of Drive Extender was the deal breaker for me. But with WHSv1 falling out of support, it had to be done, that plus all the drives were almost full, which was having a noticeable impact on performance sometimes, so time to do something about it....

One of the key advantages to the Windows Store which many people overlook is the ability to showcase existing desktop software. The Windows Store doesn't only deal with metro/RT/modern applications. It can show all the existing stuff, if their publishers use it. Here's Age of Empires Online listed. It also quite clearly is listed as desktop app. Hopefully to avoid any confusion. The experience is much the same as for a WinRT application....

As regular readers will know I'm a long-time Tablet PC user - my most recent purchase however was years back. That was an old Motion LE1700. One of the early ones, with a 1.2Ghz Core Solo processor. I've held off since, as low-resolution screens have dominated the market, and I don't see the point in upgrading to downgrade my screen. Launched early 2006 it originally shipped with Windows XP Tablet Edition....

Just a quick heads-up for those subscribers of TechNet or MSDN who are looking at installing Windows 8. Windows 8 automatically activates when connected to the internet, and it seems to do it almost straight away. Don't wanna waste those now-limited keys activating virtual machines or other temp boxes that you're only going to use for a week. I suggest pulling the plug on internet access unless you need it/can work out how to block it from activating....

An article written by Johanna Armstrong on Piki Geek has taken the crown as the most inaccurate Windows 8 article I've seen to date. I won't be linking to it, you can find it easily enough by searching for it, but I refuse to assist their search rankings. The PC Master Race is facing a threat from Microsoft, a threat that both Valve's Gabe Newell and Blizzard’s Rob Pardo have spoken out against....

There's been a lot of silliness spreading across the internet over the last few days regarding Windows 8. Much of it written by people who a) haven't used Windows 8 and b) haven't bothered to do any research. The latest flurry of criticism started when Valve boss Gabe Newell said Windows 8 would be a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space". Notice he said for everyone in the PC space, not calling Windows 8 a catastrophe itself - how it was misreported around the internet echo chamber....