If you see something like this. ITS A SCAM

I got an alert from Kaspersky that stopped me going to a site when I clicked on a music link.  Curious I decided to find out what was there.

 

It was this website, and is definitely not a Microsoft webpage, and definitely not a genuine issue.  If you get something like this then:

1. Don’t do anything on that page, just close it and don’t answer any questions or enter any data until the page is gone
2. Update or install AV software.  Any decent AV tool should have stopped you getting there
3. Don’t panic!

 

Microsoft Forefront TMG and Windows 10 1803

With the 1803 update I got a problem.

 

I’ve used Forefront TMG2010 and it’s predecessors for over a decade.  It generally sits there doing it’s job and provides me with the means to control access in and out of the network.

The client has sat on the taskbar since XP days, without a problem.  Until the 1803 upgrade.

 

Microsoft don’t support TMG any more, so no joy looking on the forums for support, but I did find this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/936773/yellow-exclamation-mark-appears-next-to-the-firewall-client-icon-on-a.  Although I didn’t change the client (mine was v7.xxxx and 4 years younger), but the registry change had cleared the yellow marker on the TMG Taskbar icon.

 

I hadn’t found any actual problem with TMG (yet) that this might have caused, but at least an error has been cleared.

 

OneDrive broken after update, yet again...

I was busy collecting money for Help For Heroes on Friday, but left the main desktop computer running.  It seems that about 11:14am OneDrive was updated.  I had previously been running 18.091.0506.007, but Microsoft delivered (on a rollout from Office 365) 18.111.0603.0004.

 

The net result was that OneDrive stopped working, and wouldn't restart or re-install; or even uninstall.  If I could get a "not logged in" grey OneDrive icon, the right click menu was just a white space.  Not good when I was trying to do some quick work on Sunday night.  A support call on Sunday evening to O365 tried all that I had tried, plus a few other things but left it broken.  I ended the call past midnight, and was expecting a follow up from Microsoft on Monday, yesterday.  Nope, nothing happened.

 

Today I updated the call, asked for a call back, and got it quite quickly – but it was mostly more data collection and testing things.  During which I was pointed to https://support.office.com/en-us/article/new-onedrive-sync-client-release-notes-845dcf18-f921-435e-bf28-4e24b95e5fc0 which at least confirmed the build numbers involved.  A quick Bing search and I found this: https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/112766-onedrive-semi-missing-again.html

 

Checking my OneDrive folder, there was indeed no OneDrive.EXE file present, so I copied it from the 18.111 subfolder and tried again.  Nothing.

I then ran the OneDriveSetup.EXE from within the 18.111 folder and it seemed to work.

Logging into OneDrive and it started the "new user" setup.  TAKING CARE TO SELECT THE SAME FOLDER AS BEFORE (to avoid re-downloading everything 😊) OneDrive for Business then decided there we more changes to the folder structure than there were files.  But I let it proceed – it seems it was cross checking cloud and local copies and each file on either side created a "check".

 

I had to open settings and add an account to get OneDrive consumer back up and running, and it went through the same painful checking process.  Currently both are still checking, but hopefully within an hour or two all shall be well.

 

 

Well, another ride beckons

Tomorrow I set off for London, and then to France for my 7^th battlefield bike ride.

 

Help for Heroes have published the maps – so I thought I’d pass it on.

Day 1, Compiegne to Saint Quentin – https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27603968

Day 2, Saint Quentin to Amiens – https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27604005

Day 3, Amiens to Arras – https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27604047

Day 4, Arras to Lille – https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27604048

Day 5, Lille to Mons – https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27604049

 

Onwards!

 

The mother of all demos

If you work in IT, or just have an interest in how it works, and how it came about…

 

Then this page details the 1968 (50 years ago!!!) demonstration by Doug Engelbart now known as “The mother of all demos”

 

You really should have a look, even if you only watch the abbreviated 24 minute highlight version

 

http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/dougs-1968-demo.html

 

 

SMS corruptions, Windows Phone 10, Skype and Microsoft Messaging apps

It’s been a while…

 

I belong to the diminishing community of users of Windows Phone 10.  I still like it and although I have both android and iOS devices (not phones), I still prefer the WP interface by far.  But recently an update from Microsoft seemed to knacker the phone (well, specifically the Test Messaging database) and I was:

• no longer receiving incoming text notifications (and missing some important stuff)
• seeing corruption in the list of names in the messaging app (the wrong name and avatar).
• And a few other oddities that I’ve since forgotten.

 

It reached the point after a few days of this; knowing the phone was out of support (both hardware and software); and that reporting a bug to Microsoft was unlikely to yield results I started to look at replacement handsets.

 

My initial thought was that the database of 2½ years of texts might have overloaded and set about deleting threads from unimportant sources (shipping confirmations I’d not deleted at the time, and that sort of thing).  It held the visual corruptions back a little, but notifications were still screwed up.

 

Then, I found it.  At some point an update from Microsoft (they are still coming through now), had updated Skype.  In hunting around through this path:

• All settings
• Messaging
• Scroll down past SIM to Default Apps

Skype had installed itself as the default messaging app.  Reverting to Microsoft Messaging fixed all the problems.

 

It’s happened again since, but as I knew what to look for it took less time.  As much here for me the next time this happens, but hopefully if you’ve had this problem you found this fix quicker than I did!