Techie Talks

Day by days, users are using various form of services like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Viber, etc… to communicate with others and send/receive messages. Some of these services allow users to type only limited number of characters in single message. Hence, if you would like to a link which has long URL, you will need to shorten your URL in such a way that it still directs users to correct page on Internet.  You can achieve this by a method call URL shortening, it is a unique way to convert your long URL in to shorter length and still directs user to correct page. For an example, http://goo.gl/1uSLM0 is shorted URL for our blogs’ main page: http://blog.techietalks.co.uk . You can create a separate short link for each of your webpages or blogs. The main advantage of a short link is that it can be easily communicated and typed without any error. Users don’t need to change their current configuration or possess in-depth technical knowledge. There are various sites who...

One of my colleagues recently changed his password. Since then, his domain account keeps locking out frequently even though he enters correct password. He asked me to investigate why does this happen? There are multiple reasons, why domain account locks out frequently. First of all, I suggest you to find out when user’s account got locked and on what Domain Controller (DC). If user logs on to more than 1 PC, it may be possible that one of the PC is still using expired password. You can use Lockout status tool offered by Microsoft. It’s free tool, CLICK HERE to download it. Using this tool, you can find out that account is locked on any particular DC. Once you’ve identified correct DC, check the event log of that DC to locate the PC name. If user doesn’t log on to any other PC, log in to his/her PC locally or remotely. Try to locate any services or schedule task running using user’s credential. You will have to restart services or schedule task using their current login detai...

Hi friends, recently I upgraded my Windows 7 OS to Windows 10 on my laptop. Everything was working fine until I plugged my HTC One M8 (Android) phone to laptop using USB cable. A message box appeared stating that it could not detect the USB device. I never had any problem when I was using Windows 7. I used to plug my phone to PC using USB cable and access phone storage as USB drive. I typed my query in google and most of the articles suggested that I should installed HTC Sync Manager and then connect my phone. Well, I installed the required application but it did not resolve the issue. Hence, I removed it. This is my 3 rd HTC phone and I started to find out how I can enable USB debugging mode on my phone. This option is hidden by default. To enable this option, follow these steps:  Go to Settings \ About Select Software Information Click on More  option Now, tap on Build number  option six times in a row. A message will be shown saying “ You are now a de...

This is my very first blog on Apple products: iPhone and iPad. One of my friends recently bought a new iPhone. Now, she has two iPhones. She asked me how she can apply same settings and apps to her new iPhone. Well, this is very easy to achieve if you have PC, iTunes software and your iPhone / iPad. First of all, we will have to take a backup of our current iPhone or iPad. To do this follows these steps: Launch iTunes application on your PC. Connect your device using USB cable. To save content that you have downloaded from iTunes store or App store, click on File \ Devices \ Transfer Purchases . Please wait till it finishes. Go to iTunes preferences \ Devices to check if back up finished successfully. You will find a name of your device with date and time of backup created. Once you have backed up your device successfully, you can restore it on same device or a new device. To restore backup on a device using iTunes, follow these steps: Connect your device to the ...

Today, I am publishing my very first blog on Android OS. I have been asked to provide a solution to revert Android OS from Lollipop version to Kitkat. I am using Lenovo A6000 smart phone to explain the process. Steps may vary for other make and model of your smart phone. Let’s begin by going through check list before we actually start downgrade process. Take a backup of your personal data like pictures, videos, etc… Make sure that phone’s battery is charged enough. I suggest 50 % charged battery. You will need to install TWRP Recovery. Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) helps to flash customer ROMs or stock ROMs. It helps user to revert back to Android KitKat OS. Download Official Stock ROM Lenovo A6000 – Kitkat Free space on your SD card of the phone After you have completed check list, let’s start the process: First of all, copy stock ROM on your SD card Boot your phone in to recovery mode Make a full system wipe of cache, data, etc using Format button . Go to ...

Today, I would like to share my knowledge on how to make bootable USB drive without any third party applications. To begin with, you will need a USB flash drive, any version of Windows OS ISO or DVD and Windows running PC. As part of the process, USB disk will be erased fully. Please make sure that you have copied or removed your important data from USB disk. I will use DiskPart command to make bootable USB disk. Let’s start with the process: Run Command prompt as an administrator. Type DiskPart and press Enter. You will see that command prompt is changed to DISKPART> now. Type List Disk Command. It will show you all available disks in PC. DISKPART> List Disk Next step is to select the correct Disk that reflects your USB disk. To find this out, type below command: DISKPART> Select Disk n ( n should be the number of your disk from previous command) You should see a message: “Disk 3 is now the selected disk.” Now, clean the USB disk using Clean command...

One of the followers of my blog requested to explain the basics of Group policy in simple words. Group policy itself is a very wide topic  in this single post. But let's start with basic first. Group Policy is a feature from Microsoft server operating systems. It allows modifying working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. It offers centralized management and configuration of OS, applications and users’ settings in domain environment. You can outline, impose or modify configuration by using the settings in Group Policy Objects (GPO). Once you create relevant GPO, you can link it to site, domain, OU or child OU. You can divide group policies into two categories: Domain based policy : These types of policies are created in AD DS and stored in domain controllers. They are used to manage configuration of domain users and computers. Local group policy : These types of policies are configured locally on a PC. You can configure users’ settings who log on to ...

I have been asked to help a user with her Excel issue. At first, I thought I may have to write some Excel formula. But I was wrong. When I called her, she explained to me that she was unable to open certain Excel spread sheets. She said that whenever she opens these files, Excel opens with blank window. I thought let me check it myself. Hence, I logged in to her PC remotely and tried to access same files. Yes, Excel window comes up but it does not show any data. User claimed that she had accessed file couple of hours back. Other users can open same files on their PCs without any issues. I asked her to press CTRL + F10 key together while the file is open in Excel. Issue is resolved. It is a shortcut key to maximize or restore the selected workbook window.  Now, she is able to view all files. I would suggest trying some other steps also, they are mentioned below: Check if Excel has been setup as Run as Administrator . Check the box “ Run as administrator ” on Excel ...

During my recent conversation with one of my friends, he mentioned that he had to print a large number of PDF documents. He was frustrated as he had to open each file to send it to a printer for printing. He asked me if there are any ways where he can avoid opening each file before sending it to printer. Yes, it is possible. I did my testing on Windows 7 PC. There are two ways to achieve this. The easiest way is: Select the multiple files of same format e.g. all PDFs or all DOCXs Right click on any selected file In context menu, click on Print In this method, you can print up to 15 files together and cannot mix two different types of file format like one PDF document and one word document. There is another way in which you can print different file formats together. To achieve this, follow these steps: Click on Start and select Devices and Printers Double click on printer to open print queue box Drag files you would like to print into print queue box. Click O...

One of my friends asked me to help him with his IT issue. He is trying to connect to a PC using Remote Desktop connection and getting error “Unable to log you on because of an account restriction.” To begin with, I verified that the user account is part of local administrator group and Remote Desktop users on a remote PC. Also, I asked him to make sure that he has enabled Remote Desktop on that PC. He replied affirmatively that user account is part of necessary groups and PC is enabled to accept remote connection. He also mentioned that he can log in locally using same account but receives error message when he is trying to connect remotely. During further questioning about his current setup of a PC, I figured out that, he is using blank (null) password for the user account. If you are trying to log in to a PC remotely with a user account which has been setup with blank password, Remote Desktop connection cannot be established and you receive above error message. There is...

Hi everyone, I would like to share my knowledge on how to install Terminal Server role and install applications for Terminal Server users. To explain the whole process in better way, I fragmented it in to three different stages. Installing Terminal Server Role on existing server Configuring Remote connection settings for users Installing Applications on Terminal Server (TS) Installing Terminal Server Role on existing server Let’s start the process. First of all, we have to install Terminal Server Role on a server. Please follow these steps to install Terminal Server role: Log in to server where terminal server role will be installed Go to Server Manager Run Add Role Wizard by clicking on Add Roles Select Terminal Services role, click next twice. Select below Role services to install and click Next Terminal Server On Uninstall and Reinstall Applications for Compatibility option, click Next . On Specify Authentication Method for Terminal Server page, Se...

At regular interval, Microsoft stops providing support to their previous Operating System. I am wondering how many people know about it and do they really understand the effect of this on their PCs. Hence, I thought about writing this article. Every Microsoft product has its lifecycle. It starts when it was launched and ends when it is no longer been supported. It is useful to know when your OS is no longer being supported so that you can take decision about upgrading OS and make necessary changes to your applications. Microsoft announces End of Support date for their products that means from that particular date, Microsoft will no longer offer any fixes, updates or technical assistance of that product. As a user, you will have to make sure that you’ve installed latest update or service pack available for that program. Here are some key dates from Microsoft: Operating System Latest update or Service pack End of mainstream support End of extended suppo...

Recently, I was doing a troubleshooting on one of the Windows 7 PCs and came across this situation. As a part of my troubleshooting steps, I had to check whether relevant service is running or not for that particular program. When I launched services.msc, I found that required services were not running. I thought it’s very simple; I will double click on service to open its properties box. Within that properties box, I will change Startup Type to Automatic and run service by clicking on Start button. But it wasn’t that easy because options to Start and Startup type were disabled and I could not change them. (I ran Services.msc as an Administrator) Now, I had to find a way to enable options in Services so that I can start it. To di this, I had to make changes to Registry key. I went through following steps to make necessary changes in Registry to allow me to make amendments in services’ properties box. Open Registry as an Administrator ( Start > type Regedit in the sea...

Hi all, today I want to share my experience of setting up redirect my blogs to custom sub-domain URL. Well, you might think that’s very easy, search for help on website on which you have your blog and you will get your answer. I partially agree with the above statement. Here is my story. I started to write blog on blogger.com and have http://arpitbhavsar.blogspot.com URL for my blogs. I also own www.TechieTalks.co.uk domain. I am also working on designing a website that helps IT support professionals all latest news and security updates for various platforms like Microsoft, VMWare, Linux, Apple, Android and third party applications. After I logged in Blogger.com, I followed the below steps to setup redirect to my custom sub-domain URL. I clicked on Basic option under Settings in left-side column. In the Publishing section, I clicked on link to add custom domain. An option appeared to write sub-domain like. Blog.aarsuh.co.uk. I clicked on Save button. An error message ...

Today, I received a query from one of the followers of my blogs about how to recover lost local admin password on Windows Standard 2008. From the given information, I understand that he had installed Windows Standard 2008 server on a PC and made it a domain controller. He used to log in to server locally by using Administrator account. Now, he can’t log in to PC, as he doesn’t remember the password. He asked me if I could suggest some solutions to overcome this situation and save his time to install Server again. In addition to that, he said that he doesn’t have server installation disk. I thought, it’s very challenging, as he doesn’t want to reinstall server. So, my first reaction was, let me test this on virtual PC running on my Server. I installed Windows Server Standard 2008 and made it domain controller. Now, I was ready to try different things to see if I can recover local admin password. So, I started to search on Internet. I found couple of ways to do it. First option...

There is no doubt that Microsoft Office is most popular among home and business users to create, modify or edit documents, spread sheets and presentations. I was wondering that if there are any other similar products available which are free. Then I began my search and found some useful information which I thought to share with all. Google Docs – Google Docs is been front runner of open office suite for various reason. The reason I like it most is it’s free and can be access virtually from anywhere. Google provides Word process, spread sheets, presentations tools other basic stiff via cloud-based Google drive. User will need a Google account to log in to Google Drive. OpenOffice – OpenOffice is available free and suitable for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms. OpenOffice software package comes with tools for creating word documents, spread sheets, databases, presentations and a slew of other common file types. FreeOffice – As the name suggest, FreeOffice is availabl...

One of my friends told me that he would like to download latest Microsoft office application suite and looking for some guidance on it. It was obvious that he wasn’t aware of Microsoft Office 365 application suite. There are two editions for home use: Office365 Personal and Office 365 home. Both versions are free to try for a month. After trial period is over, users will have to pay subscription fees (can be paid monthly or yearly) User can cancel subscription at any time. There are other versions available for students and businesses. Next question is, whether to buy Home edition or Personal edition? Well, Home edition will cover 5 PCs or Macs, 5 Tablets and 5 Phones, Online versions of office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPpoint and OneNote, 1 TB online storage each for up to 5 users, Skype – 60 Minutes/month for up to 5 users each and many more. In Personal edition, one gets same benefits as Home edition but it is limited for 1 user only. One should consider on how m...

My nephew and I were having a conversation about his current IT project. He asked me that he has removed an application using its uninstaller file from that application folder but it is still being listed in Add/Remove Program list. He wants to know how can he remove it from there also. Most of the time, whenever we launch uninstaller of an application, it removes everything related to that program from a PC. In some cases, a program's registry key that is used to display program name is not removed correctly during uninstall process. To fix this, follow these steps: Click on Start , type Regedit.exe and press Enter key. (Make sure you have taken backup of your registry before you move on to next step). Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall You will find several keys under Uninstall option. Each key represents a program which is been listed in Add/Remove program list. To find out correct key of your program, click on each k...

One of my friends called me today and asked for an advice on how to retrieve data from his faulty laptop. Few months' back, his laptop had physical damage but it was running OK. As he just uses laptop to surf Internet, access his emails and watch videos, he never bothered to get his laptop repaired or checked at that time. Now, his laptop doesn't boot up. He had saved his photos & videos of his holidays and some other personal data which he would like to have them back before he dispose it.  I explained him that if his HDD is not failed, he will be able to retrieve his data. He will need a HDD docking station and another PC/Laptop (You can buy it either online or from nearest IT shop). I have advised him to follow these steps: Remove HDD from his faulty laptop. Connect the docking station into another laptop/PC. Insert his Hard Drive in to HDD Docking station. Switch on the Docking station. His Hard Drive will be detected as external drive on runnin...

I would like to share my knowledge I gained while troubleshooting IT related issues. Recently, I set up a Host server that runs Windows Server 2012 Standard R2. I made this server as my Hyper-V host. My plan was to add few VMs and setup my own small lab at home. I added a VM on my host PC that runs Windows Server 2012 Standard R2. I made this VM as my domain controller (DC1.Contoso.com). I setup few users and group policies. Then I added another VM that runs Windows 10. I wanted to add this PC to domain so that I can test group policies and other stuff. But, while trying to add my client PC to domain, I received an error message. Error message : Note: This information is intended for a network administrator.  If you are not your network’s administrator, notify the administrator that you received this information, which has been recorded in the file C:\Windows\debug\dcdiag.txt. The following error occurred when DNS was queried for the service location (SRV) resourc...