A few days ago some of our Windows 7 clients were having a Windows Update error, the specific message was Windows could not search for new updates An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer. Error(s) found: Code 800B0001 Windows Update encountered an unknown error. The funny thing was the clients could still get updates from Microsoft Update however… Read more
Author: James
Installing the product key into an evaluation version of System Centre 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
So you’ve got your shiny new System Centre 2012 Virtual Machine Manager install up and running, Virtual Hosts are running, you’ve done P2V migrations of a few old machines all during the while you are watching the ‘Evaluation Version – xyz days remaining’ ticker counting down. So where do I put this product key? You may think its in settings,… Read more
Axel M80 thin client – nice for the office not so sure about the classroom
A little while ago the guys at Axel let me borrow one of their M80 thin clients to try out with Citrix VDI-in-a-Box and also Microsoft RDS (Server 2008 R2) and I’m happy to say I can easily see this as a good thin client to use in the office although I have my reservations about use in classroom. This review… Read more
MMC could not create the snap in – Server 2008
After recently performing an in place upgrade from Server 2008 Standard to Server 2008 Enterprise (I was after using the DFS features on this particular server) I started receiving an odd error message when trying to load server manager. The full message is MMC could not create the snap-in. The snap-in might not have been installed correctly. Name: Server Manager… Read more
What does it take to run a Citrix VDI-in-a-Box Proof of Concept?
One of the wonderful things about Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V is that any driver that was written for Windows 7 will also run in Server 2008 R2! As such its very easy to take any Window 7 compatible PC (with a processor that can do hardware assisted virtualization like the AMD A and FX series) and turn it into… Read more
Showcase your Server
One of the main aims of myworldofit.net is to share with other IT Admins simple solutions to problems they may encounter, in part of that goal I have posted up details of some of the bits of server hardware I use to keep things going (e.g. this post on my latest backup server). Through my new website showcaseyourserver.net I’m extending… Read more
Lync Normalisation Rules – UK (Great Britain)
When I was first setting up Lync 2010 for VoIP one of the things that really stumped me for a while was Normalisation Rules. In short these rules take human readable numbers and convert them to the standard for international calling (E.164) – its kinda like how computers take human readable DNS addresses (e.g. bbc.co.uk) and converts them to IP addresses… Read more
Windows Server 2008 R2 bare metal backup – which drives?
If you are running System Centre Data Protection Manager (2010/2012) on Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 you may or may not know that when you are running a Bare Metal/System State Backup you are actually using the built in Windows Server Backup feature to keep your data safe. One thing that baffled me is why on some servers the backups… Read more
Virtual Desktops on PCI-E SSD – 19 users @ 2ms response time!
Currently our VDI setup is only used in the Library and so we very rarely max out the usage on our server, however ealier today I spotted that we had 19 of our 20 VDI clients in use, by in use thats students logged in actively engaging with their computers. I couldn’t resist checking up on the performance stats and… Read more
Microsoft Surface (Windows 8 Tablets) First Impressions
Unless you have had your head buried in the sand for the past few days you will know that Microsoft has showcased their take on Windows 8 tablet PCs. Dubbed Microsoft Surface (the big table surface has been renamed PixelSense) this new family of tablets comes in a ARM processor based version (aimed at the day to day consumer) and… Read more