Robocopy errors: The specified file could not be encrypted
We provide IT Support Services to a few companies in Oxford and Woodstock (Oxfordshire) where robocopy is being used as a part of the backup system. I recently noticed some errors in the robocopy job log: ERROR 6000 (0x00001770) Accessing Destination DirectoryThe specified file could not be encrypted. I checked the affected directory on the […]
Unlinking Windows local account from child’s Microsoft account
An employee from one of the customers in Oxford contacted us with an IT issue on their personal Windows 11 laptop. They had the laptop set up with a local administrator account (not linked to Microsoft). At some point, a guest was using the laptop and somehow linked the local user account to their Microsoft […]
Microsoft Office 365 – send from email alias in 2024
For a long time, Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 didn’t support sending emails from additional user’s email addresses (aliases). Emails were always sent from the primary email address. Obviously, there were workarounds, such as: Luckily Microsoft finally got around to implementing proper support for sending from email aliases. It seems to have happened sometime in […]
Deploy Adobe Reader via Group Policy
We use below process to deploy Adobe Reader via Group Policy for few of our customers it Oxford and Woodstock (Oxfordshire). Note: The computer on which you perform the following steps cannot have Adobe Reader installed. Windows 10 ProWindows Server 2016Adobe Acrobat Reader
File system error (-1073740791)
An old customer from Buckingham (Oxfordshire) contacted us with an issue. He could not open any Microsoft Excel or Word files on his personal Windows 10 PC. With Excel, it would simply open an empty Excel Window, with Word, it would pop up a not particularly meaningful error message. Multiple reboots weren’t helping. I connected […]
Disable Windows 10 to 11 upgrade in business environment
Until recently Windows 10 computer within a Windows Server Active Directory domain were not pushed Windows 11 upgrade. This has changed around April 2024 and now even users on domain joined PCs are getting various “dark pattern” prompts clearly designed to maximise conversions to Windows 11. While I have nothing against Windows 11, on business […]
Update Windows Server Group Policy Administrative Templates
Microsoft regularly releases new Administrative Templates (ADMX) for Windows Group Policy. For example, certain Group Policy options that apply to Windows 10 or Microsoft Office 365 will not be available in you are running Windows Server 2016. To rectify this, you need to download relevant ADMX template files from Microsoft and copy them to your […]
Disable “Try the new Outlook” option
We have a few clients in Oxford and Abingdon who use Microsoft Outlook with certain .com plugins. These plugins are incompatible with the “New Outlook” and we regularly get calls from users complaining that their plugins stopped working. What actually happens, is a user clicks “Try the new Outlook” switch in the top right of […]
Synology Active Backup for Microsoft 365 – ErrorAccessDenied
We have a few IT support customers in Oxford and Abingdon who use their onsite Synology DiskStation NAS units to back up their cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 systems. The Synology package required for this is called “Active Backup for Microsoft 365“. It’s free of charge (as long as you have a supported Synology DiskStation unit) […]
Windows 10 installation – We couldn’t find any drivers…
I was setting up a new Dell OptiPlex 7020 (Intel Core i5-14500) PC for one of our customers in Oxford and hit a small issue installing Windows 10 Pro. The PC originally came with Windows 11, however, the rest of the company’s computers were still on Windows 10 and I prefer to keep all devices […]