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The WannaCry ransomware has wrecked havoc across the world. Europol and cyber experts have termed this attack as unprecedented. WannaCry – also known as WannaCrypt, Wanna Decryptor, and WanaCrypt0r 2.0, is a virus that combines a ransomware and a worm – a cryptoworm or cryptovirus. WannaCry exploits the Server Message Block 1.0 (SMBv1) vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows operating system. The ransomware is believed to have spread through phishing attacks as malicious attachments or links. Once the system is infected, it can spread to other systems on the same network as well as randomly to other computers exploiting a file-sharing vulnerability in Windows. The malware reads the files on the hard disk, encrypts them and deletes the original files. This encrypted data cannot be decrypted without the key, yet. Microsoft had issued a patch – Microsoft Security Bulletin MS17-010 – Critical Security Update for Microsoft Windows SMB Server (4013389) – in March 2017, for operating syst

One of my users ran into an issue recently when launching Microsoft Lync. When the Lync application logged into the Lync server, a  Microsoft Lync wants to use OC_KeyContainer_username@company.com. Please enter the keychain password prompt appeared. The curious thing was that the keychain prompt would not accept the user’s current login password. When I checked, the user’s login keychain was unlocked and using the current password, so it didn’t appear to be caused by the login keychain password issues that I normally deal with. After some research, I was able to find the answer and get this issue fixed. See below the jump for the details. The fix: 1. Quit out of Microsoft Lync 2. Go to  /Users/username/Library/Keychains 3. Remove the  OC_KeyContainer__username@company.com  file from /Users/username/Library/Keychains . 4. Launch Microsoft Lync 5. On relaunch, the prompt no longer appeared. What caused the password prompt?: Microsoft Lync creates a keyc

I guarantee you will love the DHCP from 2008 R2 server. It has new features and plus it works great. But what can you do with the old one that is running on a 2003 server ? You don’t want to lose all the reservations and scope options. The resolution to this problem is to migrate the DHCP database to the new server. The process is straight forward and does not take hours. You will be done in a couple of minutes.  Log on to the 2003 DHCP server, open a terminal and issue this command netsh dhcp server export C:\dhcp.txt all This will create a text file on the root of your C drive called  dhcp.txt , that will contain all the DHCP settings. Now you need to stop the DHCP service on this server. net stop dhcp server   The following assumes that you already installed the DHCP service on the 2008 R2 server; if not  here is an article  on how to do it. Now copy that  .txt  file to the 2008 R2 DHCP server, open a terminal and issue the following command: netsh dhcp server impor

Some people who have been recently upgraded from the pre-upgrade version of Office 365 are having connectivity problems with Outlook. For example, you may see a message in the status bar at the bottom of your Outlook window that says Trying to connect or Disconnected. There are a few things that can cause connection issues. The most common cause for connection problems is outdated operating system or app software, so you should check that first. If your software meets Office 365 requirements, try the other steps here. Test your Outlook connection between each step.  TIP     While you track down Outlook connection issues, you can keep sending and receiving email and manage your calendar and contacts in Outlook Web App. Click Outlook in to the Office 365 portal, or go directly to Office 365 email at http://mail.office365.com. Step 1: Make sure that your operating system is up-to-date Check the version of your software and your operating system to see if they meet the minimum req

If you leave Outlook running in the background while doing other tasks, it will display an email notification whenever a new email message arrives. While they are great for keeping track of important incoming messages, the notifications may distract you from your current work and reduce your productivity. Luckily, it is possible to disable these notifications. Here is an example of how an Outlook notification appears when there is a new message. Multiple notifications may be displayed at the same time, one after another. Even if you are focusing on another program, the notifications can still appear on top of it, causing an intrusion. Disable the Notification: 1. Launch  Outlook  from your desktop. 2. Once the program is loaded, click the  File  button to go to the  Backstage  view. 3. In the  Backstage  view, click the  Options  button on the left side to start tweaking Outlook’s settings. 4. You will then see the  Outlook Options  window appear on-screen. Navig

If your WiFi network is secured, you will need your password to permit other devices access to your network. However, most of us with a WiFi network connection tend to forget our passwords because the gadgets we use from day to day connect automatically. Fortunately, you can locate your password in a few simple steps. This tutorial explains how. When you are trying to add a new device such as a phone or another PC to your WiFi network, you can find the network password using the router configuration page, but this requires router administrator permissions. If you do not have the administrator password for router configuration, you will not be able to access the router configuration page. Luckily, you can still find your WiFi network’s current password. The steps below describe the simplest option for finding a forgotten WiFi network password. 1. Right-click the  Network  icon in the Windows taskbar, and click  Open Network and Sharing Center . 2. In the left side of th

As a desktop administrator, I like to automate as many tasks as possible.  Recently, I needed to automate the installation of network printers in a Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 environment. After some digging through manuals, I found a solution for installing TCP/IP printers via a batch file. In this tutorial, I will outline the VBS script we will leverage for port creation, and I will also describe the use of rundll32 to install print drivers silently and to create printers. Modern Windows operating systems such as Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2008 have great built-in scripting tools and utilities. However, most users are not aware of these abilities.  The guide below includes an example.txt file that will have the generic script included. It also contains an explanation of each step and how to tailor the script to one’s own environment. The following items are used as examples: – A computer on the 192.168.1.x network – An HP Laserjet M603 with static ip

With the Microsoft Outlook email client, you can easily sort the work or personal email messages you receive into subfolders under the Inbox folder. By default, Outlook shows a desktop alert for new messages which are delivered to the Inbox. However, alerts are not shown automatically for subfolders. Fortunately, you can create a rule to enable the alert for messages which are delivered to your subfolders. Because most of us receive more than 10 to 15 messages on a daily basis, the use of subfolders is a simple and effective way to manage incoming mail. Using the  Desktop alert rule in Microsoft Outlook , we can set up a rule that will show a desktop alert as you receive email messages in your both your Inbox and your subfolders. Having a desktop alert rule enabled will help to ensure that you do not miss any important messages delivered to the subfolders you have set up. 1. Click the  File  tab, and within the  Info  tab, click  Manage Rules & Alerts . 2. In the  Ru